Hiya, Heidi!
Welcome to planDisney!
This is a great question. The brand new
Disney Genie+ add-on product, which grants purchasers access to attraction
Lightning Lanes as well as includes all of your
Disney PhotoPass digital photo downloads from the same day of purchase, is currently available to add to your vacation in two ways: either at the time of your initial
theme park admission ticket purchase or on each of your Disney days after you've already entered the theme park.
I'm very much a type A person who loves to be organized and ready to go, but I actually rather like the way your visit to Mickey's house is going to shape up. Technically speaking no one can make a
Lightning Lane reservation until they've already entered a theme park; while you might be "behind" the Guests who already have their Genie+ added to their tickets, you'll be able to catch up really quickly because adding the daily purchase is only three or four button clicks in the
Disneyland Mobile App. A bonus is that your party will kind of have the opportunity to test out if you even like G+ on day 1 of your visit to see if you'd like to add it to the rest of your Disney days. Another benefit of booking your visit this way is that if some in your group want to add this handy helper and others don't, you can pay for those who want Genie+ on the days they want it vs. an 'all or none' situation like with the pre-purchase option.
I'm so sorry that this wasn't quite the answer you were sEARching for, Heidi, but I hope that it helped to clEAR up your question! Be sure to follow the
official planDisney Panel Instagram account where we're sharing all kinds of tips and tricks. And if you have any more
Disneyland Resort vacation planning questions, We're All Ears!
~Kristen N.