Summary

Disney Genie is out of the bottle, and your wish is our command when it comes to covering all of the magical details! Disney Genie debuted Oct. 19 at Walt Disney World, and we frogs hopped right on it and tested it out! We're breaking down Disney Genie at Disney World, with all of the deets on Disney Genie, Genie+ and individual Lightning Lane selections for the Most Magical Place on Earth. (Psst ... you can save some green on Disney World Genie+ tickets through Undercover Tourist!)

Hop To

• Launch Date
• What Is Genie?
• Genie+ at Disney World
• How Do I Get Genie+?
• How Do I Use Genie+?
• Individual Lightning Lane Selections
• Tips and Tricks

Just like Aladdin was granted three wishes, there are three major parts to Disney Genie:

1. The free Genie planning tool
2. The optional paid Genie+ service to make ride reservations for the majority of popular attractions at the theme parks
3. The individual Lightning Lane selections for high-demand rides not included in Genie+ for an additional cost per ride

We tried out Genie+ and individual Lightning Lane selections at Magic Kingdom and even hopped over to Animal Kingdom. With Genie+, we rode four major attractions within the first two hours of our day. We purchased individual Lightning Lane access for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and rode early in the morning (only waiting for two minutes while standby was a 60-minute wait!). We'll go through the process and our tips and tricks below.

Disney Genie is also available at Disneyland, as of Dec. 8, 2021 (we've got a whole guide just for Genie on the West Coast!). And keep hopping back — we'll continue to update as we learn more and strengthen our tips and strategies!

When Does Disney Genie Launch?

Big news! Disney Genie is available at Disney World, as of Oct. 19, 2021!

What Exactly Is Disney Genie?

Disney Genie is a new, FREE tool in the My Disney Experience app at Disney World. You can use this new technology to guide you through the theme parks with tips to help you reduce time in lines, discover Disney magic and take the guesswork out of planning your day.

Genie includes a personalized itinerary and recommendations feature that will map out your entire day. Just let Disney Genie know what you want to do under the "My Day" tab by selecting attractions, entertainment, dining and enchanting extras (such as building a lightsaber). You can personalize your day even more by selecting general interests you may have. Change your mind? Genie can handle that and readjust your itinerary to include what interests you while you are on the go. You can view your favorites and suggestions in one place on the "Tip Board" tab. You can also request to see height requirements and accessibility when planning out your day.

Disney Genie allows for flexibility. If you like to be spontaneous and go with the flow, Disney Genie will update your itinerary as you go. It displays current and projected ride wait times and helps you pick the best time to ride (kind of like what your favorite frogs have been doing for years to help readers maximize time and follow proven park plans based on our extensive experience in the parks). You'll be able to join a virtual queue, mobile order food, join a restaurant walk-up list and make reservations for dining and rides through Genie, just like you already do through the park apps, but all in one spot. If you do not like a suggestion, you can do a Swaperoo to swap recommendations. You can also remove specific attractions from your planning so they will not show up for the rest of the day. If you have questions, ask the virtual assistant for help. You ain't never had a friend like Genie!

You can start planning your trip ahead of time with Disney Genie, but you'll need to purchase tickets and link them to the My Disney Experience app first. Once you make your theme park reservations, you can start selecting your interests for each day of your visit. We recommend playing around with it at home before your trip so you can get comfortable with it. Remember, the free Genie tool is all suggestions and not set reservations, so you can follow the tip board perfectly or use it sparingly.

Disability Access Service (DAS) Changes

If you have someone in your party with disabilities that make it difficult to wait in a standard queue, the Disability Access Service (DAS) can be a trip-saver. Waiting in line to set it up and getting return times can be cumbersome when dealing with special needs. Genie is able to smooth out the process for you.

Eligible guests as of Nov. 1, 2021 can now pre-register for DAS Advance via live video chat (there is a chat button on the page) between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m. Eastern. Guests can pre-register up to 30 days in advance of a park visit but no less than two days before arrival. The DAS participants may book up to two one-hour return windows for select experiences. Once in the park, DAS users may select attractions directly in the app. These options will be available in addition to the existing, in-person DAS program. The individual Lightning Lane selections, such as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, are not available for pre-booking through the DAS Advance system, but you can still get a return time in person on the day of your visit. Visit Disney's Services for Guests with Disabilities pages at DisneyWorld.com for more details. Guests with concerns regarding these changes and previously purchased tickets may contact (407) 939-4357 to discuss the options. And be sure to check out our Disney World's Disability Access Service post for more details on the program.

The Power of Genie+

For a daily cost, Genie+ allows guests to select attractions and bypass the standby line, utilizing the Lightning Lane entrances. It's time to update our lingo — the FastPass+ entrances have been rebranded! Selections are made one at a time for that day.

So how does Genie+ compare to FastPass+ at Disney World? The overall system is very similar to the old format, just with a cost factor now. Perhaps Disneyland visitors who used paid MaxPass will be less shocked than Disney World visitors who only knew free versions of FastPass+. (MaxPass was toadally worth it, BTW.) For Disney World, guests also bid farewell to deciding what ride they want to go on 30 to 60 days in advance. Guests familiar with either FastPass+ or MaxPass will find some similarities with Genie+.

Of course, these services differ slightly based on the resort you visit. Let's take a look at Genie+ at Disney World (and you can find more info in our Disneyland Genie guide).

How Do I Get Genie+?

There are two ways to get Genie+.

• Before Your Visit — You can purchase as an add-on to a ticket or vacation package. If you want to purchase in advance, buy a ticket with Genie+. Undercover Tourist is now selling multi-day tickets with Genie+ at Disney World! Ribbit!
• Same Day of Your Visit — Existing ticket holders and annual passholders may purchase through the My Disney Experience app (we were able to purchase at midnight). This is also the route you would take if you only want to use Genie+ for certain days but not your entire trip, or as a last-minute decision.

How to Use Genie+

All of the Disney Genie services live within the My Disney Experience app for Disney World. Now the top of the home page for the My Disney Experience shows your plans. Tapping the "My Day" link in the top right corner takes you to the Disney Genie service homepage. Here, you can purchase Genie+ (if you have not done so already) and begin planning for your day. Remember, Genie+ selections can only be made starting at 7 a.m. for that day only. Each experience can only be used with Genie+ once per day, so once you ride an attraction with Genie+, you won't be able to book another Lightning Lane time (but standby is always an option if you want to go again!).

In the app, once you've chosen your day, you will select your party, which will automatically select anyone with a valid ticket and park pass reservation. You can edit your party members at this time, if need be. Then, you can choose which attraction you would like to use for your first Genie+ experience. The arrival windows will be for a one-hour period, so you can arrive whenever during that time.

Once your arrival window has started, you will scan into the attraction or show by tapping your MagicBand, Key to the World card or MagicMobile pass (which works within your smartphone's wallet — no need for a MagicBand!) to the Mickey touchpoints at the Lightning Lane entrance. Be prepared to tap again later in the queue. Once you have scanned into both touchpoints, you are free to book your next Genie+ selection. We tested it and found that the app would not change after the first touchpoint, but almost immediately let us book after the second touchpoint.

The arrival windows are fairly strict, so there is no reason to show up to the Lightning Lane way before your window starts. The system does let you tap in five minutes early with no issue, but nothing earlier. If running late, there is a five-minute grace period. There can sometimes be up to fifteen minutes late allowed, but that can be up to the specific attraction at that time. If you are worried that you will miss the window, we recommend trying to cancel and book a different time. We learned the hard way that if you miss your arrival window, the attraction is still used up for Genie+ access. So even though we never scanned into Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, the system would not let us book it again. Had we canceled instead, we could have made another Buzz Lightyear selection later on.

Pay-Per-Ride Individual Lightning Lane Selections

A few high-demand rides are excluded from Genie+. For these, you can make a la carte reservations, kind of like FastPass+, but for a fee. You can purchase individual Lightning Lane pay-per-ride selections for a particular attraction once per day. You can pay to upgrade for up to two different rides per person, per day. You may purchase both of them at the same time (even if you're hopping to another park). These can sell out quickly for popular attractions such as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

Individual attraction selections will be made on the same day of your visit and can be used across multiple theme parks, which is good news for those who love the park hopper option. You can book a maximum of two individual Lightning Lane attractions per person, per day, and you can't book the same attraction twice. This option is available to all guests with or without Genie+. You can purchase via the Disney Genie service in the My Disney Experience app at Disney World on the same day as your visit. Standby lines and free virtual queues remain as options for all individual Lightning Lane attractions. As of Jan. 10, 2022, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure will end its virtual queue and return to a standby line. There are no current attractions utilizing a virtual queue, but they may return for future new attractions.

Pricing for this option varies by date, attraction and park. For example, on Oct. 19, 2021, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure cost $9 per person, but say, on Oct. 23, it would cost $11 per person. On both of those days, Expedition Everest is $7 and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is $15. As of now, prices for individual selections will range between $7 to $15.

How early can you book? Guests of a Disney Resort hotel (and other select hotels such as Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels and Shades of Green) at Disney World can make their first purchase starting at 7 a.m. on the day of their visit. All other guests may book once the park opens for the day. That means if you are park hopping but not a Disney World hotel guest and want to make a selection for your second park, you will have to wait until the other park opens to purchase. The good news is you don't have to be in the park to make the selection.

Unlike Genie+ selections (which are next available times only), you can pick individual selections for any timeframe that is available throughout the day. And we were toadally surprised to see you can overlap your Genie+ and individual attraction selections without any issue!

Pay-per-ride individual Lightning Lane selections at Magic Kingdom Park:

• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
• Space Mountain

Pay-per-ride individual Lightning Lane selections at EPCOT:

• Remy's Ratatouille Adventure — now offering a standby line
• Frozen Ever After

Pay-per-ride individual Lightning Lane selections at Disney's Hollywood Studios:

• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance — now offering a standby line
• Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

Pay-per-ride individual Lightning Lane selections at Disney's Animal Kingdom:

• Avatar Flight of Passage
• Expedition Everest

The individual pay-to-skip-the-line options are subject to change, and it should be noted that this a la carte option and Genie+ offer different attractions. You can use both services together or separately.

Tips and Tricks for Disney Genie

• For Genie+, you can only choose the next available timeframe for a show or attraction. For purchased individual Lightning Lane selections, you can pick your arrival window for any time that is available throughout the day. If possible, we recommend booking your individual attraction for an early afternoon window when wait times are at their highest. This allows you to maximize the time saved so you can get more rides in!
• When booking individual Lightning Lane selections, keep in mind that the person making the reservation will be the person paying and everyone in the party will be automatically linked. If your party consists of groups who would need to pay separately, you'll want to edit the members of your party. The only caveat is that you could potentially end up in different time windows for your ride reservations, especially if it's a particularly busy day and times are getting booked quickly. If you want to ensure that everybody rides at the same time, then book together and have individuals send money via Venmo (or some other money-sharing app) to the purchaser.
• You can only make one Genie+ selection at a time, but you can have overlapping Genie+ selections. How? There is a two-hour window before you can make another selection. Because you can only choose the next available time window, the window can start as soon as five minutes later or hours away, depending on the ride and crowds. At noon, for instance, you might find that the next time window is at 7 p.m. To avoid being tethered to only one ride for seven hours, your ability to make Genie+ selections is "frozen" for two hours. So, at 2 p.m., you could make another Genie+ selection, despite not going on the 7 p.m. ride yet. At 4 p.m., you could make an additional selection, and so on.
• Your Genie+ selections can overlap with your individual attraction selections, so you can max out your day with more efficiency. Just make sure you don't miss your arrival windows.
• As of right now, attractions with virtual queues will allow you to join a virtual queue and purchase an individual Lightning Lane selection on the same day. This means you could ride an attraction twice, once through a Boarding Group time and once through your individual Lightning Lane selection.
• Park hopping? Genie has got you covered. You can let the Genie planning service know what time you plan on being at the next park and it will add in suggestions throughout your day. We were even able to purchase two individual Lightning Lane selections for two separate parks in the morning with no issues.

We are sure you have loads of Disney Genie questions. Ask away in the comments below, and keep hopping back to this post for updates as we discover more about Disney Genie while we continue to use it at Disney World.

Related: Your Frequently Asked Questions About Disney Genie

Keep hopping!