Vacations are supposed to be fun and reduce your stress level. Unfortunately, if you’re taking a vacation to Disneyland or Walt Disney World, that isn’t always the case. There’s a lot of work that can go into planning such a vacation, and almost as much that’s needed once you’re there. What can you bring to Disneyland? Where is the best food at Walt Disney World? Luckily, there have been some changes in recent months that have improved the situation, at least at Walt Disney World.
Disney World has had multiple iterations of a line-skipping option, originally called FastPass, over the years. When the system was brought back following the global pandemic, it was introduced as Genie+, and it gave guests the option to select rides where they could skip the line all from their mobile phone, which was great if you like trying to buy hard-to-get concert tickets. I've visited Disney World a lot and used every version of this system, and Genie+ was not my favorite.
How Genie+ Was Like A “Taylor Swift Concert”
The major issue with Genie+, other than the fact that it was no longer free like FastPass+, was that the system went live each day at the same time. This meant that when it came to making your first Genie+ selection of the day, basically everybody who bought Genie+ was trying to book the most popular attractions all at the same time. As Touring Plans’ Len Testa told Bloomberg, it was…
A Taylor Swift concert-level competition kickstarting each morning of your vacation.
As one can imagine, that level of stress, sitting on your phone getting ready to click through a menu every single morning of what was likely a multi-day Disney World vacation, isn’t the way people want to start their day when taking time off. People want to relax and take their time.
Even if rushing to get in line at Disney World's newest attractions is how people want to start their day, Genie+ meant a lot of people might start their day with disappointment if they didn’t get to do the ride they wanted when they wanted to do it.
Lightning Lane Multi-Pass Is Better, But Only At Walt Disney World
Luckily, things have changed slightly at Walt Disney World. The recently implemented Lightning Lane Multi-Pass takes a step back to the way the old FastPass+ system worked before it was discontinued. Guests can now book up to three Lightning Lanes before they visit the park. Guests staying at Disney World hotels can do so seven days before check-in, everybody else can do so three days before check-in.
Testa calls this a "huge change in the right direction" and I certainly agree. There is still an element of racing to be the first. A lot of people will be trying to book Lightning Lanes at the same time each day. However, getting this done before you enter the park will take some of the stress out of the days in the park themselves, and that’s a good thing.
Of course, this change is only valid at Walt Disney World. Disneyland Resort, while it has changed the name of its system to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass just like Disney World, hasn’t changed the way the system works. For those two parks, you’re still booking return times one at a time the day you’re in the park.
Taking all the stress out of a vacation is probably impossible, but maybe someday Disney Parks will figure out how. Until then, all we can do is try to have as much fun as possible and not think about how much it costs to have that much fun.
