One of the most common questions I hear from people who are planning Disney vacations is how to use the Genie plus system. Disney definitely wasn’t trying to keep things simple for their guests when they planned out this system but the steps in this article are here to help clear up the confusing steps in the system.

Let’s start with a few definitions you will need to understand when working with Genie plus.

Disney Genie is a free service in the My Disney Experience app that shows you ride wait times and suggests an itinerary to help you make the most of your park day.

Disney Genie plus is a service that you pay for that allows you to book Lightning Lanes along with a few other features.

Lightning Lane is a separate ride entrance that allows you to skip the line and have much shorter wait times. Key tip: Lightning lanes are not a guarantee that you won’t have to wait. Most of the time these lanes are walk-ons, but I have waited up to 15 min.

The first step to getting started with Genie+, is purchasing it. To purchase Genie+ use the steps below. If you’re curious about if Genie+ is worth your money check out my post Disney Genie+ to buy or not to buy.

1. Open the My Disney Experience app
2. Select Genie+ service from the home screen or if you don’t see it on your home screen you can search for it.
3. Select the members of your group that you want to purchase Genie+ for.
4. Select purchase and follow the prompts in the app to complete the transaction.

Tips for purchasing:

• Genie plus must be purchased individually on each day of your trip.
• You can purchase Genie+ at midnight but can’t choose Lightning Lanes until 7a.m.
• Make sure you have your party and your credit card loaded into the app before you want to make your purchase. The high demand rides can sell out in minutes. Not having your app set up will slow you down and may cause you to miss the Lightning Lane you wanted.

Booking your Lightning Lane reservations:

1. Open your My Disney Experience app.
2. Go to My Day
3. On the tip board, you can see what Lighting Lanes are available and what time the Lightning Lane is for. Select the ride that you want.
4. Confirm your selection.

Helpful hints for booking Lightning Lanes:

• Book your first Lightning Lane at 7 a.m. You can book your next Lightning Lane 120 minutes later even if you aren’t in the park. If you are planning a later morning arrival at the park, this can mean that you will have multiple LL’s booked before you even enter the park.
• Take screenshots of your Genie+ purchase and all of the Lightning Lanes you book. The Disney app can glitch or crash and if you have a screenshot, you can show that to a cast member as proof of what you had.
• You can pin the attractions that you are the most interested in so that they will show at the top of the list.
• Refresh, refresh, refresh! If you don’t see what you want or don’t like the available time, try refreshing your screen. Sometimes you will see LL’s pop up even when it has previously shown that there were none available. Refreshing can also be useful if you are trying to get a different time slot. If you are ready to book a LL and there is nothing available in the near future, try refreshing a few times to see if a closer time will pop up.
• When you book your LL it will give you a 1 hour arrival window. Use your LL at the beginning of that window. You can book the next LL as soon as you scan into the ride so going at the beginning of your 1 hour window, allows you to get to the next LL sooner.

Working with Disney Genie plus can seem overwhelming but once you get started, it really isn’t bad. Hopefully the tips above will help get you started and make your Disney vacation even more magical!