Even before soaring inflation caused prices to skyrocket everywhere, Disney made some not-so-customer friendly changes at their parks. One was removing the Disney Magical Express, the free bus that whisked weary travelers from the Orlando airport to the start of their magical vacation. But most notable is Genie+, the evolution of what was once FastPass. As you recall, FastPast allowed you to sign up (up to months before your trip) to skip 3 lines at each park, then you had the ability to add more FastPasses as you used them up. The best part was, it was free. No longer. Fast Pass has been replaced by Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, which all require you to open your wallet again.
While I won't go into all the intricacies of Genie+ (there are many), I will relay the 6 things I learned about it on my one day trip to Disneyland. Being a Midwesterner, I've only known Disney World in Orlando, so on my family's trip to the left coast, we spent one day (maybe our last with kids now all 10+) navigating the similar, but seemingly smaller Disneyland Park.
Disneyland opened in 1955 on 160 acres that Walt Disney bought close to his studios in Burbank. It has undergone several expansions over the years and welcomes around 19 million visitor each year, second only to Magic Kingdom. The reason it feels small compared to its Florida counterpart is because you can fit 51 Disneyland's into the 40 square miles that Disney World encompasses!
Genie+ works for some rides
Much like Disney World and the previous Fast Pass system, Genie+ isn't available for all rides. Purchasing Genie+ at Disneyland, for $20 per person per day, gives you Lightning Lane access, which allows you to skip the stand by line, to the following rides:
Autopia
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Haunted Mansion
Indiana Jones Adventure
“it’s a small world”
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Millennium Falcon
Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
Space Mountain
Splash Mountain
Star Tours – The Adventure Continues
On top of this, you can pay a la carte for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. This is an extra cost for the most popular ride, and is dynamic pricing (it was $20 on the day we visited).
At the sister park, Disney California Adventure, purchasing Genie+ will get you Lightning Lane access to:
Goofy’s Sky School
Grizzly River Run
Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout!
Incredicoaster
Monsters, Inc.
Soarin’ Around the World
Toy Story Midway Mania
The extra a la carte rides with dynamic pricing are:
Radiator Springs Racers
WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure
Be prepared to be on your phone all day
The big difference between Fast Pass and Genie+ (besides the cost) is that you cannot make any Lightning Lane reservations till you enter the park, and even then, you can only book one at a time. This means, unlike before when you could have 3 Fast Pass times locked in well ahead of time and not have to stress about it, now you are playing a constant tug of war in the Disney app looking at times, rides, and strategizing. What "windows" are available for each ride? When can I book my next Lightning Lane? What rides are close in proximity? Why is the Lightning Lane I booked 30 minutes ago now gone on the app (more on this later)? The whole ordeal can be stressful, but having said that, with a little strategy you can use it to your benefit. People everywhere were on their phones all day looking at the app, talking about the app, figuring out what to do next. It can just be a lot, which is why the new system is the bane of Disney message boards everywhere. If you have an older phone which Apple has put a governor on the battery life, bringing a portable charger is wise.
Rope drop is key
In preparing for our day, I knew getting to the park early was key. For an 8:00 opening, we arrived at 7:25 and got through security, scanned our tickets, and got to the roped off area down Main Street in front of Sleeping Beauty's castle at 7:40ish. I began looking at times in the App with the goal of booking Space Mountain with a 8:30-9:30 time slot, allowing myself up to 1.5 hours to ride non Lighting Lane rides and other popular rides with little to no waits. During that time we focused on Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and rode the following rides all before 9:30.
Snow White's Scary Adventure
Pinocchio's Daring Journey
Mr. Toad's Wild Ride
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Astro Orbitor
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Star Tours
Autopia
Space Mountain (Lightning lane)
These had 20 minute waits or less, and the waits were all significantly longer in the afternoon. So any strategy involving Genie+ should include getting there early and knocking out as much as possible while crowds are light.
Book, scan, book
You can only book one Lightning Lane at a time through the "Tip Board" in the Disney App. You then can see rides you've booked on the "My Day" section of the app. You can also book another LL two hours after you've made your last booking. So if you book one at 10 am but your window isn't till 1pm, you are able to book another LL at noon. But typically, as you move through the day, you want to book a ride, then scan in at the Lighting Lane entrance and immediately book your next ride. You may want to stop and book right away, as cell service inside the cavernous ride queues can be spotty. As you plan out your day, getting into this book, scan, book rhythm becomes pretty easy. We used this strategy to book Indiana Jones' Adventures, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Millennium Falcon: Smuggler's Run, and it's a small world all before 2 pm, while sprinkling in other non-Lightning Lanes rides while we waited for our window to open.
By this time early afternoon, lines were long everywhere as you see below, and all the rides we walked onto in the morning were now 40-60 minute waits.
A ride break down may be a good thing
I originally booked Space Mountain for 8:30-9:30 am, but when looking back at the app, I couldn't find my reservation, only this "Lightning Lane- Select Experiences" redemption.
Turns out, Space Mountain closed briefly during my time slot. So although I lost my slot, I got this redemption, valuable for a couple reasons. First, depending on the original ride you booked, this redemption can be used almost anywhere in the park. Mine was good for all but Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which makes sense because that's an a la carte ride anyway. So now I could use this redemption any where, at any time that day. So you can best strategize it's use for a ride and time when booking an ordinary Lightning Lane may not be attractive, say for Millennium Force when the window is serval hours away, or Haunted Mansion when it has a long standby wait. All you have to do is walk up to any ride (unless excluded) at any time and hit redeem and you're in. The other great part of this ride break down redemption is it allows you to immediately book another LL ride, thus giving you 2 reservations when traditionally only one is allowed at a time. It makes sense then to continue checking your "My Day" board to ensure your reservation is still valid, because you want to know ASAP if your ride broke down and you can rebook another ride. After much debate, we ended up using our Experience Redemption at Space Mountain anyway because we were close by and the waits and LL windows were already stretching into the afternoon for that popular ride.
A note about Lightning Lane windows
As this was my first experience with Genie+, I had no expectations, but it became obvious pretty quickly that LL windows were going fast and getting onto the a la cart ride, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, looked less likely. I wasn't going to pay the $20/ea for the ride, and even if I wanted to, at 11:00 am the window was out to 4:15 and by 1:00 the LL was sold out. Note that you can book/pay for a la carte Lightning Land rides without it counting toward your "one ride booked at a time" limit. LL windows going quick can happen if you wait too long, and if you really want a deep dive on ride and line waits, Thrill Data has an extensive website with this data for all theme parks. I overheard someone in line lamenting their experience at Disney World when by the time they finished their first Lighting Lane ride, the windows were gone for most all other rides in the park; certainly a frustrating situation. This is truly a Your Mileage May Vary situation.
Conclusion
Although my kids are close to outgrowing the Disney magic, our first trip to Disneyland was a success, and mostly due to Genie+. It was certainly worth begrudgingly handing over $20 per person for a service that was easier to use and free in the past, but it allowed us to ride almost everything we wanted to in the park without having to wait more that 30 minutes on a Spring Break weekend. If you spend some time strategizing, downloading and getting familiar with the app, and looking at park maps, the Genie+ experience can be less stressful and frustrating than it tends to be.
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