Park reservations and Genie+

[busterbrown73]

My wife and I are taking our 3 boys back to Disney after a 7 year hiatus (2017 was the previous visit). We're visiting the week of Aug 13 to aug 19. We're staying at Fort Wilderness and plan on visiting both Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios with our 2 day passes. It seems like so many things have changed thoughout the covid years and even this post pandemic year.

I have several questions regarding park reservations and the Genie+ passes.

First, we plan on going to both parks Aug 15 and 16. But this may change based on weather and/or another non-Disney theme park visit. Is it mandatory that I make park reservations for the actual date of visit for each park now or can I wait closer to our arrival date at Fort Wilderness? Just want to make sure that those specific reservation dates don't fill up and close. The entire week is open for each park as of now. And if I do book the reservation for each respective park, can the date be changed?

My next question is in relation to the Genie+ and ala carte Lightening Lane passes. Does the Genie+ passes have to be purchased (first) in order to buy an lightening Lane pass for a particular attraction? I'm only familar with the old FastPass system. From my understanding, the Genie+ pass can be purchased at 12am for that day. Lightening lane passes are available for purchase at 7am. In addition, are both of these options even worth their value we as a family ONLY want to ride "Rise of the Resistance" and "Millenium Falcon" at HS and "Tron", "Seven Dwarfs Mine train", and "Big Thunder Mountain Railroad" at MK? Any other attractions we would plan out based on ride times and where we are in each park. I just read that "RIse of the Resistance" is $20/person for the Lightning Lane pass. Since were going to the parks "mid week" in the middle of August, is it an abolute requirement that we purchase the Genie+ and/or the Lightning Ride passes?

Again, things have changed so much in 5 and 6 years. I remember reading during covid that Rise of the Resistance had a queue set up in which people had to be online at a certain time and not even be gauranteed a spot on the ride.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

 

[The Foolish Mortal]

I will try and help:

*You can and should go ahead and book a reservation at whichever park you want to start at each day. Then, as you get closer to your trip dates, you can change the reservations if there is availability. Those dates in August, there should be availability as you get closer, but I still would not risk it. Go ahead and reserve now

*As for genie+ and LL, I would read some of the other threads on that subject to get more familiar. You can purchase genie starting at midnight of the day you intend to use it. But then, for the most part, you don't buy LL. Those are included. There are a few LL that also require an additional fee (usually referred to as ILL or $ILL on here). Of the rides you specifically listed, only Rise and 7DMT currently require the additional fee. The other rides are all already included on genie and available for LL (except Tron, which is virtual line). Even if you buy genie at midnight, you have to wait til 7am to start booking LL.

*Whether genie is "worth" it considering your objectives, nobody can really answer that for you. Genie will save you time in lines. Is that worth the cost to you? Only you and your family know that

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Definitely do more reading around the differences between Genie+ and the Individual Lightning Lane ("a la cart/E-Ticket" purchase). You do not need to purchase Genie+ to make an ILL purchase. Keep in mind, the current ILL attractions are 7 Dwarfs Mine Train, Tron, Flight of Passage, Rise, and Guardians. Those attractions are not included in the Genie+/regular LL lines. You can only purchase 2 ILLs per day. If you're staying at a Disney resort, which you are (Ft Wilderness), you can purchase ILLs at 7AM. For ILLs, you are able to select a particular time range, if available.

Rise used to be set up with a Virtual Queue, which was basically a controlled standby line that you needed to get a spot for. That's no longer the case for Rise, but is currently how they handle Tron and Guardians. If you do not have a spot in the Virtual Queue, you'll need to purchase ILL - there is not a regular standby line for those attractions. Good luck. Things have definitely changed and you'll need to learn a few things - but you'll find a lot of good info here on the board.

 

[holden]

The nice thing about the paid ILL is that you can select a time (depending on availability). With Genie+ LL you are assigned the next available time. You may also modify that time if it doesn’t work for you by checking the app and modifying. Recently I kept pushing one of our LL back to a time that worked for us, but I was on my phone very frequently. Bring a portable charger.

I think booking a LL and modifying if necessary is a good strategy to make sure you at least have the LL you want.

IMHO paid ILL is worth it for Rise and Guardians. You can decide when you want to ride them and work the rest of your day around that. FYI both of those attractions take a fair amount of time. Probably at least 20 minutes from the time you enter the queue.