We’re finally starting to feel like we’ve got a handle on the very complicated new Genie system in Disney World — and we’re here to help you!
Genie+ is the paid replacement for Fastpass and offers Lightning Lane (skip the line) access to over 40 attractions across Disney World for $15 per person per day. Usually, you can only book one Lightning Lane at a time, but is there actually a way to stack them?
There is a way to end up with two or more Lightning Lane attractions in your plans at once! And no, we’re not talking about paying to book the Fancy Rides (Individually Selected Attractions).
One of the most complicated aspects of Genie+ is the two-hour cool-down rule. When you book a Lightning Lane with Genie+ you can book a new one either when you use your existing Lightning Lane or two hours after selection time.
This two-hour rule won’t go into play except with high-demand attractions. For instance, say you wake up at 7AM and select a 7PM Slinky Dog Dash Lightning Lane. That doesn’t mean you’re locked out of Lightning Lanes all the way until you use that one at 7PM.
Instead, you can wait through a two-hour cool-down after the park opens. So, if the park opens at 9AM, you’ll be able to book another Lightning Lane at 11AM.
If you made your 7PM Slinky Dog Dash selection after park open, your cool down begins at selection time. So, if you booked at 9:32AM, you’ll be able to book a new Lightning Lane at 11:32AM.
Once you book that second Lightning Lane, your Slinky Dog Dash Lightning Lane will stick around at 7PM, but you’ll have an extra Lane available all day. If you book your new Lane at Star Tours and then ride Star Tours, you can book another without waiting through a two-hour cool down. So, you can keep booking Lanes all the way up until you scan into Slinky Dog Dash, keeping two Lane reservations active pretty much all day.
Now, having two reservations active doesn’t really give you a leg-up in your day. The Slinky Dog Dash reservation isn’t useful until 7PM, so the two-hour rule is making sure people get their money’s worth when they want to book a high-demand attraction — not getting you on any more rides than you otherwise would.
Theoretically, though, you could even stack more than two Lightning Lanes. If after your Slinky Dog Dash cool down at 11AM, you booked a 5PM Tower of Terror; you would then be able to book a third Lightning Lane after another two-hour cool down at 1PM.
Now, stacking is helpful when you want those high-demand evening Lanes, but we don’t necessarily recommend stacking as the best way to use Disney Genie. Two hours of no Lightning Lanes is a long time and you could potentially get multiple Lightning Lanes in the time you’re stuck cooling down.
UPDATE: Disney has since updated Genie+ to only allow guests to stack multiple Lighting Lane reservations where the 2-hour rule applies. This means that once you redeem the Lightning Lane reservation at the attraction you have booked later in the day, you will go back to only being able to hold one at a time (unless you trigger the 120-minute rule again).
But, if you do want that hard-to-get Slinky Dog Dash reservation, you won’t be stuck with no other Lightning Lanes while you wait for it. Keep an eye on AllEars for more information about Genie+!
Got Genie+ questions? Ask them in the comments!
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Great now nights will be jammed up with lightening lane people flooding through and standby will halt. Nights are usually a good time to crush rides with people at shows.
Another scenario you could use. You book a Lightning Lane for 11am. The park opens at 8am. You wait the 2 hour cool down. Make your first Lightning Lane pick for 10:05. Once you scan that through you pick another time, say 10:40. After you ride that attraction. you are able to go to your 11am reservation you made prior to park opening. Now you have used three selections between 8am & 11am. And if you are an early riser, and attend the extra 30 minutes you have for early entry by staying on property. you should be able to pickup an additional 3-4 attractions before you reach your first Lightning Lane selection at 10:05. By doing this you should be able to have completed 7 attractions by 11:30am.
Just My2cnts.
Thank you so much Quincy. I’ve been reading a lot about genie since they announced it; how it compares to express pass at Disneyland and how it’s working now that it’s begun.
I have to say this is the first description where I finally feel I really understand it!
I’ll be at HS with my daughter and grand daughter in December so this description was particularly helpful. It was like you read my mind. I was worrying about snagging a late reservation for slinky dog but being shut out of genie+ for rest of day.
Thanks again!
I posted yesterday. I understand the process, but the process makes no sense to me. When you pay to book one of the demand attractions I feel like Disney is punishing you. You got on at 7 AM to pay for slinky dog and the first available isn’t until 5 PM. While everyone else gets to start booking regular lightening lanes at park opening you are stuck waiting two hours after you have paid a fee. What sense does that make? If your paying extra money on top of the daily fee for using genie+ there should not be a cool down period. That attraction time should not affect your ability to use the included rides that don’t cost extra. At magic Kingdom it may not affect much due to the sheer number of available rides but it looks like a bad deal at Hollywood Studios. Am I missing something here? I just don’t understand the logic.
That’s what I was thinking. The way it is described in the article, you can get Slinky, ToT, and maybe one or two other rides if you use that strategy.