I recently took a trip down to the Magic Kingdom to try out the brand-new Genie+ service. While I think some aspects of the new Genie are a bit confusing, overall I found this to be a great complement to the day and it did help save time in lines!
I will start by saying, take advantage of the early theme park entry for Walt Disney World Resort guests. When you are on property, you can enter all four parks 30 minutes before everyone.
To start my day, I was up at 7am to book my first Lightning Lane pass - Big Thunder Mountain. I was given the return time of 10:10 - 11:10am - this is a huge difference from Fast Passes as you cannot select your return time, it is given to you. I then got ready and walked right over to Magic Kingdom (the BEST part of staying at Bay Lake Tower is the walkway right to the Magic Kingdom!!)
I arrived to the Magic Kingdom at 8am (Park open was 9am to the general public), immediately went to the Emporium for some quick shopping and scored one of the highly sought after Iridescent Tumblers! And then I went straight over to the Mine Train.
By the time I reached the line for Mine Train, it was already winding back to Ariel’s Grotto - however the line moved quickly! I was in line by 8:30am and off Mine Train by 9:15am. I still had time to burn before my Big Thunder Mountain Lightning Lane, so I went over to The Haunted Mansion. The wait time was listed as 13 minutes, which means, walk-on! score! I took some fun Magic Shots with some fellow agents and we were then off to ride Pirates!
We were able to ride 3 rides by 10:30am by arriving early - so definitely take advantage of that early theme park entry for resort guests!
We then head over to Big Thunder Mountain and had a blast on board the Wildest Ride in the Wilderness… from there we booked our next Lightning Lane for Splash Mountain, right nextdoor! We were able to ride 5 rides all before noon!
If you are traveling with younger kids, I think you could do even more in a short period of time.
My biggest takeaway from the Genie+ service is that it is a complement to your day, you won’t skip EVERY line, but you will save time. I also noticed it’s a LOT of time spent on the phone navigating this new system, so give yourself some grace with that. Don’t always be jumping to the next attraction - take time to enjoy a Cavalcade, grab a Mickey pretzel and take all the Magic Shots with your fam!
If you are interested in booking a Walt Disney World vacation, working with an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner is the best way to go! Middle of the Magic Travel is a team of 40+ Disney Vacation planners here to help you along the way! Start planning today!