How to Use Genie+ at Disney World | 2023

With the retiring of the FastPass+ system at Walt Disney World, we now have a new way to skip the Stand-By Lines at the parks: Disney Genie+ — not to be confused with Disney Genie (I know, I know, the naming could have been better here).

I mainly want to focus on the the paid Genie+ service in this post, but let’s quickly look at the free Disney Genie first.

Disney Genie

Disney Genie is a FREE program inside of the My Disney Experience app that helps customize and optimize your day.

The free Disney Genie tool is supposed to help guests reduce time in lines, discover magic around every corner, and take the guess work out of “what’s next?”.

The tool will survey you to understand your “Top Picks” — these are things like rides you absolutely want to prioritize, experiences you prefer (like Princesses or Star Wars), etc.

After completing the survey within the tool, Disney Genie will create an itinerary for you within the app. This then optimizes and updates itself throughout the day to guide you throughout the park.

The free Disney Genie will also display forecasted future wait times and restaurants nearby with reservation or walk-up availability.

In this post; however, I really want to focus on the PAID service, Disney Genie+ and the basics of what that includes.

So let’s dive in.

Disney Genie+

Disney Genie+ is a new PAID program inside of the My Disney Experience app that starts at a cost of $15 per day, per person to use at Walt Disney World.

Pricing is variable and will depend on demand.

The lowest price would be $15 per person. The highest we have ever seen (so far) was $29 per person.

You can see the current price each day within the My Disney Experience app. Expect surge pricing during holidays and peak times at the parks!

The Disney Genie+ service allows you to bypass the Stand-By queues via the Lightning Lane (this is the new terminology for FastPass+ queue).

When using Disney Genie+, you can select one available Lightning Lane attraction at a time throughout the day.

You can then make an additional Lightning Lane selection after you have redeemed the first OR after 2 hours have passed from when you made your previous selection — whichever happens first.

Let’s look at which rides in each park are available for selection within Disney Genie+:

Magic Kingdom

• 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
• Space Mountain
• 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

EPCOT

• Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
• Frozen Ever After
• Journey into Imagination with Figment
• Living with the Land
• Mission: SPACE – Green
• Mission: SPACE – Orange
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• Soarin’
• Spaceship Earth
• Test Track
• The Seas with Nemo & Friends
• Turtle Talk with Crush

Hollywood Studios

• 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
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• 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!

Animal Kingdom

• Celebration of the Festival of the Lion King
• DINOSAUR
• Expedition Everest
• Feathered Friends in Flight!
• It’s Tough to Be a Bug!
• Kali River Rapids
• Kilimanjaro Safaris
• Naʻvi River Journey
• The Animation Experience

Individual Lightning Lane Selections

You may notice that not all rides are listed above. That’s because outside of Disney Genie+, there is one attraction at each park that is NOT included with your Disney Genie+ purchase.

These attractions are what Disney is calling Individual Lightning Lane selections.

Let’s look at which rides in each park are available for purchase as an Individual Lightning Lane selection:

Magic Kingdom

• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

EPCOT

• Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind

Hollywood Studios

• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance

Animal Kingdom

• Avatar Flight of Passage

Individual Lightning Lane selections are available for purchase individually. When purchasing an Individual Lightning Lane, you will be able to select your desired return time (as long as it is available).

This means that if you wanted to skip the Stand-By line at any of the Individual Lightning Lane selection attractions, you would have to buy the Lightning Lane entry for each person in your party that wants to ride — and this is SEPARATE from your Disney Genie+ purchase.

If you wanted to utilize the free Disney Genie service all day to optimize your time but you also knew that riding Rise of the Resistance, for example, was a MUST for your family, you could choose to purchase the Lightning Lane entry and skip that line.

Another important thing to note is that Stand-By queues will still be available for all of these attractions (EXCEPT Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind which is currently using a Virtual Queue). So you do not have to purchase anything if you didn’t want to.

So how much do these Individual Lightning Lane selections cost? Well, that depends. Pricing and availability will vary by date, attraction and park.

You are able to purchase a maximum of TWO Individual Lighting Lane selections per person, each day.

If you’d like to purchase Disney Genie+ or an Individual Lightning Lane selection, here’s how that works:

How to Purchase Disney Genie+

You must purchase Disney Genie+ on the day that you’d like to utilize the service.

You will make that purchase in the My Disney Experience app.

Your first Disney Genie+ attraction can be booked as early as 7am EST that day.

The 7am first Genie+ selection time is for BOTH on-site resort guests and off-site guests.

How to Purchase Individual Lightning Lane selections
Purchase in the My Disney Experience mobile app on the same day of your visit.

You can either search for the ride you’d like to purchase, or click on the ride within the Tip Board.

• Guests of a Disney Resort Hotel and Other Select Hotels: These Guests can make their first purchase starting at 7am EST on the day of their visit.
  • Available to Disney Resort hotel Guests and Guests of Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels and Shades of Green.
• All Other Guests: These Guests can make their first purchase when the park opens.

I hope this information is helpful in clarifying the differences between these new services at Walt Disney World!

If you’re hoping to really get the most out of your day — especially at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios — I HIGHLY recommend purchasing Disney Genie+.

Even if you only use it on a few rides, the hours you could have spent in line at those attractions will allow you to tackle much more in your day!

Be sure to follow along on Instagram @brbgoingtodisney if you don’t already do so. I share stories LIVE from the parks each week as well as my top tips for visiting Walt Disney World.

Don’t forget to pin this post for later!