2024 Disney Genie Guide
Magic Kingdom’s Cinderella Castle- photo by Brian McGowan
Hey Disney Park fans! We hope you all are having a wonderful start to your 2024. To help you bring even more magic to your year, were giving you our top tips to help you get the most out of you Genie. Before we begin, we’ll need to breakdown what exactly Disney Genie is and how to use it. Let’s get started!
Side Note: Our top tip is to download the My Disney Experience app and practice with it prior to your visit. Make sure you’re comfortable with the features so you’ll be prepared. The Disney app has become a must have tool for your visit. trying to learn how to use the app the day of your park visit can be a timely and costly mistake.
Know the Basics
Lightning Lanes: When discussing Genie, you’ll need to know what Lightning Lanes are. Lightning Lane are seperate line entries that let you bypass the standby queue and join a separate queue for select attraction and entertainment experiences. Some Lightning Lane entrances are offered through Disney Genie+ service. Other Lightning Lane entrances may be purchased individually (à la carte). You may buy either or both options. Well get more into the à la carte options below.
What is Disney Genie? The Disney Genie is a feature with in the My Disney Experience app designed to enhance the guest experience by providing personalized itinerary planning and real-time information about attractions, dining, and entertainment. The Disney Genie is broken into 3 separate features: Genie, Genie+, and Individual Lightning Lane Attractions(ILLs).
Key features of the Disney Genie:
Personalized Itinerary: Guests can input their preferences, such as favorite attractions, characters, and dining options, and the Disney Genie will create a customized itinerary for their day at the park.
Attraction Wait Times: Real-time information on attraction wait times and updates to help guests plan their visits more efficiently.
Virtual Queue System: The Genie service may include access to a virtual queue system for certain popular attractions, allowing guests to join a virtual line and receive notifications when it's their turn to experience the ride. Currently virtual queues are being offered at Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind(EPCOT) and Tron Lightcycle Run(Magic Kingdom).
Mobile Ordering: Integration with mobile food ordering services to streamline the dining experience. This feature also works for those with the Disney Dining Plan.
Genie+: A paid service offered at Disney theme parks. It allows visitors to access certain attractions and experiences with shorter wait times by using a virtual queue system. Guests can use the Genie+ service through the Disneyland or Walt Disney World Resort apps to make ride reservations and optimize their park experience.
Individual Lightning Lane(ILLs): Some Lightning Lane entrances are not offered through Disney Genie+ service but may be purchased individually(à la carte). These attractions currently are: Tron Lightcycle Run(Magic Kingdom), Seven Dwarfs Mine Train(Magic Kingdom), Flight of Passage(Animal Kingdom), Rise of the Resistance(Hollywood Studios), Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind(EPCOT). The price per attraction will be date based. Meaning the more crowded, the more expensive it will be.
Now that we’ve reviewed the basics, let’s get more into the details!
Magic Kingdom’s Tron Lightcycle Run, photo by Brian Mcgowan
Disney Genie Tips
Disney Genie Base is free to use and can be very helpful when planning your park day. As mentioned above, the Genie planning feature has several features and is free to use, unlike Genie+ and ILLs. Making this feature very helpful to all families willing to learn how to use it. Let’s discuss some tips and tricks on how to use it efficiently and get the most out of your park day!
🪄✨ Knowing your attractions in advance- There are over currently over 50 attraction eligible for Genie+ through out all four parks. The more popular attractions, like Hollywood Studio’s Slinky Dog Dash book out very quickly. Knowing your must do attractions a head of time can help you maximize your use of Genie+. Click here to see a full list of attractions.
🪄✨ Pay attention to the wait times and not the itinerary recommendations- Disney Genie service cultivates personalized itinerary inspired by your party’s top interests and helps you enjoy more of the magic during your theme park. At least it’s suppose to. As of now, we feel that the Genie Itinerary recommendations still lack when it comes giving guest the best park day possible. The recommendations seem to be trying to play crowd control and may not be the best fit for your family. For example, durning our last visit to Disney’s Animal Kingdom the Genie Itinerary recommended that we go ride TriceraTop Spin which had a 10 minute wait, when Flight of Passage only had a 30 minute wait. If you’re not familiar with with parks, you may be wondering why is this a bad thing. Flight of Passage is Animal Kingdoms most popular attraction with an average wait-time of 90 minutes. TriceraTop Spin on the other hand is a Dumbo like attraction that often has a wait-time of 10 minutes. It would have been wiser use of my family time to head over to Flight of Passage, which we did! We hope that as the system continues to improve the recommendations will become better. But for now, keep an eye on the wait-times.
🪄✨ Mobile order your Food ahead of time- Mobile ordering food can be a great time saver and save you from having a grumpy travel party! Let’s take a moment and imagine that you’re in Magic Kingdom and you and your family are nice and hungry! You wall up to the Classic Casey’s Corner for some food and the line is incredibly long, you decide to mobile order and the soonest pick up window is 2 hours out. Not an ideal situation to be in! Genie has introduced a way to order food in advance and the guest can select a time to pick up their food. We like to mobile order while in line for an attraction so we know will have a tasty treat after riding! Sometime to know is pickup windows for popular times do fill up quickly (around 11-1, 4-7). Click here to see the all the mobile order locations
🪄✨ Double check your mobile order details if you’re using the Disney Dining Plan(DDP)- Disney World recently brought back the fan favorite Disney Dining Plan, oh boy were we excited! And were happy to say that you can use your DDP credits while mobile ordering. But Be careful when doing so! We’ve noticed that when ordering entrees and you add any extras like a side of cheese, the app will add the extra as your snack credit. This is an awful way to use a snack credit! We soon will be releasing a DDP guide, so stay tuned for that!
🪄✨ Snag last minute dining reservations- Continuing on with dining, you may want to enjoy a nice sit-down meal inside of a quick service or a grab and go option. The Genie offer Walk-up wait list for select locations throughout the parks. This can be a wonderful way to get those last minute reservation for popular dining locations! On the other hand some locations only offer walk-up availability, like Animal Kingdom’s Nomad Lounge can be very popular and walk-up availability books out very quickly. To view the “dining now” options, got to the Genie Tip Board and select dining.
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, photo by Renato Mitra
Disney Genie+ Tips
🪄✨ Know which attractions offer Genie+ Reminder that the most popular attractions will not be include with Genie+. It’s important to know that Genie+ does not guarantee access to all eligible attractions. Like the old FastPass system, availability is limited and the more popular attractions book up quickly. Here’s our top picks for Genie+ per park, these are the ones we recommend booking first thing in the morning at 7am.
Magic Kingdom- Peter Pan’s Flight, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Meeting Ariel at Her Grotto
EPCOT- Test Track, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Frozen Ever After
Hollywood Studios- Slinky Dog Dash, Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run, Hollywood Tower of Terror, Mickey and Minnies Runaway Railway
Animal Kingdom- Kilimanjaro Safari, Na’vi River Journey, Expedition Everest, Festival of the Lion King.
🪄✨ Know your must do attractions- As mentioned, the more popular attractions, the top tier rides, book up quickly. These attraction are often the ride with the longer waits. If you’re able to snag those attraction, it can bring a lot of value to your Genie+ purchase and of course save you a lot of time! If you would like to learn more about our Disney Genie+ attraction ranking, click here.
🪄✨Purchase Early - Okay folks! This is a big one if you’d going durning peak seasons(spring breaks, holidays). Genie+ can sellout, and will sellout quickly during popular travel dates. Guest can purchase Genie the day of their visit starting at 12am.
🪄✨ Lightning Lane Selection Order- Okay friends, this is another big one. 7am is the time, the time to make choices and determine what to book first when the Genie+, ILL’s, and virtual queues open. Let’s review what to prioritize by park:
Magic Kingdom:
12 a.m. — 6:45 a.m. Purchase Genie+
7 a.m. — Join the Virtual Queue for TRON: Lightcycle / Run (both onsite and offsite guests)
7 a.m. — Purchase an Individual Lightning Lane for TRON: Lightcycle / Run (onsite guests only)
7 a.m. — Make your first Genie+ selection; we recommend either Peter Pan’s Flight or Jungle Cruise (both onsite and offsite guests)
7 a.m. — Purchase your 2nd Individual Lightning Lane Selection. It could be Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, or, if you are planning to park hop, you could book at one of the other parks for a return time after your planned park hop time. (onsite only)
Park opening — Once a park officially opens, offsite guests can purchase Individual Lightning Lane Selections. (Note: You have to wait for park opening, but you don’t have to be inside the park.)
2 hours AFTER park opening OR after you’ve tapped in for your first Genie+ (whichever comes first) – Make your 2nd Genie+ selection
EPCOT:
12 a.m. — 6:45 a.m. Purchase Genie+
7 a.m. — Join the Virtual Queue for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (both onsite and offsite)
7 a.m. — Purchase an Individual Lightning Lane for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind (onsite only)
7 a.m. — Make your first Genie+ selection; we recommend Test Track, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, or Frozen Ever After
7 a.m. — If you are planning to park hop, purchase your 2nd Individual Lightning Lane Selection at one of the other parks for a return time after your planned park hop time. (onsite only)
Park opening — Once a park officially opens, offsite guests can purchase Individual Lightning Lane Selections. (Note: You have to wait for park opening, but you don’t have to be inside the park.)
2 hours AFTER park opening OR after you’ve tapped in for your first Genie+ (whichever comes first) – Make your 2nd Genie+ selection
Hollywood Studios:
12 a.m. — 6:45 a.m. Purchase Genie+
7 a.m. — Make your first Genie+ selection; we recommend Slinky Dog Dash or Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run
7 a.m. — Purchase an Individual Lightning Lane for Rise of the Resistance
7 a.m. — If you are planning to park hop, purchase your 2nd Individual Lightning Lane Selection at one of the other parks for a return time after your planned park hop time. (onsite only)
Park opening — Once a park officially opens, offsite guests can purchase Individual Lightning Lane Selections. (Note: You have to wait for park opening, but you don’t have to be inside the park.)
2 hours AFTER park opening OR after you’ve tapped in for your first Genie+ (whichever comes first) – Make your 2nd Genie+ selection
Animal Kingdom:
12 a.m. — 6:45 a.m. Purchase Genie+
7 a.m. — Purchase an Individual Lightning Lane for Flight of Passage
7 a.m. — Make your first Genie+ selection; we recommend Kilimanjaro Safari or Na’vi River Journey
7 a.m. — If you are planning to park hop, purchase your 2nd Individual Lightning Lane Selection at one of the other parks for a return time after your planned park hop time. (onsite only)
Park opening — Once a park officially opens, offsite guests can purchase Individual Lightning Lane Selections. (Note: You have to wait for park opening, but you don’t have to be inside the park.)
2 hours AFTER park opening OR after you’ve tapped in for your first Genie+ (whichever comes first) – Make your 2nd Genie+ selection
🪄✨ Know when to booking your next attraction and always have one selected- If you have purchased Genie+ You should always select a new attraction as soon as possible. Disney Genie+ service Lightning Lane selections can only be made one at a time, but you can hold more than one attraction at once. You must redeem an existing Disney Genie+ service Lightning Lane selection or wait 2 hours(the 120 minute rule)—whichever comes first—before making another Lightning Lane entrance selection through Disney Genie+ service. You can view you next selection booking window time on your Genie tip board, we recommend setting a timer to alert you when you’re eligible to make your next selection. Please note: the 2-hour wait to make another selection begins when the park opens, even if you made your first booking at 7:00 AM.
🪄✨ Stacking attraction selections- Disney states that guest using Genie normally can use Genie+ on three attractions daily. We’ve been fortunate to get far more! How you ask? By stacking Genie+ Attractions! “Stacking” Genie+ reservations is possible because of the 120 minute rule. If you prioritize grabbing Lightning Lane reservations for popular rides early in the day, you’re likely going to be holding multiple Lightning Lane reservations simultaneously so long as you continue making them whenever eligible. This is because your return times will be kicked out further into the future, and you’ll be able to make new selections prior to redeeming old ones.
🪄✨ Modify your selections- The Genie has recently been updated to now allow purchasers of Genie+ the ability to modify their Lightning Lane selections. This can really help you get the most out of Genie+ by allowing you to check back for sooner times. To modify, go to your “my day” section of the Genie Tip Board, find the attraction you wish to modify and select the “…” button on the top right of the attraction. From there simply select modify and select a new time for the attraction.
EPCOT’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind- photo by Brian McGowan
Individual Lightning Lane Selection Tips
🪄✨Know the Rules & your return time limits - Once you have obtained your Individual Lightning lane selection, you will want to pay close attention to your return time window. Unlike Genie+ selections, this time cannot be modified or changed. However, a benefit to purchasing Individual Lightning lane selections is that you get to select your return time. Be sure that this time does not interfere with any dining reservations or show you may have planned for you park day.
🪄✨ Screen shot your purchase- This has been a very helpful tip for many. The My Disney experience app is a really helpful tool for your park days, however it’s not perfect and glitches do happen. We highly recommend that if you purchase anything through the app that you take a screen shot of your purchase. If there is a glitch, having proof of your purchase can help a cast member resolve the issue. Remember that if an issue does happen to be kind to the cast member, they will try their best to help anyway that they can.
Watch Mammoth Club Videos on YouTube
Finally our favorite tip, watch Mammoth Club videos on YouTube. There’s nothing better than seeing Genie used in action, and no one does it better than Molly with Mammoth Club! We hear at Wave of the Wand Travel LOVE Mammoth Club. Molly is incredibly knowledgable on all things Disney World and Universal. The video above is Molly’s newest Genie+ video and it’s full of helpful tips and visuals. We highly recommend subscribing to the Mammoth Club’s YouTube channel. If you enjoy Mammoth Club as much as we do, we recommend checking out their patron for more content.
Bonus Tip: Wave of the Wand Travel
We know, this was a lot of information! Disney Genie is not an easy feature to master. If you’re overwhelmed we completely understand. Allow our Travel Advisor Angel to help you! To ensure our clients can navigate these apps with confidence, we provide exclusive app training videos. Additionally, we offer personalized one-on-one training sessions guiding our clients through every aspect of the app before their trip commences. Our goal is to ensure that each client feels completely at ease while navigating the app's features.
As an added convenience, we offer the bonus service of setting up our clients' park app accounts. We take care of linking their Disney reservations seamlessly to their account, streamlining the process and enabling them to effortlessly access all their vital information within the park app. Contact us to start planning your 2024 Disney World Vacation!
