Genie+ Lightning Lane Advance Booking Coming to Disney World
Along with the release of 2024 vacation packages, Walt Disney World has teased pre-planning capabilities coming to the Genie+ service and Lightning Lanes. This post covers what little we know so far, plus extensive commentary about what this could mean, why it’s happening, winners & losers, and more.
Walt Disney World recently made several updates to add more value and flexibility to vacations, including bringing back free overnight self-parking at Disney-owned resort hotels, adding on-ride photos to the Genie+ service, and more.
Disney indicates that it’s continuing to listen to guests, and has just announced 5 exciting updates coming in 2024 to improve the guest experience. The biggest surprise on this list concerns the Genie+ service…
According to Walt Disney World, the company has heard from guests and is working on ways to help guests plan with the Disney Genie+ service and Individual Lightning Lane selections in response to those requests. This would mean guests being able to make ride reservations before their visit so they can spend more time with friends and family once inside the parks.
No other details are provided about when in 2024 this will happen or what form it will take. It’s our understanding that this is one of several changes being considered for Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes, and that an official announcement with specifics is still several months away.
In terms of commentary, it’s first and foremost interesting to see Walt Disney World tease this without a concrete plan or any details. Even though they’re not committing to specifics–or even anything at all–this means that some sort of changes are coming. Walt Disney World would not this kind of non-announcement announcement unless something significant were being planned. It’d be like teasing that the Disney Dining Plan is returning soon only to remain unavailable for another 2+ years. Wait a minute…bad example!
More than anything else, this suggests to me that Walt Disney World has received a lot of complaints about Genie+ from vacation planners. So many that the company feels compelled to signal that “we hear you and will fix this.” This is not the kind of tease that occurs unprompted and out of the blue–that’s not Walt Disney World’s standard way of dealing with this sort of thing.
For those who think this might be a case of confirmation bias or that I simply might be “hearing what I want to hear” in the announcement, that’s pretty far from the case. To the contrary, the many (MANY!) of you who have bemoaned the lack of advance booking with Genie+ and Lightning Lanes have received fairly similar replies from me.
In a nutshell, the conversation has gone like this. Certain commenters have indicated that they could deal with the change from free FastPass to paid Genie+ if they were still able to pre-plan their first couple of Lightning Lane selections ahead of their trips. Many other readers have chimed in to agree with this sentiment, indicating it’s the biggest stumbling block with Genie+ for them. Others still see all of these comments, and conclude that it’s the consensus among Walt Disney World visitors.
In turn, I’ve replied that this is a matter of selection bias. That disproportionately, Walt Disney World visitors reading blogs like this one are ardent planners. That diehard Walt Disney World fans are not representative of the general park-going public, many or most of whom don’t know much about Walt Disney World until arrival.
This might sound like a weird argument I’m having with myself and oddly publishing for the world to see, but I swear that this exchange has played out repeatedly–almost exactly like this–in the comments of past posts about Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. And it’s one that would happen again in the comments here if it weren’t proactively addressed. (It’ll probably still happen.)
Among other things, casual visitors previously did not know you could make ride reservations at all, let alone a month or two in advance under the prior FastPass+ system. They would first learn about FastPass, ADRs, virtual queues, and so many other things upon arrival at Walt Disney World. Unsurprisingly, this led to frequent complaints among first-time visitors about the FastPass+ system.
(Now, many of these same people learn of Disney Park Pass upon arrival, which caused its own problems when capacity was constrained. Many others don’t buy Genie+ until ~9 am, after seeing others use it in the parks or asking a Cast Member at an attraction, “what’s with the ‘fast lane’ over there?”)
All of that was and is true about first-timers and infrequent guests. That’s one of the reasons Walt Disney World moved from FastPass to Genie. The other, obviously, was $$$$$$. But that explanation is hardly a secret to anyone.
Still, if increasing revenue had been the only goal or issue that Walt Disney World was seeking to address, they simply could’ve monetized the existing FastPass+ service. That would’ve been simpler, with less investment and far fewer growing pains over the last couple years. The fact that Disney did not do that should be pretty conclusive that there were other issues at play.
It’s also true that vacation planners really miss the pre-planning aspect of FastPass Plus, and have complained about that to Walt Disney World. Repeat visitors and diehard fans are hardly an insignificant portion of the visitor base, and they are arguably the type of guests that Walt Disney World should want to please most. (The status of the rite-of-passage or one-and-done guests is right there in their name!)
Honestly, this about-face is what I did not see coming. When it was announced, my prediction was that Genie+ “favorability” among WDW diehards would increase over time. To those points, what follows is my original commentary from the announcement nearly two years ago…
The initial response [to Genie+] will be overwhelmingly negative, just as it was at Disneyland when MaxPass was announced. In addition to being upset by something previously being free now costing money, many will lament the loss of pre-planning their FastPass+ selections and having the peace of mind in knowing they have certain popular attractions “locked-in” prior to their trips.
To be sure, there are FastPass+ power users and diehard planners who will remain entrenched in that belief. Those Walt Disney World fans likely are disproportionate readers of blogs like this one. However, that’s a vocal minority of all guests–far from a majority. Most average guests plan days in advance–or even upon arrival–not 6 months ahead of time.
For first-timers, Walt Disney World vacations are a morass of convoluted policies and things to know. These guests will likely favor Genie+ as it levels the playing field to a degree. To them, a paid system will be better than a free one where they’re shut out of most popular attractions because they’re not seasoned on the ins and outs of FastPass booking.
Nevertheless, we’d expect many ride or die FastPass+ fans to eventually give Genie+ a try and come around on it. No matter how staunchly anyone might oppose Genie+ now, history bears this out. At Walt Disney World, the original FastPass was controversial among fans in 1999, before becoming beloved. FastPass+ was likewise a reviled replacement among fans who had mastered the paper FastPass system.
Disneyland’s launch of MaxPass is an even better example given the similarities between Genie+ and that. The initial announcement was met with outrage and complaints, but its use and popularity quickly increased as Disneyland diehards used it in the parks. We know because that was us! After hating it, we actually used MaxPass, were hooked on it, and became MaxPass cheerleaders.
I got at least some of that right, but other parts wrong. For one thing, I underestimated just how half-baked Genie+ would be at launch. My expectation was that Walt Disney World was getting MaxPass, but with a different name. Part of that was on me, as I overlooked the ride capacity disparities between Disneyland and Walt Disney World (minus Magic Kingdom).
Even more of that was on Walt Disney World, though. So many features present in both FastPass+ and MaxPass were missing from the Genie+ service, it was buggy and clunky to use, and so forth. If you used Genie+ prior to late summer or early fall of last year on a moderately busy (or worse) day, you already know all of this. No point in rehashing it.
To Walt Disney World’s credit, plenty of positive changes have been made to Genie+ and Lightning Lanes in the last several months. However, many of those should’ve been present from launch and others have essentially obfuscated issues rather than fixing them. So the underlying problem still exists, it’s just hidden from view.
Oh, and the average price has increased significantly during that time, going from $16 on a daily basis, and is now $20 to $25 on average (with a low price of $15 and high of $35). Given all of that, we probably shouldn’t pat them on the back too much.
From what we’ve seen here, complaints from Walt Disney World regulars have decreased in frequency and volume. That alone doesn’t mean that Genie+ “favorability” among fans has improved, though. People are also less likely to voice complaints about things that are older and more established. (The same reason we’re hearing more complaints about TRON Lightcycle Run’s duration than we do about Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster!)
If you ask WDW planners, many or most of them will still lament the loss of pre-planning ride reservations. It does not seem like, as a whole, this demographic has “come around” and embraced Genie+ or Lightning Lanes in that way. Buying it doesn’t mean people are enjoying it. (Genie+ is unquestionably exceeding original sales forecasts, but that’s also not an endorsement. Many visitors feel they have no other choice and will spend more money to ensure a “good” vacation, as we’ve covered at length in other recent commentary.)
The point of all this is that Walt Disney World is in a tough position between the preferences of planners, who represent a demographic of diehards and repeat customers–and the past complaints of first-timers and infrequent visitors. That the company intends upon making changes to accommodate pre-planning with Genie+ suggests that Disney is hearing their most loyal fans.
That’s great news, and exactly what we expected/predicted when Iger returned. (Everyone who claimed that Iger is “no different” than Chapek might want to reevaluate that stance. Between the 5 changes today and the 3 earlier this year, plus Iger and D’Amaro’s bullishness on future expansion…it’s safe to say that there are material differences in leadership now!)
The unanswered question is whether Walt Disney World will try and thread the needle to make both sides happy, or reverse course and cater to the planners. Frankly, I have no idea. I’m honestly not sure Walt Disney World does either–if there were already a concrete plan, I think we’d be hearing that instead of a tease.
If forced to guess, I think we’ll see a compromise solution that tries to find the middle ground. Booking Lightning Lanes 30 to 60 days out is probably too far in advance. On the other hand, booking at midnight the day before might be insufficient to appease the planners.
With vacation bookings slowing down and resort occupancy decreasing, I think the savviest move would probably be to create an on-site advantage for Genie+ and a separate booking window for off-site guests. I’d be surprised if the longest of those windows is more than a month, with 7-14 days seeming more like a sweet spot. That wouldn’t make everyone completely happy or angry, which is what a good compromise looks like!
Also unknown is the logistics of how this will work. Last year when vacation packages were released, Walt Disney World eliminated the length-of-stay Genie+ ticket add-on. We called this a good move that has improved Lightning Lane availability and the service for those purchasing it same-day, but it was met with considerable fan backlash.
Regardless of whether that was good or bad, it seems like the ticket add-on will necessarily need to return if Walt Disney World is going to allow advance Lightning Lane selections. That would also suggest that date-based prices for Genie+ will be released in advance, becoming less dynamic or responsive to real-time crowd levels. (And they have been to an extent–Walt Disney World has made weekends less expensive as attendance dynamics have changed in the last couple months.)
Suffice to say, there are a lot of moving parts that’ll need to be sorted out between now and January 2024–and it’s likely that these are not the only changes coming! That could explain why Walt Disney World is only teasing a simplified version of Genie+ that allows advance Lightning Lane selections instead of making a substantive announcement!
Ultimately, the solution to all of this is building more attractions. As we’ve said many times before, queueing is a zero-sum game. No approach to lines–not all standby, not paper FastPass, FastPass+ or Genie–changes capacity. The only meaningful way to alter the equation is by actually increasing capacity. That’s done by adding entertainment, extending operating hours, adding attractions, or building new lands. (Obviously, some of those things take longer to accomplish than others, and cannot conceivably occur by 2024!)
Everything else is a matter of rearranging the deck chairs, and having different guests or demographics come out ahead or behind. In this case, the “winners” (air quotes) will almost certainly be the dedicated pre-planners and the losers will be Walt Disney World first-timers and those who take a more spontaneous approach to their visits. Hopefully, the right balance is struck so that the winners don’t win too hard and the losers don’t lose too much, though!
If you have questions about the basics of using–or not using–the paid FastPass service, see our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ for all of the foundational need-to-know info. 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.
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
What do you think of Walt Disney World teasing that Genie+ and Lightning Lane pre-booking? Thoughts on our perspective that this is being done due to decreasing satisfaction among Walt Disney World diehards? Any other considerations we failed to take into account or details we missed/got wrong? Will you purchase Genie+ 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!
While I realize Genie+ is here to stay, (darn!), finding a happy medium would be great! With this suggested modification, this planner will be very happy to pre-plan some rides before stepping into the park. It would make the visit less stressful for me and provide more opportunity to enjoy each magical moment with my family. Being a captive audience to ones smartphone and being subjected to the 7:00 a.m. golden hour to make lightning lane reservations doesn’t yield a relaxing time. So, I am hopeful for any change and very intrigued as to what WDW has in mind….
Your final point is most salient. The profit that is being made off surge pricing for Genie+ (regardless of advance booking period) should be plowed into hiring non-attraction entertainment across all 4 parks. My husband and I came back from our first (and hopefully not last) trip to Anaheim’s parks last month, and the amount of roaming entertainment like Dapper Dan-esque marching band members, swashbuckling musicians playing from the balcony of the Pirates building, or even just a roaming character like Red, was impossible to compare to WDW’s offering. It made us stop and appreciate, rather than speed-walk to the next attraction queue. That might feel like it clogs up the pavement and look busier, but it sure beats waiting in a queue or paying not to.
I’m apprehensive. Genie+ had decent potential, but launched half-baked. It has finally gotten to the point where it’s workable.. decent even… And they potentially are going to mess it all up again.
My best guess —
1 — They will have to bring back advanced purchase, obviously — But possibly only for on-site guests
2 — Somewhere between 7-30 days, guests will be allowed to pre-book pain LL per day
3 — Somewhere between 7-30 days, guests will be allowed to pre-book 1 Genie+ per day,
It is almost definitely not going back to the 3 FP+ days…
Some possibilities are onsite only, and even a distinction for deluxe guests. Possible for a distinction in pricing. (Advanced Genie+ booking costs an additional $5-10 per booking).
This last possibility could be very lucrative for Disney–
Genie+ is $25 for a given day. But for an extra $10 per pass, you can pre-book instead of waiting for day off. So want to pre-book 3 Genie+ attractions? You’ll pay $55 per person per day. Those who really value pre-planning can pay extra for the privilege of pre-planning. While others can say, “I’ll just wait for day-of availability)
Eh, it’s fine. I’ve had so much more success in booking a ton of FP/LL with legacy FP and Genie+ than I ever did with FP+ and I loved sneaking in even the slightest hint of spontaneity in trips that were becoming too structured. But it is what it is. We’ll adjust (again! and again…and again…)
I believe that we will see a 30-50 dollar increase a ticket in 2024. Disney is not done with pricing out the middle class. We still have to stay till midnight, get ip before 7 and pay for upgrades that were “free”. I also feel that the folks visiting through 2023 are being punished for respecting all the new rules and being dedicated visitors. They get nothing, but if they cancel and rebook for 2024 the get benefits? Disney should offer all of these perks to folks holding a current reservation.
I don’t think genie plus ever sold out before 7am. so there’s no need to stay up until midnight.
I don’t agree that the 7-14 day window is a good compromise.
There will simply be a scramble to reschedule dining or wrestle with ride times. The value in the time frame in the past was get your dining locked in, then schedule rides. It left adequate time for shuffling. And the whole getting up daily while on vacation to schedule is BS by the bundle!
This 7-14 day window will also not do anything for the people who don’t plan or the newbies who have never heard of it till they get there.
They could hold some LL spots each day for everyone visiting to have a chance,
If they change it so on-site guests book at midnight and open off-site guests at 7 AM I’ll be happy. As a soon to be local, this would benefit me. I not sure it benefits the bulk of on-site guests though. I’m not sure that many people will want to stay up until midnight just like they didn’t like getting up at 7 AM….but the 7 AM access for off-site guests is okay for me since if I’m going to be spending the day at the parks I’m getting ready to leave the house around that time anyway.
I would love to see Disney actually build in spontaneity into the app. I know that a Tokyo-Disneyland-style lottery wouldn’t work for ILL or G+ selections. But…imagine if they programmed G+ to spontaneously give out a small umber of Lightning Lanes throughout the day? Theoretically, they should have enough data to tilt the system to give “surprise” passes more frequently to parties with kids, first timers, or groups that have spent an excessive amount of time in attraction lines. It is that type of small, positive experience that can make Disney feel more like magic, which the parks are sorely in need of.
Unlikely to happen of course. But Disney is really losing the balance between planned paid experiences and fun surprises.
What is a “Tokyo Disney style lottery” and how does it work?
Great idea . . . Disney definitely needs to bring back some magic, and this would delight guests
So excited for this! I really hope it provides an advantage to on site guests. I love staying in the Disney bubble, but it’s hard to justify staying without perks. As a super disney planner for my family I love the idea of getting to pick some lightning lanes earlier. Also hoping that means you can lock in prices like how at Disneyland you can prebook Genie+ for the flat fee.
As a visitor from the UK, spending thousands of pounds to come to Disney, the pre planning aspect has always been a key factor for us. We last went in Feb 2020, knowing that we probably wouldn’t be back for many years, having the likes of Flight of Passage, Slinky, Seven Dwarfs etc locked in as FastPasses was very re assuring. The angst that was caused trying to get on to Rise of the Resistance nearly spoiled the holiday (remember getting up at 6am to get to that queue for Hollywood Studios park opening and trying to get a boarding group?) I honestly didn’t think we would get to go on it at one point!
I would definitely purchase Genie+ for a few days of our trip if we could pre book some rides just to have that peace of mind that we would definitely be going on them.
I think I love most the potential to prepurchase Genie+ again. The possibility to preplan a few LL ahead of time again is a huge added bonus. (See how Disney really lowered the expectation over that last few months?) Your timeline of 2 weeks out seems like a good compromise. I have a feeling they’ll keep this perk to resort guests only.
I was a very vocal anti Genie+ person and vowed to never go again. I gave in to the family and we just went April 15-23. Genie+ and ILLs are so expensive. You don’t realize how bad it is until you get hit with the bill for 5 of us for genie+ and an ILL every day. We are going to Alunai in July and were supposed to stop at DL on way for 2 days and we canceled it. Park tickets were $224 for a 1 day pass. Add that plus genie+, plus ILL and I was looking at $1500 for one day in the parks. I gave in to go 1 more time but the cost is just not worth it anymore to me. I will keep my DVC and rent it out annually b it’s been great to have but we have had our fill of Disney. When you think about it and realize you can do a week+ in Italy for half the cost of a Disney trip then my priorities change.
We recently returned from our first trip in four years, and I was concerned about how the Genie + system would work and if we would have success with it. In final analysis, the FP system of the past was better, and did not cost anything. However, once we got the quick hang of the new system, it worked pretty well. My complaint was that it forces one guest to get up early every morning and stress until the desired ride was secured. If they are going to allow it to be done in advance, I believe it should be the day/early evening before – not midnight the night before. That would be just as bad, forcing a guest to stay up that late to get it done. Additionally, it was much easier to get a good ride time purchasing the Individual Lightning Lane rather than the boarding group process. Thanks for the great article, Tom!
I am torn. I have grown to love genie+ since I don’t have to wait in lines any more. The thought of waking up at 6am a month in advance (which I used to do BTW) now seems painful to me. I have come to learn that I don’t want to plan that far out. I guess I’m a planner that likes the day of flexibility
You’d rather wake up every day by 7am while ON vacation as opposed to once while at home?
No offense but I don’t see the logic
Using Genie+ for the first time this week and have found it favorable to use. I liked the old Fast Pass system but there are other pre planning tools available to build a game plan around. Virtual Queues are a challenge to planning as you do not know your return time until 7 am. Causes some park crossing. The paid queue are nice as you can select the return time you want. My complaint is around not being able to pick a later time. Unless I am using it wrong, if you want a LL for say 7 pm and are fine with waiting the 2 hour window but the current return time is 3 pm. You can either wait or book and play the modify game to keep pushing it back. If you could just pick a later return time I think it would be helpful
Later return time options for Genie+ — I absolutely agree. This is the one seemingly simple change I would also like to see.
I am a “planner” but I didn’t love the 60-90 days out FP+, which discouraged me from booking “last minute” trips (or spending them at Disneyland instead). But I am someone who really, really hates waking at 6:55 every morning of my vacation with adrenaline coursing through my veins. We definitely make shorter trips to WDW over the past two years because it’s exhausting for me— I’ve also complained repeatedly in these comments that even worse than waking before dawn is the fact I spend so much time and attention while in the park trying to rejigger our plans based on LL availability and am constantly refreshing the app (especially on busy days). I wish I could share the photo from Incredicoaster last weekend (wrong parks, I know)— my kids are having the time do their life and my brow is furrowed as I try to decide which FP I pull next. I admit that part of this problem is my obsession with maximizing!
Anyway, I’m very excited to hear that Iger and team recognize a lot of people don’t like the Genie+ LL system— maybe a happy medium is that you get to pick one morning and one afternoon attraction (allowing Disney to know which parks you’ll be at each day) 7-30 days in advance plus length of stay, and then you don’t get to make anymore selections until the parks open? The planners get to lock in their absolute must-dos, longer stay guests are rewarded, but there’s still some good inventory for people who didn’t plan in advance?
Great commentary! Yes!!! I miss my free fast passes and hate having to pay for Genie and additionally for lightning lane, but itseems to be the only option unless you want to spend your money to simply wait in cues all day long and ultimately experience a few attractions each day. I hated seeing my family of five average an additional $250 or more each day this past April, for a week, just to be able to enjoy what we already paid for in admission. We’ve been going to Disneywotld since 1979-we’re Vacation Club members and frankly, for as much as we have akways loved Disney, post Covid policies are quickly stealing the magic. I feel like i spend more time on my phone trying to schedule and keep upwith my scheduling than actualky getting to enjoy Disney. Hoping for some improvements soon.
I could not be happier about this! Can’t wait to hear more details!
I didn’t see this one coming! I actually have started to come around to the idea have booking Genie+ on the day of, because you can stack the times close together and with fast pass you had that hour buffer that made it so you had to rush, then stall, to hit them all just right. I was trying to find the silver lining and that was the best I could do. lol.
I’m very much a pre planner and I’ve used your blog for years to make sure my trips were as stress free as possible. I was able to navigate RotR boarding passes, then virtual ques and booking best fast passes all with your advice.
I admit there is a certain amount of anxiety involved with having to get on my phone multiple times a day to “score” the rides I wanted. One I get there I prefer all of that stress to be over. Virtual Boarding groups was a little stressful. Now it feels like that’s the whole day. But I haven’t done it yet and am ready to make the best of it.
I wonder if the stacking times will be the same or if we go back to the 1 hour with no overlap like fast pass?
Advance purchase of Genie+ and advance booking will go along way to improving the quality of WDW visits. Right now I have to stay up to midnight to purchase Genie+, and then wake up at 7 for the virtual queue. Every day! To have Disney build into a system the requirement that I not get enough sleep on top having to pay extra is baffling.
Besides that, Disney really needs to fix the app and the Genie+ implementation. Just last Nov I tried to go with siblings and their children, and it took several days and countless hours to get our accounts hooked together so we could all go on the same rides at the same times. It took two calls to Disney tech. support to make that happen, and even then at least one of our party would get kicked out at the gate for each ride. This required intervention from a cast memory for every ride, as we stood around trying not to block the entrance while the problem was sorted.