diff --git a/bin/ember-fastboot b/bin/ember-fastboot
index 9e88d1d..bf0d870 100755
--- a/bin/ember-fastboot
+++ b/bin/ember-fastboot
@@ -43,11 +43,22 @@ var server = new FastBootServer({
   ui: ui
 });
 
-var app = express();
+console.log('Booting Ember app...');
 
-app.get('/*', server.middleware());
+// FastFail™: this is not mandatory; the first call to visit would
+// also boot the app anyway. This is just to provide useful feedback
+// instead of booting a server that keeps serving 500.
+//
+// Note that Application#boot is still a private API atm, so it might
+// go through more churn in the near term.
+server.app.boot().then(function() {
+  console.log('Ember app booted successfully.');
 
-var listener = app.listen(options.port, function() {
+  var app = express();
+
+  app.get('/*', server.middleware());
+
+  var listener = app.listen(options.port, function() {
   var host = listener.address().address;
   var port = listener.address().port;
   var family = listener.address().family;
@@ -55,4 +66,15 @@ var listener = app.listen(options.port, function() {
   if (family === 'IPv6') { host = '[' + host + ']'; }
 
   console.log('Ember FastBoot running at http://' + host + ":" + port);
+}, function(error) {
+  if (error.stack) {
+    console.error('An error occured when booting Ember app...');
+    console.error(error.stack);
+  } else if (error.message) {
+    console.error('An error occured when booting Ember app: ' + error.message);
+  } else {
+    console.error('An unknown error occured when booting Ember app: ' + JSON.stringify(error));
+  }
+
+  process.exit(1);
 });
diff --git a/lib/ember-app.js b/lib/ember-app.js
index f691b03..075d7e2 100644
--- a/lib/ember-app.js
+++ b/lib/ember-app.js
@@ -8,23 +8,20 @@ var najax = require('najax');
 var debug   = require('debug')('ember-cli-fastboot:ember-app');
 var emberDebug = require('debug')('ember-cli-fastboot:ember');
 
-function EmberApp(options) {
-  this.appFile = options.appFile;
-  this.vendorFile = options.vendorFile;
+var HTMLSerializer = new SimpleDOM.HTMLSerializer(SimpleDOM.voidMap);
 
-  debug("app created; app=%s; vendor=%s", this.appFile, this.vendorFile);
+function EmberApp(options) {
+  var appFilePath = options.appFile;
+  var vendorFilePath = options.vendorFile;
 
-  // Promise that represents the completion of app boot.
-  var appBoot = RSVP.defer();
+  debug("app created; app=%s; vendor=%s", appFilePath, vendorFilePath);
 
   // Create the sandbox, giving it the resolver to resolve once the app
   // has booted.
-  var sandbox = createSandbox(appBoot.resolve, {
-    najax: najax
-  });
+  var sandbox = createSandbox({ najax: najax });
 
-  appFile = fs.readFileSync(this.appFile, 'utf8');
-  vendorFile = fs.readFileSync(this.vendorFile, 'utf8');
+  var appFile = fs.readFileSync(appFilePath, 'utf8');
+  var vendorFile = fs.readFileSync(vendorFilePath, 'utf8');
 
   sandbox.run(vendorFile);
   debug("vendor file evaluated");
@@ -32,16 +29,38 @@ function EmberApp(options) {
   sandbox.run(appFile);
   debug("app file evaluated");
 
-  this.waitForBoot = function() {
-    return appBoot.promise;
-  };
+  var AppFactory = sandbox.require('~fastboot/app-factory');
+
+  if (!AppFactory || typeof AppFactory['default'] !== 'function') {
+    throw new Error('Failed to load Ember app from ' + appFilePath + ', make sure it was built for FastBoot with the `ember fastboot:build` command.');
+  }
+
+  this._app = AppFactory['default']();
+}
 
-  this.waitForBoot().then(function() {
-    debug("app booted");
+EmberApp.prototype.boot = function() {
+  return this._app.boot();
+};
+
+EmberApp.prototype.visit = function(url) {
+  var doc = new SimpleDOM.Document();
+  var rootElement = doc.body;
+  var options = { isBrowser: false, document: doc, rootElement: rootElement };
+
+  return this._app.visit(url, options).then(function(instance) {
+    try {
+      return {
+        url: instance.getURL(), // TODO: use this to determine whether to 200 or redirect
+        title: doc.title,
+        body: HTMLSerializer.serialize(rootElement) // This matches the current code; but we probably want `serializeChildren` here
+      };
+    } finally {
+      instance.destroy();
+    }
   });
 }
 
-function createSandbox(appBootResolver, dependencies) {
+function createSandbox(dependencies) {
   var wrappedConsole =  Object.create(console);
   wrappedConsole.error = function() {
     console.error.apply(console, Array.prototype.map.call(arguments, function(a) {
@@ -50,11 +69,6 @@ function createSandbox(appBootResolver, dependencies) {
   };
 
   var sandbox = {
-    // Expose this so that the FastBoot initializer has access to the fake DOM.
-    // We don't expose this as `document` so that other libraries don't mistakenly
-    // think they have a full DOM.
-    SimpleDOM: SimpleDOM,
-
     // Expose the console to the FastBoot environment so we can debug
     console: wrappedConsole,
 
@@ -64,12 +78,6 @@ function createSandbox(appBootResolver, dependencies) {
     // Convince jQuery not to assume it's in a browser
     module: { exports: {} },
 
-    // Expose a hook for the Ember app to provide its handleURL functionality
-    FastBoot: {
-      resolve: appBootResolver,
-      debug: emberDebug
-    },
-
     URL: require("url")
   };
 
diff --git a/lib/server.js b/lib/server.js
index a540329..5c76e19 100644
--- a/lib/server.js
+++ b/lib/server.js
@@ -59,15 +59,13 @@ FastBootServer.prototype.middleware = function() {
 
     var server = this;
 
-    this.app.waitForBoot().then(function(handleURL) {
-      debug("handling url; url=%s", path);
-      handleURL(path).then(
-        success, failure
-      ).finally(function() {
+    debug("handling url; url=%s", path);
+
+    this.app.visit(path)
+      .then(success, failure)
+      .finally(function() {
         debug("finished handling; url=%s", path);
-      });
-    })
-    .catch(failure);
+      })
 
     function success(result) {
       server.handleSuccess(res, path, result);