Everything you Need To Know About Disney Genie+, Lightning Lane, and Individual Attraction Selection
Disney is overhauling their old Fastpass+ and Maxpass systems and replacing them with something that is totally new! I’m not going to lie, it’s all a bit confusing when you throw out all these new terms like ‘lightning lane’, ‘genie+’, and ‘individual attraction selections’. I am going to break it ALL down for you in this article so that you will be ready to go when this new system launches in Disney World October 19th, 2021.
Image Courtesy of Disney Parks
First Things First
There are three different offerings being introduced and they are all very different; Disney Genie, Disney Genie+, and Individual Attraction Selection. Some of these are free, some are paid, and they have different purposes and benefits depending on how you like to do Disney.
Disney Genie
Honestly, I’m the most excited about this feature! This is essentially a free day of planner that you hold right in your hands! It will be integrated with the MyDisney Experience App on your mobile device and will have features to assist you in planning out your perfect Disney Day.
The first feature that will probably be used the most is the forecasted future wait times. This is similar to what they currently have, but a little more in depth. Disney has collected LOADS of data on their guests in the past and they have used this information to give you estimated wait times and how they will fluctuate throughout the day.
The purpose of this tool is to help you plan when the best time to do certain attractions will be as well as help in dispersing crowd levels throughout the park. hopefully this means that instead of one ride being a crazy long wait and everything else walk ons, the rides overall will have more manageable wait times throughout the day.
This is actually just one small part of an even bigger feature! When you access Disney Genie, you will be asked what your interests and goals for the day are. This can be anything from princesses to thrill rides, to family friendly rides, to shows, and more! Once they have this information, the app will create an itinerary for you to help you know when to hit all your favorite rides, attractions, and dining experiences.
What’s even cooler about this is that throughout the day, your itinerary will update based on what you are doing. If you decide you want to skip a ride or you just want to do things in a different order, it will refresh your itinerary to your needs. It will also offer suggestions on things to do and places to eat depending on your location in the park!
Speaking of recommendations, the Tip Board is the next thing offered with the FREE Disney Genie system. This is essentially a tab that will help you choose things to do. It will give you information on available rides, dining, and more along with available and forecasted wait times, and information on mobile order or available dining reservations.
Mobile order will also be moving to Disney Genie, but will operate pretty much the same as it has in the past. The biggest difference is that it will just look a little bit different on the screen.
Finally, another new feature being added with Disney Plus is a virtual assistant chat. This is GAME CHANGING! How often have you been in a park and wanted to know what times shops open, or what the height requirement for a certain ride is and you were all the way on the other side of the park?
With this new feature, you can simply type in your question and you will receive an answer right there on your smart device! This is especially going to come in handy if you are a first time guest as Disney can be pretty overwhelming.
Disney Genie+
Now is where things get just a teensy bit complicated! Disney Genie+ is a COMPLETELY different thing from Disney Genie. This is a paid offering that is replacing the old Fastpass+ system.
It is $15 per ticket per day and this is the same whether you purchase in advance or day of. The catch is that if you purchase in advance, you must purchase it for your entire ticket length, but if you purchase day of, you can purchase it one day at a time.
If you are unfamiliar with Fastpass, it was essentially Disney’s version of a ‘skip the line’ pass. These are now being changed to ‘Lightning Lanes’ but are pretty much the same concept.
If you have not purchased Genie+ in advance, you will be able to get your day of option at 12AM ET. From there EVERYONE will be able to make their first Lightning Lane Selections at 7AM ET. This is super important because this is the same time that Virtual Queues become available as well as the Individual Attraction Selections for Resort guests (more on that later).
You can ONLY chose one Lightning Lane pass as a time. After you use that one, you can book another, and so on. I would highly recommend choosing your first Lighting Lane pass for earlier in the day so that you can hopefully use multiple throughout the day.
Another thing to note is that you can ONLY get a Lightning Lane for a specific ride ONCE per day. For example, if you want to ride Haunted Mansion 3 times in a row, you will only be able to get ONE Lightning Lane pass and then you will have to stand in the normal standby queue for the other two. This will hopefully give more options for people to choose from throughout the entire day!
If you are planning on Park Hopping, you can definitely book a Lightning Lane for the park you wish to hop to. We will know for sure how this will work when the system launches on October 19th, but from what I understand, you will need to book and use your first Lightning Lane Pass in the park you have a park pass reservation for. After that, you can either continue booking Lightning Lane for the park you are in or for the park you wish to hop to. You will of course need to make the passes for the park you wish to hop to after 2PM as you will not be able to get into that park until then.
Image Courtesy Of Disney Parks
A few other features that will be included with Disney Genie+ are Audio Tales and Specialty Photopass AR Lenses.
Audio Tales
This is located inside the app and will offer insider tips, information about the parks, and other fun facts! You will notice in your Itinerary that when you are in a certain location, these Audio Tales will be automatically added in so that you can learn something about the area, dining location, or attraction that you are experiencing!
Photopass AR Lenses
I will be honest… I thought this was kinda dumb when I first heard about it, but as I’ve learned a little more, this is actually going to be a pretty fun little add on!
Similar to Snapchat filters, you will be able to add some fun AR graphics to your photos! This included things like Mickey Hats, Characters, and even the 25th Anniversary Birthday Cake Castle!
Some of these will be offered no matter where you are in the park, but some will only be offered at certain locations. (like the birthday cake castle) You will have these available for download similar to Memory Maker, but it is a separate offering from Memory Maker. If you have purchased Genie+, you will NOT have downloads for rides or from photopass photographers unless you have purchased Memory Maker separately.
Individual Attraction Selections
Now for the third offering being launched on October 19th! Individual Attraction Selections are Lightning Lane passes for the top tier rides in each park that you pay for individually. This is NOT included with Genie+, but you also do NOT have to purchase Genie+ to use this option.
You can do up to two of these a day, which make sense as right now there are only two ride options for this offering per park currently.
It will operate pretty much the same as the other Lightning Lanes, but you will pay for those individually day of on the app. Prices will vary depending on the day, capacity, and time of year, but it seems like prices will range from around $7-15 per ride.
Image Courtesy of Disney Parks
This is of course completely optional and you will still be able to ride these attractions in the normal standby queue! The only exception to this is Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Currently this ride requires a virtual queue, so this may be one to grab a Lightning Lane for if you are unable to snag one. This may be the case with Rise of the Resistance if they decide to bring back the virtual queue for this attraction.
Something VERY important to not about this offering is that for RESORT GUESTS and a few other non Disney Resorts like the Swan & Dolphin Resorts, you will be able to book your Individual Attraction Selection at 7AM ET. If you are not staying on property, you will be able to make your selections at park opening. This will be a similar case at Disneyland when this becomes available later in the fall.
This is definitely a HUGE benefit to staying on property!
A few other things to note about these new offerings
Don’t worry! They will NOT sell out! You will always be able to purchase Disney Genie+ even if you forget to until park open. The amount of Lightning Lane and Individual Attraction Selections could potentially run out, so being prepared earlier rather than later is definitely best.
If you are an Annual Passholder, you will only be able to book single day Genie+, so you will not be able to purchase in advance.
You do NOT have to use ANY of these offerings to have an enjoyable trip to Disney! They are simply offered to ‘plus up’ your vacation and give you a little more convenience, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still have an amazing day at Disney without.
Since there are quite a few things to book at 7AM the day of your trip, I would highly recommend that multiple people in your party are familiar with the systems so that you can assign one person to get the virtual queues, one person to book the Lightning Lane, one person to book the Individual Attraction Selection, etc. The best times will definitely go QUICK so you want to be as prepared as possible!
It is very exciting to see all the new offerings that Disney is adding on, and personally it makes me really excited to see where it goes in the future! If you have questions about this system, you can leave a comment below! Don’t forget to pin this for later!!
