Ultimate Guide to Disney Genie+ at Magic Kingdom
I don’t want to say that Disney Genie+ lies. However, let’s acknowledge that it sometimes works at cross purposes to yours.
Disney wants to balance the throughput of its theme park attractions. You…want to ride all the good stuff.
So, we need to talk about Disney Genie Plus at Magic Kingdom and what the best choices are versus…the ones you might get.
Understanding Disney Genie+ at Magic Kingdom
Remember that Disney Genie is a virtual assistant that’s free to all theme park guests.
Disney Genie+ is a paid service with a cost that varies due to surge pricing. In general, you will likely pay $15 to $29 per day, per person plus tax at Magic Kingdom.
In exchange for that money, you receive Lightning Lane access to the following attractions:
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Festival of Fantasy Parade
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Haunted Mansion
- “it’s a small world”
- Jungle Cruise
- Mad Tea Party
- Meet Ariel at Her Grotto
- Meet Mickey at Town Square Theater
- Magic Carpets of Aladdin
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Princess Fairytale Hall
- Space Mountain
- The Barnstormer
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Tomorrowland Speedway
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid
Just by looking at this list, you can anticipate the problem when Disney Genie+ provides the recommendations for you.
Some of them won’t save you much time. Since you’re paying a fee, you want to maximize the value of your purchase.
So, you should look at the Disney Genie+ options in terms of tiers.
The Top Targets
I strongly suspect that most guests will learn to target three attractions, and with Splash Mountain now closed for refurbishment, Space Mountain may be a preferred alternative.
However, you probably don’t want to book this one first. Otherwise, you’ll have to wait on it if you schedule Lightning Lane for the afternoon.
So, you should prioritize the other two suggestions ahead of Space Mountain.
Next comes Jungle Cruise, which has hovered around 44 minutes for the past two years.
On most days, Lightning Lane access will get you on the boat in 10 minutes or less.
The final upper-tier option is Peter Pan’s Flight. Fans of the old FastPass system remember the difference between waiting in line here or skipping to the front.
Peter Pan’s Flight only lasts a couple of minutes. You don’t want to wait an hour for it, which can happen.
Lately, the attraction has averaged a 40-minute wait. Lightning Lane is a lifesaver on this one.
The Solid Plan Bs…
I’ve only slotted two attractions in this tier. They’re also rides that most people will choose among their Disney Genie+ daily selections.
Pirates of the Caribbean embodies an E-ticket attraction and has averaged a wait of 39 minutes in 2021.
However, this one’s wait is sometimes MUCH shorter. So, I wouldn’t quite slot it into that upper tier. Instead, it depends on the day.
When the park seems crowded, you’ll want to use Lightning Lane on Pirates of the Caribbean. On other dates, you should be able to tell that it’s a waste.
Conversely, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad has steadily maintained a wait of roughly 35 minutes this year.
This one’s substantially more static, meaning it lacks the wiggle room of Pirates of the Caribbean.
If you want to ride all of Magic Kingdom’s roller coasters, you should schedule a Lightning Lane reservation for it.
Okay, that’s five selections that border on set in stone. At a minimum, you’ll likely select three of those, and I suspect most people will average four.
So, that leaves us with three or four of the remaining options. Personal preference comes into play much more with the rest of these options.
We Like Them, But the Lines Are Usually Short
I can tell you right now that my wife and I will schedule a Lightning Lane reservation for Haunted Mansion every day we’re at Magic Kingdom.
If you love the attraction, you may consider doing the same. However, Haunted Mansion’s average wait is roughly 25 minutes.
That means you’ll notice it at 15 minutes fairly regularly. Is that worth using one of your valuable Lighting Lane choices? That’s up to you.
Amusingly, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin has required a longer wait since 2021. Of course, we’re only talking about 29 minutes vs. 25, but you get the point.
Fans of this video game-style attraction should probably schedule a Lightning Lane reservation.
If You Love Them, Why Not…
Okay, we’ve now reached the territory where these choices aren’t for everybody.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh generally requires a wait of 25 minutes or so. But, believe it or not, It’s a Small World is worse at 30 minutes.
While it’s currently closed, Mickey’s PhilharMagic also averages a 20-minute wait.
So, you’ll save some time but not a LOT of time by using Lightning Lane for these attractions.
Disney veterans can probably find ideal times to get in the standby queues for these options and wait a little anyway.
I Mean, You Can If You Want…
You should realize something by this point. Disney Genie+ lists 21 options at Magic Kingdom. But, unfortunately, most of them aren’t very useful.
To wit, the next-best options timewise are ones with 15-20 minute waits on average.
Monsters, Inc. Laugh Floor has been a little inflated lately since it wasn’t available for more than a year. It’s still a 10-minute wait as often as not.
As a reminder, this show kinda has to have that kind of wait since it seats guests between performances.
Only If Your Child Is Crying…
The other Lightning Lane options on Disney Genie+ border on comical.
Two of them are clones, The Magic Carpets of Aladdin and Dumbo the Flying Elephant.
These are low-thrill, kid-friendly attractions that shouldn’t require much of a wait anyway.
In 2021, Dumbo has averaged a 14-minute wait while Aladdin hovered around 20. So, pick the latter if you want to maximize your purchase.
The other three options hover around 12-13 minutes on average. They are The Barnstormer, Mad Tea Party, and Tomorrowland Speedway.
I mean, you can and probably will use a Disney Genie+ reservation on one of these at some point. It won’t be a good use of something you’re paying for, though.
My Cheat Sheet
One of our frequent vacation friends is traveling to Walt Disney World this week. They’ll read this.
So, they can think of it as a cheat sheet in lieu of a phone call (but feel free to call anyway!).
If we were joining them at Magic Kingdom, our top eight choices for Lightning Lane selections would be (in order of time frame booked):
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Haunted Mansion
- Jungle Cruise
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Space Mountain
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
They’ll move up Big Thunder Mountain Railroad because that’s their favorite. And that’s the beauty of the system.
Your choices should reflect what you want to get out of a Magic Kingdom visit. If you’re a Barnstormer fanatic, that should be one of your priorities.
There’s no wrong answer here! You’re still at Magic Kingdom, which is all you could want in life!