Recently, Disney has shaken things up with the announcement that Genie+, their paid skip-the-line system, was going to undergo some pretty big changes in Disney World.
©Disney
The new system will have two types: Lightning Lane Multi Pass (previously the regular paid Genie+ service) and Lightning Lane Single Pass (previously Individual Lightning Lanes) starting on July 24th. The problem? Many Annual Passholders are feeling like this system completely screws them over.
To give you the brief(ish) version, the new changes will allow guests to:
- Make up to 3 Lightning Lane plans before you get to the parks, choosing your attractions and what times you’ll ride prior to purchasing
- Book Lightning Lane passes for multiple vacation days at one time
Then, on the day of your visit, you can book another Lightning Lane when you’ve used up one of the ones you booked previously. It’s similar to how FastPass+ worked, and getting to know you’ll at least get to skip the lines at 3 attractions per day is fantastic, right?
Genie+
So how early can you make them? Well, guests staying at Disney World hotel can make these reservations up to 7 days before their vacation starts. All other guests can plan up to 3 days in advance.
Genie+
That’s still plenty of time, right? Well, here’s where the issues start to come in. We don’t yet know what kind of availability there will be at the 3-day advance mark. Will Disney hold out some reservations so that they’re only available at the 3-day mark? Otherwise, local folks who don’t usually stay in hotels may have a hard time getting a Lightning Lane for some of the most popular rides — like Tiana’s Bayou Adventure or Slinky Dog Dash. And, for local Passholders who choose to go to the parks on a whim, this feature will be useless to them.
APs this way
Now, you will still be able to purchase Lighting Lane Multi Pass or Lighting Lane Single Pass the day of your trip…however some of the times available may be heavily booked up already due to those who have pre-planned. Not to mention that Passholders will (likely) be paying the same amount for Genie+ that other guests will, even though they’re not getting this planning perk.
Annual Passholder Magnet
Disney has also reintroduced the idea of a tiered system for rides. Out of those 3 advance selections, guests will be able to choose one experience from a higher-tiered group and two experiences (or all three) from a lower-tiered group. So for Annual Passholders who head into the parks on a whim, what happens if all those higher tiered attractions are all sold out?
Read more about the attractions in Tier 1 here
In general, these changes are skewing in favor of people who travel in from far away and stay at Disney World hotels rather than those who live close enough who don’t need to use Disney accommodations for the night, and THAT’S the basis of what Annual Passholders aren’t happy about.
Magic Kingdom Annual Passholder entrance
We will be testing out all of these possibilities when the new service starts later this month, so stay tuned to DFB!
We have BAD NEWS about the new Genie+ changes
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I agree that this is screwing us fl annual passholders over, but it is the same screw job we had with fastpass+. I much prefer the genie+ system. I’m sorry it’s so difficult for people to get up at 7 am. I guess these people rejoicing don’t realize they will still have to get up at for the vq at 7am. Personally I cannot imagine wanting to plan your rides for multiple days in advance. I often change my park res the morning of because I feel like doing something different. That was fine with genie+ not
With this new system.
Doesn’t bother me at all. I have never and will never purcase Lightning Lane.
Additionally international customers are in the same boat! Spending thousands of dollar to plan a trip to the USA from Australia and we are not able to make lightening lane bookings until we are in the country.
Meaning we are paying premium prices and unable to benefit from the perks of staying on property.
Wow, why not go back to the ticket books so folks can ride an “E” ticket attraction? And then WDW can monetize the stubs as souvenirs. Next WDW will be up charging for breathing while you are visiting.
or, people could look at it from the reverse view. it’s not about “screwing over” anyone, it’s a way to provide an extra perk to hotel guests. and those are the folks giving disney more money via their hotel stay and on-site food purchases, so really, they should be eligible for an advantage for their spend.
We are from UK and have paid a lot of money for a once in a lifetime experience. Staying on resort but not being able to get the perks of booking LL stinks. Come on Disney, thought you were supposed to be the happiest place on earth…..disappointing!!
I know this might be valid concern for annual pass holders but you have been to Disbeyworld before if you have this annual pass. This trip for us is a once in a lifetime. That’s all we get and we had to scrape to do it only once and we are only going for one day to Magic Kingdom. Just keep that in mind.
I’d rather just eliminate all the Fast Pass, Genie+, Lightning Lane, etc and go back to how attending the parks used to be prior to Fast Pass+. I’ve never been convinced there is a net gain in time saved in lines during the course of a visit because the additional queue only slows down the standby queue. If there was only one line, it would move much quicker.
I don’t feel sorry for local pass-holders on this one. They attend with high-frequency. Those staying in Disney hotels are more likely once per year visitors or even once in a lifetime guests. Those guests may not get another chance in comparison to the locals that may be back in a few weeks if not sooner.
I’m really happy about the change because we are night owls and don’t like setting an alarm every day on vacation. I much prefer to plan ahead and have less stress during the trip.
Disney once again shows that they really do not care about their annual pass-holders. According to them, we don’t spend enough money so we don’t count
Picky, picky, picky. Do the Florida residents get reduced price on Annual Pass? I am a Disney Vacation Club member. We used to get a discount on Park tickets when I would buy them at hotel check in. We DON’T anymore. I hate to see that discount go, but I don’t whine about it. I also see so many Florida resident discounts. I wish I had them, but it is what it is. Deal with it!
I agree with Michael: go way back to the old ticket books. Only problem is that then Disney admission was pretty cheap. Disney raised the prices for admission with unlimited rides only because Magic Mountain theme park did it first. Now Disney wants to both ways – steep price for admission AND paying extra for popular rides.
I feel very sad that Disney parks went from being an adventure to being a debt.
Ridiculous to pay for this! I’m with Brandon, I won’t pay and never will pay for this system. You should get this perk when staying on property!
Disney is like a sleazy county fair where you pay to get in then you pay to ride the attractions. Or spend 80% of your vacation standing in line with in the Florida heat.
Just in case someone has missed the memo – Disney hates passholders.
We are “undesirable” guests, and they’d rather have that family from Denver that comes once every 5 years. They’ve said this quiet part out loud in a number of ways, especially with continuing to require park passes, and the skyrocketing cost of the APs. Out of state passholders are hated the most.
OK, Disney, we get it. We don’t renew, and we certainly won’t take up any space. We can spend our vacation money in a lot of different places, and not miss you one bit.
Hi, this comment is for Nadine..
I’m also coming from Australia and there may be a way around this for us. Try using a VPN and pick somewhere in the U.S.A as your location. It may trick the system but it may also not work. Worth a shot though! 😉
I am happy with the changes. Not all AP holders are locals. When I come from out of state, I just don’t want to “wing it” to decide what park I’m going to that day. I have to purchase the most expensive AP and I like to have some planning in place as we spend a lot of money and don’t want to miss out. I hated getting up at 7am to make genie plus or lightning lane choices. Unlike local APs, I can’t go to the parks whenever I want. I also miss out on a lot of the free perks passholders receive, ie magnets because I am not in the parks at that time. Also, locals will be able to make lightning lanes 3 days in advance, let’s wait and see how the system works. I understand where local APs are coming from but please keep in mind, the new changes are for everyone and not just locals.
Kinda like how non locals are screwed over on the price of APs? Be happy with what you have .
so happy that i didn’t renew my annual pass. it just keeps getting more and more complicated, which is unfortunate.
I miss the old original fast pass. You went to the park, you went to the attraction, you used your ticket or pass and it printed out a stub that told you what time to come back! Free, everyone in the park that day had an equal chance of getting a fast pass because you decided how early you got to the park. No stress of advanced planning, no cost, so much easier and FAIR.
The fact is, locals and APs have multiple opportunities to visit WDW. That gives them many more opportunities to ride what they want. For most, however, it’s either a one-time trip or one that’s taken only every few years. Time is limited, and this one trip is the only chance for most people to do the things they want to do in Disney. This is a reasonable way of managing everything. Having said all of that, people who go to Disney all the time should have all of the tips and tricks for riding mastered by now and don’t really need Lightning Lanes at all.
What about us poor annual pass holders who aren’t local and are paying for an annual pass AND a hotel room AND expected to pay for Genie+ ? We would like free fast pass again please!!!!
I think it’s fair. I’m an annual pass holder who lives locally and I think it’s fair that those staying at a hotel should get some perks for staying there. When we want the fast passes for Universal we stay at the first class hotel and get them for free. If people don’t like it then don’t come. Not giving Disney your money is the only thing that will change things. People keep coming and paying…Disney is not dumb—they’ll keep taking the money and ignore the complaining.
Ellen, I agree completely. That is why after years of having an annual pass I didn’t renew this year. I’m out of state and the only pass we can get has doubled in the past few years. That along with park passes and can’t get deals like free dining and it just was no longer worth it.
Re Don’t,
Actually both FL residents and non Florida residents BOTH pay the same amount for the Incredi-Pass.
FL residents no longer get a discount.
Disney makes massive amounts more money off of people flying in and staying at their hotels and those people SHOULD get preferential treatment for rides as they are paying thousands to be there for one week. Locals by practical fact can ride these rides all through the year and pay literally nothing to get in the parks past like their 6th or 7th visit or something. It’s a bit much to say they are getting “screwed” by this.
Screwing locals and foreigners (except Canadians apparently)
Literally the only people who benefit are out of state US citizens.
I sent a complaint about the foreigner thing. They didn’t care just said it’s not discrimination because we can pre plan as soon as we get to the states. Either couldn’t comprehend or didn’t care that that is absolutely tantamount to not being able to pre plan because I am arriving the night before my first Disney day.
And they’re straight up screwing AP holders intentionally because they make least money off them so trying to make it a mess attractive option. They’re never going to fix this they’ve done it deliberately
How about we do a follow up to this debate. I would like to hear from the people who feel left out (Annual Passholders and foreigner) when they actually start their vacation. When you are on U.S. ground and try to get your Lightening Lanes, etc. WAS IT DIFFICULT? WERE YOU ABLE TO BOOK RIDES? I truly am interested to learn if it will be as difficult as we are supposing. Thank you. Look forward to some responses.
We have a trip coming up in December which we booked a few months back. We are travelling from the UK and planning to hit 4 days at Disneyworld immediately upon our arrival. The new Lightning Lame really screws up our plans. They had it working for international guests a few years back so their lack of explanation and of getting it fair to all is astounding ! I’m a die hard fan but they need new people in charge who actually care about the guests and not JUST the dollar ! Very disappointing and not what I grew up expecting from Disney.
Our family are Florida APs and we visit the parks MULTIPLE times every year! We stay ON PROPERTY! We spend lots of money on each visit despite being blue collar workers! My feelings are thus:
EVERYONE should have the same access to LL’s/Genie+ or whatever they are going to call their ride reservation system. There should be NO special arrangements for one without providing for all! I agree that there should not be a “7 day out” reservation system as it does take availability away from those who might want to take a “last minute” trip or others whose plans may have changed because of some other issue. Yes, Disney has forgotten its loyal “local” customers. Even if we locals come up for 1 day, we spend lots more money than Disney realizes. I do understand the feelings of those living out of state and maybe planning that “once in a lifetime” vacation, but they are not buying APs. There should be equal footing and equal access for ALL!
Coral Schober. We are out of state and have been passholders for years. This year I finally didn’t renew but that is because we aren’t going to WDW this year. Next year I’ll decide whether to pay for it again. So for you to say out of state people aren’t buying APs that’s incorrect. We do buy APs and have to buy the more expensive one.