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

Aug 19, 2021 in "Disney Genie"

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.

FAQ Updated July 26 2023

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 $29 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

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JD8011 hours ago

I thunk resides are fine for non T1s. T1s should allow rerides after a certain time of day when G+ sales dwindle whenever that is.

Fido Chuckwagon11 hours ago

Not allowing Rerides on hard to get attractions allows more people who have purchased genie+ a chance to ride it once. Not allowing Rerides on Tier 3’s is dumb and likely due to lazy programming.

TheMaxRebo11 hours ago

No reason really to not allow rerides if availability is left At a minimum should let people rerides if still open after a certain amount of time. Like if after 4pm and rode MMRR earlier and still availability, why not? If that was a priority for people they would have selected it by then But even that shouldn't be needed - if someone is able to get more than one for SDD then the park is pretty empty that day

jpeden13 hours ago

It absolutely should be allowed. If there are not enough purchasers in the ecosystem to use all of the available inventory those who have purchased should be allowed access to that inventory instead of it just sitting there un-used which is what currently happens.

nickys13 hours ago

With drops of LLs through the day it could be possible, just like it was with FP+ Not with any certainty, but still possible. But you didn’t explain why for the first scenario….

Fido Chuckwagon13 hours ago

I meant Tier 3 in the general sense, not specific to if we go back to a pre booking system. Under the current system, if someone grabs SDD at opening, gets on it, and there is still SDD available for that evening, no, I don’t think they should be able to book it again. If we go back to prebooking the question is moot because this scenario will never happen.

nickys13 hours ago

If we really do end up going back to 3 pre-booked, and there are still LLs left for Tier 1 rides after you’ve used those, which there used to be with FP+, then I’m curious why you think we shouldn’t be able to re-ride.

Fido Chuckwagon13 hours ago

Rerides should be permitted on Tier 3 rides. You should be able to ride IASW as many times as you want to. Rerides should not be permitted for Tier 1’s.

jpeden1 day ago

Yesterday was a MVMCP night and MK is historically empty on party nights as people don’t feel like they get their “value” with no fireworks and a park close at 6 (although I’d argue you more than get your value from 7:30AM-6PM if you’re on site as in those 11.5 hours you can probably do everything you want twice and still have time left over). I would not judge G+ efficiency and quality based on yesterday’s crowds. I was there as well.

jpeden1 day ago

I do not understand the logic that re-rides aren’t possible. They were allowed under FP and FP+ and anytime I look at the LL list on G+ there are a ton of returns times available immediately or within 10 minutes of the current time. The capacity appears to be there to the average guest even if it isn’t. If I pull a LL for BTMRR or Pirates at 10AM for 10:15 and then later in the day at 3:30 I can get one for 3:40, the average guest (and rightfully so) believes that there is capacity to allow them to re-ride, but they can’t because of the way the system is set up. Under FP+ you could pick any ride once you exhausted your three pre-booked attractions and most guests still remember being able to access additional FP’s under the old system.

Splash4eva1 day ago

No way Disney is giving this away to the people who are the ones guilty of paying most of these high prices for free

nickys1 day ago

They can’t even give it to all Deluxe resort guests. So they’d have to split that category down even further.

TQQQ1 day ago

I agree.......But Universal doesnt give it to all hotel guests either..........WDW could tailor it to specific class of hotel guests

drizgirl1 day ago

Correct. Universal is a theme park company with hotels. Disney is more like a hotel company that owns theme parks.