7 – How Many Genie+ Selections Will I Receive a Day?
After you enjoy your first Lightning Lane experience, you can make another selection. In this way, it is similar to the original FastPass system when guests would receive one ticket at a time at the entrance to an attraction and get another after that FastPass was used. After using a Lighting Lane pass for an attraction, guests can check available boarding times for other attractions in the app and make their next selection.
Do note that you will be assigned the next available window to come back to that attraction. If your wait time is over two hours, a Disney spokesman shared with us that the system will let you make another Lightning Lane reservation after two hours. So, if it’s 12 noon and you are assigned an attraction at 4:00 pm. At 2:00 pm, you’ll be able to reserve another attraction. You don’t have to wait until after the 4:00 pm attraction to make another selection. In another scenario, if your first return window is say, 12 noon and the park opens at 9:00 am, at 11:00 am, you would be able to make another Lightning Lane reservation. To put it another way, you may make another Lightning Lane selection after using the one you have or two hours after making your last reservation, whichever comes first.
Note there is no guarantee of a certain number of attractions, such as three with the old FastPass+ system. Like FastPass and FastPass+, the number of Lightning Lane attractions guests can fit into a day will vary wildly depending on crowd levels and the number of guests purchasing the service. One of the biggest complaints we’ve heard since the service launched is that the return windows are very spread out and that guests had to wait a long time to get their next window. This of course reduces the overall number of attractions you can visit with Lightning Lane during the day. Guests purchasing Genie+/Lighting Lane access should not expect to run from ride to ride all day. That is not how this works.
8 – Lightning Lane: Individual A la Carte Selections
The second way to access the Lighting Lane is to purchase individual a la cart selections for certain attractions. For top-tier (most popular) attractions such as Star War: Rise of the Resistance, Flight of Passage, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, etc., guests can schedule a time to arrive at up to two attractions each day using the Lightning Lane entrance for an additional fee. These attractions are subject to limited availability and are NOT included with Disney Genie+. Do note you will be able to select a specific time for your individual Lightning Lane attractions.
Prices will vary by date, attraction, and park, and at this time, are in the $7-$15 range. Disney has stated that throughout the year, prices may be lower on some days and higher on others, based on demand. This is no different than how resort prices and even ticket prices fluctuate. Again, this offering is per person. So if you have a family of five, you’ll pay an additional $75 to secure the Lightning Lane for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.
9 – Purchasing Individual A la Carte Lightning Lane Selections
Lightning Lane selections for the top-tier individual attractions will also be made on the same day of your visit and can be made across multiple theme parks (great for those who have the Park Hopper Option). Access to purchase Lightning Lane for the individual top-tier attractions will be available to all guests when the park opens . For non-resort guests, you do not need to be in the park to make your a la cart selections at park opening.
Guests staying on Disney World property receive the benefit of early access to top-tier reservations and can make their purchases at 7:00 am on the day of their visit. This early jump can make a huge difference. We’ve seen some Lightning Lane attractions fill up and sell out even before the park opens. So, being a resort guest can be a huge advantage to snag an Individual Lightning Lane selection.
8:01 am on 10/19/21 10:07 am on 10/19/21 Tip: Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is proving to be the most popular A la Carte Individual Attraction. It almost always fills up to capacity and sells out. If you want to purchase Lighting Lane access to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, plan on securing them right at 7:00 am if you are a resort guest, or right at park opening for non-resort guests.
10 – Individual A la Carte Lightning Lane Attractions
Individual A la Carte Lightning Lane Attractions:
Magic Kingdom
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Space Mountain (from February 25-August 7, 2022, this attraction is included with Genie+) EPCOT
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure Frozen Ever After (from February 25-August 7, 2022, this attraction is included with Genie+) Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway (from February 25-August 7, 2022, this attraction is included with Genie+) Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Avatar Flight of Passage Expedition Everest (closed for refurbishment through mid-April 2022) 11 – Remember Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane Attractions are Different Paid Offerings That Give Lighting Lane Access to Different Attractions
To offer guests “flexibility” (Disney’s words, not ours), these two services are separate and they give access to different attractions. We know it’s confusing. We’ve heard so many people complain that it’s unnecessarily confusing. Many guests may think that purchasing Genie+ gives them access to all Lightning Lane attractions when they do not. Eight attractions must be purchased separately to access the Lighting Lanes. Individual Lightning Lane passes for the top-tier individual attractions can be purchased by any guest using either Disney Genie or Genie+. In fact, most guests may simply prefer to use the Individual Lightning Lane selections and skip Genie+.
12 – Not Paying is Still an Option!
Disney is still offering the standby queue for most attractions, and you do not need to pay extra. Simply get in line and wait. Do note that from time to time, certain attractions will not have traditional standby queues and offer Virtual Queues. At this time, no Virtual Queues are in use.
Since launch, regular standby wait times have gone up. One thing to note, because Rise of the Resistance closes down quite a bit, they will close the regular stand-by queue in order to get the Lightning Lane guests on the ride. So there is a chance that if you don’t make any purchases, the stand-by queue will close for Lightning Lane guests if necessary.
Tip: If you want to enjoy Rise of the Resistance without purchasing access to the Lightning Lane, head straight for the attraction at Early Entry for resort guests or park opening for non-resort guests, to give you the best possible chance to ride it since it does experience technical problems somewhat regularly, and does go down. As the day goes on, there is a greater chance they will close the standby queue to allow Lightning Lane guests to ride the attraction, if there are multiple closures.
13 – This All Sound Really Complicated!
Yeah, it sounds that way because it is. In our opinion, Disney has made this way more complicated than it needs to be. Charging extra for FastPass was always going to be a very controversial change that will enrage the majority of Disney guests. Making the system complicated and charging extra on top of charging extra for the popular attractions will make the situation exponentially worse. Our hearts go out to the cast members that have to explain a thousand times a day to angry guests, “Yes, you paid $15 extra per person for Lightning Lane but not for the popular rides. That’s only for the low to medium popularity rides that usually don’t have that bad of a wait anyway. You have to pay even more if you want to use the Lightning Lane for rides where it’s really important.”
Even though there have been problems, we’ve also seen many people thrilled with the offerings and love every minute of it. Disney certainly has a lot of kinks to work out. We’re gathering more information and will pass on our tips and tricks to using the system.
For a no obligation, FREE Quote on a Disney vacation package, please contact our travel partner Magical Vacation Planner at 407-442-0227 (407-442-0215 for Spanish). You can also request a FREE quote online by Clicking HERE.
