May 23, 2024 • 39 mins
If Genie Plus and Lightning Lanes seems overwhelming, it isn't just you! In this episode I break down the essentials you need to know about Genie Plus and Lightning Lanes to make sure you:
- Know if you really need Genie Plus
- How to use the program
- Strategies you can use without a lot of knowledge or research into the parks
Right now, our tools are just for Disneyland, but we hope to expand to other parks soon. Disney changes policies, prices, and shows often. Be sure to visit our website at Parkmagic.com or Disneyland's Website for more information.
Park Magic is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Walt Disney World, Disneyland, or Disney Enterprises, Inc. Walt Disney World, Disneyland, and Mickey Mouse are all registered trademarks of Disney Enterprises, Inc. Any use of third-party names or trademarks is for identification purposes only and does not imply, nor is it intended to imply, any affiliation with, endorsement from, or business relationship with any third party, including with Walt Disney World, Disneyland, or Disney Enterprises, Inc.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome to the Park Magic Podcast, your place for
insider tips for your nextDisneyland adventure.
Whether you're a first-timer orfirst-time-in-a-while visitor,
we're here to unwrap the secretsto creating and simplifying
your dream Disneyland vacation.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Welcome to this episode of the Park Magic
Podcast, and today we're goingto be talking about something
that is an amazing tool for yourtrip.
It is a little costly, but itcan definitely make or break
your trip, especially if youlove thrill rides.
Today we're going to bebreaking down Genie Plus for
Disneyland for normal people.
I have my friend Erin here, andErin is one of my friends that
is not a Disney fan and I knownormally I bring guests on that
(01:01):
have a lot of expertise in goingto Disneyland.
The reason that I have somebodywho's specifically not a Disney
fan on today is because she'snever used Genie Plus.
I don't even know if she's evereven used a FastPass way back
and before she doesn't go toDisneyland maybe once or twice.
And I'm having her on today tomake sure that when I'm
(01:21):
explaining this I don'taccidentally use Disney
vernacular or acronyms.
So a lot of Disney adults willsay DCA, we just expect that.
You know that we meanCalifornia Adventure.
So she's going to help makesure that I don't skip over
anything like that.
And then she's going to askquestions that maybe somebody
who's a non-Disney adult mightask where maybe you know, if you
(01:44):
don't go to Disney all the time, you might not know why this is
important.
And then she's also going tomake sure that it's really clear
when you can skip Genie Plusand the basics of how it works.
So she might stop me and repeatand ask a question.
(02:05):
Being on the show today isbecause the whole point of this
podcast in general is to makesure that people who don't
normally come to Disneyland allthe time can still have the
magic and benefits as if theywere coming with a Disneyland
expert.
There are some things in thisepisode that I'm going to repeat
a couple times, because GeniePlus is way more complicated
than it needs to be, and sothere's a couple things that I'm
going to repeat just becausethey're important and that might
(02:25):
help kind of solidify things inyour mind.
The other thing I want to saybefore I introduce Erin, is that
there are things about GeniePlus that you know, if you are
somebody who digs into thingsreally deeply and you want to
master it, or if you go toDisneyland all the time, that,
yes, there are strategies thatmight yield you a slightly
(02:46):
better result, but they requirea lot of knowledge about the
parks.
They require a lot of knowledgeabout how the program works,
and the goal today is to makesure that you can use GeniePlus,
that you get a great benefitout of the money that you would
spend on it, without feelinglike you need to study for three
or four hours on it, withoutfeeling like you need to study
(03:08):
for three or four hours.
So, erin, thank you so much forcoming on to make sure I don't
slide into some of thoseDisneyland adults things where
sometimes we forget what peoplewho don't normally come to the
parks might not already know.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, no problem, my pleasure.
I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Let me start out by what GeniePlus is.
A long time ago there used tobe a thing called Fast Passes
and they basically allow you towait outside the line, so you
basically are making areservation.
So GeniePlus is the new versionof what used to be called
access.
At Disneyland you get access toPhotoPass photographers, so
they have people in front of thecastles that will take pictures
(03:41):
of you.
There are some like fun, likephoto filter lenses for your
camera and some like audiohistory things that are
available.
But the big thing that peopleare buying when they buy Genie
Plus is they're buying a bundleof lightning lanes, and a
(04:01):
lightning lane is basicallythere's the regular standby lane
, so Disney calls the regularline a standby line and then
they call this paid line alightning lane, and a lightning
lane is basically a shorter andfaster moving line.
So if you have the standby lineand the lightning lane, when
(04:24):
they are letting people into theride they might let 10 or 20
people in the lightning lanethrough for every one person
that they let in the standbylane.
Even if they have the samenumber of people in line, the
lightning lane is going to gofaster.
So in general with a lightninglane you're going to wait
anywhere from 5 to 15, 20minutes on average.
(04:44):
Sometimes it will go longer,sometimes it might be 30 minutes
or so, but on average 5 or 15minutes.
So the way that I kind of liketo explain this is if you were
going to go get your nails done,you could either walk into the
nail salon and you could sit andthey would tell you how long
you could wait.
You might get right in, but youmight have to wait 30 minutes
because there might not be aspot available.
Or, but you might have to wait30 minutes because there might
(05:05):
not be a spot available.
Or you can call ahead and makea reservation and then you might
still have to wait a little bit, but you're not going to have
to wait the same amount of time.
That makes sense, right?
Yeah, that's perfectly clear,okay, so the thing about
Lightning Lanes is they're onlyavailable on select rides.
At Disney World almost all ofthe rides have Lightning L lanes
(05:25):
.
At Disneyland it's primarilythrill rides, so things like
roller coasters, some rides likeHaunted Mansion, small World,
things along those lines.
But because some of theseattractions are, so they've been
around so long, there isn'tphysically a place for that
lightning lane to happen, soit's only on select rides.
So you have to think about whatrides are the ones that you
want to ride, and it's only onselect rides.
So you have to think about whatrides are the ones that you
(05:46):
want to ride, and it's mostlythrill rides.
When you purchase Nanny Plus,you can, with any lightning lane
you can ride one time, so oneride per attraction.
So while you have access tolightning lanes for the day, you
can only ride Space Mountainone time.
Now there is an exception we'regoing to talk about at the very
end, but in general you canonly make a reservation for that
(06:08):
ride one time and you're goingto schedule a reservation window
.
So when you go in the app, whenyou get to the park, one
attraction at a time, you'regoing to schedule a return time.
So you'll say I want to rideSpace Mountain and they'll say,
great, the next available spotis from 10.05 to 11.05.
(06:28):
That make sense, yep, okay.
So the thing about Genie Plus is, if you don't know how to do it
and you aren't kind of watchingsome of the things that we're
going to be talking about, youmight not get as much of a value
out of it.
So sometimes I'll see peoplepost where they purchased Genie
Plus and they were only able tobook maybe two to five rides and
(06:49):
in fact Disney kind of saysthat's what you should expect
about two to five attractions.
But if you really know how thesystem works, you can get a lot
more.
In fact, most days I've usedGenie Plus, I can get anywhere
from 15 to sometimes even morethan 20 in a day.
Knowing how the system worksreally gives people a huge
advantage, which isn't fairright, because it feels like the
(07:11):
people that go to Disneylandall the time they don't need to
ride 20 attractions in a day.
The person that saved up theiryou know, for three years to go
to this trip should be able tohave access to that.
So what I want to do today ishelp get you as many lightning
lanes as possible in a daywithout feeling like you have to
study or have quizzes tounderstand.
(07:32):
But I did make a quiz to makesure that you have understand.
I'm going to include that inthe show notes, but basically
that's going to be what I'mgoing to walk you through today.
Thank you, okay.
So how GeniePlus helps you islike so let's take Space
Mountain, for example.
Space Mountain or Indiana Jonesmight have an average line
length of like 75 to maybe evenan hour and a half wait each day
(07:55):
.
It might take three or fourdays to get what you could do in
one or two days and it willsave you hours in line, which
gives you a chance to experiencemore things each day.
So it can really really helpand especially if you're
somebody who likes to go onthose rides and doesn't like
(08:17):
standing in line, it can reallymake your trip a lot more fun,
because GeniePlus is a paidservice.
First I want to talk about howyou buy GeniePlus, because
there's two ways you can buy it.
You can purchase GeniePlus withyour ticket and if you purchase
it with your ticket, you haveto buy it for the entire trip.
So if you're doing a three-dayticket, you can't buy it for
just one or two days.
You have to buy it for allthree days.
(08:38):
But you're locked in at thelowest price available.
So right now that's $30 per day.
So let's say you did athree-day ticket for four people
.
That would be $90 times four.
So that would be $360 for fourpeople.
When you purchase your ticketit will say two-day park hopper
with GeniePlus.
If it says with GeniePlus, thatmeans you purchased it with
(08:59):
your ticket.
If you didn't purchase withyour ticket or you're not sure,
if you want to use Genie Plus,then you can purchase it once
you get to the park, and this isdifferent than Disney World.
At Disney World you canpurchase it at like 7 in the
morning.
At Disneyland you have to waituntil you've actually scanned
your ticket and you walk throughthe turnstiles and you're
inside one of the parks.
(09:19):
Then you can purchase GeniePlus.
The nice thing is you can decidedepending on how busy that day
is or what you want toaccomplish.
You can purchase GeniePlus forjust that one day.
I, when I go, I usually willonly purchase GeniePlus for
maybe one or two of the threedays that we're there Because
you know, usually by that timewe've written everything that we
(09:40):
really want to write on and soit can.
You can save you money there Ifyou're going on days that are
really busy.
So think about any day whereeverybody is out of school, like
Christmas or Thanksgiving.
Then the price for GeniePluswill vary.
So it could be anywhere fromabout $40 is the highest I've
ever seen it, but it wouldn't beout of the question for that to
raise over time, so you mightbe paying more per day if you
(10:04):
wait until the park to purchaseit, but it does give you some
flexibility to see if you needit each day.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, any questions there?
No, not yet.
We talked about how Genie Plusis like a bundle of lightning.
There are two attractions atDisneyland one in Disneyland and
one in California Adventurethat are so popular they're not
(10:24):
even included in the bundle.
For those you can only buy themby themselves and they're kind
of expensive.
They can be anywhere from $15to $40 for just that one ride
and that's Rise of theResistance in Galaxy's Edge,
just a Star Wars ride, andRadiator Springs Racers, which
is in Cars Land with.
(10:45):
They're both amazing rides,they're both super fun and they
both always have really longwaits.
So the average wait time forthose is usually at least an
hour and a half.
I've seen both of them get upto three or four hours.
That's rare now, becausethey've both been out for a
while and they both break down alot.
That's rare now because they'veboth been out for a while and
(11:06):
they both break down a lot.
So if that, if one of thoserides, is something that you
really want to do.
You really want to try totarget doing that before, maybe
like one or two in the afternoon.
So with those rides you can buythose individually by
themselves.
All other lightning lanes thatare available you cannot buy
individually.
You have to buy the bundle ornone at all.
(11:29):
So there's the individualLightning Lanes, the Witcher 2
rides, rises of the Resistanceand Radiator Springs, racers.
Those are bought individually,where you buy the Lightning Lane
by itself.
All the rest of the LightningLanes are sold as a bundle but
are not available individually.
Now we're going to get into likedo you actually need Genie Plus
?
So I built a quiz that willtell you.
(11:50):
So it goes through a couple ofthings.
So if you go into the shownotes, I have a link in there.
That's like do you need GeniePlus quiz.
And what we did is we looked ata couple of things so how many
days that you're in the park.
So if you're in the park onlyone day, you might you know if
you really have a lot of ridesyou want to do.
Waiting in an hour, two hourride for maybe three or four
(12:12):
rides would significantly makeit.
So you would not be able toride as many rides at all.
We also looked at like when areyou going to visit?
So like there's sometimes weknow are going to be really,
really busy.
So Christmas, thanksgiving,spring break, summer is busier
but not as busy as those otherones.
(12:33):
And so we look at kind of whatwe anticipate these, the time
you're going to be visiting, howbusy it is.
The other thing we need to thinkabout is if you are traveling
with somebody that's under,especially under, 40 inches.
If you are the only adult, thenyou're not going to be able to
ride a lot of those rides.
So Disneyland has a rule wherekids have to be seven years old
to ride a ride by themselves andthey have to be 14 years old to
(12:56):
take somebody on a ride that'sunder the age of seven.
So let's say you're a singleparent and you are bringing your
six-year-old and yourtwo-year-old.
If your two-year-old is nottall enough or doesn't want to
ride some of those rollercoasters, if you have a
six-year-old, they would not beable to ride those rides by
themselves.
So you wouldn't be able to haveaccess to all of those thrill
(13:18):
rides where they don't meet theheight restrictions.
So but if you're going with twoadults.
Then you can use Genie Plus andthere's a special program
called the Rider Switch program.
It's also sometimes people callit the child swap program where
basically, let's say, it's me,my husband, my 13 year old and a
two year old, then I can waitwith my two year old and my
(13:42):
husband and my teenager can ride.
Then, once they get off, thenthere's a special pass that you
get when you check in for thisprogram.
Then I could ride with myteenager while my husband
watched the two-year-old.
We have to think about you knowhow many people, what kind of
(14:02):
rides you're going.
Are you going to be able toride the rides that have a
height restriction?
I don't know if that makessense at all.
Okay, yeah.
And then there's some ridesthat save you a lot of time, and
then there's some rides thatsave you, like, almost no time.
So sometimes, like there's,there's a couple of rides where
the lines are usually not thatlong.
So with the exception ofChristmas, small world doesn't
(14:23):
usually have a very long line.
So while there is a lightninglane for that, there are times
where you might end up waitingthe same exact amount of time as
if you had not used thelightning lane at all.
So we look at what rides youwant to ride.
So some of the rides that saveyou the most time, like, for
example, disneyland, would belike Space Mountain, indiana
(14:44):
Jones, big Thunder Mountain.
So we look at how popular weknow some of these rides are and
how long the lines are, to kindof anticipate that to you, and
then we kind of say, like it isavoiding lines that most
important to you.
Just do you just want to seethe food or do you want to see
shows?
And we kind of calculate ascore, kind of like what Harry
Potter house are to tell youwhether or not you need
(15:04):
lightning wings or whether ornot you think it would benefit
to you.
But in general you'll get themost out of Genie Plus if you're
planning on arriving early tothe park.
So if you're planning on notgetting to Disneyland until like
after 11 or noon each day, thenGenie Plus might be more
difficult for you.
You won't be able to get asmany passes.
(15:26):
And then if you are going to goduring a really quiet time of
year where maybe the lines won'tbe as long there's not very
many times like that anymore.
But and then the other thing is, you know, do you want to ride
the rides that Genie Plus haslike feelings for?
And are the people in yourgroup tall enough to ride the
rides that youie Plus hasLightning Lanes for?
And are the people in yourgroup tall enough to ride the
(15:46):
rides that you'll get the bestbang for your buck?
If that makes sense, yeah, sothe way that we get the most
Lightning Lanes is trying to getto the park as soon as the park
opens and making sure thatevery time you're eligible to
book a new ride, you book thatride as soon as possible, even
if that means, like, bookingthem from your hotel room.
Like, let's say, I'm a big fanof the Disney nap.
(16:08):
If you go to take that Disneynap, then even while you're at
your hotel, continuing to bookyour next lightning lanes to
make sure that you are able tobook as many as possible.
And then what we're going to dois we're going to book the
rides with the longest waits andthe ones that book the farthest
out first.
So remember how I said, smallWorld doesn't normally have a
long line.
(16:28):
If the park opens at eighto'clock, you get into the park
right at eight o'clock and youbook your first lightning lane
and you'll see, space Mountainand Small World will both have a
return time of like 9.05 or9.10 or 9.30.
They'll both be the same butthe closer you get to the middle
or the afternoon of the day.
So if we were to say at likeone o'clock and you were to look
(16:51):
, small world might have areturn time of 1.45, or Space
Mountain might have the closestreturn time might be 11.45 that
night, which is really late,right, and you might not want to
stay in the park that late.
So what we want to do is wewant to book the rides that end
up, kind of like booking out thefarthest.
(17:12):
We want to book them early soyou don't feel like you're
having to be stuck at the park.
But also sometimes they run out.
So sometimes you know once theyhit all the lightning lanes
there's a finite amount per day,so sometimes you can catch one
that cancels.
But if you want, if, like youknow that space mountain is a
ride you really want to ride, wewant to book those first so you
(17:34):
don't end up missing out.
Yeah, yeah, with genie plus,remember it's a shorter, faster
moving line.
It's only available on selectrides, mostly thrill rides.
You get one ride per attraction, you'll get a one hour reserve
time.
That's what you're going tokind of.
Reserve is a one hourreservation window and you can
write any time within that onehour window.
(17:55):
In fact, they give you like afive minute grace time before
and about 10 or 15 minutesafterwards, but you can only
schedule one ride at a time andthen you have to wait till your
next eligibility and then youwant to book that ride as soon
as you're eligible.
One thing to remember isbecause we talked about that,
(18:16):
space Mountain might not beavailable till much later.
The order that you book therides in, so you might book
Space Mountain first, the orderthat you book the rides in, so
you might book Space Mountainfirst and then Indiana Jones
second, or vice versa.
But you actually might end upriding them in a very different
order because of when you getthat reservation window.
When you purchase Genie Plusthis is my recommendation when
(18:38):
you get into the park, as soonas you scan into the park and
you walk through the turnstiles,you're going to book your first
Lightning Lane and you're goingto book your first lightning
lane and then you're going tobook as soon as eligible.
So with lightning lanes.
This is where it gets a littlecomplicated.
You book your first one andthen you're eligible to book
your next lightning lane afteryou ride that first ride or
(18:59):
after two hours, whicheverhappens first.
If you were to book a ride thatis more than two hours away,
your reservation hour is morethan two hours away.
You don't have to wait untilthat reservation window to book
your next lightning lane.
You'd be able to book after twohours.
It can be a little complicatedand overwhelming for people to
(19:19):
try to figure out when this is,so I'm going to say don't worry
about that as much, just knowthat it's two hours or when you
book your, or when you scan inand ride your for your your
lightning lane, whichever comesfirst.
But the best way to do this isto, just as you book, it will
tell you when you're eligible tobook your next attraction and
(19:41):
then every time you use a light,you use your ticket to scan in
at a lightning lane attraction.
Then what you're going to do isyou're just going to check the
app to see when you're eligibleto book.
What you might even want to dois have somebody else kind of
help.
You manage this by settingalarms to kind of remind you to
book if it's going to be morethan two hours away.
(20:01):
The reason we want to make surewe get we're always booking is
we want to make sure that we'regetting through, especially
those rides and getting thoserides scheduled that are that do
sell out, because they can go.
It might there might not beavailability later, and there we
have a list that we updateweekly.
(20:23):
So if you go to parkmagiccomforward slash LL, so
parkmagiccom forward slash LL,we have a list of what order to
book those lightning links in.
So you don't have to do theresearch Now.
You can, if you want to, youcan look at the Disney app and
try to determine that on yourown, but you could just go down
(20:44):
the list.
We actually even have a linkthat on your phone.
It will take you directly intothe Disney app for you to be
able to book that Lightning Lane.
The reason we update it weeklyis sometimes things change
seasonally.
So, for example, small Worlddoesn't have a very long line
most of the year but when theyhave their Christmas decorations
up the lines can be over anhour.
(21:06):
So we will change the orderdepending on what we're seeing
in the data as far as what ridesare booking out the furthest
out, if that makes sense.
So, remembering that some GeniePlus Lightning Leans are going
to save you more time thanothers, we want to prioritize
those ones that have a longerthan average wait time, because
they can end up being much laterin the evening or completely
(21:27):
sell out, going down the orderon our website, skipping any
rides that you don't want to do.
And in that list, if you clickon the ride name, it will take
you to a page that tells youmore about that ride and even
has a ride through video, so youcan see if you've got somebody
that's nervous about that ride,to kind of give you an idea of
whether it's something that youand your family are up to.
(21:48):
And then we're going to book assoon as you're eligible, used to
be before you know.
Last year people would saydon't book your lightning lane
when you first get into the parkbecause it's a waste, because
you know if you ride, use alightning lane at 9am, the lines
are really short for all therides.
So you should be not usinglightning lanes then, but taking
(22:08):
advantage of the short lines ingeneral that are in the park
the first couple hours it opens.
So you need a change toGeniePlus and now you can
reschedule your lightning laneto later in the day.
So what I'm going to recommendis that you book your lightning
lane as soon as you enter thepark and then also buy.
(22:28):
If you want to buy one of thoseindividual lightning lanes,
you're going to buy that also atthe beginning of the day, so
you can make sure if that ridegoes down you're still able to
ride it later in the day.
If something happens and you'renot able to ride those specific
rides, they will refund.
If you go to the show notes,we'll also have some
instructions on how to book aLightning Lean and how to
purchase Genie Plus.
(22:48):
That are in the show notes soyou know how to do that.
Specifically, if a ride saysit's currently not available to
purchase, to book a LightningLean, it might mean that it has
sold out for the day, butsometimes it also just means
that the ride is down.
So check back and it can beworth it to refresh the page,
(23:10):
even if it's sold out.
Sometimes people might cancel alightning lane and then there
might be more availability soyou can check back.
People kind of call thisplaying like the Disney slot
machine, where you're kind ofrefreshing and refreshing,
hoping that you get a jackpot.
But it does work sometimes.
So all right.
So I want to summarize kind ofexactly again what we're going
(23:33):
to do when you go into the parkwith this kind of Park Magic
Genie Plus method.
So remember, with Genie Plusyou're eligible to book when you
scan into the park and then youcan book your next lightning
lane when you go to check in toride that first ride or after
two hours.
But we're not going to worryabout that, we're just going to
check the app and see when itsays I'm next able to book and
(23:56):
if it's more than two hours away, then we're going to set an
alarm and if it's not, thenwe're going to recheck that app
as soon as we scan in to see ifwe're eligible.
You can ride one attraction perday Again, we have an exception
that we're going to talk aboutand then you have that one hour
(24:17):
reservation.
You have to come in during thatone hour reservation.
You come before or after.
They most likely will not letyou use the Lightning Link for
that attraction and you canreschedule without changing when
you're eligible to book yournext Lightning Lane.
So as you enter the park,you're going to purchase Genie
Plus if you haven't already andyour individual Lightning Lanes
and you're going to book yourfirst Lightning Lane, starting
(24:38):
at the top of the list at thatparkmagiccom forward slash LL,
skipping any ones that you don'twant to do.
And then, as you book eachlightning lane, you're going to
set an alarm for when you'reeligible and you're going to
just check the app to see whenyou're eligible.
When you go to an attraction youuse your lightning lane,
there'll be a special lightninglane sign and under that sign
(25:00):
there'll be cast members andthere'll be little stations
where you either scan your magicband or you scan your ticket
and that's how they know thatyou are allowed to be in that
line.
So anytime you, after you scanyour ticket or you use your
magic band.
You're just going to go intothe app and check and see if
you're eligible to book.
If not, make sure that you havean alarm set for when you are
(25:21):
eligible next.
So as soon as you're eligible,you can book your next ride.
If you can book that nextattraction while you're in line,
that's even a bonus.
There are some rides, likeHaunted Mansion and so on, that
are in these massive crazybuildings and so you might not
have cell service.
Just book as soon as you getoff the ride and you're going to
(25:42):
kind of just keep repeatingthat, working down the list, and
even continue to do that, evenif you leave the park for a nap
and then while you're waitingbetween your Genie Plus lines
that's when you're going to ridethe other attractions, take
advantage of the shows, theparades, eat snacks there's so
(26:02):
many snacks and you're justgoing to kind of rinse and
repeat.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, any questions there?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Yeah, I did have a question Is the list that you're
proposing and then I know youall switch according to you know
, kind of seasonal things, isthat do you take into
consideration, like where it'slocated in the park, like you
know, like if it's space I don'tknow Again, I spent years since
(26:32):
I've been but like if one isone on one side of the park and
one is on the other side of thepark, do you ever say, hey, this
would the where it's locatedwould impact the order.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
We don't consider where it is compared to your
other ones.
And the reason for that is isbecause, let's say, you're
getting ready to book alightning lane and you're in
Tomorrowland.
If you go to book SpaceMountain, right, then it might
say that you need to come backat 4 pm, and that changes
dramatically depending on howbusy the day is.
(27:04):
So what you're going to do isyou're going to start working
your way down.
And so let's say you bookIndiana Jones and it says, all
right, come back at 11.
And you're standing inTomorrowland.
You might say, all right, well,we're in Tomorrowland.
Let's you know, buzz Lightyearand Astro Orbit, these two rides
right here, have a short waittime.
(27:25):
We're going to do these two andthen we'll head over to Indiana
Jones and then we'll get asnack.
As you check in, you scan yourticket to Indiana Jones.
You know, as you're kind ofwalking, or right after you scan
in line or right after you getafter Indiana Jones, you're
going to book your next one.
And so let's say it says allright, three o'clock, you're
(27:46):
going to do Big Thunder.
You're like, oh shoot, well,that's a little further away.
You know that's later.
And we're right, I can see itfrom here.
It's too bad, that's all right.
What we'll do is we're going togo do the Davy Crockett canoes
and we're going to ride thetrain and do other things in the
area.
Shows that are in the area,shows that are in the area.
Plan your travel around theparks, around your Genie Plus.
(28:07):
It was a lot simpler back inthe day when you would say, okay
, are we going left or right?
And you would just kind of likework your way around the park.
Genie Plus makes that morecomplicated because it has you
crisscross and there are peoplewho hate crisscrossing.
And if you really hatecrisscrossing and you're okay,
missing kind of like those topthree ones that are on the list,
it's okay to to rearrangethings based off of where things
(28:30):
are in the park, but it it's alittle bit more difficult if you
don't know the park well okay,good.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
And then my other question was what?
I mean?
That's just a crazyhypothetical situation, but
let's say, let's say you, canyou like you book your space
mountain lightning pass, butthen you get there and there's
like hardly any line and youknow you want to write it again
later.
(28:59):
Is there a way to like cancelyour lightning pass and then
just use the regular standbyline?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Yes, you can cancel the lightning lane, okay.
Okay, so you can cancel theLightning Lane as long as the
reservation time has not ended.
You can also move it to later.
Now I'm a Space Mountain superfan, right?
So I think one day I rode itlike 13 times on one day.
So if it was me and somebodywould say, well, that would
(29:27):
never happen.
It does actually happen becauseif, let's say, space Mountain
goes down, everybody, if it'sbeen down for a long time,
people might have gotten out ofline.
So there are occasions wherethe line will for even a very
popular attraction mightsuddenly be short during the
middle of the day.
So you get there and you seethat you know, post a time is
like 10 minutes.
Well, I don't want to waste areally good lightning lane on
(29:48):
this.
So you could do two things.
You could either rescheduleyour lightning lane to later in
the day things.
You could either rescheduleyour lightning lane to later in
the day or you could get in therig as long as you had enough
time on, like your window.
You could get in the regularline, ride the ride and then
come back and then use yourlightning lane again.
For most normal people theydon't want to ride roller
(30:10):
coaster back to back like that.
So probably rescheduling, it'sonly people like me that are
like super coaster fans thatwould probably do the other
option.
So sometimes you know we talkedabout there was an exception
where you maybe you might beable to ride a ride more than
once, and that's it if a ridegoes down during your window.
So let's say you're going toride Indiana Jones and your
(30:31):
window is from 1 0, 5 to 2 0, 5.
And then the ride is down from12 55 to 1 30.
So you would get on your app,disney app, it will send you an
alert saying a change has beenmade to your lightning beam and
your Indiana Jones lightning.
It will kind of look like itdisappeared.
(30:53):
But now you'll have this weirdone with like a bunch of Mickey
balloons and it'll saymulti-pass experience.
And it might seem like this isbad news but it's actually great
news.
So if that happens you have twochoices you can use now.
Use that multi-experience passto ride that ride that you
originally booked, anytime inthe day, once that ride comes
(31:16):
back online, so you have a lotof freedom to kind of change
your schedule right.
Or you can rebook a newLightning Lane for Indiana Jones
and you can use that LightningLane on something else.
And the really cool thing isthat if you click in that pass
(31:37):
it will tell you what rides youcan use it on.
So let's say, buzz Lightyeargoes down.
It doesn't give you access toride something that's really
popular like Space Mountain orIndiana Jones.
It will kind of keep you kindof in the same tier of rides.
But there are some rides thatdon't normally have a lightning
lean that you can use thatmulti-experience pass on.
(32:00):
So, for example, let's say yourkid loves Finding Nemo and it's
a hot summer day and you wantto do the Finding Nemo shows but
it's been a 30, 40 minute waitall day and that line is in the
sun, it is hot.
So you're like man, I reallywant to do that ride.
And then your Indiana Jonesgoes down and you click and it
(32:23):
says one of the rides that areeligible are the Finding Nemo
subs.
So you can go to the FindingNemo subs, which does not
normally have a lightning lane,and they'll be like are you sure
you want to use this here?
Yes, I want to use this here.
And so you would basically wait, um, in kind of like the like,
kind of like the handicapaccessible line, um for that
(32:43):
ride, and so you would get tokind of bypass the line for that
attraction, even though itdoesn't normally have a light.
And we'll put a video in, uh,on the show notes on how to use
those multi-experience passes aswell.
So I just kind of want to finishoff, because there's so one of
the things that makes LightningLeagues confusing is, you know,
disney has Disney World andDisneyland and they have Genie
(33:06):
Plus in both parks but they workcompletely differently.
I mean, a lot of thefundamentals are the same but
there's some really really bigdifferences that completely
change the strategy.
So if you're following a lot oflike Walt Disney World Disney
influencers on how to use GeniePlus, they'll say you want to
try to focus on what they callstacking, and that means like
(33:28):
trying to arrange it so kind oflike what you said, with like
not having to crisscross aroundthe park, like what you said
with like they're not having tocrisscross around the park.
So at Disney World it's kind ofa badge of honor to have, you
know, like Space Mountain and abunch of other rides are all
right next to each other andhave all the lightning lanes so
you can go one after another,boom, boom, boom, boom.
That doesn't really happen atDisney World as often and if it
is, it's on a really busy dayand the reason is is in Florida
(33:56):
you can book your firstlightning lane before you even
get to the park.
So some of those lightninglanes will have really late
return times before the parkeven opens.
With Disneyland, sinceeverybody can not nobody can
book their first lightning laneuntil they get to the parks, it
doesn't really you don't have toworry about things selling out
the first hour.
It just it doesn't happen, evenon the busiest days, as long as
(34:16):
you have teeny plans.
The other strategy people talkabout is quickest return.
So people are like I reallywant to get as many lightning
leans as possible.
Then the other strategy is tosay kind of doing the opposite
of what I'm recommending andthat's saying what has got the
closest return time, the ridethat I can ride on right now,
and we're going to use that, andthat is a great way if you want
(34:38):
to try to get on a lot of ridesat once.
However, what usually happensis unless you kind of started
the ones that we're startingwith and kind of work your way
down.
That will happen is you'll getto the point where you get to
the end of the day and the threerides that are left, that have
always had return times that are, you know, a couple of hours
(34:59):
away, are the ones that have thelongest lines, like Indiana
Jones, space Mountain, soarin'Over California, toy Story,
mania.
So the ones that have that wegive you like the best decrease
in your overall wait time arethe ones that you're going to
end up missing out on, if thatmakes sense.
So you know, if you're like Idon't really care, like I don't,
(35:19):
I'm not a coaster, I'm justriding whatever I can ride, I
just want to ride a bunch ofrides, I don't care what rides
they are, then quickest returnstotally valid strategy.
It just, you know, sometimes itcatches people off guard and
they feel really bummed outbecause then now they have to
wait in line for Space Mountainand it's a long line.
So I know this was kind of aline you're probably like why
did I have you on?
It's?
Just that it's, it's reallycomplicated, like it seems like
(35:43):
it should just be able to, likeyou should just be able to book
and ride.
So I wanted to make sure thatit made sense.
I mean, do you think like youlike knowing now, you feel like
you could figure out things asyou go and have a good idea of
why it's important how theprogram works?
Speaker 3 (36:00):
yeah, I mean, yes, I mean it was interesting.
You kind of had me.
I was almost thrown off at thebeginning because you said
something like it used to becalled or something about it
used to have fast passes, and Iwas like they don't have those
anymore because that's my era,that's the last time I went to
Disney was when, I think, we hadlike a flip phone, cell phone.
(36:24):
But that's what I remember,because I remember I had to take
it away from my daughter, um,but then, but you know, racing
over there and getting the fastpass and then going and doing
something in that particulararea and then going back for the
fast pass time, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
So this is like a whole, it's like leveled up so
it is yeah, and yeah, so it'sbecause it's kind of the same
system, except now you're doingit on the app, um, but because
we're doing it, it it's gotten,you know, and I think it like
started out with a simple idea,but then, you know, they just
(37:02):
keep adding layers of complexityon it, which is fine for people
who go all the time, but itbecomes really overwhelming for
people who are like I just wantto go on vacation yeah, I can
definitely see why it would getcomplicated, and especially if
you're trying to plan this outwith you know, kids and being
(37:22):
able to get the most.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
I mean you're already paying for the ticket entry but
then being able to get the mostout of your stay but most out
of your, you know, your GeniePlus, if you're getting it.
I think this is really helpfuland if it wasn't?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
so expensive, it wouldn't be a big deal.
But when you're paying 400 orsomething for this, you know,
over a course of four days thenyou know it.
You really want to make sureyou're getting a good value on
it.
You know so.
But it can definitely.
It makes the day so much morefun and for me, even if I have
to crisscross or across the parka little bit, I would rather,
(37:57):
you know, the parks are smallenough at Disneyland that I
would rather go from one end ofthe park to another versus
standing in an hour line.
You know, because they're bothstanding, but you know one at
least walking.
I get to watch people andcharacters and you know.
And the other thing is you caneat snacks in line.
You just can't take them on theride.
(38:19):
So sometimes if I have to be ina long standby line, what we'll
do is we'll kind of like getsome like sneakity snacks and
we'll eat the sneakity snacks.
And on our blog we even havelike a couple of like games you
can play like in line.
But in general, like, I kind oflike to avoid those lines as
much as possible all right.
Well, this has been anotherepisode of the park magic
podcast.
We hope that you have a greattime.
(38:41):
If you have questions that werenot answered about chini plus,
I would love to hear them,because it is my mission to help
make it so that people can havethese wonderful vacations, just
like us disney adults do.
So feel free to email us orreach out to us.
Go visit our website atparkmagiccom.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Park
Magic Podcast.
For more tips and planningtools designed to help simplify
your Disneyland adventure, visitparkmagiccom.
If you enjoyed today's episodeand want to hear more tips, be
sure to subscribe to the ParkMagic Podcast, and don't forget
to leave us a review.
Your feedback helps us spreadthe magic even further.
Leaving a review could alsohelp you.
(39:19):
Each month, we will beselecting one reviewer to win a
one-hour planning session withRobin.
Winners will be announced atthe end of the first episode of
every month.
Thanks for tuning in andremember that we are here to
help you have a less stressfuland more magical trip to
Disneyland.
Welcome to the Park Magic Podcast, your place for
insider tips for your nextDisneyland adventure.
Whether you're a first-timer orfirst-time-in-a-while visitor,
we're here to unwrap the secretsto creating and simplifying
your dream Disneyland vacation.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Welcome to this episode of the Park Magic
Podcast, and today we're goingto be talking about something
that is an amazing tool for yourtrip.
It is a little costly, but itcan definitely make or break
your trip, especially if youlove thrill rides.
Today we're going to bebreaking down Genie Plus for
Disneyland for normal people.
I have my friend Erin here, andErin is one of my friends that
is not a Disney fan and I knownormally I bring guests on that
(01:01):
have a lot of expertise in goingto Disneyland.
The reason that I have somebodywho's specifically not a Disney
fan on today is because she'snever used Genie Plus.
I don't even know if she's evereven used a FastPass way back
and before she doesn't go toDisneyland maybe once or twice.
And I'm having her on today tomake sure that when I'm
(01:21):
explaining this I don'taccidentally use Disney
vernacular or acronyms.
So a lot of Disney adults willsay DCA, we just expect that.
You know that we meanCalifornia Adventure.
So she's going to help makesure that I don't skip over
anything like that.
And then she's going to askquestions that maybe somebody
who's a non-Disney adult mightask where maybe you know, if you
(01:44):
don't go to Disney all the time, you might not know why this is
important.
And then she's also going tomake sure that it's really clear
when you can skip Genie Plusand the basics of how it works.
So she might stop me and repeatand ask a question.
(02:05):
Being on the show today isbecause the whole point of this
podcast in general is to makesure that people who don't
normally come to Disneyland allthe time can still have the
magic and benefits as if theywere coming with a Disneyland
expert.
There are some things in thisepisode that I'm going to repeat
a couple times, because GeniePlus is way more complicated
than it needs to be, and sothere's a couple things that I'm
going to repeat just becausethey're important and that might
(02:25):
help kind of solidify things inyour mind.
The other thing I want to saybefore I introduce Erin, is that
there are things about GeniePlus that you know, if you are
somebody who digs into thingsreally deeply and you want to
master it, or if you go toDisneyland all the time, that,
yes, there are strategies thatmight yield you a slightly
(02:46):
better result, but they requirea lot of knowledge about the
parks.
They require a lot of knowledgeabout how the program works,
and the goal today is to makesure that you can use GeniePlus,
that you get a great benefitout of the money that you would
spend on it, without feelinglike you need to study for three
or four hours on it, withoutfeeling like you need to study
(03:08):
for three or four hours.
So, erin, thank you so much forcoming on to make sure I don't
slide into some of thoseDisneyland adults things where
sometimes we forget what peoplewho don't normally come to the
parks might not already know.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
Yeah, no problem, my pleasure.
I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
Let me start out by what GeniePlus is.
A long time ago there used tobe a thing called Fast Passes
and they basically allow you towait outside the line, so you
basically are making areservation.
So GeniePlus is the new versionof what used to be called
access.
At Disneyland you get access toPhotoPass photographers, so
they have people in front of thecastles that will take pictures
(03:41):
of you.
There are some like fun, likephoto filter lenses for your
camera and some like audiohistory things that are
available.
But the big thing that peopleare buying when they buy Genie
Plus is they're buying a bundleof lightning lanes, and a
(04:01):
lightning lane is basicallythere's the regular standby lane
, so Disney calls the regularline a standby line and then
they call this paid line alightning lane, and a lightning
lane is basically a shorter andfaster moving line.
So if you have the standby lineand the lightning lane, when
(04:24):
they are letting people into theride they might let 10 or 20
people in the lightning lanethrough for every one person
that they let in the standbylane.
Even if they have the samenumber of people in line, the
lightning lane is going to gofaster.
So in general with a lightninglane you're going to wait
anywhere from 5 to 15, 20minutes on average.
(04:44):
Sometimes it will go longer,sometimes it might be 30 minutes
or so, but on average 5 or 15minutes.
So the way that I kind of liketo explain this is if you were
going to go get your nails done,you could either walk into the
nail salon and you could sit andthey would tell you how long
you could wait.
You might get right in, but youmight have to wait 30 minutes
because there might not be aspot available.
Or, but you might have to wait30 minutes because there might
(05:05):
not be a spot available.
Or you can call ahead and makea reservation and then you might
still have to wait a little bit, but you're not going to have
to wait the same amount of time.
That makes sense, right?
Yeah, that's perfectly clear,okay, so the thing about
Lightning Lanes is they're onlyavailable on select rides.
At Disney World almost all ofthe rides have Lightning L lanes
(05:25):
.
At Disneyland it's primarilythrill rides, so things like
roller coasters, some rides likeHaunted Mansion, small World,
things along those lines.
But because some of theseattractions are, so they've been
around so long, there isn'tphysically a place for that
lightning lane to happen, soit's only on select rides.
So you have to think about whatrides are the ones that you
want to ride, and it's only onselect rides.
So you have to think about whatrides are the ones that you
(05:46):
want to ride, and it's mostlythrill rides.
When you purchase Nanny Plus,you can, with any lightning lane
you can ride one time, so oneride per attraction.
So while you have access tolightning lanes for the day, you
can only ride Space Mountainone time.
Now there is an exception we'regoing to talk about at the very
end, but in general you canonly make a reservation for that
(06:08):
ride one time and you're goingto schedule a reservation window
.
So when you go in the app, whenyou get to the park, one
attraction at a time, you'regoing to schedule a return time.
So you'll say I want to rideSpace Mountain and they'll say,
great, the next available spotis from 10.05 to 11.05.
(06:28):
That make sense, yep, okay.
So the thing about Genie Plus is, if you don't know how to do it
and you aren't kind of watchingsome of the things that we're
going to be talking about, youmight not get as much of a value
out of it.
So sometimes I'll see peoplepost where they purchased Genie
Plus and they were only able tobook maybe two to five rides and
(06:49):
in fact Disney kind of saysthat's what you should expect
about two to five attractions.
But if you really know how thesystem works, you can get a lot
more.
In fact, most days I've usedGenie Plus, I can get anywhere
from 15 to sometimes even morethan 20 in a day.
Knowing how the system worksreally gives people a huge
advantage, which isn't fairright, because it feels like the
(07:11):
people that go to Disneylandall the time they don't need to
ride 20 attractions in a day.
The person that saved up theiryou know, for three years to go
to this trip should be able tohave access to that.
So what I want to do today ishelp get you as many lightning
lanes as possible in a daywithout feeling like you have to
study or have quizzes tounderstand.
(07:32):
But I did make a quiz to makesure that you have understand.
I'm going to include that inthe show notes, but basically
that's going to be what I'mgoing to walk you through today.
Thank you, okay.
So how GeniePlus helps you islike so let's take Space
Mountain, for example.
Space Mountain or Indiana Jonesmight have an average line
length of like 75 to maybe evenan hour and a half wait each day
(07:55):
.
It might take three or fourdays to get what you could do in
one or two days and it willsave you hours in line, which
gives you a chance to experiencemore things each day.
So it can really really helpand especially if you're
somebody who likes to go onthose rides and doesn't like
(08:17):
standing in line, it can reallymake your trip a lot more fun,
because GeniePlus is a paidservice.
First I want to talk about howyou buy GeniePlus, because
there's two ways you can buy it.
You can purchase GeniePlus withyour ticket and if you purchase
it with your ticket, you haveto buy it for the entire trip.
So if you're doing a three-dayticket, you can't buy it for
just one or two days.
You have to buy it for allthree days.
(08:38):
But you're locked in at thelowest price available.
So right now that's $30 per day.
So let's say you did athree-day ticket for four people
.
That would be $90 times four.
So that would be $360 for fourpeople.
When you purchase your ticketit will say two-day park hopper
with GeniePlus.
If it says with GeniePlus, thatmeans you purchased it with
(08:59):
your ticket.
If you didn't purchase withyour ticket or you're not sure,
if you want to use Genie Plus,then you can purchase it once
you get to the park, and this isdifferent than Disney World.
At Disney World you canpurchase it at like 7 in the
morning.
At Disneyland you have to waituntil you've actually scanned
your ticket and you walk throughthe turnstiles and you're
inside one of the parks.
(09:19):
Then you can purchase GeniePlus.
The nice thing is you can decidedepending on how busy that day
is or what you want toaccomplish.
You can purchase GeniePlus forjust that one day.
I, when I go, I usually willonly purchase GeniePlus for
maybe one or two of the threedays that we're there Because
you know, usually by that timewe've written everything that we
(09:40):
really want to write on and soit can.
You can save you money there Ifyou're going on days that are
really busy.
So think about any day whereeverybody is out of school, like
Christmas or Thanksgiving.
Then the price for GeniePluswill vary.
So it could be anywhere fromabout $40 is the highest I've
ever seen it, but it wouldn't beout of the question for that to
raise over time, so you mightbe paying more per day if you
(10:04):
wait until the park to purchaseit, but it does give you some
flexibility to see if you needit each day.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, any questions there?
No, not yet.
We talked about how Genie Plusis like a bundle of lightning.
There are two attractions atDisneyland one in Disneyland and
one in California Adventurethat are so popular they're not
(10:24):
even included in the bundle.
For those you can only buy themby themselves and they're kind
of expensive.
They can be anywhere from $15to $40 for just that one ride
and that's Rise of theResistance in Galaxy's Edge,
just a Star Wars ride, andRadiator Springs Racers, which
is in Cars Land with.
(10:45):
They're both amazing rides,they're both super fun and they
both always have really longwaits.
So the average wait time forthose is usually at least an
hour and a half.
I've seen both of them get upto three or four hours.
That's rare now, becausethey've both been out for a
while and they both break down alot.
That's rare now because they'veboth been out for a while and
(11:06):
they both break down a lot.
So if that, if one of thoserides, is something that you
really want to do.
You really want to try totarget doing that before, maybe
like one or two in the afternoon.
So with those rides you can buythose individually by
themselves.
All other lightning lanes thatare available you cannot buy
individually.
You have to buy the bundle ornone at all.
(11:29):
So there's the individualLightning Lanes, the Witcher 2
rides, rises of the Resistanceand Radiator Springs, racers.
Those are bought individually,where you buy the Lightning Lane
by itself.
All the rest of the LightningLanes are sold as a bundle but
are not available individually.
Now we're going to get into likedo you actually need Genie Plus
?
So I built a quiz that willtell you.
(11:50):
So it goes through a couple ofthings.
So if you go into the shownotes, I have a link in there.
That's like do you need GeniePlus quiz.
And what we did is we looked ata couple of things so how many
days that you're in the park.
So if you're in the park onlyone day, you might you know if
you really have a lot of ridesyou want to do.
Waiting in an hour, two hourride for maybe three or four
(12:12):
rides would significantly makeit.
So you would not be able toride as many rides at all.
We also looked at like when areyou going to visit?
So like there's sometimes weknow are going to be really,
really busy.
So Christmas, thanksgiving,spring break, summer is busier
but not as busy as those otherones.
(12:33):
And so we look at kind of whatwe anticipate these, the time
you're going to be visiting, howbusy it is.
The other thing we need to thinkabout is if you are traveling
with somebody that's under,especially under, 40 inches.
If you are the only adult, thenyou're not going to be able to
ride a lot of those rides.
So Disneyland has a rule wherekids have to be seven years old
to ride a ride by themselves andthey have to be 14 years old to
(12:56):
take somebody on a ride that'sunder the age of seven.
So let's say you're a singleparent and you are bringing your
six-year-old and yourtwo-year-old.
If your two-year-old is nottall enough or doesn't want to
ride some of those rollercoasters, if you have a
six-year-old, they would not beable to ride those rides by
themselves.
So you wouldn't be able to haveaccess to all of those thrill
(13:18):
rides where they don't meet theheight restrictions.
So but if you're going with twoadults.
Then you can use Genie Plus andthere's a special program
called the Rider Switch program.
It's also sometimes people callit the child swap program where
basically, let's say, it's me,my husband, my 13 year old and a
two year old, then I can waitwith my two year old and my
(13:42):
husband and my teenager can ride.
Then, once they get off, thenthere's a special pass that you
get when you check in for thisprogram.
Then I could ride with myteenager while my husband
watched the two-year-old.
We have to think about you knowhow many people, what kind of
(14:02):
rides you're going.
Are you going to be able toride the rides that have a
height restriction?
I don't know if that makessense at all.
Okay, yeah.
And then there's some ridesthat save you a lot of time, and
then there's some rides thatsave you, like, almost no time.
So sometimes, like there's,there's a couple of rides where
the lines are usually not thatlong.
So with the exception ofChristmas, small world doesn't
(14:23):
usually have a very long line.
So while there is a lightninglane for that, there are times
where you might end up waitingthe same exact amount of time as
if you had not used thelightning lane at all.
So we look at what rides youwant to ride.
So some of the rides that saveyou the most time, like, for
example, disneyland, would belike Space Mountain, indiana
(14:44):
Jones, big Thunder Mountain.
So we look at how popular weknow some of these rides are and
how long the lines are, to kindof anticipate that to you, and
then we kind of say, like it isavoiding lines that most
important to you.
Just do you just want to seethe food or do you want to see
shows?
And we kind of calculate ascore, kind of like what Harry
Potter house are to tell youwhether or not you need
(15:04):
lightning wings or whether ornot you think it would benefit
to you.
But in general you'll get themost out of Genie Plus if you're
planning on arriving early tothe park.
So if you're planning on notgetting to Disneyland until like
after 11 or noon each day, thenGenie Plus might be more
difficult for you.
You won't be able to get asmany passes.
(15:26):
And then if you are going to goduring a really quiet time of
year where maybe the lines won'tbe as long there's not very
many times like that anymore.
But and then the other thing is, you know, do you want to ride
the rides that Genie Plus haslike feelings for?
And are the people in yourgroup tall enough to ride the
rides that youie Plus hasLightning Lanes for?
And are the people in yourgroup tall enough to ride the
(15:46):
rides that you'll get the bestbang for your buck?
If that makes sense, yeah, sothe way that we get the most
Lightning Lanes is trying to getto the park as soon as the park
opens and making sure thatevery time you're eligible to
book a new ride, you book thatride as soon as possible, even
if that means, like, bookingthem from your hotel room.
Like, let's say, I'm a big fanof the Disney nap.
(16:08):
If you go to take that Disneynap, then even while you're at
your hotel, continuing to bookyour next lightning lanes to
make sure that you are able tobook as many as possible.
And then what we're going to dois we're going to book the
rides with the longest waits andthe ones that book the farthest
out first.
So remember how I said, smallWorld doesn't normally have a
long line.
(16:28):
If the park opens at eighto'clock, you get into the park
right at eight o'clock and youbook your first lightning lane
and you'll see, space Mountainand Small World will both have a
return time of like 9.05 or9.10 or 9.30.
They'll both be the same butthe closer you get to the middle
or the afternoon of the day.
So if we were to say at likeone o'clock and you were to look
(16:51):
, small world might have areturn time of 1.45, or Space
Mountain might have the closestreturn time might be 11.45 that
night, which is really late,right, and you might not want to
stay in the park that late.
So what we want to do is wewant to book the rides that end
up, kind of like booking out thefarthest.
(17:12):
We want to book them early soyou don't feel like you're
having to be stuck at the park.
But also sometimes they run out.
So sometimes you know once theyhit all the lightning lanes
there's a finite amount per day,so sometimes you can catch one
that cancels.
But if you want, if, like youknow that space mountain is a
ride you really want to ride, wewant to book those first so you
(17:34):
don't end up missing out.
Yeah, yeah, with genie plus,remember it's a shorter, faster
moving line.
It's only available on selectrides, mostly thrill rides.
You get one ride per attraction, you'll get a one hour reserve
time.
That's what you're going tokind of.
Reserve is a one hourreservation window and you can
write any time within that onehour window.
(17:55):
In fact, they give you like afive minute grace time before
and about 10 or 15 minutesafterwards, but you can only
schedule one ride at a time andthen you have to wait till your
next eligibility and then youwant to book that ride as soon
as you're eligible.
One thing to remember isbecause we talked about that,
(18:16):
space Mountain might not beavailable till much later.
The order that you book therides in, so you might book
Space Mountain first, the orderthat you book the rides in, so
you might book Space Mountainfirst and then Indiana Jones
second, or vice versa.
But you actually might end upriding them in a very different
order because of when you getthat reservation window.
When you purchase Genie Plusthis is my recommendation when
(18:38):
you get into the park, as soonas you scan into the park and
you walk through the turnstiles,you're going to book your first
Lightning Lane and you're goingto book your first lightning
lane and then you're going tobook as soon as eligible.
So with lightning lanes.
This is where it gets a littlecomplicated.
You book your first one andthen you're eligible to book
your next lightning lane afteryou ride that first ride or
(18:59):
after two hours, whicheverhappens first.
If you were to book a ride thatis more than two hours away,
your reservation hour is morethan two hours away.
You don't have to wait untilthat reservation window to book
your next lightning lane.
You'd be able to book after twohours.
It can be a little complicatedand overwhelming for people to
(19:19):
try to figure out when this is,so I'm going to say don't worry
about that as much, just knowthat it's two hours or when you
book your, or when you scan inand ride your for your your
lightning lane, whichever comesfirst.
But the best way to do this isto, just as you book, it will
tell you when you're eligible tobook your next attraction and
(19:41):
then every time you use a light,you use your ticket to scan in
at a lightning lane attraction.
Then what you're going to do isyou're just going to check the
app to see when you're eligibleto book.
What you might even want to dois have somebody else kind of
help.
You manage this by settingalarms to kind of remind you to
book if it's going to be morethan two hours away.
(20:01):
The reason we want to make surewe get we're always booking is
we want to make sure that we'regetting through, especially
those rides and getting thoserides scheduled that are that do
sell out, because they can go.
It might there might not beavailability later, and there we
have a list that we updateweekly.
(20:23):
So if you go to parkmagiccomforward slash LL, so
parkmagiccom forward slash LL,we have a list of what order to
book those lightning links in.
So you don't have to do theresearch Now.
You can, if you want to, youcan look at the Disney app and
try to determine that on yourown, but you could just go down
(20:44):
the list.
We actually even have a linkthat on your phone.
It will take you directly intothe Disney app for you to be
able to book that Lightning Lane.
The reason we update it weeklyis sometimes things change
seasonally.
So, for example, small Worlddoesn't have a very long line
most of the year but when theyhave their Christmas decorations
up the lines can be over anhour.
(21:06):
So we will change the orderdepending on what we're seeing
in the data as far as what ridesare booking out the furthest
out, if that makes sense.
So, remembering that some GeniePlus Lightning Leans are going
to save you more time thanothers, we want to prioritize
those ones that have a longerthan average wait time, because
they can end up being much laterin the evening or completely
(21:27):
sell out, going down the orderon our website, skipping any
rides that you don't want to do.
And in that list, if you clickon the ride name, it will take
you to a page that tells youmore about that ride and even
has a ride through video, so youcan see if you've got somebody
that's nervous about that ride,to kind of give you an idea of
whether it's something that youand your family are up to.
(21:48):
And then we're going to book assoon as you're eligible, used to
be before you know.
Last year people would saydon't book your lightning lane
when you first get into the parkbecause it's a waste, because
you know if you ride, use alightning lane at 9am, the lines
are really short for all therides.
So you should be not usinglightning lanes then, but taking
(22:08):
advantage of the short lines ingeneral that are in the park
the first couple hours it opens.
So you need a change toGeniePlus and now you can
reschedule your lightning laneto later in the day.
So what I'm going to recommendis that you book your lightning
lane as soon as you enter thepark and then also buy.
(22:28):
If you want to buy one of thoseindividual lightning lanes,
you're going to buy that also atthe beginning of the day, so
you can make sure if that ridegoes down you're still able to
ride it later in the day.
If something happens and you'renot able to ride those specific
rides, they will refund.
If you go to the show notes,we'll also have some
instructions on how to book aLightning Lean and how to
purchase Genie Plus.
(22:48):
That are in the show notes soyou know how to do that.
Specifically, if a ride saysit's currently not available to
purchase, to book a LightningLean, it might mean that it has
sold out for the day, butsometimes it also just means
that the ride is down.
So check back and it can beworth it to refresh the page,
(23:10):
even if it's sold out.
Sometimes people might cancel alightning lane and then there
might be more availability soyou can check back.
People kind of call thisplaying like the Disney slot
machine, where you're kind ofrefreshing and refreshing,
hoping that you get a jackpot.
But it does work sometimes.
So all right.
So I want to summarize kind ofexactly again what we're going
(23:33):
to do when you go into the parkwith this kind of Park Magic
Genie Plus method.
So remember, with Genie Plusyou're eligible to book when you
scan into the park and then youcan book your next lightning
lane when you go to check in toride that first ride or after
two hours.
But we're not going to worryabout that, we're just going to
check the app and see when itsays I'm next able to book and
(23:56):
if it's more than two hours away, then we're going to set an
alarm and if it's not, thenwe're going to recheck that app
as soon as we scan in to see ifwe're eligible.
You can ride one attraction perday Again, we have an exception
that we're going to talk aboutand then you have that one hour
(24:17):
reservation.
You have to come in during thatone hour reservation.
You come before or after.
They most likely will not letyou use the Lightning Link for
that attraction and you canreschedule without changing when
you're eligible to book yournext Lightning Lane.
So as you enter the park,you're going to purchase Genie
Plus if you haven't already andyour individual Lightning Lanes
and you're going to book yourfirst Lightning Lane, starting
(24:38):
at the top of the list at thatparkmagiccom forward slash LL,
skipping any ones that you don'twant to do.
And then, as you book eachlightning lane, you're going to
set an alarm for when you'reeligible and you're going to
just check the app to see whenyou're eligible.
When you go to an attraction youuse your lightning lane,
there'll be a special lightninglane sign and under that sign
(25:00):
there'll be cast members andthere'll be little stations
where you either scan your magicband or you scan your ticket
and that's how they know thatyou are allowed to be in that
line.
So anytime you, after you scanyour ticket or you use your
magic band.
You're just going to go intothe app and check and see if
you're eligible to book.
If not, make sure that you havean alarm set for when you are
(25:21):
eligible next.
So as soon as you're eligible,you can book your next ride.
If you can book that nextattraction while you're in line,
that's even a bonus.
There are some rides, likeHaunted Mansion and so on, that
are in these massive crazybuildings and so you might not
have cell service.
Just book as soon as you getoff the ride and you're going to
(25:42):
kind of just keep repeatingthat, working down the list, and
even continue to do that, evenif you leave the park for a nap
and then while you're waitingbetween your Genie Plus lines
that's when you're going to ridethe other attractions, take
advantage of the shows, theparades, eat snacks there's so
(26:02):
many snacks and you're justgoing to kind of rinse and
repeat.
Does that make sense?
Yeah, any questions there?
Speaker 3 (26:10):
Yeah, I did have a question Is the list that you're
proposing and then I know youall switch according to you know
, kind of seasonal things, isthat do you take into
consideration, like where it'slocated in the park, like you
know, like if it's space I don'tknow Again, I spent years since
(26:32):
I've been but like if one isone on one side of the park and
one is on the other side of thepark, do you ever say, hey, this
would the where it's locatedwould impact the order.
Speaker 2 (26:43):
We don't consider where it is compared to your
other ones.
And the reason for that is isbecause, let's say, you're
getting ready to book alightning lane and you're in
Tomorrowland.
If you go to book SpaceMountain, right, then it might
say that you need to come backat 4 pm, and that changes
dramatically depending on howbusy the day is.
(27:04):
So what you're going to do isyou're going to start working
your way down.
And so let's say you bookIndiana Jones and it says, all
right, come back at 11.
And you're standing inTomorrowland.
You might say, all right, well,we're in Tomorrowland.
Let's you know, buzz Lightyearand Astro Orbit, these two rides
right here, have a short waittime.
(27:25):
We're going to do these two andthen we'll head over to Indiana
Jones and then we'll get asnack.
As you check in, you scan yourticket to Indiana Jones.
You know, as you're kind ofwalking, or right after you scan
in line or right after you getafter Indiana Jones, you're
going to book your next one.
And so let's say it says allright, three o'clock, you're
(27:46):
going to do Big Thunder.
You're like, oh shoot, well,that's a little further away.
You know that's later.
And we're right, I can see itfrom here.
It's too bad, that's all right.
What we'll do is we're going togo do the Davy Crockett canoes
and we're going to ride thetrain and do other things in the
area.
Shows that are in the area,shows that are in the area.
Plan your travel around theparks, around your Genie Plus.
(28:07):
It was a lot simpler back inthe day when you would say, okay
, are we going left or right?
And you would just kind of likework your way around the park.
Genie Plus makes that morecomplicated because it has you
crisscross and there are peoplewho hate crisscrossing.
And if you really hatecrisscrossing and you're okay,
missing kind of like those topthree ones that are on the list,
it's okay to to rearrangethings based off of where things
(28:30):
are in the park, but it it's alittle bit more difficult if you
don't know the park well okay,good.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
And then my other question was what?
I mean?
That's just a crazyhypothetical situation, but
let's say, let's say you, canyou like you book your space
mountain lightning pass, butthen you get there and there's
like hardly any line and youknow you want to write it again
later.
(28:59):
Is there a way to like cancelyour lightning pass and then
just use the regular standbyline?
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Yes, you can cancel the lightning lane, okay.
Okay, so you can cancel theLightning Lane as long as the
reservation time has not ended.
You can also move it to later.
Now I'm a Space Mountain superfan, right?
So I think one day I rode itlike 13 times on one day.
So if it was me and somebodywould say, well, that would
(29:27):
never happen.
It does actually happen becauseif, let's say, space Mountain
goes down, everybody, if it'sbeen down for a long time,
people might have gotten out ofline.
So there are occasions wherethe line will for even a very
popular attraction mightsuddenly be short during the
middle of the day.
So you get there and you seethat you know, post a time is
like 10 minutes.
Well, I don't want to waste areally good lightning lane on
(29:48):
this.
So you could do two things.
You could either rescheduleyour lightning lane to later in
the day things.
You could either rescheduleyour lightning lane to later in
the day or you could get in therig as long as you had enough
time on, like your window.
You could get in the regularline, ride the ride and then
come back and then use yourlightning lane again.
For most normal people theydon't want to ride roller
(30:10):
coaster back to back like that.
So probably rescheduling, it'sonly people like me that are
like super coaster fans thatwould probably do the other
option.
So sometimes you know we talkedabout there was an exception
where you maybe you might beable to ride a ride more than
once, and that's it if a ridegoes down during your window.
So let's say you're going toride Indiana Jones and your
(30:31):
window is from 1 0, 5 to 2 0, 5.
And then the ride is down from12 55 to 1 30.
So you would get on your app,disney app, it will send you an
alert saying a change has beenmade to your lightning beam and
your Indiana Jones lightning.
It will kind of look like itdisappeared.
(30:53):
But now you'll have this weirdone with like a bunch of Mickey
balloons and it'll saymulti-pass experience.
And it might seem like this isbad news but it's actually great
news.
So if that happens you have twochoices you can use now.
Use that multi-experience passto ride that ride that you
originally booked, anytime inthe day, once that ride comes
(31:16):
back online, so you have a lotof freedom to kind of change
your schedule right.
Or you can rebook a newLightning Lane for Indiana Jones
and you can use that LightningLane on something else.
And the really cool thing isthat if you click in that pass
(31:37):
it will tell you what rides youcan use it on.
So let's say, buzz Lightyeargoes down.
It doesn't give you access toride something that's really
popular like Space Mountain orIndiana Jones.
It will kind of keep you kindof in the same tier of rides.
But there are some rides thatdon't normally have a lightning
lean that you can use thatmulti-experience pass on.
(32:00):
So, for example, let's say yourkid loves Finding Nemo and it's
a hot summer day and you wantto do the Finding Nemo shows but
it's been a 30, 40 minute waitall day and that line is in the
sun, it is hot.
So you're like man, I reallywant to do that ride.
And then your Indiana Jonesgoes down and you click and it
(32:23):
says one of the rides that areeligible are the Finding Nemo
subs.
So you can go to the FindingNemo subs, which does not
normally have a lightning lane,and they'll be like are you sure
you want to use this here?
Yes, I want to use this here.
And so you would basically wait, um, in kind of like the like,
kind of like the handicapaccessible line, um for that
(32:43):
ride, and so you would get tokind of bypass the line for that
attraction, even though itdoesn't normally have a light.
And we'll put a video in, uh,on the show notes on how to use
those multi-experience passes aswell.
So I just kind of want to finishoff, because there's so one of
the things that makes LightningLeagues confusing is, you know,
disney has Disney World andDisneyland and they have Genie
(33:06):
Plus in both parks but they workcompletely differently.
I mean, a lot of thefundamentals are the same but
there's some really really bigdifferences that completely
change the strategy.
So if you're following a lot oflike Walt Disney World Disney
influencers on how to use GeniePlus, they'll say you want to
try to focus on what they callstacking, and that means like
(33:28):
trying to arrange it so kind oflike what you said, with like
not having to crisscross aroundthe park, like what you said
with like they're not having tocrisscross around the park.
So at Disney World it's kind ofa badge of honor to have, you
know, like Space Mountain and abunch of other rides are all
right next to each other andhave all the lightning lanes so
you can go one after another,boom, boom, boom, boom.
That doesn't really happen atDisney World as often and if it
is, it's on a really busy dayand the reason is is in Florida
(33:56):
you can book your firstlightning lane before you even
get to the park.
So some of those lightninglanes will have really late
return times before the parkeven opens.
With Disneyland, sinceeverybody can not nobody can
book their first lightning laneuntil they get to the parks, it
doesn't really you don't have toworry about things selling out
the first hour.
It just it doesn't happen, evenon the busiest days, as long as
(34:16):
you have teeny plans.
The other strategy people talkabout is quickest return.
So people are like I reallywant to get as many lightning
leans as possible.
Then the other strategy is tosay kind of doing the opposite
of what I'm recommending andthat's saying what has got the
closest return time, the ridethat I can ride on right now,
and we're going to use that, andthat is a great way if you want
(34:38):
to try to get on a lot of ridesat once.
However, what usually happensis unless you kind of started
the ones that we're startingwith and kind of work your way
down.
That will happen is you'll getto the point where you get to
the end of the day and the threerides that are left, that have
always had return times that are, you know, a couple of hours
(34:59):
away, are the ones that have thelongest lines, like Indiana
Jones, space Mountain, soarin'Over California, toy Story,
mania.
So the ones that have that wegive you like the best decrease
in your overall wait time arethe ones that you're going to
end up missing out on, if thatmakes sense.
So you know, if you're like Idon't really care, like I don't,
(35:19):
I'm not a coaster, I'm justriding whatever I can ride, I
just want to ride a bunch ofrides, I don't care what rides
they are, then quickest returnstotally valid strategy.
It just, you know, sometimes itcatches people off guard and
they feel really bummed outbecause then now they have to
wait in line for Space Mountainand it's a long line.
So I know this was kind of aline you're probably like why
did I have you on?
It's?
Just that it's, it's reallycomplicated, like it seems like
(35:43):
it should just be able to, likeyou should just be able to book
and ride.
So I wanted to make sure thatit made sense.
I mean, do you think like youlike knowing now, you feel like
you could figure out things asyou go and have a good idea of
why it's important how theprogram works?
Speaker 3 (36:00):
yeah, I mean, yes, I mean it was interesting.
You kind of had me.
I was almost thrown off at thebeginning because you said
something like it used to becalled or something about it
used to have fast passes, and Iwas like they don't have those
anymore because that's my era,that's the last time I went to
Disney was when, I think, we hadlike a flip phone, cell phone.
(36:24):
But that's what I remember,because I remember I had to take
it away from my daughter, um,but then, but you know, racing
over there and getting the fastpass and then going and doing
something in that particulararea and then going back for the
fast pass time, you know.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
So this is like a whole, it's like leveled up so
it is yeah, and yeah, so it'sbecause it's kind of the same
system, except now you're doingit on the app, um, but because
we're doing it, it it's gotten,you know, and I think it like
started out with a simple idea,but then, you know, they just
(37:02):
keep adding layers of complexityon it, which is fine for people
who go all the time, but itbecomes really overwhelming for
people who are like I just wantto go on vacation yeah, I can
definitely see why it would getcomplicated, and especially if
you're trying to plan this outwith you know, kids and being
(37:22):
able to get the most.
Speaker 3 (37:23):
I mean you're already paying for the ticket entry but
then being able to get the mostout of your stay but most out
of your, you know, your GeniePlus, if you're getting it.
I think this is really helpfuland if it wasn't?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
so expensive, it wouldn't be a big deal.
But when you're paying 400 orsomething for this, you know,
over a course of four days thenyou know it.
You really want to make sureyou're getting a good value on
it.
You know so.
But it can definitely.
It makes the day so much morefun and for me, even if I have
to crisscross or across the parka little bit, I would rather,
(37:57):
you know, the parks are smallenough at Disneyland that I
would rather go from one end ofthe park to another versus
standing in an hour line.
You know, because they're bothstanding, but you know one at
least walking.
I get to watch people andcharacters and you know.
And the other thing is you caneat snacks in line.
You just can't take them on theride.
(38:19):
So sometimes if I have to be ina long standby line, what we'll
do is we'll kind of like getsome like sneakity snacks and
we'll eat the sneakity snacks.
And on our blog we even havelike a couple of like games you
can play like in line.
But in general, like, I kind oflike to avoid those lines as
much as possible all right.
Well, this has been anotherepisode of the park magic
podcast.
We hope that you have a greattime.
(38:41):
If you have questions that werenot answered about chini plus,
I would love to hear them,because it is my mission to help
make it so that people can havethese wonderful vacations, just
like us disney adults do.
So feel free to email us orreach out to us.
Go visit our website atparkmagiccom.
Speaker 1 (38:59):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the Park
Magic Podcast.
For more tips and planningtools designed to help simplify
your Disneyland adventure, visitparkmagiccom.
If you enjoyed today's episodeand want to hear more tips, be
sure to subscribe to the ParkMagic Podcast, and don't forget
to leave us a review.
Your feedback helps us spreadthe magic even further.
Leaving a review could alsohelp you.
(39:19):
Each month, we will beselecting one reviewer to win a
one-hour planning session withRobin.
Winners will be announced atthe end of the first episode of
every month.
Thanks for tuning in andremember that we are here to
help you have a less stressfuland more magical trip to
Disneyland.
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.