Hiya, Dwight! Thanks so much for flying in to planDisney with your question. Your magic carpet ride to the Happiest Place on Earth is just a few days away!
Dwight, with new ticket purchases, Disney Genie+ can be selected as an add-on (this feature was added somewhat recently.) If you already have your tickets, you’ll have to wait until arrival to add the Disney Genie+ service. As soon as you go through the turnstile, open the Disneyland mobile app, tap on “My Genie Day” and click the link titled “Get Disney Genie+ for Today.” You can opt to add it individually for each day of your visit. You will have the option to purchase it for all Guests whose tickets are linked to your Disneyland account.
You are going to love the phenomenal cosmic power of Disney Genie+. My family and I are so glad we dug that lamp out of the Cave of Wonders just in time for our trip. This is no ordinary lamp! We saved hours of time waiting in standby queues by leveraging the 19 Lightning Lanes available to us. Here are a few more tips in using Disney Genie+:
- You can pick one Lightning Lane per attraction per day. For instance, you can use the Lightning Lane for Space Mountain only once in a day, but you could opt to use the standby queue if you want to ride through space more than once that day.
- There are three attractions not included in Genie+ - these have Individual Lightning Lanes you can purchase ‘a la carte’ per ride. You don't need to have Genie+ to purchase Individual Lightning Lanes. These Individual Lightning Lanes can be purchased for up to two different attractions each day, so plan accordingly because you can’t do all three Individual Lightning Lane attractions in a single day.
- The easiest way to find available Lightning Lane windows is in the app under the Tip Board. As you scroll down, for the attractions that have Lightning Lanes, you'll see "LL Disney Genie+" with a link to "Book Experience."
- You can make your next selection right after your current selection has been redeemed. But, if it’s been more than 120 minutes from the time you made that selection, even if your current selection’s arrival window hasn’t started, you can make a new selection! Example: at 9:00 a.m. you made a Lightning Lane selection for Space Mountain, whose arrival window starts at 1:00 p.m.. At 11:00 a.m., you can make another Lightning Lane selection, even though you haven’t redeemed your Space Mountain Lightning Lane yet. Pro tip from my daughter - set a timer on your phone to remind you when to make your next selection!
- Unique to Disneyland Resort, Genie+ gives you complimentary access to Disney PhotoPass for the day. This is a huge perk for my family! When you link attraction photos as well as those taken by Disney PhotoPass Photographers, you’ll have access to unlimited digital downloads for the day. Be sure to ask the photographer about taking a Magic Shot which includes special effects or character surprises - they are so fun!
It's a whole new world out there – the magic awaits!
Kamini