The Genie+ system in Disney World is changing in a BIG way soon!
New Lightning Lane changes are coming
Genie+ is the skip-the-line service in Disney World. Visitors pay for the service — which costs anywhere from $15 to $39 per day, depending on the season and demand — and can then use it to reserve Lightning Lanes throughout the day. When their reservation time arrives, they skip the standby line and use the Lightning Lane instead, which means a lower wait time.
Genie+ has been in place since 2021, and now (almost three years after its initial debut) a BUNCH of changes are coming. We’ve been learning about the new system, which will be called Lightning Lane Multi Pass, and we’ve discovered one huge PROBLEM.
First, let’s check out what’s changing with Disney World’s skip-the-line system.
BIG Changes Are Coming Soon
The Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane services are changing on July 24th, 2024. Starting on that day, Genie+ will be called Lightning Lane Multi Pass, and Individual Lightning Lanes will be called Lightning Lane Single Pass.
©Disney
Starting on the 24th, you’ll be able to make Lightning Lane plans BEFORE your trip begins. When you purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass, you can make up to three Lightning Lane selections ahead of your trip. Note that all three of those selections must be for rides in the same park (you can’t make two in one park and one in a different park, for example).
When the day of your visit arrives, you can make more Lightning Lane reservations based on what’s still available on the My Disney Experience app. You’ll be able to have three reservations at a time, so once you use up one of the three that you made ahead of your trip, you can book another one, and then continue to do that throughout the day.
©Disney
Lightning Lane Single Pass will essentially work the same way as Individual Lightning Lanes do now, but starting on the 24th, you’ll be able to purchase these Lightning Lanes in advance.
©Disney
If you’re staying at a Disney World hotel (or one of the select good neighbor hotels) for your trip, you can make those Lightning Lane reservations up to seven days in advance for your entire stay (up to 14 days). So, say you are visiting from September 10th through the 14th. You can make Lightning Lane reservations for the entire trip (all five days) on September 3rd because that’s seven days before the first day of your trip. Everyone else can make their plans up to three days in advance.
You can get either Multi Pass or Single Pass or choose to use both.
©Disney
Along with these changes, Disney has brought back the ride tier systems. Rides in each park are divided into one of two tiers. When you make Lightning Lane reservations as part of the Multi Pass service, you get to pick up to one ride from the first tier and two rides from the second tier. You can choose to pick three rides from the second tier instead if you don’t want to go on any of the first-tier rides.
Lightning Lane at Expedition Everest
The only park that does not have ride tiers is Animal Kingdom, which means you can choose any of the Lightning Lanes in that park as part of your three selections. Avatar: Flight of Passage is still considered an Individual Lightning Lane, A.K.A. Lightning Lane Single Pass.
But There’s One Thing MISSING
Disney shared a list of Lightning Lanes that are part of the Multi Pass Experience and which tier each falls into. But when we looked through the lists for each park, we noticed that character meet-and-greets are NOT included. Right now, there are a few character meet-and-greet attractions that have Lightning Lanes and are currently part of Genie+, but they’re not listed as being part of Disney’s new Multi Pass service.
Ariel in Magic Kingdom
Here’s a list of Magic Kingdom Lightning Lanes that will be part of the Multi Pass Experience:
©Disney
The following attractions do have Lightning Lanes and are part of Genie+ now, but they’re not on the list for the new Multi Pass service:
- Disney Festival of Fantasy Parade
- Enchanted Tales with Belle
- Meet Ariel at Her Grotto
- Meet Cinderella and a Visiting Princess at Princess Fairytale Hall
- Meet Mickey at Town Square Theater
- Meet Princess Tiana and a Visiting Princess at Princess Fairytale Hall
Cinderella
Here are the Multi Pass experiences for EPCOT:
©Disney
The only one missing from this list is the “Meet Beloved Disney Pals at Mickey & Friends” attraction. This is the character meet-and-greet spot inside CommuniCore Hall.
The Main Mouse
Here’s a list of the Hollywood Studios Multi Pass attractions:
©Disney
Missing from this list is the Olaf meet-and-greet at Celebrity Spotlight.
Olaf!
Animal Kingdom Multi Pass attractions are listed here:
©Disney
For this park, we’re missing Meet Favorite Disney Pals at Adventurers Outpost and The Animation Experience at Conservation Station.
Mickey and Minnie in Animal Kingdom
So what’s going on here? Will the Lightning Lanes for the character meet-and-greets be going away? Or will Disney add those experiences into the new service before it debuts on July 24th?
We don’t have answers yet, but we’ll be watching for updates. For now, if you’re planning a visit to Disney World after July 24th and meeting characters is a priority for you, make sure to head to those experiences first (at rope drop) or watch the wait times in the app to find a time to go when the lines aren’t too long.
Goofy!
Check out these posts for more information about the Genie+ changes coming soon:
- Answering Your 12 Biggest Questions About Disney World’s HUGE Genie+ Changes
- We Have BAD NEWS About Disney World’s New Genie+ Changes
- How Will the Genie+ Changes Work With Tiana’s Bayou Adventure?
- Breaking Down Disney World’s New Lightning Lane System in Under 1,000 Words
- The Easiest Way To Use Disney World’s NEW Lightning Lane Multi Pass System
Stay tuned to DFB for more updates on the latest Disney news!
Everything You Need To Know About Lightning Lane Multi Pass in Disney World
Join the DFB Newsletter to get all the breaking news right in your inbox! Click here to Subscribe!
WE KNOW DISNEY.
YOU CAN, TOO.
Oh boy, planning a Disney trip can be quite the adventure, and we totally get it! But fear not, dear friends, we compiled EVERYTHING you need (and the things to avoid!) to plan the ULTIMATE Disney vacation.
Whether you're a rookie or a seasoned pro, our insider tips and tricks will have you exploring the parks like never before. So come along with us, and get planning your most magical vacation ever!
What do you think of the Genie+ changes? Let us know in the comments.
Our handy (and portable!) ebook guides make sure you get the best deals and can plan a vacation of a lifetime.
Hi all , absolutely disgraceful that overseas guests paying the same to stay on property are being treated differently
Way to go Disney
Just bite the hand that feeds you
This is not the biggest issue at all!!!
The fact that they are restricting international guests because of the app restrictions is deplorable. Absolute disgrace!
We have to wait until we get to the US before buying LL and making reservations which is going to put us at a massive disadvantage for the first week.
I really hope they figure this out ASAP!
Mickey and Friends at EPCOT has a lightning sign–is it coming down?
Disney treats its overseas guest poorly. Disney also does not appreciate annual pass holders. The expensive line skip debacle does not work. After paying for the service if your ride is down you do not get a refund. Spend all day glued to your phone with the Disney app that crashes all the time then not even getting to ride the attraction you already paid for is horrible. Me and my family have been annual pass holders for 20 years. This is the first year we did not renew. We are now UNIVERSAL pass holders. Disney did it to themselves. Greed and politics are all Disney is know for now. Have you seen the latest Disney movies? Neither has anyone else. They all suck!
Hi, just to clarify…
I would like to park hop and I have purchased park hopper passes. So it’s 7 days before I head to Disney. I am going to use a Multiple LL Pass.
Let’s say I want to hit Hollywood Studios AND Animal Kingdom in ONE day. I want to go to HS first. I want Slinky Dog Dash as my Tier One choice. I would like to pick Tower of Terror for my Second choice Tier 2.
But… now I want my third pick to be Kilimanjaro Safari. Can I do that?
Can you apply the MLLP 3 picks to different parks with a park hopper or, must I use all 3 at one park? I hope I make sense.
This is clearly a way for Disney to encourage people to buy the Multi Pass in order to “take advantage” of the advanced reservations and to sell the idea that stay at property (at high prices), is the best option. So far, the system is unfair for foreign visitors staying or not at property and this could be an issue with the rights or permissions of the platform given that currently if you are outside of the USA, you can not access Genie+.
We should not be surprised if Disney takes advantage of the demand to increase the current prices managed for the Genie+.
I can handle character greets not being included but the exclusion of international guests from pre-booking their LL until they are in the US is very poor and a massive own goal for Disney with their lucrative guests from the likes of the UK who typically come for 2-3 weeks at a time.
Go back to paper fast passes! They were fair in that ALL had an opportunity to pull them AND they were FREE! No navigating using phones and apps necessary! You can put your phone away!
Hi Robert
Absolutely agree with you. Hopefully it will change
It’s very disappointing that Canadian guests paying the same to stay on property do not get the same advantages.
Disney you dropped the ball on this one.
I would have thought the biggest problem was that international guests staying at deluxe resorts aren’t able to purchase these new lanes at the seven day mark and will most likely miss out on going on rides as they have to wait until the day of their visit to book.
My other beef is that all 3 need to be from the same park. As an annual passholder, sometimes we do one lightning lane at our first park and then ride standby for others (especially at rope drop)
So, our other lightning lanes start with the second park we are visiting. Does anyone else see this being a problem?
I also hate the rule that you can only have 2 individual lightning lanes per day. If park hopping multiple parks, you are forced to choose only 2 (versus up to 5 if you were doing all parks in one day for example)
Seems like such a waste.
You forgot to mention the BIGGER problem which is that none of this works for anyone travelling from overseas, regardless of whether staying on Disney property or not, pretty much making going to Disney World now completely pointless for non-USA citizens.
Utterly disgraceful, Disney should be ashamed and I hope when people get wise they lose all those bookings.
JUST GO BACK TO ORIGINAL FAST PASSES ! It worked just fine ! Whom ever it is changing every darn thing at WDW must have major issues. Not helping anyone. I’m
A corruption of a blast from the pass! This is very much like the old FastPass feature offered to “On Property Guest”. But before it was a free incentive to book “On Property”. But the “New Disney” only spreads the pixie dust for swiping your plastic. Now like the park tickets and room rack rates we can pay months ahead of our vacation.
After all it is a business and it’s their way of making it, so you don’t have to stand in those shoulder-to-shoulder crowds for hours in the sun for a two-minute ride. See it really is a win=win for everyone!
Totally agree with Robert. I’m in the UK and really upset about this. Getting a bit fed up with the way Disney treat us.
The really “big” problem for people in the UK, Europe, Australia and anywhere that is Canada or the US, is that we can’t use it. I’m staying for 14 nights in a deluxe but can’t use it because I’m a second class guest. My friends in Florida will be staying for three nights at AoA and they will be able to utilise it.
You are missing Test Track from the list for Epcot.
Hi Ashley! Test Track is currently under refurbishment so we do not yet have the information for that one.
Hi Jenna! You would not be able to pick Kilimanjaro Safari as your third pick in this case. The three advance picks are for one park only. Once you used your first pick, however, you could then pick up Kilimanjaro Safari. The policy is that once you use the first one, you can then choose another ride in any of the other parks the day you’re there, but not before.
Four categories:
– individual lightning lane
– lightning lane multipass tier one
– lightning lane multipass tier two
– no lightning lane
This is a complicated system which costs a lot and must be overwhelming to first time visitors. I’m sure it makes Disney a lot of money but I think it really is not customer friendly.
Agree with the complaints of those from overseas as well.
Unless Disney reserves separate pools of reservations for guests not staying on Disney grounds, this new system is going to be a disaster.
I think choosing 3 attractions at 7am the morning of your park visit is the fairest for everyone. We are all paying lots of money for the vacation, no matter where you are coming from, so all vacationers should be treated equally.
The main issue is that overseas guest that are paying for the same service cannot purchase the LL
From someone from the UK who loves Disney this is making it difficult for to think of visiting elsewhere such as Universal. While I can normally convince my husband to stay on property even though the prices are so high, not anymore. Universal must be rubbing their hands with glee when they heard what some idiot has come up with. Disney obviously do not want the British to visit and spend two to three weeks there so we will stay at universal where we are made more welcome and at some hotels even get fast passes included
If you are picking your lightning lane rides7 days out, and the price for genie+ can fluctuate from 15 to 39 dollars, how do they determine what price are you paying?
This plan not only penalizes international travelers, but us annual pass holders.
We come to Disney at least 4 times a year and enjoy use of Genie+ lightening lanes to make our days efficient. We are considering not re-upping in December and trying Universal instead. We were excited grantees brining our grandchildren, now maybe not…