Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure Moving to Genie+
Walt Disney World’s newest attraction (for the next ~2 weeks) will soon be downgraded to Genie+ from an Individual Lightning Lane, as Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure joins the paid FastPass ride roster in Summer 2022. This post covers details and commentary about the change.
This isn’t a huge surprise, as it comes after Walt Disney World moved Individual Lightning Lane attractions to Genie+ for the spring and summer months. In case you missed it, Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Hollywood Studios, Frozen Ever After at Epcot, and Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom will be included in the flat-rate Disney Genie+ service and will not be sold a la carte as Individual Lightning Lanes through at least August 7, 2022.
That change was made prior to the peak spring break season, back when crowds were once again starting to overwhelm the Genie+ system. As has been covered elsewhere, February was the busiest month in the last two years (at the time), and then March managed to top it and be even worse. April was on track to surpass March through the first two weeks, but falling crowds in the second half of the month brought its average down.
To make a long story short, the goal with moving an attraction from each park down to Genie+ was to avoid a repeat of the week before Thanksgiving, when Genie+ Collapsed in Crowds. Before these rides were moved over to the Genie+ service, many readers complained of limited ride reservation availability. (It has also happened since, but we’ve noticed overall “dissatisfaction rates” have ticked down slightly.)
Since then, Walt Disney World has also added a ‘warning’ that “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.” (Read more in Genie+ Really is Paid FastPass+ at Walt Disney World.)
Against that backdrop, Walt Disney World announced that Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure will be added to Genie+ beginning May 31, 2022:
“Until August 7, 2022, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure (beginning May 31, 2022), Space Mountain and Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain will be included via Disney Genie+ service and will not be included as individual Lightning Lane entry selections.”
This comes the day after Memorial Day, which should mark a brief respite in crowds after the moderately busy day of the holiday weekend. It also comes only a few days after Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind opens at Epcot.
Timing-wise, the move makes complete sense, although it’s interesting that Walt Disney World is waiting until the end of the long weekend to make the move. Guess those few extra days of Individual Lightning Lane revenue when the park is packed were too much to pass up!
Now, let’s turn to strategy and how Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure moving to Genie+ changes things at EPCOT. First, we’d recommend anyone visiting the parks during the busy summer season follow our Walt Disney World Itineraries. We’ve started updating these and will have them finished by next week.
In addition to that, consult our Epcot Genie+ Priorities & Lightning Lane Ride Ranks. Despite Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure being the newer ride, Frozen Ever After should still edge it out for the title of #1 based on current wait time data trends (although it’s a close call, so keep an eye on that for future updates).
The big change here is that we’ll probably start recommending Genie+ at Epcot, for at least some guests.
Up until now, our advice has been to skip it entirely at Epcot, unless you’re Park Hopping and able to double-dip. Adding Frozen Ever After tipped the scales a bit, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure should be the difference-maker.
The only question at this point is availability versus demand. Up until now, using Genie+ at Epcot has been relatively easy (at least as compared to Disney’s Hollywood Studios), but moving another popular, family-friendly attraction to the Genie+ lineup will undoubtedly induce more demand for the paid FastPass service.
In this regard, adding another Genie+ Lightning Lane could be akin to adding more lanes to a highway–it doesn’t reduce traffic jams because the added capacity is offset by added demand. The operative question is whether it’ll be possible to score Lightning Lane ride reservations for Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Test Track (plus a couple of secondary attractions) all in the same day? We don’t know the answer to that question yet, but will be testing that to find out. If the answer is “no,” our recommendation probably won’t change.
The good news is that strategy for Epcot probably won’t change too much in Summer 2022. While Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is the headline story here, obviously the bigger impact is going to be Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. That’s literally the biggest addition to Epcot in my lifetime.
However, Cosmic Rewind will use a virtual queue, so it alone won’t have much of an impact on itineraries. The park will just be busier, with the same general advice still applying–but being less effective. To that end, if you’re staying on-site, the one thing we highly recommend is Early Entry at Epcot. Check out our recent Early Entry at Epcot: Better Than Genie+ post–the title says it all.
Significantly earlier opening times provide a huge advantage to early risers, and savvy strategy or advanced-level know-how with Genie+ and Lightning Lanes can be a gamechanger. To that end, we (once again) recommend checking out Genie+ v. Savvy Strategy at Walt Disney World, which is the result of extensive ‘testing’ to determine the best and worst ways to beat the crowds.
If you can’t swing getting up and out the door before park opening, Epcot also does Extended Evening Theme Park Hours for select guests. This perk will soon be significantly better, as Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind will be open–and using a virtual queue. It should be possible to accomplish that, plus Soarin’ Around the World, Test Track, Frozen Ever After, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure during the extra hours.
Ultimately, this could change the equation for purchasing Genie+ when visiting Epcot in Summer 2022. Previously, we’ve said that crowd levels in the 6/10 to 8/10 range were the sweet spot for buying Genie+, with it being unnecessary when numbers are lower and frustrating/less useful during peak season.
This should expand that range in both directions, making Genie+ more useful in slightly lower and slightly higher crowds–but probably not on peak 10/10 days. Even though summer has historically been slower at Epcot, we’re expecting an increase in 9/10 or 10/10 days this year due to Cosmic Rewind.
Adding Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure to the Genie+ lineup is another step in the right direction, but plenty of issues persist with the Genie system at Walt Disney World. Before we get carried away patting Walt Disney World on the back here, we should add the very important caveat that 3 of the 4 parks shouldn’t have Individual Lightning Lanes, period, because their eligible attraction capacity is too low to sustain the system.
Really, this is a matter of Disney (partially) “solving” a problem of its own creation. No applause necessary for that. Beyond that, the company still needs to fix the foundational problems causing so many frustrations for guests–even months after its relax, Genie is still glitchy and unintuitive.
If you have more unanswered questions, 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.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your thoughts on Walt Disney World moving Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure to Genie+ from the Individual Lightning Lane? Think it’s a sign of ILL failure, or a simple rebalancing of demand and capacity? Think it’ll turn into a permanent change anywhere? 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!
We are staying on site at Disney from August 8th. We have Genie plus included everyday. What do you think this will look like? Has anything been released/confirmed?
If we are staying at a Deluxe resort, will we still have to purchase a LL for Cosmic Rewind if we are doing the Epcot extended evening hours 9-11p.m.? It’s no longer a vacation when you have to get up early. I miss the days when I could book in advance so we knew ahead of time what our day was going to look like. This new system is not relaxing, total opposite- nerve racking!!
I’m surprised that the cake-and-eat-it option of “make ILLs count towards a G+ reservation” wasn’t selected. I feel like it’s only a matter of time before someone hits on the idea of tiered Genie+ for additional monetisation without disrupting operations.
“ through at least April 7, 2022.”?
August 7, 2022.
Thanks for catching that.
Tom, do you think all these rides will indeed make their way back to ILL by September? Or do you think Disney will leave them in the Genie + line up?
My guess is that they’ll remain in the Genie+ lineup permanently. Otherwise, the exact same issue happens again in November/December, and the move will need to happen all over again. Then they’d move back to ILL again for January 2023, and shift to Genie+ from Presidents’ Day through August again. That seems excessive to me.
Although Disney moving the rides back to ILL for the off-season months when it’s not necessary to purchase ILL would be somewhat amusing.
Thanks Tom, appreciate your insight on this!
Wow. Just was at the parks last week. I would have loved to use my Disney genie for it. Ratatouille was a super long wait but second time literally sat on the ground for about 20 min outside the ride when they were telling everyone the ride was shutdown due to mechanical issues. (Which I mind you happened in every single park multiple times per day for 5 days) anyway Epcot needs many more attractions or at least a boost to the ones in the countries. It needed to be added right after Easter. Just my thoughts.
My hope is that Cosmic Rewind is the attraction that *finally* gives EPCOT an actual shot in the arm and proves to be the lasting attendance driver that justifies significant investment in the park.
It shouldn’t have come to this and a lot of other decisions with the park have been incredibly short-sighted (including the newly-announced CommuniCore Hall), but Cosmic Rewind is a potential game-changer for the park…if Disney leaders are willing to invest.
I prefer trying to get my epcot fix after hours, but if that’s not possible I might try genie plus there now… if I’m feeling masochistic. I’m pretty chill about the cost of genie plus and not enough rides and lack of obvious app features and all that, but just make the darn service WORK reliably.
I am already annoyed for my upcoming summer trip because I know how it will play out. Wake up at 645am which is 345am my time, to make sure my account is ready to rock because getting ready at 655 burned me before due to app issues. App will go down at 7am and I’ll curse at it until 706 or so until it comes back up and no ILL are left for cosmic rewind. Then maybe if I’m lucky I’ll get frozen if it’s still available that late… then I’ll spend the next two hours constantly checking my phone and maybe get lucky with the ILL. Maybe. Call me crazy but I feel like being conditioned to dread my vacation is not a good thing.
“Call me crazy but I feel like being conditioned to dread my vacation is not a good thing.”
You’re definitely not crazy.
The degree to which WDW has deliberately added day-of stress with Genie+ is just mind-boggling. It sets the tone for the day, and often isn’t a good one.
I used to complain that the arrival experience with bag check and long waits at the turnstiles made an awful first impression. That’s finally been fixed and streamlined, but they’ve found a way to make an even worse first impression for the day–and even earlier! You’ve really gotta hand it to them.
I know exactly how you feel. We just spent eight days in Orlando, with WDW sandwiched between two Universal stays (3 nights at Cabana Bay, 3 nights at Pop, 2 nights at Portofino Bay). I was dreading the Disney portion of the trip before we even got on the plane, certain that we wouldn’t be able to do our favorite attractions without getting up extremely early. Everything turned out fine in the end because of lower crowds and having good luck with the ILLs, but I’m sorry to see Ratatouille going to Genie+, as that means we’ll have to cave and get Genie+ next time. By contrast, Universal is stress free, especially with their express pass included in the price of a premium hotel room. Sleep late, hang out at the pool, and bop over to the parks w/o waiting in any lines: that’s my idea of a vacation!
I used to think having to pick 3 free passes ahead of my trip was a nightmare and stressful, this lighting lane and Genie + almost make me want to give up on Disney all together and become Team Universal. When will all the Disney Magic return?