Disney recently announced that some NEW, paid services will take the place of FastPass+ and MaxPass.
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Disney also shared details about a NEW planning service called Disney Genie that’ll help you optimize your day in the parks. But, the difference between Genie, Genie+ (one of the paid services), and Individual Attraction Selections (the other paid service) can get very confusing. So, we’re breaking it down here in a short, succinct way that’ll hopefully help put everything into place.
Our goal is to present this to you in 500 words or less (we got it down to just over 400 words). Here we go:
Disney Genie is a FREE planning service built into the My Disney Experience App and Disneyland App. You will tell Disney Genie what you want to ride, what types of things you like, etc. and Disney Genie will create a personalized, flexible itinerary for you. With Genie, you’ll be able to see forecasted wait times, mobile order your food, chat with a virtual assistant, see walk-up waitlist availability, make restaurant reservations, adjust your plans, and more. Plans will continuously update to help you get the most out of your day. Essentially, Genie is designed to help you plan your day and optimize your plans.
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Disney Genie+ is a PAID FastPass-like service. The price starts at $15 per day per ticket at Disney World*, and $25 per day per ticket at Disneyland*. If you pay for this service, you’ll be able to see when the next available time is to use various rides’ Lightning Lanes (i.e. FastPass+ lanes). You will select the next available time to use the Lightning Lane for whatever ride you want, and when your time arrives, you can visit the ride and use the Lightning Lane (skipping the standby line).
*EDITOR’S UPDATE: *In October 2022, Disney introduced variable date-based pricing for Genie+ with the price starting at $15 per guest, per day in Disney World and starting at $25 per guest, per day in Disneyland Resort. Guests are able to check the price for the day on the My Disney Experience app and Disneyland app prior to purchasing for the day.
Once you’re done with that ride, you can make another Genie+ Lightning Lane selection — 1 ride at a time, throughout the day. Over 50 attractions will be available through Genie+ at Disney World, over 15 attractions will be available through Genie+ at Disneyland. NOT all attractions will be available through Genie+.
While most guests can purchase Genie+ in advance (though the situation seems different for Annual Passholders), you cannot make a Genie+ Lightning Lane selection until the DAY OF your trip. At Disney World, guests can make their first Lightning Lane attraction at 7AM on the day of their visit. At Disneyland, the first Genie+ Lightning Lane selection can be made once you’re in the park.
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Select, highly popular attractions (like Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom, Radiator Springs Racers in Disney California Adventure Park, WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure at Disney California Adventure Park, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure at EPCOT) will NOT be listed on Genie+. That means that even if you pay for Genie+ you will NOT be able to select a time for/use the Lightning Lane at those attractions. Instead, if you want to use the Lightning Lane for those attractions, you’ll have to pay for the attractions INDIVIDUALLY. (We aren’t really going into that in-depth in this post — you can see more about that here).
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And that’s our very, very, VERY basic and succinct breakdown of Genie vs. Genie+ (with a tiny bit of info thrown in about Individual Attraction Selection).
Want to know more about Disney Genie? Check out some of our other posts, linked below:
- Click here to learn about Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selection, including what attractions have been listed for each and more details
- Click here to see what Annual Passholders need to know about Disney Genie
- Click here to see how and why you’ll pay for individual rides in Disney Genie+ with Individual Attraction Selection
- Click here to see more about the features of the FREE Disney Genie planning service (different than Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selection)
- Click here to see 5 MIND BLOWING features of the Disney Genie planning service
- Click here to see how Disney Genie+ is different from MaxPass
- Click here to see how being a hotel guest will benefit you with the Individual Attraction Selection service
We’ll continue to bring you more updates about Disney Genie, so stay tuned for that.
Get all the need-to-know details on Disney Genie, Genie+, and Individual Attraction Selections here.
All About Disney Genie, Genie+, and Individual Attraction Selection
BIG Genie+ Changes Being Planned For Disney World
FULL List of Rides Included With Genie+ in Disney World
3 Tips to OUTSMART Genie+ in Disney World Right Now
Please Stop Skipping These Genie+ Hacks in Disney World (They Really Work!)
Genie+ Tips for the Most Crowded Days in Disney World and Disneyland
Click HERE to See More About Disney Genie
Join the DFB Newsletter To Get All the Latest Disney News Delivered Right to Your Inbox! Click here to Subscribe
What Disney Genie, Genie+, and Individual Attraction Selection questions do you still have? Tell us in the comments.
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I will be using Genie+ and skip the park hopper option. It will come out as a wash. I don’t have to jump between parks. There is enough to do in each park so don’t need to go to another park during the day. I will just have to plan better
Can you use Disney Gift Cards to pay for Genie+ and lightening passes?
I can make it shorter.
Cash grab.
Do you know yet if Genie+ at WDW will include the entirety of photopass? We’re going for the 50th and are wondering if we need to keep photopass if we decide to get Genie+.
I saw something about ride photos and AR photos but nothing about digital entitlements or regular pictures so I was hoping for some clarification there if you know what’s up there.
With FastPass we could make ride selections 60 days in advance, for free, and plan each vacation day months in advance.
With the new improved Genie, it can plan my day, but only on the day of, cannot schedule any rides until that day, have to pay if I want to use the + feature, and can only schedule one ride at a time.
…and Disney is telling us this is an improvement
This makes no sense to me. I create my own schedule. My reservations are made before I get to the park. I liked having the ability to view ride times for all rides when I want.
Basically I don’t need the planner because I am a PM and do that already. What I need is + because I have to pay more for
the FEW rides available. Then I need + to pay more for the particular rides not under +.
More money. More money. More money ! I advise against doing this. Of they can’t bring back Fastpasses then SHAME on Disney. What a Greedy group of people now running Disney. When people start refusing to pay out the nose for what should already be included in the outrageous cost for a ticket then DON’ T PAY EXTRA !
It’s ludicrous. I love WDW but enough is enough. Shame on You Disney for making it almost impossible
For a family of four or five to visit. ☹️☹️☹️
Disney is meant to be an escape from reality. I now feel as though I’ll have to spend my holiday staring at my phone following advice from an app, shelling out coin for things my ticket should have covered. This no longer feels magical. Disney is not even trying to disguise the fact that they’re trying to milk us for every last cent. I’ll be going elsewhere from now on.
Don’t want it, don’t need it, just another way to increase the ticket price without announcing a ticket price increase
I’m surprised Disney is not including Genie+ or Lightning Lane to the Dream Key Annual Pass. It does after all cost $1,399! With Reservations mandatory, there is no guarantee you will be allowed to visit both Parks on the same day
Max Pass used to be included with the top teir Pass. I’ve been a Pass Holder for many years. With all these add-ons it’s a turn off. Please reconsider, Disney!
So since you can only select one ride at a time, what are people supposed to do while waiting for a return time? I guess you can wait in the stand by line for another ride while you wait, but doesn’t that defeat the purpose of purchasing Genie+. Yes, I realize that was they way FastPass use to work, but you didn’t have to pay for it, it was FREE.
So basically you are going to pay for a service although you more than likely will not be able to use it for all the rides in one day. Plus you have to pay an additional fee for each popular attractions of which you only ride two of them per visit. So how is this a good thing for guest?
What a rip off!
Add that to flights, airport transfers, hotel, tickets etc can’t see us returning from the UK anytime soon.
Ronjon, just one point of clarification: you can ride using Individual Attraction Selections on two attractions per day of your trip.
Hi, Adam. Our understanding is that PhotoPass will be included with Genie+ at Disneyland Resort only. At Walt Disney World, you’ll receive Augmented Reality filters or options for the pictures that appear in your PhotoPass album in My Disney Experience, but in order to download the photos (with or without those AR options), you’ll still need to either 1) purchase Memory Maker or 2) purchase photos individually.
Cheryl, that’s a good question. Since you’re able to add gift cards to My Disney Experience for Mobile Order, it could be possible. Until we see the app in action (or until Disney releases the info) we can’t know for sure. We will update when there’s more information.
Jeffrey, I’m glad you found a way to make it work for you. 🙂
Can one person plan on the app for the entire party? What if there are 10 people? Is this a giant time suck on day of? Time is money at Disney and I really don’t want to spend time on my phone?
Beth, as long as you add everyone in your party to My Disney Experience, you can manage the plans for everyone. If you’re concerned about being solely responsible for all of those plans, maybe there are one or two others in your group who wouldn’t mind also adding everyone so they can help handle everything.
Do your guys at DFB have any kind of a guess as to when this rolls out? We are visiting WDW for our “5 Ear Anniversary” on Oct 14th-19th, is this something I am going to have to study up on for our upcoming trip? Best guess?
Trey, unfortunately, we don’t have any confirmable intel on when the Disney Genie system might launch. Disney said fall 2021, which means it could be any day. It would not surprise me to see it in early October, since that’s when the anniversary kicks off. But we will have to wait and see how it goes.
Wow so much more money for things that should be free. We buy a ticket to do the things in the Park not to just get into the Park and look around. This is so crazy. They already way overly charge for hotels and tickets. Then for that very very over priced room you have to pay to PARK there. You no longer get a free magic band. Now you basically have to pay for your fastpass but you can’t use it for the popular rides you have to PAY MORE for them. Now you don’t get crap for staying on site. Now its pretty much impossible for middle class families to believe in the magic. And totally impossible for lower income families. I guess that’s what the rich want, is only for the rich to get to enjoy the magic. So much GREED in this world. Walt must be turning in his grave in disgust and shame of the people milking as much money from people as possible. And removing all the MAGIC. 😔 😟 😥
Genie is just a rip off and I would never spend more money just to use the so called shorter lanes when it does not guarantee that you would save time. It seems all Disney executives do is sit and think up more ways to squeeze money out of their customers. Idea for another charge to add on. Do people know there are scents pumped out of the stores to entice you to buy products or food? Charge for this on the hotel bill. This of course is petty but that Is just what is happening at Disney parks.