I have some friends traveling to Disney in the summer and a hot topic of conversation was that they were confused over the Genie plus and the Lightning Lanes. Are they the same things? Are they the same as fast passes? So, this is what I know!
Genie plus was first released in Oct 2021. It came with a new fancy app update and lots of new features. The planner part of Genie is free to use. The Genie app allows you to see wait times and gives you options to plan your day by ticking things you want to do and it will help plan your day.
What we called Fast Passes are now called Lightning Lanes (LLs) and are only available in the Genie Plus section of the app which you have to pay for. Genie plus gives you the option to reserve entrance times (LLs) to certain rides which will cut down your wait time. The Lightning Lanes are the new queuing system so where you use to enter the fast pass queue at the ride entrance, it is now called Lightning Lanes. They have kept the ride tire system and some of the top rides aren’t covered by this Lightening Lane as part of Genie Plus, but at an additional cost of $12-$17/ride/person/day, you can have what they now called Individual Lightning Lane.
To make things more complicated just as everyone was getting used to the new system, Disney go ahead and change it. The process of using is the same but the way the tickets are purchased has changed but only for Disneyworld Orlando.
As of 8th June 2022, you can no longer buy the Genie plus in advance with your tickets. You can now only buy from midnight the night before your booked park day for $15/person/day and they are saying there is a limit to how many they will sell.
So here is a quick rundown on how to get started with the Genie app.
➡️ Purchase the Park Tickets.
➡️ Download app – My Disney Experience.
➡️ Link tickets, Friends, and Family to the app.
➡️ Booked your park days – you won’t be allowed entrance to the parks without doing this. You can park hop after 2pm. You don’t need to book a day for the water park so I would book a park day just in case the weather isn’t great.
➡️ Pack and off to Florida!
➡️ From midnight the night before your first day you can purchase the Genie plus pass for that day. Cost $15 per person. You do this via the Genie app.
➡️ You can then click the rides you most want to book for your LLs and they will pop up first when you can book.
➡️ From 7am the next morning you can book your first Lightning Lanes.
So, this is what I know I hope it was helpful. We used the Genie Plus on our last visit back in March this year and to be honest, it worked well for Magic Kingdom we never queued we managed to stack rides but at Hollywood studio, it didn’t help much, Animal Kingdom and Epcot were ok. When we go again, I don’t think we will bother maybe save our money and do the odd Individual Lightning Lane instead.
For more information check out my next blog explaining in a bit more detail how to use the Genie app to book the LLs.