NEW Disney Genie Service Replacing FastPasses!

Disney just made a HUGE announcement about the future of the guest experience at both the Walt Disney World Resort and the Disneyland Resort! We couldn’t believe all of the major changes coming to the Disney parks, and we’re excited to experience the parks in a whole new way when these new services become available this fall.

Discontinued FastPasses

In order to make way for the new Disney Genie, Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lane, the former FastPass systems will be retired. This includes both the FastPass+ service at Walt Disney World, and the FastPass and MaxPass services at Disneyland. While we’re sad to see FastPasses go, we’re excited for what this means for the future of Disney parks!

Minnie Ears at the Castle - Disney Vacation Planning

Disney Genie

The Disney Genie is a new complimentary and convenient digital service designed to create the best Disney day for Guests. This feature will be built right into the My Disney Experience and Disneyland apps. Disney Genie is designed to making planning easier, provide flexibility and offer better tools to help you make the most of your visit. The Disney Genie will allow you to maximize your park time in a whole new way! The Disney Genie will Guests you through the theme parks with tips that can help you reduce time in lines. It will also help you discover magic around every corner and take the guesswork out of “what’s next.”

Disney Genie includes a personalized itinerary feature that will quickly and seamlessly map out an entire day. Guests can tell Disney Genie what they want to do, and it takes care of the planning! Choose specific attractions, foodie experiences and entertainment, or select a general interest like Disney princesses, villains, Pixar, Star Wars, thrill rides and more. Disney Genie will take care of mapping out your day to enjoy the experiences you selected!

Here are a few more features:

Ongoing Itinerary Updates: Disney Genie will continue to update your itinerary throughout the day, so you can be more spontaneous and go with the flow.
Find Favorites: Guests can create their very own personal tip board to instantly see their favorites. It will display current AND forecasted future wait times, helping Guests predict when they might experience quicker entry to attractions.
More Flexibility and Fun: Disney Genie brings existing planning features together in one place. Guests can join a virtual queue at certain attractions, make dining and experience reservations, mobile order food at many locations, get help from a virtual assistant and more.

Disney Genie+

For even more convenience and flexibility, there are also two other options for enjoying the theme parks. Disney Genie+ Service and a new queue called Lightning Lane that also saves time in line!

For an additional cost, Disney Genie+ Service will give you access to a Lightning Lane entrance throughout the day. Guests can choose the next available time to arrive at a variety of attractions and experiences using the Lightning Lane entrance. Guests can make one selection at a time throughout the day. This convenient option is the next evolution of the fan-favorite Disney MaxPass service from Disneyland Resort. Disney Genie+ will also include Disney parks-themed audio experiences and photo features to capture your memories – augmented reality lenses for those visiting Walt Disney World Resort and unlimited Disney PhotoPass downloads from your day at Disneyland Resort.

The Disney Genie+ Service will cost a $15 per ticket per day at Walt Disney World. At Disneyland, it will cost $20 per ticket per day.

Individual Lightning Lane Attraction Selections

In addition to the Disney Genie+ Service, Guests will also have the option to purchase and schedule an arrival time at up to two highly demanded attractions each day using the Lightning Lane entrance. Pricing will vary depending on the attraction, date and park.

Lightning Lane selections will be made on the same day of the Guest’s visit. It can also be used across multiple theme parks, so it’s great for those who love the Park Hopper option! Attractions continue to offer a traditional standby queue, or a virtual queue at certain attractions like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – to maximize flexibility.

DAS Updates

In addition, Disney also announced that new updates will be coming to the DAS system. DAS is Disney’s Disability Access Service for Guests with special needs or disabilities. There will be a new option to enroll in the program in advance of your trip. Currently, Guests have to enroll within the park – although this option will still be available. There will also be a new option for DAS participants to select arrival windows for attractions directly in the app, rather than in person. My brother has special needs and uses DAS, so I can already say this will be an incredibly helpful update to the DAS system!

When will Disney Genie, Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lane be Available?

At this time, Disney has only said that these new features will be coming this fall. We’ll update this post once we know more! Hopefully Disney will make an announcement soon so that Guests with vacation plans this fall will know whether they’ll be able to experience these services. We’re curious if it will align with Disney’s 50th anniversary celebrating beginning October 1; what do you think?

Here’s where you can view Disney’s full announcement on the Disney Parks Blog!

Final Thoughts on Disney Genie

We know this is a lot of information, but rest assured that Disney will be releasing more details as they prepare for the launch. We can’t wait to hear more about all the changes that are coming! Overwhelmed thinking about planning a Disney vacation, unsure about whether you’ll want to purchase Disney Genie+, purchase individual Lightning Lane attractions or how to use the complimentary Disney Genie? We highly recommend working with an Authorized Disney Vacation Planner to help you plan your vacation. Josh is an agent at Wish Upon a Star with Us travel, and he’d love to help you plan your next Disney vacation and navigate these changes!

Let us know what you think about this new service coming to the Disney parks!