We were at Disney last week. The beginning of the week was moderately busy and Genie+ worked out well for us. But the end of our trip was the beginning of Thanksgiving week and much busier. In HS, we only got 1 lightning lane, after that first one, the only lightning lanes available were later in the afternoon/evening (which we didn’t plan on staying that late) or for shows. So we felt it wasn’t worth it in HS on a very busy day. As far as picking a later time, I don’t think that is possible. Genie+ only gives you ‘next available’ (which constantly fluctuates). Also need to be careful because the LL time you pick might be different when you actually go to confirm your selection. So be sure to double check those times when booking a LL!
If you are park hopping you can set your second (or third) park in the app. You can choose the hours you plan to be there, so for this video you could have said you were not going to Magic Kingdom until 7 and then it wouldn’t have offered lightning lanes before then. Unfortunately lightning lanes (non-paid) are just the time slots in order but you can try to hack it with the times or refreshing.
We were at Disney over Christmas as well. We’ve never been over Christmas before. While it was definitely busy, I was expecting more wall to wall people. Genie plus is ok, but I don’t think you need it for every park
Love your Video! But we had such a different experience with Genie+ in HS. We were only able to make three selections on our last trip in early January. Everything was “currently unavailable”. It was very frustrating. Your experience looks a lot better.
We purchased Genie+ for our family of 4 on our Hollywood Studios day during Thanksgiving week. We were able to book a LL for TOT for 10:20am. But, were not able to book anything else for HS as everything we wanted was pushed out until 4-6pm. We ended up booking a LL for Soarin’ at 5:30pm b/c that time popped up for it and we were going into Epcot for dinner. It was super disappointing and frustrating. Wait times were very long. We always visit at busy times, but always were able to book our 3 FPS per day with the old system. This new system really affected our trip in a negative way. $60 for our family to get 2 LLs was definitely not worth it and we did not purchase it on the other days of our trip. I feel like the LLs given out were to few as we often observed very few people in the LL lines. I am interested to know if parties of less than 4 found it easier to book LLs.
Thank you so much for this, it helped a lot! I was really curious how it worked when you park hopped at the end of the night, so this was great to see! If you’re open to sharing, where did you get those colorful sequin ears you had on at MK?!
Thank you for this! We didn’t get to come home and go a couple years ago and just found out we are moving from the UK to FL so my kids are excited that Disney will be so close!! With all the changes since the pandemic all your videos help ❤️
I’m going next month and I’m wondering if you both have genie + does that mean person 1 can book a fast pass for 1 ride for the 2 of you and person 2 can book a separate one for a different ride? Or in theory be able to fast pass the same ride more than once that way??
Are you able to pay for rides like rise of the resistance without paying for Disney Genie. For instance, I'm happy to wait on other regular lines in the park but I would def pay the money to make sure I get on Rise.
We just went to Disney and we tried to get on Rise one night. Got in line at 8pm, posted 60 min. Waited 50 min and the ride went down and they ended up closing it for the night. We woke up at 7am on our last day and got lightening lane for Rise. While on it it went down twice. I cannot believe how much that ride breaks down! Love the genie + review!
This was super helpful! Thank y’all so much. We have a trip coming up in January and I’ve been trying to learn as much as possible about Genie+ and all of that before we go. I wish they made it more clear on how to make lightning lanes for later times because we’ll be park hopping while we’re there.
You can only pick a time for the extra paid Genie (RotR, FoP, Remy, 7DMT, etc). The regular Genie+ only gives out the next available time. Same concept as back when there was paper fastpasses, just on your phone instead of at a kiosk.
Thank you for sharing your experience with Genie +. Definitely will roap drop Runaway Railway, and purchase a lightning pass for Rise of the Resistance 🤗
Thank you for sharing! Just was wondering if you’re staying off Disney property, what time can you start selecting the 1st lightning lane? I’ll be in MK for just one day in late December and just wondering if it’s worth it 🤷♀️ -Julie
I’m in uk. Last time I went to Disney we went to a station and scanned out magic bands to book another fast pass as we couldn’t get an internet connection on our phone. Do they still have something similar with genie+ ? Can you go to a station in the park scan your magic band to book another lightening lane? Can anyone help? As a brit going to Disney next year I’d really like to know as I don’t know if I’ll be able to get an internet signal in the park as I couldn’t last time I went to Disney.
Hi..I'm so glad you asked this question... we're a family of 5 heading to Florida next June from the UK and am desperately trying to get my head around it all especially if our English phones don't work with the WiFi 🤦
@@elainhayter9144 our fam 5 will also be there in June and I have found these videos invaluable for planning. We have been 3 times in the past but EVERYTHING has changed in last 4 yrs.
I heard Genie+ is more like the old paper fast pass tickets. You can't pick your time with Genie+ (which you couldn't do with the paper passes), instead it shows you the next available. The only one you can pick the time for anymore are the paid individual rides - like Rise of the Resistance.
Thank you so much for the review! I’ve heard a lot of mix reviews about Genie+ and the Lightening Lanes so I appreciate your honestly review. If you don’t mind me asking how much did it cost in total for you guys to do all that you did with Genie+ and/or Lightening Lane? Also, I LOVE the Christmas background! 😍😊
Genie+ costs $15 per person and that includes a lot of the different rides except those that are individual lightening lane. We paid $15 per person for Rise of the Resistance so total for the day was $60 total for the 2 of us!
Are you able to book 2 lightning lanes at 7am for separate parks? For example, if we start our day in Hollywood Studios and buy a lightning lane for RoR and then park hop to Epcot and buy one for Remy's? or can you only purchase the rides that are at the park you start the morning at? Hopefully that makes sense, wasn't sure the best way to word that
Yes! That makes sense. You can book two individual lightening lanes per day, it doesn’t matter what park you are in. So if you start the day at Hollywood at book a LL for Rise of the Resistance, you could also buy a Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom or any other park. It just limits you to 2 per day!
I wish the new fast pass and the paid fast pass weren't both called lightening lane. It's hard to keep track of what's paid and what need to be booked when. With the non paid, genie plus fast passes, do you book the next one once your done riding the previous? It would suck if your first lightening lane was at noon or two then eh? I watch so many bloggers and I'm still confused. 😓
I’ll try and demystify it. Genie+ is the $15 a day service that works like the old fastpass system. This gives you the ability to choose rides 1 at a time to set a time to go. When you check in at the ride you reserved you can then set up your next one. This process will work for all the rides in a park except for the “big” ones. Those are a separate purchase that will vary by price by the day. We paid that extra bit for Rise of the Resistance. There is no longer “non paid” fast passes. If you don’t purchase the genie+ for the day you will have to wait in the standby line. Essential there are 3 tiers. 3-plain old standby (free) 2- Genie+ $15 per day per person (will get you on basically all the rides expect the biggest 2) 1- Lightning lane “extra” (price dependent) this will get you into a high value ride. You do not have to have Genie+ to buy the special rides. I hope that clarified something and did just make you more confused.
We were in Disney the week of Thanksgiving (soooo busy) and tried to use lightning Lane one day and had so much trouble getting times or even rides at all, everything was selling out so we ended up only getting to use it for two or three rides which to me is not worth the money you have to pay for it. We also bought flight of passage lightning lines and those were super helpful and would definitely pay the money ($11-13) for them again.
Tower of Terror is my favorite ride!!! It has the absolute best theming for que and the ride is so fun and definitely a must ride for me. All my family hates the ride except for me. Not to also mention they have the best open edition pins for that ride!
Going with a group of 4 and our group is linked. When trying to book a G+ or ILL ride at 7 AM (staying at resort), should we all log on at same time to maximize our chances of getting what we want or should there be 1 designated person booking everything? Does that make sense?
As long as you are all linked, two people in your party should be trying. One for your first genie+ attraction and one for your LL. Having multiple people in your party try for the same thing at the same time doesn’t usually work out well in my Disney experience. You could use another person in your party count down to when it is going to be EXACTLY 7:00. Every second counts!! So basically everyone can play a role but don’t all try for the same exact things lol
Love your videos!! And the information on this review is super helpful. I haven't gone to Disney in over 2 yrs but really want to soon so watching this definitely helped. For Genie+, does only 1 person have to pay for it & can then book the free Lightning Lanes for everyone in the group?? I know the paid ones are per person
We actually found that we were on our phone a lot less with this new system. We weren’t refreshing constantly to get the best pass we could. Have you used it in the parks yet?
We were there Thanksgiving week. There were 5 million people there (sarcasm). Our DHS day, if you were not staying on property (like us), you did not get a Rise of the Resistance lighting lane. We got in line at rope drop for it and the wait was 2 hours. We ended up waiting 3.5 hours for it. It broke down several times. Not a great way to start your day. I had snagged a LL for Slinky dog for 11:30 and we were actually 15 minutes late for it because of the 3.5 hours and I was ready to give my sob story, but the cast member just let us in. I used the 120 minute rule several times and at one point had 3 LLs booked at once. The key is to keep refreshing your screen and edit your selections so the ride you are trying to get is at the top. At 11:00 I booked an 8:15 LL. At 1:00 I booked a 7:55 LL. At 3:00 I started after Smugglers Run. My son hit refresh for 15-20 minutes while I was driving back to the park and got us a 6:45 LL. We got back to the parks around 4, stood in line for Minnie and Mickey's and then headed for the rest of our LL. The wait times everywhere this day were 70-120 minutes for most rides. You just have to work it. keep refreshing and pray. We used Genie at MK but we were trying to coordinate with 2 other families that didn't want to link our accounts and it was a disaster to coordinate. So for DHS I said, every family for themselves. haha Another fun tip, if you want to do the Savi's workshop to build your own lightsaber, book it for after park close. We had a 9:25 appointment with a 9:00 park close time. When we left there, we were almost the only people in Battue and it was amazing. I got great pics of my son with his saber in front of the millennium falcon and no people! DHS was probably my favorite day.
Any kind of “line jumping” is no longer free. In order to schedule times to use the “Lightning Lane” you need to buy Genie+ for $15 a day. That is like the old fast pass service except you can only schedule one ride at a time. To get onto the most popular 2 rides in a park you have to pay again to access a time for those 2 rides. You could also just wait in line
Genie Plus, as if the cost of things their are not enough with admission, food, gifts, treats hotels. It really is sad that it had to be made even more unreachable for the average family because obviously the ones with money to blow can afford to pay to skip lines, the rest of us just get to explain to our children how this WONDERFUL genie works.
Great video!!! I don't want to sound rude but it is so inconsiderate when adults put children on their shoulders, it makes it so us shorter people can't see anything. They can hold them up at their head height to see so the rest of us can see. Please people think of the others around you. I do like Genie + I do think it is a bit expensive for a family of four, but for the two of us it was worth it. I do think it has it's quirks that need to be worked out.
We were at Disney last week. The beginning of the week was moderately busy and Genie+ worked out well for us. But the end of our trip was the beginning of Thanksgiving week and much busier. In HS, we only got 1 lightning lane, after that first one, the only lightning lanes available were later in the afternoon/evening (which we didn’t plan on staying that late) or for shows. So we felt it wasn’t worth it in HS on a very busy day. As far as picking a later time, I don’t think that is possible. Genie+ only gives you ‘next available’ (which constantly fluctuates). Also need to be careful because the LL time you pick might be different when you actually go to confirm your selection. So be sure to double check those times when booking a LL!
Thank you for your comment! I have heard genie+ not being worth it at HS on busy days. We are interested to try it out ourselves and see how it goes.
Omg Tower of Terror is my absolute favorite. It's homage to Rod Serling and Twilight Zone is everything.
I love rockin roller coaster and tower of terror they’re a must if I’m in Hollywood studios! That blonde looked delicious!
Great video! I want Garrett's shirt!!!
You picked my favorite numbers. 5 for my husband and my birthdays and 22 for my son and daughter’s birthday.
I feel it will be beneficial for me to do lightning lane since my first trip will be next October
Have not been able to use Genie + yet, so thanks for everything you share. I am excited for the rest of your Disney vlogs!
Thank you for watching!!!
Yesss!!! I absolutely loved HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS! I have only been there once & feel in love with it!
If you are park hopping you can set your second (or third) park in the app. You can choose the hours you plan to be there, so for this video you could have said you were not going to Magic Kingdom until 7 and then it wouldn’t have offered lightning lanes before then. Unfortunately lightning lanes (non-paid) are just the time slots in order but you can try to hack it with the times or refreshing.
We will try this out next time and see if it helps! Thank you for the tips!
We were at Disney over Christmas as well. We’ve never been over Christmas before. While it was definitely busy, I was expecting more wall to wall people. Genie plus is ok, but I don’t think you need it for every park
We were there the same day!! Sunday was magic kingdom, Tuesday was Epcot, Wednesday Hollywood studios and Thursday animal kingdom
Love your Video! But we had such a different experience with Genie+ in HS. We were only able to make three selections on our last trip in early January. Everything was “currently unavailable”. It was very frustrating. Your experience looks a lot better.
I hope you enjoyed your shirt! Thanks for wearing it!
It was perfection! Thank you so so much. I need more now! Thank you for your generous gift. :)
We purchased Genie+ for our family of 4 on our Hollywood Studios day during Thanksgiving week. We were able to book a LL for TOT for 10:20am. But, were not able to book anything else for HS as everything we wanted was pushed out until 4-6pm. We ended up booking a LL for Soarin’ at 5:30pm b/c that time popped up for it and we were going into Epcot for dinner. It was super disappointing and frustrating. Wait times were very long. We always visit at busy times, but always were able to book our 3 FPS per day with the old system. This new system really affected our trip in a negative way. $60 for our family to get 2 LLs was definitely not worth it and we did not purchase it on the other days of our trip. I feel like the LLs given out were to few as we often observed very few people in the LL lines. I am interested to know if parties of less than 4 found it easier to book LLs.
Thank you so much for this, it helped a lot! I was really curious how it worked when you park hopped at the end of the night, so this was great to see! If you’re open to sharing, where did you get those colorful sequin ears you had on at MK?!
Thank you for this! We didn’t get to come home and go a couple years ago and just found out we are moving from the UK to FL so my kids are excited that Disney will be so close!! With all the changes since the pandemic all your videos help ❤️
I’m going next month and I’m wondering if you both have genie + does that mean person 1 can book a fast pass for 1 ride for the 2 of you and person 2 can book a separate one for a different ride? Or in theory be able to fast pass the same ride more than once that way??
Are you able to pay for rides like rise of the resistance without paying for Disney Genie. For instance, I'm happy to wait on other regular lines in the park but I would def pay the money to make sure I get on Rise.
Great video coming from uk in June
We just went to Disney and we tried to get on Rise one night. Got in line at 8pm, posted 60 min. Waited 50 min and the ride went down and they ended up closing it for the night. We woke up at 7am on our last day and got lightening lane for Rise. While on it it went down twice. I cannot believe how much that ride breaks down! Love the genie + review!
It’s so crazy how much it breaks down! Hoping they will do a refurb on it sooner rather than later to fix whatever the issues are. 🙌
This was super helpful! Thank y’all so much. We have a trip coming up in January and I’ve been trying to learn as much as possible about Genie+ and all of that before we go. I wish they made it more clear on how to make lightning lanes for later times because we’ll be park hopping while we’re there.
You can only pick a time for the extra paid Genie (RotR, FoP, Remy, 7DMT, etc). The regular Genie+ only gives out the next available time. Same concept as back when there was paper fastpasses, just on your phone instead of at a kiosk.
Scott hit the nail on the head. We were trying to figure how to set up later times too.
Thank you for sharing your experience with Genie +. Definitely will roap drop Runaway Railway, and purchase a lightning pass for Rise of the Resistance 🤗
Yes! Highly recommend doing that, it worked out so well for us! 🙌
Thank you for sharing! Just was wondering if you’re staying off Disney property, what time can you start selecting the 1st lightning lane? I’ll be in MK for just one day in late December and just wondering if it’s worth it 🤷♀️ -Julie
I’m in uk. Last time I went to Disney we went to a station and scanned out magic bands to book another fast pass as we couldn’t get an internet connection on our phone. Do they still have something similar with genie+ ? Can you go to a station in the park scan your magic band to book another lightening lane? Can anyone help? As a brit going to Disney next year I’d really like to know as I don’t know if I’ll be able to get an internet signal in the park as I couldn’t last time I went to Disney.
Yes there are cast members everyone helping people book their next lightening lanes!! Go to anyone in blue and they will be able to help you!
Hi..I'm so glad you asked this question... we're a family of 5 heading to Florida next June from the UK and am desperately trying to get my head around it all especially if our English phones don't work with the WiFi 🤦
@@elainhayter9144 our fam 5 will also be there in June and I have found these videos invaluable for planning. We have been 3 times in the past but EVERYTHING has changed in last 4 yrs.
I heard Genie+ is more like the old paper fast pass tickets. You can't pick your time with Genie+ (which you couldn't do with the paper passes), instead it shows you the next available. The only one you can pick the time for anymore are the paid individual rides - like Rise of the Resistance.
You are able to pick from times using Genie+.
I was at the Hollywood studios on October 23 I did not see you there
Your videos and editing have changed and improved so much since I started following y’all!! Love your content! ❤️❤️
Aww thank you so much! We appreciate the kind words!
We love tower of terror!!!
Thank you so much for the review! I’ve heard a lot of mix reviews about Genie+ and the Lightening Lanes so I appreciate your honestly review. If you don’t mind me asking how much did it cost in total for you guys to do all that you did with Genie+ and/or Lightening Lane? Also, I LOVE the Christmas background! 😍😊
Genie+ costs $15 per person and that includes a lot of the different rides except those that are individual lightening lane. We paid $15 per person for Rise of the Resistance so total for the day was $60 total for the 2 of us!
Are you able to book 2 lightning lanes at 7am for separate parks? For example, if we start our day in Hollywood Studios and buy a lightning lane for RoR and then park hop to Epcot and buy one for Remy's? or can you only purchase the rides that are at the park you start the morning at? Hopefully that makes sense, wasn't sure the best way to word that
Yes! That makes sense. You can book two individual lightening lanes per day, it doesn’t matter what park you are in. So if you start the day at Hollywood at book a LL for Rise of the Resistance, you could also buy a Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom or any other park. It just limits you to 2 per day!
I wish the new fast pass and the paid fast pass weren't both called lightening lane. It's hard to keep track of what's paid and what need to be booked when. With the non paid, genie plus fast passes, do you book the next one once your done riding the previous? It would suck if your first lightening lane was at noon or two then eh? I watch so many bloggers and I'm still confused. 😓
I’ll try and demystify it. Genie+ is the $15 a day service that works like the old fastpass system. This gives you the ability to choose rides 1 at a time to set a time to go. When you check in at the ride you reserved you can then set up your next one. This process will work for all the rides in a park except for the “big” ones. Those are a separate purchase that will vary by price by the day. We paid that extra bit for Rise of the Resistance. There is no longer “non paid” fast passes. If you don’t purchase the genie+ for the day you will have to wait in the standby line. Essential there are 3 tiers. 3-plain old standby (free) 2- Genie+ $15 per day per person (will get you on basically all the rides expect the biggest 2) 1- Lightning lane “extra” (price dependent) this will get you into a high value ride. You do not have to have Genie+ to buy the special rides. I hope that clarified something and did just make you more confused.
We were in Disney the week of Thanksgiving (soooo busy) and tried to use lightning Lane one day and had so much trouble getting times or even rides at all, everything was selling out so we ended up only getting to use it for two or three rides which to me is not worth the money you have to pay for it. We also bought flight of passage lightning lines and those were super helpful and would definitely pay the money ($11-13) for them again.
My husband and I have been watching your videos for a while now, we’re in Chicago but would love to live here 🏰
We would love to live there too!! Lol!
So we're you guys using WDW guest Wi-Fi when you booked the passes or just your own WI-FI?
We actually just used the guest WiFi when we booked and didn’t have any problems!
@@TheLeffersons thank you so very much. I had heard the opposite. Yet if it works for you I now know I can use it.
So the ability to book the Rise of the Resistance lightning lane at 7 A.M. is only available if you’re staying on Disney hotel property correct?
Unfortunately yes, especially if you are going during a very busy time. They have been selling out for the day in minutes!
Tower of Terror is my favorite ride!!! It has the absolute best theming for que and the ride is so fun and definitely a must ride for me. All my family hates the ride except for me. Not to also mention they have the best open edition pins for that ride!
Tower of terror is so fun!! We love that we get to have a different experience on it each time we ride! Thanks for watching!
Going with a group of 4 and our group is linked. When trying to book a G+ or ILL ride at 7 AM (staying at resort), should we all log on at same time to maximize our chances of getting what we want or should there be 1 designated person booking everything? Does that make sense?
As long as you are all linked, two people in your party should be trying. One for your first genie+ attraction and one for your LL. Having multiple people in your party try for the same thing at the same time doesn’t usually work out well in my Disney experience. You could use another person in your party count down to when it is going to be EXACTLY 7:00. Every second counts!! So basically everyone can play a role but don’t all try for the same exact things lol
Love your outfits 💙
Love your videos!! And the information on this review is super helpful. I haven't gone to Disney in over 2 yrs but really want to soon so watching this definitely helped. For Genie+, does only 1 person have to pay for it & can then book the free Lightning Lanes for everyone in the group?? I know the paid ones are per person
Unfortunately you still have to pay for each individual person for Genie+. $15 per person per day!
OH...I also hate that we now need our cell phone in our hands all day now. Change isn't my friend.
We actually found that we were on our phone a lot less with this new system. We weren’t refreshing constantly to get the best pass we could. Have you used it in the parks yet?
No, we haven't been able to gey back yet. I live vicariously through you guys! Maybe i need to see how this new thing is before i get so judgey.
We were there Thanksgiving week. There were 5 million people there (sarcasm). Our DHS day, if you were not staying on property (like us), you did not get a Rise of the Resistance lighting lane. We got in line at rope drop for it and the wait was 2 hours. We ended up waiting 3.5 hours for it. It broke down several times. Not a great way to start your day. I had snagged a LL for Slinky dog for 11:30 and we were actually 15 minutes late for it because of the 3.5 hours and I was ready to give my sob story, but the cast member just let us in. I used the 120 minute rule several times and at one point had 3 LLs booked at once. The key is to keep refreshing your screen and edit your selections so the ride you are trying to get is at the top. At 11:00 I booked an 8:15 LL. At 1:00 I booked a 7:55 LL. At 3:00 I started after Smugglers Run. My son hit refresh for 15-20 minutes while I was driving back to the park and got us a 6:45 LL. We got back to the parks around 4, stood in line for Minnie and Mickey's and then headed for the rest of our LL. The wait times everywhere this day were 70-120 minutes for most rides. You just have to work it. keep refreshing and pray. We used Genie at MK but we were trying to coordinate with 2 other families that didn't want to link our accounts and it was a disaster to coordinate. So for DHS I said, every family for themselves. haha Another fun tip, if you want to do the Savi's workshop to build your own lightsaber, book it for after park close. We had a 9:25 appointment with a 9:00 park close time. When we left there, we were almost the only people in Battue and it was amazing. I got great pics of my son with his saber in front of the millennium falcon and no people! DHS was probably my favorite day.
Tower is my favorite ride there and so much better that the Disneyland version. IMO ☺️
So are their still fast passes for free? And genie and lightning lanes all paid? I'm a lil confused.
Any kind of “line jumping” is no longer free. In order to schedule times to use the “Lightning Lane” you need to buy Genie+ for $15 a day. That is like the old fast pass service except you can only schedule one ride at a time. To get onto the most popular 2 rides in a park you have to pay again to access a time for those 2 rides. You could also just wait in line
Love you guys 🌹
T of T It’s a favorite of mine
Genie Plus, as if the cost of things their are not enough with admission, food, gifts, treats hotels. It really is sad that it had to be made even more unreachable for the average family because obviously the ones with money to blow can afford to pay to skip lines, the rest of us just get to explain to our children how this WONDERFUL genie works.
Great video!!! I don't want to sound rude but it is so inconsiderate when adults put children on their shoulders, it makes it so us shorter people can't see anything. They can hold them up at their head height to see so the rest of us can see. Please people think of the others around you. I do like Genie + I do think it is a bit expensive for a family of four, but for the two of us it was worth it. I do think it has it's quirks that need to be worked out.
Lol as a short person I also kind of agree with this 😂😂😂 I just wish someone would put me on their shoulders so I could see 😂🤷♀️
Looks like the paid Lightning Lane was worth it, thanks for sharing. 🤩👍
It was totally worth it!!!
She has pretty eyes
I love your videos, but I’m sorry to say I find your overuse of the word “like” very annoying. Apologies if this offends.
You probably have things you do that are annoying to others as well. Do they point it out to you?
@@kaitlyng.473 yes I’m sure I do and I would have no problem if they did.