Ever since the introduction of Genie+, I have not had the opportunity to try it out. However, that has finally changed, and I am excited to share my experience with all of you! While I do miss fast pass, I was very impressed with Genie+ during my day at Magic Kingdom.
Disney Genie+ Overview
Genie+ can be purchased the morning of your trip to the parks. The price varies per day depending on demand and the overall crowd levels of the park. The price starts at $15 per person, per day. There are a few exceptions to this, these attractions are: Seven Dwarves Mine Train (Magic Kingdom), Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (Epcot), Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance (Hollywood Studios) and Flight of Passage (Animal Kingdom). For these four attractions you can purchase a separate individual lightning pass to access the lightning lane. Other than those four rides, you can reserve a Genie+ for every other attraction in order to utilize the lightning lane for entry. I paid $15 for Genie+ this day (however, this was before they introduced the varying pricing strategy).
Beginning at 7am, you can book your first lightning lane with Genie+, and then every 2 hours or once you have used the lightning lane pass (whichever comes first). Keep in mind that they initial 2 hours begin when the park actually opens, and then after that it will be 2 hours after you book the lightning lane.
One of my biggest recommendations is to make sure you book as often as you can! Whether that be once you scan into lightning lane or after 2 hours have passed. (Note: Some attractions like Space Mountain and Peter Pan’s flight will require you to scan twice in line before you can book the next attraction). The app will let you know when you will be able to book your next selection. Magic Kingdom opened at 9am the day I went, so I would be able to book my next selection 2 hours after the park opened as stated in the app. However, my first selection was at 10:10am, so I would be able to book another selection after scanning in to that one.
My Disney Genie+ Experience
I woke up at 6:45am to purchase Genie+ and then waited until 7am to book my first lightning lane. After careful consideration, I decided to choose Peter Pan’s Flight at 10:10am and then lazily got ready for the day and made my way to Magic Kingdom. With my lazy morning, I didn’t end up getting into the park until just before 10am and headed straight over to Peter Pan’s Flight. You can scan in up to 5 minutes early for your experience. So, at 10:05am I scanned into Peter Pan’s Flight and after scanning the second time I made my next selection.
I am not going bore you with all the details, so here is a recap of my day:
10:10am: Peter Pan’s Flight (65 minutes posted wait, 5 minutes in lightning lane)
10:50am: Haunted Mansion (50 minutes posted wait, 8 minutes in lightning lane)
11:45am: Pirates of the Caribbean (60 minutes posted wait, 8 minutes in lightning lane)
12:30pm: Buzz Lightyear (50 minutes posted wait, 3 minutes in lightning lane)
2pm: Space Mountain (45 minutes posted wait, 6 minutes in lightning lane)
4:05pm: Big Thunder Mountain (60 minutes posted wait, 14 minutes in lightning lane)
5pm: It’s a Small World (45 minutes posted wait, 15 minutes in lightning lane)
Getting Down to the Nitty Gritty
Now, me being me, I decided to look at all the numbers a little closer utilizing an excel spreadsheet. I was just curious about the numbers and wanted to see how effective the Genie + was.
Overall, it was super time effective! I waited an average of 8.43 minutes, and I only waited a total of 59 minutes to ride 7 rides. Genie+ saved me 316 minutes off of the posted wait times. Now I know the posted wait times are not always completely accurate, but still, I am very impressed! I also rode The Little Mermaid without a lightning lane because the line was very short. Bringing my waiting time to a grand total of 66 minutes for 8 rides! I think that it amazing! Especially since I got to ride almost all of my favorite rides in the park.
I also wanted to add that I was only at Magic Kingdom from about 10am until 6pm, so I could have gotten on even more rides if I stayed longer. Essentially, I was able to ride 8 different rides in 7 hours. Additionally, I also had a long snack break, shopped through the Emporium and Main Street Confectionary, watched the parade, enjoyed Carousel of Progress and took lots of pictures. I also waited for PeopleMover for about 15 minutes before technical issues forced them to dump their line. I loved the slow pace that I was able to enjoy the park at.
Opinion on Disney Genie+
Overall, I was definitely a fan of this service. I was at the park on a Monday, so there may have been a better selection of time slots because of that. I made sure to book my selections as soon as I possibly could, and for the most part, chose rides that had the soonest return time. This service can also be used across multiple parks in a day for even more bang for your buck. For instance, if you were hopping over to Epcot after a morning in Magic Kingdom, you can also use Genie+ to book attractions at Epcot.
The waits were very minimal for all the rides. The longest I ever had to wait was 15 minutes for It’s a Small World and that was mostly because they were loading on a lot of wheelchair parties while I was there. The lines for lightning lane moved really fast and allowed me to have more time to explore the rest of the park.
I think Magic Kingdom is a great park to utilize Genie+ at because there are so many attractions. I have heard that the Genie+ service is not as useful at the other parks. However, I am hoping to test that theory out and I will report back.
What do you think about Genie+? Thanks so much for reading! I would love to hear from you in the comment section below! Happy Travels!