Disney Genie is a free planning tool that was added back in October 2021 to My Disney Experience. Through this app, Guests are given suggested itineraries and suggestions for their day in a Disney Park. These can be fantastic for those that didn’t have time to do a lot of planning or just didn’t want to.
As part of Disney Genie, we saw the removal of Fastpasses and the introduction of Genie+. Genie+ is the new paid feature that Guests can choose to add for $15/day/person. By adding Genie+, Guests are able to bypass the standby lines using a Lightning Lane. Because of this, Guests spend less time in line and more time enjoying the Disney Parks.
Not all rides are included with Genie+ however. In each of the four Disney Parks, there are select rides that aren’t included with Genie+. In order to bypass the standby lines for these, Guests need to purchase an Individual Lightning Lane. These are an al-a-carte selection that ranges from $7 to $17 per ride.
Currently, we have four rides that are included in this area:
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (EPCOT)
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (Disney’s Hollywood Studios)
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (Magic Kingdom)
- Avatar: Flight of Passage (Disney’s Animal Kingdom)
That is a quick overview of Disney Genie, Genie+, and Individual Lightning Lanes. We have a lot of information on How to Disney about these features so check there for more background information and suggestions.
Now that we covered the basics of these features, let’s dive into some important Disney Genie tips that you probably don’t know about, but you should before your Walt Disney World trip.
Always Have One Booked
When looking at getting the most out of your $15 investment for Genie+, we highly recommend making sure that you always have a Genie+ reservation made. By always having one waiting for you to use, you are getting the most out of the feature.
You can book new Genie+ reservations when one of three things happen:
- You use a Genie+ reservation: as soon as you tap into a ride, you are able to make a new selection. Note, some rides required you to tap in twice so you will have to wait until after the second tap point.
- You Miss a Genie+ reservation: we don’t recommend letting this happen, but we also know life happens. If you miss your Genie+ booking, once that hour window has passed you can thing book another one
- 120 Minute Rule: This one is confusing. You are able to book a new reservation 120 minutes after making your initial reservation. So if at 11 am you book Peter Pan’s Flight for 5 pm that evening, you don’t have to wait until 5 pm to book another Genie+. Instead, you are able to make a new one 120 minutes after you booked so in this case at 1 pm. Where it gets confusing is when you are booking your very first Genie+ of the day at 7 am. The 120-minute rule in this case doesn’t start until AFTER Disney Park has officially opened. That means if you book Slinky Dog Dash at 7 am for 1 pm, you have to wait 120 minutes after Disney’s Hollywood Studios opens not 120 minutes after 7 am.
We know that this is all confusing, but overall, we just want you to know that you should always have a Genie+ waiting for you to use.
Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes Are Separate
A lot of Guests get confused when it comes to Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes. These two features, although both part of Disney Genie, are not connected. This means you don’t have to purchase Genie+ in order to purchase Individual Lightning Lanes.
This is nice to know as it gives you the opportunity to pay to ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Comic Rewind in EPCOT, but use standby for the other shows and attractions.
Keep this in mind as you think through your touring and your Disney Park goals.
Pin Your Favorite
This is a huge tip and one that is so simple but can make Genie+ so much easier to navigate. As part of Disney Genie, Guests can pin the attractions that they want to experience to the top of their tip board.
What we recommend doing is pinning the top one or two attractions that you are focusing on to the top. This will make finding them so much easier when wanting to make a Genie+ selection.
We would constantly pin and unpin attractions as we rode them throughout the day making it easier to see the Genie+ times and options for those that we had left on our list.
This is a huge tip for the 7 am booking. Have that top ride pinned and only your top ride so you can quickly select it and navigate through the process of booking.
Refresh
One of the frustrations that Guests have with Genie+ is that they can’t select their return window. Our tip for this is to refresh, refresh, refresh! Even though it might not seem like it right away, by refreshing the screen (pulling down from the top) new times will populate.
By refreshing you not only will see different time options, but you can sometimes even see new rides pop up. Use the refresh tip throughout the day to see what rides and times are showing up. You aren’t stuck with what you see at first so don’t give up.
Those are our top suggestions for Disney Genie that you might not have known but will make a big difference during your Walt Disney World trip. Head to How to Disney for more tips on navigating not only Genie+ but My Disney Experience as well.
