Since the debut of the Disney Genie in Disney World, we’ve been experimenting with all the free AND paid features of this new service.
We want to figure out everything there is to know about the Genie service and answer ALL the questions, and a big topic of interest is how multiple guests work with Genie+. Here’s our experience!
So how do parties, or multiple people, work with Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane reservations? Can you add or remove people? The answer is: yes! As long as each person has paid for Genie+, you can easily add and remove eligible people from Lightning Lane reservations. First up, you have to purchase Genie+, and we’ve got a guide to doing that right here.
As you can see below, we booked a party of 6 people for Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run in Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and the Genie lists the attraction, the date, the arrival window, and everyone in the party.
When you’re making a Genie+ Lightning Lane reservation, you can select eligible guests at the same time. Or, once you have a Lightning Lane booked, you can simply visit the Tip Board in the My Disney Experience app and tap “Add Another Guest.” Other guests must have Genie+ linked to their ticket and have no conflicting reservations, and you can select each individual who is eligible.
So what happens if you add someone by accident, or if someone doesn’t want to visit an attraction? If someone decides that they don’t want to ride anymore, you can modify your reservation and select everyone or individual guests to remove. And if they change their mind again, you can add them back!
Also, make a note that party size is somewhat irrelevant, so you don’t really have to worry about seeing more limited time slots with a bigger party size. Imagine that the Genie+ is basically the new version of a FastPass+ kiosk. When a time slot is available for an attraction, it should be the same time slot for everyone.
We’re still experimenting with the Disney Genie so keep checking back with DFB for more tips and updates!
Learn all about Disney Genie and Genie+ here!
Will you be trying out the Genie+? Tell us in the comments!
Have you had any luck with people in your party with different media types? We have part of our group with annual passes and others with park hopper tickets. Also add to the madness that one person doesn’t have an MDE account and has no plans to get one.
I UNDERSTAND ABOUT BOOKING THE LIGHTENING LANE FOR MULTIPLE PEOPLE IN YOUR GROUP…HOWEVER HOW DOES ONE PAY …EXAMPLE DOES ONE PERSON PAY FOR ALL PEOPLE IN YOUR GROUP FOR THE LIGHTENING LANE COST RIDE OR CAN INDIVIDUAL PERSON PAY FOR THEIR PEOPLE SEPERATELY BUT STILL BE ABLE TO BE ADDED TO THE TIME SLOT WITH EVERYONE IN THE GROUP
Becky D, as long as you are all added to the Family and Friends/Party list in My Disney Experience and you all have some kind of valid ticket attached, you should be fine to purchase and book Genie+ or IAS as a single party. You may need people’s reservation/confirmation numbers to add them to your Family & Friends list, though. (Disney site says you can just add someone by name (i.e. a kid who doesn’t have their own MDE account), but in that case they might not be included in the Genie+/IAS plans unless they’ve got a ticket associated with them in the app.
How does it work if my child already has genie+ with their ticket and Im an annual passholder? When I look at the day right now (it is in Nov. 12) it doesn’t offer me the purchase genie+ option. While I know I can’t get it until day of, other future days my son isnt going says get genie+. On the days we are both schedule it says Genie+ features. Will this change once it allows me to purchase the day of?
Can 2 people in the party book a lightening lane and the other 2 book something else? Or does Genie + apply to everyone in the group. For example, I book Big Thunder for a time, however my 4 year old cannot ride that. Can my wife and the 4 year old book a lightening lane for something else at the same time I have my Big Thunder Lightening Lane.
David, yes!
If part of my party is staying on property and part of my party staying off property, can the guests staying on property reserve Genie+ for everyone in the party beginning at 7 AM or only the members of the party staying on property?
Jason, I’m not sure we’ve encountered this ourselves. When it comes to Genie+, everyone can start booking at 7AM, so that’s not an issue. However with Individual Attraction Selections (pay-per-ride) it may be that the system recognizes those guests do not have a Resort reservation — even after you’ve added them to Family & Friends in My Disney Experience — which would prevent you from being able to book for them. You might give Disney a call to see if they can confirm this, but I suspect that’s what you’ll encounter.
Will it allow me to add a person in my group to a Genie Plus LL reservation that I’ve already made, without changing the time? We have 6 people in our party. A couple of them aren’t decided on getting Genie Plus, so I’m wondering if I can add them later but before the return time? For example. Let’s say, right at 7am, I make a reservation for 4 of us at 10 am. At 8:30, the other 2 decide to buy Genie Plus. Can I now add them to the 10am reservation or will we have to change the reservation to the next time available,(possibly much later in the day) so all of us can ride together?
Hi Art! The short answer to whether you can add other guests to your Lightning Lane reservations is “Yes!” The catch here is that everyone has to select Genie+ before you add them to make sure that they are officially eligible to be added to your LL reservation. We have a post that goes into more detail that we published back in October if you would like to read it. Just click here for more information.
Is it possible for me to make a LL reservation for my family of 4 (I make my reservation first then add them) and say we get a time of 10am while at the same time my husband makes a LL reservation for another ride for another time, say noon, (for the group)? So we are both making reservations at the same time but for different rides and different return times?
I also have the same question as Angela Roy – would love your thoughts on this!
After talking to people who have actually tried this, there is a big catch. You can only add people to the reservation if that time slot is still available. So it most likely won’t work on the popular attractions, because the return times will have changed.
For example, say a 4 person group makes 2 reservations at 7am. 2 people get a Jungle Cruise Reservation for 10am and the other 2 get a Peter Pan for 11am. Once the 2 check into Jungle Cruise at 10am, they try to add themselves to the 11am PP but the return time for PP is now 4pm. In this case, you wouldn’t be able to add everyone to the 11 and would have to cancel the 11 and then all do the 4pm.
I have 17 people in my party and I’m the “MDE expert” – oh lort, help me. Is there a limit to how many people I can include in my lightning Lane reservations?
We’ll be heading to Disney World March 2022, party of 6 (4 adults, 2 kids) and will be staying at a Disney property. As quickly as rides get reserved, we’re planning for 2 adults to go after a Genie+ ride and the other 2 adults will try purchasing an ILL. Example: 2 try for Jungle Cruise and the other 2 adults try for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Every adult has their own Disney account. All 6 guests are connected to each with Family & Friends Sharing. Finally the question: Should we all be logged into one person’s account or each logged into their own respective account for scheduling and purchasing the rides?
Question… My family is headed to Disney in April and purchased Genie+ with our park tickets. We are staying at the Poly so will have the early access to purchasing individual lightning lanes before off-site guests. My brother and his wife decided to join us but will be saving money by staying in an off-site hotel. They are in my “Friends & Family” list and are linked to our dinner reservations, etc. My question is, will I be able to book them the individual lightning lanes (for Rise / Ratatouille, etc.) at the same time we are able to book ours (early)? Or will they be “ineligible” until park opening?
Hi Lindsay! Unfortunately you will not be able to book for your off-site friends until the park officially opens.
If you have members of your party who choose not / or can not (due to height restriction) do an attraction can other members of your party use their genie+ ticket to ride the attraction for a second time after doing their 1 time a day allotment? Thanks!
Hi Devin! Unfortunately, Genie+ can only be used one time per person, per ride.
This will be our first Disney trip and we can’t wait! We have a party off 6 but will by utilizing park hopper and will be split apart on certain days. Can my teens use genie plus when they are at a different park?
Hi Kirstyn! As long as everyone has Genie+ activated they can use it in whichever park they’re in without having to be connected to other members of the group that may be in other parks.
Can I be in the account on my phone making a ILL attraction reservation while my husband is making a Genie + reservation on his phone for the same park at 7am? We have the same account.
Hi! We have a party of 5 (2 adults and 3 kids). If we book a lightning lane for a ride for all 5, and 2 decide not to ride, can 2 others (2 out of the 3 that did ride) in the party use the 2 that are not used? i.e. ride it twice? or do you just cancel the 2 LL reservations and then rebook for another time?
Hi James! You will not be able to use the same Lightning Lane twice and you will not be allowed to ride again. The only exception to this is if you are doing a rider swap because you have a small child that is unable to ride, but even in that case only the person who did not ride the first time could select one other party member to go with them and only that person would ride twice, if that makes sense. It would be best to just cancel the other two LL reservations.
Hi Dara! Yes, you can do that as long as you’re staying in a Disney Resort or Good Neighbor hotel that allows for early ILL booking.
I have 18 people linked to my trip (yup, I’m crazy); from what I understand, you can only book ten lighting lanes for a party. So does that mean I can book ten at a time and then book the remaining people right after I book the first 10? Or do I need to carry two phones with two accounts?
It seems like this question has been asked before but there is still some confusion for me – sorry.
At 9AM I book a 12PM LL pass for Slinky Dog for both me and my husband – can my husband also at 9AM on his account (and both of us have our accounts linked) book a 3PM LL for us both to Millennium Falcon? Or once I grab that 12PM LL pass will the 120m counter pop up for him when he tries to reserve it since we’re linked?
Hi Liz! We have a post and a video that both cover exactly how Genie, Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes work that you can check out here.
I hope this helps!