When Will Pre-Arrival Lightning Lanes Start at Disney World?
“When will advance booking of Lightning Lanes come to Genie+ at Walt Disney World?” has become a common question, with vacation planners wondering when they’ll be able to make ride reservations before their trips. This post we shares what we know so far, what we’re expecting to happen, and more. (Updated April 17, 2024.)
As you might recall, Walt Disney World first teased pre-planning capabilities coming to the Genie+ service and Lightning Lanes with the announcement of 2024 vacation packages. That was on May 8 of last year and also included the return of the Disney Dining Plan and removal of park reservations for most guests. Subsequent to that, Disney announced a return of all-day Park Hopping. All of those aforementioned changes took effect earlier this year–except Lightning Lane pre-booking.
Unsurprisingly, many Walt Disney World fans have been confused and assumed that advance-booking of Lightning Lanes was also debuting in early 2024. After all, the original announcements occurred simultaneously and there was ambiguity about when the pre-arrival ride reservations would roll out. Since pre-arrival Lightning Lanes have yet to arrive–and there haven’t even been any official updates since, we’ve started getting a lot of questions.
Walt Disney World has only made the one announcement about pre-arrival ride reservations: “We have heard from guests that they would like ways to plan with Disney Genie+ service and individual Lightning Lane selections before the day of their park visit, and we want you to know we are working on ways guests may do this for visits in 2024. Our goal is to give you the opportunity to spend less time planning in the park and more time enjoying your visit with friends and family. While we are not yet able to share specific details, we look forward to sharing more information at a later date.”
Again, that was last May. The company has provided a lot of updates on 2024 at Walt Disney World since that original announcement. When they announced the return of all-day Park Hopping, they reiterated the other changes (Disney Dining Plan, park reservations, etc.) on the horizon. Except there was no mention of pre-arrival Lightning Lanes.
We’ve been doing this for a while, and normally, nebulous news followed by months of radio silence from Walt Disney World means one of two things. The first is that the plans were never firm to begin with, and the announcement was less an actual announcement and more a fishing expedition to gauge fan feedback.
The second is that a decision was made from on high and the announcement was fast-tracked for…reasons unknown. The decision-makers moved without regard for logistical impediments or hurdles, and those tasked with actually doing the thing had to scramble to figure out how said thing would be done.
If you’ve been a fan for a while, you can probably think of instances of both occurrences. It’s often obvious from the outside, even without the benefit of inside info. Announcements that simply seemed like one of those two scenarios, with corresponding cancellations (usually quiet!) or slow-moving changes that ‘evolve’ from announcement to roll-out as operational realities are discovered in real-time.
The good news is that this is not the first scenario. Advance booking of Lightning Lanes is still progressing through development–it hasn’t been quietly killed. The bad news is that, obviously, early 2024 came and went without pre-arrival Lightning Lanes being introduced. Here, it’s the second scenario at play.
For our part, we have heard credible rumors about pre-arrival Lightning Lanes over the last ~9 months. The degree to which this info is still accurate is very unclear (it cannot all be, since some of it was conflicting), but the general sentiment has been that Disney is still figuring it out. If you’ve heard “rumors” about the specifics of Lightning Lane pre-bookings, there’s a very good chance those are already wrong.
With that in mind, what follows should be treated as speculative and is not based upon any inside info. These are simply our best guesses based upon past precedent and reasonable timelines. If you aren’t particularly concerned with what we think might happen and only care about official announcements and news, you should probably stop reading–we don’t want to waste your time. You can subscribe to our free email newsletter for updates when Walt Disney World shares concrete dates & details about advance booking of Lightning Lanes.
For now, here are our best guesses as to timelines and other relevant details…
In terms of a launch date, we’ve been predicting for a while now that an overhaul to Disability Access Service to further crack down on abuse and misuse was a necessary prerequisite for the rollout of Lightning Lane advance bookings. That started last fall with tour groups, and as we said at the time, it was an opening salvo and not the endgame. Our understanding was that more DAS changes were to come early this year–months ago.
Fast-forward to mid-April 2024, and the long-awaited announcement that Disney is once again redoing DAS at Walt Disney World and Disneyland due in large part to abuse and proliferation of the program’s use. Those changes take effect on May 20, 2024 at Walt Disney World, and on June 18, 2024 at Disneyland Resort.
Even though there’s no indication that Disneyland is going to get Lightning Lane pre-booking, we mention its DAS rollout date because it’s coming almost a month after Walt Disney World. That’s possible that’s simply a matter of Disneyland needing more time for the rollout for whatever reason. It’s also possible that Walt Disney World is fast-tracking DAS changes because that needs to happen before Lightning Lane advance bookings can debut.
In a roundabout way, we’ve already covered the “why” of that in our FAQ to Disability Access Service Changes at Walt Disney World. In a nutshell, it’s because the majority of Lightning Lane users are DAS guests, and there are internal concerns about the sufficiency of Lightning Lane inventory with a pre-booking system. DAS changes need to occur first to reduce abuse and misuse, and free up Lightning Lane availability for paying guests.
That background provides the earliest possible launch date for Lightning Lane pre-arrival bookings: May 20, 2024. It would make sense to debut the new system around then, as that’s also one week before Memorial Day, which is the unofficial start of the summer tourist season at Walt Disney World. It’s also about a month before Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is expected to open.
This presents a double-edged sword. One side of that is the desire to launch the advance booking of Lightning Lanes ASAP in order to capture revenue from those vacation-goers. But it’s not just about the money (although that is obviously paramount!), it’s also about improving the guest experience and satisfaction, along with key metrics like intent to revisit or recommend. That is precisely why this is changing (again) in the first place–not because a vocal minority of diehard fans left mean YouTube comments on the DisneyParks channel.
The other side of rolling out in time for summer is that it needs to be done right and without hiccups, glitches, or bugs. Walt Disney World won’t see guest satisfaction benefits if the new system launches in the same shape as the original Genie+ did back in October 2021.
Personally, I don’t think a May 20, 2024 launch is likely for advance Lightning Lane ride reservations. For one thing, that would be absolutely atrocious optics. Disney is positioning these DAS changes as being aimed at curbing abuse and misuse, which is 100% true.
However, if they launch the pre-booking of paid Lightning Lanes the exact same day, there’s going to be a lot of cynicism and criticism about greed and Disney trying to “force” disabled guests to pay for line skipping. The timing of such a launch would, itself, give rise to further abuse as guests would deem DAS changes as having ulterior motives and would thus justify trying to obtain DAS fraudulently.
That alone is reason enough not to roll out pre-arrival Lightning Lanes on or before May 20, 2024. But that isn’t the only reason! Another is that Disney needs to see the results of the DAS changes and how they impact Lightning Lanes before finalizing these plans. Again, the rumors we’ve heard about pre-arrival Lightning Lanes suggested they “couldn’t” happen until DAS changed.
Based on the totality of that, we’ll offer a couple of different predictions for the launch of Lightning Lane advance booking. The first is an announcement in early to mid-May 2024 with a launch in late June 2024. That would be savvy because both the announcement and rollout are distanced from the DAS changes, avoiding that news cycle to at least some degree.
This is the most logical timing if Walt Disney World is in a hurry to debut pre-arrival Lightning Lanes and wants the system ready by the summer tourist season. It would give Disney some time between announcement, implementation of DAS changes, and debut of Lightning Lane pre-bookings. It also means pre-booking would be available for the debut of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom.
We’ll call this the “race against the clock” timeline. In the past, Walt Disney World wanted to avoid a rushed rollout to minimize problems, but that may no longer be the case. After all, the original plan was to have the DAS changes take effect several months ago and pre-arrival Lightning Lanes debut not long afterwards. Walt Disney World is already months behind on that, and may seek to make up for lost time by fast-tracking the announcement and roll-out schedule.
The second scenario for pre-arrival ride reservations rolling out is after the summer season is over, sometime between mid-August and September 2024. This is the more measured approach, allowing for Walt Disney World to analyze the results of the DAS changes and potentially make more tweaks to this, and also the pre-arrival Lightning Lane booking system.
If Walt Disney World deems the system not ready for summer and wants a decent amount of time to ‘soft launch’ Lightning Lane advance bookings before the busier (and lucrative) months of October through December arrive, that gives them about two full months of runway. It’s a timeframe that makes a lot of sense, and we could see other additional ‘guest experience enhancements’ on or around that date, even if Lightning Lane pre-arrivals don’t start then.
In my view, these two scenarios are the earliest and latest timeframes for the launch of pre-arrival Lightning Lanes. And honestly, there’s a very good chance of any dates in between being what actually ends up happening. For one thing, the summer season is popular with tourists but not that busy, so it wouldn’t be a ‘trial by fire’ type of scenario–nothing like launching during Easter, Thanksgiving, or Christmas weeks. For another thing, as mentioned above, all of this is already months behind schedule. At this point, Walt Disney World might just want to get this over with, and will rush the rollout as soon as they’re comfortable that the new system is going to work.
As for when we’ll get an announcement, my expectation is that the announcement occurs roughly 30-40 days in advance of the changes–probably not much more or less. They need to give sufficient time for planners with trips on the horizon to make their ride reservations, but we suspect that’ll be about all the lead-time given.
Pretty much everything else is also unknown about advance booking of Lightning Lanes, including how many days prior to arrival guests will be able to make ride reservations. Under FastPass+, it was a 60 day window for on-site and 30 day for off-site.
Our expectation is that it’ll be a much shorter timeframe than that, but far enough in advance that people with weeklong trips can book Lightning Lanes in advance. If we had to guess, it’d be 7 days vs. 3 days or 14 days vs. 7 days. It’s possible that pre-booking will only be available to on-site guests.
One big “clue” about the booking window could come via Walt Disney World’s updated cancellation policy for next year. Beginning January 1, 2025, guests must cancel at least 8 days before the arrival date to receive a full refund with no penalty, an increase from the current 5-day notice. This change could be unrelated, but it perhaps not. It’d be a good way to close a loophole and prevent guests from making hotel reservations for the Lightning Lane pre-booking advantage, only to later cancel the hotel.
As for the timing of the announcement, the debut of Genie+ is actually somewhat instructive here. It might feel like ancient history now, but the original same-day Lightning Lane system debuted on October 19, 2021. That date was revealed on October 8–only one week ahead of time–after first being announced on August 18, 2021.
The announcement and lack of details might sound somewhat similar to the scenario for advance booking, except on a more drawn out timeline this go-round. It sort of is, but with one critical difference (beyond the silence measured in months rather than weeks): advance-booking of Lightning Lanes necessarily requires more lead-time between announcement and roll-out than same-day bookings.
There are a lot of lessons that were learned from Genie+ and things that can be gleaned for its rocky rollout. The first is fairly obvious, which is to not rush the launch of a product that isn’t ready for primetime. Disney has taken this to heart, and it definitely helps that there’s once again leadership in Burbank that is more cautious and methodical.
Another is not to make a substantive announcement that’ll raise more questions than it answers…unless you’re also ready to answer those questions! Personally, I think Walt Disney World should’ve shared a follow-up about advance booking of Lightning Lanes by now, even if it was just a simple, “this is still coming later in 2024, stay tuned.” That would’ve put some minds at ease, and would’ve been the courteous thing to do.
But I can understand the decision not to keep teasing what the new program would entail. Once that rubicon is crossed, they need to be ready to explain how it’ll work in full and have answers to every conceivable question. Genie+ was never going to be a fan-favorite simply by virtue of going from free to paid–but it was further doomed by that rocky rollout. Even as Genie+ has markedly improved over the last few years, it is still widely reviled.
Walt Disney World knows that anything short of going back to free FastPass is going to fall short for some fans, but it’s still possible to win people over on the new advance booking Lightning Lane system if the launch is handled well. That’s gotta be the goal here, with every step taken to ensure success. You only get one chance at a first impression, or so my grandma says.
You might notice that we’ve repeatedly referred to the advance booking of Lightning Lanes as a “new system.” This isn’t by mistake. As discussed in Walt Disney World Could Fix the Guest Experience by Improving These Things, we view the Genie “brand” as irrevocably tainted.
Genie+ is a a toxic name on par with Monsanto, Philip Morris, Comcast, or Robert Chapek. While it’s certainly possible that the advance booking of Lightning Lanes will simply slot into the existing Genie+ system that would, frankly, be an awful idea. Break from the past and all of the badwill associated with Genie, and make it something new entirely. There’s gotta be something salvageable from the FastPass+ or MaxPass infrastructure that could be recycled and serve as the foundation for the what’s old is new again (but now paid) system.
Finally, we also expect there to be an on-site advantage and special offering for Club Level guests…eventually. What’ll be interesting is whether this is offered at launch, or rolls out later once Walt Disney World realizes they need to do more to move the needle on occupancy numbers.
Ultimately, there are a lot of other unknowns and Walt Disney World fans will undoubtedly have a ton of questions about advance booking of Lightning Lanes. Obviously, we cannot give definitive answers to any of those. What we can say is that our expectation is that advance booking of Lightning Lanes ends up looking a lot like FastPass+ but paid and with different rules (ride tiers, booking timelines, etc). So look back to FastPass+ if you’re wanting some semblance of certainty about the future of Lightning Lanes. Beyond that, we’ll keep you posted and share specifics as soon as we learn more, so stay tuned!
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Lightning Lane pre-booking coming to Walt Disney World? Any other considerations we failed to take into account or details we missed/got wrong? Will you purchase a version of paid FastPass if it allows for pre-planning and making some selections ahead of your trip? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? 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!
Hey Tom! Any hope that this still might roll out before March 1st??
We are passholders and frequent users of Genie+, ILL, and VQ. Really only two significant changes are needed in my opinion:
1) Allow your first (and only your first) ride selection to be made in advance, thus eliminating the 7:00am drama for everyone. Families want to enjoy their vacations whether that means breakfast, coffee, sleeping in, or whatever without the additional stress from their hotel room. And without the potential disappointment over what you end up with between the 7am Genie, ILL, and VQ sweepstakes. If you did this and kept everything else the same, I think it would be fine.
2) I know this is less likely, but they really should simplify the process by having one “system” instead of three. Having Genie rides, ILL rides, and VQ rides is fine for planners and frequent visitors like us, but it is honestly the most confusing part of a Disney trip whenever trying to help educate families who haven’t been to Disney in a few years. They should just put ALL rides on the G+ system (and presumably charge more since ILL and VQ rides would be included) or eliminate the G+ system and just make all rides ILL where you have to decide for each ride if you want to pay for a Lightning Lane or wait standby. The popular rides would be the usual $10-20 but the less popular rides could just be $2-5. End result is you only pay for lightning lanes for rides that are important for you a la carte…and standby lines might actually move. The third option of course would be eliminating lightning lanes all together and making everything standby but we know that isn’t happening.
The pre booking was the worst system they’ve had…..at least since I’ve been going. You got 3 rides and by the time you were able to book another, there was nothing good left. With the current system, we were able to get everything. We would be able to do our favs twice because we would rope drop those, and get LL later. Not excited to go back to this
Agree……I have (almost) come full circle on Genie+…….i think it just needs a little tweaking as opposed to an overhaul…..Pre booking your first selection instead of 7am and buying 2 ILL’s would satisfy me…..That way you have 3 selections reserved in advance, just like FP+ was and it doesn’t destroy inventory
100% agree with this. Just changing it to pre purchase Genie+ and reserve 1 ride ahead of time would be good enough for me and maybe enough people. To at least relieve that 7am wake up scramble. Then leave everything else as is with next ride at the 120 mark or when you tap in etc. No need to completely re invent the wheel here. Just a few tweaks.
“Tom……..Do you see the potential that Disney messes this up and it hurting Genie+ sales?”
There’s always the chance that it’s messed up–especially given that (IMO) they’ve really refined Genie+ and improved upon the launch in significant ways. The most common complaint we hear now is pricing, and that’s definitely not going to be “fixed” under the new system.
I hesitate to say too much because a lot of the details I’ve heard have changed since I first heard them–and probably continue to do so–but of what little I do know that’s set in stone(ish), it strikes a pretty good balance.
The new system isn’t going to please everyone–that’s impossible. Walt Disney World will have a winner on its hands if they manage to only mildly iterate both the pre-planners and the spontaneous ones with the announcement. I suspect that’s what’ll happen.
If the DAS changes roll out in time, they’re going to get a huge assist from that, as cutting down on abuse of that is going to make the new system seem much better than it actually is (even though it’ll be correlation and not causation).
Thanks for the response……Well here is to hoping that there are only tiers for advanced selections and you dont have to use all of your pre bookings before booking another….the 120 min rule is the best part of Genie+, I hope they dont take that away
in the very broadest sense, it seems to me that guests’ biggest gripe isn’t that they didn’t get to ride enough great rides. It’s the lack of spontaneity/need for so much planning. I’m happy they’re bringing back advance booking of attractions, but I hope they tread lightly (keep it simple, and very limited)!
I’d be interested to hear more on what you suspect is coming for DAS. As a DAS user, while obviously cracking down on abuse is good, at the same time, anything that makes it harder for us legit users, is concerning. Disney simply isn’t possible for us without DAS.
Previously, my expectation was the IBCCES system other parks have been starting to use. However, litigation was recently filed over that, which might give Walt Disney World pause. Perhaps not, though, as lawsuits are pretty much the cost of doing business with DAS. I think Disney has been sued over every single form of DAS they’ve ever had, so it’s an inevitability no matter how good or bad the next system is, comparatively.
March 1 would be IDEAL for my family and the 3/2 start of our WDW vacation!!!! This will be our first trip back in almost five years, and from what I hear, a few things have changed since then?? I won’t go into a “what I want back most” rant… or maybe I will. Advance ride selections are at the top of my list, followed distantly by Magic / Tragic Express. Dining plan, park hopping, everything else… not even on my radar. Just let me pick a few rides in advance, please!
Oh yeah, I’d also like Tom to bring back his photography articles!
Ok so something I hadnt thought of before. Will the sytem work with the individual lightning lanes and or virtual lines so you can buy your individual lightning lanes in advance or do you think this is too much and would make to many people upset by not being able to buy Rise of the Resistance, Flight of Passage/Guardians/Tron on the day?
Do you think Disney might be waiting to see how unlimited park hopping interacts with the Lightning Lane system before launching advanced reservations? While I imagine Disney could probably extrapolate from data before the park reservation was instated, Genie+ and LL were programmed and implemented with park reservations in place. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see glitches emerge with Genie/LL/VQ functionality with the changes implemented on January 9th and want to sort those out before adding the advance reservation ability to the app.
Possible, but I doubt it.
What’s more likely is that they want the recent positive changes to have a moment in the spotlight as part of a positive news cycle for Disney. Lightning Lane changes, no matter how bad or good relative to the current system, are going to open old wounds–it won’t be free FastPass, so many fans will be disappointed.
That’s a good point. Why waste the boost from bringing back two things guests mostly feel positively about, by throwing something else in the mix that is controversial no matter what they do with it.
That said, whenever they allow people to start making reservations, I don’t think they will be able to make reservations for dates before the end of the spring break/Easter season. Even if the implementation goes off without too many glitches (which seems… unlikely, given Disney’s track record and the deceptive complexity of any such rollout), I imagine the information gap between planners/the 0.1% of guests who regularly keep tabs on WDW updates and the average guest will be more pronounced in the first few weeks/months of advanced reservation LL than when it’s more ingrained as part of the experience and guests are aware of it at the time they book the trip. Better for that disadvantage happen when lines are relatively shorter and being relegated to the standby line due to not knowing about the change in policy doesn’t ruin a vacation.
My major hope is that it ends up being something you can do from the Disney World website like with Fastpass and not something that you have to use the janky piece of steaming garbage that is the Disney phone app for.
We are about 3 weeks away from arrival so obviously was hoping it would release this month- that being said it could end up being pretty underwhelming IE one advance booking or something . In that case its not much different than the early morning booking short of making a day less.
While the specifics I have heard have ‘evolved’ over time, none of them have involved only 1 advance booking.
Again, expect something that resembles FastPass+ but paid, with different booking timeframes, and some other quirks.
I was an avid fan of FastPass+, but there was a learning curve and a time element that many were not willing to commit to. One of the “issues” that Genie+ supposedly eliminated was the ability to ride any ride more than once per day per person, but I think they could have found a better solution than the per ride Individual Lightning Lane for things like (SDMC). Of course, none of us want to pay for something that used to be free (using the term loosely considering what a WDW vacation costs). I truly hope that any changes to the Genie+ system is not to make it more advantageous for those in the Deluxe resorts since Disney has already assigned Evening Magic Hours that are no longer accessible if you cannot afford at least one night in Deluxe. Maybe I am in the minority here, but as a planner – I used to totally live for making our plans around morning and evening extra magic hours and FastPass+. I did snag a reservation for free dining during July (only time my family of 4 could all go together), so I hope we do not end up being crash test dummies for whatever iteration of changes are made. I hope it has several months in advance to be corrected or is after the fact…..maybe they will let us make them at midnight again!
“I truly hope that any changes to the Genie+ system is not to make it more advantageous for those in the Deluxe resorts”
Nothing I’ve heard has suggested that this will be tiered by on-site resort.
I would expect that ‘bonus bookings’ for Club Level guests are reintroduced at some point, but that’s just a guess on my part–I haven’t even heard anything about that. (I wouldn’t expect that at launch.)
Great post. I’m not usually about to go on a trip when major changes happen, but we are going in April, so obviously this one will be a big one to watch for us. I loved FP+ so I hope it’s similar to that, especially the on site advantage. Of course, this doesn’t address the problems people had with FP+, problems Genie was supposed to solve! But it helps ME so I’m okay with it (sorry not sorry).
Side note – we’re from NY, and our schools’ “Spring Break” is 4/22-4/26, Passover week. You made a mention above that the “season” usually ends mid-April. I’m hoping that we catch a break this year, in that we don’t have to have our kids miss school, but that most schools in surrounding states are in session so perhaps crowds won’t be so bad. One can hope!
“Of course, this doesn’t address the problems people had with FP+, problems Genie was supposed to solve! But it helps ME so I’m okay with it (sorry not sorry).”
I’m actually surprised to see so many negative comments about FastPass+ in the comments here. I remember when Genie+ was announced, I was the one telling everyone that FastPass+ was hated by a huge subset of WDW guests–and no one listened (or believed me) then. The thing is, it was popular with the planners–the people who read sites like this–and they overlooked its shortcomings. Reality is, every ride reservation system creates winners and losers. To your credit, at least you’re honest about it!
It was the same deal last year with NY schools (and some in the Midwest) having later Spring Breaks. Crowds were still low post-Easter. I don’t expect them to fall off right after Easter this year (since that’d be April 1), but I do expect things to fizzle out by April 15. Probably even more than last year. Tough to predict perfectly with the holiday moving, though.
Tom……..Do you see the potential that Disney messes this up and it hurting Genie+ sales?
I was one of the love FP+ /hated Genie+ people but I have now come around a little bit……..I do wish i could pre book that first ride vs the 7am…….But having to use all advanced selections before booking another ride would be a big problem for my family…….We do not go to the parks until the afternoon and if I was not able to stack LL’s and had to use my advanced selections prior to booking another ride, it would not make Genie+ worth it to me……Only getting 1 top attraction for the $ would not be worth it
1. Iger announced it based on guest feedback, without any consideration of feasibility.
2. The rollout of Genie+ was horrible and not ready for prime time. But having just used it for Christmas— it’s now mostly an excellent (but expensive) system.
3. FP+ did not work for many reasons, they can’t go backwards.
4. Therefore, I expect a very limited pre-purchase system folded into the current Genie+, maybe with some rebranding. Maybe something like limited to only on-site guests — can purchase Individual Lightning Lanes one week in advance. Maybe book a single Genie+ per day, a week in advance (and maybe limited to just certain attractions).
They won’t go back to 3 FPs per day, booked in advance, completely destroying same day availability for e-ticket attractions.
Yes people forget how much that really messed around with the avialability. I am a compulsive planner but even I hated it. The complaints about genie are well founded but really the fast pass plus system was not great and I think people are nostalgic for it maily because it was free(although was probably well liked on these sites because lets face it we are uber fans who game the system if we are in the site comments). I think the general public might have liked it even less then we knew but were ok because it was free.
Personally I like the old run around fast pass and accepted paid max pass in disneyland because both systems were there and it was easier for me even when paying but those days are gone i guess.
Agreed on your first 2.5 points.
After that, you say “they can’t go backwards.” Disney responds, “hold my beer.” 😉
The biggest problem I had with Genie+ is that you really only get 1-2 decent rides off it no matter which park you use it in, with Magic Kingdom being the only possible exception. The reason for this is that there are only a handful of “top” rides that everyone is vying for to begin with. Once you book your 7:00 a.m. ride, by the time you can book a second selection, most everything worthy is gone. There are just too many people vying for the same rides. Even in Magic Kingdom by the time we booked a second ride, there was not much of “top” ride selections left before say 7:00 p.m. So, you had a twelve hour window for your next best ride and if you booked a ride for twelve hours later, it left room for only one other ride in your queue. It was extremely frustrating.
This is precisely why FP+ had tiers (except at Magic Kingdom).
I do not find this to be the case…….I frequently get 4-5 top tier rides in HS and 3-4 in Epcot and AK
Today is a good example of how Genie+ works well in HS……I am going to the park at 3pm………7am I booked SDD, 11am booked TOT……at 1pm I will book MFSR…….3pm I will book TSMM……..Every ride still ha availability right now except SDD and I booked that at 7am………today I will get 6-7 Genie+ rides, including all the headliners
If this were FP+ (or the rumored new Genie+ with Tiers) , I would have got SDD and maybe TSMM and Star Tours and that would be it……….I would not buy Genie+ just to get those
I am hoping that something works because the last Fastpassplus system was not exactly looked upon favourably by people either heck I think it had more rules then Genie Plus.
3 options you can pick but in some parks you only get 1 of 2 or 3 options then the rest.
60 days in property or 30 if not at 6 am US time(fine by me thats 11am but still).
After youve used them you can pick more either 120 minutes or when youve tapped in.
I could see this dissolving into the same problems the last fastpass plussystem did if the bucket they have for advanced bookings is too big (slinky dog dash, killimanjaro safaris, ratatooie or frozen, jungle cruise/peter pan all gone in the day of the advanced bookings).
1 or 2 bookings(maybe if you are in property i dont know hopefully not deluxe guests but we know thats happened) and giving people a bucket where if you dont arrive on time so you actually have a shot seems ok for me if they set it up right. Although if we have to pay for an online system then honestly the best system is just what Disneyland has. Youve tapped into the park and its open then you can book your pass-and I wish that theyd go back to the 90 minute rule for that but beggars cant be choosers.
As a parent of a son with Autism, we use DAS each year when we visit WDW and when we visit DLR (we live in Orange County, CA….not FL), I am anxious as to what thoughts are to changes in the system. I know I have read the avoidance of writing about DAS because it is a hot topic. I hate that it has come to people abusing the system and am willing to do whatever to help curb that, but I hope that it is not at the mercy of my son being allowed the magical (and sensory seeking!) experience he loves- Disney is his happy place and we even went as far as to become DVC owners, investing in what we love as a family. If you, Tom (or anyone!) has heard rumors as to what to expect…I am all ears!
I’m not even sure that there’s complete certainty about the DAS changes due to a recent, last-minute monkey wrench.
What I am very comfortable and confident in saying is that anyone with actual disabilities who uses the current system will likely be just fine with whatever changes are introduced. It might even be a net positive for you, honestly. I know that a consistent and predictable routine and certainty is important for a lot of DAS families, so potential changes to the system are always met with skepticism and fear. I don’t think there’s reason for that this time.
I’m far less confident in them managing to thread the needle with Lightning Lane pre-booking. It’s going to be very difficult and tricky to please everyone…but cracking down on DAS abuse is also an important first step to getting LLs to work well.
One action I heard they are taking to limit DAS abuse is requiring the DAS holder to be present when entering the attraction. On a recent The Disney Dish podcast, Len Testa reported a group of young men trying to use the Lightning Lane were turned away because the actual DAS holder was not present with the group trying to enter the line. Disney has been mentioning the problem of DAS abuse recently, so I think you are right Tom that Disney sees DAS abuse as something that needs to be addressed. Does Disney charge DAS users for the service like they do with Genie+?
“Does Disney charge DAS users for the service like they do with Genie+?”
They do not, and cannot.
You’re the best, Tom! Keep up peppering your posts with references from The Office, Arrested Development and any other pop culture references. Appreciate your useful info and your wit!
@ Huskerpaul
Interesting. As far as our experience with DAS at Disneyland, the DAS user always had to scan in first. We were told this in the interview and in the rules. If she was not scanned in, then I could not scan in. If people were able to enter the LL and not have the actual DAS person scan first, then that is a major flaw. Either technical or human.
WDW does require the registered DAS user to scan first. It is made clear at time of getting it as well.
Thank you for this! I have been scouring Reddit, Facebook groups, disboards, etc. trying to find information about the changes! I go in May with a party of 12 and I am the primary planner so I want to know! I am excited about the prospect of an advance to onsite guests like in the past. Renting DVC points is not cheap. Really hope the announcement is sooner rather than later as I just want to know what I am in for.
People hated FP+ because it took up too much inventory and that was one of the reasons Disney got rid of it (I think the guest satisfaction numbers were really bad).
If you have to use advanced bookings before booking your next ride then it ruins all strategies other than rope drop. Who is going to pay $35pp to get 1 of the top tier rides only? That doesn’t even include the best rides because they are ILLs. I think Disney should be careful not to mess up their per person spending by messing with the model too much
Tom….Thanks again for a great article….A subject near and dear to me!…….
I think its a very delicate balancing act to preserve all their Genie+/ILL revenues while achieving guest satisfaction and that’s why it’s taking so long…….Genie+ could be severely devalued if you are limited to selecting only 1 Tier1 ride like FP+ was and sales could slump……
I was a big FP+ fan and hated Genie+….I have definitely changed my stance, somewhat. I would love pre booking, but not at the expense of tiers. I hate the 7am wakeup. My concern is that they reintroduce tiering (have heard credible rumors on this on numerous other forums)……If you have to use all your advanced bookings before booking another ride, I feel like the value of Genie+ will be greatly diminished.
Here’s to hoping they give us some kind of hybrid between the 2 systems by taking the best aspects of both and trying to make both resort guests and day guests happy……
To me they would need to do the following:
– eliminate the 7am wake up
– keep stacking ability
– no tiers
– keep 120 min rule
– keep inventory available like it is now (vs what it was during FP+)
I think this can be achieved and everyone will give a little and get a little and be happy with the changes, thats including WDW
I agree with everything you said! I want to be able to prebook a couple rides per day, but also still be able to book after I use them OR the 120 rule and stack. Also I really don’t want there to be tiers. That’s what the additional paid ILL is anyway.