Epcot Genie+ Priorities & Lightning Lane Ride Ranks
Although Epcot started as the worst park for buying Walt Disney World’s Genie+ service, it has improved considerably thanks to additions to the eligible attraction roster. There’s now Lightning Lane line-skipping access to 11 attractions at Epcot, several of which will save you considerable time waiting in line. This guide ranks them all in terms of time-saved and how quickly each reservation books up. (Updated June 9, 2022.)
There are two big changes at Epcot that have resulted in this shift. The first is higher crowd levels that have come with Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. That new family-friendly Marvel roller coaster is not part of Genie+, but it has increased demand for Epcot, increasing wait times across the board.
More significantly, there have been changes to the Lightning Lane lineup–and two huge additions–that make buying Genie+ more advantageous at Epcot between now and at least August 7, 2022. This post breaks that down, and how you can take full advantage of Lightning Lanes at Epcot…
Epcot is great at absorbing crowds…it’s just light on headliner attractions. That’s the problem with Genie+ on a low to moderately busy day–you won’t save enough time at the vast majority of eligible attractions to make the purchase worth the money unless you’re Park Hopping. It’s also arguably not worth the time, as Genie+ will force you to criss-cross the park rather than doing things as you naturally arrive to them while navigating normally.
During peak season, it’s a different story as ~6 of the 10 Genie+ Lightning Lane attractions can have significant wait times throughout the day that are worth skipping. This isn’t to say you should buy Genie+ on those days, but rather, that you should only buy it, if at all, on days with peak crowds. That literally means only 9/10 or 10/10 days. This includes the weeks of Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Eve, MLK Day, Presidents’ Day, Mardi Gras, Easter, plus pretty much the entirety of spring break and summer travel seasons.
You might consider skipping Genie+ at Epcot entirely. For that, our 1-Day Epcot Itinerary covers how you can accomplish everything even if you’re staying off-site and don’t want to spend anything extra on Genie+ or Individual Lightning Lanes. It also offers great “zig when they zag” advice to flip the script on World Showcase and Future World.
Also, if you’re staying on-site, the one thing we highly recommend is Early Entry at Epcot. Check out our recent Early Entry at Epcot: Better Than Genie+ post–the title says it all.
Significantly earlier opening times provide a huge advantage to early risers, and savvy strategy or advanced-level know-how with Genie+ and Lightning Lanes can be a gamechanger. To that end, we (once again) recommend checking out Genie+ v. Savvy Strategy at Walt Disney World, which is the result of extensive ‘testing’ to determine the best and worst ways to beat the crowds.
If you can’t swing getting up and out the door before park opening, Epcot also does Extended Evening Theme Park Hours for select guests. That’s currently on Monday nights and goes until 11 pm or midnight, depending upon normal hours. Almost all open attractions are walk-ons during Extended Evening Hours. Those extra hours also offer access to a third virtual queue entry time for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.
But back to the original point of this post. The goal is to give you the tools and info you need to create your own Epcot itinerary with Genie+, rather than relying on our 1-Day Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes Plan. Or, you can utilize “a best of both worlds” approach, consulting that pre-made plan and the rankings here so you understand the why of it, and can adjust the itinerary to account for your Advance Dining Reservations, preferred showtimes, whether you want to minimize walking distances, etc.
Additionally, see our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ for all of the foundational need-to-know info about this replacement for free FastPass+. This whole system is confusing and convoluted, so you might have a question or two-dozen. That answers all of the most common ones we’ve been receiving from readers.
Also, this offers ride priorities for Lightning Lanes via Genie+ and not Individual Lightning Lanes (ILL), which are pay-per-ride. At present, the ILL attraction for Epcot is Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Previously, both Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure were also an ILL attractions. Those have both moved down to the Genie+ lineup, improving that ride roster.
We are not keen on buying a la carte front of line access, so we recommend doing ILL attractions first thing in the morning or towards the end of the night. See our Virtual Queue Strategy Guide for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind for the secrets to success with that. The good news is that it’s already easier than the virtual queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance!
Now, on with the show & ride rankings for Genie+ at Epcot…
The Best of Genie+ at Epcot
1. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure – The newest Genie+ attraction at Epcot, and second-newest ride in all of Walt Disney World. That would seemingly make this the obvious #1 Genie+ Lightning Lane selection at Epcot, but it’s not so clear-cut. Rat Ride and Frozen Ever After are both almost equally popular, with Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure getting the slight edge due to its “new ride smell” (which is cheese). If you’re visiting later in 2022, don’t be surprised if the top 2 flip-flop.
2. Frozen Ever After – This is the other highly popular family-friendly attraction available for booking via Genie+ at Epcot, just behind the Rat Ride (for now). Frozen Ever After’s high average wait times coupled with how quickly it runs out of ride reservations make it a great use of a Lightning Lane. While there’s not much of a difference between #1 and #2, there’s a sizable gap between #2 and #3…
3. Test Track – Just because it’s much less popular than the top 2 doesn’t mean Test Track is unpopular. To the contrary, even on moderately busy days, Test Track runs out of Genie+ Lightning Lane availability by around noon, so you’ll want to make this your third selection of the day.
4. Soarin’ Around the World – Once the longest wait time in Epcot, it’s become less popular in recent years and had another theater added to help absorb crowds. It shouldn’t be too difficult to secure this into the afternoon, so you have a little flexibility in booking this strategically depending upon your preferred return time and personal priorities.
5. Mission: Space – Here’s where we enter “only necessary in high crowds” country. On a low or moderately crowded day, Mission: Space will have a short or nonexistent wait and Genie+ won’t be necessary. On busier days, having a Lightning Lane time reserved could save you 30-60 minutes here.
6. Spaceship Earth – This is always a tricky one, as Spaceship Earth’s wait time fluctuates dramatically even on busier days. Due to its prominence as guests enter the park, it almost always has a much longer wait time in the first half of the day, and a short wait in afternoon and evening. Again, still a worthwhile Lightning Lane selection when crowds are high.
7. Journey Into Imagination – Approximately 300 days of the year, you’ll wait 10 minutes or less to ride Journey into Imagination with Figment. About 40 days per year, it’ll be a 15 minute or shorter wait. It’s those other 25 days, when the wait time exceeds 30 minutes, when Lightning Lane will come in handy here.
8. Living with the Land – Paradoxically, by the time you get around to make this Lightning Lane selection, Living with the Land will likely be a walk-on since its wait time is shortest at night–even with peak season crowds. The only time this is going to be a useful ride reservation is around Christmas, when the Merry & Bright overlay keeps it popular at night.
The Rest of Genie+ at Epcot
The Seas with Nemo & Friends – We have yet to see a day when this attraction has run out of Genie+ Lightning Lane reservations.
Stage Shows – At Epcot, this means Turtle Talk with Crush and the Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival. While Genie+ offers priority seating, which can amount to a better view, it’s typically not all that advantageous for shows.
To the contrary, booking a Lightning Lane for this is just going to amount to needless backtracking or clicking in the app, and the opportunity cost of not booking something else. The vast majority of guests should simply do shows via the standby lines.
Ultimately, you should be able to knock out most Epcot attractions via Genie+ using Lightning Lanes on normal days in Epcot. This is actually a significant shift, and due to the additions of Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After in the Genie+ lineup, which were previously Individual Lightning Lanes. This are game-changers, and scoring both of those family friendly rides plus Test Track or Soarin’ Around the World can save you a ton of time.
Prior to that, the majority of guests wouldn’t save much time with Genie Plus–certainly nothing like Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios–but some will. Now, the circumstances are very different, especially on days that have high crowds, which is more common now that Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind has opened. Accordingly, we now recommend many guests purchase Genie+ at Epcot, as the time-savings justify the cost. With that said, you can still accomplish pretty much just as much via Early Entry or Extended Evening Hours.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
How would you rank your ride priorities using Genie+ and Lightning Lanes in Epcot? Surprised by any of the rankings in our top 8, that Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure takes the #1 spot, or is this all pretty obvious? Are you planning on buying Genie+ or skipping it? Will you use it on an Epcot-only day, or exclusively when Park Hopping to Epcot? Do you agree or disagree with our rankings? 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!
Hi Tom,
Would you categorize Labor Day weekend in the mix for busiest park days at Epcot? Thanks!
Hello Tom,
I really appreciate your blog for the WDW planning process.
Since Remy is now a part of Genie+, what would be the priority to book at 7AM? Remy or Frozen?
Okay, I’m one of those going at one of the worst times. Heading down Tuesday 11/22, teturning tuesday the 29th. He 22nd is a dud day because we won’t get to the resort (pop century) until 8ish pm. And going off site on Thanksgiving. So we will lose two weekdays. Any recommendations on which days to go to epcot, mk or HS? I am hoping to snag the christmas show at MK. Traveling with a 7 yr old, husband and inlaws. If just my daughter and me, I would zig zag all over the place. But may not be able to.
Hey Tom! I’ll be in WDW January 29-February 2. I booked this week purposely because my daughter is autistic and the low crowds will help. (Yes, we’re planning on using DAS.) My question is, we’re park hopping to EPCOT and I can’t book a DAS Advance for Remy due to its restrictions. How can I ensure we ride it? Should I purchase an ILL or chance getting a boarding pass at 2:00pm? PS I love this blog and read it daily! Please tell Sara I love her dresses, especially her Marie from Aristocats dress.
Tom,
Thank you so much for a blog to keep us out-of-staters in the loop. I’ll be doing Genie+ with DHS in the morning and Epcot in the evening. Is there any chance of you putting together an itinerary like that?
Thank you!
Lauren
Probably not.
When it comes to Genie+ LLs, my advice there would be to switch over to Epcot in the app mid-afternoon once you run out of “good” options at DHS and see if you can score Test Track. Everything else should have a relatively manageable standby wait in Epcot by evening.
Just got back from 9 days at parks. We did Genue + once at MK, and decided not to purchase again. We experienced 3 rides on genie since everything booked up fast. It had us running all over. Stand by allowed us to enjoy everything in one area, and we didn’t miss a thing. We even Rode some stuff more than once. All in all 2021 WDW was a blast!
Pretty sure i saw you and Sara at Candlelight Processional Wednesday night at the 7pm show and i completely fan-girled a little bit (at least I hope it was the two of you, otherwise I’ll never tell my family about it and they won’t know i made a fool of myself!). Regardless, i wanted to thank you for all of your very informative and extremely helpful posts, i relied very heavily on this website while planning my family’s trip! You guys are awesome!!
We were at the 7 pm Candlelight Processional on Wednesday, so it was probably us! Hope you enjoyed it–now you can tell your family that you’re no fool! 😉
We’ve been here for6 days. Encountered all the glitches previously reported plus one new one: Genie didn’t recognize us as resort guests. All glitches were solved by waiting a few moments or signing out and back in or getting a CM to help.
If you’re an average once a year visitor and can afford it and don’t want to wait in lines, I’d recommend buying ILL’s and G+. If you’re willing to rope drop and/or wait in lines and/or willing to stay late, you don’t need to buy these.
We bought ILL’s and G+. We saved a lot of time and got on all the rides we wanted at all 4 parks. The glitches were frustrating but tolerable. Definitely recommend reading up and practicing with Genie before the trip.
I agree with Jared’s prediction that Ratatouille will be the one bumped to regular Genie+. The only reason people are paying for it now is because it’s impossible to ride once you don’t get a virtual queue, so once the new ride smell wears off, it should be able to handle the demand. I’m also basing this in part on WEBslingers already being a normal line at California Adventure, even without a replacement to join Radiator Springs as the ILL (seriously whyyyyy is WDW not doing the same with its smaller parks)?
I realized this past weekend at DAK (when we did buy Genie+ to practice the mechanics for our upcoming trip when we’ll actually need it and because we were leaving early afternoon so we wanted to make sure we got everything in) that at DAK, the question is really do you want to pay $15 to skip the Navi River Journey line, with anything else being a bonus? I feel similarly about Epcot and Test Trak. It’s really just a de facto ILL for that and arguably Soarin’. I’m sure for some people the answer is still yes, and for a lot of others it’s absolutely not.
The points about capacity are well-taken, and you both might be onto something.
However, the “new ride smell” is different in CA v. FL due to demographics. For most visitors to Walt Disney World, Rise of the Resistance is still “new.” For most visitors to Disneyland, the same attraction is not–despite opening later there.
There’s also the fact that WDW picked the newer Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway to be the second ILL in DHS, despite demand dictating that it be Slinky Dog Dash. So I think “newness” is a relevant consideration here, even if not supported by the numbers. But we’ll see–it definitely could go either way!
You’re absolutely right about one thing–DAK and Epcot should each only have one ILL.
Any idea if they will open up early again and have Garden Grill breakfast?
Even though Remy’s is newer, I can see a scenario where it joins the Genie+ lineup while Frozen Ever After stays an ILL. Frozen’s low capacity means the lines move slowly and waits get long fast, whereas once Remy is something that doesn’t require a virtual queue it might have shorter lines due to its high capacity. Also I think Remy’s popularity is going to die down pretty quickly come spring when most locals will have done it once; as you warned us for years, Tom, it’s a bit of a letdown compared to the other new additions at other parks. (Honestly, I’d personally would rank it below Frozen in terms of quality.)
We park hopped to Epcot and used Genie+ to get Test Track and Soarin over Thanksgiving.
The caveat here: we got LLs for Test Track quite late at night two days in a row. Both times, the ride closed while we were in line because of malfunctions. It’s not a Genie issue, it’s a Test Track issue… but it sucks to “waste” a lightning lane.