Lightning Lane Selections: When Can You Reserve Through Genie+?
Lightning Lane Selections: When Can You Reserve Through Genie+?
Yes you can begin to book your Lightning Lane selections before you get on the plane in some cases, but the answer is more complicated than that. This is when you can reserve Lightning Lane selections through Genie+
Since Genie+ changed basically everything we understood about experiencing Walt Disney World and Disneyland attractions we are having to adopt new strategies and rebuild our vacation planning process from the ground up.
No longer can you reserve up to three attractions 60 days ahead of your arrival. That’s a big curveball to swing for. Lots of people have been wanting to know how it all works. Most importantly, whether or not they are able to make the new Lightning Lane selections in advance. Do you have to be there physically like a virtual queue?
It makes sense that there would be confusion. Virtual queues are relatively new and they changed a lot about how we reserve a spot for certain attractions and experiences. Is Lightning Lane more like that, or the traditional Fastpass? In practice, Lightning Lane has a lot more in common with Fastpass.
There are a few differences. One being that you can only make your Lightning Lane selections on the day of your arrival at a park. In order to do that, however, you must have either Genie+ or purchase an individual Lightning Lane pass for select attractions that are not included with Genie+. These are rides like Rise of the Resistance that would have used a virtual queue system instead of Fastpass+. However, the list of a la carte attractions also includes former Fastpass+ eligible attractions.
What is Individual Lightning Lane?
In every park but Disneyland in Anaheim, there are two attractions set aside for Individual Lightning Lane purchases. Disneyland only has one. Each of these is available for Lightning Lane purchase only once in the day. Individual Lightning Lane purchases are available to different guests at different times. This distinguishes them from Genie+ so be aware of which category your favorite Disney attractions fall under and know when you can make your ILL and Genie+ Lightning Lane selections prior to your trip.
When Can You Purchase Individual Lightning Lane Passes?
If you are a Disney resort guest, you have access to Individual Lightning Lanes before anybody else. The option to purchase begins at 7:00 am. All other park guests must wait until the park officially opens before they can make their Individual Lightning Lane reservations.
ILL attractions are set aside at each of the Disney parks and include Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After, Avatar: Flight of Passage, Expedition Everest, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and Space Mountain.
At Disneyland Resort there are three ILL attractions: Rise of the Resistance, Webslingers: A Spider-man Adventure, and Radiator Springs Racers.
When Can You Make Your Genie+ Lightning Lane Selections?
If you have Genie+ on your My Disney Experience app, you can make your first Lightning Lane pick at 7:00 in the morning on the day of your visit, regardless of where you are or whether you are a Disney resort guest. This first selection can be any of the eligible attractions in the park you have reservations for.
You will get a return window of one hour set at a particular time. After your initial selection, however, you will have to wait until two hours after the park opens to make additional Lightning Lane selections.
You can keep making Lightning Lane selections every two hours, or after redeeming or canceling each reservation. Disney lets you stack Lightning Lane selections, too. They just don’t tell you that. This means that you can have multiple Lightning Lane selections in play at around the same time if you choose your return windows so that they are staggered. See my posts regarding ride stacking and ride stacking strategy for more information on this hack. In the meantime, at least you know that as long as you have a park reservation that day, you can make your first Genie+ Lightning Lane selection from anywhere as early as 7:00 that morning!
