Using Genie+ at Hollywood Studios – a Must Do!

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In our opinion, one of the best innovations to come out of the house of mouse is the company’s line-skipping service for the Disney World park system. While FastPass+ was arguably one of the better iterations of this offering, Hollywood Studios Genie+ is a good contender, as long as you can get past the daily access price.

If you aren’t familiar with the terminology, FastPass+ allowed guests to skip the queue on rides by entering a separate FastPass line. Ride times would be booked in advance, providing guests with a one-hour window to enter the expedited queue and enjoy the attraction. Best of all, FastPass+ allowed visitors to the theme parks a chance to book 3 FastPass+ experiences up to 60 days in advance of arrival.

Unfortunately, FastPass+ disappeared in 2020 and never returned. Instead, Disney released a new version of FastPass with a new name and a new ticket price. Hollywood Studios Genie+ is part of the new rollout and works in a similar way to the old FastPass+ system.

Guests still book a one-hour window to enter an expedited queue, only now, it’s called the Lightning Lane. Sounds familiar right? But hold up a minute, Genie+ also includes a number of tweaks that have changed the experience for many people.

First off, Genie+ comes with a daily ticket price. We can’t really tell you what that is, because it changes from day to day depending on magical background processes known only to the Genie+ gurus at Disney. However, you can expect the price to start around $15.00 per person, per day plus tax and top out around $30.00 by most accounts. On our last trip, we averaged around $20 a day per person.

However, changes in June of 2023 brought even more dynamic changes to Genie+, including single and multi-park pricing. According to Disney, with this change “prices [for Genie+] may now be lower at some Walt Disney World theme parks compared to others.”

Second, Genie+ does not allow guests to pre-book any ride experiences. Guests of Disney World resorts can rise bright and early at 7:00 am to snag their first Hollywood Studios Genie+, but you won’t be able to set your plan in stone before you leave home.

If you’re staying offsite, you’ll need to wait until the parks open before booking your first Genie+ of the day. Since reservations for Slinky Dog Dash can disappear by then, it’s a good idea to stay onsite if you want to skip the long line for this very popular ride.

Third, not all rides are included in Genie+. Some rides fall under the mysterious sounding category of “Individual Lightning Lane.” When booking rides enabled with Individual Lightning Lane, guests will pay a separate fee to select a one-hour return time to experience the attraction using an expedited queue.

If you’re beginning to feel like we do, that Disney really missed the mark when it came to the naming conventions for this service, wait until you hear the next piece of news. Genie+ is also part of a broader Genie service available through the My Disney Experience app. Genie asks questions about your trip and preferences in order to provide you with recommendations when you visit the parks.

If you’re confused, you aren’t alone. Ali spent a good portion of our last trip trying to explain to the rest of the party the difference between Genie, Genie+, Lighting Lane and Individual Lightning Lane. In a nutshell, here is the simplest explanation we can provide:

  • Genie is the service provided through the My Disney Experience app. Its main function is to provide you with a general itinerary and on-the-go tips as you visit the parks (as long as you have the app open).
  • Genie+ is part of Disney Genie and allows guests to book the next available one-hour window to experience an enabled attraction through an expedited queue known as the Lightning Lane.
  • Individual Lightning Lane is part of Genie+, but requires an additional fee. Guests may book up to 2 Individual Lightning Lane experiences a day and select the one-hour window they wish to enter the ride, according to available openings.

If you’d like more detailed information, feel free to read our guide on Genie+ or the Individual Lightning Lane. For now, we’ll move forward to using Genie+ at Hollywood Studios.

Do I Need to Use Genie+ at Disney Hollywood Studios?

Tower of Terror through the trees, a Hollywood Studios Genie+ ride.
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One question people frequently ask is whether Genie+ at Hollywood Studios is really necessary. In our opinion, if you can swing the daily cost in your budget, this would be the park to use it.

Hollywood Studios is home to some of Disney’s biggest headliner attractions, including Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster starring Aerosmith, Tower of Terror, Slinky Dog Dash and Micky and Minnie’s Runaway Railway. You could easily spend an hour or more waiting to ride each of these attractions, particularly if you don’t arrive early or take advantage of Extended Theme Park Entry.

By purchasing Genie+ at Hollywood Studios, you’ll spend a lot less time in line. It makes for a more relaxing day and less stress about cramming everything into the available park hours. However, to make the most of the service, you’ll need a Disney Hollywood Studios Genie+ plan.

Disney Hollywood Studios Genie+ Rides

Disney Hollywood Studios Tower of Terror Sign
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Before you can develop your Hollywood Studios Genie+ plan, there’s one thing you need to know. Not all attractions are Lightning Lane enabled, meaning there is no Genie+ offering.

The rides that currently support Genie+ at Hollywood Studios include:

In addition, entrance to a Lightning Lane for the following ride(s) is/are available for individual purchase (not included in Genie+):

Keep in mind, you can purchase entrance to the Lightning Lane for Star Wars Rise of the Resistance without purchasing Genie+ for the day.

Disney Hollywood Studios Genie+ Plan and Strategy

Hollywood Studios Genie+ sign in front of Tower of Terror ride.
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If you do decide to purchase Genie+, you’ll need a solid Hollywood Studios Genie+ Plan to get the most enjoyment and justify the added cost. To create a strategy, it’s important to understand the concept of stacking your Genie+ reservations.

Stacking Genie+ Reservations at Hollywood Studios

Stacking reservations is an essential part of an efficient Hollywood Studios Genie+ plan. In essence, you are able to make a new Genie+ reservation from the available pool every 2 hours (assuming you make your first reservation at park opening) or after you enter the Lightning Lane for the earliest or latest booked Genie+.

To see this concept in action, say you’re a Disney World resort guest and you get up at 7:00 to score a coveted Genie+ reservation on Slinky Dog Dash. Your return time is 11:30 am.

Since you are a resort guest who took advantage of the early booking window, you are not able to book another Hollywood Studios Genie+ experience until two hours after park opening. Say the park opens at 8:00 am on this day. That means you can reserve another Genie+ at 10:00 am (2 hours after park opening), ride Slinky Dog at 11:30 am using your first booked Genie+, and make another right after.

It’s slightly different if you’re staying at an offsite property. Guests at other hotels may begin making Genie+ reservations once the park opens. In this case, if the gates roll back for the general public at 8:00 am, you might be able to grab a reservation for Slinky Dog Dash, but your return time is likely to be late in the day. We’ll say it’s 4:00 pm.

Since the park opens at 8:00 am, you can make another Genie+ reservation at 10:00 am. We’ll say you select Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and receive a return time of 1:00 pm. You’ll want to immediately set an alert to remind you to book another Genie+ at noon, because you’ll be eligible to book again thanks to the “2-hour rule.” Then, once you ride Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at noon, you can book another Genie+.

As you can see in the examples above, one of the tricks to making the most of Genie+ is to enter the Lightning Lane as soon as your return window activates or shortly thereafter. We usually utilize the short time in line to go ahead and book another Genie+ reservation.

Just keep in mind that some queues have 2 checkpoints that you’ll need to scan through, and you won’t be able to book another Hollywood Studios Genie+ until you’ve passed the second checkpoint. Also, you might not be able to make another reservation if you aren’t currently utilizing either the first booked reservation or the most recently booked.

At times, you may be able to stack 4 or 5 reservations at one time. We’ve noticed that if we first utilize reservations booked in the middle of that order, we aren’t able to book another until we used either the first booked or most recently booked.

Hollywood Studioes Genie+ Plan, Selecting Rides

With so much to see and do at Hollywood Studios, deciding where it’s best to use Genie+ can be a challenge. Generally, you’ll want to select the attractions that stack up the longest lines throughout the day. These include:

  • Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
  • Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
  • Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
  • Slinky Dog Dash
  • The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™
  • Toy Story Mania!

However, since these are the most popular rides, it’s possible that Genie+ reservations will book out before the end of the day, especially if you’re visiting during a busy time of year. That’s because the number of people who can book any given Genie+ return window is limited, to keep the queue flowing fast.

For that reason, you’ll also want to add another variable to your Hollywood Studios Genie+ plan: the order in which you book each Genie+ experience.

To do this, you’ll need to understand which rides run out of Genie+ availability earliest in the day. In our experience Genie+ reservations for Slinky Dog Dash are the first to go. Second is often a toss-up between Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run and Tower of Tower. Next up is Minnie’s Runaway Railway followed by Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Toy Story Mania.

To facilitate your Hollywood Studios Genie+ planning, you’ll generally want to book reservations in this order:

  1. Slinky Dog Dash
  2. Tower of Terror
  3. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
  4. Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
  5. Mickey Minnie Runaway Railway
  6. Toy Story Mania

One thing to note about the recommendations above is the fact that they are just that. Individual crowd conditions and demographics could alter how fast Genie+ reservations for one attraction sell out compared to another. For instance, if there are a high number of families with young children purchasing Genie+ on the day you visit, Mickey and Minnie Runaway Railway might actually sell out before Millennium Falcon or Tower of Terror.

A good rule of thumb is to always book the ride with the latest return window. You’ll see this in the app when you go to book your Hollywood Studios Genie+ reservation.

Experiencing the Best Hollywood Studios Day

While Genie+ is a great tool in your arsenal for visiting Disney Hollywood Studios, it isn’t the only thing that makes a trip to Disney World so memorable. In fact, if you’re spending too much time on your phone trying to grab a Genie+ reservation, you’re bound to miss a lot of the magic happening around you.

Disney World is full of rich thematic details, and immersing yourself in the elements is part of what makes a trip to Disney so special. In the end, these are things you’ll take home in memories, along with special moments with family and friends, and not how much time you spend in line.

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Kathleen Hesketh

Kathleen is a travel agent with Mickey World Travel, a platinum level Authorized Disney vacation planner, where she helps people discover the magic of a Disney vacation and other travel destinations. She is also the chief author and editor for Seconds to Go - a travel blog where she shares experiences from traveling the U.S. with her daughter, Ali.
Mother daughter travel bloggers exploring the U.S.

We're Kat and Ali, a pair of mother-daughter travel bloggers exploring the U.S. We're sharing our experiences, tips and insights to help you more easily get out and explore the beautiful landscapes and places of this nation.

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