Five Things to Know about Disney Genie

This week represents the dawn of a new era at Walt Disney World.

Disney Genie has arrived, signaling the start of the next generation of Disney theme park visits.

Here are five things you need to know about Disney Genie.

What Is Disney Genie?

You can think of Disney Genie as the theme park equivalent of Siri or Alexa.

People use these virtual assistants to improve their daily lives. Disney Genie should do the same for your Disney visit.

Imagineers have programmed all Disney theme park knowledge into this app. So, it can help you with any problem.

Courtesy of Disney Tourist Blog

Primarily, you’ll utilize Disney Genie to plan an itinerary and discover attraction wait times.

In fact, the virtual assistant takes this approach to the next level. It won’t merely show the current wait time. It’ll also display estimates for other return times throughout the day.

Using this information, you can pick a moment when an attraction should have the shortest lines.

What’s the Purpose of Disney Genie?

From now on, all your park visits should go through Disney Genie. Park officials are counting on your using it to maximize its benefits.

For you, Disney Genie will improve your park visits, allowing you to do more each trip. For Disney, this software will increase overall efficiency at the parks.

With guests spending less time standing in lines, they’ll have more time to make purchases at Disney stores and restaurants. As a result, Disney Genie should increase park revenue a noticeable amount.

Knowing this, you can still beat the system, so to speak, by using the free app to build itineraries for you. That’s the gist from Disney’s perspective, though.

Disney strategists envision a win/win scenario where the company gets more money and guests have a better time.

How to Use Disney Genie

You will use Disney Genie when you load My Disney Experience on your phone. Disney has placed Genie prominently on the page for a reason.

The virtual assistant will ask you general questions about your preferred kind of park visit.

You’ll say whether you’re more about rides, character interactions, or exploration. Then, it’ll create a flexible itinerary for your day.

The remarkable part is that if you don’t like any of the plans, you can remove them. Then, Disney Genie will immediately build a modified itinerary.

For Disney Vacation Club members, the adjustment here should prove subtle but significant.

With My Disney Experience, you’ll spend most of your time looking at wait times and making educated guesses about when to head to an attraction.

Now, machine learning and big data will provide you with an unparalleled resource for choosing the best times.

Disney Genie should become your default choice for park information.

What Can Disney Genie Do?

Disney’s advertising has highlighted the following features:

• Minimize Attraction Waits
• Park Hopper Optimization
• Recommended Experiences
• Sequence Experiences in the Area
• Suggested Dining Options

We’ll talk about the first two options throughout the next few weeks, as they’ll matter most to the Disney Genie experience.

The third and fourth entries here hint at Disney’s ambitious plan for Disney Genie. It wants guests to try new stuff.

So, when the virtual assistant identifies that you like shows, it’ll suggest others.

However, proximity plays a factor as well. The app remains mindful of how much walking you’ve done. It will actually track this.

For this reason, Disney Genie will suggest “sequence experiences” near you, ones you might not otherwise know.

Finally, Disney has integrated a dynamic reservation system. This app will know which restaurants can seat you immediately.

Just as importantly, Disney Genie will know your favorite restaurants and indicate when they might have unexpected availability.

This feature would have proved invaluable during the early days of the pandemic when restaurant tables were at a premium.

For DVC members, I expect that it’ll prove worthwhile in finding tables at often-booked DVC resort restaurants like Chef Mickey’s, ‘Ohana, and Artist Point.

Will Disney Genie Work?

Disney Genie will ask you to answer a few questions about your favorite attractions and park experiences. It’ll also check whether you want to Park Hop and other stuff.

Once you respond, the free service works like any other virtual assistant (AR). It does its best to help you.

Like any other AR, it’s subject to misunderstandings, something we’ll monitor carefully during these early days of the app.

I mean, when I ask Siri for directions, it sometimes tries to send me to Thailand…and I don’t have an Amphicar like The BOATHOUSE.

So, any potential mistakes could cause massive problems. So, my advice to you is to use common sense during Disney Genie’s early days.

If something doesn’t seem logical, trust your gut.

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