?Disney Just CHANGED a Frustrating Annual Passholder Genie+ Rule?

On January 9th, all-day Park Hopper access officially returned in Disney World.

Prior to this change, guests with Park Hopper tickets or Annual Passes were only allowed to visit more than one park after 2PM. But now that the rules have been updated, Disney has made an important change in Genie+ that impacts Annual Passholders.

Disney’s Genie+ service is an add-on option that allows guests to access Lightning Lanes for a shorter wait at select attractions. When the 2PM Park Hopper rule was in place, guests were only able to make Lightning Lane selections for parks they were planning to hop to once the next available Lightning Lane time slot was scheduled for 2PM or later.

When the time-restricted Park Hopping rule was first removed earlier this week, Annual Passholders were still running into an issue with making pre-2PM Lightning Lane selections for additional parks. But it looks like the issue has now been resolved! Disney has updated Genie+ for Annual Passholders, allowing them to book pre-2PM Lightning Lane reservations for parks other than the park they have a reservation for before they have scanned into their first park.

We tested this Genie+ update for ourselves this morning.  First, we used an Annual Pass to make a park reservation for Disney’s Animal Kingdom.

We were then able to immediately book a Lightning Lane for Soarin’ Over California in EPCOT for 9:05AM-10:05AM, even though EPCOT wasn’t our first park of the day and we hadn’t yet scanned in at Animal Kingdom.

We’ll continue to be on the lookout for more news from around the Disney parks, so stay tuned to AllEars for the latest updates.

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Have you visited Disney World since the Park Hopping rules have changed? Share your experience with us in the comments!