Guide to Genie+ at Disney World
Note: This article describes the system that is in place at Disney World until July 24, 2024. If your trip is happening after then, visit our article on Lightning Lane Passes here.
We all know the lines at Disney World can be long, especially during certain times of the year. We don’t all have the freedom to plan a trip on a Tuesday in early January. There are school and work schedules to consider, and sometimes you want to go during Christmas vacation and soak up every bit of the festivities. The answer to alleviating the pain of waiting in line all day is a fast pass.
Fast pass systems have been around forever and are called something different at every park. At Universal Studios, it’s called an Express Pass. Seaworld calls theirs a Quick Queue. Disney has different tiers with their Genie+ and Lightning Lanes systems. To add to the confusion, they all also work very differently from each other. For this article’s purpose, I’ll use the term fast pass anytime I’m describing passes that allow you to skip the line or go in a quicker, shorter line in general, and the actual names of the programs when I’m talking about a specific park’s system.
Disney World’s Fast Pass Terminology
Explaining the terminology used for Disney World’s fast pass system.
Genie
A free service that Disney provides through their app. It allows you to put in your top attractions and attempts to help you plan your day to fit the most things in based on wait times. It includes a Tip Board that will suggest mobile ordering from nearby restaurants and other things you might want to include in your day. This does not include any type of fast pass service, it’s only a planning tool.
Lightning Lane or LL
A special entrance to an attraction that allows you to wait in a shorter queue for the ride, often at least halving your wait time.
Genie Plus or Genie+
This paid service allows you to book Lightning Lane passage to certain rides. Disney’s website says that on average you can usually book 2-3 attractions per day. This seems like a conservative estimate to me, but it must be used correctly to be effective, so many guests may not use it to its full potential.
Individual Lighting Lane or ILL
The most popular attractions at each park are not included with Genie+ and must be booked separately. For instance, to enter the Rise of the Resistance Lightning Lane, you must pay an individual amount per person that varies by day.
How Genie+ Works
The big thing to note is that Genie+ is not a fast pass where you pay one fee and can hop into any lightning lane you want all day. That is how Universal Studios Express passes work, but it’s also important to note that fast passes are much more expensive at Universal Studios.
You can begin signing up for Genie+ at midnight the day you plan to enter the park. Most people purchase it from their app when they wake up the morning of their park day since you can’t book any experiences until then.
You can begin booking Lightning Lane experiences at 7 am if you are staying on property or when the park opens for everyone else. You can book one experience at a time to start. The process looks like this:
Ahead of your park day, make sure you are friends in the My Disney Experience app with everyone in your group you’d like to book Lightning Lanes for and have permission to manage their plans.
Log into the MDE app anytime after midnight and purchase Genie+ for every member of your group.
At 7 am for resort guests or park opening time, if you are staying off-property, book your first Lightning Lane experience.
There are many philosophies on the best way to book these. I think securing the most challenging to get rides as early as possible is best. If you see Slinky Dog Dash, book it, even if the experience isn’t until that evening. There’s a good chance it won’t show up again for the rest of the day.
After you book your first experience, you must wait to book another for 2 hours or until you use your Lightning Lane, whichever comes first. This is why people are tempted to grab the low-hanging fruit- try to book Lightning Lanes as early in the day as possible. I would argue that it’s better to book Slinky Dog at 6 pm and then wait 2 hours to book another than to book an easy-to-grab LL like Star Tours and book another more quickly. Chances are, you didn’t even need a LL for Star Tours, and now you’ll have to wait in a 1.5-hour-long line or skip Slinky Dog altogether.
You can book a LL every two hours for the rest of the day. It can seem frustrating at first, like you’re unable to ride anything with your LL because you’re booking good things for later. Use this time to rope drop a great ride, wander around, explore, find a good snack, and watch some shows. It’ll pay off later in the day when you’re walking onto ride after ride while everyone else is stuck in line.
Don’t forget that you can book another Lightning Lane the second you scan in for the ride. So use that time you’re waiting (hopefully a short time!) to book your next Lightning Lane quickly.
Booking Individual Lightning Lanes
Now that you’re an expert at Genie+, let’s talk about Individual Lightning Lanes- or ILL (yes, it’s an unfortunate acronym). This is the ability to purchase a Lightning Lane entry to the most popular ride at every park.
Rides included in ILL
As of the time of this post (August 2023), the attractions included in ILL are:
Seven Dwarves Mine Train (Magic Kingdom)
TRON Lightcycle Run (Magic Kingdom)
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (EPCOT)
Avatar Flight of Passage (Animal Kingdom)
Rise of the Resistance (Hollywood Studios)
It’s important to note that none of these attractions are included with the Genie+ service. The only way to access the Lightning Lane queues for these rides is to buy an Individual Lightning Lane for them.
Tip: Often, certain rides will also have a Virtual Queue. That can be another great way to ride these rides (for free!) without having to wait in a long line. I’ll write a post about those soon.
Limits to how many ILL attractions you can book per day
Disney has a limit of two ILL attractions per day. Unless you’re a champion park-hopper, I think this seems reasonable. Managing multiple parks and all the Lightning Lane times would be difficult.
Do you need to buy Genie+ to purchase an ILL?
You do not need to purchase Genie+ to purchase an Individual Lightning Lane.
What time can I purchase an ILL?
You can purchase Individual Lightning Lanes beginning at the same time booking for Genie+ opens- 7 am for those staying on the property and at the park opening time for everyone else.
Tip: If you want to purchase an ILL and Genie+ (common), I recommend having more than one person in your party log in to the MDE app and book Lightning Lanes. One of you can work on ILL purchases, while the other books your first Genie+ LL for the day.
How Much Do Genie+ And ILL Cost?
That’s an important question, and I will respond with a vague answer: it varies. Disney changes the pricing daily based on anticipated crowd levels for that day. That being said, I’m happy to save you a Google search and offer you a range based on data I found for you on the internet.
Genie+ Pricing
It’s important to note that each park will have a different price daily. Magic Kingdom is nearly always the highest, as it has the most attractions and is the most popular park. Also, there is a 5th option to purchase a park hopper Genie+. You must purchase the park hopper option if you want to use your Genie+ in more than one park per day. Don’t forget that in order to park hop, you must have a park hopper (not base) theme park ticket.
So far, the daily range for Genie+ has been between $15-35 per person.
Park Hopper and Magic Kingdom - $23-$29
Hollywood Studios - $21-$24, with a few $26 days
EPCOT - $17-19, with a few $21 days
Animal Kingdom - $15-17
Individual Lightning Lane Pricing
For Individual Lightning Lane attractions, the minimum to maximum price ranges have been:
TRON Lightcycle / Run - $20
Rise of the Resistance - $15 to $25
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind - $14 to $17
Avatar Flight of Passage - $11 to $16
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - $10 to $12
These numbers were taken from Thril Data, my favorite place to find reliable theme park-related data, and worth a click if you want to check it out.
Extra Perks That Come With Genie+
Genie+ does come with some extra benefits on top of being able to book Lightning Lanes.
Disney lets you receive digital downloads of some of your ride photos without having to pay for their Memory Maker
Special PhotoPass lenses in the app, which work kind of like a Disney-themed Snapchat filter
A feature called Audio Tales, which gives you behind-the-scenes facts about the Disney theme parks
Do You Need Genie+ And Lightning Lane Access To Have A Good Time At Disney World?
This decision can depend on many factors, but I have a few rules of thumb.
YOU SHOULD GET GENIE+ OR ILL IF:
You only have one day at that theme park, and you want to do as much as possible
You have a generous budget and believe trading money for your time saved is a good value
It’s imperative to you to ride certain rides, like Rise of the Resistance
You have younger kids or hate waiting in lines
YOU CAN PROBABLY SKIP GENIE+ OR ILL IF:
You can visit that park multiple times or have scheduled a catch-up day to hit anything you missed
You’re on a tight budget, especially if you have a large group.
If you are happy to go in with the attitude that you’ll soak up everything you can, and it’s okay if you don’t get to do everything
You hate being on your phone for a good part of the day in a theme park
You’re an annual pass holder
You’re going to EPCOT or Animal Kingdom- they don’t have as many rides, so it’s much more likely that you can hit all the rides you want without LL
Lightning Lane Options For Those With Disabilities
If you or someone in your party has a medical reason why they cannot wait in lines, Disney offers a DAS pass system that allows you a form of Lightning Lane access, though the rules are not the same. I’m not a representative of Disney and cannot speak for their policies, but here is some information based on what I have learned from my experience and the experience of others I know.
You need to sign up at guest services after you arrive to see if you qualify. You’re not required to give a doctor’s note, but they do ask you some questions, and it’s up to the cast member whether they grant you DAS access. This is generally a painless process, so please don’t let this step intimidate you.
They do not automatically grant DAS access if you’re in a wheelchair or other mobility scooter. They accommodate this, but they don’t consider this alone sufficient reason to qualify you for a DAS pass.
The DAS pass does not work like Genie+, where you book experiences every two hours. It’s not designed to give you quicker ride access but to alleviate the pain of standing in line. So when you open the app to book your experience, the return time will be based on the current wait time. If you want to book the Tower of Terror and the wait time is 45 minutes, it will give you a return time 45 minutes from now. You may book another ride as soon as you scan in for Tower of Terror. You can only book one ride at a time.
The DAS pass extends to your whole party, up to 5 guests besides yourself, so your group can stay together. You can add friends and family to your booking as long as the person is on your friends and family list in MDE and is with you in the park. The person with the DAS pass must ride the ride with you. You can’t book Rock n Roller Coaster, for example, if the DAS user is a young child who isn’t able to ride that ride.
When your time for the ride comes, there is no expiration time for when you can get in line- it’s good anytime from the time your window opens until the park closes. Just remember you can only book one ride at a time. When you get to the ride, everyone in your party, beginning with the DAS pass user, will scan your MagicBand, app or park ticket and enter the Lightning Lane.
Conclusion And More Resources
I hope this helped explain the terminology and how the different services work. I would recommend looking up some YouTube videos to see how the service works ahead of your trip, so you can familiarize yourself with where everything is. Disney also gives a lot of information on their website and will be the most up-to-date source for news and pricing.