Speed Strategy for Genie+ Selections
If you’re visiting Walt Disney World during peak season when attendance and crowds are higher, you’re going to face more “competition” for popular rides with the new Genie+ service. This means Lightning Lane ride reservation times will go faster, and you might even get shut out of the highest profile attractions, like Slinky Dog Dash. This post explains how you can use speed to your advantage when making your first selection of the day.
This is the final component of the Triforce of advanced-level Genie+ strategy. (It’s more accurately the first in practice, as you’ll do this before anything else.) The other parts are Courage and Wisdom the 120 minute rule and stacking. See How the Genie+ 120 Minute Rule Works and Tips for “Stacking” Genie+ Ride Reservations, which explains how to leverage the 120 minute rule in tandem with “last actions.” Getting the earliest possible return time for your first Lightning Lane selection is good for obvious reasons, but it’ll also lay the foundation for more successful stacking–the essence of the Genie+ Triforce.
All of this might be confusing or intimidating at first, but it’s worth mastering as it will improve your day tremendously. Without question, the 120 minute rule and stacking are the two most important things to know about the Genie+ system, with this being a distant third. We highly recommend reading those two separate posts in addition to this one. With that said, all parts of the Triforce are graduate level and beyond what 95% of guests will do or even need. In other words, these are not the basics.
For foundational knowledge, see our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ. That covers the need-to-know essential info about this paid FastPass+ replacement. The Genie system is confusing and convoluted, so you might have a question or 17. That answers all of the most common ones we’ve been receiving from readers.
The goal with that FAQ and guide is to address the basics of Genie+ and Lightning Lanes. The goal here is to take things to the next level with more advanced hacks and strategy.
Think of Genie+ like air travel. If you’re looking to get from point A to B, one option is booking a flight on Southwest. That’s hopefully pretty easy for most of you, and offers a simple solution that is more efficient than driving. Or you can learn to fly an aircraft. That’s going to be a bit more challenging, but offers more flexibility and freedom.
In this illustrative example, simply getting in standby lines is driving, booking a flight on Southwest is using Genie+ in a straightforward way, and the three levels of advanced Genie+ strategy that we cover is flying the plane yourself. With that in mind, let’s start the process for making your first Genie+ selection with this speed strategy…
Normally, we do not recommend messing with the free Genie itinerary builder service, which is virtually useless. This is the one exception to that–you’ll need to partially set that up for this. There are several ways to get to Genie–the easiest and most consistent is clicking the hamburger button (three horizontal lines) on the bottom right corner of the My Disney Experience app.
Select the “My Genie Day” button with the lamp icon in the upper right corner. It all should take you to exactly the same place to start. The first time you initiate that process, you’ll be greeted with an introduction, briefly explaining the Disney Genie service. None of this text matters–just click “Start Now” on this screen.
You’ll start by selecting a date.
We’re visiting Disney’s Hollywood Studios on this day–the best example for this since it’s the most “competitive” park for Genie+ selections–so that’s what we chose.
Then you’ll choose your party.
As with virtual queues, anyone with Disney Park Pass reservations should already be preselected here.
The first thing you’ll do is select from a list of attractions in whichever park you select.
Each attraction will note whether it offers “Lightning Lane Included with Genie+” or is a “Lightning Lane” (no further explanation given) in the case of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at DHS.
The important part of this process–truly, the only reason we’re doing this at all–is to select your first attraction of the day…and only your first attraction!
In our case, that’s Slinky Dog Dash. As explained in Disney’s Hollywood Studios Genie+ Priorities & Lightning Lane Ride Ranks, this is the #1 Genie+ attraction in all of Walt Disney World. If you want to do Slinky Dog Dash, you should be selecting it here, too.
From there, it’s on to selecting interests. None of this or anything that follows matters for our purposes–just skip it all.
At the end of that process, you should receive a prompt to purchase Genie+ if you haven’t already. Do that now.
Once Genie goes through its “advanced algorithmic” (lol) process, ignore whatever nonsensical results it spits out at you and click over to the Tip Board (see the top of the screen above).
Here, you should see your highest priority attraction–Slinky Dog Dash in DHS–pinned to the top of the screen. This might seem like a minor thing, but it’s huge. Normally, attractions are listed in alphabetical order; since Slinky Dog Dash starts with the letter “s”, it’s near the bottom of the list. This saves you time scrolling, and as anyone who tried their hand at the old Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance virtual queue knows, milliseconds matter.
All of this might seem overwhelming, cumbersome, and time-consuming–especially first thing in the morning. To the contrary, it’s quite quick and simple. One thing I’ve repeatedly reiterated is that this is way easier in practice than it is when reading about it online. Again, there’s a reason you learn to ride a bike by doing it rather than watching YouTube.
For what it’s worth, my alarm was set for 6:45 am. I got up, went downstairs, and made a cup of coffee. Then I started this process and bought Genie+. I was done and ready to roll, as the screenshot shows, by 6:53 am. I spent the next ~7 minutes sitting nervously in front of my laptop waiting for 7:00:00 am to roll around. (I also took the above photo of myself in the dark, cut things a little too close, and almost missed out on an early SDD return time!)
Which brings us to the next step…
Before 7:00:00 am rolls around, you’ll want to optimize to ensure your timing is accurate and your phone and internet connection are as fast as possible. This might sound like overkill, but again–milliseconds matter. We’d recommend doing a quick speed test a few minutes before it’s time to make your first Lightning Lane ride reservation. Anything at or above 40 Mbps should be sufficient, but the higher the better.
We’ve noticed that some lower-level Walt Disney World hotel rooms have issues, so you might want to go outside, to the lobby, etc. Whatever is convenient. Test your cellular carrier versus Walt Disney World’s WiFi to see which is faster, too. (You might want to do a speed test the night before waking up at 6:45 am, as having to move around will definitely make this process take longer.)
Next, force close all apps other than My Disney Experience. (You should also make sure your phone and My Disney Experience is fully updated before starting this entire process.)
Finally, double-check the time on your phone or watch against time.gov, which is what Walt Disney World uses for ‘unlocking’ the Genie+ selection feature. Most of the time, I’m doing this while sitting in front of my computer, and I just leave the time website up behind my phone while getting ready.
These three simple steps can often be the difference between getting an early return time. Now it’s time to, in the immortal wisdom of Slinky Dog Dash, “GO! GO! GO! GO!”
At 6:59:59 am, pull down “hard” on the Tip Board (see above) and release right as the clock strikes 7:00:00 am.
As soon as it reloads, you will hopefully see you “Top Pick” attraction with a Genie+ Lightning Lane time starting at or shortly after park opening.
Click the box to book the experience, and quickly click through the process to complete the ride reservation.
Don’t be surprised if the return time adjusts–if you’re too slow in clicking, you’ll end up with a later return time. While I am “perfect” at other parks and with all other attractions, there have been a couple of times when I haven’t scored Slinky Dog Dash with a return time right at 9 am. Don’t fret over this–anytime before noon should be viewed as a win here, especially during higher crowd times.
Above and below are screenshots showing the same process for Na’vi River Journey at Animal Kingdom.
If you’re spending all day at DAK, that should be your pinned pick there. At Magic Kingdom, it should be Jungle Cruise (see our full Magic Kingdom Genie+ Priorities & Ride Rankings). At Epcot, it should be Test Track.
This process is much easier and less competitive for any park but Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
I don’t obsessively check this every single day for all of the parks, but anecdotally, I’d say Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is the #2 Genie+ attraction (demand-wise) in all of Walt Disney World. It goes fast on its own, but even faster once Slinky Dog Dash is gone. For reasons beyond the scope of this post, the case could be made that MFSR is potentially a higher priority Genie+ selection than SDD right now!
Speaking of which, here’s a look at my Tip Board as of 7:00:30 am–Slinky Dog Dash is already gone for the day. In fairness, it’s a ‘sold out’ day during Thanksgiving week, so a bit of an anomaly. Nevertheless, it has basically become as difficult to book Slinky Dog Dash as the now-defunct virtual queue for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
If you have issues with this speed strategy, it is worth noting that sometimes availability does open up in the few minutes after 7 am. Rather than booking a “consolation prize” Lightning Lane, we’d strongly recommend repeatedly refreshing this screen for a couple minutes. If you already have an alternative booked, you’ll have to cancel that before booking something different–that process is clunky and you’ll almost always miss out on the ‘limited inventory’ for Slinky Dog Dash if you have to cancel and rebook. If you haven’t seen anything for Slinky Dog Dash by ~7:05, book a different attraction.
If you plan to start elsewhere and Park Hop to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you will still want to follow these speed strategy steps for booking Slinky Dog Dash as your first Lightning Lane selection. At least, to the extent possible. You won’t be able to pin Slinky Dog Dash to the top of your Tip Board, but you can still scroll to it; when refreshing from there, Genie+ will (hopefully) save your spot. This process is slightly slower, so there’s a pretty good chance you’ll get a time after 2 pm.
Even if you would’ve otherwise received a time before 2 pm, Genie+ will adjust your return time to that. It’s one of the only ways the system is “smart” when it comes to your plans. (See our Park Hopping Tips for Genie+ at Walt Disney World if you need help changing parks in the system…or anything else.) The reason you’ll want to book Slinky Dog Dash first is because it won’t be available 120 minutes after any of the parks open. It’s not possible to select second, unless you luck into a cancellation.
Finally, after scoring Slinky Dog Dash or whatever your top priority was, you should click the “Edit Selections” button on the Tip Board to replace what you booked with your next 2 priorities. This will make the process easier for subsequent selections–especially if you’re going to refreshing regularly in the hopes of scoring a coveted Lightning Lane ride reservation or time during a refill/drop.
That should be everything you need to know in terms of a speed strategy for scoring an early Slinky Dog Dash Lightning Lane selection–or a return time of around 9 am for any eligible headliner at Walt Disney World. This is a ton of text that arguably over-explains the process (without exhaustive explanations, we get a lot of questions). Again, it’s much easier and faster in practice. Mastering this strategy while using the Genie+ service will take you far less time than reading this blog post!
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
Does this speed strategy for scoring an early morning Lightning Lane selection make sense to you? Have you had success in getting Slinky Dog Dash before noon? What about headliners in other parks? Thoughts on leveraging Genie+ via the Triforce strategy? 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!
Thank you! What do you think about fast fingering SDD, then immediately paying LL for RoTR? Is there time in there to do that without RoTR selling out? Then trying to rope drop RotR with early park entry anyway and if its down, try the next hard to get attraction like Smuggler’s Run?
Do you think it’s really necessary to book slinky first thing in the morning using genie+? When I was there on the Friday before Halloween we entered for early entry and got in line for slinky, but they didn’t open right away so we went and rode millennium falcon and then went back to slinky and it was 5-10 minute wait standby…. This allowed us to book a genie+ reservation that evening so we got two rides on it that day…
We have a mixed marriage: I am a rope-dropper; SWAMBO is somewhat more relaxed. I always use the Single Rider Line where available, so I don’t book Smugglers Run, R&RC, Test Track, or Expedition Everest. The Rope Drop Sprint has worked well for me at Space Mountain and ROTR. Otherwise, I use your system. It works.
I have a trip coming up in about a week and a half. Our HS day is starting at AK and hopping to HS after lunch. Do paid LL reservations still follow the 120 minute rule? Or could we book SDD first thing at 7am and then pay for Flight of Passage immediately after? We only want to do Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest and the Safari at AK but we only have until noon then we have to leave for a lunch reservation. There are many more rides at HS we want to do, including SDD. Any tips on best way to plan would be appreciated. We will be going on a Friday if that makes a difference.
Hi Tom!
When I was in WDW recently and booked ILL, it sent me a code to email that I had to get to complete my ILL purchase. It took some time for it to show up in email even refreshing my inbox. During this time I definitely got bumped down the chain for SDD (1:05pm I think was what I ended up with). Is there a way to have WDW text a code or does it have to come through email? Thank you!
“Is there a way to have WDW text a code or does it have to come through email?”
If there is, I don’t know about it!
I’ve had this same problem many, many times since Genie+ launched. It’s incredibly frustrating.
We visited the first week of Nov, and I was most appreciative of your advice. I was too slow in the morning and at 7:02 got a 6PM Slinky Dog time, so we switched our park reservation and hopped to HS in the afternoon. Because of this I was able to stack the Millenium Falcon and all of the Toy Story Land rides for the evening. One additional note – we got in the SD line at 5 minutes to park close and only waited 10-15 minutes to ride it a second time.
What if I do not want the first or second time slot for SDD? Let’s say I am trying for around 10-11. Do I just keep refreshing until I see that time?
Also, I have a party of 15. Since you can only book for a party of 12, what do you suggest? Book my party of 12 and then go back and book for the balance of people? Or have someone else from the party sign in on their app and book the balance of people?
Thanks!
We used this strategy last week and, while I was successful getting the LL I wanted each morning, Disney had other plans. On my MK day, almost all major rides went down throughout the day (splash, big thunder, pirates, and space). When your LL is down during your return time, you get a “freebie” to use wherever. Most took their freebie to Jungle cruise creating a 30 min LL wait for me. A few days later, I lined up a LL for Slinky from 10-11 at HS. Perfect! I can try to grab two by entering slinky right at the end of my time. Nope. Entered the park early to find ROTR and Slinky down, and both would be until about noon. TOT and Rockn Rollercoaster went down periodically throughout the afternoon too. Using Genie+ in these situations was difficult and frustrating, trying to make decisions in real time with everyone else. There is no “do over” or recourse from Disney to be had. You’ve bought this product and now feel sunk. A post exploring “worst case” scenarios would be helpful. Perhaps how to pivot to another park or otherwise regroup to make the most of your day.
I wonder if someone can confirm the following scenario:
I’m a little slow with my fast fingers the morning of DHS (long, aggressive game of one two three four I declare a thumb war the night before that ended in violence), and I get a Slinky Dog Dash return time of 10:05-11:05AM. So after rope-dropping for Vacation Fun – An Original Animated Short with Mickey & Minnie and waiting in the expected hour and a half queue, it’s close to 11AM, so I decide to let the normal 120 minute clock expire exactly at 11 for a “bonus” LL. Naturally, my new selection will be Disney Junior Dance Party Presented by Pampers Pull-Ups, but that’s beside the point, the point is I got a bonus LL and can get another one after tapping in to Slinky Dog Dash, so basically two for the price of one. However, what happens if I then let the SDD window expire at 11:06? Do I get another “bonus” selection, which I would of course use immediately for Frozen Sing-Along? THEN tap in to SDD and get a THIRD “bonus” selection for when I park hop to Animal Kingdom and prioritize Feathered Friends in Flight? Three amazing selections for the price of one? Is this a confirmed thing? Trip coming up soon, someone get on this stat.
In my experience, it’s one or the other with 120 minutes/window expiring. The plus comes into play with either of those, then the LL tapstiles.
I love the Triforce… although if you knew someone who also had DAS, could this actually become the Quadforce? We are coming down next Christmas (so a year to learn the nuances of the new systems) and the biggest challenge as I see it will be melding Genie+ with DAS to maximize our experience and limit wait times. I do enjoy reading your posts and have found them useful and entertaining.
I thought I was following all this, but now I’m confused. I thought the “sweet spot” for the first reservation of the day is to have it expiring just after the two hour after park open mark to make you eligible for 3 “last actions”: 1) when you hit the 120 minutes after park open, then another when 2) you let your selection expire, then 3) you tap in (a couple minutes late). But based on this you’re saying to go for a park open slot (so giving up the 120 minutes after park open last action)? Doesn’t that only give you two eligibility points then instead of three?
Thank you so much! We used your posts on Genie+ to build a plan for Magic Kingdom… we were late getting a reservation during the week of Thanksgiving, and could only go Sat evening AFTER driving 10 hours. So the entire drive, I used the 120 minute rule and carefully watching the times to stack all the things the kids wanted to do! Between 7-10 pm, we were able to do: Haunted Mansion, Fireworks, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Carribean, and Jingle Cruise. And get hot dogs at Casey’s Corner, and Funnel Cakes at Sleepy Hollow. It wasn’t ideal, but with teenagers, the Genie+ made it possible to enjoy our first evening in town!
One lesson learned- when the traffic got bad, and we had to reschedule 2 return times, it allowed me to cancel and reschedule both of them without waiting for 120 minutes in between. It did reset our 120 min rule time each time though. So you can rebook an existing time at any point, and even do multiple rebookings, but it does reset your 120 mins.
“One lesson learned- when the traffic got bad, and we had to reschedule 2 return times, it allowed me to cancel and reschedule both of them without waiting for 120 minutes in between. It did reset our 120 min rule time each time though. So you can rebook an existing time at any point, and even do multiple rebookings, but it does reset your 120 mins.”
For future reference, this should only occur if you reschedule your newest Genie+ selection. Meaning that if you would’ve only cancelled and rebooked an older one (and waited to reschedule the most recent until booking another new time on top of it), it wouldn’t have reset the clock. At least, that has been my experience–which is not necessarily conclusive since the system has a ton of quirks and glitches.
Hopefully that makes sense and is useful down the road, or for someone else!
Thanks Tom! If we do this and get a 9am return time, would you advise rope dropping Rise of the Resistance, and then quickly going to Slinky Dog to use our Lightning Lane? Or would doing Rise first defeat the whole purpose of this speed method?
Thanks!!
Definitely rope drop RotR (assuming you’re eligible for Early Entry).
We have a post about our experience here: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/early-entry-at-hollywood-studios-excellent-individual-lightning-lane-alternative/
This new paid system stinks. Going to Hollywood studios today and read this article last night to prepare. Got SDD but went to get ROTR right after at 7:01 and it was completely sold out. Waking up at 7am and playing this game every morning and not getting the rides you want as a resort guest really stinks bad. Hate genie+
Oof, that really stinks. Sorry to hear that.
Hope you’re able to either rope drop RotR or do it towards the end of the night via standby. The lines midday yesterday for it were INSANE.
I just give up. I’m exhausted. I don’t want a “vacation” this complicated and stressful.
Having to “score” spaces in a line – a line that you have already paid for – isn’t fun to me.
Needing my phone more and more to facilitate getting around an amusement park isn’t fun for me. I’d rather pay attention to my family than my phone.
Having to plan rides and NOT EVEN OFFERING THE OPTION of stand in (or whatever we call what we were doing 20 years ago) line options isn’t fun for me.
Putting the costs completely aside, Disney has sucked all the fun away from their amusement parks. I never liked Universal parks much, but I have more fun there now.
Totally understand your frustration. Just one point to clarify–standby lines are still available. If you don’t want to hassle with Genie+ at all (we don’t recommend it for Epcot or Animal Kingdom), you can just use a “normal” arrive early, stay late and use standby line strategy.
Tom,
1. Can you clarify about selecting rides when park hopping. I read that you had to check in to your first park before being eligible to select for the 2 PM park hopping park.
2. Selecting a return window around 11am instead of around 9am, sets you up well for “stacking” and a allows a more leisurely arrival if desired.
3. Your about strategy let’s you rise SDD at 9am, then select another ride for ~1115 (or park hopper 2pm destination) to begin the stacking.
1. I haven’t experienced that issue, but as I think about it…I’m not sure I’ve tried that. I’ll test it out and report back.
2. For reasons we’ll get into in a subsequent post, letting LLs expire is a better option for stacking, so I’d recommend getting times as close to park opening as possible. Unless you won’t be there until much later.
3. Not totally sure I understand the question, but remember that you can select another attraction after 120 minutes OR tapping in, so you could theoretically select #2 right around 9 am–assuming you did SDD right away–in that scenario.
Thank you for your tips! They helped in our recent trip. I would have loved to know about pinning a ride! That would have helped to get slinky but we just did early entry and waited in line instead. It definitely is a system that you have to play with and learn from, no matter how much studying you do. The app itself stinks. I was bummed off multiple times. I had to keep entering a code that I got from my email which slowed down my process. Overall it is a needed system when the parks are busy or you have a group that doesn’t want to wait in lots of lines. With anything Disney there are always lines so you have to be willing to wait in some and not expect that the lightning lanes will be lightning fast!
So, in theory, if we are able to book the FP#1 for 9:00am, we let it expire at 10:00, book FP#2, tap in to #1 before 10:15, book FP#3 and then at 11:00am book FP#4. Is that correct? I’m seriously so appreciative for all the research you do and information you share.
Correct through FP#3. The rule is expire or 120 minutes, not both.
However, there is another way to get FP#4 in that scenario with the expired selection–every time you tap. (Post coming very soon with a thorough, and probably confusing, explanation.)
This discussion is very disturbing. Disney World is suppose to be fun for the family, not have us with our nose in our phones . We have planned a trip in Dec. And I’m re-thinking or should I say almost panicking for the young adults We are bringing. The idea was to go and enjoy each other’s company..yes I realize there my be some lines, but now knowing people are buying there spot in line….guess Disney is for only the rich…very sad !!!
@Steph — I was trying to reply directly to your comment, but it won’t let me for some reason.
I think you may have misunderstood Tom’s method there. You have a Genie+ selection (e.g., Slinky Dog Dash) that is 120 minutes or more in the future. You wait until 120 minutes have passed, and then BEFORE getting in the SDD line, you book a new Genie+ selection (say, Rock-n-Roller Coaster), which has become available because 120 minutes have passed since you made the SDD selection. THEN you enter the SDD queue, and after the second checkpoint, you should be eligible to make a third Genie+ selection, because tapping into SDD opens up eligibility for another one.
It might be frustrating to get all this straightened out now, a couple weeks after the trip. But it should be helpful for future trips.