Genie+ Sells Out at 2024’s Highest Price, Just as the Founding Fathers Intended
As a salute to all presidents…but mostly Americans George Washington and kinda Abraham Lincoln, the Multi-Park Genie+ has sold out again at Walt Disney World. Over the long weekend, Lightning Lane prices bounced around for Park Hopping, Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, EPCOT, and Animal Kingdom, and Genie+ has now started selling out. This post covers all of that along with a conversation about why attendance is elevated.
For starters, let’s talk crowds. This is one of the busier stretches of the entire year at Walt Disney World. We’ve been warning readers about this for a while, with the current week being on our list of the 10 Worst Weeks at Walt Disney World in 2024 & 2025. More recently, we discussed trends in Winter Crowds Heat Up at Walt Disney World as Worst Weeks Arrive.
Nevertheless, it’s still likely catching some tourists and locals by surprise. Pretty much everyone knows that Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve are busy travel times. Fewer are aware that Presidents’ Day coincides with mid-winter breaks for a lot of school districts, and there’s also runDisney’s Princess Half Marathon, youth sporting events at ESPN Wide World of Sports, and more on top of all that. It makes this week a recipe for crowd-tastrophe.
For those keeping score at home, wait times are actually down year-over-year for the week of Presidents’ Day (etc.) thus far. Obviously, we’re only a few days into what will be a busy week, but usually it’s fairly front-loaded and the worst crowds occur over the long weekend up until midweek.
With that said, lower crowds this year was to be expected. Last year had all of the above, plus Mardi Gras the exact same week. Mardi Gras did not coincide with Presidents’ Day in 2024, effectively diluting the crowds (to some degree) over the course of two weeks instead of consolidating them into a single week.
In any case, crowd levels have been 9/10 across the entirety of Walt Disney World thus far this week, after a 7/10 average last week for Mardi Gras. It’ll be interesting to see whether crowds get better or worse for the rest of the week. Normally, “better” would be the easy prediction, but wet weather over the weekend could’ve kept some locals at home, whereas the forward-looking forecast is sunny with mild temperatures (albeit some lows in the 40s).
But this is a post about Genie+ prices and sell outs, not a crowd/weather forecast.
Here are the prices for Genie+ at Walt Disney World for February 18, 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 were identical on Sunday and slightly lower ($29 max) on Saturday (despite that day being busier than Sunday). Prices hit $27 on Friday and were $25 for a few days prior to that. The previous long weekend was in the $27 to $29 range.
The current (Feb. 18-19) prices are the highest they’ve been thus far in 2024. However, they’re 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.
In terms of crowds, Presidents’ Day weekend doesn’t even hold a candle to the week between Christmas and NYE, 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 February 19, 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. 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.
With better weather the next couple of days and crowds last year not peaking until Tuesday, we wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to see Genie+ sell out 2-3 more times this week. Youth events and the runDisney race this weekend shouldn’t have as much of an impact on crowds as the current holiday long weekend, but they’ll certainly keep numbers elevated.
Attendance should drop sharply starting on Monday (February 26), leading into a relatively quiet final four days (including the bonus Leap Day!) of February 2024. At least, as compared to the above-trend crowds thus far this winter.
Then there should be a slow start to March (relatively speaking) before the spring break crowds arrive in full force a couple weeks later. That’ll be the next big test of Genie+ at Walt Disney World, and it’s safe to predict a return to $35 or even $39 price points, with a new record above the $40 barrier not being out of the question.
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.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of Genie+ prices and availability at Walt Disney World during the long weekend of Presidents’ Day? 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 know weekends have been weird, but I saw some wait time data from this past weekend and I was shocked by how low they were. Thrill Data lists the average Magic Kingdom wait time on 2/18 as 19 minutes! That’s the lowest I could find for a while, and it was a tie with 1/29, which was a day the park closed at 4:30. What could explain that? I know you mentioned Festival of the Arts at Epcot above but it seems like no one was at MK (at least, no one was waiting for attractions).
Love your opening salute tribute to the two old guys at Muppets!
Going to be there 2/26-3/2. Hope the anticipated drop in attendance proves to be accurate!
i kind of have an odd itinerary, i arrive on sat march 2nd, march 3rd i will visit epcot (and purchase genie +, assuming crowds on a sunday), a break day on monday, tuesday islands of adventure, and wednesday return home. i know monday might be the “best” day to visit a park, but i wanted a rest day this trip. sounds like a decent plan?
thank you
Sounds good! We were at Islands of Adventure on President’s Day yesterday and it was busy but still enjoyable. A much better option to Disney for sure! Have fun!
This weekend won’t really tell the whole story—Epcot felt pretty busy even with the rain on Saturday. But then, Sunday 8/18. We did early entry at HS (rise didn’t open til mid morning) and we hopped to MK at 1 to get a boarding group for tron. We don’t usually go this time of year and we’re bracing for 10/10 crowds. It was a ghost town. Wait times were 15 minutes or less on practically everything. Even the biggies were under an hour for the whole day. It was 100% the cold day and nonstop rain. I have never been so wet and cold, but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to leave, not with just about every ride a walk on! Even tron was a walk on when our boarding group was called, and groups were still available well into the evening. It was amazing! And wet. And cold.
Yes, according to Touring Plans, Sunday was a 9/10 crowd level at Epcot but only 2/10 at Magic Kingdom. Kind of crazy how much it differed! I wonder why?
Saturday was also 9/10 at Epcot but only 5/10 at Magic Kingdom.
It was the last weekend of Festival of the Arts, so that would explain EPCOT being busier than the other parks. Still, that is a massive spread!
Genie+ selling out at a record high price proves that Disney is not overpriced. When they are truly overpriced, people will stop paying.
I don’t think it “proves” anything, other than that people who were already able and willing to spend thousands of dollars on a vacation were also able and willing to spend hundreds more to ensure they could actually ride rides on said trip.
For conclusions beyond that, we’d need insight into guest satisfaction scores, reallocation of spending (are people still spending the same on souvenirs, meals, etc–or shifting their budget from those things to Genie?), and probably a lot more.
We’re here for the first time in 8 years, and we were ready for heavy crowds. Early Entry rope dropped Avatar FoP this morning at 7:30 and had a 57 minute wait before being on a banshee. It seemed like a rebound day after the rain yesterday (which made the Magic Kingdom incredible – we were only there from 8:30-2 and managed 13 attractions, plus an extra ride on Tron via ILL). We’re big believers in the 2pm-5pm hotel rest and G+ stacking strategy, which should make tonight at Epcot pretty fun, what with extended hours too. This blog has helped tremendously in pulling together a strong, flexible game plan. Thank you.
“…which made the Magic Kingdom incredible – we were only there from 8:30-2 and managed 13 attractions, plus an extra ride on Tron via ILL…”
That sounds like pretty much an ideal outcome for a holiday weekend! Enjoy the rest of your trip and thanks for the on-the-ground report!
WDW has certainly come a long way (in a “downward” direction) from the days of free fast pass, where you could secure three rides for no additional cost, days in advance of your theme park trip. Now they pack the parks to such an extent that you almost feel compelled to shell out upwards of $30 for the ability to TRY and get rides secured, with no guarantee that such can be accomplished. This is undoubtedly great for the shareholders, who benefit from the profitability of the company, but it undermines the fan base that Mr. Disney always wanted to attract to his parks.
You might as well post a sign at the park entrance that says, “It ain’t personal, it’s business,” for the patrons are merely numbers to be crunched until there is no more juice left in the grape.
I agree. The price keeps increasing but the experience keeps decreasing. In addition to the park ticket, you feel obligated to buy fast pass just to ensure you accomplish enough attractions to rationalize the cost of the ticket in the first place. Even with fast pass plus, my experience was nothing like it used to be. With that said, the parks seem more crowded than ever. I’ll never understand this.
My last 2 trips were President’s Weekend 2022 and Christmas 2023.
We found Presidents crowds worse than Christmas crowds. (The longer hours for Christmas may help).
I’m surprised to hear you say that given my perception of crowds (from afar) during that Christmas/NYE 2023 week. Then again, nothing should surprise anymore when it comes to WDW crowds.
I remember Presidents’ Weekend 2022 being bad–but a lot of dates in 2022 were really bad. I feel like a lot of that was exacerbated by both shorter hours and a lot more stuff still being missing.
We were there Presidents Day week 2022 and agreed crowds were awful. We also got there the Wednesday night before Presidents Day and the mask mandate for everything except transportation was lifted that Thursday, which I think may have something to do with it.
We will be there the 3/6-3/9 for a quick last minute trip. Hoping we hit a low(ish) crowd sweet spot before it ramps up again.