There’s a brand new personalizable planning feature coming to Disney World and Disneyland soon!
Back in 2019, Disney announced that they would be introducing a new feature on the My Disney Experience app called Disney Genie that will make it easy to customize your plans for your day in the parks. The feature is set to launch this fall and will include TWO new ways to skip the lines at attractions now that FastPass, FastPass+, and MaxPass are retired. Here’s how it’s going to work!
For each day of their trip, guests will be able to purchase Disney Genie+ and individual attraction selections, which will give them access to new Lightning Lanes at select rides throughout the parks. And, each option will include different attractions.
When it comes to Disney Genie+, guests at Disney World will be able to purchase access to over 40 attractions throughout all four theme parks for an additional $15 per guest, per day. And, at Disneyland, Disney Genie+ will include access to Lightning Lanes at over 15 attractions for the cost of $20 per guest, per day.
Disney Genie+ is available to be purchased in advance of your vacation, but all guests won’t be able to make your first attraction selection until 7AM on the day of your visit. And, after you use your first selection that day, you’ll then be able to select one after the other throughout the entire day — just keep in mind that selections can only be made one at a time and must be used before selecting the next.
Attractions set to be featured as part of Disney Genie+ both at Disney World and Disneyland include Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
Individual attraction selections will also be available to guests on the day of their visit (regardless of whether they purchase Disney Genie+) and pricing will vary based on date, attraction, park.
And, what makes this option different is that it will include access to a maximum of two Lightning Lanes at attractions that are NOT part of Disney Genie+.
So, for example, guests who do not secure a virtual boarding group on Rise of the Resistance, WEB Slinger: A Spider-Man Adventure, or Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure (once it is open), will be able to purchase a spot in the line instead of through the Individual Attraction Selections.
But, unlike Disney Genie+, all guests can begin making Individual Attraction Selections once the park opens, and only guests staying at select Walt Disney World Resorts, the Walt Disney World Swan & Dolphin, or Shades of Green will be able to make the selections at 7AM on the day of the visit. Just keep in mind that you can only book two Individual Attraction Selections per day.
And, if you’re planning on doing some park hopping (which currently begins after 2PM in Disney World and 1PM in Disneyland), you will still be able to use both Disney Genie+ and the Individual Attraction Selections at any theme park. So, you can start your day in Magic Kingdom and book a Lightning Lane at EPCOT before you’ve even made your way over!
Of course, we’ll continue to keep an eye out for more information on Disney Genie and the new opportunities to skip attraction lines at the parks, so be sure to stay tuned to AllEars for more!
Check out How to Shorten Your Wait Time at Walt Disney World WITHOUT FastPass
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Are you willing to pay to skip the lines for attractions in Disney? Let us know in the comments!
I really enjoyed the old fast pass reservation system far better. Here is why, and this is meant to be a constructive comment and not a critic at all. You see , I am a Canadian citizen and although as you told someone else, Disney won’t miss us, reserving our fast pass ahead of time (when the day arrived) was part of the excitemement of planning our Disney vacation. It also means that once we got there, we had our day plan settled and printed out and it made it simpler than walking around the parks with our phone in hand checking times and stressing about booking the next attraction, not to mention that it does add to the financial burden seeing as our dollar is worth less. It also helped people who are not as fluent in English to read at home beforehand and plan their trip long ahead. Canadians do bring in a lot of business as our kids love Disney too. Several families save their pennies a long time to afford plane hotels parks and meals. This being said, i wouldn’t even mind paying the extra 15$ per person if at least it included all the rides and could be booked ahead, what a disappointment traveling so far only to do some much wanted rides such as Rise of the resistance and Ratatouille only to be unable to do them as you only had that one chance, one park day and it was not possible. It has to remain the most magical place on earth where dreams do come true, not some deceptive experience. I love Disney to pieces. Don’t get me wrong. I just wish it was simpler as it was before to plan ahead what is supposed to be a fun and exciting vacation.
We may do the Pay to ride for Rise of the Resistance and Remy. Just gonna look at Lists when they come out
We will be selling our DVC points and going elsewhere. We are tired of money hungry Disney.
It’s crowd control, that’s all. If everyone in Epcot wants to ride Remy the wait would be all day!! Pay a little extra and you get a reservation. If you don’t want to do that, don’t. It’s those choices that make room for those of us who do want to. Back in the day you only got two tickets for big rides in your ticket book…you had to buy more if you wanted to ride more. BTW…Disney won’t miss you.
I don’t understand why things need to be so difficult to get on a ride.
Get on line and wait your turn or use a reservation system if the line is long so you can get a snack, or walk, in my case find a shady place to sit. Both my husband and myself are disabled and can not stand on lines for extended periods of time. We enjoy going to Disney but with the cost of tickets and now adding new charges and restrictions we can not afford it on a fixed income so annual passes or any passes are out of the question for us. We were visiting at least once a week but no more.
Because time spent in line is not time (and money) spent in shops and restaurants.
Bit disappointed that all ears appear to have simply accepted everything put out by the disney corporation without taking a more critical look at what it actually means for guests. It reads like disney are giving more perks rather than the reality of screwing guests for more dollars. Shameful from Disney.
I remember why Walt wanted to build Disney He wanted a place where families could go and have fun together. It seems to me that this “new” Disney is making it so expensive for families to visit Disney and more complicating that it is ruining the spirit in which it was started. The ticket prices continue to go up as well as the prices of their hotels and food. We are DVC members and we will continue to use our points; but perhaps it is time to use them elsewhere. There is no need to be an annual passholder anymore.
I loved the ability to book our WDW FP options ahead of time and plan our day around them. I am beyond annoyed now that all has to be done throughout the day.
While I completely appreciate how much it takes to run the parks they also need to recognize that it’s customers also took big financial hits last year. Maybe returning to normal for a year before slapping on paid add-ons would have been a better plan.
well I’m confused already. I’ll give it a chance when it comes out of course because my 80 year old mother who loves Disney does not like waiting in line. At that age I don’t blame her and she’s worth the extra money. I do miss the old Disney though where your vacation was stress free and spontaneous.
Might be time to sell my DVC points . I want to have fun and relax , not “work” for every move I make ………..
So with you there, Tom! Banking points for one more big trip, RCI exchange not a theme park, then we plan to sell it. Going to WDW is soooo stress-laden, and you get less and less for the money…we plan to start a simple savings account for vacations and pay whatever the monthly dues are into it instead of to DVC. Been members for 22 years, it sure was fabulous in years past, but no more. We can still go if we want to, but finding that we want to go to places that RCI doesn’t offer, so the membership is keeping us hamstrung.
I honestly dont think anyone has any idea how much money it costs to run an amazing place like Disney- or how much money they lost during covid. Disney is fully immersive and a day in the park includes so much more than just rides. True Disney fans understand that. Look at how much concert tickets or sporting events cost- and just for 2-3 hours of entertainment. If all you care about is cost then go to a six flags.
Save the sob story. Disney is a multi, multi billion dollar business. They will recover just fine from Covid. Part of the “magic” of Disney was the little perks like fast pass, EMH, magic bands, etc…things that made it special. When my family of 6 spends $15k each year on a 10-day Disney visit to stay on-site, it’s clearly not about money. But when we feel like we’re being nickeled and dimed and they are no longer concerned with providing an excellent experience, that’s a problem.
Agree with Squeaks. Disney overall made out during the pandemic. Disney+ skyrocketed. So did direct to streaming movies. And even before the parks reopened Disney was making money off things like the NBA bubble. And even with reduced attendance the theme parks are already making money.
Does anyone really believe that this add-on escalation would not have happened were it not for Covid? They have already released a statement that they are making more profit that before Covid. The new management has changed direction, drastically. Your right, it does cost money to run Disney, it cost money to make a ton of money, but you are wrong about it being an “amazing” place. It was, just a few years ago.
Thats the nail in the coffin for me and my family, on top of an already expensive UK ticket, I’ve now got to pay an addition £60 dollars every day to get on rides. 12 days at the parks adds another $720 dollars to our overall ticket price for 4 people. This new greedy Disney has priced me out and I’m going to have to cancel my next years trip, as so much has been cancelled from WDW the ticket does not represent value for money any more. I firmly believe that Disney wants to reduce the amount of people in the parks , under their new ‘more pleasurable experience’ by charging expensive extras like this, those that really can afford it, will, and those of us that think they are now ripping us off wont.
Nope. Don’t like this at all. Rd just becoming too expensive and too much to juggle.
I want to go to the park and enjoy the rides and attractions. I don’t want to spend all my time messing with my phone and trying to get on the quick line. It seems this will be stressful and take away from the magic of the parks. Shame on you Disney for being so greedy that you forgot what Walt’s dream was.
So what does our annual pass pay for?? Someone said we can stand in line for free-I don’t think my annual pass is free! Not happy about any of these options.
$15.00 per day, 100,000 guests buy it per day $1.5 million a day in Disney’s pocket. Not bad, shareholders will be happy.
Digital E tickets?
I don’t like this one bit!
Other vacation options just became more attractive.
I mean, FastPass+ has been a digital ticket since 2013. Rise of the Resistance has always been a digital ticket.
And both of those things have sucked from the get go for those of us who actually want to leave our phones behind and BE on vacation. Disney is catering to this new generation of kids who can’t put their phones away and enjoy what is around them. It always baffles me as to why every single person has their phone out filming things like fireworks when you obviously can go to youtube and watch thousands of hours of footage of the same thing? I dated a guy that took a picture of every single firework rather than watch the show with his own two eyes. Things have gotten so weird.
Nope. Disney’s greed seems to know no bounds lately. Having FP as part of your experience was what set them apart from places like Universal. They WILL price themselves out of reach of the average family. Doubt that was Walt’s intention.
Maria you are right on target. My family has been going to Disney World for over 15 years and I can hardly believe the greed. I’m so glad we didn’t buy in to Disney Vacation Club. It’s time to find a new vacation location.
Disney’s paid FastPass is still 20% the cost of Universal’a though. And it’s entirely optional.
Yep, Disney is becoming just like Universal, or any other ordinary theme park…if that’s what you want. The conversation here is what use to make Disney different, magical you might say.