A New Way to Tour the Disney Parks, Disney Genie

Disney Parks has announced a new addition to their Mobile platforms, Disney Genie. This addition is a pretty significant one, and will change the way you go about visiting Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resorts. But while there’s a lot of convince to this new program, there’s a lot of levels and information to go with it. I want to take some time to talk about each new level, and what it has to offer.

Basics

Like I said before, Disney Genie will be a mobile based experience. But there won’t be a need to download any new app on your phone. Genie will be an update to the current My Disney Experience app for Walt Disney World, and the Disneyland App. From this new addition you can unlock everything that Genie has to offer.

Disney Genie (Free)

The basic version of Genie is free and the purpose of it is to make you park days less stressful. You tell Genie what rides you want to do during the day, and an itinerary will magically appear with where you should go at what time. With Disney’s wait time infrastructure built in, Genie will predict the best time for you to visit these attractions with the lowest waits. The app will continue to update and predict what wait times will look like and help you decide if you need to wait and where to go instead.

Genie will also help you with dining. If Genie puts you at Space Mountain around lunch, it might recommend that you go to Cosmic Ray’s for your meal, and allow you to mobile order. You can also reserve a table for a dinner, or if a restaurant has a waitlist you will be able to join it.

There is also a new chat feature built into the app. This will allow you talk to a Castmember about any questions that you may have, and get a pretty instant response. You will also get access to Tip Boards, future forecasted wait times, and attraction virtual queues.

Disney Genie + (Paid)

The Disney Genie + is an upgrade to Disney Genie (naturally). This service gets you everything from the free tier, and adds the ability to join Lightning Lane (formally FastPass + and Max Pass). With this new skip the line feature, you will be able to make one Lightning Lane reservation starting at 7 am each day of your vacation. You can have one Lightning Lane Pass at a time, but you can use it as much as you can throughout the day. If you have ever used Disneyland’s MaxPass it’s very similar to that. Lightning Lane will be available on 40+ attractions at Walt Disney World and 15+ attractions at Disneyland Resort.

Here’s where the benefits of Genie + splits. Disneyland will get unlimited Photopass downloads for the days that you get Genie +, while Walt Disney World will have access to AR Lenses and unique listening experiences around the parks.

Disneyland’s Price is $20 per person per day and Walt Disney World is $15 per person per day. You can choose how many days you would like to utilize this service instead of having to use it every day.

Lightning Lane (select attractions)

If Genie + isn’t up your alley, and you just want to hit a couple of the biggest attractions each day, Lightning Lane (select attractions) is for you. This experience is another paid option to ride a ride. Similar to the Premier Access that just launched in Disneyland Paris, the the Lightning Lane will have only a few of the most popular attractions to chose from in each park.

You can only have 2 of these reservations a day, and the prices will very. These rides are not included in Genie +, so if you want to Lightning Lane any of the rides that offer Lightning Lane (select attractions), it will be another charge on top of the $15/$20 that you already paid to get the Genie +. The prices for these attractions have not been said, but they will be based on date, park, and attraction.

Guests staying at a Disney Resort will be able to make these selections starting at 7 am on the day they plan to experience the attractions, all other guest will be able to at a later time.

Upgrading

At this time, you will be able to upgrade your ticket through the app. And in the near future, you will be able to buy the Genie + option on your resort package. Annual Passholders and Magic Key Holders are likely to get the option to add on this feature on to their tickets at a later date.

That’s a lot of info to go through, and Disney has more to put out as time draws closer to launch. But I will be glad to answer any questions that you may have! If I don’t know the answer, I will be glad to look for it!