One huge criticism about Genie+ is that it “forces” Walt Disney World visitors to stand up early so as to e-book their first journey reservation at 7 am. This put up exams whether or not that idea is correct, with a have a look at Lightning Lane availability later within the morning and whenever you really “need” to make first choices for every park. (Updated April 30, 2023.)
Before we get going, I need to begin with one thing that has been bugging me with regard to the Genie+ service. It’s now been over a 12 months since Walt Disney World revealed that free FastPass+ can be completely changed by the Genie+ service. (Time flies whenever you’re having enjoyable, amirite?!)
I believe we will all agree that the preliminary announcement, subsequent communications (or lack thereof), branding, consumer interface, and a lot extra about Genie have left so much to be desired, to place it charitably. You can most likely already inform there’s a “but” coming…
But it does nobody any good to magnify the system’s shortcomings, issues, and woes. Yes, it stinks {that a} previously free service was changed by one thing that prices cash. It was additionally an inevitability that was years within the making, and would’ve occurred no matter who was/is CEO. (As we’ve joked earlier than, don’t cry as a result of free FastPass is over, smile as a result of it didn’t occur 3 years earlier, per the unique plan. 😉)
It’s additionally true on the identical time that not the whole lot about Genie+ is terrible. Each subsequent change just isn’t unhealthy information. The service just isn’t wholly irredeemable or with out worth. The sky just isn’t falling. There have been a lot of tweaks made within the final 12 months to make Genie+ higher and simpler to make use of. The addition of the modify button is a large enchancment that improves the service significantly. Beyond that, Lightning Lane availability is best and the service is usually much less glitchy.
Among some Walt Disney World followers, there’s a seemingly reflexive response to bulletins or updates on Genie+ that seeks to vindicate their preconceived opinions and validate their anger. Each point out of Genie’s identify summons extra hostility and outrage. There isn’t even an inside logic to it–if Genie is really the worst factor ever, it ought to stand to purpose that it’ll possible profit from tweaking and iteration. Nope. Bad begets extra unhealthy.
In half, this simply appears to be the method issues are these days. Everything is both terrible or superior. People kind snap judgments and don’t deviate from entrenched positions. They’re both workforce X or Y, with little center floor. Obviously, this extends far past Disney. Just because it isn’t wholesome in different features of life…it isn’t right here, both.
Again, Genie+ has plenty of issues and shortcomings, all whereas it continues to extend in value as in comparison with launch. This isn’t to reduce any of that. Fortunately, as has been defined in myriad posts, you may both leverage it to your benefit or use different approaches and keep away from the entire thing!
Admittedly, among the fault lies with us. We’ve shared plenty of technique to leverage paid FastPass for optimum profit and turn into energy customers of the system. Although we’ve repeatedly provided the caveat that advanced-level information just isn’t essential for the overwhelming majority of individuals, the mere existence of a lot technique however creates strain.
Even past Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, that is one thing with which we’ve grappled. It may not present from some posts, however we’re comparatively laid again and spontaneous vacationers ourselves when doing issues for enjoyable. Our purpose is to provide the instruments to suppose in another way and beat the crowds so you may get extra out of your trip and luxuriate in time with your loved ones. With few exceptions, we’re not presenting strict technique that should be memorized and adopted meticulously. (When I say that I hate spreadsheets, I imply it.)
Ideally, the aim is extra “teaching you to fish” than something–placing you ready to know strategy the parks and Walt Disney World’s many convoluted and quirky insurance policies/programs/and many others.
We’re cognizant that it doesn’t all the time work that method in follow. The FOMO machine drives a lot of the mindset behind Walt Disney World trip planning. The substance of an Early Entry at DHS technique put up detailing why that’s superior to Lightning Lanes would possibly carry much less weight than the quantity of posts concerning the Genie+ service.
It’s a troublesome and generally delicate steadiness. My aim is to current a level-headed and sincere have a look at the great, unhealthy, and ugly of Walt Disney World with minimal sensationalism and hyperbole. In furtherance of that, I are inclined to suppose extra data is best than much less, however generally that may be perceived in another way.
I’m most likely simply rambling at this level, so I’ll reduce this quick. First of all, opposite to the fears of many followers, you do not want to be up at midnight to buy Genie+ or else threat it being bought out at 7 am. As of Spring 2023, Genie+ has bought out precisely 7 occasions ever, and never as soon as has it bought out earlier than park opening. The earliest it has ever bought out, thus far, is 9:45 am and that was in the course of the peak of Easter week. Unless you’re visiting in the course of the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Eve, there’s zero threat of Genie+ promoting out earlier than park opening for the rest of 2023.
So you don’t have to be as much as buy Genie+ earlier than 7 am, nor do you should be up at 7 am to make your first Lightning Lane choice. The entire level right here is to alleviate among the strain Walt Disney World guests could really feel to stand up proper at 7 am, use velocity technique, superior stacking methods, and so forth. Genie+ doesn’t have to be so sophisticated, or have excessive stakes. You don’t must stand up at 7 am, and even in the course of the 7 am hour.
When Walt Disney World followers assume they should e-book at 7 am or be at an enormous drawback, that is usually attributable to a elementary (but oddly persistent) misunderstanding of How the Genie+ 120 Minute Rule Works at Walt Disney World.
As a reminder the clock on this does not begin ticking at 7 am (or each time your first early morning journey reservation is made). The clock begins *at* park opening. If you make your first Lightning Lane choice at 7:00 am, reserving Slinky Dog Dash with a 2 pm to three pm return window, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios opens for the day at 8:30 am, you may make your subsequent Lightning Lane choice by way of Genie+ at 10:30 am.
Someone who made their first DHS Lightning Lane choice with a return window of 3-4 pm at 8:29 am may make their subsequent decide at 10:30 am. Both of you’re within the very same place. In different phrases, the subsequent spherical for each examples is 120 minutes after 8:30 am.
Accordingly, it follows that the pertinent consideration is Lightning Lane stock between 7 am and park opening occasions. If availability continues to be good for the preferred sights, there isn’t a lot of–or any–drawback to sleeping in a bit of and reserving in the course of the 8 am hour. That’s what the screenshots right here showcase, with commentary sprinkled in.
It’s not fully truthful to say that stock is the one factor that issues. After all, the way in which Genie+ journey reservations work is you could e-book separately, and may both make one other choice after two hours (120 minutes) or when you faucet into your earlier Genie+ choice, whichever comes first.
As such, for those who’re capable of e-book a Lightning Lane return time throughout the first two hours that the park is open, you’ll often have the ability to e-book one other as quickly as you faucet into your first choice. Meaning that for those who one way or the other scored Slinky Dog Dash for 8:45 am to 9:45 am, you possibly can e-book your second Lightning Lane as early as 8:45 am and get a slight jumpstart on everybody else.
This presents a bonus, however with a number of caveats. First, for those who prioritize sleeping in on trip–the entire purpose for avoiding the ~6:45 am Genie+ alarm–it’s most likely not a paramount concern. You possible wouldn’t make it to the park that early for those who’re not up by 7 am, anyway.
Second, actually savvy technique often gained’t have you ever returning to Lightning Lanes in the course of the first ~90 minutes the parks are open–that’s prime time for utilizing standby traces to beat the crowds. You’re not going to need to return to Slinky Dog Dash–or every other journey reservation–that early. (Now, 9:45 am at DHS is a special story–traces are beginning to get longer by then. So there’s nonetheless some upside.)
Finally, anybody reserving their second Lightning Lane an hour or so after park opening is nearly actually going to have a return time greater than 2 hours into the long run, thus subjecting that to the 120 minute rule. At finest, they’ve a 30-45 minute head-start and get a barely earlier return time for attraction #2 of the day.
That’s not nothing, however it’s comparatively insignificant over the course of the day. That’s very true on the parks that aren’t Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the place availability for headliner sights lasts so much longer. (EPCOT could be one other problem, as scoring Lightning Lanes for each Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure with out making a reservation at 7 am depends on luck with cancellations or journey reservation refills.)
Speaking of which, this additionally doesn’t bear in mind Lightning Lane refills, that are going to be a foremost technique of scoring choices at standard sights later within the day. (See Ride Reservation Refill Rules at Walt Disney World for extra on this added availability all through the day.)
By pure luck/accident, we really hit one in all these whereas grabbing screenshots for this text. As you may see, Slinky Dog Dash was ‘refilled’ shortly earlier than 8:30 am. This didn’t go rapidly, and it nonetheless had availability at 8:55 am. (Although not pictured, even previous 9:30 am!)
It’s fully doable–and in no way unusual–that somebody who acquired up early for the 7:00:00 am Slinky scramble would have a later return time (or miss out fully) whereas somebody who acquired up over an hour later would have higher success. (To deal with one other false impression: you’d have the identical success with refills no matter get together dimension. It doesn’t matter whether or not you’re a celebration of 1 or 100.)
In different phrases, somebody who books their first Lightning Lane proper at 7 am just isn’t going to be operating across the park stacking up dozens of Lightning Lanes whilst you’re asleep, depleting the journey reservation stock and rendering Genie+ ineffective earlier than you’ve even made your first choice.
At finest, they’ll have entry to higher return occasions for sure sights and the power to faucet into their first choice earlier than the park opening 120 minute rule window elapses. That is a bonus, particularly relating to standard #2 precedence sights that go quick. However, it’s one in all levels and likewise assumes some velocity technique ability or luck in getting that early return window.
In follow, it usually doesn’t work out that method. Anyone who books a 7 am Lightning Lane with a return time over 2 hours after park opening is in actually the very same place as somebody who books 1 minute earlier than park opening. There’s no benefit to reserving Jungle Cruise with an 11:00 to 12:00 return time at 7:00 am over Jungle Cruise with a 1:30 to 2:30 return time at 8:58 am. Zero.
Now, this isn’t to say we’d suggest taking a laid-back strategy to Genie+ in the course of the week of Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any peak season dates. That’s not a good suggestion if you wish to get as a lot carried out as doable, as the whole lot is amplified (for the more serious) with 10/10 crowd ranges. However, that’s true throughout the board, and never unique to Lightning Lanes. We’d by no means suggest anybody going over these peak weeks sleep in in the event that they wished to get so much carried out. It merely isn’t a good suggestion, and for causes virtually fully unrelated to Genie+.
The precise early riser benefit is similar because it has all the time been: attending to the parks earlier than the crowds arrive. It’s type of odd to be quibbling over a theoretical ~30-45 reserving benefit for a single Lightning Lane when the park-goers who stand up at 7 am shall be knocking out attraction after attraction by way of standby traces throughout Early Entry and at rope drop. Commando touring methods beat all different approaches, together with the Genie+ service.
That is the actual purpose we’d strongly suggest getting up early on trip at Walt Disney World and one which has been mentioned in quite a few morning technique posts not too long ago. As all the time, you’re at an amazing benefit for those who arrive earlier than park opening or keep till park closing. The center of the day is all the time the busiest/worst time at Walt Disney World, which is just a byproduct of habits of people on trip and may’t be “blamed” on new know-how. It will all the time be true that the early chicken will get the worm and the evening owl will get the…mouse, I assume?
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Learn about inns on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To lower your expenses on tickets or decide which kind to purchase, learn our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets put up. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips put up takes a singular have a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the perfect place to begin is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for the whole lot you should know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Does this reassure you in any respect about utilizing Genie+ when sleeping in at Walt Disney World? Provide readability concerning the 120 minute rule in relation to park opening, and why it’s not crucial to make a journey reservation proper at 7 am? Have you had success or failure reserving your first Lightning Lane nearer to park opening as an alternative of proper at 7 am? Thoughts on availability round park opening occasions or later within the day? Are you planning on shopping for Genie+ or sticking to free standby traces? Do you agree or disagree with my evaluation that Genie+ generally is a laid again expertise for those who select to not stress over it? Any questions we can assist you reply? Hearing your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!