Genie+ Really is Paid FastPass+ at Disney World
We’ve been referring to Genie+ as “paid FastPass” since before its debut 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.
This new warning (of sorts) comes after Walt Disney World moved Individual Lightning Lane attractions to Genie+ through August 7, 2022. That should improve the quality of the Genie+ experience, adding availability, and (theoretically) how many standard Lightning Lane selections you can score in a day when attendance is higher.
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 Genie+ 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.” (H/t to Scott Gustin for spotting this change.)
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.
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 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!
Currently relaxing at the pool at Animal Kingdom. Did Jungle Cruise this morning. Going back in later tonight with Splash Mountain, Small World, and Peter Pan reserved for later in the night. Will be able to add at least 2 more tonight for some combination of Pirates, Big Thunder, Haunted Mansion and/or Buzz Light year.
Earlier in the week results with late arrival each day but booking Genie +:
MK: Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder, Peter Pan, Haunted Mansion, Buzz Light Year, Pirates
Epcot: Test Track, Soarin, Frozen, Space Ship Earth
HS: Tower of Terror, Rocking Roller Coaster, Runaway Rail, Star Tours. We also bought rise of the resistance.
Thank you for all your posts. Your “research” made it possible to know how to put those together while doing them later in the day some days and relaxing at the pool in the afternoon on some days.
Genie+ is a headache. We were there in January and then end of Feb into March. January was decent with it. The lightning lanes were extremely short and fairly easy to book. We could wake up early at MK and get a 10:00 Jungle Cruise, then hit Small World, Haunted, Pirates and get right onto Jungle Cruise. End of Feb was a nightmare. Lightning lanes at some attractions were double and triple the standby many times. We had a Haunted LL that was almost a 40 min wait. Def agree MK is the best option for Genie+. Hollywood Studios was a lost cause. By 7:00:15 Rise was gone. We got a 11:30 Falcon, walked in with 10 mins left of the extra 30 mins of resort guests early time, and every ride was already over an hour. We hit Muppets and walked around grinding our teeth waiting for our 11:30 Star Wars. All the other LL were after 5pm. We called it a day and left after lunch.
We went during Spring Break and actually made out fine. I didn’t like having to get up at 7am every morning on vacation but once I made the first selection, I set my timer for the next available time. We spent most mornings chilling at the pool and I continued to make selections from my resort without ever checking into a park. We’d head to the park around 2 or 3 and I had everything lined up perfectly. 🙂 I think the idea of the whole paid fast pass is ridiculous but there’s nothing I could do about it so I just went with it. My goal was to ride lots of rides and try to not spend a lot of time waiting, knowing it was going to be packed for Spring break. And it did just what I needed it to. So we were happy. 🙂 I will say, the blogs you write about HS helped soooooo much!!!! Thank you!!!! We took advantage of the extra 1/2 hour in the morning and bought Rise and Genie+. Not saying that’s what you recommended doing exactly but after reading your many strategies and putting them together we more than conquered HS and it didn’t even take all day. Thanks again for all the info!
We were there March 20-26, 2022 and were able to schedule 4 lightning lane rides per each park without early entry but scheduling our first from our rental at 7:00 am. We also had two adults on the My Disney app trying at the same time to schedule, which was helpful. I HATE the new system because you are up past midnight to buy Genie+ then up agsin at 7:00am to schedule a first attraction. So much for a restful vacation. Then you are forced to spend all your parks time looking at your phone app, rather than the scenery in the parks! It totally stressed us out- took the “magic ” away. At least let us pre-plan our day like with the old Fastpass where we could choose our attractions and have a PLANNED day with at least that much so we aren’t walking around all day with our heads buried in our phones, missing the sights and family moments!
Maybe I’m in the minority, but we had a great experience with Genie+! We were there March 7-12 and used G+ all 5 park days. We were able to ride everything we wanted and did not experience any major technical glitches. (AT&T phone service worked great.) Perhaps part of our satisfaction with the system is due to being informed through blogs like this one in how to use Genie+ and how to have realistic expectations of the service.
My one gripe is having to get up early on vacation. When you travel with teenagers who want to stay up late it is exhausting to be the one in charge of Genie+ every morning!!
I wish Genie+ was like Fastpass+. I loved having the ability to book 60 days in advance for 3 rides. Now you have to pay extra, wake up super early and still hope you get all (or at least some) the rides you want, and onlye one at a time. My last trip was early Feb and I don’t plan to go again anytime soon. Disney is not the same for me anymore.
I was there President’s Weekend, so very high crowds..
In theory, I could have gotten 3-4 G+ at each park, if I was maximizing them and staying in the park from open to close. But given we weren’t doing all-day touring, and often G+ availability didn’t match the park we wanted at the time we were going to be there…
In half a day at Magic Kingdom, still got 5 G+ at Magic Kingdom, but 2-3 weren’t super valuable. (Big Thunder Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Little Mermaid, Dumbo and Town Square Mickey).
At DHS, when doing only a half-day, the first half of the day, really only got 1 — there were G+ glitches at 7am, by the time I got through the system, the only morning pass left was Star Tours. To get anything better, I would have had to do afternoon touring).
Spent more time at Epcot — Where the 2-3 per day was about right except it’s such a big park with so much crisscrossing, we really often weren’t interested in back tracking for a potential 3rd selection. So often it was more like 2 per day. (This was when Frozen was still a separate pay, so 1 day got Test Track and Mission Space)
I still don’t have G+. I think it has the *potential* to be better than FP+, but it needs some major work.
And while this will be controversial, it needs to limit the number of people who can purchase G+. Either by raising the price and thereby decreasing demand. Or simply limit the number sold, with priority to on-site guests.
In the end, the fewer people that buy G+, the better the product will be. But the better it is, the more people who will want to buy it.
My family went at the end of President’s Day week. Count us among the “2-3 attractions” at MK. Why? Because we like to get there early and leave in the mid to late afternoon for pool time and a nice dinner. When FP was available we could stack them early and usually even get more after the third one. Genie + is only workable if you plan to be in the parks all day until close, IMO. Between that at the 7:00 am hassle (which, an often unmentioned detail, is exactly when the quick service hotel restaurants open and if you plan to be in line for early park entry, not long before you should be heading for the buses) it’s just not worth it. It made us crabbier and barely got us any help in line waits. My thought after our trip was that I didn’t hate Genie + because it cost money, I hated it because it was terrible.
Ha……I hate it because of both…Costs money and its terrible
Hi Tom!
I actually sent a mildly irritated email to Disney customer service after our last trip to Disney World and they immediately awarded my family free park tickets for two days. So, they’re definitely handing out the goods as a way to soothe guests when they inevitably fail at meeting expectations.
I’m one of the few who loved Fast Pass when you signed on 60 days in advance to make your ride reservations. So this new system will never please me. Getting up really early and hoping that you get SOMETHING is just bonkers to me! For being prime family vacation territory, they really don’t make it easy for families with kids. You can plan all you want at 7am in the morning in your hotel room but if you start you day off without a ticket to Peter Pan and have to stand in a line for 60 minutes because you have a toddler who is only able to ride certain rides…doesn’t seem like a good time to me. And it wasn’t, which is why I complained but now i’m going again because free is FREE!
We were there early to mid-February. In HS, we were able to book Slinky for around 9am. As soon as we scanned in, we tried to get Smugglers Run, but the times were already pushed to 7pm for that one, and we were park hopping to Epcot. We grabbed Tower, and then Star Tours and that was it. We could have grabbed more if we were staying later, but that was when we realized it wasn’t a great value if you’re not staying late to stack reservations. My parents were with us and we used theirs to book Rock n Roller Coaster. We did purchase Rise, and did Minnie&Mickey’s at Rope drop, so we did get enough done.
At AK, we booked Navi, bought Flights, and rope dropped the safari. After Navi, we started stacking for MK later in the evening, and probably were able to get 2 or 3 for that.
Our last park day was MK. It was pouring that day so we got lucky. We bought Mine Train, which we didn’t want to do. But literally we woke up at 7am and decided to pay Disney for the privilege of sleeping an extra hour and not rope dropping. We got to the park after 9am and were able to walk onto Space Mountain 3 times in a row. We grabbed Jungle Cruise at 7am, then Pirates (which was awful – we ended up in the middle of a family somehow in front and behind us on the boat that just screamed the whole time. I had no idea what was happening). We grabbed Big Thunder and I think 2 or 3 other rides. I know we grabbed Peter Pan and Buzz, and I feel like there was one more in there.
So HS – 3
AK – 1, but stacked MK for that day – 3
MK – 6
We usually do much longer trips or we wouldn’t have bought it every day.
I went to MK yesterday and we used 6 LL and 1 IL. We also went to Cinderella’s Royal Table and left right after fireworks. I felt like we were pretty successful. I have really little kids so we couldn’t go wild bell to bell. We probably could have gotten 2-3 more LL if we went the whole time like teenagers or adults could. It was much less stressful to no wait in line at all and got done a TON of stuff for our kids age. But we did not hit some of the major attractions.
We were there Firts Week in March. We are a large family and so tried using G+ in two groups – 5 and 6 people. It sucked. If we were a party of 1 or 2 we could do better…not many FAMILIES fall into THAT category! Our next trip to WDW will not include the Parks. We are going to Sea World, enjoying the Resort pools, and splurging on a rental car so we can go to the beach for a day. We hope that will seem more like a vacation.
We used Genie+ at Disneyland and I was also surprised at how much more difficult / less intuitive it was than Maxpass. I mean, we were fine, but I feel like you the “tip board” and “my day” stuff was more confusing to navigate than Maxpass had been. Keep it simple, stupid.
Also not a fan of only doing each attraction once (Maxpass was unlimited subject to availability), but I realize that does keep availability higher so am OK with it.
I was at Magic Kingdom on March 11. Stayed off site, so didn’t have the early entry advantage. I was able to use Lightning Lanes for eight attractions, and an Individual LL for Seven Dwarfs. Thanks to all of the power user advice I’ve read here I felt ready to put all of that knowledge to use and overall I don’t think I would have been as successful without the warnings and guides on how to maximize Genie +.
Having used Genie+ now I have mixed feelings. On the one hand I was able to get more Lightning Lanes than I probably would have using Fastpass+. But I feel like my expectations are higher for Genie+ since I’m paying for it. But the point in the article about shifting that stress back a month or two instead of dealing with it in real time during my vacation really hit home. I agree I didn’t *need* to spend a lot of time on my phone, but I still felt that ticking clock in the back of my head…Is it time to get my next LL? Am I going to get the time and the attraction I really want, or am I gong to have to pivot (PIVOT!) to my second or third choice? I think I accomplished more with Genie+ than I would have without it, but I’m not convinced I really enjoyed myself in the process.
Pivot! made me chuckle, and I need that this morning. Thank you, Matt B.
We went to DHS and MK on March 10 and since we were only going for 1 day, we purchased Genie +. We did not stay on sight so we weren’t able to book our 1sr ride until 7:30 at DHS. We weee able to get 2 rides booked by 10:45. We struck out for any others at DHS so we opted to start stacking our afternoon/evening at MK. We had 3 rides plus Seven Dwarfs booked by 3 pm. By 6pm we had ridden all 4 rides. We hoped over to Epcot for drinks and music before booking 2 more rides at MK to finish out our night. This was our first time using the service and while it was frustrating at times, I felt we had a successful day.
I don’t like paying for it but my bigger issue is having to get up prior to 7am every morning on vacation. I travel with my young adult daughter whose preferred schedule is going to the park early afternoon and staying as late as possible. Staying late and then getting up early made for a rough trip last Thanksgiving. Add in the tech issues we encountered and it was less than magical (and impossible to fall back to sleep due to frustration/stress). I miss the days of reserving three FP+ in advance at times that worked for us. I was happy knowing I had those rides guaranteed and also enjoyed leisurely mornings until we hit the parks. No more. I sent an email to WDW voicing our dissatisfaction with Genie+ and I hope others do as well, but I wonder if anything will change.
What I realized halfway into my trip was it was best to just stack rides later in the day.
So I woke up at 7am and started booking premium rides (since the return windows were AWAYS late evening!). So I would keep booking them 7, 9a, 11, 1, etc… and I’d book rides for 6-9 pm. It was great; I’d have 5 rides to ride all during my park hop time.
I LOVE this tip, thank you!
I used G+ last week. I should have purchased each day separately instead of the whole trip. I did Early Entry at HS but was still too late for RoR. But Smugglers Run was a walk on. I got G+ for Toy Story and Star Tours. Then started trying to stack them up for park hop to Epcot. Only good one left there was Soarin’ though. All others were not available. Day 2 used it for AK safari, then started stacking for the hop to MK. Got Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion and Pirates. Then super confused when my Pirates one disappeared. But then I got a replacement which offered any LL from several second tier rides because Pirates was broken down. I used that for Winnie the Pooh but when I checked in it didn’t let me book more LL as I would have expected. I should have been able to but instead had to wait and then basically everything was out of availability. Total waste for the next day. All I wanted was test track but even logging on a min or so after 7am, the slots were all so late in the day we would have left the park by then. Entering Epcot early, Frozen was broken and everything else was a walk on for a couple hours. (Though I refuse to pay for Remy when I bought expensive tickets and G+) so G+ on Epcot day was useless. Overall, I still find it hard to navigate the 2 hours vs when you tap in at a ride thing. And the lack of availability as the day goes on is disappointing. I felt like I could not sleep in at all on my so called vacation because between the LL reservation at 7 am and park early entry times, I was waking up earlier than a workday! I wish they would do like 7pm the night before for the first ride to at least take the edge off and let it be an open slot at any time during the day. So 2pm Test Track! This is a paid service that adds up quick. One nice gesture would go a long way!
Went to WDW 2nd week of December. Averaged about 2 -4 llanes per park…. the big headliners basically. Returning with family in December 2022 again for a 3rd week of December Christmas trip. Sure hope We can achieve the same rate of success. One thing that did help us have more success riding more attractions was our attendance for the Mickey’s Merriest Nights. We felt like this was worth the money bc it was limited attendance. Also, we stayed at the deluxe level and were able to enjoy additional evening hours in the parks which was also a BIG plus.
I’ve been here the last week and a half and have managed ok with g+. I booked about 4-5 good LL at Hollywood Studios with refreshing and lost count with MK. It seems like Disney is saying this to be able to deny guests refunds since 2 LL is average and was communicated beforehand.
What 4-5 good rides did you get at DHS during spring break? I honestly find that virtually impossible
That means at 7am you were able to get a good ride (believable) then at 11am you were able to get another one? then at 1pm a 3rd? at 3pm a 4th? at 5pm a 5th? I highly doubt that as all good rides were sold out by 11am almost every day in March