Disney World's Genie+ pricing this week suggests new peak period price level is double that seen in 2021

Nov 22, 2022 in "Disney Genie"

Posted: Tuesday November 22, 2022 8:54am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Disney began Walt Disney World's busy Thanksgiving week yesterday by introducing a hefty price hike to its Genie+ ride reservation system, which continues today.

Disney World's Genie+ remains at $29 per person today, or just over $30 with tax. This is an increase of $14 compared to the same period in 2021, or a 93% price increase.

Those guests paying the new record-high price for Genie+ should not expect to get anything extra for the price increase. Most guests can only obtain 2 to 3 Lightning Lane entrances with their $29 Genie+ purchase, the same that was possible a year ago with the $15 Genie+ purchase.

Making matters worse is that Disney has also increased the price of Individual Lightning Lane purchases for those attractions which are not included with Genie+. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is now priced at $25 per person, up from a previous high of $22.

These latest price increases to Genie+ drastically raise the cost of a day at Walt Disney World's theme parks. For example, in addition to their standard admission ticket, a family of four visiting Disney's Hollywood Studios for a day this week may be paying $116 for Genie+ and $100 to ride Rise of the Resistance. Including tax, that s $229 of Lightning Lane cost (formerly FastPass) that was included at no charge with every theme park ticket just a few years ago.

The high daily cost imposed on guests by Genie+ is very much in keeping with current strategies developed by the now-departed Bob Chapek. Instead of expanding the parks to increase capacity and revenue, the current system revolves around driving higher spending from consistent guest numbers visiting the parks, all controlled via park reservations.

Frequently praised by ex-CEO Bob Chapek and current Park's boss Josh D'Amaro, it will be interesting to see if the deeply unpopular Genie+ experience sees any changes with the return of CEO Bob Iger.

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Purduevian20 hours ago

I was also there last week. Went to AK on 11/13. Didn't ride FOP, but under 5 min wait for Safari, Everest, dino, and triceratops. I waited 12 mins for Navi at the end of the night. MK of 11/14 (party day). I did LL for most attractions, but 10ish min wait for Buzz and small world. Finally EPCOT on 11/16 was actually busy, we LL everything but Frozen and remy were both posed over 70 mins when we rode and SSE and Soain were both 20+.

HauntedPirate21 hours ago

You must be mistaken. We were just told by people in the parks 2 weeks ago that they were packed, lines were long, and dining reservations difficult to obtain. Are you sure Tron wasn’t 85 minutes and your rose-colored glasses aren’t altering your memories to push an agenda? 😉

Nottamus1 day ago

Yes, agreed! We were just there last week and ALL waits were pretty low. Low enough to where we didn’t pay anything ride related, but still managed to ride all we wanted - sometimes multiple times . The longest line in waited in was tron, which was 35 mins. Easy peasy.

Disstevefan11 day ago

Its good to see them adjust downward sometimes :)

IanDLBZF2 days ago

JD802 days ago

I guess a little bit of that old money was spent. Wonder if they got a good interest rate.

DCBaker3 days ago

It appears Lightning Lane Premier Pass has sold out at Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios for Monday, November 25:

Purduevian3 days ago

Just returned from the trip. If anyone is interested this is how it all went. We had a 21 month old with us and really had no interest in SM or Mission space for this trip MK: 11/14/24: Track 1: 8:30am HM>1:55 Peter Pan> noticed SM was broken, booked it x2 for ME passes while down(1 used for JC, 1 went unused)> 4:40pm Mermaid Track 2: 9:30am Pooh>11:15am Buzz> 12:30pm Big Thunder> Basically instant Pirates (kept pushing until we wanted to ride)> 4:20pm Barnstormer (didn't use) Track 3: 3:15pm Tiana>3:30 Carpets>4:40pm Dumbo Also Standby: Tiki room, Country Bears, Small World, people mover EPCOT 11/16/24: Track 1: 9:30am Nemo>Soarin was pretty instant, but pushed to 11:40ish> Track 2: 10:50am SSE>11:30am Living with the Land> noticed Figment was broken turned into ME (unused)> Keep moving figment back, to whatever time I wanted, but never ended up using it Track 3: 12:05 Frozen>5:30pm Remy Standby of Grand fiesta tour. Also, side note went to AK on 11/13, there was no need for LLMP. We didn't ride FOP, but our longest wait of the day was 11 mins for Navi.

Splash4eva10 days ago

Unless money was a make or break decision. Why would anyone want to wait in line willingly when there is another option?

DisneyDreamer0812 days ago

Yep been there 😂 I won’t say getting both LLs is impossible but you would likely have to try multiple times throughout the day. When my kids were younger, we would rope drop one and LL the other.

arich3512 days ago

We could but with a 5 and 4 year old, we try to avoid 45+ minute waits lol. We do have extra magic hours on Monday when we go next month so we will probably try to hit those two rides for sure.

Purduevian12 days ago

Remy sometimes has a 1:48pm drop time. It's not every day but it's your best shot if Remy is sold out for the day