My Day Using Disney Genie+ at Magic Kingdom

Yesterday was the first day that the new Disney Genie+ service was available at Walt Disney World!

If you need a refresher on what Disney Genie+ is, read this post FIRST.

I have a certain way that I like to strategize my park days in order to tackle the MOST rides with the LEAST amount of time waiting in lines. I followed that overall strategy during my time at Magic Kingdom while testing out Disney Genie+ and now I’m going to recap my day with you!

In future posts I will deep dive into park strategies utilizing Disney Genie+ at all 4 parks. Stay tuned for those!

Alright, lets dive in!

Magic Kingdom Park Day | Tuesday, October 19

I woke up right around 6:30 am and was excited to update my My Disney Experience app to see the new Disney Genie and Disney Genie+! Updating my app was simple and I then purchased Disney Genie+ for $15 (+ tax, total was $15.98) to add to my annual pass for the day.

I then set an alarm on my phone for 6:58am to ensure that I was ready at 7:00 am to make my first Disney Genie+ selection.

7:00 am arrived and I grabbed Peter Pan’s flight for my FIRST Disney Genie+ return window from 9:10 am – 10:10 am.

I finished getting ready, dropped my suitcase at the car and then was on my way!

I was staying at Bay Lake Tower for this quick trip which made transportation to the Magic Kingdom as simple as could be! I chose to take the Magic Kingdom walking path vs the resort monorail to save time and ensure I made it to the Magic Kingdom turnstiles as early as possible.

Just before 8:00am I approached the entrance and jumped into the shortest line I saw — which happened to be the Annual Passholder line.

I scanned into the park and headed directly to the Early Theme Park Entry verification area (there is plenty of signage to find this).

A cast member scanned my MagicBand to confirm I was a Disney Resort guest and I was able to head to the ropes closest to Mine Train.

My plan was to rope drop Mine Train so that I could knock that attraction out EARLY and not have to pay for it later as an Individual Lightning Lane attraction selection.

Here’s what those crowds looked like when I arrived:

& 15 minutes later:

It is SO IMPORTANT that you arrive early to the parks if you want to rope drop a big ticket attraction.

Right at 8:30 am, the ropes were dropped for resort guests and we were able to head to our first attraction.

I jumped right into the Mine Train queue and was on the ride in just 12 minutes! The posted wait time was already at 50 minutes when I exited the attraction.

Next I walked right next door to ride Pooh. I try to stay in one general area when I make my way around the parks. If I didn’t have an early Peter Pan Genie+ return time, I would have headed to Peter Pan instead.

This would also be a great time to tackle Space Mountain if that was on your list.

Pooh was a walk-on, I was on at 8:51 and off in just a few minutes and then headed over to Haunted Mansion which is right next to Peter Pan.

Haunted Mansion didn’t open until 9am (it is NOT one of the early theme park entry attractions). But I was able to get in line for Haunted Mansion right as they dropped the ropes over there. This attraction was a walk-on and after the pre-show I was on the ride at 9:06am.

It was time for my first Genie+ Lightning Lane return window of the day! I scanned into Peter Pan at 9:18am and was on in just 3 minutes. The posted wait for standby was 35 minutes.

As soon as I scanned into the attraction with my magic band, I went right into the My Disney Experience app to grab my next Genie+ Lightning Lane return window.

I grabbed Pirates for 10:15-11:15 and planned to tackle as many Fantasyland and Tomorrowland attractions as I could that were walk-ons before my Pirates return window was called.

I hit the Little Mermaid, Dumbo, Barnstormer and Teacups back-to-back. There were no waits at any of the attractions, just the time it took me to walk through the Stand-By queue.

As I passed the Tomorrowland Speedway, the posted wait was 15 minutes — the line always moves slower in the morning here because they only have one lane of cars open. Later in the day they’ll open both lanes and the line will move faster.

I skipped Speedway at 15 minutes because I knew I wouldn’t have any problem grabbed a Genie+ Lightning Lane return window for it later.

I then passed the Buzz Lightyear ride and it was posted at 10 minutes. Again decided to skip and use a Genie+ Lightning Lane return window for later.

The PeopleMover didn’t have any wait so I hopped on that just after 10am. There isn’t a Genie+ Lightning Lane for PeopleMover so its a great one to do early in the morning or late in the evening to avoid long lines. Same goes for Astro Orbiter.

Once I finished the PeopleMover it was time to scan in for my Pirates Genie+ return window. I scanned in at 10:22am and was on the ride in just 4 minutes. The posted wait time was 25 minutes.

After I scanned into Pirates, I jumped back into the My Disney Experience app to grab my next Genie+ return window. Splash Mountain was available for 10:45am so I grabbed that. Splash Mountain is close to Pirates and the return window was only 20 minutes away!

After Pirates I took a quick bathroom break and then made my way to Splash! I scanned into the Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane queue and was on the ride in just 5 minutes. I forgot to check the posted wait time but the Standby queue was extended outside.

After scanning into Splash I grabbed my next Genie+ return window for Big Thunder Mountain from 12:15 – 1:15pm.

I took this break as an opportunity to grab lunch and sit for a bit.

I had completed 11 attractions by 11am with hardly any time spent waiting in line!!

I personally really like to go back-to-back on attractions first thing in the morning to knock things out while the crowds are the lowest and then I’ll take my time more in the afternoon.

After lunch I enjoyed the Tiki Room and then scanned into my Big Thunder Mountain Genie+ return time. The posted wait was 35 minutes and I was on the attraction in just 7 minutes.

After scanning in I grabbed a Disney Genie+ return window for the Magic Carpets so I could finish off this general area of the park. I was going to grab Jungle Cruise but the return window was 3 hours in the future. If I was doing my day again, I would have grabbed Jungle Cruise earlier!

Hopped on Magic Carpets via Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane in just a few minutes (the standby wait was posted 25 minutes).

I figured Jungle Cruise would then be a great opportunity to test whether the posted Standby wait times were accurate. The posted wait was 50 minutes and I ended up waiting 85(!!!!!!) minutes.

All I could think about that entire time was how beneficial the Genie+ Lightning Lane was at that attraction!

After the 85 minutes I enjoyed the attraction just a tad bit less than usual LOL.

While in line for Jungle Cruise, I had to cancel the return window I had selected for Buzz because I wasn’t going to make it. I rebooked it for a later window.

After Jungle Cruise, I made my way over to Buzz to finish off the attractions I wanted to do in Tomorrowland.

Scanned in with my Genie+ return window and was on the ride in minutes. The posted wait was 25 minutes.

After scanning in I had made my next Genie+ return window for Tomorrowland Speedway at 3:15pm.

I figured I would enjoy the Carousel of Progress while I waited for my window. A nice AC and sit break! Well, jokes on me because the Carousel of Progress got stuck and I had to watch the 50s scene 4 times HAHAHA!

We were finally rescued and at that point I decided to call it a day and head back home to see my kiddos! My back was also hurting from the 85 minute Jungle Cruise queue.

It was just about 3:30pm so there was still plenty of time in the day to finish attractions at Magic Kingdom, take a resort swim break, hop to another park, etc!

Overall I had a great day and really thought the Disney Genie+ service was 100% worth it at Magic Kingdom — there are so many attractions available to tackle at that park and it really did significantly reduce my wait times.

If my 85 minute wait for Jungle Cruise wasn’t proof of that, I don’t know what else is, haha!

I hope you enjoyed following along with my day at Magic Kingdom using the new Disney Genie+! If you have Disney Genie+ questions, check out this FAQ post.

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.

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