Walt Disney World announces start date for Disney Genie, Genie+ and Lightning Lanes

Oct 08, 2021 in "Disney Genie"

Posted: Friday October 8, 2021 3:55pm ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney has today announced that Disney Genie, Genie+, and Lightning Lane will launch at Walt Disney World on October 19 2021.

Disney Genie overview

Disney Genie is a new digital service part of the My Disney Experience app designed to plan your day at the Walt Disney World theme parks, including a personalized itinerary that maps out the entire day based on your preferences. There is no cost to use Disney Genie.

Lightning Lane at Mad Hatter Tea Party

Disney Genie+ is an option within the Disney Genie service that makes the former FastPass line available at select attractions, now called Lightning Lane. At Walt Disney World, the introductory pricing is $15 per ticket per day. Certain headline attractions are not part of Genie+, and Lightning Lane access at those attractions will require an Individual Attraction purchase.

Lightning Lane at Star Wars Rise of the Resistance

Individual Attraction purchases will vary by date, attraction and park. For example, the Lightning Lane entrance to Remy's Ratatouille Adventure will be $9 per person on October 19 and $11 per person on October 23. As another example, on both those dates, Lightning Lane entrance to Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain will be $7 per person, while Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance will be $15 per person. Throughout the year, prices may be lower on some days and higher on other days. This option may be purchased at up to 2 different attractions each day.

The lineup of attractions that will offer paid Lighting Lane access via Individual Attraction purchases and not part of Genie+ is as follows:

Disney's Hollywood Studios - Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

Magic Kingdom - Space Mountain, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

EPCOT - Frozen Ever After, Remy's Ratatouille Adventure

Disney's Animal Kingdom - Expedition Everest and Avatar Flight of Passage

See the complete list of confirmed Lighting Lane attractions and Individual Lighting Lane selections available for purchase at Walt Disney World.

Lightning Lane at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train

Starting October 19, Disney Genie+ service will be available to purchase before you arrive as an add-on to a ticket or vacation package. It will also be available as a single-day purchase through the My Disney Experience app. If you have an existing ticket, you will be able to modify it to include Disney Genie+ service within the app. If you have an existing package, call the travel provider who originally arranged your booking or the Disney Reservation Center at (407) 939-5277.

View our Disney Genie, Genie+, and Lightning Lane FAQ for Walt Disney World.

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peter114355 days ago

There are automated ways to record exactly how long guests waited for attractions. This can’t be used to post estimated wait times but is used to verify their accuracy.

Purduevian5 days ago

AI seems like overkill to actually make the wait time 1) number of people that have entered the line 2) number of people that have left the line 3) average throughput of the line over the past X minutes 4) add in whatever fluff calculations to artificially inflate based on time of day 5) add hysteresis so the number isn't constantly jumping However, I could see face tracking/ person recognition cameras being trained with AI to make the actual counts for 1,2, and 3

Disstevefan15 days ago

Well it could be old and no longer used and they just didn't remove it, or only used when the automation is down. When will they use AI to calculate wait times?

lentesta5 days ago

I think it's reasonable to do this. My meds haven't kicked in yet this morning, so I'm wondering if this guide means there's not an automated way to estimate waits yet.

Disstevefan15 days ago

If they made accurate measurements to populate the numbers in the chart, besides when there are breakdowns, this seems to be a reasonable way to estimate wait times to me. When we as guests consider getting into standby what’s the first thing we do? Look at the queue.

lentesta5 days ago

That's my understanding.

Purduevian5 days ago

Can you explain the top matrix? I'm assume there are markers in the line that cast members use to see how long the wait is from a certain point and based on LL usage? For instance if standby reaches point 4 on a light LL usage day then the wait is approximately 15 mins However if standby reaches point 6 on a heavy day the wait is approximately 35 mins?

lentesta5 days ago

1) Take a look at the doc below, from IASW. The lower left seems to indicate the percent of ride capacity allocated to LL under different crowd levels. 2) AFAIK no - just the return ratios. 3) I definitely think this gave them room to do that.

RSoxNo16 days ago

Was there any confirmation about the actual distribution percentages of Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Premier Pass? Were those numbers dropped? Is this an effect of the reduced DAS usage?

MisterPenguin6 days ago

You wouldn't see Disney saying "80% of LLs were DAS users and a majority of them didn't need it or were just scamming the system. And now that we changed how DAS was distributed, we have a lot more room for LLs to sell while at the same time, tinkering with how much people can pay to skip the line." But, from our sources... that seems to be the case.

Chi846 days ago

How much would the change in DAS affect it though? It’s likely most of the former DAS people are now paying to access the LLs. I believe the issue was that on some of the more popular rides, 3 out of 4 people in the LLs weren’t paying for them. It wasn’t necessarily too many people, but Disney didn’t have control over who was accessing them and when.

MickeyLuv'r6 days ago

I didn't see anything in the information that mentioned the change in DAS, and how that factored into the old FP/LL and newest LL ratios. We were previously told that DAS was a big % of LL usage, so if DAS usage went down, that would be part of any change between LL usage then and LL now.

JMcMahonEsq6 days ago

I think regular folks use social media, i just don't think the type of lightening rumors that people here are exposed to, because they are following 10+ Disney related pages or bloggers, is going to get out there to your average guest. Just from quick looks at the "official" WDW Instagram and x pages they don't seem to do those types of posts (admittedly this as a quick scan only.) You might get some travel agents who would give you a generic "they could sell out" but in general, and i think this is a problem way beyond just WDW, people have a tendency to over estimate how wide spread niche information is disseminated, because our news/information/web based content now is so curated/user interest generated. People who like WDW are in these types of forums, follow bloggers who talk about WDW, follow their twitter feeds ect. We get bombarded with multiple sources from multiple parties and think that the information is widespread, since we are seeing it coming from every source we follow. But to the general public, its just not out there. Its the reason people on boards like this complain about WDW specials on ABC that talk about "new" rides or upcoming additions to parks, and say, come on we have been hearing about this for months. Sure the niche market has, but its really not until you start getting true mainstream advertising/announcements, that the majority of the market gets the news.

Disstevefan16 days ago

Fair point. The regular folks working through travel agents, I presume the agent will tell them. Regular folks use social media too, if/when LL are selling out, the word will get out quick especially if regular folks have a bad experience at the parks because LL are sold out. After thinking about it, I think Disney would not purposely lower the inventory to force demand, I think they just want to sell as many LLs as they can right now.