Disneyland debuted the Disney Genie service last week, which is now baked into the Disneyland app. The Disney Parks Blog boasted back in August that it “will maximize your park time, so you can have more fun.” The free version offers suggestions for your park day, but the real reason why Disney Genie exists is for their “plus” version that is offered for $20 per ticket, per day. I used Disney Genie Plus (the paid version) on Saturday, December 11th which was a very crowded day at Disneyland. I cataloged every ride, every time stamp, and wanted to share not only my experience, but also to offer opinion based commentary on what it means to us as guests and Disneyland moving forward.
What Does Genie Plus Include?
Disney Genie Plus is a service available for purchase as an add-on with a new ticket or vacation package before your visit, or as a single-day purchase for existing ticket holders through the Disneyland app on the day of your park visit after park entry. With the purchase of Disney Genie Plus service, you can select the next available arrival window for Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane entrances at select attractions. You can make one selection at a time, after park entry on the day of your visit. One difference between this and Max Pass is that you can only use one Lightning Lane a day for each available attraction. Guests with a Park Hopper ticket or a Magic Key, may cross over and switch between parks on the same day beginning at 1:00 PM to experience the attractions at the other park with this service (remember that you still need to make park reservations).
Here are the Attractions with Lightning Lanes in Disneyland Park (only available with Genie Plus – no free lightning lanes):
- Autopia
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
- Haunted Mansion
- Indiana JonesTM Adventure
- “it’s a small world”
- Matterhorn Bobsleds
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
- Space Mountain
- Splash Mountain
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
Here are the Attractions with Lightning Lanes in Disney California Adventure park (only available with Genie Plus – no free lightning lanes):
- Goofy’s Sky School
- Grizzly River Run
- Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
- Incredicoaster
- Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
- Soarin’ Around the World
- Toy Story Midway Mania!
All the listed attractions above are subject to availability on the particular day of your visit.
Separate from Genie Plus are three premium rides (“Individual Lightning Lanes’): Rise of the Resistance (Disneyland), Radiator Springs Racers (DCA), and Webslingers (DCA). These rides are available for purchase SEPARATELY (not included) for varying fees daily. Rise of the Resistance was $20 per person to skip the line with a premium Lightning Lane the day I visited, while the other two attractions were $12 per person to skip the line (they had been $7 on the weekdays). Additionally, guests can only purchase two of these premium attractions per day, not all three.
Genie Plus also includes access to Disney’s Photo Pass service for the day. For all the complete information on Disney Genie head to the Disneyland website.
My Day With Genie Plus
I documented the entire day of attractions on Saturday, December 11th on our Instagram page. Here is a full list of the attractions I was able to experience, including time stamps and whether I used a Lightning Lane to experience the attraction. You can watch our YouTube video of the day to get a sense of how the day flowed from attraction to attraction.
- Peter Pan – 8:00 a.m. (no Lightning Lane)
- Pinocchio’s Daring Journey – 8:10 a.m. (no Lightning Lane)
- Dumbo – 8:20 a.m. (no Lightning Lane)
- Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride – 8:28 a.m. (no Lightning Lane)
- Snow White’s Enchanted Wish – 8:32 a.m. (no Lightning Lane)
- King Arthur’s Carousel – 8:44 a.m. (no Lightning Lane)
- Storybook Land Canal – 9:00 a.m. (no Lightning Lane)
- Mad Tea Party “Teacups” – 9:09 a.m. (no Lightning Lane)
- Alice in Wonderland – 9:13 (no Lightning Lane)
- Matterhorn – 9:35 (first use of a Lightning Lane)
- Autopia – 10:01 (second use of a Lightning Lane)
- Space Mountain – 10:30 (third use of a Lightning Lane)
- Star Tours – 10:54 (fourth use of a Lightning Lane)
- Roger Rabbits Toon Spin – 11:19 (fifth use of a Lightning Lane)
- Gadgets Go Coaster – 11:27 (no Lightning Lane option)
- Winnie the Pooh – 12:04 p.m. (no Lightning Lane option)
- Millennium Falcon “Smugglers Run” – 12:38 (sixth use of a Lightning Lane)
- Casey Junior Train – 1:06 p.m. (no Lightning Lane option)
- Jungle Cruise – 1:27 (no Lightning Lane option)
- Pirates of the Caribbean – 1:51 (no Lightning Lane option)
- Haunted Mansion Holiday – 2:45 (seventh use of a Lightning Lane)
- Splash Mountain – 2:55 (has Lightning Lane as an option, but I couldn’t book a Lightning lane, so I had to do standby)
- Rise of the Resistance – 3:35 p.m. (Did not choose to purchase the premium $20 skip the line “Individual Lightning Lane”)
- Big Thunder Railroad – 4:48 p.m. (eighth use of a Lightning Lane)
- Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters – 5:02 p.m. (ninth use of a Lightning Lane)
- It’s a Small World Holiday – 5:42 p.m. (tenth use of a Lightning Lane)
- Astro Orbiter – 6:14 p.m. (no Lightning Lane option)
- Incredicoaster in DCA – 6:54 (eleventh use of a Lightning Lane)
A few notes on the day – Indiana Jones was down for nearly the entire day, so I wasn’t able to ride that attraction; I could have gotten a Lightning Lane for Soarin’ Around the World at 7:45 p.m. but I was tired and decided to head home; in total I used the Genie Plus Lightning Lane feature 11 times. I didn’t find the “suggestions” from Genie very helpful throughout the day. In once instance it suggested I walk from Autopia to Pirates of the Caribbean even though I was right next to Space Mountain and there was a Lightning Lane available to book nearly right away – why would I walk across the park in that instance? It also had odd suggestions for food. I had already mobile ordered my lunch from Hungry Bear, and it was suggesting I order lunch from Stage Door Café (I was standing in Star Trader in Tomorrowland at the time). So the suggestion feature maybe needs some bugs to be worked out.
Is it worth it?
This is totally subjective. If you come to Disneyland Resort parks only once or a limited number of times per year, then this might be worth considering. If you frequently come to Disneyland Resort parks then that $20 per person, per visit can add up quickly. If money is no object for you, then this is definitely worthwhile for you. You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons for yourself.
*** Update *** As summer approaches you’ll find more single visit and vacation visit type of guests, so more people will be using the service which has made the Genie Plus lines and return times a bit longer than they were when the service first started.
Commentary on Genie
Gone are the days of free fast passes for guests at the Disneyland Resort parks. The new Genie Plus system is fairly similar to the old Max Pass system – they even cost the same $20 per day. There are a few differences though. Under the old annual pass program the highest tier annual pass had Max Pass automatically included with the pass as a perk, but that is not the case with Genie Plus. You can also only use a Lightning Lane on a given attraction one time per day. Lastly, Radiator Springs is not included in Genie Plus (it was included with Max Pass). The biggest difference is that there is no longer the aforementioned free fast pass option for guests. Whereas in the past you could book a few fast passes per day without paying any money, now you don’t have that option unless you pay the twenty dollars more per person.
On the day I visited the park, paid admission was $159 for a single park ticket, $219 for a park hopper ticket, and the only Magic Key level not blocked out was the Dream Key which costs $1399 for the year. So in essence, Disney has said that for those admission prices you won’t have the same experience as other guests unless you pay $20 more per person to have a good park day (potentially more if you add on the premium Lightning Lane rides). For a family of five like ours, that means we would have to pay a minimum of $100 extra per visit to get a good park experience. If I was here on a single day ticket, like we had for the months after the parks reopened, I would have been very upset about this extra fee. I can only speak to my experience and the experiences of my family in the parks, but I cannot see myself ever paying for this service again.
Since Disneyland has reopened, we’ve seen that lines moved well and guests were able to get on most of the attractions they hoped to ride on a park visit. That won’t always be the case now that Genie Plus has been activated. I can easily see people getting fed up with the long waits for attractions, buy Genie Plus, and then bloat the Genie Plus system and have a difficult time getting Lightning Lanes for attractions. I noticed that it was much easier to book Lightning Lanes with a soon return time in the morning than it was in the afternoon and evening. I had a two-hour return time wait for Haunted Mansion Holiday and about a one hundred minute return time wait for Big Thunder.
I’m not a negative person by nature, but I don’t have many positive thoughts about the extra fees being tacked on to an already expensive experience. Also, while the Geenie Plus add-on for my park day did mean that I got to experience more attractions, it did also mean that I spent quite a bit of the day on my phone. I left the park not feeling a sense of fulfillment (the good tired feeling from a full, fun day at the parks), but rather I left earlier than I normally do because I was mentally tired and had a cranky back thanks to a jarring ride on the Matterhorn earlier in the day.
As the headline says – it’s complicated. Genie Plus does mean you have an easier time getting on attractions, but I missed out on some pleasant aspects of Disneyland due to my tech driven day. I didn’t find myself taking as many breaks to snack on treats, people watch, stop and enjoy the live entertainment (sparse as it is), or browse through the stores like I normally do. I was also by myself rather than with my family like I normally am when I visit the park. It’s complicated. What do you think of the new Genie Plus system? Fan? Not a fan? We all want the best possible experience when we visit the Disneyland Resort, but at what cost?
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for reading.
Awesome post!! Thank you so much for sharing!
I am speaking from an experience from Sunday, 12/12, with not purchasing the Genie+ service. Before Genie+ was released, I thought things were great, all lines went fast. One lane only, the stand-by line, so the guest flow is rapid. You’d check the app to see where lines were short, and head there, ride, then on to the next!
Now, with the Lightning lane in place, one would think the flow rate would be reduced in half from the Lightning Lane, but from what I experienced, it was a lot slower on some rides. I saw Cast members letting in guest from the Lightning lane faster than the stand-by line, which was roughly 3:1 (3 parties from the Lightning Lane per 1 party from the stand-by line). This basically gives the “good park experience” to those that are privileged enough to purchase the Genie+ service for their group. Admission already comes at a premium price, and needing to add more for a service that puts you above the others is unfair to those that did not, or cannot budget, for the service. To add to that, the wait times posted on the app became inaccurate, which my guess is due to the injection of the Lightning Lane guests. The times I found from the app were 50-75% of the total actual wait time, for example, we went on Soarin’ that had a “35 minute” wait, but we ended up waiting 1 hour and 15 minutes. Another example, we went on Incredicoaster that had a “15 minute” stand-by wait, but that ended up being about 25 minute… not long, but just pointing out the ratio of inaccuracy.
As you can tell, I am not a fan of the service of how it affect those that do not use it, or can’t use it because they are waiting on a pending Lightning Lane. Being cornered into needing to purchase additional services in order to have a “good park experience,” is just unfair. Also, as mentioned, the experience from the article became very tech driven where you lose the ability to just enjoying the moment and doing what you spontaneously want to do… like just taking a seat and enjoying a snack and the scenery to take a breather… those moments of bliss are priceless. Overall, I feel it’s a double edged sword, and those that are able to “pay and play” are the only ones that can take advantage of their visit at the cost of others waiting in stand-by. I vote to cancel any “front of the line service,” and to just stick with the stand-by only line, even if Genie+ was free.
We were there on Saturday as well! Family of 5 plus my parents. It was our second day. Friday was fairly smooth and we were able to ride a bunch of rides. Saturday was a nightmare due to lightning lane people! After we ate lunch we bit the bullet and bought the genie plus passes just so we could get on more rides for the rest of the day. I do not like this new pass! We pay for the high magic key so I feel like I’m already bleeding money and now I have to pay even more to enjoy my time at a park that I already spend a lot of money to do. I like what my oldest daughter had to say about it. She put it best… “I wonder what Walt Disney would say about these lightning lanes”? Great question!