Best Way to Use Genie+ at Hollywood Studios

There are a lot of complaints about Genie+ at Walt Disney World, with one of the biggest being that return times at Hollywood Studios are frequently in the afternoon and evening. With that in mind, I tested a DHS Park Hopping day to see how much I’d be able to accomplish using Lightning Lanes to skip standby lines after 2pm. (Updated October 29, 2023.)

This walks you through my step-by-step late arrival afternoon using paid FastPass, with my Lightning Lane selections & return times, ride reservation screenshots, and what I accomplished using Genie+ after midday. Plus, thoughts at the end about whether Genie+ is worth the money at Hollywood Studios in such a scenario. (I guess the post title is a “spoiler” of sorts when it comes to that question.)

The idea is to determine whether you’re potentially better off not rope dropping Disney’s Hollywood Studios if you plan on using Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. You’ll definitely get more done if you’re in the park all day–that should go without saying. Nevertheless, if you want a relaxing morning, pool time, or want to start your day in Disney Springs or some other parks, this could be a good approach for efficiently beating the crowds at Disney’s Hollywood Studios…

Before we get to that, we’ll start with some background for those who are unfamiliar with it, which is totally skippable if you’ve already read one of our other Genie+ posts. Walt Disney World’s Genie+ line-skipping service is the replacement to free FastPass+ for select attractions in each park. Genie+ now has date-based and per-park pricing, which routinely means it costs $21-22. (That amount can be higher or lower during peak and off-season, but it’s $21 or $22 at DHS on most days as of Late 2023.)

If you’re already planning ahead for next year, note that some of this will change. Walt Disney World is dropping park reservations for most guests and the 2pm Park Hopping rule as of January 9, 2024. That means all of this will get easier at the beginning of the year, and you’ll have more flexibility in how you approach Genie+ half-days at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.

With that said, it’ll change again in presently-unknown ways later in the year. That’s because advance booking of Lightning Lanes is coming to Genie+ at Walt Disney World in 2024. A start date for that has not yet been announced, but our expectation is that it’s sometime in Spring 2024–probably before Easter but not in January or February 2024.

For more info and answers to common questions, see our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ. We’ve already updated that several times, and it’s a great jumping off point if you’re confused, overwhelmed…or fully understand the system, but want some next-level strategy to better leverage Genie+.

This is not a recommended itinerary, Genie+ touring plan, or universally-applicable day that I would suggest replicating. Simply a sample of what’s potentially possible with Genie+ during an afternoon at DHS. While this is a good approach to outsmarting the crowds at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, it’s one of many options. Viable alternatives are covered in the following posts:

• Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
• Full Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Itinerary (With Genie+)
• 1-Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Itinerary (No Genie+)

Anyway, let’s move along to my day using Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Disney’s Hollywood Studios…

Like clockwork, my morning started at 6:40 am, which is when my alarm went off. I bought Genie+ in the My Disney Experience app and attempted to customized my Tip Board for strategic advantage, which is where I ran into my first problem.

As it turns out, you cannot do this for your Park Hopping destination. Or at least, I couldn’t. Meaning that since my reservation was for Magic Kingdom, I could only make selections in that park. It wouldn’t let me change to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, claiming that I didn’t have a linked Disney Park Pass reservation.

I wasn’t aware of this problem before, and I’m probably a relatively unique use case as someone who had no intention of making Magic Kingdom Genie+ selections despite starting there. In any case, it put me at a disadvantage in the Slinky Dog Dash Lightning Lane dash.

Since I was Park Hopping, I’d need to wait for the clock to advance past 2pm for Slinky Dog Dash return times. Fortunately (well, for me at least), that occurred pretty quickly and I had a Lightning Lane ride reservation for 2 pm to 3 pm. If you’re starting the day at DHS and want as early of a return time as possible, we highly recommend following our Speed Strategy for Genie+ Selections.

This is also the optimal approach if DHS is your starting park but you’re planning a late arrival. Ditto if you’re visiting starting January 9, 2024. In both of those scenarios, you should make a ride reservation ASAP via the speed strategy, and then use the modify button to change your return time. This is a good way of hedging your bets and ensuring you get a Slinky Dog Dash Lightning Lane!

As always, Slinky Dog Dash Lightning Lane reservations via Genie+ go fast. It’s possible to get lucky with a refill or cancellation, but you’re strongly advised to make Slinky Dog Dash your first pick–or else you probably will not get it. It remains #1 on our Disney’s Hollywood Studios Genie+ Priorities & Lightning Lane Ride Ranks, even after the recent changes.

I wasn’t eligible to make another selection until 10 am. This is due to the 120 minute rule, coupled with an 8 am official park opening time on this day for Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Throughout my day, all of these reservations would be 2 hours apart since I had an afternoon arrival.

However, this would’ve been the case pretty much regardless. This is a phenomenon unique to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where all of the return times are quickly pushed into the afternoon and evening. At all three other parks, it’s possible to get return times within 2 hours throughout the day. This is also why afternoon arrival makes more sense at DHS than the other parks.

On this day, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror was operating at half-capacity, with one elevator shaft down. This happens from time to time, and meant that the Tower of Terror moved up to my #2 Genie+ priority of the day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. When one elevator shaft is down, wait times are significantly elevated–it didn’t drop below 120 minutes until late in this particular day.

My return time here was 8:10 pm to 9:00 pm. As always, I like to save this last hour for doing Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance or other short standby lines, so this wasn’t ideal. There was no other option, though.

Of the attractions that had Lightning Lane availability at this point, Toy Story Mania was my best option.

I wasn’t wild about selecting this third, as usually Toy Story Mania is the last “good” Lightning Lane attraction available. In this case, there was just a ride reservation refill, so I was happy to get an earlier time here, closer to my Slinky Dog Dash return window. Except I didn’t–the system shifted my return time to 6:15 pm to 7:15 pm. I debated cancelling, but just stuck with it.

One thing worth noting about this particular day is that Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith was down the entire day.

This meant one popular, high capacity attraction was out of commission and didn’t have any Genie+ inventory in a park that struggles with capacity even on a good day. Disappointing, but probably “good” for my run-through as this type of thing has been happening frequently.

For my next selection at ~2 pm, I chose Millenium Falcon: Smugglers Run.

This was a no-brainer, as it had Genie+ times replenished right as my 120 minute window opened. As covered in Ride Reservation Refill Rules at Walt Disney World, one of the more common times for this is a few minutes after the hour or half hour. Note that with these replenishments, party size is irrelevant. Walt Disney World is just dumping a ton of inventory, not trying to match that to certain party sizes. Except in the case of cancellations, the Genie+ system is not like ADRs.

As of 2 pm when I could enter Disney’s Hollywood Studios, this is the slate of Lightning Lanes I had lined up for the afternoon and evening. To each their own, but this right here was enough for me to justify the cost of Genie+ at DHS. Anything else I acquired for the rest of the afternoon would be gravy.

Also, although I have an excessive amount of (misplaced?) pride in my ability to book Slinky Dog Dash Lightning Lanes quickly, I definitely would’ve been better off with a later window for that so I could’ve arrived at DHS later. The problem is that there’s no good way to try for that. Pause too long, and you’re liable to miss it entirely.

My next Lightning Lane selection at ~4 pm was a challenge. There were only a couple of attractions I wanted at this point, and I kept refreshing to see if there was a refill or cancellation.

My personal “policy” on this is to just book my first 3 selections of the day ASAP. No waiting, excessive screen time, or overthinking it. I just set an alarm for my next eligible time and book my highest priority as soon as I’m eligible–taking the sure thing over the risky one. For options after that, I have a 5 minute rule during which I’ll refresh and wait for something good. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway opened up at the very end of this (via a cancellation, not a refill), and I scored it.

Even in the late afternoon and evening, wait times were high at Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the headliners. These are all inflated to varying degrees–especially after 7 pm–but they’re still not short.

Fortunately, the lower profile attractions all have minimal waits and last performances of stage shows don’t fill up far in advance. You could easily do Star Tours, MuppetVision 3D, Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy, Mickey Shorts Theater, Beauty and the Beast – Live on Stage, and even Alien Swirling Saucers after 5 pm with little to no wait.

No Lightning Lanes necessary, which is good, because none were available for anything worthwhile when my next booking window opened at around 6 pm. (There were good options at both Magic Kingdom and Epcot, but it’d be pointless to reserve those, since my schedule locked me in to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.)

Ultimately, this is what my evening would look like at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, with Slinky Dog Dash already knocked out at ~3 pm. It requires criss-crossing the park, but thankfully, DHS is no Animal Kingdom. Bouncing around doesn’t require nearly as much walking–and is definitely worth it for the time savings. A little bit of extra walking to knock out every single headliner (minus the down-all-day Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster) seems like a reasonable tradeoff.

I ended up using Genie+ to secure 5 Lightning Lane selections during this afternoon and evening at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, which I think is pretty good. Notably, I was not at any disadvantage by only doing a late arrival half-day at DHS. I could not have booked a single additional Lightning Lane had I arrived at park opening. (Pretty wild that it makes no difference whether you arrive at 8 am or ~2 pm, right? But this is consistent with my past testing at DHS…which is why I tried this strategy in the first place.)

Based on posted wait times at my return times, I saved over 6 hours with those 5 ride reservations. Even if 2 full hours were knocked off that due to the disparity between posted v. actual wait times at Walt Disney World, I still would’ve saved 4 hours of waiting in line. Given the current cost, that’s a little over $5 per hour, making Genie+ “worth it” in terms of the time vs. money cost calculus from my perspective.

However, it’s fair to say the Genie “granted my wish” and I got lucky with the Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway cancellation. Heck, the same could be said for the Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run reservation refill. So, let’s take both of those out of the equation, dropping my total down to 3 Lightning Lane reservations. That’s an average amount, and I know a normal guest could have booked 3 ride reservations on this particular day. That’s still over 3 hours saved, or around $7 per hour. Given that, Genie+ is still worth it at DHS from my perspective.

Of course, that’s assuming you want to do morning somewhere else and couldn’t devise your own end-of-night strategy for tackling most of these attractions with significantly shorter wait times. Personally, I still think the best approach is to do Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and then come back another evening for the last two hours of the night. I could’ve done more (including Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance via standby, probably twice) during those first and last 2 hours of the day–and it wouldn’t have cost anything extra.

With that said, those ideal morning/night times at Walt Disney World are finite, wait times are high everywhere during the afternoon, and you’ve gotta spend that time somewhere. If you’re going to do it at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, using Genie+ to beat the lines is pretty much the optimal approach.

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

Thoughts on my optimal late arrival Disney’s Hollywood Studios day using the Genie+ service to book Lightning Lane ride reservations in the afternoon and evening? Would you use Genie+ during a half-day at DHS? 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!