Lightning Lanes Really Are Paid FastPass+ at Disney World
We’ve been referring to Lightning Lanes as “paid FastPass” since before they debuted at Walt Disney World, and now the company is offering a tacit confirmation of this via a new caveat aimed at lowering expectations. In this post, we’ll take a look at the language change, why it was likely added, and more.
That move mimics one made for the Christmas season last year, and was one of many problems with Lightning Lanes and the paid FastPass service. Those range from increased technical difficulties to limited ride reservation inventory with the whole system and infrastructure placed under greater usage. In any case, here’s the “expectation lowering” official verbiage from DisneyWorld.com’s Disney Lightning Lane Entrance page:
When you take your day to the next level by purchasing Disney Genie+ service, you may choose the next available arrival window for Lightning Lane entrances at select attractions and entertainment. This unique service lets you use our new Lightning Lane entrance at select attractions and experiences at the Walt Disney World theme parks. On average, guests can enter 2 to 3 attractions or experiences per day using the Lightning Lane entrance if the first selection is made early in the day.
You can enjoy a Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane entrance once per day. If you’d like to re-ride an attraction or see a certain show again within the same day, you are welcome to use our regular standby line.
The pertinent new text is this: “On average, guests can enter 2 to 3 attractions or experiences per day using the Lightning Lane entrance if the first selection is made early in the day.”
This sentence has been added in a variety of locations around DisneyWorld.com and in My Disney Experience, including on the various in-app pop-ups that appear prior to purchasing the Genie+ service. From that, it’s very clear that Walt Disney World wants guests to see this message, and is attempting to manage (read: lower) expectations about how much they can accomplish via the Lightning Lane line-skipping service.
The reason this is a tacit admission by Walt Disney World that Genie+ is really paid FastPass+ is likely obvious to longtime fans. In case not, 3 is the number of attractions that could be reserved in advance under the free FastPass+ service. This means Genie+ is essentially a $16 daily ticket price increase by a different name.
Actually, it’s not just a $16 daily ticket price increase. As Disney notes, this is the number that can be accomplished if the first selection is made earlier in the day. In other words, you’ll need to wake up at or around 7 am each day of your vacation. Oh, and you’ll also need to overcome the MDX app’s error of the day. (Will it be a deluge of email confirmation codes, random crashes, linking errors, or something else? Who knows! And isn’t that the thrill of it?!?)
In other words, Genie+ has higher costs than free FastPass+, both monetarily and in vacation time and frustrations. (Some of these same faults existed with FastPass+, but at least they were shifted a month or two ahead of your trip and thus couldn’t ruin your day while actually on vacation.)
This change also comes as the Genie+ system comes under greater stress due to elevated attendance at Walt Disney World. We’ve gone over this in a number of recent reports, but winter was (nearly) a return to pre-closure highs, and February was the busiest month in the last two years at Walt Disney World.
Spoiler alert: March 2022 is going to “dethrone” last month for that dubious distinction, with an average wait time across all Walt Disney World attractions of 47 minutes. That’s 2 minutes higher than last month, which may not seem like much, but definitely adds up in aggregate. If Disney Park Pass reservations are any indication (they very much are), April is going to be on par with–or maybe even worse than–March and February.
As a result of our experiences with in in the last couple of months, we’ve been warning that Genie+ is becoming less useful and is not the end-all, be-all of park touring strategy. To that end, we published Genie+ v. Savvy Standby Strategy at Walt Disney World, which is the result of extensive ‘testing’ to determine the best and worst ways to beat the crowds right now. (We put a lot of work into that, and it should be incredibly useful for planning, while not being too overwhelming.)
The only park where Genie+ was the clear-cut winner was Magic Kingdom. Everywhere else, there were superior strategies for saving time waiting in line. That’s true even with Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where we had previously strongly recommended buying the Genie+ service. For DHS, we called Genie+ the “option of last resort” because it’s headache-inducing, but not any more so than standby lines, which are just brutal at DHS.
We’ve also shared recent full day experiences with Genie+ at both Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios (see My Day Using Genie+ Lightning Lanes in Peak Crowds at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and My Day Using Genie+ for Spring Break 2022 at Magic Kingdom).
If you read those, you’ll notice I accomplished significantly more than Walt Disney World’s caveat suggests. Keep in mind that the company’s statement is prefaced with “on average.” I’m anything but average when it comes to using Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. That might sound like a humblebrag, and I guess sort of is, but it would be a pretty lame point of pride. I doubt my parents are bragging to their friends that their son has mastered an unnecessarily complex queueing system.
More than anything, this is an acknowledgement of the complexity of Genie+ and the differential between its power users and first-timers. There’s a reason we have a ~4,500 word Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ along with another dozen-plus posts for those who want to thoroughly master the new paid FastPass system. It isn’t easy, but knowledge can help significantly in achieving better results.
With that said, I do think Walt Disney World’s stated 2-3 average is way low for Magic Kingdom. Even with only a cursory understanding of the system on high crowd days, guests should easily be able to accomplish double that number of attractions via the Lightning Lanes. That’s the benefit of a more ride-dense park. The other 3 parks are probably in the 2-3 range if you only care about headliners.
(Now this has me curious. If you’ve used Genie+ in the last two months or during the holiday season, how many Lightning Lanes were you able to book? Please share numbers–even if just ballpark estimates–in the comments.)
Even while it has worked for us, we’ve been incredibly disappointed by Genie+ and Lightning Lanes as a whole. Prior to launch, our original perspective was that paid FastPass was an inevitability, and that “it could’ve been worse.” My biggest frustration at that time was messaging; Walt Disney World failed to communicate just how the system would work and the different Lightning Lanes would work. (Something that still hasn’t been sufficiently remedied, in my view.)
I’ll admit to being more bullish back then about Genie+ than the average Walt Disney World fan. I was wrong and feel like I owe you an apology–I expected better of Walt Disney World with the Genie system. This optimism was based on our experiences with MaxPass at Disneyland, which were largely positive.
For a blog known for overthinking literally everything, I should’ve given that analysis more thought. Disneyland is a terrible comparison to 3 of the 4 parks at Walt Disney World because it actually has a healthy number of rides. (Like its predecessor, Genie+ works great at Disneyland…minus some new tech issues and rule quirks.)
I also didn’t foresee some of technical difficulties, frustrating user interface, and lack of obvious features. Call that one a “failure of imagination,” as I should absolutely know better when it comes to all things related to Disney IT. (In my defense, MaxPass was right there as a template and didn’t have this level of problems. Leave it to Disney to reinvent the wheel and make it square.) I also dramatically underestimated the number of guests who would purchase Genie+ at Walt Disney World; as more people purchase Genie+, Lightning Lane availability decreases and competition grows.
Ultimately, that’s the tough and sad thing about Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. “Success” with the system comes at the expense of tech novices or less knowledgeable guests, many of whom will drop $16 per person for next to no advantage. This isn’t just theoretical–we’ve received feedback from literally hundreds of guests at this point who have reported exactly that.
If a third party blog is receiving this type of negative reviews for Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, there’s absolutely no way the company isn’t hearing the same from guests. We’ve noticed longer lines at Guest Relations and have heard of refunds issued for Genie+ becoming commonce. They’re undoubtedly receiving negative feedback online via social media and surveying.
Speaking of which, company executives have praised Disney Genie for improving per guest spending and its high popularity during recent earnings calls and at various conferences. One rather conspicuous omission from this commentary has been guest satisfaction scores. The first few quarters after Walt Disney World reopened, the resilience of these numbers was regularly touted. They’ve been silent on that topic in the quarters since Genie debuted. Any guesses why?!
Ultimately, whenever language like this ‘2-3 attractions’ warning is added to lower expectations, there’s a reason for it. Disney has a sophisticated survey and research apparatus, and my strong suspicion is that the “results” there from guests who have bought Genie+ in the last few months are anything but positive. Of course, that’s just a guess–maybe guests lowkey love Genie+, and the backlash here and on other corners of the internet is incorrect. (That’ll likely go down as the best unintentional joke this blog has ever told.)
In fairness to Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, there is no perfect solution. FastPass+ likewise had a steep learning curve, and it was counterintuitive to most guests to plan out rides 30 or 60 days in advance of their vacation. Paper FastPass was physically-demanding, requiring people to criss-cross the parks (remember runners?!). Neither of those were this stressful and confusing, and at least those were not directly monetized (a lot can be forgiven when it’s free!). I certainly hope Walt Disney World is paying attention to guest satisfaction and feedback. Even though Genie+ works well for me (and can for you), it shouldn’t require being a power user who has taken a crash course in the system’s strategy to have a good day in the parks.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on my Walt Disney World’s warning that guests can only experience 2-3 attractions via Lightning Lanes on average? Thinking we’re making too much of this language tweak, or is it a fair to point to this as the paid FastPass system not being able to handle guest demand and meet expectations? If you’ve purchased Genie+ in the last ~2 months (or over the holiday season), how many Lightning Lanes were you able to reserve? Are you planning on buying Genie+ or sticking to free standby lines at WDW? 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!
I also wonder if this 2-3 ride disclaimer is a somewhat back-handed way of limiting Genie+ purchases for the time being while it’s struggling under the weight of the crowds. Disney basically has two options: raise the price, or limit Genie+ purchases. I have no doubt they want to raise prices on this as soon as possible, but they’re just getting so much bad press right now for various reasons, I don’t know that they want “Disney wants you to pay more for their unpopular line-skipping system” on national headlines right now. But 2 rides on Genie-+ is about the same as one ride on the original “cheaper” ILLs, which didn’t seem to have that much buy-in. So this way naive first timers who might be willing to pay $16 per person to skip what they think is almost every line in the park are now deciding if they want to pay that to skip 2 lines, and some people will definitely turn that down. Less usage of LL means more slots for the people who do buy it, and less holding up the standby line for LL guests. I know Disney hates to lose out on money, but if those guest satisfaction surveys are coming in negative anyway, this is a quiet way to slow down usage just a little without doing something official and permanent until they come up with and find the right time to implement whatever solution they actually want.
Great analysis–totally agree with all of this.
During spring break I visited Hollywood studios (one of the most crowded days in the past two years per one of your prior articles) and I was only able to ride 2 of the most desired rides (apologies to Muppet Vision 3D) as all of the popular rides ran out of Genie + selections by noon given the huge demand.
If one is going to be at the parks during a very crowded time, Genie + will not be worth it unless you are OK in only getting 2 (3 at most) Genie + reservations (outside of Magic Kingdom per reasons previously mentioned by Tom).
We were in the parks March 12-17 (sold out days). On March 12 I was able to do 5 LL at HS by starting at 7 am and using the 120 minute rule to stack for the evening. When arriving at the park at 545 I had Runaway Railway, Slinky, Toy Story Midway Mania, and Saucers booked. I was able to snag a Smugglers Run by refreshing after we entered the park. On our 2 MK days March 14 and 16 I was able to use 8 LL one day and 9 the next. We did make our first LL to be used by 930-10 am at the latest I order to grab another one before the onslaught of people booking at 11 am (120 minutes after park open).
We leave for Disney Apr 4-10, after having to cancel twice due to Covid. I have read every post referencing genie+ and LL. I think I have a good plan of attack, and high hopes! We will likely buy genie+ for MK and HS, utilize early entry, and be prepared to not ride every ride, especially at MK or HS. I’m doing the planning for 10 people, so I’m super grateful for all your research!!
The week after Thanksgiving, we booked 5 attractions on G+. We booked Jungle Cruise at 3:30pm. I had to wait it out a little at 7am to get that time. We were going to HS a that morning and MK in the evening. I booked an attraction about every 2 hours after that (Haunted a mansion, Pirates, Peter Pan and Big Thunder).
We didn’t use G+ the rest of the trip and did everything we wanted.
We just returned from our trip to Disney World and really missed the fast pass system. We go about once a year and this was our first time back since March 2020. This was the highest crowd levels we have ever seen and it made it difficult to even rope drop like we normally do. We bought Genie + for one day at magic Kingdom but found it did not help much since by the time we could book a second most of the options were later on in the afternoon/evening when we wouldn’t be in the park or watching fireworks. In the end we used lightning lane for two rides early afternoon and two after fireworks. I definitely missed being able to plan ahead and have our must dos reserved for each day not worrying about how long the standby lines would be…I love visiting Disney but the crowd levels and no fast passes made our trip much different this time.
We used Genie+ the 3rd week in February and we found it much more frustrating than Fast Pass, but also very necessary since it was so busy in the parks. We were able to make our first selection at 7:00am but the later selections were where the frustrations came in for us. Since you are at the liberty of everyone else using Genie+ to get your next available time slot, we found we had to keep refreshing the page to be able to choose times that didn’t interfere with other plans. It was definitely most useful at Magic Kingdom where we got 5-6 rides but only 2-3 at Hollywood Studios and 3-4 at Epcot. We were able to stack rides on our hopper days though which was nice. Overall I felt like we were on our phones all the time checking wait times and availability for Genie+ much more than we ever were during Fast Pass times. I’d much rather they bring back the old Fast Pass system where we could choose 3 rides ahead of time and just charge the $16/day for that. It still requires planning but I’d much rather do all of the planning on the front end while I’m at home than being stressed out trying to plan things while we are at the parks taking away from our valuable vacation time.
The week between Christmas and New Year’s (this comes with the huge caveat that we did one park a day so could stay until close and park hours were longer leaving more slots available. Plus, I am the world’s biggest ride wimp and avoid even the Disney coasters, so I didn’t try for all the headliners but families with younger kids might have similar ride goals as we did):
Magic Kingdom: I believe we got 5 or 6 both days, but there was availability for everything except JC and PP pretty late in the day, so had I been more inclined to go for the coasters, they were there for the taking. We also prioritize hitting all the shows when we’re there and book a table service meal, so we had a lot of in-park hours not dedicated to rides. Still, we stopped using Genie+ both days before there was no more Genie+ for us to use.
Animal Kingdom: We got everything except for Everest (again, ride wimp) and maybe It’s Tough to Be a Bug because it wasn’t necessary. My fiancé was able to use the single rider line at Everest with minimal wait times, so we weren’t paying attention to availability for him to use there anyway.
EPCOT: I can’t remember our exact number, but we got at least Test Track, Frozen, and Soarin’. I want to say we got 1 or 2 more, but this was another park where we stopped using Genie+ around mid afternoon because even in holiday crowds, the wait times plummeted. Everything we were still eligible to make a reservation for had a 20 minute wait, so we preferred to just ride things as we came across them instead of forcing ourselves into a schedule.
DHS: 5-6. This was another ride wimp benefit, since I was focusing on MMRR and MFSR and not SDD, ToT, or RRC. On the day we got 5, Alien Swirling Saucers (we can’t abbreviate that one, can we lol) ran out before we could get it. We did get it on our second DHS day. But this was the only park we truly felt the crunch in, even with me ignoring half the headliners.
So this worked well for us, but I’m an AP and did all the research before going, and my ride tolerance comparable to a 5-year-old really saves me some frustration here. Maybe that’s good news for families taking 5-year-olds, though?
I can’t complain too much – DLR regular here and LL has been…fine…though I hate not being able to repeat attractions.
Have been to WDW on numerous occasions and I could easily understand how awful it would be at the parks with few attractions (i.e. all except Magic Kingdom).
I wonder if Disney is ultimately headed toward a Universal-style option where for, say, $200, you can now also buy “Lightning Lane Plus Xxxxxtreme”, with repeat rides and no return windows.
Honestly, I don’t trust Walt Disney World to do something unlimited like Express Pass. My fear is that demand among “rite of passage” WDW guests is too high at almost any price point, which would mean that Disney would have to cap sales under such a system. Would they actually do that?
At Universal Studios Hollywood they solve this problem by making you go on the guided tour in the morning and early afternoon if you want an unlimited express pass, so that you don’t have a bunch of locals buying up these passes and clogging up the fast lanes. And I guess Disney already does offer the equivalent with the tour guides who can use the lightning lanes arbitrarily. I imagine, more than the high price point, the tour guides dissuade a lot of people from trying to get infinite FastPasses. I wouldn’t want a Disney cast member following me around all day.
@Tom, might be able to curb demand by making it ridiculously expensive like, say, $1000 per person per day…then again, there’s probably still a decent population that would even pay that!
@Anonymous, I’ve been able to purchase Universal Express Pass Unlimited for the Hollywood park with absolutely no requirement to do any type of tour. As recently as this past week.
Mike, you’re right, when I went a free years ago I was under the impression that the only way to get Universal Express Unlimited passes was to purchase the VIP experience. But you can just upgrade your daily tickets without having to do the tour. Silly me.
We had 2 families traveling together March 7-11 (total of 6 people). Both families are precious APs. Our HS day (3/8) we only got 2 rides booked. Park hopped to Epcot because we got 1 booked there. 3 LL reservations across 2 parks is not worth the $16/person at all. We tried breaking into smaller groups and nothing was available. The system “return time” may be for just a single person so when you go to confirm the time it may push it out by 2-3 hours for a larger party. That was the most frustrating part of it all. The whole experience was enough of a disappointment that none of us really feel the need to go back anytime soon.
Another question please. How can we realistically get genie plus or ILL s booked at 7am when we should already be in transit for early morning queue at parks when they open for Disney guests in summer opening hours? I have heard WiFi not superb so would need to use expensive data. Another Disney dilemma!!!
Also. If we have to pre book the ark we hope to visit (from UK) and then don’t manage to secure a slot for say ‘rise of the resistance ‘or ‘right of passage avitar’ does that mean we can’t …a) go to another park that day instead and
…b) get refund for wasted I L L ??
I absolutely hate this arrangement. Disney should be ashamed. And we are mugs paying them for this torturous process.
You have to be congratulated for keeping us all informed so energetically and faithfully. Can I have a job please???
It’s been a while since we went to WDW and we so r have a trip planned (rare in the past 12 years). Your articles are not making us want to go. We had a lovely couple days at Disneyland, so maybe that is the better option right now. (or other parts of the world. I’m typing this from a train in Italy, a trip that cost us far less than a WDW trip would have.)
We are headed to WDW tomorrow and I am really tempering my expectations and focusing my money where we want it most which means maybe skipping G+ and doing a couple ILL (there are 5 of us so they all add up). I plan to use G+ in Magic Kingdom and probably HS but buy ILL for Flights and Remy and use early and evening times in AK and Epcot and skip G+. We are planning mid day breaks and reminding the kids we will probably won’t get to every ride since our trip is only 3.5 park days. We used G+ in Disneyland it was great. Sure the app is a bit clunky but I really was not glued to my phone we rode EVERYTHING and it was super easy. Honestly if this WDW trip is a huge disappointment we will probably shift to Disneyland trips every couple years and enjoy the better experience overall.
Sounds like you have your expectations in check, and a good plan of attack. Have fun! 🙂
“would be a pretty lame point of pride.” That line followed by a photo flexing on Space Mountain? Brilliant.
I don’t know exactly what the adage is, but something like if you like something you tell a couple people but if you don’t like it you tell everyone. Disney seems immune to everything, but I would imagine when you have that many people coming back frustrated from a very expensive vacation it’s going to catch up with them.
“I don’t know exactly what the adage is, but something like if you like something you tell a couple people but if you don’t like it you tell everyone.”
Honestly, at first I thought this explained the negative reviews to Genie. That those who were frustrated were more inclined to leave negative reviews/feedback online. Recently, it’s been easier to see firsthand why so many people having negative experiences.
I would definitely consider myself a power user with fastpass+. We didn’t wait in a single standby line before unless it was under 20 minutes. We rode ride after ride with fastpass+. As you are aware Tom, all you had to do was refresh like crazy. Or split the party into multiple groups with overlapping times and just refresh. It was all pretty simple to someone who was a power user like me. I absolutely loved it. I have yet to use genie+ but will get my first chance this July. It will be my first time but I’ve read this blog enough as well as the DIS boards to have a pretty solid understanding of it. From chatting with a few others, they told me that the refresh method actually works with this as well. I initially did not think it would. If the time you are wanting isn’t there, I have been told to just keep refreshing just like before. If that is the case, it should work a lot like fastpass+ did after you used your first three. From what I’m reading I’m still not a fan of the genie+ and can’t quite understand why they didn’t just charge $16 per day for the old fastpass+ system but I guess we shall see this summer. I’m very curious to read in the other replies how many passes people have been able to get in a day.
The refresh method works and there are also drop times during the day. The big problem with that is there’s no option to modify, so you can’t hedge your bets by booking something else while refreshing/waiting. (Which also means the 120 minute clock keeps ticking.)
But as with FastPass+, this is something for power users and not something the “average” guest will know or think to do.
This method totally worked in Disneyland. I just refreshed Genie + until a time/ride combo I wanted came up. From folks I follow on social media it sounds like Magic Kingdom works pretty well but Hollywood Studios is often a bust. We will be there Saturday and I’m expecting very few rides based on the things I’ve been reading.
That is the one thing that I think is really a pain. I you should be able to modify. Would be nice if they fixed this. If they did I would probably be ok with it as long as the refresh method still worked. It does baffle me that they can’t see how unhappy most are with having to wake up at 7 am to start booking! There has to be a compromise. I liked doing it months ahead. For the people who didn’t why not make it 7 days out or something like that so you at least didn’t have to wake up at 7 am on vacation every day.
Sorry I wanted to ask a question that is not actually Disney related. Your posts have been so helpful in the past that I offered to buy you a drink if ever I ran into in Disneyworld. This past December between December 4th and 9th I swore I saw someone who looked like you and also your beautiful wife at the Swan reservation desk. He wasn’t smiling so that threw me( all your pics you are smiling) I hesitated to go up to them for the guy had scruff on his face and looked just a tad older so wasn’t sure. If it was you I apologize for loss of a free drink and if it wasn’t be aware of a clone couple:-) I have no problem you deleting this post afterwards. Thanks!
1) I have ‘resting scowl face’ and am almost never smiling outside of posed photos. Sarah has tried repeatedly to get me to remedy this, saying “people will think I’m angry” at the parks. Apparently that’s a bad look for someone who writes about Walt Disney World, but I can’t help it–that’s just how my face looks!
2) Never hesitate to approach us in the parks or wherever. It might be the most underwhelming encounter you ever have, but we enjoy meeting people. (I will also almost certainly ask you several questions about your trip, so be prepared for that.)
3) That wasn’t us. 🙂
Sorry to be so negative Tom, but I cannot stand Genie+ and I think it has ruined WDW so bad. I have expressed my feelings through DVC member feedback as well as customer service. It is just plain out god awful
No need to apologize for being negative; it is what it is. Call things as you see them–good, bad, or ugly.
While I certainly prefer that people have a great time at Walt Disney World, this is a consumer-oriented blog with a goal of properly preparing people for their trips. Better to “keep it real” than create unrealistic expectations and set people up for disappointment.
I got 1-2 headliners per day. Not worth the money.
First weekend in March –
Evening in Hollywood Studios – 4 rides with Genie+ (And 1ILL)
3/4 day in Magic Kingdom – 5 rides with Genie+ (And had some rider swapping); another 3 standby
1/2 day in Animal Kingdom – 3 rides with Genie+ (And one ILL)
Overall with little kids we’ve been very happy with the outcome. That doesn’t mean we don’t have a laundry list of UX revisions we would make to the system, but it has worked for us and we felt was worth the cost for that particular trip and the ages of the kids we went with.
Thanks for sharing your results!
Disney can simply do away with this and have the normal free fast passes.They made enough paid changes to there quest that poor families can’t afford. That’s enough Disney world stop draining us dry.