Ahh, Disney Genie+, the paid version of FastPass that is taking Disneyland Resort and Disney World by storm, leaving some guests overwhelmed and confused.
©Disney
The new system has multiple parts, different prices for different options, and a set of rules that you’ll have to learn in order to use it effectively. However, when used properly, it could likely save you a good bit of time during your day at the parks. So how is it on the most crowded days of the year? Does it still work? Is it worth it? We tested it out in Disney World.
What Days Qualify As “Busy?”
Okay, first we need to discuss what qualifies as a “busy” day in Disney World. (It can honestly feel like every day is a busy day if you plan it wrong!) For the purposes of this post, we’re discussing those massive crowd days that you get during the holiday season. The last two weeks of the year tend to be the most crowded time to visit the parks.
Those holiday crowds can be brutal!
So for our experiment, we tested out Genie+ a few days before Christmas, as well as on in the days following Christmas. The day after Christmas was a little bit busier crowd-wise, so that posed a few more challenges, but in general, they’re both days where you may consider spending the $15 per ticket per day, JUST to avoid some of the ridiculously high wait times.
What Should You Know When Buying Genie+?
On busy days throughout the year (could also include holiday weekends and Spring Break), you should know the basics of buying Genie+ ahead of time so that you’re prepared. Starting June 7th, you will have to purchase Genie+ one day at a time in the My Disney Experience app, starting at midnight on that day.
©Disney
We recommend purchasing well before 7AM. Why? Because that 7AM time window is important and you’ll want to be ready to knock out your tasks ASAP.
Why is 7AM Important?
If you’re coming to Disney World on one of those particularly busy days, you’ll definitely want to be on top of things for Genie+. At 7AM, Disney Resort hotel guests can purchase their Individual Attraction Selections (IAS) for the day and ALL guests can make their first Genie+ selection of the day. And those things go FAST!
Popular rides will disappear quickly!
Off-site guests will have to wait until park opening time to purchase Individual Attraction Selection rides, which gives hotel guests a distinct advantage. On busy days, we’ve seen options like Rise of the Resistance sell out before off-site guests even got the chance to buy. As soon as 7AM hits, people start booking up those popular rides. If you wait even a few minutes, you might get stuck with that 6PM pass for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train instead of the 10AM one.
Rise of the Resistance Lightning Lane
But for Genie+ attractions, it’s a bit more of a free-for-all. Since all guests can make their first choice at 7AM, you’ll want to go into that time with a plan. Know exactly what you want to prioritize — is it a certain ride or do you want to get the earliest pass possible? We recommend listing your favorite rides in order of importance and booking them that way. And remember, you’ve got to be quick: there were some moments where we’d click on a Genie+ Lightning Lane time of 9:35AM but by the time the app loaded, it was backed up to 11AM. Seconds make a big difference!
Lightning Lanes are the new FastPass lines
In the case of the app glitching at 7AM, we were still able to get our first selections in. For example, the app glitched on us first thing in the morning, but we were able to book Kilimanjaro Safaris with a return time of 9AM-10AM instead of 8AM-9PM.
Which Rides Are Most Popular?
There are some rides and attractions that you’ll definitely want to prioritize when booking your Genie+ selections. At Hollywood Studios, we noticed that Slinky Dog Dash was the first to go, while options like Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run followed shortly after.
Jungle Cruise Lightning Lane
Over at Magic Kingdom, Jungle Cruise and Peter Pan’s Flight are pretty popular because both have incredibly high average wait times during the busy seasons. The “Magic Kingdom Mountains” are also harder to book because they’re popular, along with Haunted Mansion. At EPCOT, you’ll want to prioritize Soarin. Animal Kingdom’s most popular options are Na’vi River Journey, and Kilimanjaro Safaris.
Na’vi River Journey
For those popular rides, it may be helpful to toggle back and forth between screens when searching for return times for those popular rides. For example, Na’vi River Journey was showing a return time of 3:30PM at around 11AM the day we visited the parks. After toggling between screens, we were able to find a return time for 12PM.
So is it Worth it to Use Genie+ During the Busy Season?
First, you’ll need to note the cost of Genie+ and make sure that it’s in your budget. Keep in mind that it’s $15 per ticket, per day, so a family of four would pay $300 extra to have Genie+ over the course of 5 days.
It may be helpful!
If you decide to pay for Genie+, you’ll need to be diligent about using the system properly. Make sure that you’re up at 7AM to do your first bookings, and as soon as you scan into your Lightning Lane, hop on your phone and work on booking the next one. You’ll also want to be well-versed in the 120-minute rule (click here if you don’t know what that is!).
Make sure you’re refreshing the app!
During the busy seasons, it’s likely that the popular rides will be gone quickly, but you’ll want to keep refreshing. Throughout the day, we saw several fan-favorite options come back to Genie+, likely because other guests canceled their selections. If something you want isn’t available, just keep checking!
You’ll want to be diligent.
All in all, Genie+ seemed to save us time since the lines were so long, but it will take up some of your time. You’ll need to be up early and you’ll spend some time on your phone throughout the day, finagling to get your next reservation.
Disney Genie+ can be a big help if you use it right!
So there’s our full report of Genie+ during the busy season! We’ll keep testing out the system as they make changes, and we’ll keep you updated on everything happening in Disney World, so stay tuned to DFB!
Click Here to See the NEW Change to Genie+ Booking!
All About Disney Genie, Genie+, and Individual Attraction Selection
BIG Genie+ Changes Being Planned For Disney World
FULL List of Rides Included With Genie+ in Disney World
3 Tips to OUTSMART Genie+ in Disney World Right Now
Please Stop Skipping These Genie+ Hacks in Disney World (They Really Work!)
Genie+ Tips for the Most Crowded Days in Disney World and Disneyland
Click HERE to See More About Disney Genie
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Have you used Genie+ in Disney World yet? Tell us in the comments!
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If there are several adults in your party can they all go on the app at the same time to try and make reservations, or is it just one person? Thanks.
Tracey, it’s possible two or more guests could try at the same time. Everyone would need to have the whole family/friends list if they’re booking for the group.
Hi Folks, My family and I visited DW in Dec from 16th thru the 20th (we stayed off property) and we found Genie plus a waste of money if you are wanting to use it for the most popular rides. Even getting up early and being on the App at 7AM we never were able to get a Lightning Pass for any of the big rides, and as far as the Lightning Lane goes we were able to get maybe 2 over the 5 days for a ride we really wanted. From our view it was a waste of money, I wouldn’t do it unless you are staying on property maybe. As any company would do, Disney is making it so that you have to stay on property to be able to get any of the perks or priorities. Truely starting to make it a Important person experience on property with other upgrades available to upgrade to a VIP experience. Nothing wrong with this, its the model that every money making operation does in the U.S., whether its night clubs, hotels, airlines etc.. Wish everyone a great time when you visit. Even with all this said the experience is unlike anything anyone else in the amusement park industry can deliver. We love the DW vacation.
Used Genie + for the first time on our recent visit to MK. We walked onto Splash Mountain but then it felt like we spent most of our day wasting time waiting for the next available ride. How much eating and shopping can you do?
So we had to kill time. We ended up waiting in the standby line for Big Thunder and Pirates before we could get on our second Lightning Lane attraction which was Haunted Mansion.
Why did we pay for this? Way too complicated and frustrating. Just not worth it in my opinion.
P.S. It also seemed like we spent the entire day watching our phones and not taking in the magical environment that was all around us.
The issue is not if it is busy or not. The issue is that most guest don’t want to pay additional fees for the Lighting lanes when they have already paid for an expensive park ticket(s). Especially when FastPass didn’t cost anything in the past.
I disagree with this, I went to Disney World from 12/17-12/21 this past year and bought Genie+ two times, once on Saturday, December 18th for the Magic Kingdom and the other for Hollywood Studios on 12/20. I found that I was only able to get 3 rides max out of it and rarely was it for a major attraction. On that Saturday I was very upset because the park was very busy and their were long waits for every attraction and Genie+ was basically only good for Goofy’s Barnstormer, Ariel and it’s a Small World etc. What ended up making a bad day into a great day , was once the fireworks started my daughter and I were able to knock out Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder, Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Mine Train (Because I bought it), and Space Mountain. In typical fashion, everyone watched the fireworks and then left enabling us to knock out those rides in 2 hours from 8:00pm to 10:00pm. My suggestion is to go to the park first thing in the morning and knock out some rides, then go back to the hotel, have lunch and go swimming and then return to the park for dinner and rides. If it’s to cold to go swimming, hotel hot for fun or take a nap. 🙂
It’s because of the Genie + that the stand by lines are long. They dump all the lightning lanes out first, then let the stand by line go. Meaning, they could let 15 lightning lane people go, the say 6 stand by, then if more lightning lane people show up they stop the stand by lane and let the lightning lane in. This proves Disney doesn’t care about the guests, only money. At least when it was fast pass lanes, they would alternate them.
Biggest ripoff of all times. Day after Christmas one ride at 12:15 next at 7:50 at night
I have never and will never purchase this. But all of my friends that have gotten it have constantly warned against purchasing it. Their reasoning is that on busy days, all of the Fast Passes are gone. So they do not get to actually use it. And as we know, there are no refunds.
At WDW 9 days in October. Onsite right now. NOT booking for next January. Hate this new process. There is NOTHING relaxing about getting up at six forty-five to get a reservation in late afternoon after paying dollars. There is NOTHING vacation-like about this new system.
My wife & I had a great experience with Genie+ the week before Halloween. At 7am, we made our selections for our two favorite rides in each park. Lightning Lane lines were very short, saving hours of waiting. I doubt that we would have been able to ride Rise of the Resistance or Seven Dwarfs without individual LL purchases. Worked much better than FastPass+, as we didn’t have to plan our whole trip by selecting FastPass+ 2 months in advance. Well worth the extra $16 (15.98 is closer to $16) per person for saving 2-4 hours in line each day.
Seems like many of you would be happier if Disney just raised ticket prices $15.98 and declared Genie+ to be “free”, like the FastPass system. Prices were going up, no way around that. Disney now gives you the option to spend an extra $15.98 for the new FastPass system or save money and wait in lines. As I’ve said, we stayed on-site in October and had an excellent experience with Genie+ just before Halloween. Worked a lot better than trying to make all FastPasses for the trip 60 days out. You just have to purchase Genie+ prior to 7am each day and be ready to start making your selections at 7am. It also helped that we only go to the parks Mon-Fri and never during busier times like around the holidays.
Re: Chris
Perhaps so. But there’ll raise ticket prices anyway. So what exactly is the argument.
Re: Charlie
We visited on New Years Eve.
Without Genie+,
During the 8pm fireworks, we were able to ride Jungle, Big Thunder, HM, and Run over to do Space Mtn.
All without Genie+ so that is a standard occurrence without the expensive app. The park is essentially a ghost town in and around fireworks times.
But I’m glad it worked for you.
Re: Brandon Says, Re: Charlie
Hey Brandon…That was point 🙂 I will never buy Genie+ again because we were able to ride 6 major actions during the fireworks without using Genie +. Yes I bought it, but it was worthless with such a large crowd and we didn’t use it past lunch. As I mentioned in my original post, it best to go first thing in the morning, then go back to your hotel and go swimming and then back to the park late afternoon/early evening.