We recently went to Disney World in Florida and purchased Genie+. I originally thought it would let us skip lines at most rides like a traditional "FastPass". Turns out, it does not....
Here's everything I learned via first hand experience with a couple of tips and tricks!
For $15 (plus tax) per ticket per day, most rides are available to reserve via Disney Genie+. To review which rides qualify, click here.
If you're staying at a Disney World resort or Disney Springs Area resort, you're able to make your first ride selection at 7am. Otherwise, you must wait until 9am to make your selection.
You'll be assigned a 1 hour window for when you can join the Lightning Lane for that particular ride. You'll need to scan your Magic Band to enter the line.
Once you make your selection, you must wait 2 hours in order to reserve your next ride.
This means it's absolutely impossible to get a Lightning Lane for every attraction for the day. My advice is to decide what your number 1 ride is the night before then at 7am (or 9am) rush to get the Lightning Lane for that first ride.
Note: I'm not 100% sure if this always applies, but the day we went to Magic Kingdom, despite staying at a Disney Springs resort and making the first selection at 7am, the system would not allow us to make our 2nd selection until 11am!
Individual Lighting Lane purchases are separate from Genie+. If you're staying at a Disney Resort, you may make your first purchase at 7am. Otherwise you have to wait until 9am.
Note: Disney Springs Area hotels do NOT qualify for 7am picks! We were super disappointed when we figured this out the day of.
Individual Lightning Lane costs anywhere from $10-15 per person (plus tax) for 1 particular ride.
If you do not immediately see the purchasing option for your desired ride at 7am (or 9am), don't immediately believe that all Lightning Lane passes are sold out for the day. I made this mistake at Hollywood Studios and we missed out on a Star Wars ride. By the last day of our trip, I really wanted to get us on the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom. I saw an available timeslot, went to click it and by the time the app loaded it was gone! I ended up clicking back and refreshing a few times then another time slot opened up. I clicked it, the page loads and.... It's gone again! I ended up having to play the game for 35 minutes but I eventually managed to get us on!
Trick: Do NOT completely refresh the app/page if it's sold out when you click the "Individual Lightning Lane" button! Simply click back and then click the button again.
This saves you a few seconds of loading and several seconds of scrolling to find the ride you want to purchase. When thousands of other people are trying to buy the same passes, every second counts!
Tip: If you arrive up to 5 minutes prior to your Lightning Lane arrival window, you'll most likely be allowed to enter. Don't try coming any earlier though, they'll turn you away!
The whole system has been very controversial with some people loving it and others hating it. I had very mixed feelings about it. Having to wake up at 7am every morning to make the first selection wasn't exactly the type of stress/anxiety I wanted on vacation. Then again, the satisfaction I felt when I got us on the #1 pick for the day was great! Being able to purchase an Individual Lightning Lane was an even bigger high! Having to constantly check my phone every two hours to select the next ride and then walk from one end of a park to the complete opposite end of the park because that's all I could select was frustrating. It took the fun out of wandering around and jumping in the line of whatever attraction was right there. Maybe I would have enjoyed it better if it wasn't so much of a lottery system and you could select the times that actually worked for you. We missed out on many rides because they were only available at the same time as our Dining Reservations that we could no longer change.
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