Do you believe in miracles?! Walt Disney World has made another change to Genie+ and it’s an unequivocally positive one! This post runs through recent changes to the paid FastPass service, explaining how this is an improvement for Lightning Lane power users and newcomers alike.

In the last several months, Walt Disney World has been making a ton of tweaks to Genie+ in an effort to balance supply & demand, improve guest satisfaction scores, and set expectations at a reasonable and realistic level. This has included eliminating the Genie+ ticket add-on, adding character meet & greets to the service, and “warning” guests that Genie+ essentially amounts to paid FastPass.

Most recently, Walt Disney World permanently moved one Individual Lightning Lane attraction per park to the Genie+ service in an effort to load balance. Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Hollywood Studios, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After at EPCOT, and Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom are all now included in the flat-rate Genie+ service after temporarily shifting there for the busy spring and summer seasons.

All of this has happened as the company’s executives have repeatedly commented that Genie+ uptake has exceeded expectations. CEO Bob Chapek has stated that Disney is “very, very encouraged” by the trends of guests who purchase the Genie+ service and caught the company by surprise. According to Chapek, “about 50% of the people who come through the gate buy up the Genie product” at Walt Disney World, which explains why there have been so many load-balancing efforts since Genie+ launched almost a year ago.

Today’s good news is that Walt Disney World has finally added a banner to the Tip Board in My Disney Experience that has been conspicuously absent since Genie+ launched last year. With this change, your next eligible selection time is prominently displayed within the Disney Genie+ Tip Board. Here’s a look at the new layout…

In the above screenshots, you should notice a purple banner at the top of the Tip Board that says “When you can book: 1:32 pm” as of 12:27 pm. This is pursuant to the 120 minute rule–the previous Lightning Lane selection was made at 11:32 am.

At 1:32 pm, that changes to “When you can book: Now.”

This is a minor UI change that makes a meaningful difference.

While it didn’t crack the top 3 for our Genie+ Wish List of Improvements for Walt Disney World, it was deserving of an honorable mention. This is especially true for first-timers who don’t read blogs like this one. To this day, we hear from people who were oblivious to the 120 minute rule until reading about it here–it’s not something actively advertised. (For the longest time, Disney’s official materials only indicated that Lightning Lane “selections can only be made one at a time” without mention of the 2 hour rule. The latter has since been added in some spots.)

More screenshots showing the app in action. Note that in the last screenshot the banner is gone–it’s not sticky, so it disappears once you start scrolling. (This is perfectly fine–having more screen space devoted to the wait and return times is the smarter move.)

This change is impossible to criticize. It’s an improvement for everyone, a small step forward on the ‘quality of life’ front that makes Genie+ more intuitive and user-friendly. Obviously, it’s not a panacea for all that ails the app feature, but it’s good to see UI issues are being addressed.

(Okay, it’s almost impossible to criticize this. Those power users who banked on the app’s opaqueness and hostile design to make it less usable for first-timers might be disappointed by improvements. But you can’t complain about Genie+ having awful UI and also about better UI making it easier to use!)

Previously, the only way to know when you were eligible to make another ride reservation was either by setting an alarm on your phone or simply attempting to make another Lightning Lane selection.

We sometimes did both–setting the alarm while also attempting to make a selection just to confirm that no quirks with the system caused the time to be different than what we expected. (That did occur from time to time, especially early on.)

Finally, I want to revisit the previous change made a couple weeks ago, covered in New Genie+ Change Disadvantages Park Hopping at Walt Disney World. With the last update, Disney removed the rule that automatically adjusted return times to start at 2 pm when Park Hopping.

Now, the system prevents you from booking a Lightning Lane if the current return time is before Park Hopping opens up. Meaning that if the ride you want to reserve has a current return time of 1 pm, Genie+ will not let you make that selection. You’ll be greeted with an error message that says, “select a new time that is included in your Park Hopper option.”

Our initial commentary was highly critical of this change, focusing on the frustrations for Park Hopping and “stacking” Lightning Lane reservations for afternoon arrivals. We emphasized how this would be more work for these guests, make the process more difficult, and likelihood of fewer Lightning Lanes per day on average as a result. All of that remains accurate.

The issue is that we underemphasized the upside for less knowledgeable first timers and those without the Park Hopper option (my numbers are dated by a few years, but last I knew, that was a majority of guests). The upside is that visitors spending all day in the same park will no longer be competing with Park Hoppers or Annual Passholders for Lightning Lane availability to quite the same degree.

This is something we should’ve immediately identified and acknowledged, especially since our previous post about frustrating Genie+ changes (among many others) reminded readers that power users are not and should not be the intended beneficiaries of Genie+ changes. The whole Genie system and its policies were formulated in response to complaints from Walt Disney World first-timers.

Most commonly, this comes up in the context of same-day selections rather than those made 30 or 60 days in advance. While the latter is favored by many savvy planners and repeat visitors–disproportionately the readers of blogs like this one–it was not popular with park-goers as a whole. Most first-timers are not planning their day months in advance, and had no clue they could make ride reservations until arriving. By then, it was already too late.

Ultimately, Genie+ has a lot of problems. It’s convoluted, confusing, and counterintuitive in plenty of ways that are troublesome for first-timers and longtime fans. There’s still a lot of that to be resolved, and those improvements would more or less benefit everyone equally by virtue of fewer headaches and less screen time. The addition of this “when you can book” banner is one small step in that direction. It’s an unequivocal improvement for everyone.

Additionally, in revisiting the previous Park Hopper change through an objective lens, that is also a net positive. While it theoretically disadvantages Annual Passholders and knowledge guests with Park Hopper tickets who are attempting to utilize savvy strategy, we are not the target audiences for these changes. The goal is democratization, making it easier to use for more guests–reducing the concentration of Lightning Lanes among experienced power users. Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of that, instead judging changes on the basis of the benefits inured by us, personally.

If you have questions about the basics of using–or not using–the paid FastPass service, see our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ for all of the foundational need-to-know info. This whole system is confusing and convoluted, so you might have a question or two-dozen. That answers all of the most common ones we’ve been receiving from readers.

Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!

What do you think of the recent UI changes to Genie+ at Walt Disney World? Pleased to see this “when you can book” banner? Do you consider this a meaningfully positive improvement to the Tip Board? Will you purchase Genie+ or does this all sound like too much of a headache? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!

I remain unsure of whether new park guests and casual fans find the concept of Park Hopping complex, so while that change clearly benefits single park days it may actually be “neutral” to them as well as us, just depending on how different want to tour. (Bring back more entertainment to HS and AK and I personally won’t have an active desire to park hop.)

A lot of people haven’t understood this rule for over TWENTY years under THREE different systems, so it’s about time WDW made it crystal clear instead of burying it under smaller print.

Just got back from the parks today and noticed the new change. One thing I noticed was if I booked an LL that had a window expiring BEFORE my 120 minutes, it said I could book at the end of the window. So I book Space mtn at 9:00 for a 9:05-10:05 window, it said “book next 10:05” instead of 11:00am. I tried it and it did work. Pretty cool. Of course I also could have just tapped in and booked another one right away! And sadly what everyone is saying is true. Standby lines are absolutely moving slower to allow for people with LLs. This will affect everyone because if you want to ride all day you will end up in some standbys even with genie+!

Good, hopefully they continue to improve ‍♂️ + before my visit in December 🙂

That was supposed to be the genie emoji lol

Does the “Book Now” banner appear after you’ve tapped into a Lightning Lane or is it only the official booking time or 120 min time that trigger it?

I have the same question. If so this is definitely an improvement especially for folks not following blogs like this. But regardless a convenience that we all could use for sure.

Tom Do you think the change to the park hopping, lighting lane choice after 2 is because Disney maybe thinking about getting rid of the 2 pm park hopping rule? Possibly going back to the old way of park hopping whenever you want? That would be wonderful news.

A friend who did Disney a couple weeks before us kept telling me how Genie was so awful because you couldn’t make a new reservation until you had used your first one. I didn’t see the point in telling her she did it wrong. This would have been very helpful for her!

Here now observing long lines on slow days thanks to the greed of paid fast pass. People who are already paying more for a Disney hotel room deserve something and 3 fast passes was a fair bonus. I just don’t believe Disney needs the bonus money they are making from 50% of all visitors. It’s an outrageous gold mine. I’m not anti capitalism but sometimes just because you can do something doesn’t mean it should be done.

I have to say, I was hoping that the Genie+ complaints would have been exaggerated, but our first day using it in the Magic Kingdom had me at Guest Relations before the rope even dropped this morning. Putting aside the convoluted design and inflexibility of use, the app just kept failing us. Members of our party were disappearing, the screen kept freezing, and halfway through booking I’d be kicked out of my account and forced to log back in via requesting a pin code to be sent to my email. Each time this happened wasted 1-2 minutes, which sounds like a little amount of time until I saw that the return times for attractions pushed back 30 minutes. We still had an amazing day, but it was not courtesy of Genie+. It was all about the small, party-day crowd level.

In this article you state ……”Most commonly, this comes up in the context of same-day selections rather than those made 30 or 60 days in advance. ” What attraction selections (not dining)can be made 30-60 days in advance?

None currently; the line you’re quoting is Tom discussing how much the prior system, FastPass+, was disliked by non-hardcore users and beloved by hardcore users.

When I saw the title of the article I was cautiously optimistic it would be news of a modify button. No such luck for now but… Maybe the fact that they made this change means a modify option could still be coming??

Thanks Tom for making sharing this latest update. A couple of days ago I experienced the park hopper delay that wouldn’t offer me a time that was after 2:00 since other times before 2:00 were available. One positive and unexpected plus when I booked an ILL for Guardians was that it alloweded me to choose a window of time. It offered hourly slots so that we had a little more flexibility in our schedule. I don’t know if this is a permanent change or an experiment. But it was nice to have an option.

Frankie I was under the impression that Guardians was still only offered in a virtual queue. Are we now able to purchase ILL for it?

You can do either one. And I think you can do both virtual queue and ILL. There is no regular standby line.

Tom, Thank you for all you do. I haven’t quite followed the disney genie + very welll. And it just confuses me. Is the Genie+ and Lightening Lane two different fast pass purchases?

I have been to Disney 22 times and believe this Genie + Lightening Lanes should be done away with. Go back to the old days were people have to wait in lines. Paying high dollar price for a ticket to get in and then pay more to skip line. This is not fair for people who don’t have the extra cash to guy the Genie plus. My time is not going to be spent on the phone trying to grab the next ride where ever. I love my happy place but it seems that things are getting less happy.

I agree with you Traci. If they went back to one line for every one that one line would constantly move and not be a stand still one. Because the way it is now the stand by line is halted to allow the “paid” lane to allow hoards of people go ahead of the other line. Then only a few from stand by are allowed to go. The one line would move faster and smoother and for those who want to be ahead in the line you just have to be there early in the morning. That makes it fair to everyone. But Disney is not about “fair” any more nor about what makes for a better guest experience for the majority. They are about money only now. Eventually the WDW resorts and parks will only be something the top one percent can afford to enjoy.

I totally agree. It sickens me that they keep adding more charges. I thought making people pay for parking and taking away the magical express was bad!! Now this!! They are nickel and dimming people to death! When is enough, enough. They don’t give a rip for us who cannot afford it.

I agree 100% I will not use this after paying a high cost to get in. Its a cash grab I just cant get my head around…but if I could that still leaves being forced into my phone that much at Disney ..nope not happening. Courtesy of Touristblog and a little research you dont need it.!

Carol, the exact issue you’re complaining about was just as bad when they had free Fastpass. Paying for it doesn’t change how the standby lines have always had to wait forever while the FP line moved.

We ve just got back from a 2 week stay in Disney world, and I’d decided before going I wasn’t buying into genie +, it already costs so much to travel from the U.K, and I was disappointed by the effect that decision had on our holiday. The thing that I loved about free fast pass was that regardless of income everyone in Disney world was equal you all got 3 fast passes. But having queued for sometimes upwards of an hour in 100% humidity it felt Ill mannered to watch the fast pass queue sail pass because they paid more than me, I like to think Walt Disney would not approve of this elitist attitude. It tarnished the magic for our family .

Band aid on a bullet wound. Big deal. The changes they have made have been a net negative to an existing flawed system.

I feel the same way Jeff but unless the majority of the people stop buying genie the head dog shiny headed boss of the Disney company will keep claiming that genie is a huge success because over half the guests who go there continue to buy it every day. That is what Disney determines as success. How many people spend their money buying it. Not if what they are selling them is good for them or not. Not if what they are selling them is something they enjoy or like. All that matters to Disney is that they are selling the retarded Genie and way to many people are buying it.

Now could you imagine if you could enable a push notification when your window opens so you don’t have to use a timer? Mind blown. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves :-).

Wow. Righteous man. So many common sense and commonly available tech ignored by the man. Tom has shown no mercy for WDWs crappy tech and we shouldn’t either. Did they hire a tech consultant??

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