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!
Will be visiting with two grandkids (10 and 8) in November. Could you please do an itinerary without using Genie+? We have purchased tickets to the Very Merry Christmas party, and I don’t want to spend any more money!!
Just talked to my Disney travel agent. The high demand a la carte rides will not be covered with the genie app and you will have to pay for both if you want bypass stand by lane. It is getting ridiculous and I’m even a shareholder and find this unacceptable.
How much did this day cost you on top of park tickets for the Lightening lane? are any free?
My points:
1. what happens when a ride is down, and you have paid, how does that refund work?
2. Disney wifi, unless seriously improved in EVERY location this is never going to work
3. previously when booking from the UK we have a good chance of securing that top ride either 60 or 30 days out. Now that has all gone, i have to hope and prey that i can get on any of the top tier rides on the morning of the day i want to go, with the other 20,000 people all trying the same thing at 7am (if i can even to afford to stay on prop) let alone securing a park reservation.
4. i do not want to spend all day looking at my phone, worrying about when i should order food, when i should book a ride etc etc.
We have a family of 9 adults, 7yr old, 2 5yr old, 3yr old, 2yr old and 10 month old… I have to say I am stressing and sorry I did this for my family. None of us have ever been to disney and I am not sure how to begin to schedule, reserve, lightening and genie plus and feel I may fail and no one will ride or do anything other than walk around like zombie losers! Help!
Can one person make all the Genie+/ Lightning Lanes, reservations in our party of 7, or are all 7 of us booking rides while waiting on lines?( I used to make the fast passes for the whole group)
Thanks for your thought in planning a sample day.
I am so glad we went to parks on two vacations this year because there is no way I’d go after this new rollout. I don’t want to be on a phone trying to get on another ride. Too expensive and too complicated I’ll do other types of vacations instead.
I liked planned a head of time so the day of would be relaxing. I feel like this makes the day of more stressful because you have to “plan” while on vacation. Also, this itinerary has a lot more walking which is not so fun when you have younger kids. When I planned in the past, we would go in a circle and I would plan everything perfectly so we wouldn’t have to back track much or at all.
I don’t claim to be an expert or to have as much experience as some others have. Also, have never used FP+ at WDW. My visits there were 1988, 2007, 2013, and then May 2021. But I have been a lifelong DL visitor (since 1956 !). I wanted to offer my perspective from using FP and MaxPass at DL, and some comments about our most recent visit to WDW in May this year.
First, our May 2021 WDW visit was the first opportunity to experience FoP and ROTR. I have to say it was quite easy to get ROTR boarding passes all 3 days that we booked HS. I am good with technology and used the time.gov on one device to try exactly at 7:00:00 from our hotel room. Got it every time.
FoP we were able to do 3 times with very reasonable waits (under 1 hour and even less) by going within a few minutes of opening, then at the end of the day. The end of day waits were 20-30 minutes. We did one right after eating at Tiffins and we literally walked all the way on and were the VERY last ones in the entrance. So, time it right and you can do these. I don’t really know how the overall crowd level compares to other times, but it was far from empty with some wait times being 1-2 hrs.
MaxPass at DL was great. At first it was a $10 add on, or $75 for the AP add on (we did that). It included all photos all the time (I would expect it to continue). Of course the cost went to $15, then $20, but I still would be willing to pay it.
How did it work? On the app you look at the current return times for anything you are interested in, pick one. You could book another one as soon as you entered that ride, or 90 minutes, whichever came first. That makes it possible to pick one with a late return time (like Radiator Springs Racers) and after 90 min pick another one. That is how you can hold more than 1 at a time. You could also cancel one if you would rather pick a different one. That freed it up for someone else to book.
Did this cause me to be glued to my phone all day, or interfere with soaking in the ambiance? Not at all. It was still stress-free, far more so than the free fast pass which meant you had to go over to the distribution machine to get one, or even to see what the return time was (before they installed the wait time billboards around the park). I certainly don’t constantly look at the app. I just look when I wan tot choose the next attraction. Seems stress free to me.
Slightly off topic….but Tom have you heard any buzz around changing of the park hopping restriction? I feel like with Genie, LL+ already complicating my plans, it’d be nice to know we can hop earlier than 2p. It would also potentially stretch that $15 per day if you could manage to get in 2 or 3 parks in one day (assuming there was availability, etc).
The 2p also really puts a damper on the Food & Wine festival as we are staying at Beach Club and would love to pop over to Epcot for lunch at the booths most days without having to burn a reservation at Epcot.
Walt Disney was a futurist and so I appreciate the current attempts to bring Disney World into the future including using apps that things like Touring Plans already do pretty successfully. If anything, I’m hoping that it has taken them this long because they have been tweaking the tech to where it actually works pretty well out of the gate. Good LUCK to Disney IT! Some of us out here are fans.
While helpful I cannot let go of my distain with Disney’s approach. I do not want to be glued to my phone trying to build an ad hoc park schedule on the fly. I would like a return to the days when I was able to plan in great detail for each park visit and then follow the plan adjusting where necessary. The big advantage of the FastPass + was confirmation of the attraction well in advance of the visit. I did not “try to book” while standing in line. When we visited in the past there were up to eight in the group and everyone enjoyed the worry free, discussed and planned in advance approach. Disney has now made this impossible adding stress and work, not enjoyment, to every park visit. I hope that Genie+ fails or at least generates strong guest reaction in favor of a return to being able to plan and enjoy not worry and be left with a sour taste when your visit is a disappointment.
Helpful but I think some of your stand by times are bit optimistic. 20 minutes each to wait in line and ride the ride for Pooh, Small world and pirates. Thinking you should have done at least 40 each for Pooh and Pirates. Wonder if you adjust those those times what it does to the rest of the schedule.
To reply to Becky B: Granted I am no expert on any of this so someone can correct me if i’m wrong but I believe these do not sell out like the ROTR waiting boarding passes. These are just like the old fast pass meaning the time options constantly update and move but as long as the park is open and the ride is working you’ll have a chance to get that ride. Now, you may run into a situation where the timing doesn’t work for you if you wanted to park hop in the afternoon and the only times available for Thunder Mountain are 1pm-3pm, but the option to ride will always be there.
Thanks so much for this itinerary so everyone can have a better understanding of how this would work. It seems easy enough though i’m still on the fence about the amount of time I’m going to have to pick up my phone throughout the day to book passes.
I have one request: is it possible do it an itinerary option where you go back to the hotel for the afternoon? My family always returns to the hotel in the afternoon to take a nap and prepare for dinner that night. Can you add that option in? Or would it be the same just everything would be moved down to make time accommodations?
I have to agree. I’ve enjoyed Skippers many times and was a big fan. My last trip was not so fun. I’m not a fan of the mess hall and when I checked in, I asked for a table in the SEA Room and it was booked solid. I explained that I was happy to wait for a half hour or so for a table to open up and sat down in the waiting area. Within 5 minutes, the seater came stomping out and told me in no uncertain terms that I had no choice but to accept a table right now in the mess hall or I could hit the road. I was a single diner and she remarked that solo diners never get to eat in the SEA Room as the tables are too precious to be wasted on one guest. I’ve enjoyed eating in the SEA Room many times in the past so knew this was off. I chalked up the confrontation as a cast member having a very bad day. I took my seat in the mess hall and ate my food. Loud, noisy and seated beside crying toddlers. Lesson learned for me is to only and I mean only book the lunch ADR for opening before noon before it gets busy or the dining experience becomes a basic training exercise in nasty. I’ve always enjoyed the more ‘exotic’ fare on the menu but noticed since re-opening that the menu is very limited and tamed down. Hoping it will get back to normal soon.
Thanks for a very helpful and practical application of the new system. Theoretical, yes, but as targeted and realistic as can be given the info that has been released to date. For many if not most veteran return guests, a targeted buy only when you need it on a handful of days for MK and HS is the smart choice. Will be interesting to see how it unfolds over the next few months.
Disney has gotten too greedy. We were passholders at Disney and Universal and we decided NOT to renew our Platinum passes at Disney. Disney is all about money unlike Universal who really appreciates their passholders. In regards to your post, I disagree with this sample timeline you have posted. The last time we were in Magic Kingdom the stand by line wait time for Small World was almost an hour and this was a few months ago during Covid. I don’t see how you can say you will ride Peter Pan at 10:10, get on Small World at 10:20, and make it to ride Pirates at 10:40 using stand by for 2 of these. This sets up a really unrealistic timeline for people who read this that have never been to the parks before. I do not think the new Genie + system will make the stand by wait times only 5 to 10 minutes.
Planning a trip in November, so assuming Lightning Lanes debut by then. Do we know if these will sell-out, meaning we should purchase them as far in advance as possible? Do we know if this add-on is refundable if we cancel our trip? My dislike for another added cost by Disney is unfortunately not more than my dislike to wait in long lines with little kids.
In reply to Charlie the Tuna, I agree about Jungle Skipper.
We were there this past May and it was truly awful from start to finish.
We had a 1:00 reservation we waited until 1:30 for and they had an older guy outside yelling at people in the waiting area like he was a drill sergeant.
We had a very well behaved 6 year old with us and they sat us at a back corner table in the back room with a bunch of waling babies.
The food took forever to come out and it was no where as good as the hype.
It was an overpriced underwhelming lunch and we’ll probably never go there again.