Park Hopping With Genie Plus At Disney World – December 2022 Updates

Is Genie+ worth it for your Disney World trip? After testing it out again on two different days with park hopping, my vote is still a resounding YES! If you know how to use it. I don’t know that I think it’s worth it if you’re an annual pass holder and go often. For those of us that go regularly, I think the individual lightning lanes are best, to make sure we can ride those bigger rides. That said, it can be nice to use it like I did on the second day of testing.

Rather watch than read? Here’s the full video of both days!

So what is Genie+? It is a per-person paid add-on to your park day. They recently changed the pricing from a set price to a pricing scale. 

What do you get with Genie+? It gives you access to Lightning Lanes, a faster queue, which you have to book using the Disney World app. The rides included in Genie+ vary, but it is most of the rides. I suggest checking the website before your trip so you know what rides are included.

What are Individual Lightning Lanes? These are a per-ride queue. They are also an additional cost BUT, you do not need to also purchase Genie+ for these. These are for the bigger rides at the parks, such as Cosmic Rewind and Rise of the Resistance. The pricing for these varies. But I’ve seen $17ish as a regular cost. If you’re really interested in riding the newer/more popular rides, this is a fantastic option for you. 

When can you buy Genie+? You can purchase Genie+ after midnight the day you want to go and then book your first Lightning Lane at 7 am. You want to be very strategic with this first Lightning Lane. For my first day, I had my eyes set on Slinky Dog. My advice is to know which rides tend to have long lines and try to get those Lightning Lanes as soon as you can. There are only so many Lightning Lane time slots for each ride each day, so it’s not uncommon for all of the Lightning Lanes to be booked early in the day. 

For example, on December 9th at 7:30 am, the next Slinky Dog Lightning Lane was not available until 8:30 pm. That means that in the first 30 minutes, they had almost sold out for the day. 

You can get an idea of the popular rides by checking the app a few days before your trip. Navigate to My Day in the app and go to the tip board. Then make sure the park is the one you’re curious about and just scroll through to see when the next Lightning Lane is available at different points in the day.

When can you use your Lightning Lanes? Your Lightning Lane windows are for 1 hour. You can check in any time after that start time and for an hour after. So if you book a Lightning Lane for 8:55, you can use that any time between 8:55-9:55. 

You can book your next Lightning Lane either after you use your first Lightning Lane or after 120 minutes after the park opens, whichever comes first. There was an update to the app which now shows when you can book your next Lightning Lane which is SO helpful, so you don’t need to remember when you booked the last one. I still recommend setting reminders/alarms to book your next one though. 

Can you have multiple Lightning Lanes at the same time? Yes! Stacking Lightning Lanes can be done by not checking in to your Lightning Lanes and booking new ones every 120 minutes. I used this strategy as I was finishing up at Hollywood Studios and transitioning to the next park. I caution you to make sure you can actually GET to those rides. I had two Lightning Lanes in the 7:30-8:30 range at Magic Kingdom but at rides on opposite sides of the park AND during the fireworks show. Haha, not my best choice. 

Here’s what stacking would look like again, remember this is keeping in mind you’re not checking in to any LL’s. I did test this out on another day below.

2 pm, book Lightning Lane for Peter Pan at 8:50-9:50
4 pm, book Lightning Lane for Big Thunder at 8:10-9:10
6 pm, book Lightning Lane for Pirates at 7:20-8:20
8 pm, book Lightning Lane for Buzz at 10:20-11:20

The app will tell you that there are overlapping times, but as long as you don’t pull a Jen and try to get to them during the fireworks, you should be good. Now in this scenario, you wouldn’t be able to book another Lightning Lane until 10 pm or until you’ve used all of the above. This was roughly the setup I had at Magic Kingdom and by the time I checked in to the last ride at 10:34 p.m., there were no more Lightning Lanes. 

Ok, so you should have a good idea of what is what, and now here is how my actual day went. My rule of thumb was to do Standby Lines of 15 minutes or less while waiting for my next Lightning Lane window. It’s hard to use rope drop (getting to the park when they drop the literal rope into the park) strategies right now because there is early access to resort guests. If you happen to be staying at a Disney resort, I would recommend rope-dropping the bigger rides at the parks you’re going to. So that would be Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios, Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom, Remy’s at Epcot, and Seven Dwarfs at Magic Kingdom. Essentially, all of the Individual Lightning Lanes.

If you’re park hopping, make sure to check the times of each of the parks and plan your schedule accordingly. I picked a great day to test this out because Hollywood opened early at 8:30 am and Magic Kingdom was open until 11 pm. This gave me 14 and a half hours in the parks. Animal Kingdom regularly closes the earliest, so if you’re hopping make that your starting park or your first hop.

Tip – Most of the rides have TWO places you scan in for your LL, after the second scan, you can book your next LL. If you aren’t sure if there are two scanners, just try to book another LL and see if it will let you. 

After my second Slinky scan, I was able to book Alien Swirling Saucers pretty much right away. In line for Alien Swirling Saucers, I was able to book Toy Story Mania for about an hour later. So I did Muppets and came back for Toy Story Mania. While in line for Toy Story Mania, I booked Rockin Rollercoaster for after lunch. 

At this point, I had some time to kill and the low wait times were for things I’d done already. So I hopped to the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular. I’ve wanted to check it out since it re-opened and was interesting, but I’m a one-and-done with this one. It can be a Genie+ selection, but I arrived just a few minutes before showtime and I got a seat, so I wouldn’t recommend using Genie+ for this. 

I sat down to eat around 11:34 a.m. and just relaxed until my next LL. The break was nice after a very full morning.

At this point, there wasn’t much else to do at Hollywood, so I slowly made my way out of the park, checking out a few stores en route. I arrived pretty quickly at Animal Kingdom and was a little early for park hopping access, which starts at 2 p.m. I did a little filming in the truck and then sat near the gate until I overheard someone say it was ok to check in for park hoppers.

I took a quick dinner break after Mission: SPACE, haha, ALWAYS eat AFTER Mission Space. In hindsight at this point, I really should have done Nemo after Soarin’, because the wait was low, and going there after dinner pushed back my arrival at Magic Kingdom. 

Ah, then I made my way over to Magic Kingdom. It always takes a lot longer to actually get into this park but after arriving at the monorail, we were informed that it would be better to take the ferry. At this point I had a LL for Big Thunder Railroad at 8:25 p.m. AND Space Mountain at 8:30 p.m. Friends, check the fireworks times and keep them in mind when you’re booking your LL’s and your arrival. I JUST made it through the gate with enough time to cut into the stores on the left side of Main Street to cut through the crowds before the fireworks show at 8:15 p.m. I knew this was the showtime but just didn’t fully process it during the day. I JUST made my Big Thunder arrival time BUT, I timed it so perfectly that I got to see the finale of the fireworks while ON the ride. I’d go around a corner and BANG BANG BANG! It was glorious. 

I could have squeezed in another ride after Buzz, but friends I was totally toasted at this point! 

After adding up all the time I saved (standby wait time minus actual wait time using Lightning Lanes), it equaled 7 hours and 56 minutes. So I still stand by my opinion that Genie+ is worth it if you understand how it works. 

I would say it’s for sure worth getting at Magic Kingdom (which has the most LL’s) and Hollywood Studios. It’s mayyyyyyybe worth it at Epcot, and not worth it at Animal Kingdom. Though I have only ever used it for rides and not shows or character meetings, so take that with a grain of salt.

Timeline of the later arrival Genie+ day – December 14, 2022

Bought Genie+ at ~6:30 am – It was actually cheaper on December 14th than on December 7th. I spent $19.17 with tax on the 7th and $15.98 with tax on the 14th.

Secured a spot in the Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind virtual queue. 7:00 am

Booked first LL 7:00 am. I initially wanted Slinky Dog, but I couldn’t get it because of the times available – My first park was Epcot, so I couldn’t book a park hop slot until after 2 pm, so I booked Frozen Ever After. 

Booked my next LL at 11 a.m. for Slinky Dog at 7:15 p.m.

Got the notification that my group was called for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and headed into the parks ~12:15 p.m.

Ride Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, this is not included in the chart below. I waited about 26 minutes from check-in to actually getting on the ride. 

Any that are options for Lightning Lanes (LL), I’ve noted with Bold.  

At this point, I hopped over to Animal Kingdom with the intention of doing standby for Expedition Everest and Avatar Flight of Passage but was absolutely famished. I ended up getting a Menagerie Cupcake (Gingerbread cake with cream cheese filling and vanilla frosting) via mobile order at Flame Tree Barbeque and a meal at Satu’li Canteen, which has to be my FAVORITE place to eat in the parks. After I finished eating, the waits for both rides were higher than I wanted to wait, so I headed over to Hollywood Studios. 

I actually had REALLY good luck at Hollywood! I was able to book a number of LL’s almost immediately after I got off the ride I was on. This was super helpful in the Toy Story area because my next LL after Smuggler’s Run was Slinky Dog. On my way out of the park, I got my favorite sweet snack, Jack Jack’s Num Num Cookie. Then I headed over to Magic Kingdom.

I arrived at Magic Kingdom just a few minutes before the fireworks, which is always a congested time. My strategy for this portion of the day was to ride Seven Dwarfs right after the fireworks, so I knew I wanted to be close to that. The walkway behind Main Street was open and I decided to cut through. Boy did I hit a parking lot at the Tomorrowland Terrace! I finally got through and cut through Tomorrowland up to Seven Dwarfs and oh friends, watching the fireworks go off all around me was a truly magical moment. After that, I rode my coasters and headed to meet Mickey!

Final Thoughts

While it is an additional cost to your day, it can help things go smoothly and help you really enjoy your time in the parks. It does take a little bit of strategy, time to check the app, and constant alarms and reminders set, but I still think it’s worth it. The new updates are really helpful as well.

Have you used Genie+? Did it help save time during the day or was it hard to use? Let me know in the comments below!