Genie, Genie+ and Lightning Lane Individual Attraction Purchases Begin October 19!

Disney announced today that the Genie service we’ve been talking about for a while now will be available to use beginning October 19, 2021! You may be wondering what on earth this service does, so here are all the details from Disney…


Available for all of our guests right in the My Disney Experience app, the complimentary Disney Genie service offers new features that let guests create their best Disney day. These features include a personalized itinerary creator that effortlessly and smartly maps out an entire day inspired by the things guests tell us they love – helping them make the most of their park time so they can have more fun.

Similar to a navigation app on a phone, Disney Genie continues to update the guest’s itinerary from morning to night as the day changes, so they can stay spontaneous and go with the flow – whether guests need a nap, encounter an unexpected rain shower or want to take a detour for a Mickey ice cream bar.

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Many of you have asked about how this cool new technology works. Behind the scenes, the app is capable of magically evaluating thousands of possible itineraries in seconds – so guests don’t even have to think about it! Disney Genie puts guests at the center of the experience by prioritizing ways to:

  • Reduce time in lines while keeping in mind guest’s top picks

  • Pace the day with experiences guests will enjoy – and haven’t already done yet

  • Build around existing plans like dining reservations and Park Hopper® preferences

Disney Genie uses our 50+ years of knowledge and expertise in how guests visit our parks to make the experience better for everyone.

With this launch, we’ll also be introducing the Lightning Lane entrance. Available for purchase through our Disney Genie+ add-on at more than 40 attractions – or individually, “a la carte” at some of our most highly demanded attractions – the Lightning Lane entrance can save guests time waiting in line. See below for a first look at the list of current attractions with Lightning Lane entrances.

As a reminder, attractions continue to offer a traditional standby queue or from time to time, a virtual queue may instead be used at select attractions, like right now at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.

Confused about Lightning Lane? Here’s more info on that!

Starting October 19, our new Lightning Lane entrances will be introduced at a wide variety of attractions and entertainment experiences, available through 2 options (Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane Selections and Individual Lightning Lane Selections), which can be combined.

Disney Genie+ Lightning Lane Selections

When you take your day to the next level by purchasing Disney Genie+ service, you can select arrival windows for Lightning Lane entrances that are available at more than 40 attractions and entertainment across all 4 theme parks, one at a time throughout the day.

Price
Disney Genie+ service will be available for $15 per Guest per day.

How to Purchase

  • Before Your Visit:
    Available as an add-on to a ticket or vacation package for the duration of visit. Purchase via Disneyworld.com or authorized travel professionals.

  • Same Day of Visit:
    Available for single-day use for existing ticket holders or Annual Passholders. Purchase via Disney Genie service in the My Disney Experience app.

When to Select Attractions
Once you have Disney Genie+ service, you can book the next available arrival window for your first experience via the MyDisneyExperience app beginning at 7:00 AM on the day of your visit.

Once you’ve redeemed your initial selection (or the arrival window has passed), you can make another selection using the app, up to park closing.

Individual Lightning Lane Selections

For some of our most highly demanded attractions we’ll offer Lightning Lane entry as an "á la carte" purchase. This option will be available for all Guests—with or without Disney Genie+ service—and lets you choose a time to arrive at up to 2 attractions each day (booked one at a time).

Price
Pricing and availability will vary by date, attraction and park. Be sure to check the My Disney Experience app on the day of your visit for current prices and attraction availability.

How to Purchase
Purchase via Disney Genie service in the My Disney Experience mobile app on the same day of your visit.

When to Select Attractions
You can purchase individual selections for up to 2 different attractions per day.

  • Guests of a Disney Resort Hotel and Other Select Hotels: These Guests can make their first purchase starting at 7:00 AM on the day of their visit. Available to Disney Resort hotel Guests and Guests of Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels and Shades of Green.

  • All Other Guests: These Guests can make their first purchase when the park opens.

No More FastPasses!! Welcome to Disney Genie and Disney Genie+.

Disney announced this week the the FastPass system as we know it has been retired. If you’re like me, this is part exciting and part terrifying!

While I love the idea of not having to stress about getting those 3 FastPasses, I also really enjoyed knowing that I had 3 of my favorite attractions locked in.

So what’s Disney Genie and Disney Genie+ and how will it work?

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I attended a webinar this morning that gave Disney Travel Agents an overview of the new product.

First, the Disney Genie service is a FREE service. What will it do for you?

  • It will give you an personalized itinerary based on preferences that you select

  • You will be able to see forecasted wait times for attractions

  • You will be able to Mobile Order from Quick Service locations

  • You can check restaurant wait lists and check-in for your Advanced Dining Reservations

  • You can enter the Virtual Queue on attractions using those (no list of those yet)

The next option is the Genie+ option which is a PAID service. The cost is $15 per person per day at Disney World and $20 per person per day at Disneyland. What are the features?

  • You can choose the next available time to enter an attraction using the Lightning Lane. This is done one at a time throughout the day. (If you are familiar with MaxPass at Disneyland, this is very similar).

  • You get fun PhotoPass Lenses (like snapchat filters) at Disney World and PhotoPass downloads at Disneyland. (To download your Disney World PhotoPass photos, you will still need to purchase Memory Maker!).

  • You will also have access to Audio Experiences as you approach different areas of the park. I love the idea of this to learn more nerdy Disney trivia, but if you’re like me, your phone is usually on silent mode so I won’t even notice it. However, I don’t love the idea of hearing everyone’s non-silent phones near me spouting random information all of the time so we’ll see how this works!

Whether you are using Disney Genie or Disney Genie+, you’ll have the option to purchase up to 2 attractions per person per day using the Lightning Lane. No attractions were listed, but I got the impression these were attractions like Rise of the Resistance that currently use Virtual Queues. I also wonder if these attractions will be available at all if you don’t purchase them?

So how do you purchase these and how do you make selections?

Genie+ can be purchased ahead of time for those with tickets in a package or those with date-based tickets. Or you have the option to purchase a day at a time each day starting at midnight. At 7am, guests staying on-site at a Disney resort will be able to purchase the 2 Individual Attraction Lightning Lane options if desired. Off-site guests will be able to do this at the posted park opening time.

As of this posting, no date has been given on when we can add the Genie+ option to currently booked packages but I will let you know!

If you have pre-purchased Genie+, you can make your first Lightning Lane selection (not the 2 individual paid selections) starting at 7am on the day of your visit. I really wish they would give the 2 Individual Attraction purchases a separate name as this is going to confuse a lot of people!

A few important things that I still have questions about that were not answered today:

  • No date has been announced as to when this will start. “Fall” is the only timeline given. I will of course keep in the loop and be communicating with my guests that are traveling this fall and beyond, and let you know if this will be available for your trip.

  • The Individual Attractions available for the “pay-per-lightning-lane-use” have not been announced. No price has been given for that option either. I also wonder if there are any attractions that will be unavailable to those not willing to pay to ride?

  • Not all attractions will have Lightning Lane entrances - we weren’t given a list of the ones that will remain Standby queue only.

  • They did mention there is a limit to the number of Individual Attraction purchases, but no mention of if there’s a limit on how many guests can purchase Genie+ in a given day?

Whew - it’s a lot!! I know you have questions so please ask and I’ll try my best to answer. I have a feeling once I can go and use the system, it will make a lot more sense. Guess I’ll just have to head down again once they bring it online!! Who’s with me???

Give me a call and let’s get your trip booked and give you a WHOLE LOT OF HAPPINESS to look forward to!!

Is MaxPass Worth the Cost at Disneyland?

On my recent trip to Disneyland, I was fortunate enough to have complimentary MaxPass added to my ticket. So of course, totally worth the (no) cost! But would I do it if I had to pay for it myself?

Answer as usual with me is “it depends.” It costs $10/per person/per day. If money isn’t a huge concern to you, then I’d say no question at all - get it. If you have just a couple of people, then the price is reasonable also. But if you’re like me and have a family of 5, MaxPass will run you $50/per day and if you do 3 days at Disneyland, that’s an additional $150.

Now as cheap as I am, I’d probably still do it. The thing about Disneyland is that FastPasses aren’t included at all like at Disney World. So without MaxPass, you’ll be waiting in every line. If it’s not a crowded day, this might not be a big deal.

Here’s how it works… Once you are in a park (your ticket must have been scanned at the entrance), you go on the mobile app and pick your FastPass time. When I was there, I was able to do this every few minutes. As soon as you enter the queue for your time, you can pick a new FastPass.

Keep in mind that not all rides have FastPass. I sadly didn’t get to ride Peter Pan this trip since the line was always over 45 minutes and I had limited time due to training. But on the rides that offer FastPass, I didn’t wait more than 5 minutes. That’s huge on Radiator Springs Racers, Incredicoaster and some of the more popular rides.

Also as a bonus, you receive downloads of all of your PhotoPass pics for each day that you get MaxPass!! I LOVE the pics that Disney photographers capture and that alone may be worth the price. Check out just a few of the pics I downloaded…

One difference on the pics is that on the in-ride photos you have to be sure to record the number of your picture as you leave the ride and attach it to your account through the app. Simple process but it is a step more than just having it automatically added via your MagicBand at Disney World.

One advantage of MaxPass is that you don’t really have to decide ahead of time. Once you’re at Disneyland, it’s a simple process to purchase MaxPass on your app (be sure you’ve already downloaded the Disneyland app before you get there!).

There are a lot of differences between the Land and the World and on a future post, I’ll go through them. The main difference here is that MaxPass makes Disneyland seem much more spontaneous. Even though you have to spend some time on your phone picking your FastPasses throughout the day, you don’t have to spend any time before your trip deciding what to do. For a planner like me, I thought I would hate that. But it was a nice change to do things on the fly!!

Please give me a call if you’re thinking of heading to any Disney or Universal Destination. I can help you understand what you need to do ahead of time or wait until you are there and can save you stress and headaches!! And best of all, it’s free to book with me!!

** The $10/per person/per day price is considered the “introductory price” of MaxPass. I haven’t heard of a price increase but keep in mind that the price may have changed if you are reading this post at a future time.

Just One Day?? What to Do?!

Andrew gave me a good idea for a blog post this week...  If I had just one day to spend at Disney World, what would I do?  A normal person might just answer with their one or two favorite rides and call it good but you know I'm not normal.  I have thought and thought about this and knowing I would want to squeeze every possible second out of the day, I've come up with the following plan of what I would do!

First of all - I've preached this before - be at the parks at OPENING!!  In fact, be early.  I'd start my day at Magic Kingdom and I'd be there about an hour and a half before opening.  Yes that's early, but they open Main Street an hour before the rest of the park.  To make my one day plan work, I'd want to be through security, maybe have a snack on Main Street and be ready to head into Fantasyland as soon as the rope drops.  I'd save my FastPasses to use at my next park since I won't be at those when they opens.  

At Magic Kingdom, I'd be sure to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain as soon as possible.  Those tend to have the longest lines and although I'd want to hit my other favorites (Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan...), I could do those later without hopefully quite as long of a wait.  

Running from one ride to the other, I'd grab a Dole Whip (being sure to use Mobile Ordering to move quickly).  IF I found a character with a short wait, I'd get a couple of pictures but would probably have to skip most of those on this trip.  I'd for sure have to get a pic in front of the Castle though!

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On to Animal Kingdom next by way of Disney bus transport.  (Luckily, the bus times are on the My Disney Experience app now so I could really wait until the last second to run for the bus).  Once at Animal Kingdom, I'd need to use a FastPass since I want to ride Flight of Passage.  Waits are still ridiculous for it so this would be a perfect use of it. 

The moment I scanned my MagicBand for my Flight of Passage FastPass, I would pull up the app and look for a Slinky Dog Dash FastPass at Hollywood Studios which is where I'll head next.  I could certainly use my other 2 FastPasses at Animal Kingdom, but let's just say I'm there on a day when lines aren't overall that bad. 

After riding Flight of Passage, I'd hit Dinosaur and the Safari.  Not that I don't love the other rides but I'd head out after that.  If Everest had a short wait, I might hop on it - but honestly I wouldn't be too sad if I couldn't.  I love and hate that ride.  It's really cool but that last drop makes me question why on earth I would ride it every time.  

I'd grab lunch - using Mobile Ordering again - and eat while heading to the bus.  Next stop - Hollywood Studios!  

Now, I know at this point I would completely regret using my FastPass on Flight of Passage if I wasn't able to get one for Slinky Dog Dash.  But the wait on it is typically a little less than Flight of Passage at this point so I'm going for time-savers here.  Whatever the wait is at Slinky Dog, I would do it.  So let's hope it's short!!  

Depending on the other wait times, I would also want to hit Toy Story Mania and Rock'n'Roller Coaster (taking advantage of the Single Rider Line).  Also after each FastPass I used, I would check and see what's available for later in the day.  You never know when one will open up and I'll grab any I can.

Back to the buses - should probably grab a Mickey Bar to eat on the way - and off to Epcot.  Hopefully I was able to get a FastPass for Test Track after using my last one.  If not, there's a Single Rider Line there too which is usually quick.  And you naysayers may scoff at my other must-do there, but it's Spaceship Earth.  I could rest my surely sore feet by this point and enjoy the smell of Rome burning - isn't that one of your favorite smells, too??

I'd hit Club Cool for some free caffeine as I'm sure I'll be moving a bit slower by now.  Fueled up, it's back to Magic Kingdom by way of the Monorail.  I know, I know, I've already been to Magic Kingdom.  But I honestly can't think of a better day than starting and ending it there.  

Assuming I've made it by dinner-ish time, I'd go straight to Casey's Corner for the world's best hot dog.  I've surely been smart enough to plan this on a day when Magic Kingdom is open late and will now make my way around all that I missed in the morning.  Making sure to stop and watch the Fireworks, I'd run from ride to ride until they kick me out. 

Did you know that if you are in line before the park officially closes, they won't kick you out but will let you wait in line and ride?  I did that once on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train - park closed at 11pm and I got in line at 10:45pm.  It was an hour long line at that point so I was one of the last to leave the park.  

Leaving the Magic Kingdom is always a really sad thing for me.  But being able to leisurely stroll out with very few people makes it a little better.  I feel like I can soak it all in one last time.

Now if I only had a day to test out my plan...  If this ever happens, I'll be sure and let you know!  Of course, I HIGHLY suggest taking more than one day to do Disney World.  Give me a call and I'll help you plan a much less hectic schedule.  

** Stay tuned next week for a blog post on Disney After Hours at the Magic Kingdom.  It's a special ticketed event that would make this day much easier to do.  I'll explain it all then!!

Be One of the First to Enjoy Disney World's Toy Story Land!

This Summer, Get Ready to Play Big in a New Land at Disney’s Hollywood Studios!

Toy Story Land opens in just 95 days people!!  Want to be one of the first to check it out?  Call me!  I'll get you set up with reservations and tickets.  And if you want to be one of the first to enjoy the new rides in the new land, you'll definitely want a FastPass.  The new attractions will be the most popular at the parks this summer and you don't want to waste your time standing in line! Disney hasn't released information yet on when FastPasses will be available, but based on past new attractions, I'd expect them at the 60-day out mark.  So you've got about 35 days to get booked and then we'll be able to get that FastPass!

Here's a glimpse at all of the fun to be had in the new land...

Attractions:

Slinky Dog Dash - 

Andy’s assembled his Mega Coaster Play Kit—and Slinky Dog is gonna take you on a wild, toy-filled adventure as you stretch Slinky Dog’s coils to the limit across Andy’s backyard! Come along for a roller-coaster-style ride as he bends and twists and stretches his way all throughout this new land.  Make no mistake, it’s one wacky attraction… and fun for the entire family!

Alien Swirling Saucers - 

Blast off on an interstellar romp, set to an out-of-this-world beat!  Inside a play set that Andy won at Pizza Planet, the Aliens have powered up their flying saucers—and they’re ready to spin you on a wild ride into space! Hold on for some wild fun as your toy rocket takes off, all while electronic space music provides an intergalactic soundtrack.  And if you’re really lucky, you might just get “chosen” by the claw. Oooooo!

Toy Story Midway Mania - 

Step inside Andy’s room and wind your way through a toy treasure chest of classic playthings. Pass a Candyland® game box, Viewmaster® discs, crayon drawings and a Scrabble board before picking up a pair of special 3D glasses for the fun to come.  Climb aboard an early 20th-century-inspired Carnival Ride Tram and grab your spring-action shooter. With 3D glasses on, glide into the Toy Story Midway Games Play Set and take aim at stationary and moving 3D objects in a variety of fast-paced games.  This popular ride may not be new but it never gets old!

Food:

Woody's Lunch Box - 

Lasso your hunger with a meal from Woody’s Lunch Box!  During your upcoming Toy Story Land adventures, be sure to drop by this food stop for a toy-riffic meal! Dishing out all sorts of tasty treats for “honorary toys,” Woody’s Lunch Box features classic American fare, old-fashioned soda floats and other Toy Story-themed specialties.

Character Encounters:

Inside this new land, you’ll have the chance to encounter some of your favorite characters from the Disney•Pixar “Toy Story” films, including Sheriff Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl!  And keep an eye out for the Green Army Men - one of the most fun character encounters out there!

Thinking of going to Disney World later in the summer or even this fall/winter?  Now's the time to firm up your plans so that you can have me get the dining reservations you'd like.  Remember those are available 6 months out.  Contact me today!!!