My Day Utilizing Genie+ at Magic Kingdom in Summer time 2022
Magic Kingdom is the very best park for purchasing Genie+ at Walt Disney World, one thing that’s true even throughout Summer time 2022. For this Lightning Lane report, I examined my technique on a fully-booked day over the Fourth of July vacation weekend to see how a lot time I might save skipping standby traces with paid FastPass.
This Genie+ picture report walks you thru my step-by-step day in MK, with my Lightning Lane alternatives & return instances, experience reservation screenshots, what I achieved, and ideas on the finish about whether or not Genie+ is definitely worth the cash at Magic Kingdom. It additionally contains technique and different helpful recommendation, plus loads of ineffective and random commentary.
My aim right here was to “stress take a look at” Genie+ on a day I used to be positive Magic Kingdom could be busy: July 2, 2022. Not solely was this a vacation weekend, but in addition a Saturday. If previous precedent was any indication, this may simply be a 9/10 day–in all probability 10/10. Properly, you understand what they are saying: the very best laid plans of the Mouse and magical blue males usually go awry…
Essentially, this specific day at Magic Kingdom was a 6/10 crowd degree. Or moderately, a 6/10 wait time degree. The park itself was loads crowded and congested as enormous plenty gathered for fireworks and different festivities, however that didn’t at all times translate into lengthy wait instances (with some notable exceptions).
Nonetheless, today at MK roughly tracks with my final expertise utilizing Genie+ a few month in the past on a crowd degree 8/10 day. The truth is, my experiences with Genie+ at Magic Kingdom have been fairly constant in all crowd ranges, though I nonetheless haven’t “lucked out” with a ten/10 day.
My different aim utilizing Genie+ at Magic Kingdom was to embrace a extra laid again strategy as an example that you simply don’t have to rise up vivid and early at 7 am, diligently set alarms to e book subsequent reservations, or develop a tactical plan of assault with army precision.
That’s use Genie+ at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, however fortunately, not crucial at Magic Kingdom as a result of bigger attraction roster and superior capability. That is excellent news as a result of, as we’ve talked about repeatedly, Magic Kingdom is the one park at Walt Disney World the place we considered shopping for Genie+ as essential to beat the crowds.
As fast background for individuals who are unfamiliar with it, Walt Disney World’s new Genie+ line-skipping service is the everlasting substitute to free FastPass+ for choose points of interest in every park. Genie+ prices $16 per individual per day and excludes the preferred experience per park. It’s a mainly a digital model of the paper FastPass system from the “outdated days.”
For more information and solutions to frequent questions, see our Information to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ. We’ve already up to date that a number of instances, and it’s an ideal leaping off level should you’re confused, overwhelmed…or totally perceive the system, however need some next-level technique to raised leverage Genie+.
Anyway, let’s transfer alongside to my day utilizing Genie+ and Lightning Lanes at Magic Kingdom…
I awakened round 7:45 am, purchased Genie+ within the My Disney Expertise app, navigated to the Tip Board to see accessible choices, and booked a Lightning Lane reservation for Peter Pan’s Flight. This complete course of took only some minutes.
After Walt Disney World eradicated the Genie+ ticket add-on, there have been fears that company would should be up at midnight to buy Genie+ and once more at 7 am to e book earlier than points of interest. Up to now, there has not been a single day that Genie+ offered out at any park–and definitely not earlier than 7 am. (Many company don’t even study about Genie+ till they arrive to the park, after which purchase round 10 or 11 am.)
Essentially, I might’ve made this similar choice over an hour later–up till 8:59 am–and my day would’ve appeared virtually precisely the identical. At Magic Kingdom, such a laid again strategy to Genie+ works simply advantageous.
Since my return time for Peter Pan’s Flight was greater than 2 hours into the longer term, I’d be topic to the 120 minute rule. This meant that I’d be eligible to e book my subsequent Lightning Lane experience reservation 120 minutes after park opening, or 11 am. I wasn’t setting reminder alarms, and didn’t bear in mind to do this till 11:08 am, once I booked House Mountain.
I opted for this as a substitute of Jungle Cruise as a result of I knew I’d be over in Tomorrowland round this time, and felt I might gamble on Jungle Cruise having availability 120 minutes later. In any case, Jungle Cruise stays #1 on our Magic Kingdom Genie+ Priorities & Lightning Lane Experience Ranks, even after the addition of House Mountain and with Splash Mountain rising in recognition because the climate improves.
I’m largely going to go away the “common” a part of our time out of this as a result of it’s actually atypical. For these wanting a “peek backstage” (for some purpose), we spent a lot of the day doing the TTA PeopleMover and Carousel of Progress as a result of Tomorrowland’s High Two Sights Acquired Nice Massive Lovely Upgrades!
The PeopleMover, particularly, was a problem as a result of it stored breaking down. This meant lengthy waits each in line and caught on the attraction. I used to be attempting to get a clear video of the brand new narration, failing on my first half-dozen ride-throughs. In different phrases, our day was not the typical vacationer expertise in Magic Kingdom. (To not discourage you from looping the TTA or Carousel of Progress. Doing each repeatedly is, after all, a good suggestion.)
My subsequent choice was Jungle Cruise.
I received this shortly after a experience reservation refill, which meant an earlier return time by just a few hours. This was completely dumb luck. I used to be not spending time refreshing the My Disney Expertise attempting to enhance my alternatives–I used to be simply taking what I might get.
Above is a take a look at my Lightning Lane lineup to this point, all obtained by round 1 pm at Magic Kingdom.
Beneath are Magic Kingdom wait instances this specific afternoon.
Throwing out Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare as a result of it’s an Particular person Lightning Lane and Buzz Lightyear’s House Ranger Spin as a result of it has close to immediate returns (see beneath), I believe I selected fairly nicely.
With that mentioned, there’s no approach I saved 235 minutes ready in line. The standby line for House Mountain was dangerous once I returned, however the traces for Peter Pan’s Flight and Jungle Cruise have been fairly quick. It’s troublesome to eyeball these as a result of Lightning Lanes, however I can’t think about both had precise waits that have been over an hour. They have been in all probability nearer to 30-45 minutes.
Most of today at Magic Kingdom was laid again, however I did make a degree of tapping into Jungle Cruise when my window opened so I’d be eligible for an additional experience reservation sooner moderately than later.
The explanation was easy–it was actually sizzling and I needed to experience Splash Mountain throughout these triple-digit “seems like” temperatures moderately than after sundown.
Haunted Mansion was my subsequent decide, and actually the very same state of affairs performed on the market–I tapped into Splash Mountain and instantly chosen Haunted Mansion.
On the time I made the choice, Haunted Mansion had a prolonged standby line and hour-long posted wait time. By the point fireworks roll round, it’s normally a walk-on or near it.
Subsequent up was Buzz Lightyear’s House Ranger Spin. I made this choice at 6:44 pm and my return time was one minute later.
I’ve observed this can be a comparatively frequent incidence with House Ranger Spin. Even when the overflow queue is in use, you’ll be able to rating a Lightning Lane reservation with a return time not too far into the longer term. (Avoiding the depressing line for Buzz is arguably value the price of Genie+ by itself.) It looks like each park has an attraction like this, with a disproportionate quantity of its capability allotted to Genie+ and simple availability.
My remaining choice was Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad.
This wasn’t as a result of nothing else was accessible (see beneath) however as a result of this had roughly exhausted all the things I needed to perform in Magic Kingdom. Usually, we additionally would’ve finished a number of the meet & greets, however that was a nonstarter because of the aforementioned warmth, humidity, and afternoon rain. Suffice to say, the ensuing photographs wouldn’t have been usable.
With that mentioned, all the things besides Jungle Cruise (and Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare) had availability.
It will’ve been straightforward to e book one other 2-3 Lightning Lanes…it simply wasn’t crucial. I had already finished all the excessive profile ones, and all the things else would have quick waits by the point their return home windows rolled round.
I might’ve knocked out many different points of interest as a substitute with near-immediate return instances, however most of those have been both additionally walk-ons through the standby line (e.g. Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Little Mermaid, Dumbo) or issues I had no need to do (e.g. Barnstormer, Magic Carpets).
Doing most or all of these would’ve been doable had I been a bit extra aggressive and needed to “show” that I might do all the things through Genie+ at Magic Kingdom in a day. But it surely wasn’t crucial. Our precise look forward to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh through standby was below 5 minutes. It’s additionally good to do these points of interest collectively; it’s nonetheless a bit awkward for me to do Fantasyland darkish rides on my own throughout these exams.
With ~20 minutes left on the clock, we handed Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare and opted in opposition to doing it.
As an alternative, we raced over to Tomorrowland for one final ditch try at a clear PeopleMover video. That’s proper–even after using a half-dozen instances earlier within the day, we nonetheless had not had an uninterrupted experience.
Success!
We exited the TTA PeopleMover at 10:58 pm and booked it again to Fantasyland in a buzzer-beater try at queueing up for Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare earlier than Magic Kingdom closed at 11 pm. I’m undecided how lengthy that stroll usually takes, however the reply is certainly greater than 2 minutes.
Success!
We ended up within the final prepare of the night time, with an precise wait time of <10 minutes. That is solely in keeping with our Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare “buzzer-beater” experiences within the final 12 months. The precise waits is, at most, one-third of posted wait instances on the finish of the night time.
I can’t recall the final time we waited greater than quarter-hour for SDMT, which is why we by no means do it throughout Early Entry. It’s a lot simpler, constant, and extra nice at night time. (These followers hitting you with a blast of cool air are refreshing within the night, moderately than strictly crucial throughout the daytime hours.)
In the end, I ended up utilizing Genie+ to safe “solely” 7 Lightning Lane alternatives throughout today at Magic Kingdom, however did so with minimal effort and display time–and with out setting any alarms. One other 5 experience reservations would’ve been straightforward to e book, but in addition largely ineffective. It was solely a reasonably busy day at Magic Kingdom–not too dangerous apart from the climate–and the mixture of manageable crowds and lengthy hours actually made my job straightforward right here.
Based mostly on posted wait instances at my return instances, I supposedly saved ~6.5 hours ready in step with these experience reservations. That’s in all probability inflated by a minimum of 2 hours as a result of disparity between posted v. precise wait instances at Walt Disney World. Nonetheless, it’s a minimum of 3 hours saved ready in line on the conservative aspect. Even when I arrived for Early Entry or didn’t spend half my day in Tomorrowland, I’d’ve been hard-pressed to perform all of this with out utilizing Lightning Lanes.
Given all of that, Genie+ is definitely “value it” at Magic Kingdom when it comes to the time v. cash price calculus. That is the conclusion we’ve reached each single time when utilizing Genie+ at Magic Kingdom–and it’s the solely park at Walt Disney World with this constant consequence and ease of use. Shopping for Genie+ for each Disney’s Hollywood Studios and EPCOT could make sense, however there are superior options at each, and DHS definitely shouldn’t be a laid again expertise (if you wish to rating greater than 3 good Lightning Lanes).
With the opposite three parks, the argument may very well be made {that a} robust itinerary, arriving for rope drop (or for Early Entry) and staying till park closing would yield related or superior outcomes. I’d personally moderately make the most of savvy technique in these parks as a substitute of paying for Genie+. That’s not true with Magic Kingdom. The sheer variety of points of interest and availability of Lightning Lanes makes it the clear-cut winner. Save your cash elsewhere should you’re on the fence about Genie+, however positively purchase it at Magic Kingdom. Even accounting for the associated fee, Genie+ is best than FastPass+ at Magic Kingdom.
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Your Ideas
Ideas on my day in Magic Kingdom utilizing the Genie+ service on a reasonably crowded day in Summer time 2022? Are you planning on shopping for Genie+ or sticking to free standby traces? Do you agree or disagree with my evaluation that Genie+ is definitely worth the cash and generally is a laid again expertise at Magic Kingdom? Any questions we might help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!