Pros and Cons of Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lane

In October 2021, a few days after Disney Genie+ debuted, I evaluated the early pros and cons of the new system.

Now, we have more than 18 months of data. What has changed? Here are the pros and cons of Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lane.

Facts about the New System

First, we should acknowledge something about the new virtual queuing system. It’s here to stay.

Disney is earning a comical amount of revenue under this modernized form of FastPass.

During Easter Week, management charged more for Disney Genie+ than at any previous time.

Until November 2022, the service had never cost more than $22 per day plus tax.

Since then, Disney had raised the price to $29 per day plus tax during holiday periods like Thanksgiving and Christmas Week.

Similarly, Disney charged $29 per day on President’s Day 2023. What nobody expected was what happened in early April.

Disney suddenly increased Disney Genie+ to $35 per day plus tax. Folks, that’s a 59 percent price hike since November!

Surely, park guests would recoil at this cost inflation, right? Oh no. No, no, no.

Disney Genie+ sold out several times last week…and faster than ever!

Similarly, Walt Disney World sells individual Lightning Lanes for five attractions.

The prices for these Lightning Lanes ranged from $12 – $25 during Easter Week. Most of them sold out.

MickeyBlog collated the data, which showed that Disney sold 35 Lightning Lane allotments last week. By our count, 32 of them (91 percent) sold out.

The new virtual queue system has proven its value. Guests don’t even blink at the price and willingly pay whatever Disney says to skip the longer lines.

In the process, Disney has enticed tourists into spending significantly more per park visit.

Think about the matter like this. Let’s just use $150 as the average price of a daily ticket.

If people pay that but also add a Lightning Lane and Disney Genie+ purchase, their cost to visit the park has increased by as much as $50!

Yeah, Disney Genie+ ain’t going anywhere.

Pros of Disney Genie+

I’m a Disney Genie+ evangelist, which is sacrilege to some.

In fact, some of the people with whom we often vacation haaaate Disney Genie+ and disagree with us on the point.

So, their argument conveniently falls into the upcoming con category.

Meanwhile, I prefer Disney Genie+ to FastPass. You heard me. No, I haven’t recently experienced any blunt-force trauma.

The flaw with the previous FastPass system was that everyone used it. Disney gave away FastPasses to all park guests, which was wonderful…in theory.

In practice, FastPasses sold out faster because you were fighting literally everyone with a smartphone for them.

I mean, in the early days, you didn’t even need a phone. Disney used those kiosks where cast members would just hand people paper FastPasses.

Remember when people were selling those on eBay? That was a glaring problem for years!

Eventually, Disney switched to digital with FastPass+, but everybody could still book them.

Disney Genie+ works differently. Management indicates that half of the guests buy the digital service each day.

That’s a staggering number that easily bests Disney’s earlier forecasts. Still, it means that you’re only fighting half the crowd for Disney Genie+ reservations!

You’ve increased your chances of getting any single reservation by 50 percent! That’s worth $20-$30 a day to me.

Not everyone feels that way, though…

Cons of Disney Genie+

Let’s start with the obvious one. A family of four would spend a LOT of money buying Disney Genie+ each day of a weeklong stay.

Even if you spend just five days at the parks, you’ve increased your vacation budget by $400+.

I cannot state an exact price because the cost of Disney Genie+ varies by the date.

However, recent events suggest that Disney is, if anything, selling its product too cheaply. Yes, I know you hate me for saying that.

Unfortunately, when Disney sells out its product within three hours of the park opening, that’s an irrefutable indicator that customers would have paid more.

Nobody likes this thought, but it’s the reality in which we live.

Still, price isn’t the only consideration here. My dear friends dislike spending most of their Disney visit on their phones. And I can’t blame them.

When I buy Disney Genie+, I try to get the most out of my purchase.

For this reason, I’ve grown a bit obsessive in finding the next great booking.

I feel ten feet tall when I snag a reservation for Slinky Dog Dash. But that behavior comes at a price. I usually need several refreshes to book it.

Disney Genie+ reservations aren’t static. They change as customers book and cancel their own reservations.

So, I can keep looking in search of the perfect booking. In the process, I miss out on some of the magic that makes a theme park visit unforgettable.

There’s a trade-off in using Disney Genie+, and it’s a costly one at that.

Some of my favorite Disney moments have come when I was just people-watching. I do that MUCH less when I buy Disney Genie+.

Pros of Lightning Lane

I’ve referenced this before, but I think of it often. A dear friend planned a Disney park visit around the new attraction, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

This happened during the pandemic but before Disney introduced Lightning Lane.

His family spent several days at Walt Disney World, and all his children wanted was to experience Disney’s hottest new ride.

That never happened because they lost the virtual queue lottery for Rise of the Resistance.

Disney has since ended this method for the ride and introduced a standby queue.

Still, the same behavior occurs daily at Tron Lightcycle / Run and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.

When guests fail to snag a Boarding Group, they’re out of luck…unless they purchase a Lightning Lane. That’s the genius of the system.

Now, Disney empowers guests with the ability to ride the most crowded attractions at the parks.

Sure, you’ll pay for the privilege, but these attractions justify the expense.

Cons of Lightning Lane

But you ARE paying for the privilege.

I already discussed the high cost of using Disney Genie+ all day.

At least when you know what you’re doing with that service, you can experience several different attractions.

With Lightning Lane, you’re spending a lot of money for one attraction…and you’re at its mercy as well.

Not that long ago, we spent a frustrating afternoon at Disney’s Hollywood Studios trying to use or cancel a Lightning Lane.

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance broke that day, so much so that cast members couldn’t even access the system.

So, we couldn’t ride the attraction OR receive a refund. It was crazy, and we were frustrated.

The Disney employees knew we had a right to be mad. They just couldn’t do anything to help. It was nobody’s fault, just something that happened.

Similarly, Disney has warned guests that they must arrive at Tron Lightcycle / Run when they enter their Lightning Lane window.

No matter what you’re doing at Magic Kingdom, a larger park, you must stop and head to Tomorrowland.

For someone paying extra, you must jump through a ton of hoops. That aspect alone has caused me to skip some Lightning Lanes recently.

I’ll buy them if I’ve never ridden something before and want to ensure that I experience it. After that, I generally pass now.

So, I’ve become more of a Disney Genie+ YES, Lightning Lane NO person over the past year.

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