Hey Howdy Hey Deborah and welcome back to planDisney!
Looks like final preparations are underway for your trip coming up in early July! I bet you all are getting so excited about your big trip full of Magical experiences! Thank you so much for your question regarding Genie+ and Lightning Lane reservations as these may be confusing depending on which blogs you read and when as this benefit has changed quite a bit this year alone! Not to worry, you've got a friend in me, or should I say all of us here at planDisney, that will help you navigate this process and get you up to speed on the usage!
OK so first let's review
Genie+ and
Lightning Lane access. You can purchase Genie+ on the day of your visit starting at midnight EST for the park you are visiting that day. You can make your first Lightning Lane selection starting at 7:00 a.m. EST on the day of your park visit. Genie+ gives you access to many attractions throughout each of the parks and I will urge you to check online to see your options in each park. Depending on availability and which park you are visiting, this may significantly impact your ability to make your expectation of 5 attractions. Magic Kingdom has the most attractions and you will find this much easier to get these reservations compared to Hollywood Studios with not as many attractions.
When you make your first Lightning Lane selection at 7:00 a.m. EST, you will have to either redeem your first Lightning Lane entrance or wait 2 hours to make another selection. This 2-hour mark starts at the official park opening time. So if you make your reservation at 7:00 a.m. and the park does not open until 9:00 a.m. EST, you will be able to make your reservation at 11:00 a.m. From this point, it is either another 2-hour window or when you redeem a Lightning Lane to get to book another one.
You also can book
Individual Lightning Lane reservations for the very popular attractions in the parks such as with
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT. You can book at 7:00 a.m. EST through your
My Disney Experience app as well and the most up-to-date list of attractions with this option is online. These do change periodically so make sure to check for specifics if there are "Must-Do" attractions you want to experience.
The other unique piece you might want to look into for your upcoming trip is the
virtual queue option for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. You can either try and score a boarding group for the virtual queue or purchase Individual Lightning Lane reservations for this attraction as the traditional stand-by option is not available at this time. This is easily accessible through your My Disney Experience app by tapping the three horizontal lines on the bottom right and then selecting the Virtual Queue tile. Virtual queue times open at 7:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. EST for your chance to experience this attraction.
I hope this information was helpful to clear things up for you and if you have any further questions please feel free to reach out, we would be happy to help!
Have a Magical Day,
Nick