Lightning Lanes v. Genie+ at Disney World
If you’re confused by the differences between the free Genie feature, paid Genie+ service, Lightning Lanes, and individual attraction selections at Walt Disney World, this comparison and explanation is here to help. It breaks down what each are and offer, along with an analogy and further explanations.
This is intended to supplement our Lightning Lane and Genie+ at Walt Disney World FAQ. Recently, we’ve been receiving questions that confusion Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and it’s absolutely fundamental and foundational knowledge that you understand the differences. Otherwise, you won’t get the rest of it. Honestly, what’s covered here should have been the very top of that FAQ, but I assumed too much. That’s my bad–not yours. This is incredibly convoluted and confusing, and the way Walt Disney World has rolled it out has left a lot to be desired from a guest education perspective.
I do want to reassure you that this all gets easier to understand over time. As a thought experiment, try to assume a veil of ignorance about FastPass+ at Walt Disney World. Now consider all of the different tiers, the 30 day v. 60 day rule, the check-in extension rule, 4th FastPass+ scenarios, refresh strategy, Park Hopping hacks, same-day drop times–the list goes on and on. Most longtime Walt Disney World fans take FastPass+ for granted, but it had a steep learning curve. Which is part of the reason fans loved it–the barriers to entry and confusion created meant FastPass+ was easier to leverage for power users than average guests.
Many fans are confused by Genie+ and Lightning Lanes right now, and that’s absolutely understandable given that you’ve never used them and Walt Disney World still hasn’t announced all of the specifics. There are a ton of absolutely legitimate complaints about this. While certainly not the only criticism, the cost of the once-free service is far and away the most valid of those. (If you’re upset, we’d recommend emailing Walt Disney World and respectfully articulating how Genie+ will impact your future business with the company.)
“It’s too complicated and confusing” is not a particularly persuasive complaint. At least, not coming from fans who mastered FastPass+, the most unnecessarily complex ride reservation system at any Disney theme park in the world. Ask anyone who used both FastPass+ and MaxPass (again, the Genie system is built around MaxPass) more than a couple of times which was more user-friendly. I’d hazard a guess that over 75% would respond that MaxPass was easier to use and more laid back.
If you have an advanced degree in Walt Disney World vacation planning, the Genie system is only intimidating because it’s new and unknown, and currently an abstraction. It’s the type of thing you need to play with to understand. Give yourself a couple of hours with the app feature–you’ll be fine. Of course, that doesn’t wave away all of the many other complaints, but maybe it offers a little peace of mind?
But I digress. Back to the basics, with an explanation of what each component of this new system replacing free FastPass+ at Walt Disney World entails…
Lightning Lanes
Lightning Lanes are the new name for FastPass+ entrances, meaning they are actual queues or lines. Something guests who purchased Genie+ or individual attraction line-skipping access will use.
To illustrate, the Lightning Lane is the entrance on the left in the photo above. The standby line is the entrance on the right. In the coming weeks, expect FastPass+ entrances to get new signage as they’re converted to Lightning Lanes.
Lightning Lanes exist in the physical world. Disney Genie+ is a service that exists in the digital world–on the Grid. You can walk through a Lightning Lane–you can scroll through the Genie+ service with your fingers.
Free Disney Genie service
The free Disney Genie service in the My Disney Experience app will “maximize your park time” via a personalized itinerary feature that will “quickly and seamlessly map out an entire day.” It will also offer forecasted wait times throughout the day and attraction suggestions, so you can save time in line.
While Walt Disney World highlighted the free components of Disney Genie in its announcement, no one else is focusing on this for a few reasons. First, Disney IT doesn’t exactly have the best track record, so there’s considerable skepticism that this will work as advertised. Second, Disney promised similar features with My Disney Experience almost a decade ago, and none of those features materialized. (It’s a good day when the app works without crashing!) Finally, even if the free Disney Genie service works, it’s more likely to benefit the company than guests.
Maybe Disney will prove everyone wrong and deliver a free service that changes the game. Given past precedent, I’m not willing to give Walt Disney World the benefit of the doubt on that. Accordingly, we won’t be devoting any attention to the free Disney Genie service until it actually arrives–and works as advertised.
Disney Genie+ service
Disney Genie+ service is an option you can purchase in the My Disney Experience app for $15 per day that will give you priority access via the Lightning Lane at a variety of attractions, like Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Splash Mountain, Peter Pan’s Flight, Spaceship Earth, Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and many others. It’ll offer line-skipping access to approximately 40 attractions in total–minus two highly-popular headliners in each park.
The Genie+ service is essentially a digital version of paper FastPass, which was used prior to FastPass+ at Walt Disney World. Except instead of walking around the park to obtain paper slips with day-of return times, you do that via your phone. (More accurately/recently, it’s a modified version of the MaxPass service at Disneyland.)
Genie+ is theoretically unlimited. More practically, average guests will be obtaining new Genie+ return times every ~90 to 120 minutes. Like its predecessors (legacy FastPass and MaxPass), Genie+ will have internal rules inherited from those systems to ensure guests are not being shut out of subsequent selections by virtue of delayed return time windows. Those rules have not yet been announced by Walt Disney World.
Individual attraction selections
Individual attraction selections allow you to schedule a time to arrive at up to two highly demanded attractions each day, again via the Lightning Lane entrance, like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom or Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
This is pay per ride access for up to 2 attractions in each park, as opposed to the ‘bundle’ of theoretically unlimited access offered by the Genie+ service. Attractions will either be included in Genie+ or sold as individual attraction selections–not both. There is no overlap between Genie+ and individual attraction selections. The latter will be sold at approximately 7-8 attractions in total across Walt Disney World.
Pricing for the individual attraction selections option will vary by date, attraction, and park–and will be announced closer to launch. Pricing for the comparable Premier Access at Disneyland Paris ranges from €8 to €15 (~$10 to $18) depending on the attraction and day of visit. Think of it like Express Lanes on highways—dynamic pricing that increases with demand.
Individual attraction selections are likely the source of most consumer confusion, as they don’t have a catchy name. Our guess is that many fans are conflating Lightning Lanes (physical queues!) with individual attraction selections, which is inaccurate–but an absolutely understandable error. For a company that is so good at branding and marketing, it seems like a pretty big oversight to not give “individual attraction selections” its own catchy name.
I’m inclined to start calling the individual attraction selections “Magic Carpet Access,” which would make sense, avoid any confusion, create clear product distinctions, and fit with the Aladdin-inspired branding.
All options in practice
1. Standby or Virtual Queue (all attractions, $0)
2. Genie+ via Lightning Lane (~40 attractions, $15 per day and theoretically unlimited)
3. Magic Carpet Access via Lightning Lane (~8 of the highest demand attractions, unknown cost per ride)
All attractions will have #1. Most if not all previous FastPass+ attractions will have 2 or 3, but not both.
I love a good analogy, so think of this all like the diamond lane on the highway (or carpool/HOV lane, depending upon where you live). That fast lane often has various rules for eligibility–hybrids, motorcycles, public mass transit, or vehicles with two or more occupants can use it to facilitate more efficient use of highways.
In that example, Lightning Lanes are the diamond lane–the physical infrastructure on the highway, or in this case, the attraction’s queue that bypasses the gridlocked standby line. The different types of vehicles that can use that physical fast lane are Genie+ or individual attraction purchases, plus things like DAS and Rider Switch. The only material difference in the analogy is that the same Lightning Lane will not give access to both Genie+ and individual attraction purchases–it’ll be either/or.
Okay, with that foundation in place, we can now get to the other 1,248 questions about the Disney Genie+ system and Lightning Lane physical infrastructure. Again, it’s intimidating now, but it’ll make sense over time. Just like driving a car on the highway, it’s a lot easier to grasp when you’re actually doing it as opposed to reading about it on the internet.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Have any questions we didn’t answer with the above? Still confused by how Genie+ or Lightning Lanes will work? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Other thoughts or concerns? 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 that you can purchase Genie+ by the day or for your entire vacation in advance. Do you need to have Genie+ in order to purchase individual Ride attractions? I know the attractions with both options are different so I just wondered if you still needed the Genie+ to only do the purchase of the individual rides.
@Darren
“I never used FP+ but from what I’ve read about it I’d have to think you’d be on your phone pretty much constantly….”
You can tell you’ve never used that system. You could schedule three of your favorite rides in each park ahead for FREE, not worrying if they’d interfere with with dining reservations, and you didn’t have to look at your phone at all until you used your last FP+ selection. No same day stress staining the vacation.
Can you clarify whether the Genie+ has to be added for length of stay (like park hopper) or if it is truly just a daily cost? For example if I go with an 8 day ticket and I choose to buy Genie+ for my first day (usually magic kingdom) am I paying just $15 for that day or am I paying $15×8days =$120/person
Also, is it like the DDP where everyone in your hotel room has to buy the Genie+. If one child and one adult are thrill seekers and the rest of us are land lovers?
ROTR now has the Star Wars hotel guests being promised to ride and Individual Paid Attraction guests being promised to ride. What percentage of daily spots are being reserved for free boarding groups?
Will large groups traveling together be able to book Genie+ Lightning Lanes at the same time? That was a big advantage of booking 60 days out. We knew we had at least three rides together.
What about people who DO enjoy planning their Disney trip and saw that as part of the experience?
How can you make ADR’s without knowing the rest of your schedule?
Extra hours for deluxe only. Paid access to the most popular rides. Price increases across the board and perks disappearing. It’s a lot to swallow all at once.
Thanks for your diligence in reporting. We appreciate it.
@Cathie
The good news is that if you’re boarding pass is scheduled at the same time as your ADR Disney will work with you. You will be able to do both.
This is sad. Think back to Walts comments on how he wanted somewhere for the dad or mom to have fun with kids. What’s happened? Fun has gone, and the parents that struggled to afford Disney parks, are now disadvantaged by wealthier guests. Walt would not want this. He would be dismayed at this proposed plan. Come on Disney we depend on you to help us out of theses Covid blues and find the magic again.
Thanks Tom that explanation made things a lot easier to understand. I really appreciate your site and all of the helpful information that you provide here. My wife and I are headed down there in January so by then we will have some more info to use in preparation.
Jason
why do you keep insisting that there was a 90 minute time frame where you could get another fastpass even if you had an active one open. I have lived here for years as an AP. That function never existed. You had to use all 3 of your passes or cancel or modify one to get another. I expect it to ve the same with Genie+.
I see the “staring at my phone all day” complaint a lot. I never used FP+ but from what I’ve read about it, I would have to think you’d be on your phone pretty much CONSTANTLY if you wanted to truly maximize the system (shuffling times around, modifying selections, checking for marquee ride drops, etc.). I can assure you there was none of that with MaxPass, which Genie+ seems to resemble. You made your selection, and that was it, you just waited for its window to open. More watching the clock than watching your phone, really.
It may end up being a more effective system at Disneyland (with fewer LL rides) than WDW, but hopefully it works well. The standalone purchases are awful and we can all agree we’re not going to do those, so that they can hopefully go away. (If I catch ANY of you buying those, I am going to go to the ride exit and aggressively break wind as soon as you emerge.) But I really do think you guys are going to dig Genie+ when you use it. Or at least I hope you do. Why? Because I love you. And I care. â¤â€â™‚ï¸
Cathie basically sums it up. Perhaps implicit but not stated is that the complexity to all this stuff is adding up. Somehow you have to get rooms – we are DCS time-share members and now have rooms but not our final choice as some alternatives are on wait list but then again the virus – then travel, by driving and parking worries or flying and no magical express – but then tix (we were able to renew AP until January, but then what? ) and then get park passes for our moving days and then decide food reservations and then get up at seven and then figure out if you can really see what you want or what priorities are going to be, and how much extra do we want to spend, all without knowing what is the best option for the day based on crowds or unexpected queues and closings or weather issues. I’m wore out just listing it, more or less managing it all in real time. And we are just getting started as first up is a mid-September visit with unknown rules still pending. When does the fun start?
And the best comment on all of this is just look at all the comments on all the blogs. Lots of opinions but clearly almost everyone has a basically unique understanding of just what the rules and procedures even mean. The rollout is disastrous if no one can even agree on what is actually being said or conveyed. We basically each have our own understanding. I wonder if any of them coincide with what Disney is actually intending to do???
We have visited Disney every year for the last two decades. For me, this new system will ruin the experience. It’s not only the money, it’s the way it will emotionally affect the days. Getting up every morning at 6:45, starting each day with stress and quite likely disappointment as I race to try and secure boarding passes for the most popular rides with the virtual queue system, then being torn between the guilt of paying another hundred dollars for our family to ride those rides with an a-la-carte Lightning Lane purchase, or seeing the disappointment in the kids eyes when you tell them they won’t be riding those rides today. Then being glued to the cell phone all day, which for me, really distracts from the magic. Not to mention having to criss-cross the park to try and take advantage of a shorter line for a popular ride, adding miles to our already tired feet. And quite possibly having to choose between using a boarding pass, (if luck is on your side during the 7:00 virtual rat race), and eating at your favorite restaurant, which you’ve booked months in advance and have been looking toward to, but now have to skip. Disney vacations have become so expensive over the years, and that magical feeling is eroding away. This just feels like a greedy grab on Disney’s part. No wonder their YouTube announcement for Genie App has the most “dislikes” ever for any YouTube post from Disney Parks. They should have seen that coming.
But nonetheless I do appreciate your clear and non bias reporting, Tom, and the time you take and the patience you have as you try to answer questions and clarify things for us.
Is the Genie+ $15/day per person or for a family of 4? If it’s per person and there’s a family of four people on a 7 day vacation, that’s an extra $420 for a vacation that already costs over $4000. And they haven’t even brought back the meal plans yet….love Disney but going on vacation there has become even more difficult. I dnt think any of this was in Walts thoughts and dreams.
Well, we never used Fastpass. If we got on any particular ride we did, if not we have fun anyway. This time we saved for TEN years. We stopped going to the movies, too expensive, stuck with cheap vacations and staycations. Didn’t plan on having to pick a deluxe resort, but I must have a roll in shower. Lots more money. So some stuff won’t happen. But it will still be unbelievable fun Magic fun. It’s how I was raised. My folks were young marrieds during the Great Depression. The night before he got paid every two weeks Mom took a can of corn, a quart of milk and made corn chowder. All they could afford. How can I complain about not having enough money for FUN?
Now about DAS & Genie?
Because of the cost, we only make it to WDW once every three years, since 2004. We never had a problem with the fast pass system. It never was confusing. I think it was a level playing field for all guests. This pay to ride system clearly gives an advantage to wealthier guests. This is definitley not a level playing field. It is shameful, really. We had a trip planned for late March 2020, which was canceled. We tried for September 2020, but had to cancel again. Now we are booked for November. I was so looking forward to this trip; but not now. This genie offering has sucked the excitement out of our trip. I honestly don’t know how anyone was confused by fast pass. I think that is a fabricated reason being thrown out there to justify this genie thing. Assuming that we want an app to plan our day is ridiculous as well. All part of the push to make people think this is in their favor. I love Disney. I always defend Disney. I cannot defend this pay to ride scheme.
For a party of 12, if I purchase Genie + for each person for the day, will it be reflected on their magic bands that they have Genie + for the day????
I hope that they will come out with a “lump sum” annual pass add-on for Genie+. They did this for the MaxPass and annual passholders out in Disneyland in the past, and I’m hoping they offer something similar for annual passholders down the road.
Can you buy the Genie plus that day while in the park? If it is crowded and you only have limited time for a park may be worth it
@Jack
“…we would have days where we would be able to use FP over 10x. And it wasn’t just for the less popular rides. To maximize it, I would target the first 3 to be finished before lunch and then add one at at time for the rest of the day.”
This is the tactic and experience my husband and I usually have whenever we visit as well. I don’t know if I’m just not totally understanding the 90/120 min rule (which is VERY possible), but it seems like Genie+ has the potential to significantly decrease the amount of (the passes formerly known as) FastPasses that can be taken advantage of in a day.
I’m already feeling nervous that not only am I going to have to pay money for something I didn’t have to pay for before, but my power refreshing isn’t going to get me on as many rides on any given day either. Feels like a double whammy. I’m glad there will be months of people using the service before my next trip is scheduled!
Thank you for this clarification! We’ll be visiting Disneyland in late September. When logging into the Disneyland app we were asked to update our notification preference to allow disney to “make recommendations based on location”, so I’m thinking this will be ongoing while we’re there. I’ve reached out to disney to get their input that if we choose not to purchase the plus or lightening lane systems, if will we be able to ride some of the bigger ticket rides. Or if it will be a gamble. Also if we do purchase are we guaranteed a ride. Especially for those utilizing a virtual queue. Will let you know what I hear back from Disney.
One question I haven’t seen answered yet (here or elsewhere) is whether they’ll “run out of” Lightning Lane. Presumably, most people will only want to buy LL if they don’t win the 7am ROTR lottery and the 12pm/1pm lottery – but at that time, will it already be all sold out? Could you win both the ROTR lottery and pay for LL (to ride twice)?
I respectfully submit the name Genie nonplussed for the free Genie.
Theoretically if everyone in the park buys genie+ the fastest line will be the standby line since everyone will be in the lightning lane.