Answers to when you can make a second Genie Lightning Lane selection at Walt Disney World theme parks

Oct 19, 2021 in "Disney Genie"

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First Lightning Lane guests at Magic Kingdom October 19 2021

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Posted: Tuesday October 19, 2021 11:16am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

One of the most frequently asked questions in the run-up to the launch of Disney Genie has been when exactly can you make subsequent Lightning Lane selections using Disney Genie+.

Lightning Lane in use at Pirates of the Caribbean

Now that Disney Genie+ is live we can answer the question after testing in the park today.

Before we get onto secondary selections, your first Disney Genie+ Lighting Lane selection can be made at 7am, regardless of whether you are staying at Walt Disney World Resort hotel or offsite.

That is the easy part, but things can then get a little complicated when it comes to second selections. Suppose your first Lightning Lane selection is further out than 2 hours from park opening, for example, 2pm. In that case, you can make a second Lightning Lane selection 120 minutes following the official park opening time.

Example. At 7am, you book a Lightning Lane selection for Haunted Mansion at 2pm in Magic Kingdom. The park opens at 9am, so you are then eligible to make another Lightning Lane selection for a ride time from 11am. This means at 11am you will have two Genie+ Lightning Lane reservations.

Thankfully the above scenario is one of the more complicated, and typical usage of Genie+ Lightning Lane is more straightforward.

In most cases, you are eligible for another Genie+ Lightning Lane selection as soon as you tap into the Lightning Lane entrance at the chosen attraction. If you do not tap into the attraction, you are eligible for another Lightning Lane selection at the end of the arrival window for the current selection or 2 hours after your prior election was made.

In short, assuming the park opens at 9am, your latest booking times will be:

7am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm, 5pm, 7pm, 9pm.

Using the above booking times, and assuming that your first reservation is for later in the day, it may be possible to stack three or more Genie+ Lightning Lane reservations at one time.

Lightning Lane at Splash Mountain

Most Lighting Lane selections have a 1-hour ride window and accept admission a couple of minutes ahead of the start time during a grace period.

View our Disney Genie, Genie+, and Lightning Lane FAQ for Walt Disney World for more answers.

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Chip Chipperson3 days ago

So now that the changes to DAS have been announced, any idea on how far away we are from getting news about pre-booking G+ selections?

Disstevefan19 days ago

I think you are right. This is the new floor. Remember how low the prices were when it started

doctornick9 days ago

@tanc is talking about LL Bean's return policy that was changed a few years back.

aaronml9 days ago

What legendary return policy? Are you talking about for legacy paper FP many years ago? Or something else?

HauntedPirate10 days ago

I’m curious to see if Genie- prices drop further to the old minimums or if these become the new “floor”.

Brian10 days ago

If OP was referring to the mix ratio with the 80% figure, that determines how many LL guests pass through the merge point at any given time versus standby. There will still be the same number of guests who ultimately choose to experience the attraction via either standby or LL whether they let 20 LL guests through the merge point for every one standby or 50. If the suggestion is that 80% of a "popular" attraction's total guests throughout the day are LL guests, I don't know of any in which that is the case.

Purduevian10 days ago

But the ratio of people that get on the ride via Standby or LL throughout a day (on average) must be the same ratio of people that get in the line...

wdwmagic10 days ago

Individual Lightning Lane price drops alongside lower Genie+ cost at Walt Disney World https://www.wdwmagic.com/other/disney-genie/news/08apr2024-individual-lightning-lane-price-drops-alongside-lower-genie-cost-at-walt-disney-world.htm

Brian11 days ago

I believe the figures you are referring to are the mix ratios of LL vs standby guests at the merge point, which can fluctuate throughout the day. These ratios do not themselves determine the types of guests (Genie+ vs Standby) who will ultimately choose to get in line and experience a specific attraction.

DisneyDodo11 days ago

It took me a very long time to parse this post because my brain stubbornly insisted on reading “LL” as “Lightning Lane” every time, which made me assume “bean” was some sort of typo, and I could not for the life of me figure out what you were trying to say. Thankfully it eventually clicked.

SingleRider11 days ago

It’s been reported on this site and others that the LL entrance at any popular attraction accounts for 75-80% of that ride’s capacity because the LL is heavily favored. Having the other 20-25 percent scan at a separate entrance shouldn’t be much of an issue.

Brian11 days ago

It has been discussed several times already why that "solution" is wildly impractical. Don't believe me? Look at the LL entrance of any relatively popular attraction and you'll see clumps of guests struggling to get in because of various issues like finding and presenting their admission media, entitlements not being linked, and more. Now imagine every single guest in the park being forced to do that for each attraction.

MagicHappens197111 days ago

This is insane. I have stated it several times. It’s extended waits that is a problem 9 times out of 10. Not a 15 minute wait for Little Mermaid

SingleRider11 days ago

Disney really needs to come up with a system to prevent anyone with a DAS return time from standing in line for any other attraction. This would be easy to accomplish by having CMs scan tickets at the standby entrances.