Part 1: What is Genie and Genie Plus and what’s an Individual Attraction Selection?

Genie/Genie Plus and Lightning Lane has been the subject of lots of controversy in the Disney fan world these days. Genie/Genie Plus is available at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World Parks. The inclusions are different at each location. I tried it for 3 days at Walt Disney World. I honestly went in with low expectations, not knowing if I was going to like this new service or not. But I was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked it!

For those of you who don’t know, the old complimentary Fastpass ‘front of the line” system has been put out to pasture and has been replaced with a new pay to play product called Lightning Lane. No more planning rides out 60 days ahead! Now you can go day by day. To access Lightning Lane, you must have the Genie Plus version on the Walt Disney World App. For those of you familiar with Disneyland’s Max Pass system, you will find that this Genie system is fairly similar. There are 3 new products here in this product line, so I will explain them each below.

Disney Genie

The Disney Genie is a free service on the Walt Disney World Parks app. It will give you some suggestions on what rides to ride and the most opportune times for riding. It has a Tip Board and there is a chat feature. This can be helpful to answer any general questions. Disney is touting this as a “planning tool”, however, it seems to be more of an attempt to bring attention to attractions that are commonly overlooked or are not quite as popular as the big “E Ticket” rides.

Disney Genie Plus

You can upgrade Disney Genie to the Disney Genie Plus version, which will provide you access to those Lightning Lane enabled attractions. You can make your first Lightning Lane selection at 7:00am EST. You can add on another one two hours after park opening and then every two hours going forward. You can keep adding them to your list of attractions creating what we have been calling a “stack” of attractions. This is a nice feature I am hoping will remain as it adds lots of value to the Genie Plus product. The list of included attractions keeps evolving, so I suggest checking the Disney Parks website for the most up to date list before hitting the parks. Some rides will run out of return times faster than others. Talk to your travel agent to determine how to maximize this product ahead of time!

In addition to Lightning Lane, you get these fantastic Photo Filters and AR lenses. To access them, you click on the photopass lens icon from the home screen and it launches an interface similar to Snapchat. You can take a still photo or make a little video. You do not have to have

Photopass to save these particular photos. These are included with Genie Plus. Some are location specific; some can be done anywhere on Disney property. These filters are hilarious, adorable, and totally worth the price! I had so much fun playing around with them. They are a great pass-time in cues or while waiting for busses. Well done, Disney!

Another thing you will have access to is Audio Tales. These tales give you a little back story on select attractions. They tell you information surrounding the attraction, some Disney history or some fun facts about the park. You may find these interesting, so give them a listen. Maybe you’ll learn something for a future trivia night!

The nice thing about Genie Plus is that you don’t have to pay for it for every day for every park if you don’t want to. You can choose whether or not to add it on each day. (But decide before 7am so you can make your first selection!) With a little patience, you can manage the parks without using it at all. Genie Plus seems to work the best at Magic Kingdom since they have the most Lightning Lane attractions available. I was able to stack several there. If you have a Park Hopper, you can add plans for your second park while still at your first park. This is another improvement over the Fastpass system where you were not able to make passes in multiple parks. The pricing for Genie Plus is currently $15 per person, per day. If you figure this into the price of your vacation, it really is not incredibly pricey for what you’re getting. I know, its not free; but this does give you more than just the Lightning Lane access!

Individual Attraction Selections

At each park, there are one or two attractions that are an additional charge for access to their Lightning Lanes. These are individually priced and are not tied to Disney Genie Plus. So, you do not have to have Genie Plus to access these particular Lightning Lane attractions. You can purchase up to two a day, however you can only purchase one for each attraction. For example, you can buy one for Rise of the Resistance and one for Ratatouille in the same day (if you have park hopper), but you couldn’t get two for Rise of the Resistance in the same day. In order to ride twice, you would have to wait once in the traditional cue and use the Individual Attraction Selection once. The pricing for these varies by attraction, time of year and crowd size. For example, at Christmastime when there are more people in the parks, the Individual attraction price may be $10/per person, but at a less busy time, it may be $7/per person. The app will tell you the cost when you go to book it so you can decide if you’d like to purchase or not. If the ride goes down during your return time, you will get an open return time for any time later that day.

So these are an overview of the three new products surrounding Genie/Genie Plus and Lightning Lane. Three products, lots of options! What do you think so far? Will you be trying Genie Plus? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

To hear more about my Genie Plus Experience, Check out Part 2 of my series! (Coming soon!)

I’d love to help you with your next vacation!

You can reach out to me via email at christina@wishesfamilytravel.com

Follow me on my socials for tips and fun facts!

Instagram: @christinaatwishes

Facebook: @cszewczuk.wft

When I tried this product, I participated in an agent education program where I was hosted by Walt Disney World. However, I was not paid for my opinion and everything in this blog is my honest opinion.

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