Last week, the newest planning feature and way to “skip the lines” at popular attractions throughout Walt Disney World became available for guests.
Since the launch of Disney Genie, we’ve been bringing you a full breakdown of what the free features are, how to purchase access to new Lightning Lanes (aka old FastPass+ lanes), and more. We’ve already brought you along for a day in Magic Kingdom to see how many rides you really can tackle in one day by paying for Lightning Lanes, and today we’re headed over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to do the same experiment!
As a quick reminder, Disney World’s new Genie service features TWO new paid ways to “skip the lines” at several attractions across all four parks — Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selections.
Genie+ costs $15 per person, per day and provides access to Lightning Lanes at 46 different attractions across all four parks. At Disney’s Hollywood Studios this includes 12 total rides:
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Beauty and the Beast — Live on Stage
- Disney Junior Live On Stage
- For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
- Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular – Reopening December 19, 2021
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Muppet*Vision 3D
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Star Tours
- Tower of Terror
- Toy Story Mania
Individual Attraction Selections on the other hand are separately ticketed rides that are NOT included in Genie+. The pricing of these pay-per-ride attractions can vary based on date, park, and ride, but so far we’ve seen prices range from $7 to $15 per ride.
Here are the two Individual Attraction Selections in Disney’s Hollywood Studios:
So, can you really tackle every attraction at Hollywood Studios by using the Lightning Lanes? And how long will it really take you? We’re testing it out!
We woke up bright and early at 7AM to select our first Genie+ Lightning Lane return window for the day! This is a busy time to be booking because it’s the earliest time that everyone who has purchased Genie+ can make their first selection. So, morning return windows started booking up FAST, but luckily we were able to snag a 10:05AM to 11:05AM return window at Star Wars: Smugglers Run.
The park then didn’t open until 9AM so we had to wait to book our two Individual Lightning Lane selections (as only Disney World Resort hotel guests can begin booking these at 7AM on the day of). But, once the park opened, we were able to get an 11:40AM to 12:40PM return time for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway and a 7:15PM to 8:15PM return time for Rise of the Resistance.
Note: You do NOT need to be in the park to book Individual Attraction Selections at park opening.
So, with three Lightning Lane reservations already secured before 9:05AM, we took our time getting into the park and went straight for our Star Wars: Smugglers Run when the clock struck 10:05AM.
The next Genie+ Lightning Lane reservation can be booked as soon as you scan into the queue at your current ride, so we hopped onto the My Disney Experience app and picked up our next Genie+ Lightning Lane reservation for Star Tours at 10:15AM.
Because our return time was so soon after our first ride, we headed on over to Star Tours and then were able to get our next Genie+ Lightning Lane in line! We had previously planned our Individual Lightning Lane selection for Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway around wanting to see the 11AM show of Beauty and the Beast — Live on Stage, so we used our next Genie+ Lightning Lane selection to secure the 10:40AM to 10:55AM return window at the show.
We then tapped into the Lightning Lane at Beauty and the Beast — Live on Stage at 10:58AM and immediately went to book a Genie+ return window for Slinky Dog Dash.
Now, Slinky Dog Dash has been a popular ride at Hollywood Studios with Genie+ Lightning Lanes filling up for early in the day quickly. So, by the time we got ours, the earliest return window was 8PM to 9PM. We decided to book the Lightning Lane anyways, which triggered what we’re calling the “cool-down window.”
Genie+ works by letting you book a new Lightning Lane return window right after you’ve scanned in or after 120 minutes if your next return window is more than 2 hours away. Since our Slinky Dog Dash Lightning Lane window was 9 hours away, we had 120 minutes to burn through before we could make a second Lightning Lane selection.
In the 120 minutes we watched the Beauty and the Beast show, used our Individual Lightning Lane at Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and grabbed lunch, and then it was time for our next Genie+ selection! For this one, we decided on a 1:10PM to 2:10PM return window at Muppet*Vision 3D.
After scanning into Muppet*Vision 3D, we booked our next Genie+ Lightning Lane for Alien Swirling Saucers between 1:50PM to 2:50PM…
…and after riding that we got a return window at For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration for 2:05PM to 2:20PM. By this point, we only had five more rides to go!
In our seats waiting for the Frozen show to start we were able to refresh the app enough to secure a 3:45PM to 4:45PM return window at Tower of Terror…
…and right after riding Tower of Terror, we got a Genie+ Lightning Lane for 4:25PM to 4:50PM at Disney Junior Live On Stage.
With two Genie+ selections left at popular attractions, we had to sit on the My Disney Experience app for a LONG time refreshing before we were able to get a close return time for Toy Story Mania. But, we managed to find a 5:50PM to 6:50PM return window and stopped for a snack while we waited.
Luckily, it was a bit easier to get a Genie+ Lightning Lane window for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster after scanning into the line at Toy Story Mania, so we were able to head on over and hop on the ride right away between 6:10PM to 7:10PM.
All we had left after was riding Rise of the Resistance (which we had booked for 7:15PM to 8:15PM) and then hopping on Slinky Dog Dash for our 8PM to 9PM return window!
So, it may have been a FULL day, but by 8:15PM, we were able to ride ALL of the Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selections at Disney’s Hollywood Studios!
So that was our experience with Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selection in Disney’s Hollywood Studios! Be sure to stay tuned to AllEars for more of the latest Genie tips, tricks, and updates!
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Will you be trying Disney Genie+ or Individual Attraction Selections on your next visit to Disney World? Let us know in the comments!
Can you share how you “fiddle faddle” Genie + to get an earlier return window ? It’s been mentioned but I haven’t seen it done. I am heading to DW in 30 days and I love strategizing our touring plans but I am so stressed about Genie + and will I utilize it correctly.
This past Sunday (10/24/21) we got to DHS around 3:30 pm. We bought Genie+ and used it on Toy Story Mania, Smuggler’s Run, Alien Swirling Saucers, Tower of Terror and Rock’N Roller Coaster. We had dinner at Back Lot Express during that time too.
Not that I don’t enjoy these experiments, but are they practical? It’s not like people who used FP+ ONLY rode rides they could a FP for and wouldn’t try to ride anything else until their FP window opened up. Won’t most people who use Genie+ also use standby lines for less popular rides? How about something that shows how many attractions you can fit with a productive combination in a tight window of time?
It looks to me as if they had some LL return times that they found that were only a few minutes out from the time they actually made the reservation, so they just kept rolling through LL selections. Some of those choices are not attractions that actually need LL on the day they visited, like the shows, Muppets, or Star Tours, all of which are walk-ons except on the busiest of days.
Sounds like a successful Genie+ day! However, I will question of it was necessary. The shows, Muppets, and Star Tours are walk-ones right now, and Genie+ isn’t necessary for those, and they artificially pad the statistics that Genie+ can get you more attractions.
Actually, wouldn’t they be able to finish QUICKER with the same number of attractions if they occasionally used the standby lines rather than wait for a LL reservation for everything?
Also, can we talk about how they’re able to get a reservation for everything? I don’t think we heard that often under FP+.