Hey there, Brad! Welcome to planDisney. You must be over-the-moon excited about your upcoming trip to the
Disneyland Resort!
You are wise to be thinking about
Disney Genie+ to enhance your visit. My family and I budget for this every trip we take, as the
19 Lightning Lanes available with Genie+ save us many hours of valuable time waiting in queues.
You are correct that you’ll need to wait upon arrival to add the service. Right after you enter through the turnstile, keep your mobile phone handy and in the
Disneyland mobile app, click “My Genie Day.” There you’ll see a link to add the service to your day. You can add it to all the tickets linked to your account or select certain tickets.
If I may, I’d love to share some tips, in case it helps make your trip a little smoother with the wishes Genie is going to grant you!
- You can make your first selection as soon as you add Genie+ service upon entry to the parks. I would pick one of the attractions that tends to book up quickly, like Space Mountain, Indiana Jones Adventure, or Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run at Disneyland Park, or Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! at Disney California Adventure Park. Those Lightning Lane windows will be harder to get as the day progresses.
- There are two opportunities to make your next selection – either after you scan in for your current Lightning Lane selection, or 120 minutes after you made that selection, even if you haven’t redeemed it yet. Example: if at 9:00 a.m. you book an Indiana Jones Adventure Lightning Lane for 1:00 p.m., you can make your next Lightning Lane selection at 11:00 a.m. even though you haven’t redeemed the Indiana Jones Adventure one yet. I usually set a timer on my phone to remind me when I can make my next selection!
- There are three attractions not included in Genie+, for which you can purchase “a la carte” Individual Lightning Lanes. You can purchase one per attraction per day and cannot purchase more than two Individual Lightning Lanes in a day. You can purchase these with or without Genie+.
- Here’s a nice surprise - Genie+ gives you complimentary access to
Disney PhotoPass that day too, which is a great value. You can get your photos taken by
Disney PhotoPass Photographers and download those as well as the attraction photos. Bonus tip – ask the photographer about taking a Magic Shot, which will include a special effect or character in your photo!
Your magic carpet awaits!
Kamini