Disney Genie, Genie+, and Lightning Lane FAQ for Walt Disney World

Aug 19, 2021 in "Disney Genie"

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Posted: Thursday August 19, 2021 7:06am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney Genie, Genie+, and Lightning Lane Frequently Asked Questions for Walt Disney World

Learn more about Disney's announcement and launch of Disney Genie.

Disney Genie overview

FAQ Updated April 11, 2024

1. What is Disney Genie?

Disney Genie is a digital service that is part of the My Disney Experience app available at no additional cost. The service is designed to plan your day at the Walt Disney World theme parks, including a personalized itinerary that maps out the entire day based on your preferences. Disney Genie will display current and forecasted future wait times.

2. What is Disney Genie+?

Disney Genie+ is an option within the Disney Genie service that makes the former FastPass line available at select attractions, now called Lightning Lane. Certain headline attractions are not part of Genie+, and Lightning Lane access at those attractions will require an Individual Attraction purchase.

3. What are Individual Attraction Purchases?

Attractions not included as part of Genie+, such as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, will require an individual attraction purchase for access into the Lightning Lane. Prices will vary by date, attraction and park. Throughout the year, prices may be lower on some days and higher on other days. This option may be purchased at up to 2 different attractions each day.

4. If I don't want to buy Genie+ or individual attraction purchases, can I still ride?

All attractions will still have a standby queue or a virtual queue.

5. When did Disney Genie and Genie+ launch at Walt Disney World?

Disney Genie+ launched on October 19 2021.

6. What is the difference between Genie and Genie+?

Disney Genie is the planning service that creates itineraries and is free for all visitors. Genie+ is a paid option to provide Lighting Lane access to certain attractions.

7. What is a Lightning Lane?

The Lighting Lane is the new name for the FastPass queue, and can be accessed via Genie+ at participating attractions, or via an Individual Attraction purchase at a limited number of high-demand attractions.

8. How much does Disney Genie cost?

The basic Disney Genie service is free to all guests visiting Walt Disney World.

9. Is Disney Genie a new app?

Disney Genie is accessed via My Disney Experience, the existing Walt Disney World app available for iOS and Android.

10. When can I add Genie+ to my ticket?

Genie+ at Walt Disney World now starts at $15, and may go as high as $39 per person per day (plus tax), depending on the date and park. You can purchase through My Disney Experience on the day of your visit. Pre-arrival purchase is not possible. WDWMAGIC provides detailed pricing data and historical trends for Disney's Genie+ and Lightning Lane purchases at Walt Disney World.

11. What attractions are available for Lighting Lane access via Genie+?

Magic Kingdom

Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane Selections

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Haunted Mansion
“it’s a small world”
Jungle Cruise
Mad Tea Party
Mickey’s PhilharMagic
Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
Peter Pan’s Flight
Pirates of the Caribbean
Splash Mountain
The Barnstormer
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Tomorrowland Speedway
Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid

EPCOT

Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane Selections

Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
Journey into Imagination with Figment
Living with the Land
Mission: SPACE – Green
Mission: SPACE – Orange
Remy's Ratatouille Adventure
Soarin’
Spaceship Earth
Test Track
The Seas with Nemo & Friends
Turtle Talk with Crush

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane Selections

Alien Swirling Saucers
Beauty and the Beast Sing-Along
Disney Jr. Dance Party
For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
Muppet*Vision 3D
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Slinky Dog Dash
Star Tours
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania!

Disney's Animal Kingdom

Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane Selections

Celebration of the Festival of the Lion King
DINOSAUR
Feathered Friends in Flight!
It’s Tough to Be a Bug!
Kali River Rapids
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Na'vi River Journey
The Animation Experience

12. How many Disney Genie+ selections can I make and when can I make subsequent selections?

You can make one selection at a time throughout the day. Once you use one, you can make another. 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.

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.

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.

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.

13. How many Individual Attraction purchases can I make?

You can schedule a time to arrive at up to two highly demanded attractions each day using the Lightning Lane entrance.

14. What attractions are not part of Genie+ and require an Individual Attraction purchase?

Magic Kingdom

Individual Lightning Lane Selections

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Space Mountain
TRON Lightcycle Run

EPCOT

Individual Lightning Lane Selections

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Individual Lightning Lane Selections

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

Disney's Animal Kingdom

Individual Lightning Lane Selections

Avatar Flight of Passage

15. Do I have to buy Genie+ before I can make an Individual Attraction Purchase?

No. Individual Attraction purchases can be made via Disney Genie without needing the Genie+ add-on.

16. When can I purchase Individual Attractions for Lightning Lane access?

Walt Disney World Resort hotel guests can purchase up to 2 individual attraction selections for Lighting Lane access at 7am on the day of visit. Available to Disney Resort hotel Guests and Guests of Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels and Shades of Green.

Non-resort hotel guests can make a purchase when the park opens.

17. When can I make Genie+ selections?

At Walt Disney World, all guests can make the first Genie+ selection at 7am on the day of the visit via My Disney Experience.

18. Will Genie+ and Individual Attraction purchases be available during Extended Evening Hours and Early Entry for Walt Disney World Resort hotel guests?

No, only standby lines will be in use during these times.

19. Do I have to purchase Genie+ for the entire length of my trip?

Genie+ is purchased on a day-by-day basis, and is not linked to a trip length.

20. Can I pay to ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance or Remy's Ratatouille Adventure?

For Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, you will be able to buy Lightning Access as an Individual Attraction purchase.

21. How does Genie+ and individual attraction purchases work for Annual Passholders?

Genie+ can be purchased by Walt Disney World Annual Passholders on the day of the visit. No discounts are available.

22. What has happened to FASTPASS and FastPass+?

The original FASTPASS and FastPass+ have been retired and replaced by Disney Genie and Genie+.

23. Can I modify a Genie+ selection?

Yes. Using the My Disney Experience app, guests can now modify an existing booking without first canceling a reservation and making another booking. This only applies to Lightning Lanes that are part of Genie+, and not those that are Individual Attraction Purchases

24. Can I book an Individual Attraction Purchase at the same time as a Genie+ Lightning Lane selection?

Yes. It is possible to have a Genie+ reservation at the same time as an individual attraction purchase. Disney Genie will detect this and advise you that you have an existing plan in the same window, but it will let you make the reservation.

25. What payment methods can I use to buy Disney Genie+ and Individual Attraction selections?

My Disney Experience accepts the following payment methods:

Disney Gift Card
Disney Rewards redemption Card
Credit or Debit Cards - Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, Diners Club, JCB and UnionPay
Click to Pay

26. How can I find out pricing for Genie+ and Lightning Lane selections?

WDWMAGIC now provides detailed pricing data and historical trends for Disney's Genie+ and Lightning Lane purchases at Walt Disney World.

Whether you're planning a family trip, or you're a Disney enthusiast who wants to stay informed, our platform empowers you with invaluable insights in a single at-a-glance page. Try it out now at https://www.wdwmagic.com/genieprice.htm

Discuss on the Forums

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ChrisM3 days ago

Recovery still happens and can be fairly generous. In December my son and I were assigned to two broken seats on FoP. When they realized their error they whisked us out, gave us each 2 MEP LL's (which were valid for 2 days) for our trouble (including my wife and daughter who hadn't even woken up yet!), and escorted us back to the front of the line.

Ayla5 days ago

Yes, there are plenty of guest reports saying how they were given LL for whatever reason as part of guest recovery that I don't believe the reports on twitter.

DisneyDreamer085 days ago

I was in Disney with my husband and 2 kids in March of 2023. There was a system wide outage on our DHS day that affected everyone for the first few hours of the day. After that, everyone had to sign back in and for a some reason, a small amount of people, myself included, couldn’t sign back into the MDE app for the entire day. I had to go to the blue umbrellas every time I wanted to make a LL. I couldn’t mobile order or fiddle faddle my times. It was infuriating and exhausting to say the least. I went to guest services at the end of the day simply because I didn’t feel I got my monies worth that day. The CM was extremely emphatic and not only refunded my entire family for the day but gave us Genie for free for the following day as well. So it definitely still happens.

arich355 days ago

Yeah when we went in January we had some issue with Genie+ at HS that day where it messed up our group. We were park hopping later to MK and the guest experience team gave us all free Peter Pan ILL plus an anytime experience pass because Slinky was down the whole time.

natatomic6 days ago

I’d imagine guest recovery can and DOES still happen. But I can also imagine it’s much more limited too.

James Alucobond6 days ago

I'm not saying this is wrong as I may have just randomly been dealing with someone who had the correct permissions, but my group was definitely given both a Lightning Lane and gift certificate cash for an inconvenience during my last visit in 2023. I didn't even push for it; I just asked for something minor to be corrected with my room reservation and, because it was going to take a day, they offered.

natatomic6 days ago

Having watched Jenny Nicholson’s Star Wars Hotel video, it led me to follow her on twitter where people are ripping Disney a new one (rightly deserved, too). One thing I didn’t realize that has changed as I haven’t been a CM since covid is that monetizing fast passes has now made guest recovery reduced to practically nothing compared to what they used to do. Here’s some quotes: “Pre-Genie+ I used to make magical moments by walking guests up to the fastpass entrance all the time. Now that’s “stealing from the company”” “Our bus delayed our entry into DHS by two hours so we couldn’t get to rope drop and do rise of the resistance. The cast member at guest services actually apologized and said “I’d like to be able to give you a Fastpass for your inconvenience but the system doesn’t allow it.”” “Yea, a lot of cast are hesitant because they've put a lot of pressure on them about not abusing it. On top of that, in many areas frontline cast had the ability to issue them removed entirely and now only leaders/coordinators can do it.” “One thing that's weird since Disney decided fastpasses cost money is they never give them out for inconveniences anymore. Yesterday they couldn't link my magicband to the hotel and said "I'm sorry this probably really ate into the time you needed to go on rides. Anyway bye"” (She said this happened every day of her stay, and the only thing they suggested was for HER to go buy a new magic band. No offers to replace it for her). Sounds like comped LL are given out incredibly rarely now, and front line CMs have either been deprived of that ability, and the few that DO have that power have to be able to account for each and every one passed out lest they get in trouble. So I guess magical moments are a thing of the past? I used to love surprising guests with a random fast pass just to brighten their day, or using them as guest recovery. Hey Disney. Genie+ SUCKS. Get your act together, good Lord…

Fido Chuckwagon6 days ago

Let’s not go crazy…

TrojanUSC7 days ago

Yes, paying for something that used to be free sucks, but I continue to think that for the price they're charging it's a steal.

Fido Chuckwagon7 days ago

If they are going back to 3 prebooks that makes sense. Basically it’s just the old FP+ system but you pay for it now. I don’t see how they could possibly allow 3 prebooks plus stacking, there’s just not enough capacity.

George7 days ago

There’s a thread I could pull on, but before I do that - do any of our esteemed magic colleagues know guest satisfaction numbers with regards to genie, genie plus, and ILL?

HauntedPirate9 days ago

I still think the best option is to... Junk the entire system.

pigglewiggle9 days ago

Maybe that will be part of new pre-booking that was supposed to happen this year I thought.

JD809 days ago

That just sounds like old FP+. IF you scheduled your third FP at 60 days for 8pm, you could never refresh. Honestly it's a good way to do it and it's easier to understand. Assuming they give you 3 to book. If it's just 1, it'll deter people from booking a LL and banking it for later in the day. So inventory at 7am won't immediately sell out because people have to determine the value prop of whether booking an E ticket for later in the day and getting no use out of the system is more valuable than using it actively during the day. It becomes an ILL at that point. If that happens you'll have top tier attractions available later in the day for people buying the system. Would be q clever way of creating more inventory.