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Disney Genie is a complimentary itinerary builder within the MyDisney Experience and Disneyland apps, that is available for every Disney guest. The Disney Genie was created to help guests curate their perfect day by helping you navigate showtimes, attraction wait times, and more. The Disney Genie creates a customized itinerary for you, using your list of priority attractions, to help you maximize your time in the parks, by offering personalized recommendations on what to do next based on current wait times.
Disney Genie is great because it helps you join virtual queues, make dining reservations, complete mobile orders, or chat with a virtual assistant 24/7 for any questions that come up during your vacation. This free planning assistant is fantastic. Just know that in order to use it to its utmost potential, guests should set up their personal tip board prior to their park day in order to get the most personalized suggestions.
*Note: If you don't feel like reading today - scroll down to the bottom of the post for a 14 min long overview video that describes everything in this post!
Check out this video below on how to use the Disney Genie service during
your next Parks visit!
Now that we’ve discussed the complimentary Genie service, let’s chat about the upgraded Genie+
Genie+ is Disney’s newest add on for Walt Disney World and Disneyland tickets. Disney released this program last fall as a replacement for their FastPass+ system and is wonderful way to maximize your time in the parks by helping you pre-plan a few rides and make the most of the wait times.
HOW DOES GENIE+ WORK?
At both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, Genie+ gives you the ability to skip the Standby Line at select attractions across all theme parks by placing you in the Lightning Lane (the new name for FastPass lines). Genie+ is available for Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom, Disneyland Park, and Disney California Adventure. After you purchase Genie+ (more on this below), you’ll be able to choose the next available arrival time for a variety of attractions and other experiences.
When your return time is called, you’ll enter the attraction via the Lightning Lane. Once you get scanned into the attraction (or 2 hours after your first selection), you can select your next attraction.
You can access Genie+ through the My Disney Experience App for Walt Disney World and the Disneyland App for Disneyland.
HOW DO YOU ADD GENIE+?
Walt Disney World: You can purchase Genie+ service on the day of your visit via the My Disney Experience App. Unfortunately you can no longer pre-emptively purchase the service and will need to purchase it the morning of every day that you would like the service.
To purchase - All you have to do is click the three gray dash marks in the lower right hand corner of the app and then click the Tip Board. On the right at the top of the board, you will see the Genie+ logo and Purchase for Today. Once you click that it will allow you to select who in your party you would also like to purchase it for and then you will be set and ready to go for 7 AM when you can make those first ride selections!
Disneyland: You can purchase Genie+ service as an add-on ticket option, valid for the length of your stay. Or, you can purchase Genie+ each day you want to use it as an in-app feature purchase (like you would at Walt Disney World). This purchase option becomes available once you have scanned your theme park admission and entered the park.
To purchase - let me know during our planning process if you’d like to add Genie+ to your entire vacation. Or use the tips above to purchase within the app.
Remember: If you’ve already added Genie+ to your ticket/vacation package prior to entering the parks, you do not have to purchase it again. But you will still have to wait until you’re inside the park to make your first selection.You also don’t have to use Genie+ on every day of your visit! You have the option to pick and choose when you want to use Genie+, which is nice for both financial and flexibility reasons.
But, remember, when Genie+ is purchased with a ticket or vacation package ahead of a visit, Genie+ is purchased for the entire length of your ticket (all days of a multi-day visit). When purchased on the day of visit, guests purchase Genie+ for a single day.
INDIVIDUAL LIGHTNING LANE
With an Individual Lightning Lane, you are able to pay to skip the Standby line of the top 2 most popular attractions in each park. This option is separate from Genie+, meaning that you are not required to have Genie+ in order to purchase an Individual Lightning Lane. You can choose to use these two options in conjunction with each other, or they can be used individually. The pricing for the Individual Lightning Lanes vary by date, attraction, and park. This option is perfect if you don't want the stress of joining the virtual queue each morning, or if you don't want to waste hours of your park day standing in line for the more popular attractions.
MAKING GENIE + SELECTIONS
Selections begin at 7 AM each morning! Some rides in the parks are known for being the rides of the parks and their time slots tend to go faster than others.
Some suggested rides for each park are listed below:
MAGIC KINGDOM
Jungle Cruise
Peter Pan’s Flight
Space Mountain
EPCOT
Frozen Ever After
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
Slinky Dog Dash
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railroad
ANIMAL KINGDOM
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Na’avi River Journey
Once you have chosen your first ride you won’t make another selection until you check in for that first Lighting Lane. I suggest selecting the rides with the higher wait times with the return windows that are sooner rather than later but sometimes some of those more popular rides fill up and your return time isn’t until later in the day. No problem, just fill that time with rides that have lower wait Stand By Lanes!
THE 2 HOUR RULE
The rule goes that you can’t make a new ride reservation until after showing up for the current one you have or after 2 hours have passed since you made your last selection, whichever comes first. This means if at one point when you go in to make a Genie+ selection and it’s more than two hours away, you can make another Lightening Lane selection two hours later even though you haven’t checked in for the first ride yet. This seems like you’re winning because you can have two Lightening Lane Selections at one time. Some might suggest that having the two hour gap isn’t the best way to maximize your park day, but if the stand by lines are’t currently super long it might be the perfect way to maximize your time in the parks, or if you know at a certain time you are going to stop and eat, you can work around that schedule to maximize your time.
PARK HOPPING
One of the best features of this app is that Genie+ will allow you to make selections at other parks starting at 2 PM. So guests that have Park Hopper Tickets (to learn more about Disney Ticket types - click here!) can maximize their time by making selections prior to hopping. That way when you arrive at your next park you can show up for your Lightening Lane and maximize your time in that park!
FULL OVERVIEW VIDEO
Now with all of that knowledge, I hope you find Genie+ to be an incredible resource and that you found this post helpful as you prepare for your next Disney vacation! As always, if you don’t already have a travel agent helping you plan your vacation, I would love to help! Click HERE to fill out my quote request form and let’s get to planning!
Photo and videos from Disney
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