If you’re going to Disney World in 2024, the time to start planning is NOW! Don’t worry — we’re here to help.

We’ve already talked about the hard-to-get hotel reservations and which restaurants you should prioritize when making your dining plans, but now we’ve got to bring up Disney World RIDES. Many guests choose to use Disney Genie+ in order to skip the standby lines on certain rides and avoid those long wait times. If you plan to use Genie+, you need to know which Lightning Lane reservations fill up the quickest so that you don’t miss out on your favorite rides!

First, let’s go through a quick breakdown of the differences between Genie, Genie+, and Individual Lightning Lanes.

Disney Genie is a complimentary service (with optional add-ons available for purchase) within Disney World’s My Disney Experience app. Disney Genie provides on-the-go planning tools and customized itineraries to help guests maximize their time in the parks.

Disney Genie+ is a paid service. Genie+ allows you to bypass standby lines and enter the Lightning Lane — previously known as the FastPass line — at select attractions by paying a base price (Tax not included). Disney Genie+ starts at $15 per day, per ticket at Disney World (the price changes depending on how in demand it is that day — it generally goes up during busy times like summer and holidays), and the price also varies by park in Disney World. Guests can either buy a single-park Genie+ option or a multi-park option, to accommodate Park Hopping.

Note that you must make Lightning Lane reservations — you can’t just enter the Lightning Lane for any ride, even if you’ve purchased Genie+. You make those reservations on the Disney World app.

For guests wishing to ride Disney’s most popular attractions without a wait, Individual Lightning Lane Attraction Selection is a separate paid upcharge from the base-priced option. Individual Attraction Selection allows guests to select return times to enter the Lightning Lane for a maximum of two specific, more popular attractions. You select a time from the available slots and will be given a return time with a window of one hour to go on the ride.

The attractions featured in this paid option are NOT the same as those in the base-priced Disney Genie+. For example, Avatar: Flight of Passage has an individual Lightning Lane — it is NOT included in Genie+; Jungle Cruise is part of Genie+ — you cannot buy that Lighting Lane “a la carte.” We still included rides with Individual Lightning Lanes in this list, even though they’re not technically part of Genie+.

The price for the rides with individual Lightning Lanes will vary depending on the date, attraction, and park — which means, the more in demand the ride, the more it will cost to ride.

Click here for our FULL GUIDE to Genie, Genie+, and Individual Lighting Lanes.

Now that you’ve mastered Genie, let’s take a look at which Genie+ reservations will be the hardest to get at each Disney World park!

Magic Kingdom

Peter Pan’s Flight

We’re in Disney World every day, and we keep an eye on which rides sell out the fastest with Genie+. Generally, Peter Pan’s Flight is one of the first to fill up.

This ride is very nostalgic and well-loved, and its capacity is pretty low. That means that the line moves slower than a lot of other rides — so getting a Lightning Lane is useful.

Plus, it’s very popular with the little ones, so a lot of families try to book a Lightning Lane in order to avoid the super long wait (if you’ve ever waited in an hour-plus-long line with a toddler, you know exactly how desperate parents are to skip that wait!).

Jungle Cruise

Another good option to select is Jungle Cruise.

This is also a nostalgic ride that tends to keep pretty high wait times throughout the day, so if you’re hoping to ride this one, getting a Lightning Lane early is a good idea.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is one of the Individual Lighting Lane rides in Magic Kingdom, and it’s also very popular. It’s a roller coaster (one of the only ones in Magic Kingdom), but it’s also very smooth and not too high above the ground, so it’s popular with both adults and little kids.

The Lightning Lane spots for this ride don’t usually sell out super quickly, but on particularly busy days we’ve seen them gone within an hour of the park opening.

TRON Lightcycle / Run

For TRON specifically, if you are going to try to use the free Virtual Queue system, we would suggest doing that at 7AM first, since it will likely be gone in seconds — especially while it is still new.

If it’s super important for you to ride, we would opt for grabbing the paid Individual Lightning Lane for this attraction first since it’s less risky.

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

Tiana’s Bayou Adventure hasn’t opened yet, but it’ll be finished in late 2024. Disney hasn’t announced yet whether the ride will be on Genie+ or an Individual Lightning Lane, but we’re expecting the latter because that’s been the trend with most new rides in Disney World.

Once it opens, we’re expecting Tiana’s Bayou Adventure to be very popular, so it’s likely that the Lightning Lanes will sell out quickly.

EPCOT

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

Cosmic Rewind is the newest ride in EPCOT, and it’s been super popular since its opening in May 2022. This coaster has a super fast reverse launch, an awesome soundtrack, and fan-favorite Marvel characters, so it’s no wonder it’s such a hit.

The coaster also has a virtual queue, so we’d recommend trying for that first since it’s free! However, purchasing the Individual Lightning Lane might be worth it if you don’t want to risk missing the window for the virtual queue or if you want to ride it TWICE!

Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is newer than Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, but since Guardians has an Individual Lightning Lane, Remy’s has been the hot commodity on Genie+.

This ride regularly gets wait times of 1.5-2 hours, and the queue isn’t exactly exciting, so we recommend getting a Lightning Lane if you want to ride. It’s also a very popular option for rope drop at the park, so trying that strategy may not be the most effective compared to using Genie+.

Also, this ride tends to break down pretty frequently, so if you have a Lightning Lane and it breaks down, you’ll be given a multi-experience pass that you can use to come back later. That doesn’t often happen if you’re waiting in the standby queue.

Frozen Ever After

Our next recommendation would be Frozen Ever After. This is a popular choice for families with Frozen-loving kiddos, so it can get a long line as well…though not usually as long as Remy’s has. It also tends to keep a pretty steady popularity throughout the day since it’s located in the World Showcase and guests flock there for lunch and dinner.

It doesn’t close down as often as some other rides in the park and the queue is actually pretty cute, but it would probably still be a good idea to snag a Lightning Lane if you don’t want to wait an hour or more. Or, more accurately, if your little ones don’t want to wait an hour or more to see their favorite characters!

Test Track

Our last choice is Test Track, located over in World Discovery. This ride is very popular as it is one of the only thrill rides in EPCOT, and it can get wait times of over an hour regularly. But it’s also one of the rides that close frequently — for both technical issues and for weather (it shuts down for lightning in the area).

The main reason that Test Track isn’t higher up this list is that it also has a Single Rider line, which can be a very helpful tool for those who don’t want to wait too long. You’ll get separated from your party, but the Test Track Single Rider queue typically moves pretty quickly. (Note that this isn’t guaranteed — sometimes the single rider lines go very slowly if Cast Members don’t need single riders to fill in gaps in the queue. It might be a risk, but sometimes that pays off!)

One downside to using the Singler Rider entrance is that you don’t get the full process of designing your car for the ride. There are kiosks in the Single Rider queue for design purposes, but the customization options are much more limited than those for the standby and Lightning Lane guests. So if you want the full car design experience and want to ride with your friends, Lightning Lane is the way to go!

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Avatar Flight of Passage

Flight of Passage is usually the cheapest Individual Lightning Lane out of all the rides in Disney World that offer it, and it’s also generally one of the first to sell out.

If you want to avoid the stress of rope-dropping this popular attraction, we highly recommend purchasing a Lightning Lane pass for it. Honestly, rope drop in Animal Kingdom to get to this ride might be the single most stressful experience you can have in Disney World (or maybe it’s a close second behind trying to get on a bus after Magic Kingdom fireworks…either way, it’s bad), so that Lightning Lane becomes even more valuable if it means you avoid that chaos.

This ride gets long wait times later in the day, mainly because it’s a super fun, unique experience.

Kilimanjaro Safaris

Kilimanjaro Safaris is another popular attraction in Animal Kingdom. You get to see real-life animals like cheetahs, lions, giraffes, and elephants, all while a safari guide tells you about the animals and their habitats.

This ride gets a long wait later in the afternoon, and it typically closes early (sometimes around 6PM, but look for a sign in front of the ride to find out when it’ll close each day). For those reasons, we think it should be the first Genie+ Lightning Lane you book if you choose to use Genie+ in Animal Kingdom.

You may not need Genie+ at all in Animal Kingdom if you just go to Kilimanjaro Safaris early in the day to avoid the crowds later on. Most other rides don’t get super long wait times, so if there’s one park where you skip Genie+, it should be this one.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

Rise of the Resistance is typically the most expensive Individual Lightning Lane and also the first to sell out. This is a VERY popular ride, and well worth the cost of a Lighting Lane pass if you ask us.

If you’re hoping to get on this ride without a long wait, you should purchase a Lightning Lane as soon as possible — either at 7AM if you’re staying at a Disney World hotel or right when Hollywood Studios opens if not.

Slinky Dog Dash

Slinky Dog Dash is typically the first ride to run out of Lightning Lane availability on Genie+.

It’s a cute coaster that’s fun for both younger and older kids, so it’s a popular option. The wait times can get up to two hours or even longer on really busy days, so we definitely recommend Genie+ for this ride.

Tower of Terror

Tower of Terror is an iconic ride in Hollywood Studios, and it has a dedicated fanbase. The ride’s popularity isn’t the only reason for high wait times, though — it frequently shuts down for technical issues or may only have half of the ride vehicles operating while refurbishments happen on the rest.

To avoid a terrifyingly long wait and/or the disappointment of waiting for a long time only to have to leave when the ride shuts down, Genie+ is the way to go.

If all of this planning sounds like just way too much work for you, remember that you don’t have to buy Genie+! Instead, you could opt to rope drop your favorite ride (which means being at the park before it opens and heading straight there as soon as possible), or stay late. We often see wait times drop pretty low just before closing time.

Stay tuned to DFB for more updates on all the latest Disney news.

Click here to see the hardest Disney World hotel reservations to get in 2024.

Which Disney World rides do you book first when you buy Genie+? Let us know in the comments.