Hollywood Studios Genie+ Priorities & Lightning Lane Ride Ranks
Hollywood Studios is the second-best park for buying Walt Disney World’s Genie+ service. Lightning Lane line-skipping access is available at 15 attractions in DHS, and many are headliners or popular thrill rides. This guide ranks all in terms of time-saved and how quickly they book up. (Updated October 22, 2023.)
For our Late 2023 update to these rankings, we want to start with a pretty positive update: Genie+ is easier at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. For a long time, Slinky Dog Dash booked up within seconds of 7 am, other rides moved fast starting at 9 am, and it could be difficult to score a worthwhile third Lightning Lane of the day–nevermind good 4th or 5th selection.
To be sure, Disney’s Hollywood Studios is still tough and requires savvy strategy. On peak season days, the above dynamic still exists. However, on moderately busy days (6/10 to 8/10 on the Walt Disney World Crowd Calendar), it is much easier. Slinky Dog Dash can last for hours, not seconds or minutes, and most other attractions have availability through midday. So long as you choose in the correct order, it’s now possible to score Lightning Lane selections for just about every high-priority attraction at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. With that update out of the way, let’s turn to what you need to know about Genie+ at DHS, and cover the best order to make your ride reservations…
The goal is to give you the tools and info you need to create your own DHS itinerary with Genie+, rather than relying on our recently-updated 1-Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes Plan. Or, you can utilize “a best of both worlds” approach, consulting that pre-made plan and the rankings here so you understand the why of it, and can adjust the itinerary to account for your Advance Dining Reservations, preferred stage showtimes, Fantasmic Dining Packages or standby, whether you want to minimize walking distances, etc.
As indicated above, crowd levels can heavily impact how an actual day at DHS plays out. To a lesser extent, weather, ride closures, stage showtimes, and more can also impact how things play out. As such, a sample itinerary cannot be replicated step-for-step with the exact same Lightning Lane time slots, etc. This equips you to put together your own dynamic plan of attack for using Genie+ in DHS.
Of course, this assumes that you want to ‘pay to play’ and will use the Genie+ paid FastPass option rather than simply doing standby lines. In Disney’s Hollywood Studios, that’s our recommendation. If you want to know the basis for that suggestion, see My Day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios Using Genie+ with Peak Season Crowds. That illustrates just how tough DHS can be even with strong strategy–it’s a brutal park no matter what your approach.
Additionally, see our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ for all of the foundational need-to-know info about this replacement for free FastPass+. 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.
Alternatively, if you’re thinking about skipping Genie+ at DHS, that’s possible, too. Our 1-Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Itinerary covers how you can accomplish everything even if you’re staying off-site and don’t want to spend anything extra on Genie+ or Individual Lightning Lanes.
If you are staying on-site and don’t want to buy or otherwise hassle with the Genie+ service, the one thing we highly recommend is Early Entry at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. (Not to overwhelm you with planning resources, but having an idea of how a day at DHS is likely to play out will help you tremendously!)
As one final (we swear) note before we delve into the rankings, we should note that this offers ride priorities for Lightning Lanes via Genie+ and not Individual Lightning Lane (ILL), which is pay-per-ride. The only ILL attraction is Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. Previously, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway was also an Individual Lightning Lane ride, but that’s now a permanent part of Genie+ at DHS.
We are not keen on buying a la carte front of line access, so we recommend doing this attraction either first thing in the morning (if you’re eligible for Early Entry) or towards the end of the night. On busy days, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is potentially worth paying for ILL access–it’s the only ride at Walt Disney World we’d even consider paying for that, and even that depends upon crowd levels and wait times.
Now, on with the show & ride rankings for Genie+ at Disney’s Hollywood Studios…
The Best of Genie+ at DHS
1. Slinky Dog Dash – The obvious choice for your #1 Genie+ Lightning Lane selection and not just in DHS, but all of Walt Disney World. It used to be far and away the most popular pick, but lately, it has gotten some competition at EPCOT from Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.
Whether you’re starting at DHS or Park Hopping later, you’ll want to prioritize this early in the day, as this one books up fast–often within minutes of 7 am. For Slinky Dog Dash, we strongly recommend following our Speed Strategy for Genie+ Selections.
2. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith – Since returning from its multi-month refurbishment earlier this year, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (RnRC) has been the second most popular Genie+ Lightning Lane and has averaged the third highest wait time at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (after Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Slinky Dog Dash). That safely cements it as the #2 priority, which is the highest it’s ever been. While you’ll definitely want to snag it early if you’re relying upon Genie+ to skip the lines, RnRC frequently has a short wait the first hour of day. In fact, there have been times we’ve done it back to back with zero wait at the end of Early Entry and start of rope drop.
3. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run – This is the secondary attraction in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, but it still averages a top 5 wait time in Disney’s Hollywood Studios and is usually the second or third-fastest booking Lightning Lane ride reservation via Genie+. It shouldn’t be too difficult to secure this into the afternoon, so you have a little flexibility in booking this strategically depending upon your preferred return time and personal priorities.
4. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway – Earlier this year, the “new ride smell” started wearing off Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. The average wait time has been dropping, and the attraction is typically not in the top 5 wait times at DHS. There is some day-to-day fluctuation in this, but Runaway Railway is now typically the #4 or #5 priority Lightning Lane. Its family-friendly and all ages (and heights) nature makes it more appealing for a lot of Genie+ guests, but you shouldn’t have much difficulty scoring this one even in the early afternoon most days.
5. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror – It has been an up-and-down year for the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror’s ranking. It shot up last spring, then plummeted towards the end of summer before quickly rising again in the winter. This dynamic was attributable to a lengthy “stealth” refurbishment that took each elevator shaft down, with a gap in between the downtimes. That meant that the attraction was effectively operating at half-capacity for about 4 months on two different occasions.
During those downtimes, Tower of Terror had the second highest wait time at Disney’s Hollywood Studios after only Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. It even beat out Slinky Dog Dash most dates! Suffice to say, when Tower of Terror has one elevator shaft down, it became the #2 Genie+ Lightning Lane priority. When operating at full-capacity, its ranking drops significantly.
We mention all of this for two reasons. First, you might see references to Tower of Terror’s increased Lightning Lane popularity or higher wait times elsewhere, or you might’ve been tracking that yourself over the course of the last several months. In any case, it’s no longer part of the equation. You can once again safely save Tower of Terror for your fourth or fifth selection.
Second, if you see Tower of Terror’s wait time spike on the day you visit–and it has the first to third highest-wait time in the park–you should move it up to the #2 priority, as there’s a good chance one of the elevators is down (again). Even post-refurbishment, downtime does happen!
5. Toy Story Mania – Every park has one attraction that “soaks up” Genie+ ride reservations, allocating a significant portion of its capacity to line-skipping. Toy Story Mania is definitely that for Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Its standby wait time has spiked since Genie+ launched (making this a good use of the Lightning Lane), but there’s typically easy availability via Genie+ for Toy Story Mania throughout the day.
6. Alien Swirling Saucers – Based on average standby wait times alone, this is a smart seventh pick. Subjectively, most people are probably good to skip the Toy Story Land flat ride.
The Rest of Genie+ at Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Star Tours — The Adventures Continue – This excellent Star Wars simulator can have decently long waits on the busiest days of the year, but most normal days, we’ve found Genie+ to offer almost no advantage here. Get it if you can, but don’t sweat standby.
Meet Olaf at Celebrity Spotlight – There are a few deceptively popular meet & greets at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This isn’t one of them. Unfortunately, Olaf at Celebrity Spotlight is the only one that offers a Lightning Lane. (Accordingly, we recommend doing Red Carpet Dreams and the Monsters, Inc. meet & greet earlier in the day or later in the evening.)
Stage Shows – Everything else at Disney’s Hollywood Studios–Beauty and the Beast: Live on Stage, Disney Jr. Play & Dance, Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, MuppetVision 3D–is a show of some sort, or at least not a ride.
While Genie+ offers priority seating, which can amount to a better view, it’s typically not all that advantageous for shows. If you’re not going to Park Hop, you might consider using it for these shows, but there’s not a good way to put Lightning Lane reservations for these into your itinerary during the middle of the day. The opportunity cost of not booking one of the top 6 rides is too high. The vast majority of guests should simply do shows via the standby lines.
Ultimately, you should be able to knock out most attractions via Genie+ using Lightning Lanes on a good day in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The biggest obstacle might be your first pick, as Slinky Dog Dash goes fast every single morning, especially during peak season.
You will miss out entirely on it if you’re not up and ready to make your first selection at 7 am. Other than that, you shouldn’t have much of a problem scoring slots for the remaining top 5 picks (except maybe Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run), so long as you’re willing to stay all day and don’t mind reservations in the afternoon.
On a bad day, you might not only miss out on Slinky Dog Dash, but also on another headliner or two in the top 5. Plan accordingly based on the crowds when you’ll be visiting, and also give yourself as many other advantages as possible–like Early Entry, rope drop, or staying late when crowds tend to die down at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Regardless of when you’re visiting, Genie+ will save you the second-most time at DHS, behind only Magic Kingdom, which earns that distinction because of its higher eligible attraction count. This is what makes buying Genie+ our recommendation for most people and on most days of the year at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Even if it requires a bit of a splurge, cut the cost out of your Walt Disney World vacation budget somewhere else.
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
How would you rank your ride priorities using Genie+ and Lightning Lanes in Disney’s Hollywood Studios? Surprised by any of the rankings in our top 5, or that Slinky Dog Dash takes the #1 spot? Are you planning on buying Genie+ or skipping it? Do you agree or disagree with our rankings? 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 was vehemently opposed to Genie+ when planning our once in a lifetime trip this week, but yesterday I relented due to the unusually high crowds this week and bought it for our one Hollywood Studios day (which ended up being 7/10 crowds at HS according to Touring Plans), and I’m so glad that I did. We were able to knock out RotR with Early Access (got in line at 7:55am, were in the preshow by 8:15) and got Lightning Lane for all of the top 6 on this list except Rockin Roller Coaster (skipped because Tower of Terror was the higher priority for our family and we wanted to ensure that we’d snag access to it). We did standby for pretty much every other ride (including a late night Runaway Railway), checked out most of the shows, and still had time for a 4 hour midday break.
I still hate Genie+ and everything that it represents with the anti-customer direction that Disney is going, but I reluctantly recommend it for anyone that is an infrequent visitor to Disney World and only has one Hollywood Studios day.
I’m sure it was an off day, or a YMMV kind of thing, but we had a weird experience with genie+ at DHS on Friday. I was up at 7, chose Slinky Dog, which was showing a 10:10 am return time, but then switched to 7:50 pm as I clicked through to complete the reservation. The early entry standby lines were so short, and stayed pretty reasonable for the first couple of hours, so we were able to get through Mickey & Minnie, ToT, RRC, Star Tours, Muppets and TSM before 11:30 am. After we used our 11:10 TSM lightning lane, all the return times were showing for late afternoon and evening. After hanging out in Galaxy’s Edge for a while, we ended up bailing on the park and only heading back around 7:30 pm to hit Slinky and RotR. At the end of the day, it felt like we really only got any genie+ value out of the fun selfie filters.
What you’re describing is actually surprisingly common. You’ve gotta be fast clicking through those steps to book Slinky Dog Dash, as it’s filling quickly and those times get pushed out in a hurry–a few seconds delay can change the return time by several hours.
Really appreciate these Genie+/no Genie+ strategy reports, but selfishly am really hoping you could do ones for Disneyland and California Adventure soon…?
So to clarify, every 120 minutes you get a new LL reservation. Then Tap and book another. Then start over with another 120 minutes for the 1st reservation, tap the second and book another? All day going 120 minutes tap ?
Sort of? But two things-
1) 120 minutes starting after park open (so if 9am open, book at 7, then not until 11, then 1, 2 etc)
Or!
2) after you tap in for your first ride. So if you book a 9:30 window and the park opens at 9, you can book again at 9:30 after you tap instead of waiting to 11
Does that make sense? If you’re doing 120 minutes between you don’t wait to tap. You can “stack” bunch and hold several of the windows reserved for later in the day and then go from LL to LL riding all the things you reserved earlier. It’s only tap Then reserved again if you’re getting a time sooner than your next 120 window
We want to stack Lightning Lanes for the evening at HS with Genie+ on our arrival day at WDW, but we won’t start our day until about 2pm (park hopping time). So in order to get afternoon/evening return times when I start booking at 7 am I guess I’ll have to make a reservation for another park, like AK. Plus, another advantage of reserving AK is that I would be able to make a second LL reservation at 10 am since it opens earlier than the other parks. My question is, do we have to tap into AK first in order to use our HS LLs even though we are not planning on going to AK?
You have to start at the park where you have a reservation. You don’t have to wait until 2pm to go to a second park.
I would just make the reservation at Studios if you are going there on the day you get there.
If you are saying you want your LLs after 2pm therefore you want to have a reservation at another park and make the LLs at the Studios for after 2pm you could start at Epcot as that is the easier park to get to and from the Studios and you could always have a snack there then head over to the studios.
Hi Mary. I am happy to elaborate. You can stack Genie + reservations by taking advantage of the 120 minute rule as well as each time you use a reservation. Here is an example from our trip. On Saturday 11/13 we went to AK in the AM and HS in the PM. I purchased Genie + for our group at 6:30 and right at 7am (since we stayed on property) I was able to purchase individual LL for Flight of Passage at 10am and Mickey and Minnie at 5:30pm. We could also book any Genie + attraction at that time as well. I wanted to book Slinky Dog as that has been “selling out” pretty quickly and would not be available by the time we park hopped after 2pm. I was finally able to grab a 7:30pm Genie + reservation for SDD. AK opened at 8am that day so that is when the 120 minute clock starts. Right at 10am I was able to book another Genie + reservation. I booked Toy Story Mania at 5pm. At Noon I was able to make another Genie + reservation and this time I grabbed Swirling Saucers at 8pm. Finally, after 2pm I grabbed a 3pm reservation for Star Tours. so before we even set foot in HS we had 4 Genie + reservations and an individual LL as well. Hope this helps.
Anytime Tom!
Post-holidays. January. We don’t even really love the rides at Hs except toy story. So maybe genie only for our magic kingdom days?? Does that make sense?
This is great, Tom. Do you have a similar article for the other three parks?
Brian,
What do you mean by stacking? Can you elaborate?
Thanks,
Tom, just FYI, the “1-Day Disney’s Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes Plan” link currently takes you to the MK one.
This is excellent information! Thanks Tom 🙂
I’m really dreading how difficult it’s going to be to get Genie+ reservations during busy days. It hasn’t been 9 or 10 crowd days yet since the debut, has it? If you only get one good G+ reservation, then it just becomes an ILL for that ride. The parks outside of MK just don’t have the number of rides necessary for this to work. I wasn’t even knee jerk opposed to Genie+, but I don’t think we’ve seen the worst of it yet.
Veterans Day weekend had some 9/10 days, but other than that, no.
Love this blog for its strategy tips but I modulate the rec’s to our priorities. We’re not big on the Toy Story neighborhood but my family LOVES the shows. We love Rockin too, and we’re looking forward to Rise, but for the most part, we go to see the shows. So this is nothing but good news for us. 🙂
One aspect of G+ at Hollywood Studios is that, even when utilized correctly, one still has to stay at the park all day in order to use your 4th or 5th ride reservation. (Hence what Tom said about Tower of Terror having a late afternoon/early evening return time.) And unless you plan on sitting in every show, you end up having to sit around the park to wait for your return time slots to open. All one ends up doing is paying to wait somewhere not in line as opposed to being in the standby line.
Our family was at WDW a week ago, and my wife and I had very good success using early morning hours, picking our first ride strategically, and utilizing single rider lines. For example, smugglers run is basically a walk on if you don’t mind single riding it, and Rockin also can have short single rider waits. When we did buy G+ is was usually for only one ride like a second bite at Toy story mania, or riding Jungle Cruise at MK.
Long way of saying if you have a family with small kiddos and will only spend half a day in the park because of children, G+ is a tough sell.
You’re right.
IMO, this makes Genie+ at DHS very conducive to a midday break or starting at another park, accumulating Genie+ reservations for DHS while there, and Park Hopping to DHS at 2 pm.
UGH. I was afraid Genie+ would mean longer waits at Toy Story Mania. When we were there in April the line was typically so reasonable even when it was out past the bathrooms with social distancing.
And if we buy Genie+ we will only be able to get 1 pass for Toy Story Mania and we love a little friendly family competition.
From what I’ve been seeing with reports of G+ at HS for the past week or so, G+ rides are booking up pretty quick.
By the time 11am rolls around, most of the top tier rides are late afternoon, if available at all.
Most people will be lucky to get 3 G+ rides during busy times, like next week.
DHS is definitely the park where return times advance the quickest–but with aggressive strategy, you should still be able to score ride reservations for most headliners in a day. Of course, we haven’t seen Thanksgiving and Christmas crowds yet.
Thanks Tom!
Considering the speed with which Slinky Dog Dash LL slots go in the morning, is there a “fast fingers, time.gov, hard refresh” process that you found works best (like your Rise of the Resistance formula that never failed us)?
I’m incredibly curious how this upcoming holiday week turns out with Genie+. I’d imagine it might be frustrating to get only 2-3 truly useful LL’s, but I don’t see how capacity keeps up with use. (And the “answer” to this issue… surge pricing eventually?)
Yeah, I had been waiting for another crack at Slinky Dog Dash on a truly BUSY day to test and post about my ‘fast fingers strategy,’ but perhaps I should do that BEFORE Thanksgiving week.
We used Genie + last weekend and we’re able to “stack” our Lightning Lane reservations using the 120 rule. We went to DHS on Saturday and had 4 LL and a Mickey and Minnie reservation in a 6 hour timeframe!
Thanks for sharing your experience!
Is it best to buy genie only for days at these two parks? Instead of entire trip? We spend a fair amount of time in Epcot
I don’t think Genie+ is particularly useful at Epcot, but that could change for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and NYE. So I guess it really depends upon crowds when you’re visiting.