In this article, we will talk about Genie+ (also known as Genie Plus, if you prefer to spell out the “+”): What is it? How does it work? Should I use it?
What is Genie+?
Genie+ is a paid service that allows ticket holders to reserve their ride times. When your reservation time comes, you can enter through what is known as the “Lightning Lane” which has a much shorter wait that the regular standby line. You can think of it as an advanced dining reservation, except for rides and attractions.
If this sounds familiar, it is! Back in the day, Walt Disney World had a system called FastPass, where you could get a reserved ride time by scanning your ticket at a machine and printing out a paper boarding pass with your return time. Disney later evolved this into FastPass+, where you could make ride reservations online up to 60 days prior to your arrival in the parks. Genie+ is the latest evolution of this concept.
How is it Similar to FastPass / FastPass+? How is it Different?
In terms of similarities, it is more in line with the original paper FastPass in that you can only make your ride reservations on the same day, whereas FastPass+ required a lot of advanced planning, which could be good and bad depending upon your personality.
However, the number 1 difference between Genie+ and the older systems is that you have to pay extra for it.
This obviously is a big con (free being better than not free) and is the subject of much ire within the Disney fan community, as it reflects a trend of Disney nickel and diming consumers over things that used to be free. There is no point in venting on that topic however… it is what it is.
How Does Genie+ Work?
Genie+ can be purchased any time after midnight on the day of your visit. You can purchase it only for that day and only if you have a pre-existing park reservation for the park in question. The good news is that, if you have a multi-day ticket, you can purchase it only for select days you want. You don’t have to purchase it for your entire trip. You also don’t have to purchase it for everyone in your party. So if Aunt Sally doesn’t want to ride anything, you don’t have to buy Genie+ for her!
If you have purchased Genie+, you can make your first ride reservation starting at 7am. First, you select your ride in the My Disney Experience app. Then you are presented with your return time window (usually a one-hour window). Unfortunately, you do not have the option of selecting your reservation time. Disney only allows you to book the next available time window.
Once you have booked a ride reservation, you can’t book your next ride reservation until one of two things happens:
- You “check-in” (scan your MagicBand or ticket) at the Lightning Lane entrance for your previously reserved ride, OR
- Two hours have elapsed since you made your last reservation or two hours after the park has officially opened, whichever is later
Some people get confused by the above rules, but it really isn’t that bad. The key thing to remember is that as soon as you enter the Lightning Lane for your previous reservation, you are good to reserve your next ride (rule #1). Otherwise, you have to wait the two hours (rule #2). All this is important since you will want to book your next reservation as soon as you can, in order to maximize the value of your Genie+ purchase.
Here are an example timeline to help illustrate how one might use Genie+
Example: Magic Kingdom
MIDNIGHT: Purchase Genie+ for today’s visit to MK
7am: Reserve a 9:15-10:15 time for the Jungle Cruise.
9am: Park opens. Because you made your first reservation before park opening, you cannot make your next reservation until 11am (two hours after park opening) UNLESS you check into your first reservation.
9:45am: Check-in at Jungle Cruise Lightning Lane. You can now make your next reservation.
9:48am: Reserve a 11:30-12:30 time for Pirates of the Caribbean
11:45am: Check-in at Pirates of the Caribbean Lightning Lane. You can now make your next reservation.
11:50am: Reserve a 6:00-7:00 time for Peter Pan’s Flight
1:50pm: Since it has been two hours since your previous reservation, you can now make your next reservation.
1:55pm: Reserve a 8:15-9:15 time for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
3:55pm: Since it has been two hours since your previous reservation, you can now make your next reservation.
4:00pm: Reserve a 9:00-10:00 time for Monsters Inc Laugh Floor
At this point, because you have taken advantage of the two hour rule, you now have three Lightning Lane reservations stacked up near the end of the day!
If it is still confusing to you, you can always check the app to see when you are allowed to make your next reservation. Disney will do the math for you!
Important Genie+ Notes
Reservations can and do run out, especially for popular rides.
Disney does not guarantee that you will get to ride a certain number of rides or save a certain amount of time. If you are lazy about making reservations, it is possible you might not get a lot of benefit out of Genie+.
If you have a Park Hopper ticket, you can make reservations at other parks, but only if the reservation time window starts after 2pm
Obviously, the 2pm restriction is there before you won’t be able to park hop until then.
If you have a reservation that you want to change, you can modify it in the app
This is especially useful if you want to get a later time that wasn’t presented to you when you first booked your reservation. The good news is that modifying a reservation doesn’t restart the two hour clock for getting your next reservation!
Not all rides are eligible for Genie+
Generally, each park will have 1-2 popular rides that are excluded from Genie+. For these, you either have to purchase an Individual Lightning Lane (more on that later), sign up for a virtual queue, or just wait in the standby line.
At the time of this article, some notable exclusions are:
- Seven Dwarves Mine Train (MK)
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (EP)
- Avatar: Flight of Passage (AK)
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (HS)
If you plan to purchase Genie+ for one of the above rides, you will be disappointed. However, you can purchase Individual Lightning Lanes for these rides, if you want to save time
What are Individual Lightning Lanes?
Individual Lightning Lanes are reservations that you can purchase for one single popular ride. You don’t need to purchase Genie+ in order to purchase an Individual Lightning Lane. However, they are not included in the cost of your Genie+ either.
You can purchase an ILL only on the day of your visit to a park and only if you have a park reservation for that day. If you are staying at a Disney hotel you can purchase your ILL starting at 7am. For those staying “off-property”, you will need to wait until park opening to purchase. However, in both cases, you don’t have to actually be in the park to purchase your ILL.
As with Genie+, ILL are limited, so if you are planning on purchasing one, you should do so as soon as possible. Rise of the Resistance is so popular that ILL’s are sometimes snatched up by on-property guests before the park even opens, which could effectively shut out off-property guests from snagging one of these coveted reservations!
Is Genie+ Worth the Cost?
That is the million dollar question, isn’t it? Currently, Genie+ costs anywhere from $15 to $25 per person per day depending upon the time of year. Obviously, the more crowded the park is expected to be, the more Disney is going to charge. Supply and demand!
Clearly, the decision comes down to how much is it worth to save time in the parks. In certain situations and with certain strategies, Genie+ can save you quite a bit of time, which will allow you to get more out of your park day. In that case, it might be a worthwhile purchase for your party. On the other hand, if you are traveling to WDW during a less crowded time and/or you are willing to employ other time saving strategies, maybe you can get away without it.
Times When Genie+ Could Be a Benefit
- You are visting during a really busy time of year
- You don’t visit often so you want to be able to do as much as possible
- The park you are visiting has a lot of popular Genie+ eligible rides that you want to experience
- You don’t want to take advantage of early morning touring (“rope drop”) when the parks might be less crowded
- This is your only day visiting that park on your trip
Times When Genie+ Might Not Be Worthwhile
- You are visiting during a less busy time of year
- You don’t have a lot of “must do” popular rides
- You are willing to take advantage of rope drop
- You are going to be spending multiple days in that park on your trip
Personally, I feel like it might be worth it at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios. Both parks have a number of popular attractions with long wait times where, if you play your cards right with Genie+, you could save a lot of time.
On the other hand, I don’t feel like it would be worthwhile at Animal Kingdom. That park only has 2-3 real headliner Genie+ rides. If you arrive early enough, you can hit them all with reasonable wait times without using Genie+.
As far as Epcot goes, I am sort of on the fence. You do have a couple of Genie+ headliners that can have longer wait times at certain times of the year. You might be able to hit some of them early, but you may not be able to get to all of them before crowds build up. If I were only going to Epcot for one day, I’d consider getting it. However, if I can spend 2-3 days at Epcot on my trip, I probably wouldn’t bother.
Combining Genie+ with the Disability Access Service
The good news is that the Genie+ reservation rules aren’t impacted by your DAS reservations, and vice versa. You can use them both at the same time. So you can set up a DAS return time even though you still might not be eligible to make your next Genie+ reservation. Likewise, just because you have an active Genie+ reservation doesn’t mean that you can’t also request a DAS return time. Both systems are completely separate and independent. In fact, you can imagine how Genie+ can “supercharge” DAS by giving you the opportunity to have multiple Genie+ reservations in addition to your one DAS return time.
Another strategy is to get Genie+ for the rides which the DAS ticketholder cannot ride. In our case, there is no way in heck that Little Banshee is going to be able to ride Space Mountain. Therefore, you can see where it might be beneficial for Banshee and Little Buster to get Genie+ so that they can ride Space Mountain without a long wait.
So that concludes this little primer on Genie+. If you have any additional questions about this service, feel free to leave your question in the comments, and I’ll be happy to answer it. In a future article, I will cover some popular strategies for making the most out of this service.
AD: We hope you enjoyed this post. If you are coming to Central Florida and need a place to stay, please consider the Encore Magic Villa. It sleeps up to 12 and features a game room, theater room, themed bedrooms, and private pool… located only a short drive from the Magic!
