1-Day Magic Kingdom Itinerary Using Genie+ & Lightning Lanes
Our 1-day itinerary for Magic Kingdom using Genie+ and Lightning Lanes offers a step-by-step plan for the park. Its goal is to answer questions, illustrate the process of how paid FastPass works in practice at Walt Disney World, and address the best strategy for ride reservations. (Updated March 3, 2023.)
This is a theoretical day at Magic Kingdom since there are unknowns and the Lightning Lane return times here are not necessarily what you’ll get. That’ll vary considerably based on crowd levels, how many other guests buy the Genie+ service, and a variety of other variables. If you want to see an example of what we accomplished in the park, see My Day Using Genie+ at Magic Kingdom.
The good news is that Magic Kingdom is the “easiest” park for using Genie+ at Walt Disney World, so it’s not essentially that you follow a strict itinerary for accomplishing a lot via Lightning Lanes. There’s a lot of room for flexibility, which is important since your plans and priorities will differ from what’s here depending upon whether you’re eligible for Early Entry, characters are important to your party, you do sit-down or counter service dining, etc.
Another thing to know is that a lot has changed with Genie+ in the last few months. Some of these are across the board policy or rule changes that apply equally to all parks at Walt Disney World. Then there are those specific to Magic Kingdom due to the recent return of several character experiences, including Enchanted Tales with Belle and the Ariel’s Grotto meet & greet. As such, we’ve returned to refresh this itinerary once again.
In essence, this itinerary offers a run through of a normal day at Magic Kingdom using both Lightning Lanes and standby lines. If you’re a type A vacation planner, hopefully this gives you some peace of mind about how Genie+ works. With that said, keep in mind that there will likely be some fluidity with Genie+ and Lightning Lanes in the months to come as tweaks are made–a lot has already changed since the systems launched last fall.
This is intended to supplement our Lightning Lane and Genie+ at Walt Disney World FAQ. A lot of you have had questions, and we’ve tried to answer most of the common ones there. However, many are about specific scenarios and that FAQ would be as long as a Tolstoy novel if we addressed each one there.
As discussed in the aforementioned FAQ, there is currently one attraction per park that sells individual Lightning Lane access and are not part of Genie+. In Magic Kingdom, this attraction is Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. (Previously, Space Mountain was an Individual Lightning Lane ride, but it has been moved over to Genie+ permanently.)
Anyway, on with our 1-Day Magic Kingdom Itinerary with Genie+ and Lightning Lanes…
7:00 am – Book Peter Pan’s Flight via Genie+ with a Lightning Lane return window of 9:00 am to 10:00 am.
8:30 am – Rope drop Space Mountain via standby during Early Entry. (If you’re not eligible for Early Entry, skip ahead to Jungle Cruise.)
8:40 am – Do Astro Orbiter via standby line.
9:00 am – Cross the Central Plaza in front of Cinderella Castle and head to Adventureland for regular rope drop (park opening). Here, do Jungle Cruise, which is currently high on our Magic Kingdom Genie+ Priorities & Lightning Lane Ride Rankings.
If you don’t care about character meet & greets, you might actually want to read that list of rankings instead of this sample itinerary. This is going to involve a lot of character stops that many families might want to skip entirely. If so, you’ll free up a lot of time to do different things.
Parties uninterested in characters might also consider staying in Tomorrowland and taking a spin on the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover. You’ll be able to have a much more leisurely day than those who are also trying to knock out meet & greets via the Lightning Lanes.
9:30 am – Do Peter Pan’s Flight via Lightning Lane (Genie+ ride reservation). Immediately upon tapping into the Lightning Lane, book Meet Ariel at Her Grotto via Genie+ with a Lightning Lane return window of 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm. (If you skipped Jungle Cruise before because you don’t care about characters, book that instead.)
9:45 am – Do the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh via standby line.
10:00 am – Do Haunted Mansion via standby line.
10:30 am – Do Pirates of the Caribbean via standby line.
10:45 am – Free time or a buffer in case crowds are worse during your visit. If you’ve already accomplished all or most of this, consider rewarding yourself with one of the Best Magic Kingdom Snacks & Desserts List. (We’re going to leave some gaps in this itinerary so it doesn’t become too confusing or overwhelming–eating is always a great way to fill the void!)
11:00 am – Book Meet Mickey & Minnie at Town Square Theater via Genie+ with a Lightning Lane return window of 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm.
Note: 11:00 am is chosen because it’s 120 minutes after 9 am, which is consistent with the 120 minute rule. This means that you can select your next Genie+ ride reservation either after tapping into your previous one or after 120 minutes have passed, whichever is sooner. In this case, that’s 120 minutes.
11:30 am – Score immediate Walk-Up Waitlist availability at Skipper Canteen, an underrated dining gem (and arguably the park’s best restaurant) that many Magic Kingdom guests are afraid to try because it’s “too exotic.”
12:30 pm – Recover from a feast of highly adventurous and unusual dishes such as “grilled steak” and “fried chicken” by a brief hibernation during Country Bear Jamboree. Marvel at its bear-rific brilliance. Further feast recovery with a showing of Walt Disney’s Enchanted Tiki Room. (In other words, this is about an hour of free time.)
1:00 pm – Book Big Thunder Mountain Railroad via Genie+ with a Lightning Lane return window of 6:00 pm to 7:00 pm. (If you skipped Space Mountain before, book that instead.)
1:25 pm – Meet Ariel at Her Grotto via Lightning Lane (Genie+ reservation).
1:40 pm – Do Enchanted Tales with Belle via the standby line.
2:10 pm – While walking to the front of the park, grab a snack from Gaston’s Tavern, Storybook Treats, or Friar’s Nook–all of which in Fantasyland and on the way to the next stop.
Alternatively, you can head towards the front of the park to refuel at Main Street Bakery, which is the Starbucks in Magic Kingdom. In addition to coffee, Main Street Bakery has a variety of snacks and, usually, a seasonal cupcake.
2:30 pm – Meet Mickey & Minnie at Town Square Theater via Lightning Lane (Genie+ reservation).
2:40 pm – Meet Snow White outside Town Square Theater
2:55 pm – Take PhotoPass family photos around Main Street
3:00 pm – Book Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin via Genie+ with a Lightning Lane return window of 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
~3:15 pm – What time is the 3 o’clock parade? On Main Street, it’s actually about 15-20 minutes after 3 pm, as it takes some time for Festival of Fantasy Parade to make its way to the front of the park. (If you don’t want to wait, you can walk towards the parade by heading to Liberty Square or Frontierland–but we recommend Main Street for the most “iconic” experience.)
4 pm – Do Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin via Lightning Lane (Genie+ ride reservation).
4:01 pm – Book Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid via Genie+ with a Lightning Lane return window of 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm.
Note: We discussed the 120 minute rule above, but you’re also able to book another Genie+ reservation after tapping into your previous one. That won’t be relevant if you’re going for all high-priority options, but grabbing some low-hanging fruit after booking all of your high-priority options can make afternoon touring easier. (Pretty much anything done via standby in the first couple hours could be moved to the afternoon via Genie+ if you so desire.)
4:15 pm – Embrace Walt Disney’s Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrowland via the Carousel of Progress and the PeopleMover. (Pretty wild that Magic Kingdom’s three most iconic attractions–these two plus Country Bear Jamboree–don’t use Genie+ or Lightning Lanes. That’s a pretty big oversight!)
5:30 pm – Do Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid via Lightning Lane (Genie+ ride reservation).
5:31 pm – Book another character meet & greet: either Cinderella or Tiana at Princess Fairytale Hall with a 7:30 pm return time. Alternatively, book a Lightning Lane for Pirates of the Caribbean, which is permissible since you did it via standby the previous time, if you’re not into princesses.
6 pm – Do Big Thunder Mountain Railroad via Lightning Lane (Genie+ ride reservation).
6:15 pm to 7:25 pm – Open time to accomplish any attractions that were not possible earlier due to crowd levels, plus dinner. Columbia Harbour House would be our recommendation for a quicker but quality meal.
We’d also recommend catching the last performance of Mickey’s Magical Friendship Faire at Cinderella Castle–check the times guide for showtimes.
7:30 pm – Meet Cinderella or Tiana and a Visiting Princess at Princess Fairytale Hall via the Lightning Lane.
8:00 pm – Do “it’s a small world” via standby line.
8:45 pm – Grab a last minute spot for Disney Enchantment in Fantasyland with a view of both Cinderella Castle and Beast’s Castle above Be Our Guest Restaurant. This is not a recommended “one and done” fireworks viewing location (check out our viewing location tips for Magic Kingdom fireworks), but you’ll be doing another night in Magic Kingdom later.
~9:30 pm to 10:45 pm – Open time to revisit favorite attractions, revisit rides that are better at night, or do things that were not feasible earlier in the day due to crowd levels.
~10:55 pm – Race to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, jumping in line just before park closing.
This assumes Magic Kingdom closes at 11 pm and Disney Enchantment happens at 9 pm. These times should be adjusted if Magic Kingdom closes at an earlier hour. The salient point is that you are not paying for Individual Lightning Lane (ILL) access to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train by doing it at the end of the night. Moreover, no new ILL guests will be entering the queue once the park closes. It’s all standby at that point, which means a faster-moving queue!
Once again, this was a step-by-step day in Magic Kingdom using Genie+ based on assumptions about capacity allocation and demand. Some or all of these assumptions could be off and not reflect what you actually experience when you visit Walt Disney World–but the same could be said of any itinerary. We think this is probably ~75% accurate, and at the very least, should illustrate how a day could look using the Genie+ service.
The point here is to illustrate how Genie+ could prove advantageous for days you opt to purchase the add-on. Personally, I’d buy strategically, and likely only for one Magic Kingdom day plus one DHS day and maybe EPCOT now that Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure are included. That’s just me, though, as someone who is relatively frugal but also recognizes that “vacation time is money.”
Finally, even with a lot of things you’d be able to accomplish during the middle of the day removed for the sake of simplicity, this itinerary might look overwhelming. Just keep in mind that your past itinerary with FastPass+ or current one also might look pretty intimidating to the uninitiated. Like all things Walt Disney World, it’ll become simpler and more intuitive once put into practice.
Ultimately, it should be relatively easy to use Genie+ at Magic Kingdom. We’ve already done so several times, and find it to be the best and most laid back park for the paid FastPass service, and that’s in large part due to its more robust ride roster and better Lightning Lane return times. With that said, we recognize Genie+ isn’t for everyone–particularly those who don’t being glued to their phones or are on a tight budget. As such, we have a great 1-Day Magic Kingdom Itinerary Without Genie+ and Lightning Lanes that’ll help you have a great day without the upcharge!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Was this 1-Day Magic Kingdom Itinerary w/ Genie+ helpful to illustrate how paid FastPass works in Walt Disney World’s flagship park? If you’ve put this to practice, were you able to accomplish all of this in a single day at Magic Kingdom? Did you purchase Individual Lightning Lane access to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train or do it at the end of the night? Have any questions we didn’t answer with the above? Still confused by how Genie+ or Lightning Lanes work? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Other thoughts or concerns? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
How do you think this would work with park hopping? Could I buy genie+ for 1 day and use it at Magic Kingdom in the morning and Hollywood Studios in the afternoon?
Flying all the way from Seattle for a once in a decade or two type trip in Feb 2022, I’m excited about these changes. Instead of doing 4 days with one park per day, I’m thinking we can get away with park hopping for three days using Genie+ and staying at the Dolphin. This will give me an extra day at Universal. As we get more details when this program starts, would love to see strategy ideas for park hopping. Love your informative blog!
My family will get to make make “reservations” for two attractions a day ( a month in advance) using the DAS pass because I have two children with Autism. Do you think it makes sense to make those DAS reservations earlier in the day, lets say 10 am and 11am, because I may have an easier time getting Genie plus reservations for later in the day when I make them at 7am the day of? Make sense?
Is there anyway you explains little more about the 120 rule. I get that after you book one and use one you can book another, but how many can you book at once? Will it be tier type of booking like Fastpass used to be, and if you’ve booked your allotted amount will you be able to book another after 120 minutes?
Re Earliest return times: Old FP, earliest return times were about 50 minutes after park open, but that was partially because no FPs were distributed until the park opened.
FP+, the earliest return times were right at park open. Since they were booked before the park opened.
Genie+ — I think it’s fairly safe to say that return times will start right at park open, since you can book 1-2 hours before park open.
And eliminating the first hour would result in about 1,000-1,500 less reservations being available for the day. No reason to voluntarily give up that much G+ capacity.
So while I understand the lack of absolute certainty, I’m extremely confident that return times will start at official park open. Maybe not absolute certainty, but I’d put it over 99%!
I had the same understanding as Cindy K. From the Disney Parks bog:
Disney Genie+ service (available for purchase): For the price of $15 per ticket per day at Walt Disney World Resort and $20 per ticket per day at Disneyland Resort, choose the next available time to arrive at a variety of attractions and experiences using the Lightning Lane entrance. You can make one selection at a time, throughout the day…
How would all this work for a group of 12?
I think the “what happens for folks who sleep in?” question is a good one…interested to hear Tom’s take but here are my thoughts:
1. This definitely diminishes the experience for people who are both “plan far ahead” types and “arrive late” types (vs. the previous ability to book several afternoon/evening FastPass+ times a couple months in advance)
2. I’m guessing Disney understands most of their audience doesn’t overlap into both buckets above…a small sliver on the Venn diagram.
Note: Aside from the cost, Genie+ vastly improves the experience for people who won’t or can’t plan out their days way ahead of time, but still want to maximize their experience in the parks (possibly on a “once in a lifetime” trip). This is probably the biggest segment of the WDW guest audience, even if it’s a smaller percentage of planning blog readers.
4. It seems you can sort of “sleep in” or have a leisurely morning and still take advantage of this feature as long as someone in your party is willing to get up at 7am to book a return time. You’d just limit your ability to game the system for maximum efficiency, and miss out on a combined “Genie+ with rope drop” strategy Tom noted above. But both of those things would have generally been true under the old system as well.
Overall, I am all in favor of anything that supports the casual visitor’s “dream experience” — the deck has been stacked in favor of the hyper-planners (including myself and other DTB readers) for too long. While I still do it out of necessity, having to plan out every minute of my day 60 to 90 days in advance has always felt icky and not in line with the types of theme park experiences I remember loving as a kid.
Agree with both points #1 and #2.
I think people who read sites like this dramatically underestimate how FastPass+ did not work for casual guests the same way it did for them–which is a big part of the reason why “power users” were able to leverage FastPass+ so well.
As for the disadvantage of late arrival, I truly don’t think it’ll be that significant. With the 120 minute rule plus 2 hours between the 7 am booking window and official park opening, you’re pretty much looking at losing out on 1 attraction if you book at 9 am instead of 7 am. To me, that’s not particularly significant, but YMMV.
I must admit that as much as I haven’t been to disney as often as many (5-6 times) over the past 35 years or so, I was so looking forward to going back one or twice with some of my grand children but I feel that the experience has been so potentially diminished by the removal of so many on site perks and the increased cost even before this new “pay to ride” to jump the line additional cost.
I’m afraid that Disney has taken so much of the wonder and escape out of a trip to Disney by forcing us to become more like event planners; that it may no longer be worthwhile to try to save up for a trip anymore.
I will continue to follow your blog since incase you just might be able to find us some way to make it truly magical again to visit Walt Disney World again in the future.
Thank you
Time or money. Take your pick!
I just read a comment on another blog where a young woman said she waited four hours in line to ride FoP. She said a cast member held her place in line four times while the guest used the restroom. Who is willing to wait four hours to ride a theme park attraction? I’m not. But then I’m not willing to pay the extra money ride the attraction either. Now what? Will families be able to afford to pay per person to ride certain attractions? There must be another way.
It is insane to wait on line for four hours just to ride an attraction. That’s a huge chunk of day going to waste. Maybe that young woman would be willing to pay extra to not have such a long wait. For one person, that’s not so bad. For a family, it’s costly. I wouldn’t do it. So, again, now what?
I imagine most people aren’t going to WDW just to lounge by the pool and dine in their hotels and Disney Springs. I can’t see the upside to going to the parks with so much gone and paying more for it. On top of that, there are a slew of other fees to pay for, like parking and outrageous hotel prices. Let me ask this – was Fast Pass+ not working? Or is Disney just that money hungry?
Switching from free FastPass+ to paid a la carte access on attractions like Flight of Passage should make the standby wait SIGNIFICANTLY shorter, as far fewer guests are going to buy access than would take advantage of the free line-skipping.
(Also, there’s a restroom mid-queue in Flight of Passage now precisely because of this problem.)
After reading this I am so very confused now! It looks as though they want people to have a lot of Dow time between rides or am I reading this wrong! Ugh!
Just as with FastPass, the idea is that people will do a mix of Genie+, standby, shows, shopping, dining, etc.
If the window between return times is too short, that would make standby lines longer for those who don’t buy Genie+, which isn’t a good option either. The idea here is to strike the right balance between a satisfying visit for Genie+ buyers and not (significantly) negatively impacting the guest experience for everyone else.
Any thoughts on how difficult this will be to use with a large party? In the past we could use the refresh and look for overlapping windows to get two families together on a fast pass (9 people) but this seems like you can’t target specific rides or time slots correct?
So long as you’re all linked in My Disney Experience, it should be simple. This won’t be like an ADR where there are only so many tables capable of seating large parties. Ride capacity doesn’t distinguish among party sizes–it’s all just numbers.
I’m primarily a DW guest and planner, but had the opportunity to lengthen a work trip and visit DL & CA pre-pandemic. I was a bit perplexed by the MaxPass, due to the detailed planning prep that DW requires. I was fairly intuitive and my co-worker and I actually loved it. It made the day’s flow more random and we often traversed the parks for attractions. I didn’t like that photos weren’t automatically linked to our tickets like MDE at MK does for Photopass.
The downside to this at DW is the parks are much larger that DL & CA. I “used” to plan the parks in a clockwise fashion and space out Fastpasses every few hours for E-ticket attractions. Those days are long gone, and I’m okay with Genie+ for the most part. My two reservations are, 1) traversing the larger parks at DW will be additionally tiresome, especially in warmer weather, and 2) I am hopeful that in the near future Disney eliminates the Length of Stay PhotoPass for $160 and migrates to the old MaxPass functionality, which would add value and validity to Genie+ for DQ IMO.
You should still be able to do #1, even if it’s not the “optimal” strategy.
As for #2, totally agree. WDW really needs to do less nickel and diming, not more. A lot of guests love all-inclusive offerings and value-added perks, so it’s disappointing to see Disney going in the other direction.
I’d like to reply to LGM but system still won’t let me.
I wholeheartedly and unfortunately agree with everything you said. We are a family of 6 who have visiting Christmas week for 28 years. I have seen many great perks go by the wayside while ticket prices increase. You’re right, the magic has left Disney.
Robin, I had the same question. So it looks like you can book a LL return time for late in the day, but still book more LL passes before that late-in-the-day one, as long as it’s either every 2 hours or you’ve used the earlier ones. ?? I guess in a way that’s better than the old FP+ system, where you couldn’t book a 4th until you had used all 3 of your initial bookings
A responder above hit the nail right on the head about people with their nose in a phone. Only I see it that way in the morning, at night, during the day, constantly. All in the service of “maximizing your visit to DisneyWorld.” This whole situation make me want to gag, And none of the comments refer to the astonishing costs associated with all of this insanity. My family must be pathetically poor, or revoltingly aware of how focused we are on spending insane amounts of money on ourselves. And for what? I cannot keep the numbers being thrown around straight at this point. But there is not a chance on planet earth that I will ever pay $30 extra per person, per day, for a lightning lane. And then $15 additional per day for Genie whatever. On top of what is now $75 or $85 or whatever PER DAY just for permission to enter one park. And you want me to do this for 7-10 days, on top of outrageously inflated Resort Costs, bizarrely expensive food costs, an additional parking fee per day, truly crazy everything else costs. And for what? For 30 years we have made it our foremost desire to spend 10-14 days at DisneyWorld to escape the crush of the real world and enter a world where we could be kids again. We have taken our kids and grandchildren as well. But now, I cannot even calculate what it would cost to take a family of 15 to DisneyWorld at Pop Century or a Moderate Resort for 8 days. Oh, and I forgot an extra $34 per person to get from the airport to my resort assuming we fly. The magic really is gone. And it is not coming back. Reading this nonsense – including mine – is so, so sad. Congratulations Mr. Chapek. You have destroyed a big part of my life. Maybe we can save enough for one last visit. But is it really worth that much money just to walk around and go to a few shows?
I don’t know the last time you ate at Jungle Skipper, Tom, but the food is now less exotic and also terrible.
Great illustration.
Minor quibble: at 7:01 am, you should have little trouble grabbing a G+ reservation for 9:00 am, not 10:10. And strategically, you’d probably want to use that closer to the end of the window. With some luck, you may even have your second G+ reservation window opening before 11.
Only because I’m unsure as to whether Genie+ return times will start right at park opening. I assume they will, but I haven’t heard one way or the other. I want to build these theoretical days in a fairly conservative fashion so people don’t think I’m being overzealous with what can be accomplished in an effort to “sell” people on Genie+.
Basically, I’d rather be “wrong” in a direction that underestimates what Genie+ users can accomplish.
I had thought I understood the new system until I read this. I had previously thought I couldn’t book a second ride through genie plus until I checked into the first ride. If I’m understanding what you have written here, I can book that second ride as long as the time doesn’t overlap.
Thanks for all you do!