44. Genie + 101 Rewind

I'm on a working vacay this week, which means that you get to enjoy a rewind of a popular episode about Genie+! We’ll cover purchasing and scheduling strategies, rules and stipulations, and little-known hacks so you don’t miss out on your favorite rides. I’m giving you the tips you need to decide how (or if!) you should use Disney Genie+ at your next Walt Disney World visit.

List of Lightning Lane attractions: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/genie/lightning-lane/

Nikki's Virtual Queue tips: https://www.travelwithnikki.com/reviews

Download my free guide: 10 Tips for A Luxe Disney Vacation or connect with me on Instagram @jetsettingwithmichele

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This episode was produced by The Podcast Teacher.

Transcript

Welcome to let me adjust my ears, a weekly podcast about all things Disney and luxury travel. I'm Michelle from Makin' Memories Travel, your extra a f host. Grab your favorite cocktail and join me as we immerse ourselves in pixie dust and Disney vacations, minus the pint sized entourage. Unravel the secrets of bougie travel and indulge in amusing conversations with fellow extra friends. Hold on tight to your ears as we launch right in. Hello, my friends. Welcome to another episode of Let Me Adjust My Ears. Happy Leap Day.

While you are listening to this on February 29th or during that week, I am experiencing Margaritaville Riviera Maya. It's a brand new all inclusive resort in Riviera Maya, Cancun. And I am enjoying some sun, some Instagram, and lots of fun interaction with other travel advisors. And I promise that you're gonna hear more about this trip in the future. But in the meantime, follow along on my journey. My Instagram handle has changed. I am now at jetsetting with Michelle, and I will be sure and list that in the show notes for you so that you can follow along with my journey. And if you'd rather just follow along with the podcast, that's great.

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I would love to have you follow and download and subscribe and listen all the fabulous things to this podcast. Now last week, we had an incredible conversation that was obviously much longer than we normally chitchat here, with Ali from Wish Upon A Planner. And so it seemed like the perfect time to go back and replay episode 26, which we originally did on October 26th. How's that for synchronicity? On genie 101, which is really genie plus 101. So enjoy this rewind of Genie 101 hot takes and tips for you, and I will see you in March. Hello, my friends. How are you? It has been a while since it has been just me on this mic. I mean, come on.

Have we not had some great guest episodes recently with Les, former VIP tour guide, and then Julia, our fabulous cruise? And then next week, we have the theme park insider himself coming on. So this week, I felt like I really had to come in hot because it's just me. And so I'm doing the episode that I have put off doing since I started this roughly 26 weeks ago. We're on episode 26. We're gonna tackle it. Love it or loathe it. Disney Genie plus. It has certainly stirred up mixed emotions among myself and other part goers, including many of my clients and possibly you who are listening to this.

So we're gonna do it. We're gonna tackle the controversial topic. We're gonna go ahead in. Actually, I should say we're gonna stay at the basic level. This is Disney Genie 101. So you will not hear me talk about stacking or any advanced Genie 201 topics. That is for the future. We are gonna discuss whether Genie plus is a necessary evil or just a worthwhile addition to your Waldo's new world trip.

Spoiler alert. I'm on the it's a necessary evil at some parks. I'm putting it right out there. That's my philosophy. And even more putting it right out there, my philosophy is that Universal up I 4, about 20 minutes from Disney, and their express pass have it going on. And to this day, I still cannot believe that Disney doesn't have this figured out. It is so not their first rodeo. Like, what the hell, Disney? Even more, just again, full transparency.

I'm just laying it out there. I've been avoiding doing this episode because I really, really thought that when Bob Iger came back and took over control of Disney, that in addition to making parking at the resorts free again for overnight guests, that he would figure out this whole Genie plus debacle. But alas, that hasn't happened. So, here we go. What is Disney Genie all about? So, notice I said Genie, not Genie plus. So let's start with a little vocabulary lesson because I feel like when you're studying for your SATs, you make those vocab cards, and you just go over those damn vocabulary cards over and over and over again. Well, this is what I feel one needs to do to get your master's degree in Genie plus. You just have to pound that language into your head.

So we're gonna start with Genie. Genie without the plus sign. It's a complimentary feature and service. It's part of the My Disney Experience app that you already have to use for a lot of things like scanning into your ticket, making dining reservations, mobile ordering. All of that is part of the My Disney Experience app as is Genie. Part of Genie is you have a tip board. You can see wait times. All of that is free, and Disney will tell you that it works as a personalized itinerary feature.

However, the algorithm works so that let's say you're at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and it looks at where the traffic is. So maybe it's the middle of the day and there is a lot of traffic at rock and roller coaster and tower of terror. PS, that's pretty much all the time. It's going to send you over to Indiana Jones or Frozen because those are shows, or in this case, attractions that are not gonna have a long wait. Now let's say you do those shows, which are on the opposite end of the park from Sunset Boulevard. And then all of a sudden the wait drops or you have a Genie plus, we're not there yet. Return time. You're going to be crisscrossing the park.

Is basically what I'm trying to say. Not the most eloquent that I've ever been, but it's because Genie gives me nausea. TMI? Maybe? I don't know. So Genie is the free service. Please ignore Genie. I know more than Genie. And when I write an itinerary for you, my beloved clients, and I can say this for many, many, many of my fellow travel advisors whom I love and respects. We all know more than Jeannie, because we go all the time, and we want to protect our feet from having to crisscross the park multiple times, and we're gonna help you do the same thing.

So just ignore Genie. Genie is free. You get what you pay for. Genie with a plus sign, Genie plus. Genie is a paid service that you can purchase that lets you skip long standby lines for rides and access the shorter lightning lanes instead. So most attractions have 2 entrances. They have a standby entrance and a lightning lane entrance. PS, the lightning lane entrances used to be the same fast pass entrances.

They have new signage now. So if that makes it easier for you to understand the 2 entrances. Great. They're now called lightning lanes, AKA Speed McQueen lightning. Woo hoo. Okay. The price is dependent on several factors. So the price for Genie Plus, it's a daily price.

You do not get to purchase it in advance of your trip because it uses surge pricing, much the way that your favorite shared transportation app does. The park you visit, plus how much demand Disney expects there to be that day, they figure out the price for the service. If you are park hopping, yes, you can purchase it for more than one park in a day, but you will pay the more expensive price. So before I came on to record, and I should say that this is mid October, October 13th, Apparently, Disney thinks it's gonna be fairly crowded today because park hopping and the magic kingdom, which are typically always the most expensive Genie plus for the day is $25, and that's per person in your party. So if you're a party of 5, that's an additional $125 that Disney is asking you to pay to access shorter lightning lanes. You do not have to. You can do the standby lanes if you want. And we have strategies.

Again, we have hacks for how to do standby lines. And if you are insistent upon Genie plus or if we tell you you need it, then you really need it because you're going during the holidays. We can help you with that too. So, Genie Plus is the paid service. Review. Again, we're like doing flashcards here. We're studying for our Disney PhD. Genie without the plus sign, free, ignore it.

Genie plus, the paid service, you can purchase it day of. Pricing varies. It's based on surge. And then we have these little annoying things called the individual lightning lane. We call them in the trade ILLs for short. Yeah. Try and say lightning lane 3 times fast. Just say, hello.

It's available for everyone. You can use it with or without the Disney Genie plus service. They are not dependent upon one another, and it lets you choose a time to arrive at up to 2 attractions each day. So you can hold 2 ILLs every day, but that's it. And prices are estimated to be between $7.22 per person for these. Today, for example, again, guardians of the galaxy was $22. And they fluctuate on different days of the year. These are not included as part of the Genie Plus service.

They are basically pay to play. So you can either do standby or you can purchase Genie Plus and do lightning lanes on many attractions, but not all. And on the ones that are not included on Genie Plus, if they have a lightning lane, you will have to purchase individual lightning lane access. Now remember, they're expensive, and they're made to be expensive. This is one thing they did get from Universal, because if everybody did it, it wouldn't work. So it has to be, slightly painful so that not everybody does it, so that some people actually I wanna get the most out of my Disney day as I can, that you go ahead and purchase it. Have I made that complicated enough for everybody? Okay. We're gonna review one more time.

We've got Genie without the plus sign. We've got Genie plus. We've got individual lightning lanes. We also have virtual queues, but that's for 201. I do have a great blog post. It was actually written by a friend of mine, Nikki. Hi, Nikki. Nikki actually listens while she's walking.

So good morning to your morning walk. We're gonna do the 10 k princess together in 2024. So I love Nikki. Her company is called Travel with Nikki, and she wrote a great blog post about accessing virtual queues. I borrowed it, so she's really the one to thank for that. But again, that's 201. We're sticking with Genie Plus 101. So let's talk about Genie Plus and what it includes.

Okay. So Disney has a website, which I will put in the show notes, which tells you exactly what attractions are included on Genie plus. Not every attraction at every theme park is included. So I beg of you, beg of you, beg of you. And this is why you really need a travel adviser who knows these parks and visits them often to find out what you need to know to prioritize and decide whether you need Genie Plus every day of your trip or just certain days of your trip. And for me, and I know this from way back when when I worked at Indiana Jones, the only original attraction that is still there, That theater holds roughly a lot of people. It holds roughly a lot of people. I was about to say 1200, but I actually think it's 1500.

Anyway, it holds a lot a lot of people. So it's really not worth it to purchase a Genie Plus so that you can go in a shorter line for that. Because if you walk up 10 minutes before showtime, you're gonna get in without waiting in the line. You just have to plan accordingly and know what time the shows are. So, again, if you're a thrill ride junkie, you are gonna want Genie Plus at the Disney's Hollywood Studios because a lot of those attractions are thrill rides, and they are included on Genie Plus. If you're not a thrill ride person, but you love Star Wars, then you're gonna wanna do an individual lightning lane purchase so that you're not waiting in line at rise of the resistance and watching Star Wars the movie the entire time you're in line. PS, that's just my gauge of if a line's too long or not. If I could watch the IP, the movie that goes along with it, then it's too long.

Like, Avatar is like 3 hours. So if I could see Avatar while I'm waiting for flight of passage, then I'm buying the individual lightning link. I don't like to wait in line ever, which is why I love the express pass at Universal because I get to just pay up front, and I know what it costs, and I'm doing it, and I know I'm not gonna wait in lines. But alas, again, what the fuck, Disney? Okay. So know what attractions are covered on Genie Plus. Ask your travel adviser to give you that link or go over them with you so that you can prioritize which of the attractions are most important to you, whether you need to rope drop them or buy Genie Plus or buy an individual lightning lane or do both. Again, we're forgetting the Genie without the plus. We just ignore it, and we talk to our travel advisers instead.

Again, you don't ever need it for shows. You will only ever need Genie Plus for rides. And there are some rides where it's even easier to rope drop than to try and get an individual lightning lane. And we'll discuss why when we talk about how to purchase Genie Plus and or your individual lightning lane, your ILL. Okay. So question number 3, which I forgot to mention that in addition to these are questions that my clients always ask me when I do their Genie plus training, and I do do a Genie plus training with every single one of my Disney clients. I do it over Zoom so we can set up the app together. They can see my app.

I can see theirs. We can talk through it. But I also ask my BFF, chat g p t, what are the most questions that people ask, and this is one that they came up with. So what is the cost of Genie Plus, and how can guest purchase it? Great question, chat gbt. Sadly, I don't have a great answer for you because, again, it's surge pricing. So as of June 27th this year, they tweaked Genie plus, but not to make it even easier, they made it even harder. Because now instead of just one price for all of Genie plus, which is how it used to be, we have pricing per park with variable pricing. So as of the day of this recording in mid October, it's $25 for the Magic Kingdom, and it's also $25 if you plan on doing more than one park and park hopping.

Now keep in mind through the end of this year, and this is gonna change come January, park hopping is only after 2. So if you're spending all day at Disney's Hollywood Studios, I almost called it Disney MGM Studios theme park. Oops. You're spending all day at Disney's Hollywood Studios, and you're only going to the Magic Kingdom for the fireworks at night. I mean, it's like $3 more per person, but you have to decide if that's something you really wanna do is pay $3 more for the park hopping version, or you're just gonna go in and see the fireworks and maybe do something with a short wait in the standby line. And as of now, you also cannot upgrade to another park or the multiple parks option if you decide to park hop. So if you think you wanna use Genie plus at multiple parks, go ahead and pick that selection in the beginning of the day. Wait.

I said beginning of the day. That leads us into the very next question. What time can I purchase Genie Plus and or my individual lightning lane? Another great question, chat gbt. So let's talk about this. You can actually purchase Genie Plus and have it set up before you pick your 1st lightning lane selection. Okay. So what am I talking about? I've like dropped Genie Plus and lightning lane altogether. Okay.

So when you purchase Genie Plus, you can hold a lightning lane time to return. And you can do that. You can hold 1 at a time. I'm gonna get into the exceptions in the advanced, but let's take it slow. So you wake up and you purchase Genie plus, and then you make your first selection. You can do that starting at 7 AM. Doesn't matter if you're staying on or off-site. So it doesn't matter if you are a resort guest or not.

You can make your first selection at 7 AM. So slinky dog dash is always the very first lightning lane to go. And when I say to go, meaning there are only so many return times available every day, and slinky dog dash quote, unquote, sells out of its return times the fastest. So you can actually purchase your Genie plus starting at midnight, the night before you're going to the parks. But day of essentially, because it's midnight. But if you're like me and you're sleeping because you're gonna get up at, like, 5:30 in the morning so you can have breakfast and then be at security and get your resort extra 30 minutes. You just wanna get up, give yourself 10 minutes at, like, 6:50. Make sure you have your Genie plus set up.

Again, I go over all of that, the setup of it with you individually when you book your Disney trip with me. And then at 7 AM, as soon as those lightning lane return times drop, that's when you can start to make your first selection. So you've already bought the Genie Plus. Now you're just making it work for you. Again, you can be on or off-site. There's always an advantage when you do things early. So typically that means make your first selection right at 7 AM. Also at 7 AM, if you are staying at a Walt Disney World Resort, you can also book your first or one of 2 individual lightning lane selection.

So that's like Guardians of the Galaxy, Tron. There's 2 of the Magic Kingdom still. It's the 7 Dwarfs mind train. It's flight of passage over Animal Kingdom. And Hollywood Studios. It's rise of the resistance. So all rides, eticket rides that we definitely always wanna try and get in on our trips. Even for me who's not a roller coaster junkie, those are all rides that I really like.

So that happens at 7 AM for resort guests only. If you're like me and you're staying at your Marriott Vacation Club timeshare, then I don't get to make my first individual lightning lane selection until the park opens. So that does give resort guests a little bit of an advantage. Because again, there's only so many individual lightning lane selections available in any given day. So you get yours at 7. I probably don't get mine until mine. Hopefully, there is some still there. So as of right now, like I said, I played around with it before I came into my little recording studio.

I did take a look and there are no more individual lightning lanes available. It's 11:30 in Orlando in the eastern time zone, so it is effectively pretty late in the day. But Tron's gone, and Guardians is gone. And Rise does have some, but they're really late in the day. I didn't check Animal Kingdom. I'm sorry. Animal Kingdom for me is like always an afterthought. I think because that park wasn't there when I worked there.

And so I've had to learn it late in life, so to say. Anyway, so what I'm basically telling you, yes, you have heard Crocs, is that chaos ensues at 7 AM, which is really not exactly what you want on your vacation. So another reason that it's just imperative that you use a travel adviser who can help you understand, who can help you prioritize the attractions or the character meet and greets or the meals that you want, and then give you the Genie 201 hacks that I don't even have time to begin to cover in a 30 minute podcast. Okay. So at 7 AM, your first Genie Plus Lightning Lane selections open. Your paid ILLs open to eligible on-site guests. And just to make things really fun, the virtual queue opens at 7 AM as well. Right now, the virtual queue is being used Tron at Magic Kingdom, Guardians of the Galaxy, and the Journey of Water inspired by Moana at Epcot.

Virtual queues drop at 7 AM for anyone. You do not have to be staying on-site. You don't have to be in the park yet. And then for the afternoon drops, which are 1 o'clock right now, that could always change. Be sure and check the app for up to date details. Right now, it's at 1 o'clock. You have to be scanned into the park for the attraction. So if you want to go to get a virtual queue, which is instead of the standby lane, doesn't affect your individual lightning lane.

This is just if you want a standby virtual queue. For Tron at Magic Kingdom, you have to have already been scanned into the park by the 1 o'clock. Again, shout out to Nikki and travel with Nikki and her fabulous blog article, which I will link to in the show notes on virtual queues. Also a 2 zero one strategy. Okay. Are there any tips or strategies for maximizing the benefits of Genie Plus and Lightning Lanes? I'm so glad you asked me that chat gbt. Let me tell you. The first and most important one, I love this little hack, Genie Plus lightning lanes have a built in grace period.

You can scan in up to 5 minutes early and up to 15 minutes late, which really means you have 80 minutes in total. So if you have an 11 to 12, that's the standard hour return time for Slinky Dog Dash, you can really scan in as early as 10:55 or as late as 12:15. Yeah. I said 11 AM time. So 10:55 to 12:15. That means if you have an 11:45 lunch over at Rudy Rodeo Roundup Barbecue, Yay you, because you can scan in at 10:55, ride slinky dog dash, and have time to go to the restroom before you even need to worry about missing your reservation, or getting to Brown Derby in time, or any other of the reservations you might have. Yay. That's great.

You can book your next lightning lane selection. So this is where we are on the border of advanced Genie plus 201 strategy. So two things, either one has to occur for you to be able to book your next return time. Remember I said earlier, you can only hold 1 at a time. One lightning lane return at a time. Well, there's a slight exception to that rule. So stay with me here. If you're multitasking, come back to me.

Shout out to Amy Porterfield. After you scan into an attraction, and by scan into an attraction, that means that either your magic band or your phone has touched the lightning lane entrance where you have to scan so that the person standing there, the cast member standing there, can see it turn green, and know that you are not trying to scam yourself into the attraction. You scan in. That's what we call it. If you're wearing a magic band, it's Mickey ears to Mickey ears. It's how I always remember which way to put my magic band on. So you have your magic band. You have your return time for slinky dog dash.

I just love the studios. You know, that's my favorite part. So you scan in at 10:55, it turns green, and then you hold up the line because you're already able to look in and make your next reservation. So you scan in at 10:55, and maybe you're able to get Toy Story for 11:15, which remember you've got a grace period. So you can ride Sunky dog and rush right over to Toy Story mania. I wish it were that simple. Doesn't usually work that way. But in theory, that's how it could be fun.

Or let's say you wake up at 7 AM, and you can't get a slinky dog dash until 7 PM. It does happen because as I said earlier, slinky dog is the very first one to always run out. So you wake up at at 7. You know you're going to the studios, but you're not even gonna get to do slinky dog dash until 7 PM. Well, you shouldn't be locked out of being able to get any other Genie Plus Lightning Lane entrances. So 2 hours later, after the park opens, you can book your next return time. It used to be you had to set your watch on a timer for 2 hours, but now the app, Genie Plus, does let you know when you can book your next attraction. K.

Couple of other hacks for you. Any important lightning lane selections, especially your ones that you've paid for your ILLs. Make sure you have a screenshot of those. Because sometimes they disappear from your account. It's just a technical glitch. Disney and their on-site tech. Another reason I love Universal and the express pass, but we're not going there. We're almost done.

So we gotta focus. I gotta be positive about Genie plus for the end. Like, the end is in sight. You have almost got your MBA, your mousers of Genie Plus. Come back for your ductor it. If you didn't hear last week's episode, you have no idea what I just said, so go back and listen to last week's episode with less. 2 weeks ago episode. Screenshot those important lightning lane selections, so that if you're trying to scan in, again, Mickey ears to Mickey ears on your MagicBand.

If you're trying to scan in and it goes red, you can show the screenshot to the cast member, and they can help you scan in. Okay. The 10 minute rule. This is very, very exciting. So remember I said 7 AM, chaos ensues, And you log in, and all of the individual lightning lanes for rise of the resistance show that it sells out within seconds. And it does. And you're like, no. 3 hours, not for me.

That's longer than Star Wars the movie. Not gonna do it. So don't give up. Refresh minutes later. I say, at 10 minutes between 710720, and you might find a time. There's a special drop limited at 10 minutes later. For all the people who had it in their carts, but didn't end up purchasing in time, those are released back to the public. So always remember the 10 minute rule.

7 AM and 7:10. And don't forget that you can actually play with your chipboard and set up some of this stuff at home. Just like I played with it before I got on here to talk to all of you. I looked at the current pricing, all of that good stuff. And that my friends is Genie Plus 101. Can't wait to see you real soon. And just like that, this episode is over. Thank you for joining me.

To ensure that your next vacation is nothing short of divine, I've handpicked my top ten tips for a Lux Disney experience. Find the link in the show notes, and until next time, stay fabulous.