diff --git a/test/common/services/kibana_server/ui_settings.js b/test/common/services/kibana_server/ui_settings.js
index 565248c6c7a153..7c6439e0783b13 100644
--- a/test/common/services/kibana_server/ui_settings.js
+++ b/test/common/services/kibana_server/ui_settings.js
@@ -66,7 +66,7 @@ export class KibanaServerUiSettings {
 
   async replace(doc) {
     this._log.debug('replacing kibana config doc: %j', doc);
-    await this._savedObjectsClient.create('config', { doc }, {
+    await this._savedObjectsClient.create('config', doc, {
       id: await this._id(),
       overwrite: true,
     });
diff --git a/test/functional/apps/visualize/index.js b/test/functional/apps/visualize/index.js
index ee0333e4a50677..945bf87876cf4b 100644
--- a/test/functional/apps/visualize/index.js
+++ b/test/functional/apps/visualize/index.js
@@ -5,21 +5,13 @@ export default function ({ getService, loadTestFile }) {
   const kibanaServer = getService('kibanaServer');
 
   describe('visualize app', function () {
-    before(function () {
-      remote.setWindowSize(1280,800);
-
+    before(async function () {
       log.debug('Starting visualize before method');
-      const logstash = esArchiver.loadIfNeeded('logstash_functional');
-      // delete .kibana index and update configDoc
-      return kibanaServer.uiSettings.replace({ 'dateFormat:tz':'UTC', 'defaultIndex':'logstash-*' })
-      .then(function loadkibanaIndexPattern() {
-        log.debug('load kibana index with default index pattern');
-        return esArchiver.load('visualize');
-      })
-      // wait for the logstash data load to finish if it hasn't already
-      .then(function () {
-        return logstash;
-      });
+      remote.setWindowSize(1280, 800);
+      await esArchiver.loadIfNeeded('logstash_functional');
+      await esArchiver.load('visualize');
+      await kibanaServer.waitForStabilization();
+      await kibanaServer.uiSettings.replace({ 'dateFormat:tz': 'UTC', 'defaultIndex': 'logstash-*' });
     });
 
     loadTestFile(require.resolve('./_chart_types'));