We Used Genie+ for the First Time. What did we Think?!

Back in June my sister, Sharon, and I took a girls trip to Disney World! It was a fun trip, and for the first time since it came out, we used Genie+. Today, we're going to share our thoughts about the experience. 

What is Genie+?! 

Genie+ is the paid for "skip the standyby line" option that replaced Fastpass+. It debuted on October 1, 2021 on the first day of the 50th Anniversary Celebration. This is what the Walt Disney World website says about the service, "Use the Lightning Lane entrances offered through Disney Genie+ service and save time waiting in line. On average, Guests can enter 2 to 3 attractions or experiences per day using Lightning Lane entrances, if the first selection is made early in the day."

There is also a second option, Individual Attraction Selection. The Disney World site says, "You may also purchase individual—or à la carte—Lightning Lane entry selections for specific attractions that aren’t offered through Disney Genie+ service. Purchase individual Lightning Lane entry for up to 2 experiences per day, one at a time. Guests may purchase this option with or without Disney Genie+ service."

Genie+ can only be purchased one day at a time, on the day you plan to use it. That means, that you have purchase it any time after midnight on the day you wish to use it for. Guests staying at Walt Disney World Resort Hotels can make their first selection for the day starting at 7AM. Guests not staying on property can make their first selection at the offical park opening time. 

Our Experience

 We had two days at the parks, and used Genie+ both days. I purchased Genie+ each day at around 6AM on the app, using my Disney Rewards Redemtion card to pay for it. Credit cards and Disney gift cards can also be used to make the purchase. 

At exactly 7AM on each day we refreshed the Genie+ selction page, and made our first choice for the day. 

On our Hollywood Studios day we decided to book Tower of Terror first. This was a wise choice, because on the day we were there the ride was only running two elevators, which made the standby line VERY LONG. We know, we used the standby line later in the day since we had some time to kill. 

Our window was for 10:10 - 11:10. We arrived to the scan point just before 10:30, and at that point, while we were waiting in line, we were able to book our next selection for the day. We decided on Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway.* 

Before we even used our Runaway Railway selection, two hours had passed since we booked it, and we were able to book a third section. We picked Rock 'n' Roller Coaster. 

Each of the three attractions had considerable standby lines, and the Lightning Lane certainly saved us a large amount of time at each attraction. However, because it was the end of June, school was out, and summer crowds were in full swing. There were also only have the normal ride capacity for Tower of Terror, and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster was down for three hours in the afternoon. So, we did not breeze onto any of the three attractions, but we did save A LOT of time in line by using the Lightning Lane for each of the attractions. 

On our second day at the parks we started at Magic Kingdom and had plans to park hop in the afternoon to Epcot. As we wer pulling into the Magic Kingdom parking lot Sharon got us a Lightning Lane time for Remy's Ratatouille Advenure for right when park hopping started. 

When we were able to book another time slot we booked Haunted Mansion for while we were still at Magic Kingdom for about 12:10. When we got to that line the Lightning Lane line was about 20-30 people outside the official queue entrance. It took us a while to get on the ride, about 20-30 minutes, but that was still a lot quicker than the standby line. And tje ride had been down for about an hour or so at park opening which made it so that guests with early Lightning Lane slots had to come back later in the day once it reopened. 

After that we park hopped over to Epcot where we were able to scan right in for our Remy Lightning Lane time, and got on the ride in about 10 minutes. After we scanned in for that one we grabbed on more Lightning Lane slot for Soarin' for that evening. 

There was a bit of a hiccup with the Soarin' Lightning Lane. We booked our slot for 5pm, but after it was booked the time disappreared from the app. It said that we had booked that attraction already, and therefore couldn't book it again. Instead of showing the time slot that we had booked, it was showing the next time slot that was available for booking. We stopped by one of the Guest Experience Team kiosks, and they looked up our time - they said it was booked for 3pm. I had booked the time slot at 3pm for 5pm. They told us to head over to the attraction to see what the Cast Members there could tell us. We made it to The Land Pavilion, and Soarin' around 5:30pm. The Cast Member at the Lightning Lane entrance told us to scan in and see what the computer said. We scanned, it lit up green, and we made our way towards the ride. The posted wait time for the standby line was 90 minutes. There was a bit of a line for the Lightning Lane, but nothing compared to some of the other attractions we had used it for. It took about 15 minutes to make it onto the ride. This is understandable due to the nature of the ride and the time it takes to queue guests up to wait for the next ride, to load and check seatbelts, and then to had the ride run. 

In additon to using the Lightning Lane entrance for three attractions each day, we also took advantage of the Genie+ exclusive PhotoPass lenses.  

Thoughts

Did purchasing Genie+ and using Lightning Lane make it so that we waited less time for the attractions we used it for? YES! 

Was it worth it for the two of us? YES! I'll expand on this one. We only had two days at the parks, and it has been five years since the last time Sharon was at the parks. A LOT of things had changed at the parks in that time, and we wanted to be able to see and do as much as we could in the time that we had. Genie+ gave us that opportunity. 

Why did we get it? The above answer is part of it, but really the main reason we used Genie+ on this trip was because Howard told us to. He gave it to us as a birthday gift. 

Will we use it as a family? No. And there is a lot behind the answer. The first, the biggest part, is that we go to the parks a fair amount. Our annual passes allow us to visit the parks whenever we want, and in the last 11 months since we bought our annual passes they have been used on 19 days. We have one more trip coming up before these passes need to be renewed, too. Since we are able to go to the parks so often, we don't have to try to do everything every time to go. We do the big things that we really want to get done on that trip, and then we go back to the rest and relax. It isn't worth it for us to use it.

Do we recommend it for those that only get to the parks once a year, or once every few years? What about for first time park goers? If getting on big name attractions with shorter waits is important to you. If you are only going to get to the parks once in the next few years. If it is your first time at Disney World and you want to get the most out of it. YES! Do it! 

Do we recommend using a Lightning Lane for something that doesn't normally have a long line, just to get the most out of your Genie+. Personally, no. Disney states that you will most likely get 2-3 attractions done, and that is exactly what we did. We could have used it for more attractions, that had time slots just a few minutes after we were looking, but those attractions also had wait times that were less than 20 minutes long. 

Tips

If you are like us and like to be at the theme park parking lots early to get toward the beginning of the Early Entry lines, you'll need someone to book your first Lightning Lane slot while another person drives into the parking lot. This is especially the case for Magic Kingdom. We were pulling into the Magic Kingdom parking lot, and because Hollywood Studios had 8AM Early Entry, we were at the Hollywood Studios lot at 7AM as well. 

When you book your Lightning Lane times, take a screen shot of the app so that you don't have a situation like we did for Soarin'. 

* We were able to book Runaway Railway using regualr Genie+ because until August 7th it is a Genie+ attraction.  After that date it will return to being an Individual Attraction Selection option. 

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