Disney Genie+ with Lightning Lane (2021 - Today)

Even if FastPass had become FastPass+ and shifted to pre-visit planning and prioritization of on-site guests, there was no doubt in anyone’s mind that FastPass would last forever. Sure, international Disney Parks had toyed with various paid-for priority-boarding systems, and you could certainly argue that Disneyland’s MaxPass had showed how Disney could charge for more convenient access to booking even as the foundational system itself remained free and available to all… but thanks to its culturally-engrained, no-cost, good-will popularity, the end of FastPass would happen when pigs fly.

Then, in 2020, they flew. The COVID-19 pandemic saw every Disney Park on Earth shutter as countries tried to mitigate the spread of a novel infectious virus. Each re-opened in alignment with national and local guidelines, but with severely reduced capacity and physical distancing requirements, none offered FastPass. Instead, all guests waited “Stand-by” (or just, y’know, in a line), convincing even FastPass’s most ardent defenders that, yeah, maybe having just one line and no priority boarding would actually be pretty nice.

But it was short-lived. Disney had been talking about a service called “Disney Genie” for years, promising that it would intelligently assemble trips, alert you to open reservations, and offer recommendations. But post-pandemic, the service had been commandeered by the appetizing opportunity to finally turn Disney’s priority boarding into a revenue generator. The rules and bylaws directing the add-on, upcharge “Disney Genie+” have changed a thousand times since the “service” launched in October 2021, but there are a few standards.

In general and at Walt Disney World, Genie+ is a ticket add-on whose price fluctuates based on “demand” (whatever that means) and must be purchased each day individually. Once you’ve bought into the system, you can then select one-at-a-time return times for that day, but from your phone.

The Good

Genie+ returns spontaneity… kind of. Disney’s marketing for Genie+ initially focused on the idea that the system was really in response to fans missing the spontaneity that FastPass+ lacked. It’s true that Genie+ returns priority boarding reservations and ride selections to day-of and rolling return times (like paper FastPass) booked through the My Disney Experience app (like FastPass+ / MaxPass)... And to its credit, that is a nice thing that does allow guests some flexibility. (Unfortunately, the Park Reservation system means you have to have pre-selected which park you’re going to be in anyway, so it ultimately doesn’t help much in that regard.)

Genie+ removes the ride tiers of FastPass+, restoring an upper hand to fans. Again, this is a good thing and a bad thing, but from the perspective of the audience reading this article, its definitely a plus that Genie+ no longer has “tiers” restricting you to just one of the park’s “big” rides. You can, in theory, ride Test Track, Frozen Ever After, and Soarin’ with Lightning Lanes if you can expertly book and balance throughout the day. The only limitations are that (unlike FastPass) you can only use each ride’s Lightning Lane once per day and some rides are not included at all (see below).

Genie+ makes a whooooole lot of money. For those who follow corporate Disney chatter, it’s no secret that – like every other entertainment company on Earth – Disney is struggling to figure out how to make its streaming service, Disney+, reliably profitable. (Streaming services require continuous, never-ending content generation. New shows and moves must continuously be shoveled into the furnace. Like, forever.) Disney Parks are picking up the slack. As anyone who’s seen guests waiting in line for a popcorn bucket will tell you, the Disney Parks practically print money. But post-Genie+, Disney Parks have reported record profit and record per capita spending. That would be a very hard spigot for CEO Bob Iger to turn off when the eyes of Wall Street are on Disney.

Genie+ is “relatively” low-cost… When Genie+ launched in 2021, it cost a flat $15 per person per day. Now, that price is demand-based and has reached a ceiling of $35 per person per day (so far). That’s relatively low cost compared to other parks’ line-skipping system. Don’t get us wrong, even $20 per person per day adds up on a typical family’s multi-day visit. Disney enthusiasts are certainly right when they say that Universal’s line-skipping system starts at $100 (and goes as high as $380) per person per day… but of course…

The Bad

… but Genie+’s low cost comes with a service to match. Comparing Universal Express to Disney's Genie+ is really comparing “apples to aspargus.” Genie+ just unlocks a system with the same or more limitations than paper FastPass had: one-at-a-time selections, hour-long return windows, and only once per ride, all in a competitive, app-based environment that includes all-day phone use. Disney even edited its own Genie+ web pages a few months into the system’s use to add fine print that “on average, guests can enter 2 to 3 attractions or experiences per day using the Lightning Lane entrance if the first selection is made early in the day” – fewer than the free FastPass+ guaranteed!

Genie+ requires 6:55 AM wake-ups every day of your vacation. Seriously. Your first Genie+ selection becomes available each day at 7:00:00AM. Sleeping in even a minute or two can mean missing the most “in-demand” Lightning Lane at the park you’re visiting, meaning that your $15 – $35 per person has immediately lost a good portion of its value. The “FastPass runner” of old has evolved into the “Genie+ waker-upper,” setting 6:55 AM alarms every day to buy Genie+ for everyone and get positioned to refresh and join the hottest available E-Ticket immediately. And we say “available E-Ticket” because…

Genie+ does not include the most popular ride(s) at each park. Almost unthinkably, buying Genie+ doesn’t give you the opportunity to book priority access to the hottest attraction at the park. For those rides, you’ll need to buy an Individual Lightning Lane costing somewhere between $9 and $25 per person for a single access to the old FastPass queue. In other words, if you want Genie+ for most Lightning Lanes, plus Individual Lightning Lane access for the park's most popular ride, you might expect to spend around $45 per person, per day. (Confusingly, "ILLs" are also governed by a different set of rules, including when you can buy them and how many per day.)

It’s just different when people are paying to skip you. There’s really no other way to put it. When you waited “Stand-by” in the FastPass days and saw returning FastPass guests merge in front of you, you knew – even subconsciously – that you A) had the choice to get a FastPass to this ride but decided to prioritize another, and B) had your own priority boarding experiences for the day. Being passed by people who paid just sets a very different tone, and establishes a stratification of guests that FastPass didn’t. Which means…

Genie+ tells guests to pay to recreate the formerly-free experience they expect. At Universal, a $140 per person Express Pass ain’t cheap, but it will provide you with a premium experience and a luxury day. At Disney Parks, buying Genie+ basically just provides you with the experience that used to be free. That means that if you choose not to buy Genie+, you get an actively bad experience, worse than what used to be. It’s gross, obviously, that Disney’s already-steep admission prices require a daily, extra-cost add-on just to get the “status quo” experience. So much so that we genuinely can't imagine why Disney didn't just raise ticket prices by $15 post-pandemic and keep the beloved, well-regarded FastPass "free" with admission!

The Long & Short

Genie+ pretty much obliterates decades of good will from Disney guests. FastPass and FastPass+ may not have been perfect, but so far, fans, loyalists, and tourists alike seem to agree that Genie+ is… awful. Bad. Evil. And you can imagine why that’s a difficult thing to Disney to tackle. After all, guests say they hate it; but man do they buy it. Record profits don’t lie, and neither do the number of guests who flock to Genie+ each morning, buying the service and launching into a day of app-based micro-transactions as Mobile Orders, Individual Lightning Lanes, and other add-ons fill Disney’s coffers with tens of thousands of dollars per second.

And of course, the old adage was, “If you don’t like it, vote with your wallet.” But as we’ve mentioned, not buying Genie+ is subjecting yourself to an intentionally less-than experience, spending the whole day watching as guests pay to skip you. It’s… not good.

Or so we think. But now that we’ve reviewed Disney World’s three eras of line-skipping, we have to ask you… Which system do you think is the best? We’re talking “flaws and all.” Take the good and the bad of each and tell us, which is the optimal priority boarding experience for Disney Parks and which would you like to see in the parks today?

Which of these systems do you think should become the permanent priority boarding process at Disney Parks?

A) Paper FastPass
B) FastPass+
C) Genie+ / Lightning Lanes
D) Stand-by only!

Let us know your thoughts by voting in our poll below or by leaving us a comment here or on our Facebook page.

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