How Much Has Genie+ Affected Disney World's Wait Times?

Genie+ launched in Disney World on October 19th, and it has made a huge impact on the way we plan (and budget for) our Disney World vacations.

©Disney

But has the launch of this new paid version of FastPass+ had any impact on the wait times for Disney World’s rides and attractions?

We took a look at the average wait times before Genie+ was launched as well as a few weeks following the rollout to see if we could spot any major differences!

Lightning Lane at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Here’s a glance at average wait times on October 18th, 2021, one day before the launch of Genie+. We selected rides at each theme park that are included with the purchase of Genie+ as well as Individual Attractions that are NOT included and require a separate fee in order to reserve a return time for that ride’s Lightning Lane.

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: 60-75 minutes
Splash Mountain: 35-55 minutes
Rise of the Resistance: 100-135 minutes
Slinky Dog Dash: 60-80 minutes
Frozen Ever After: 35-60 minutes
Soarin’ Around the World: 15-45 minutes
Flight of Passage: 80-90 minutes
Kilimanjaro Safaris: 25-50 minutes

Now, let’s take a look at the average wait times for those same rides on November 5th, 2021, a few weeks following the launch of Genie+:

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: 45-70 minutes
Splash Mountain: 30-50 minutes
Rise of the Resistance: 65-165 minutes
Slinky Dog Dash: 50-80 minutes
Frozen Ever After: 45-70 minutes
Soarin’ Around the World: 15-35 minutes
Flight of Passage: 40-75 minutes
Kilimanjaro Safaris: 10-30 minutes

As you can see, the average wait time dipped slightly between these two dates. However, before we draw any conclusions on Genie+’s impact on standby wait times, there are a few important factors to consider.

Kilimanjaro Safaris

First, it is hard to conclude that day-to-day average standby wait time are the result of Genie+ and Genie+ alone. During Disney’s recent earnings call, CEO Bob Chapek noted that approximately 30% of guests each day were upgrading to Genie+. So on average, 1 out of every 3 guests have the capabilities of using a ride’s Lightning Lane to skip the standby queue and experience an expedited wait.

Soarin’ Ride Vehicle

Keep in mind, however, that one of the rules with Genie+ is that you can only reserve a return time for a ride’s Lightning Lane once per day. If you want to ride Splash Mountain more than once, you can only wait in the Lightning Lane once, and all of the other times must be in the standby queue.

Splash Mountain

Additional factors that have a direct impact on a ride’s wait time includes how busy the park is that day, if the ride is operating at reduced capacity, and if the ride experienced any temporary downtime during the day.

Flight of Passage

It’s also possible that Genie+ is still in its initial rollout phase, and we may see overtime that more guests adopt this as part of their vacation planning. At $15 per guest per day, however, Genie+ may not be as widely used as the old FastPass+ system, which was free to all guests.

Yee-haw!

It’s important to remember that attraction wait times for rides are always in flux, especially during busy times of the year like the holiday season.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios holiday crowds

And when it comes to mega-popular rides like Rise of the Resistance, you’ll likely always see longer wait times. This headliner attraction in Galaxy’s Edge consistently reports the highest average wait times each day. Remember, since Rise of the Resistance is not included with Genie+, you’ll need to pay a separate fee in order to access the ride’s Lightning Lane — though you are NOT required to purchase Genie+ in order to do so.

Rise of the Resistance

Overall, purchasing Genie+ may impact the amount of time you wait in line throughout your Disney World vacation, but it does not seem to have had any drastic impact (at least as of this writing) on average standby wait times as a whole. Genie+ is one factor out of many when determining why a wait time is the length that it is. If you have an upcoming vacation, be sure to review all of the other ways you can reduce your time in line!