Genie+ Selling Out at 2024 High Prices During Spring Break at Disney World
Genie+ has sold out again at Walt Disney World as peak season pricing has kicked in for the 2024 Spring Break season at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, Animal Kingdom, and on the Park Hopping option. This post covers all of the sold out dates & times along with what to expect for the rest of March.
Let’s start by discussing crowds. This is one of the busier stretches of the entire year at Walt Disney World. Our recent Spring Break 2024 Crowd Calendar for Walt Disney World identified March 8 as the unofficial start date of the school recess season. It also predicted that crowds would start to get really bad on March 15, and pretty much not let up until after Easter.
With that said, there are a couple of countervailing factors suggesting that this week might be worse than next. The first is the Winter 2024 Florida Resident Ticket Deal, which ends on March 15, 2024. The second is the two lowest tiers of Annual Passes being blocked out starting this weekend or early next week. Convenient timing that could be enough to offset higher tourist volume for Spring Break season. It would appear that’s precisely what Walt Disney World is expecting, as park hours are shorter next week.
For our part, we’re still anticipating worse crowds next week than this week. While the ticket deal ending and more AP blockouts in place will put a dent in crowds, those same (or similar) offsets always exist during peak season. Nevertheless, the volume of tourists is almost always greater than the resulting reduction of locals. The only wrinkle here is that many of the school districts on break next week are in Florida, so it’s not strictly a tourist season.
I guess we shall see what happens. Regardless, the following week is Easter and that is a typical tourist time–and will undoubtedly be the busiest week of Spring Break season. Consequently, it’s made our list of the 10 Worst Weeks at Walt Disney World in 2024 & 2025. (So did next week, for that matter–but Easter will be worse.)
No matter how you slice it, the remainder of March 2024 will be very busy. It’s not a matter of low crowds vs. heavy crowds, it’s all varying degrees of heavy. But this is a post about Genie+ prices and sell outs, not a crowd forecast.
Here are details about all of the days Genie+ has sold out thus far during Spring Break 2024:
- March 11, 2024 by 10 a.m. – Multi-Parks option
- March 12, 2024 by 10 a.m. – Multi-Parks & Magic Kingdom
- March 13, 2024 by 9:30 a.m. – Multi-Parks & Magic Kingdom
- March 14, 2024 by 9:30 a.m. – Multi-Parks
- March 15, 2024 – N/A
(We’ll keep this section updated with a running list of Genie+ sell outs.)
Here are the prices for Genie+ at Walt Disney World for the start of Spring Break 2024:
- Multiple Parks (valid with Park Hopper tickets): $35
- Magic Kingdom: $35
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $32
- EPCOT: $28
- Animal Kingdom: $25
For reference, prices have jumped quite a bit to start Spring Break. Animal Kingdom is up $7, going from $18 to $25; ditto EPCOT, which went from $21 to $28. Disney’s Hollywood Studios is “only” up $6 to $32; it’s the same story Magic Kingdom and the Multi-Park/Hopper option, which are up $6, from $29 to $35.
Prior to this, the Magic Kingdom or Park Hopper Genie+ price range for the last two weeks has been $25 to $29. The current prices are the highest they’ve been thus far in 2024, matching the peak week of Presidents’ Day and Mid-Winter Break. They’re also on par with the peak of last year’s Thanksgiving week, which was busier than the last couple of days.
All-time highs for Genie+ occurred around Christmas and New Year’s Eve, when prices peaked at $39. For reference, Genie+ set a new record high price last year during Easter week at $35, breaking the prior record from the holiday season a few months prior. That $35 price wasn’t reached again until last Thanksgiving, and broken at Christmas. If history were to repeat itself, Easter 2024 would set another new record, breaking the $40 barrier.
In terms of crowds, most of Spring Break won’t even hold a candle to the week between Christmas and NYE last year, which was next-level bonkers to an extent that had not been seen since at least 2019. (Assuming, for the sake of argument, that Genie+ is “worth” its current $35 price point…it probably would’ve been “worth” $50-60 during the heart of the holiday season.)
Nevertheless, the Genie+ “Multi-Park” option has sold out for March 11, 2024. In perusing wait times, I’m actually slightly surprised by this. They’re bad, to be sure, but they don’t seem that bad. Of course, the day is still young and it’s entirely possible crowds go from bad to worse by early afternoon. I’m not going to complain about Walt Disney World setting caps on sales, though–that’s exactly what they should be doing to ensure those paying $35 have ample Lightning Lane inventory available.
One dynamic we’ve noticed in the past is that it seems like Genie selling out begets more sold out dates. Guests develop Genie+ FOMO, seeing that it sold out the previous day and thus moving faster to purchase it the next. The paid FastPass service sells out earlier and earlier, over the course of the week–even as crowd levels usually peak on Monday or Tuesday.
Given that Genie+ is selling out at the start of Spring Break season, we’re probably in for many more days when one of several options sells out. We wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see Genie+ sell out at least a half-dozen more times in the next 3 weeks. Last year around this time, Genie+ sold out twice during Orange County’s Spring Break (that’s next week) and on three consecutive days during Easter. Sell outs have become more common since switching to per-park pricing, though, so a full dozen dates with sold out options between now and early April 2024 is a reasonable possibility.
Regardless of what happens, it’s going to be a very busy few weeks with high wait times. So plan accordingly, purchase Genie+ early, be aggressive with booking pursuant to the 120 minute rule, have a strong refresh game for ride reservation refills. Oh, and don’t forget to take advantage of Early Entry and rope drop, as well as zig when they zag savvy strategy. One of the biggest mistakes casual guests make during weeks like this is assuming that Genie+ is an “easy” option for front-of-line access. It very much is not. You need an all of the above approach to beat the crowds–but it can be done!
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 Genie+ prices and availability at Walt Disney World for the start of the 2024 Spring Break season? Disappointed that the cost is once again over $30, or do you see upside from a lowered demand/better inventory perspective? Will you purchase Genie+ or is the current per day cost too expensive for you? 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 just want WDW officials to know that Genie+ doesn’t sell out because it is a product that the people LOVE. It’s a product people feel like they HAVE to buy in order to try and get more than one (1) ride/attraction done in a day. This is a very pressured item that people are buying.
A few weeks ago, we did a couple days WITHOUT Genie+ and a couple days WITH Genie+…and I don’t think it really helped us get any MORE done. My takeaway is that it really depends on WHICH rides you plan to do that day, and how big your group is. For 1-2 people, there are worse ways to spend the money. (Even if you only end up using it on Na’vi River Journey, because the TSA has more exciting standby queues than Na’vi River Journey.) But for 3 or more people, I’d say that if you want to ride anything with a posted wait of more than 60 minutes…just come back later.
this is how disney is raising revenue. throttle the rides, make people pay to get on rides they already paid for. fire eiger.
I saved 5-6 hours a day for $27 per person. It was worth it for my family of 3. Came out to $15 per hour saved per day for our family. It jumped $15 to $39 in 2 years. I predice it will jump $5-10 every Thanksgiving and Winter break so within 10 years will hit $100. It’s the classic frog boiling in water doesn’t feel it if you slowly raise the temp.
I’ve been here at Dw since last Tuesday. The weather was great & practically no lines anywhere. I’m at Epcot today & there is Nothing to use my Genie+ on. I booked Frozen at 7 AM, for a 12 pm return. I’m glad I did everything last week because nothing is available. My day is not ruined,however, because RICK SPRINGFIELD is performing at the Garden Rocks Concert!
So was the concert AMAZING?!
Let’s not get carried away ladies. This Garden Rocks Concert featured SpringFIELD, not SpringSTEEN!
They need to follow Universal’s model…crank the cost of Genie+ up to at least $200 per person. This will result in significantly fewer people buying it…which would mean shorter LL lines for those folks….and more consistently moving standby lines for everyone else. Disney just needs to find the sweet spot that still results their total desired revenues. A better model than 50% (or more?) of the park buying a “cheap” Genie+ and resulting in long, slow-moving lines for both crowds.
That sounds like a good plan. We have considered not renewing.our passes. Today (3-11) waited 2 hours for Remy’s right after opening when listed as 65 minutes..Later was 120+ Single rider line at Test track was said to be over an hour. Soaring 110 minutes. Frozen 120+ Spaceship Earth was 45. Rode Remy and the Land , ate lunch at Regal Eagle. Couldn’t get a meal for special seating at any of the Rick Springfield shows as it was all sold out there. Just gave up and came home.
At what point is a WDW no longer a winning value proposition?
This is not saying it is not full of memories, enjoyable experiences, and something that we will cherish. But at what point could we have a better experience either on a cruise, European vacation, literally doing anything else for
My wife and I have been doing Disney for over 40 years, own several DVC’s and are just about done. It’s the poor management and lack of quickly building new things that is making us think of a move to other vacations. We travel to other places and several of those are looking better for us than another Disney trip. Getting expensive for even those that can afford it.
The day has already come.
You can have a vacation at WDW for not much money. My last traditional five-night WDW visit was 2020, and included AirBnb, 4 days of park tickets for me and my girlfriend, two days of park tickets for my elderly parents, and airfare for two. The total came to $2,792 not including food. Not close to our cheapest visit, but not bad for treating my parents.
It’s pretty much our budget for most vacations, although we’d probably have stayed 7 days instead of 5 at another destination.
What is Genie+ “Multi-Park, i thought you could only buy genie+ for a certain park each day. Can you buy genie+ for multi-park also, that is can you buy genie+ for all parks at once. I will have tickets with park option when we go.(please explain)..Thanks…PG..
I dislike paying for Genie+ as much as the next person, and of course I wish it was still free. That said, it has saved me massive amounts of time waiting on line. The idea that you would choose not to purchase it (assuming you can afford to) just to make a statement or “teach Disney a lesson” seems a bit misguided to me. It’s not going to be free again; that’s just not going to happen. So by refusing to purchase it on principle you are only punishing yourself by standing in lines unnecessarily.
To me, it’s worth purchasing if you use it wisely and get as many lightening lanes as you can for each day. Then at least you are getting your money’s worth!
I wish Disney would look at the original idea that Walt Disney had when he built Disneyland. Let everyone come to this happy place. I Know Disney has to make money but they have made it so hard to go on a vacation if your not rich. I can barley afford the park tickets and food. I can’t afford Genie+ but if you do not get you wait in line for hours. My last visit in January we waited for 3 hours to ride Ratatouille. While in line I watched and counted were they let 100 people in from the Lightning Lanes to 10 people from the standby line. Now I ask you is that fair just because people can’t afford the Genie+?
This entire discussion reverts to the old and unanswerable question “How much money is enough money”?
Over the years Disney has been a generally profitable corporation. They’ve rewarded their employees, reinvested and expanded, and provided a reasonable return for investors. All of this is great, but one has to ask, what is now the primary goal of Disney and their investors? Is it quick profit? Why does Disney management want to increase corporate investment, size and profitability? in short, what are they doing with all their money? In my opinion, although I hear a lot of blather about the future, I’m not seeing an acceptable level of investment in the parks themselves. Yes, operating costs have increased, but so have prices, and amenities have decreased.
What we need are straight answers, not plans and predictions. I’m perfectly willing to pay more, but at the same time I want increased value.
And Maggie, Just because something is advertised in advance doesn’t disqualify it from being a “Ripoff”. If people going to Disney have certain expectations of a service and its value, and their expectations of service and value are not met, then, by their definition, they’ve been “ripped off”. Essentially, “rippoffs”, which don’t have yo be financial, could also be characterized as major disappointments, are in the eye of the beholder.
Standby line =think airport standby – you only get on when there is a seat available ie the genie guests get on first and when there’s a lull the standby guests get on. The ones paying money get first dibs everyone else waits ( I have never used genie btw)
Just called one of our sons who is at WDW, DVC at Contemporary this trip, with his family and and one of the kids’ friends. Out of principle, and they could afford it if they wanted to, they do NOT use Genie and probably never will. His comment when I asked, was that it’s busy, but not Christmastime busy. His example: 55 Minute wait for Big Thunder. He considers that acceptable.
An old P. T. Barnum quote comes to mind. . . . .
Never was and never will be a fan of Genie+. After purchasing 5 park hopper passes for nearly $4,000 for an upcoming April vacation, Disney expects me to pay an additional nearly $25/day per person for an additional $1000?!?!? We will take our chances on other options. I think this falls into your other recent article on Disney being the #1 RIP-OFF.
I absolutely agree! The greed of Disney continues!
I completely agree with you. Tried talking the kids into Universal but with the new expansion announced they would rather do Disney this year and Universal in a few years when the expansion is finished. I don’t ride rides so would only need two genies for the kids but still 25 roughly a day each is too much for two rides they want it for.
Like everyone else that has replied I agree. The old LighteningLine worked well for guests, but not stockholders I guess.
We did a WDW trip for the first 2 weeks in December 2023. Only road Standby. Never had to wait the posted times. We rope dropped all parks and did the popular rides first. Early Entry really helped. With a little planning it is possible to do standby and not waste a ton of time in line. One trick we did was when a ride went down, we started monitoring it and would get back in line as soon as it opened. We often got right on with little or no waiting.
What really kills the standby lines is the LighteningLine merge. This can really slow things down.
Actually…still not a ripoff, as evidenced by the content of that article, the fact that the service is well-advertised and disclosed far in advance, and that it provides a value commensurate to its cost. It is EXPENSIVE, but it is not a ripoff.
If you want to measure “relative greed”, Universal’s Express Pass starts at $90 per person and reportedly goes up to $200 a person when the park is crowded. That’s the base price for Express Pass; add in the “unlimited” feature and it’s an extra $50/person on top of that.
I realize Genie+ and Express Pass work differently, but they are the closest comparisons.
If you’re looking to reduce ticket costs, my personal experience is that Genie+ is a much better value than park hoppers.
Message to Tom: I reported a problem with your site last week on Safari and tracked it down to a bug in the Grammarly plugin. Now that it’s fixed, your site works great for me. Load up more ads :-).
“I reported a problem with your site last week on Safari and tracked it down to a bug in the Grammarly plugin”
Thanks for posting that, Mike C!