If you have not already read my explanation of the new Genie service, definitely do so first.
Disney recently reimagined the My Disney Experience app to include the all new Genie service. The Genie+ paid service took the place of the previously free FastPass+ system. There were rumors for a long time of a new system coming and COVID seemed to create the perfect opportunity to make changes. Recently I was able to try out the Genie+ system for the first time and I really liked it.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with the old FastPass+ system- 60 days before your check in date you could book 3 FastPass+ selections per day of your trip. The window for booking opened early in the morning and you were able to book all trip days on that day. Once in the parks, you could book another FastPass+ after you used all 3 of your pre-booked selections.
There are three differences that I quickly noticed I preferred in the Genie+ system.
You don’t have to book all Genie+ selections on one day
In the past, 60 days before a Walt Disney World trip, FastPass+ selections for the entire trip could be made. This meant that I would be booking 12 selections in one morning. Tough, and sometimes impossible, decisions had to be made. Like, what is more important- Seven Dwarfs or Flight of Passage. This was typically a stressful morning for me.
With Genie+ you don’t make your selections until the day of. This means at 7am on the day of my visit to Magic Kingdom, I can make my Magic Kingdom selections (and same for the other parks). I’m no longer rushing and stressing trying to make ALL of my selections in one morning. This also allows for some flexibility during our trip. Sure, 2 months out I might have ambitions of being up really early, hitting the parks at rope drop and staying all day long. But when the day comes if we want to sleep in now we can.
I am the one who makes all of the plans for my family so I did have to wake up at 7am every day. I typically set my alarm for 6:58am, made my selections, and went back to sleep.
You can book additional Lightning Lane reservations every 2 hours
With the old FastPass+ system you could make 3 selections ahead of time and then once you used all 3 of those you could make one additional selection, once you used that one you could make one more, and so on.
Now with Genie+ you are able to book additional LIghtning Lane reservations every 2 hours after park opening! You could hold MANY Lightning Lane reservations at once. On our Magic Kingdom day we slept in, had breakfast at ‘Ohana, and went back to our resort to relax. By the time we headed to Magic Kingdom at 2:45pm we had 5 Lightning Lane reservations (4 LL + 1 ILL). Our afternoon was essentially stacked with Lightning Lane reservations. The only line we waited in that day was for Mickey’s PhilharMagic and Aladdin’s Magic Carpets. Neither of those took more than 15 minutes.
The times for your Lightning Lane reservations can overlap
With the old FastPass+ system your times could not overlap. If you had a selection for 9:30am-10:30am your next one could not start until after 10:30am.
With the new Genie+ system there are no restrictions on times. At one point I had a Haunted Mansion and Splash Mountain reservation for the exact same time (6:10pm-7:10pm). These two are fairly close in the parks. We made sure to be at Haunted Mansion right at 6:10pm and made it over to Splash Mountain well before 7pm!
I wouldn’t recommend overlapping your times by too much, especially if you have small kids or the rides are on opposite sides of the parks. But if you’ve got an hour to squeeze in rides before dinner this strategy will be perfect for you!
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