Character Meet and Greets returned to the parks on April 18th, 2022. The popular meet and greets were added to Disney Genie +, utilizing Lightning Lanes. I had been wondering if we’d see any changes to the usage of the Lightning Lanes for the meet and greets because the system makes the wait times longer than they should be. Meet Disney Stars at Red Carpet Dreams is a location that has always had a high wait time and part of that has to do with the flow of the area. On May 4th, I visited the park for the Star Wars holiday, and I noticed the wait was 90 minutes to meet Mickey and Minnie Mouse at Red Carpet Dreams.

I saw some rumblings on Twitter that the attraction will now only use the standby line, so I immediately went to the My Disney Experience app to see if the change was made. Removing the Lightning Lane for this location will help the line move smoother and faster. I think it’s weird that the Meet Olaf at Celebrity Spotlight location still uses Lightning Lane. The queue space to meet Olaf is outside and extremely small, so I don’t get why he needs a Lightning Lane. It’s important to note that even though the Lightning Lane option is currently gone for Red Carpet Dreams, guests who utilize the DAS service can still book return times. The removal of Lightning Lanes at any attraction will not hinder those that use that service at any location, and I hope that never changes.

I hope that Disney will start eliminating the Lightning Lanes for the current meet and greets and avoid using them as they begin to phase in more character meet and greets. I wish we could have roaming characters here at Walt Disney World like in Disneyland, but I know it’s unsafe due to the crowd levels.

Have you used Disney Genie+ yet? Let us know in the comments.