26. Genie+ is Extra AF - Genie+ 101

I’m diving headfirst into the topic that I've been putting off since I started this podcast. Yes, my friends, it's time to tackle the hot and controversial topic of Disney Genie+. We’ll cover purchasing and scheduling strategies, rules and stipulations, and little-known hacks so you don’t miss out on your favorite rides. I’m giving you the tips you need to decide how (or if!) you should use Disney Genie+ at your next Walt Disney World visit.

List of Lightning Lane attractions: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/genie/lightning-lane/

Nikki's Virtual Queue tips: https://www.travelwithnikki.com/reviews

Download my free guide: 10 Tips for A Luxe Disney Vacation or connect with me on Instagram @michelevisitsmickey.

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This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher.

Transcript

Hello, my friends. How are you? It has been a while since it has been just me on this mic. I mean, come on. Have we not had some great guest episodes recently with Les, former VIP tour guide, and then Julia and our fabulous cruise…and then next week, we have the theme park insider himself coming on. So this week, I felt like I really had to come in hot because it's just me. And so I'm doing the episode that I have put off doing since I started this roughly 26 weeks ago, we're on episode 26. We're going to tackle it. Love it or loathe it. Disney Genie+ It has certainly stirred up mixed emotions among myself and other park goers, including many of my clients and possibly you who are listening to this. So we're going to do it. We're going to tackle the controversial topic. 

We're going to go ahead and actually, I should say we're going to stay at the basic level. This is Disney Genie 101. So you will not hear me talk about stacking Or any advanced Genie two zero one topics, that is for the future. We are going to discuss whether Genie+ is a necessary evil, or just a worthwhile addition to your Walt Disney World trip. Spoiler alert. I'm on the it's a necessary evil at some parks. I'm putting it right out there. That's my philosophy. And even more putting it right out there, my philosophy is that Universal up I-4, about 20 minutes from Disney and their Express Pass have it going on. And to this day, I still cannot believe that Disney doesn't have this figured out. It is so not their first rodeo. Like, what the hell, Disney? Even more, just, again, full transparency. I'm just laying it out there. I've been avoiding doing this episode because I really, really thought that when Bob Iger came back and took over control of Disney, that in addition to making parking at the resorts free again for overnight guests, That he would figure out this whole Genie+ debacle. But alas, that hasn't happened. So here we go. 

What is Disney Genie all about? So notice I said Genie, not Genie+. So let's Start with a little vocabulary lesson because I feel like when you're studying for your SATs, you make those vocab cards, And you just go over those vocabulary cards over and over and over again. Well, this is what I feel one needs to do to get your master's degree in Genie+. You just have to pound that language into your head. 

So we're going to start with Genie. Genie without the plus sign. It's a complimentary feature and service is part of the My Disney Experience app that you already have to use for a lot of things like scanning in to your ticket, making dining reservations, mobile ordering, all of that is part of the My Disney Experience app as is Genie. Part of Genie is you have a tip board. You can see wait times, all of that is free, and Disney will tell you that it works as a personalized itinerary feature. However, The algorithm works so that let's say you're at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and it looks at where the traffic is. 

So maybe it's the middle of the day and there is a lot of traffic at Rock and Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror. PS, that's pretty much all the time. It's going to send you over to Indiana Jones or Frozen because those Are shows, or in this case, attractions that are not going to have a long wait. Now, Let's say you do those shows which are on the opposite end of the park from Sunset Boulevard. And then all of a sudden The weight drops or you have a Genie+, we're not there yet. Return time. You're going to be crisscrossing the park is basically what I'm trying to say. Not the most eloquent that I've ever been, but it's because Genie gives me nausea. TMI? Maybe? I don't know. So, Genie is the free service. Please ignore Genie. I know more than Genie. And when I write an itinerary for you, my beloved clients, and I can say this for many, many, many of my fellow travel advisers whom I love and respects, We all know more than Genie, because we go all the time, and we want to protect our feet from having to crisscross the park multiple times, and we're going to help you do the same thing. So just ignore Genie. Genie is free. You get what you pay for. 

Genie with a plus sign, Genie+. Genie+ is a paid service that you can purchase that will let you skip long standby lines for rides and excess the shorter lightning lanes instead. So most attractions have 2 entrances. They have a standby entrance and a lightning lane entrance. PS, the lightning lane entrances used to be the same fast pass entrances. They have new signage now. So if that makes it easier for you to understand the 2 entrances, great. They're now called Lightning Lanes, AKA Speed McQueen Lightning. Woo hoo. 

The price is dependent on several factors. So the price for Genie+, it's a daily price. You do not get to purchase it in advance of your trip because it uses surge pricing, Much the way that your favorite shared transportation app does. The park you visit, plus how much demand Disney expects there to be that day, They figure out the price for the service. If you are park hopping, yes, you can purchase it for more than 1 park in a day, But you will pay the more expensive price. 

So before I came on to record, and I should say that this is mid October, October 13th, Apparently, Disney thinks it's going to be fairly crowded today because park hopping and the Magic Kingdom, which are typically always the most expensive Genie+ For the day is $25, and that's per person in your party. So if you're a party of 5, that's an additional $125 that Disney is You need to pay to access shorter lightning lanes. You do not have to. You can do the standby lanes if you want.

And we have strategies. Again, we have hacks for how to do standby lines. And if you are insistent upon Genie+, or if we tell you you need it, then you really need it because you're going during the holidays. We can help you with that too. 

So Genie+ is the paid service. Review. Again, we're like doing flashcards here. We're studying for our Disney PhD. Genie without the plus sign, free, ignore it. Genie+, the paid service, you can purchase it day of. Pricing varies. It's based on surge. 

And then, we have these little annoying things called the individual lightning lane. We call them in the trade ILLs for short. Yeah. Try and say lightning lane 3 times fast. Just say ILL. It's available for everyone. You can use it with or without the Disney Genie+ Service, they are not dependent upon one another. And it lets you choose a time to arrive at up to 2 attractions each day. So you can hold 2 ILLs every day, but that's it. And prices are estimated to be between $7 - $22 per person for these. Today, for example, again, Guardians of the Galaxy was $22. And they fluctuate on different days of the year. These are not included as part of the Genie+ service. They are basically pay-to-play. 

So you can either do standby or you can purchase Genie+ and do Lightning Lanes on many attractions, but not all. And on the ones that are not included on Genie+, If they have a lightning lane, you will have to purchase individual lightning lane access. Now remember, they're expensive, And they're made to be expensive. This is one thing they did get from Universal because if everybody did it, it wouldn't work. So it has to be, slightly painful so that not everybody does it, so that some people actually do do the standby lane option, But not painful enough that if you're like, I just cannot stand to wait in line 90 minutes. I want to get the most out of my Disney day as I can, that you go ahead and purchase it. 

Have I made that complicated enough for everybody? Okay. We're going to review one more time. We've got Genie without the plus sign. We've got Genie+. We've got individual lightning lanes. We also have virtual queues, but that's for 201. I do have a great blog post. It was actually written by a friend of mine, Nikki. Hi, Nikki. Nikki actually listens while she's walking. So good morning to your morning walk. We're going to do the 10 k princess together in 2024. So I love Nikki. Her company is called Travel with Nikki, and she wrote a great blog post about accessing virtual queues. I borrowed it. So she's really the one to thank for that. But, again, that's 201; we're sticking with Genie+ 101. 

So let's talk about Genie+ and what it includes. Okay. So Disney has a website, which I will put in the show notes, which tells you exactly what attractions are included on Genie+. Not every attraction at every theme park is included. So I beg of you, beg of you, beg of you. And this is why you really need a travel adviser who knows these parks and visits them often to find out what you need to know to prioritize and decide whether you need Genie+ every day of your trip or just certain days of your trip. And for me, and I know this from way back when, when I worked at Indiana Jones, the only original attraction that is still there, That theater holds roughly lot of people. It holds roughly a lot of people. I was about to say 1200, but I actually think it's 1500. Anyway, it holds a lot a lot of people, so it's really not worth it to purchase a Genie+ So that you can go in a shorter line for that. Because if you walk up 10 minutes before showtime, you're going to get in without waiting in the line. You just have to plan accordingly and know what time the shows are. 

So again, if you're a thrill ride junkie, you are going to want Genie+ At the Disney's Hollywood Studios. Because a lot of those attractions are thrill rides, and they are included on Genie+. If you're not a thrill ride person, but you love Star Wars, then you're going to want to do an individual lightning lane purchase so that you're not waiting In line at Rise of the Resistance and watching Star Wars the movie the entire time you're in line. PS, that's just my gauge of if a line's too long or not. If I could watch the IP, the movie that goes along with it, then it's too long. Like, Avatar's, like, 3 hours. So if I could see Avatar, while I'm waiting for Flight of Passage, then I'm buying the individual lightning link. I don't like to wait in line ever, Which is why I love Express Pass at Universal because I get to just pay up front, and I know what it costs. And I'm doing it, and I know I'm not going to wait in lines. But alas, again, what the fuck, Disney? 

So know what attractions are covered on Genie+ Ask your travel adviser to Give you that link or go over them with you, so that you can prioritize which of the attractions are most important to you, Whether you need to rope drop them or buy Genie+ or buy an individual lightning lane or do both. Again, we're forgetting the Genie without the plus. We just ignore it, and we talk to our travel advisers instead. Again, you don't ever need it for shows. You will only ever need Genie+ for rides. And there are some rides where it's even easier to rope drop than to try and get an individual lightning lane. And we'll discuss why when we talk about how to Go to lightning lane. And we'll discuss why when we talk about how to purchase Genie+ and or your individual lightning lane, your ILL. 

So question number 3, which I forgot to mention that in addition to these are questions that my clients always ask me when I do their Genie+ training, and I do do a Genie+ training with every single one of my Disney clients, I do it over Zoom so we can set up the app together. They can see my app. I can see theirs. We can talk through it. 

But I also asked my BFF, Chat GPT, what are the most questions that people ask, And this is one that they came up with. So what is the cost of Genie+, and how can guests purchase it? Great question, Chat GPT. Sadly, I don't have a great answer for you because, again, it's surge pricing. So as of June 27th this year, they tweaked Genie+. But not to make it even easier, they made it even harder. Because now instead of just one price for all of Genie+, which is how it used to be. We have pricing per park with variable pricing. So as of the day of this recording in mid October, it's $25 for the Magic Kingdom, and it's also $25 if you plan on doing more than 1 park and park hopping. Now keep in mind through the end of this year, and this is going to change come January, park hopping is only after 2. So if you're spending all day at Disney's Hollywood Studios, I almost called it Disney MGM Studios theme park. Oops. You're spending all day at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and you're only going to the Magic Kingdom for the fireworks at night. I mean, it's like $3 more per person, but you have to decide if that's something you really want to do is pay $3 more for the park hopping version, or you're just going to go in and see the fireworks and maybe do something with a short wait in the standby line.

As of now, you also cannot upgrade to another park or the multiple parks option if you decide to park hop. So if you think you want to use Genie+ at multiple parks, go ahead and pick that selection in the beginning of the day. Wait, I said beginning of the day. That leads us into the very next question. 

What time can I purchase Genie+ And/or my individual lightning lane? Another great question, Chat GPT. So let's talk about this. You can actually purchase Genie+ and have it set up before you pick your 1st lightning lane selection. Okay. So what am I talking about? I've like dropped Genie+ and Lightning Lane altogether. Okay. So when you purchase Genie+, You can hold a lightning lane time to return. And you can do that. You can hold one at a time. I'm going to get into the exceptions and the advanced, but let's take it slow. 

So you wake up and you purchase Genie+ and then you make your 1st selection. You can do that starting at 7 AM. Doesn't matter if you're staying on or off-site. So it doesn't matter if you are a resort guest or not. You can make your first selection at 7 AM. So Slinky Dog Dash is always the very first lightning lane to go. And when I say to go, meaning there are only so many return times available every day. And Slinky Dog Dash, “sells out” of its return times the fastest. So you can actually purchase your Genie+ starting at midnight, the night before you're going to the parks, But day of, essentially, because it's midnight. 

But if you're like me and you're sleeping because you're going to get up at, like, 5:30 in the morning So you can have breakfast and then be at security and get your resort extra 30 minutes. You just want to get up, give yourself 10 minutes at like 6:50. Make sure you have your Genie+ setup. Again, I go over all of that, the setup of it with you individually when you book your Disney trip with me. And then at 7 AM, as soon as those lightning lane return times drop, that's when you can start to make your first selection. So you've already bought the Genie+, now you're just making it work for you. Again, you can be on or off-site. There's always an advantage when you do things early.

So typically that means make your 1st selection right at 7 AM. Also at 7 AM, if you are staying at a Walt Disney World Resort, you can also book your 1st or one of 2 Individual lightning lane selection. So that's like Guardians of the Galaxy, Tron. There's 2 of the Magic Kingdom still. It's the 7 Dwarfs Mind Train. It's Flight of Passage over Animal Kingdom And Hollywood Studios, it's Rise of the Resistance. So all rides, E-ticket rides that we definitely always want to try and get in on our trips. Even for me who's not a roller coaster junkie, those are all rides that I really like. So that happens at 7 AM for resort guests only. 

If you're like me and you're staying at your Marriott Vacation Club timeshare, then I don't get to make my 1st individual lightning lane selection until the park opens. So that does give resort guests a little bit of an advantage because, again, there's only so many individual lightning lane selections available in any given day. So you get yours at 7. I probably don't get mine until mine. Hopefully, there is some still there. 

So as of right now, like I said, I played around with it before I came into my little recording studio. I did take a look, and there are no more Individual lightning lanes available. It's 11:30 in Orlando in the Eastern time zone. So it is effectively pretty late in the day, but Tron's gone, and Guardians is gone, and Rise does have some, but they're really late in the day. I didn't check Animal Kingdom. I'm sorry. Animal Kingdom for me is like always an afterthought. I think because that park wasn't there when I worked there, and so I've had to learn it late in life, so to say. Anyway, so what I'm basically telling you, yes, you have heard correct, is that chaos ensues at 7 AM, which is really not exactly what you want on your vacation. 

Another reason that it's just imperative that you use a Travel advisor who can help you understand, who can help you prioritize the attractions or the character meet and greets or the meals that you want, and then give you the Genie 201 hacks that I don't even have time to begin to cover in a 30 minute podcast.

Okay. So at 7 AM, your 1st Genie+ Lightning Lane selections open. Your paid ILLs are Open to eligible on-site guests. And just to make things really fun, the virtual queue opens at 7 AM as well. Right now, the virtual queue is being used to Tron at Magic Kingdom, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Journey of Water inspired by Moana at Epcot. Virtual queues drop at 7 AM for anyone. You do not have to be staying on-site. You don't have to be in the park yet.

And then for the afternoon drops, which are 1 o'clock right now, that could always change. Be sure and check the app for up-to-date details. Right now, it's at 1 o'clock. You have to be scanned into the park for the attraction. So if you want to go get a virtual queue, which is instead of the standby lane, doesn't affect your individual lightning lane. This is just if you want A standby virtual queue for Tron at Magic Kingdom, you have to have already been scanned into the park by the 1 o'clock. Again, shout out to Nikki and travel with Nikki, and her fabulous blog article which I will link to in the show notes on virtual queues. Also a 201 strategy.

Are there any tips or strategies for maximizing the benefits of Genie+ and Lightning Lanes? I'm so glad you asked me that, Chat GPT. Let me tell you. The first and most important one, I love this little hack, Genie+ Lightning Lanes have a built in grace period. You can scan in up to 5 minutes early And up to 15 minutes late, which really means you have 80 minutes in total. So if you have an 11 to 12, That's the standard hour return time for Slinky Dog Dash. You can really scan in as early as 10:55 Or as late as 12:15. Yeah. I said 11 AM time. So 10:55 to 12:15. That means if you have an 11:45 lunch over at Rudy Rodeo Roundup barbecue, yay you, because you can scan in at 10:55, ride Slinky Dog Dash, and have time to go to the restroom before you even need to worry about missing your reservation. Or getting to Brown Derby in time, or any other of the reservations you might have. Yay. That's great. 

You can book your next lightning lane selection. So this is where we are on the border of advanced Genie+ 201 strategy. So 2 things, either one has to occur for you to be able to book your next return time. Remember, I said earlier, you can only hold 1 at a time, 1 lightning lane return at a time. Well, there's a slight exception to that rule, so stay with me here. If you're multitasking, come back to me (shout out to Amy Porterfield). 

After you scan into an attraction, And by scan into an attraction, that means that either your MagicBand or your phone has touched The lightning lane entrance where you have to scan so that the person standing there, the cast member standing there can see it turn green, and know that you are not Trying to scam yourself into the attraction. You scan in. That's what we call it. If you're wearing a MagicBand, it's Mickey Mickey ears to Mickey ears. That's how I always remember which way to put my magic band on. So you have your magic band. You have your return time for Slinky Dog Dash. I just love the studios, you know. It's my favorite park. So You scan in at 10:55, it turns green, and then you hold up the line because you're already able to look in and make your next reservation. So you scan in at 10:55 and maybe you're able to get Toy Story for 11:15, But remember, you've got a grace period so you can ride Slinky Dog and rush right over to Toy Story mania. I wish it were that simple. Doesn't usually work that way. But in theory, that's how it could be fun. 

Or let's see. You wake up at 7 am and you can't get a slinky dog dash until 7 pm. It does happen because, as I said earlier, slinky dog is the very first one to always run out. So you wake up at 7, you know you're going to the studios, but you're not even going to get to do Slinky Dog Dash until 7 PM. Well, you shouldn't be locked out of being able to get any other Genie+ lightning lane entrances. So 2 hours later, after the park opens, You can book your next return time. Used to be you had to set your watch on a timer for 2 hours. But now the app, Genie+ does let you know when you can book your next attraction. 

A couple of other hacks for you. Any important lightning lane selections, Especially your ones that you've paid for, your ILLs. Make sure you have a screenshot of those, because sometimes They disappear from your account. It's just a technical glitch, Disney, and their on-site tech. Another reason I love Universal and the Express pass, but we're not going there. 

We're almost done. So we gotta focus. I gotta be positive about Genie+ for the end. Like the end is in sight. You have almost got your MBA, your “Mousters” of Genie+. Come back for your ”Ducktorate”. If you didn't hear last week's episode, you have no idea what I just said. So go back and listen to last week's episode with Les, 2 weeks ago episode. 

Screenshot those important lightning lane selections, so that if you're trying to scan in, again, Mickey ears to Mickey ears on your MagicBand. If you try to scan in, and it goes red, you can show the screenshot to the cast member, and they can help you scan in. Okay. The 10-minute rule. This is very, very exciting. So remember I said at 7 AM, chaos ensues, And you log in, and all of the individual lightning lanes for Rise of the Resistance show that it sells out within seconds, And it does. And you're like, no. 3 hours, not for me. That's longer than Star Wars the movie. Not going to do it. So don't give up. Refresh minutes later. I say, at 10 minutes between 7:10 and 7:20, and you might find a time. There's a special drop limited at 10 minutes later for all the people who had it in their cart, But didn't end up purchasing in time, those are released back to the public.

So always remember the 10 minute rule, 7 AM and 7:10. And don't forget that you can actually play with your tipboard and set up some of this stuff at home, just like I played with it before I got on here to talk to all of you. I looked at the current pricing, all of that good stuff. 

And that my friends is Genie+ 101. Can't wait to see you real soon.