Pay to Ride: Disney Introduces Genie, Genie+ and Lightning Lane

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Hey there Pop Cloud Disney fans. In case you haven’t heard yet, Disney recently introduced new Genie, Genie+ and Lightning Lane services for the Walt Disney World theme parks in Orlando, Florida. This is happening just in time as the new 1.5 year-long 50^th Anniversary Celebration is in full effect. In this article I will break down exactly what each of these services are, how they will help you, how to use them, and also give you a bit of advice about using these services. So without any further ado, let’s rub this lamp and get Genie out of the bottle and get on with the explanations.

Disney Genie Service (Basic/Free)

First and foremost we’ll start with the basic Genie service. This is a free upgrade to the My Disney Experience app that most of us have been using on our cell phones (to find out wait times at rides, do online advanced ordering for food items, and even making purchases at certain Disney stores). If you haven’t opened the My Disney Experience app in your phone in a while, you may need to do a quick update for all these new services to show up. 

Disney Genie is meant to be a quick easy way to make your trip to each of the 4 Disney Orlando parks easier. Disney has compiled thousands and thousands of statistics from the My Disney Experience app and now created a constantly changing way to make your trip easier. With Genie, each time you bring up the app throughout your day at a particular park, it will bring up recommendations of things to do. It is basically an ever changing itinerary for the parks. You get to put in your plans in advance like you used to do before you arrive to the parks. But this time Genie will change things around to make the experience even easier and more enjoyable for you and your friends/family members. 

For an example, let’s say you are walking through Fantasy Land and you look at the My Disney Experience app, if there is a short line at Pirates of the Caribbean and you indicated that this is a ride you enjoy, then Genie will recommend you head over there and jump on if the wait time is low. This will also be the same in respect to restaurants and other forms of entertainment. 

When you first get the app going with the new Genie service you will get some information explaining this service. Once you get to the home screen you will see a section under your name that says “Introducing Disney Genie Service.” If you click where it says “Learn More” you’ll be able to select what rides and forms of entertainment you like the most. This will be a key factor in helping Genie make this a more personal experience for you. Also please keep in mind that as Genie makes recommendations, you can change them as your day goes by at the parks. And another important note is that you will not be able to make selections on this screen unless you have an active park ticket/pass of some sort. You will be asked to link the ticket if pre-purchased or you can purchase tickets right there in the app. Once that is done, you will be able to make your selections and then once your day starts at a particular park, you’ll be able to check back with Genie to see what recommendations it makes throughout the day. Basically you will be able to go on your favorite rides if they have a low wait time at that point during the day or go to your favorite restaurant if the wait time is low there as well or it will remind you that you have a dining reservation time coming up. 

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Please note that as of the end of October, there is still room for improvement with this part of the app. Right now there is no option to check off a ride or attraction on Genie once you have done it. All you can do is swap it for a different recommendation once you have completed it or if you’re not interested in that recommendation. Hopefully a future update will come out that will enable users to mark a ride/attraction/restaurant recommendation as completed. I would suggest updating the app as often as possible so that you can be sure that you have the latest version with the latest features/changes.

If you’re interested in seeing Disney Genie in action, check out the YouTube video below of one of my all-time favorite Disney video bloggers, Kyle Pallo. And please subscribe to his YouTube page and his Instagram: @KylePallo. 

Genie+ and Lightning Lane (Additional Fee)

Now we’re going to switch gears on my mine cart and talk about Genie+ and Lightning Lane as they do go hand-in-hand. Genie+ is an add on service to Genie that is $15 plus tax per person per day at each park. This is a service you purchase on the day you’re at the park via the My Disney Experience app. Once you select this service, the app will ask you how many people in your party will be using it (add members to your party in the app if you haven’t done so already and then just simply click the check mark box next to each person’s name that will be using Genie+). Once that is done you will click to continue to the purchase screen (you may be asked for your My Disney Experience app password at this point). Once here you just select your form of payment and complete the transaction. Now what this service does is allow you basically jump the lines at rides in whatever park you are at that day. In all intents and purposes, it is basically a replacement to the old Fast Pass service previously available at the parks. But now Disney is calling this the Lightning Lane. 

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To select each Genie+ Lightning Lane ride, you just go into the “Tip Board” area of the My Disney Experience app which then takes you to the “Disney Genie Service” area. You just scroll down until you find the ride you want to go on and it will show two boxes. One is the regular Standby Line wait time and the second box for each ride (labeled “LL Genie+ Lightning Lane) will be the one you select to book the Lightning Lane for that particular ride. 

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Another helpful feature with the Genie+ Lightning Lane is that you can cancel a ride you selected for Lightning Lane. You just go back into the Genie+ area of the My Disney Experience app and select the ride you originally had chosen for Lightning Lane and you will see an option to cancel it. Once this is processed, you will then be able to select a different ride for Lightning Lane.  

There are some rules with this service. First you can only have one Lightning Lane ride selected at a time and you must wait for the ride to be over before Genie+ will let you select another Lightning Lane ride to reserve. You cannot book multiple Lightning Lane rides in advance. Once you get off your current Lightning Lane ride, then you can go back to Genie+ and select another one and keep repeating this process throughout the day for the rides & forms of entertainment that have this option available. 

This Lightning Lane service is available to all rides at each park except for 2 per park that have an individual fee (this will be covered in the next paragraph). Also, when you make the reservation you have one hour from the time listed in the App to arrive at the ride and go on it. So for example if you selected Peter Pan for a Genie+ Lightning Lane ride at 10:45 a.m., you will have until 11:45 a.m. at the latest to arrive and get on the ride. Now it seems like you can arrive a few minutes early or a few minutes late and still be able to go on the ride. The best advice here is to speak with a Disney Cast Member if you have any questions about time frame to make sure you don’t miss the ride. Once your time comes for the ride, you just go to the designated Lightning Lane entrance at that particular ride, scan your ticket (via your Apple Watch, cell phone, or Magic Band) and once the scanning device lights up green, you’re good to go. And again, once you get off the ride, you can select another Lightning Lane ride to go on. 

Individual Lightning Lane Rides (Additional Fee)

Now we’re going to talk about a specific new service with specific rides that Disney is calling “Individual Lightning Lane.” Basically what this means is that these 8 rides have an individual fee that you have the option of paying in the My Disney Experience app to ride them. Depending upon how busy the parks are on that particular day, the price will range from approximately $7 – $15 (prices my change) per person that day. And another rule is that you can only ride these individual rides using this service once per day. Before I explain further how this works, I’ll let you know what rides these are. In the Magic Kingdom it’s the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Space Mountain; in Epcot it’s Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure; in Hollywood Studios it’s Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance; and in Animal Kingdom it’s Avatar Flight of Passage and Expedition Everest. Click here if you want a complete listing by park of what rides are regular Lightning Lane rides and which are Individual Lighting Lane rides. 

Now, to explain further how this works we’ll say for example you are at the Magic Kingdom and you’re a Space Mountain fanatic and it’s a very busy day at the park and you don’t want to wait a long time in the standby line, then you simply go into the My Disney Experience app in the Tip Board and scroll down the list of rides until you find Space Mountain. It will show you the time (just like it would for any of the other rides for a regular Lightning Lane reservation) but this time it will say “Purchase for $__.” The dollar amount listed will vary depending upon how busy the park is. Typically the busier it is, the higher this price will be. But then once you purchase this Individual Lightning Lane for Space Mountain (in this example) you will be able to pick an hour (especially if you do this earlier on in the day) and what time during that hour you want to go on Space Mountain. The time listed will be the earliest you can go. If the time shows 3:25 p.m. in Genie, you can go on using this paid Individual Lightning Lane. But if you wanted to on a little bit later in the day, you can select the hour and then when that hour you wanted to go on. So for example you could select 5 p.m. then 5:30 p.m. if that’s the time you wanted to ride Space Mountain. Then you would arrive to the Lightning Lane entrance at Space Mountain, scan your pass (as described previously) and then go right on in. 

Another key rule here is that once you get off Space Mountain, you cannot pay that “Individual Lightning Lane” fee to skip the line and go on it again. As mentioned, it’s a one shot deal each day. If you wanted to go on Space Mountain again that same day, you have to do the Standby Line. That being said, you can repeat the process I just mentioned in the previous paragraph but this time for the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train ride which is the only other ride that you can pay an additional fee for at the Magic Kingdom. And again, this is a one shot per day deal. Afterwards it’s Standby Line only if you want to ride it again any more times during the day. And this rings true for the other six “Individual Lightning Lane” rides at the other three Orlando Disney theme parks.

Please note that there are no refunds for the “Individual Lightning Lane” rides unless the ride goes down. At that point, when you look at the My Disney Experience app, you will see a notification next to that ride in Genie/Genie+ for a refund to be issued. Otherwise, there are no refunds being given for this service according to the My Disney Experience app. So before you put the payment through, I would advise checking wait times on these 8 rides to see if it’s worth shelling out the $7-$15 so you don’t risk not being able to get the money back. 

If you want to see the Genie+, Lightning Lane, and Individual Lightning Lane services in action, check out this other YouTube video from Kyle Pallo below. 

The Genie, Genie+ and Lightning Lane services all went into effect as of October 19, 2021. If you go to any of the Disney World theme parks in Orlando, Florida and use any of these services and get error messages while using the app, the best advice at this point is to close the My Disney Experience app and open it again. That should resolve the issue.

Advice On Genie Services

The one huge piece of advice that I can give you all is about whether or not these services are worth the extra prices is to play it by ear. It ultimately revolves around two factors. #1: How busy the park is that day. And #2: If you’re open to spending more money to skip waiting in lines. If it’s a busy day and you’re ok with spending the extra $15 plus tax for Genie+ then go for it. It is worth the value on the busy days so you can use the time you would’ve spent in line doing other fun things at the parks like watching some shows or checking out the shops. And as far as the “Individual Lightning Lane” rides are concerned, the decision to make these purchases are again up to the two factors I just mentioned. Keep in mind that at this point you would have spent money already on your hotel/resort, on your ticket to the park, and then on the Genie+ service. If you’re ok with spending an additional $7 – $10 per person per each of these two rides to skip the line, and it’s a busy day, then it’s worth it. But if you feel that you have spent too much as it is and don’t mind waiting in the Standby Line then that might be a better way to go. 

Well there you go. Here you have all the information for the new Genie, Genie+ and Lightning Lane services available as of the end of October 2021 at the four Orlando-based Disney theme parks. As more information becomes available about these services or if anything changes, I will make updates to this article to let you know. If anyone goes to Walt Disney World and actually uses any of these services, please leave a comment below to let us know of your experience using them and what you thought about it. 

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