Genie Plus
When I started writing my blog post about the Disneyland app, I fully planned on including Genie Plus as a part of that post. But I soon realized that it was far too much to cover in one post and that Genie Plus needed its own post. I have a feeling that because it has so much going on with it, it can deter some people. Hopefully, I can reassure you that Genie Plus is worth the extra effort and money to make sure you get the most of your time at Disneyland.
I consider Genie Plus as one of the most important features on the Disneyland app. On your app, you will see the Disney Genie Service and then Genie Plus. These are different! Genie Plus costs money and provides you with a very specific service, whereas Disney Genie Service is free, and to be honest, not really worth my time. I found it to be a bit clunky.
Genie Plus on the other hand can be a bit controversial. The reason behind this is that it replaced the FastPass and MaxPass System. For many, they were quite content with the free option to go to a ride, grab a FastPass and go about their day, riding other rides until it was time to use their FastPass. I, personally, was a big fan of the MaxPass, which was a paid option. So, I was used to paying extra beyond the base ticket price. Genie Plus doesn't make me feel like I'm necessarily losing a free option, like it does for some people. Also, people are already paying a lot of money for tickets, so they can get frustrated with paying extra for this service. The way I see it, you are already paying an arm and a leg to get into the park, what's a bit more money to make sure you optimize the number of rides you can get on?
I consider Genie Plus as one of the most important features on the Disneyland app. On your app, you will see the Disney Genie Service and then Genie Plus. These are different! Genie Plus costs money and provides you with a very specific service, whereas Disney Genie Service is free, and to be honest, not really worth my time. I found it to be a bit clunky.
Genie Plus on the other hand can be a bit controversial. The reason behind this is that it replaced the FastPass and MaxPass System. For many, they were quite content with the free option to go to a ride, grab a FastPass and go about their day, riding other rides until it was time to use their FastPass. I, personally, was a big fan of the MaxPass, which was a paid option. So, I was used to paying extra beyond the base ticket price. Genie Plus doesn't make me feel like I'm necessarily losing a free option, like it does for some people. Also, people are already paying a lot of money for tickets, so they can get frustrated with paying extra for this service. The way I see it, you are already paying an arm and a leg to get into the park, what's a bit more money to make sure you optimize the number of rides you can get on?
|
The first thing you need to know about Genie Plus is that you have to pay for it, and the price can vary based on how busy the day is. The highest I have seen it is $30 per day, per person. For a family of 4, like us, that means an additional $120 per day. It's a lot! We buy our tickets through Getaway Today, and when we do, we get the option with Genie Plus already attached to our ticket. This can save you money in the long run, if you know for sure you are going to get Genie Plus.
If you don't have it on your ticket already, you will buy it as soon as you scan your ticket into the park. This is the only way to do it. Do not wait until later in the day for three reasons. First, you won't get the best bang for your buck, simply because you will have lost time you could have been using it. Secondly, on busier days, they will stop selling it, so you could miss out. And third, busier attractions will run out of Lightning Lane passes. If you decide to buy it, you will buy it through the app. You can see in the picture to the right, where there is a button right on the first screen of the app to purchase the service. It will tell you the price for the day. The whole reason for buying Genie Plus is to get Lighting Lane passes. These are a time slot you get to return to a ride, you scan your pass in the Lightning Lane, and then get to bypass the standby line. This can save you a considerable amount of time. For some rides, it saved us 30-45 minutes of waiting in line. This here is the biggest reason to get Genie Plus. It saves you time and you get to ride more rides. |
|
The second thing to know about Genie Plus is that not every ride is included. You can look here for the rides included in each park. So, this could deter some from purchasing Genie Plus if the rides with Genie Plus aren't the rides they want to ride.
The most popular ride in each park (Radiator Springs Racers in DCA and Rise of the Resistance in Disneyland) have an Individual Lightning Lane option, which means you pay additional on top of your ticket and Genie Plus cost. It can run as high at $25 extra per person for each ride. These rides aren't included in the basic Genie Plus.
I draw my line at purchasing the individual Lightning Lane for Radiator Springs Racers and Rise of the Resistance. It seems like an insane amount to pay for one ride. These two rides are the rides I will wait in line for and try to hit them when their lines aren't outrageous. I just can't justify the additional cost. And with the time I will save using Genie Plus for the other rides, I have that time to wait in line for these two rides.
The most popular ride in each park (Radiator Springs Racers in DCA and Rise of the Resistance in Disneyland) have an Individual Lightning Lane option, which means you pay additional on top of your ticket and Genie Plus cost. It can run as high at $25 extra per person for each ride. These rides aren't included in the basic Genie Plus.
I draw my line at purchasing the individual Lightning Lane for Radiator Springs Racers and Rise of the Resistance. It seems like an insane amount to pay for one ride. These two rides are the rides I will wait in line for and try to hit them when their lines aren't outrageous. I just can't justify the additional cost. And with the time I will save using Genie Plus for the other rides, I have that time to wait in line for these two rides.
|
How to Use Genie Plus
Once you have Genie Plus, the first thing you must do is make sure that one person has all of your party's tickets on their Disneyland app. I mentioned this in my Disneyland app post. The reason for this is that you want to designate one person your Genie Plus Master. They will be in charge of booking the Lightning Lanes for each person in your party all at once. If you all try to do it separately, odds are, you will all get different time slots. Even if one person books them, and everyone else still has their ticket on their app, their Lightning Lane pass will still show up on their phone. I am always the one who books them. For some rides, I don't go on and wait with my daughter. My husband is still able to access the pass on his app and scan it at the ride, even though I was the one to book it. Now comes the fun part! Choosing which ride to ride first. I honestly get a thrill out of using Genie Plus. There is some strategy to this. I've done a ton of research and some people say to wait to use your first Lightning Lane until you have been in the park for an hour or two because this is when you can ride most rides standby because the lines aren't too long. |
Other strategies tell you choose your first attraction the second you walk in the gate and scan your ticket for certain rides like Space Mountain. (FYI...You can't start choosing your Lightning Lane rides until your ticket has been scanned at the gate.) For me, the last time we were there, it depended on what times were showing available for each ride. If Space Mountain has a standby wait time of only 10 minutes, I'm not going to waste it on that. I'll just walk on. But if it has a wait time of 75 minutes, then I would use it.
When you go to the Genie Plus part of the app, you will be given a list of rides, their standby wait times, and when their next Lighting Lane is available.You can see what it looks like in the picture to your left.
If you book the Lightning Lane (LL), it's usually for sometime in the future. So, you want to be strategic about where you are located in the park, what rides you can ride in the meantime, and if you can make it to that ride in time.
When you choose a time, you are given an hour window. If you look at the picture to the left, you can see Autopia has a LL for 3:35. Once booked, you will get a confirmation of your time window. So for this one, the window to scan your LL at the ride would be from 3:35-4:35.
Once you book a LL, you need to realize you can't book another one until one of two things happen. One of those things is that you scan your LL at the ride. As soon as you do this, you can book a new LL. This is when I would be standing in line for that ride and start looking for our next LL to book.
The second option is, let's say you book a LL for Space Mountain and it's not for three hours later. You don't have to wait those entire three hours. You can book another one after two hours has passed since you booked your other one. So, you will want to set a timer on your phone to let you know when those two hours are up, then you can start to stack your LL.
Another tip is to make sure that you are being conscientious of booking the more popular rides earlier in the day. One of the rides we saw run out of LL passes was Guardians of the Galaxy. We had grabbed one earlier in the day around 12, and our time to return wasn't until 7:45. By 2:00 that day, there were no LL passes available for people.
Lastly, once you book and use a LL, you can't book this ride again. So, if you want to ride a ride more than once, think about trying to ride certain rides with short lines standby and save it for when the ride has a longer wait time later in the day. We did this with Soarin'. We jumped on first thing in the morning using the Standby line. Then, booked a LL later in the day for a return time around 8:30. This allowed us to basically walk right on the ride twice that day.
When you go to the Genie Plus part of the app, you will be given a list of rides, their standby wait times, and when their next Lighting Lane is available.You can see what it looks like in the picture to your left.
If you book the Lightning Lane (LL), it's usually for sometime in the future. So, you want to be strategic about where you are located in the park, what rides you can ride in the meantime, and if you can make it to that ride in time.
When you choose a time, you are given an hour window. If you look at the picture to the left, you can see Autopia has a LL for 3:35. Once booked, you will get a confirmation of your time window. So for this one, the window to scan your LL at the ride would be from 3:35-4:35.
Once you book a LL, you need to realize you can't book another one until one of two things happen. One of those things is that you scan your LL at the ride. As soon as you do this, you can book a new LL. This is when I would be standing in line for that ride and start looking for our next LL to book.
The second option is, let's say you book a LL for Space Mountain and it's not for three hours later. You don't have to wait those entire three hours. You can book another one after two hours has passed since you booked your other one. So, you will want to set a timer on your phone to let you know when those two hours are up, then you can start to stack your LL.
Another tip is to make sure that you are being conscientious of booking the more popular rides earlier in the day. One of the rides we saw run out of LL passes was Guardians of the Galaxy. We had grabbed one earlier in the day around 12, and our time to return wasn't until 7:45. By 2:00 that day, there were no LL passes available for people.
Lastly, once you book and use a LL, you can't book this ride again. So, if you want to ride a ride more than once, think about trying to ride certain rides with short lines standby and save it for when the ride has a longer wait time later in the day. We did this with Soarin'. We jumped on first thing in the morning using the Standby line. Then, booked a LL later in the day for a return time around 8:30. This allowed us to basically walk right on the ride twice that day.
|
One thing I did noticed about the app is that I would get on Genie Plus and a time might show 4:45 for a ride. I would get out of the Genie Plus, do something else and look at that exact same ride a few minutes later and the time might be 2:30. So, if you see a time you don't like, maybe look again.
Also, they did update their app the week after we went. One frustrating thing was that it only offered one time and you had to choose it. If you wanted to change it, you would have to cancel your LL and then see what was available. Now, they let you see what is available before you cancel. This was something I saw as a huge flaw when I was there, so I'm happy to see they noticed it, too, and fixed it. |
|
Overall, I felt the benefits outweighed the cons of Genie Plus and will be using it each time we go. Feel free to reach out to me with any questions you have about Genie Plus and I'd be happy to help you!