What You Must Know About Genie Before Monday
Disney Genie launches for Walt Disney World guests on Monday, October 19th. In this article, we'll share what you need to know including how to access it, why to use it, a listing of rides with Lightning Lane and Individual Lightning Lane, and strategies.
There is no new app to install
Disney Genie is part of MyDisneyExperience (or, for Disneyland guests, the Disneyland app, though releasing later). One member of your party does need to have the MyDisneyExperience app on a smartphone, which is not a new thing as this app is where you can make dining reservations, mobile order food, and where the previous FastPass+ was located.
We've had to scroll down on our home screen to find Disney Genie, though it may be moved to a more prominent location upon launch.
There are three types of services through Genie at different price points
Disney Genie itself comes in a free, basic version. If you don't wish to pay anything extra on top of your park tickets, this is likely what you will use. The basic version will take your preferences and recommend experiences and dining you might enjoy. It will also plan and update a dynamic itinerary to help you decide where to go next based on your preferences and wait times. The itinerary will change based on park and ride conditions throughout the day, but overall it's designed to help you see what you want to see with the lowest possible standby waits.
What is Standby? Standby is the Disney word for a regular line where guests in the line are not given preference over other guests.
You can also purchase Disney Genie+, either for your length of stay or on individual days. Genie+ is $15 per day per person. You will get all the basic features of basic Genie PLUS Lightning Lane access to select attractions. You can select Lightning Lane boarding one at a time and will be offered the next Lightning Lane opening for that attraction. In other words, you can't schedule Lightning Lane for a time that works for you... you are limited to the next available window for each ride. Once you scan in at a ride entrance with a Lightning Lane "pass", you can select another Lightning Lane attraction, and so on. There is no limit to the number of Lightning Lanes you can use for different attractions beyond the availability of Lightning Lane for the attractions you want to ride. However, we are told that you will not be able to use Lightning Lane for the SAME ride twice in a day.
What is Lightning Lane? Lightning Lane is the new Disney word (replaces "FastPass") for a line only select riders have access to. Access is limited, so the line moves 2-3x the pace of the regular line. At the point of boarding the ride vehicle, Lightning Lane guests are often given preference, depending on how many there are, to board before standby guests.
Also with Disney Genie comes the ability to purchase Individual Lightning Lane passes. These are priced similarly to gasoline in that the price changes throughout the day based on demand for the attraction. It's like purchasing an attraction ticket for each attraction and each member of your party separately. Disney reserves this option for their absolute most popular rides. Furthermore, rides that offer Individual Lightning Lane passes for purchase do not use the regular Lightning Lane program. The ONLY way to skip the standby line on these rides is to purchase an Individual Lightning Lane pass. And there is a limit on these: You may only use two per day and not on the same ride. You do not need to have Disney Genie+ to purchase Individual Lightning Lane passes.
You may be at a disadvantage if you don't at least pay attention to Disney Genie's basic service
Even if you don't want to pay extra (and who does?), you will want to pay attention to basic Disney Genie's recommendations based on wait times. If you've ever been at a Disney theme park before and just judged the flow of traffic wrong, you will understand this. Those of us familiar with Disney may innately have a park plan based on our historic experiences of traffic flow at the parks. Disney Genie will probably disrupt that "normal" traffic flow somewhat. Those that use the app will be directed to rides with lower wait times, which will then cause those rides to spike while others ebb. As the technological computer overlords at Disney figure out the right flow, you are going to need the app to help you figure out where the lowest current wait times are.
Not everybody in the party has to have it. Name a coordinator with a smartphone and let them manage the party's plans if not everyone is interested in using their smartphones all day.
Oh, and bring an extra external phone battery.
Know the Lightning Lane and Individual Lightning Lane rides
Whether you plan to use Lightning Lane or not, it will be helpful to identify which rides use it and have a strategy for those attractions.
Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane rides
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Haunted Mansion
“it’s a small world”
Jungle Cruise
Mad Tea Party
Mickey’s PhilharMagic
Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
Peter Pan’s Flight
Pirates of the Caribbean
Splash Mountain
The Barnstormer
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Tomorrowland Speedway
Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid
Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane Plus rides
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Space Mountain
Magic Kingdom Strategy in a Nutshell
For Seven Dwarves Mine Train or Space Mountain, the Individual Lightning Lane rides, if you do not wish to pay for Individual Lightning Lane passes, you should plan to rope drop one of these rides. We recommend rope dropping Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, if interested. The other of the two might experience shorter wait times during parades or fireworks so you can try then.
What is Rope Dropping? Rope Dropping refers to being at the park the moment it opens, and literally lining up at a rope that closes off the land the ride is in. This rope is "dropped" by Cast Members the moment the park officially opens, and everyone lined up at the rope heads directly toward the popular attractions. Although this appears to be quite a crowd, if you can get yourself into the front or middle of this pack, you should often be able to practically walk on to a ride.
For the other Lightning Lane rides at the Magic Kingdom, if you are using Lightning Lane at all, consider using it for Peter Pan's Flight, Pirates, Splash, Big Thunder Mountain, Buzz, and, if you have kids, Dumbo. Generally, Dumbo and Peter Pan are very popular, although somewhat inexplicably, so if you are interested in those, try for those first and then move on to things like Pirates, Buzz, Splash, and Big Thunder Mountain. Theater experiences like Mickey's Philharmagic and Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor are rarely good uses of a Lightning Lane slot. This is because the theaters can usually fit a ton of people and the wait time is usually only so long as the show currently running. Then, the holding area, however crowded it may look, typically all fits into the one theater for the next show.
If you will not have Genie+ and don't plan to use Lightning Lane, then consider also Rope Dropping Peter Pan's Flight or Dumbo as these generally run very long wait times the rest of the day. Other wait times are usually manageable. If you find them less than manageable, consider trying to ride during a parade or fireworks, or late at night before the park closes.
Personally, I would use Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lane (regular) on my Magic Kingdom day, but not buy any Individual Lightning Lane. Instead, I would rope drop Seven Dwarves Mine Train.
EPCOT Lightning Lane rides
Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
Journey into Imagination with Figment
Living with the Land
Mission: SPACE – Green
Mission: SPACE – Orange
Soarin’
Spaceship Earth
Test Track
The Seas with Nemo & Friends
Turtle Talk with Crush
EPCOT Individual Lightning Lane rides
Frozen Ever After
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
EPCOT Strategy in a Nutshell
In EPCOT, there is more equality among Individual Lightning Lane rides in that both are incredibly popular at this time, and about equally so. If you MUST ride both, prepare to wait a long time for one and rope drop the other, or rope drop one and purchase an Individual Lightning Lane pass for the other. Order, in this case, does not matter. Be aware that although both of these are located in World Showcase and World Showcase typically opens later than the rest of the park, that is NOT SO for the countries these two attractions are in. They will open with the rest of the park. Get thee to them upon park opening.
For the other Lightning Lane attractions, few of them typically actually NEED a Lightning Lane access to be tolerable right now, though crowd patterns could change with Genie. Those that do are Mission: SPACE and Soarin'. Soarin' is an exception to the "theater rule" - although this is a theater type show, it's length, preshow length, and popularity mean that in most cases, you would want to skip standby for this ride, or be prepared to wait at least 45 minutes. Technically, though, none of the wait times for any of the Lightning Lane rides at EPCOT typically exceed an hour, except on the very busiest days. Like before, if you don't have Genie +, the rides you will want to ride early in the morning, late at night, or during HarmonioUS, are Soarin', Test Track, and Mission: SPACE.
Personally, I would rope drop Soarin', then head to Mission: SPACE and then go wherever the wait is lowest. I might purchase Individual Lightning Lane for Remy, or opt to ride during fireworks.
Disney Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane rides
Alien Swirling Saucers
Beauty & The Beast Live on Stage
Disney Jr. Dance Party
For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular - Returning December 19, 2021
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
Muppet*Vision 3D
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Slinky Dog Dash
Star Tours
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Toy Story Mania!
Disney Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Plus rides
Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Disney Hollywood Studios Strategy in a Nutshell
DHS currently has outsized attractions when it comes to popularity. The two Individual Lightning Lane rides here are the two most popular rides among all four parks, period. Unless you have a bladder of steel and patience of a saint to wait several hours, you may want to spring for Individual Lightning Lane passes for both or either. Rope dropping Mickey's Runaway Railway could also work. Work dropping Rise of the Resistance unfortunately has been shown to result in long waits anyway, probably because of the way the ride works. People do report that sometimes Rise of the Resistance has tolerable standby waits in the middle of the afternoon, so keep an eye on wait times if this is on your wish list and you don't want to spring for a paid pass. That said, Rise of the Resistance is possibly the single Disney attraction I personally would spring for Individual Lightning Lane passes for.
For the regular Lightning Lane, you may want to use it for Smuggler's Run, Slinky Dog Dash, Star Tours, Toy Story Mania, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, or Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. Whatever you do, do not waste it on a theater show, which all the other experiences listed are. Unless of course, you are bored and don't need or can't get a Lightning Lane for anything else. You should probably try to find spots for Smuggler's Run or Toy Story Mania first as those are the most popular and traditionally would run out of FastPasses within hours of park opening. The others you should be able to get anytime.
Regular standby rules apply. The shortest wait times will be first thing in the morning, minutes before park closing, or during fireworks.
Personally, I would opt to probably use both Lightning Lane types on my DHS day. I would definitely purchase Individual Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance and rope drop Mickey's and Minnie's Runaway Railway. I would be using regular Lightning Lane to grab a spot for Toy Story Mania or Smuggler's Run first, depending on the time available (I'd take the earliest available).
Disney's Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane rides
Celebration of the Festival of the Lion King
DINOSAUR
Feathered Friends in Flight!
It’s Tough to Be a Bug!
Kali River Rapids
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Naʻvi River Journey
The Animation Experience
Disney's Animal Kingdom Individual Lightning Lane rides
Avatar Flight of Passage
Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
Disney's Animal Kingdom Strategy in a Nutshell
Avatar Flight of Passage remains very popular so given a choice, try to get an Individual Lightning Lane for this first, if using. If not using Lightning Lane, rope drop it or wait until later in the day when lines sometimes dwindle. Expedition Everest has manageable waits when compared to Flight of Passage. The maximum I've seen is 75 minutes, which is still very long, to be sure, but that's the maximum I've seen. If Everest gets below 40, head over there.
Of the Lightning Lane rides, Festival of the Lion King, Feather Friends in Flight! and It's Tough to be a Bug! are all theater style shows. Remember what we do with theater style shows? We don't need to Lightning Lane them... that's right. We're also surprised to see the Animation Experience on this list since that's rarely extremely busy. Your best bets to Lightning Lane, if using, are Na'Vi River Journey, Kilimanjaro Safari, and DINOSAUR. This is the first park that I'm recommending using Lightning Lane for for reasons other than purely time standing in line. Kilimanjaro Safari has an utterly miserable queue. It's shaded.... sort of. But somehow is the hottest queue I've ever in my life stood in. When given a choice, I would prefer not to do standby except for Rope Drop. And Kilimanjaro is a great ride to rope drop... the animals are most active first thing in the morning if the weather is still cool, so consider this if you're not interested in some of the more popular rides. By contrast, Na'Vi River Journey has a pleasant queue, as does DINOSAUR.
Animal Kingdom, with the exception of Pandora, becomes quite quiet after dark. If you are not using Lightning Lane, is this a great time to catch rides with shorter wait times.
Personally, because this is my favorite park with my favorite ride, I would splurge on both Disney Genie+ with regular Lightning Lane and Individual Lightning Lane for Flight of Passage. I would rope drop FOP, then use Individual Lightning Lane to ride again because that's just how I am. Lightning Lane will save me from waiting in the heat for Kilimanjaro Safari.
Now you're ready to use Disney Genie, and understand Lightning Lane and Individual Lightning Lane (In the future, abbreviated as ILL? Really, Disney??). We look forward to hearing about how it all works out! Share your thoughts or experiences with Disney Genie by commenting on this post over on our Facebook page. You can also follow us there for future updates. Until next time...
Comentários