Genie Plus & Lightning Lane at EPCOT: Everything You Need to Know

The EPCOT park at Disney World, Florida, is incredibly popular among kids and adults. The diversity of its rides and attractions means that there really is something for everyone.

Of course, due to this, it gets very busy. Waiting in line for the biggest attractions can be a real drag.

That’s where Disney+ and Individual Lightning Lanes come in. Together, they save you loads of time and greatly enhance your EPCOT experience.

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes at EPCOT. Once you’ve read it, you’ll be able to get the most out of your EPCOT visit.

What Is Genie Plus?

Genie+ is a priority service at Walt Disney World that allows you to access the Lightning Lanes on many rides. This saves you a lot of queueing time and makes it easier to plan your days at the park.

It’s available in all areas of Walt Disney World, including EPCOT. It can also be used at Disneyland. This makes it a great option if you’re going to be park-hopping during your family vacation. If you are park-hopping, you don’t need to let Disney know you’ll be doing this.

Unlike with the previous FastPass+ system, you have to pay for Genie+. It’s charged per guest per day. Once you’ve purchased Genie+, you can then make reservations for the attractions you most want to visit.

As you spend less time waiting in line, you have more time to enjoy the many dining, shopping, and ride options at the EPCOT park.

What Are Individual Lightning Lanes At EPCOT?

Genie+ gives you access to most of the Lightning Lanes at EPCOT. However, there are three rides that have Individual Lightning Lanes. So, if you want access to the Individual Lightning Lane for one of these rides, you have to pay separately.

You can then skip the queues at these rides in the same way that you can with Genie+. As with Genie+, you can make Individual Lightning Lane reservations for the most interesting rides.

Again, this saves you a lot of time and means you’ll be able to experience more attractions at EPCOT throughout the day.

How Much Does Genie Plus Cost At EPCOT?

Genie+ costs between $15 and $29 per day. This is charged per person and doesn’t include tax. The reason for the varying prices is that they increase when demand is at its highest. When EPCOT is at its busiest, Genie+ will be at its most expensive.

How Much Do Individual Lightning Lanes Cost At EPCOT?

The cost of an Individual Lightning Lane differs from ride to ride. The price range is between $9 to $17 per person per ride. As with Genie+, the price varies due to demand and the season. If you’re visiting EPCOT during high season, then the cost of an Individual Lightning Lane will be at its highest.

As you probably know, a family vacation to Disney World is already pretty expensive. Adding the cost of Genie+ or Individual Lightning Lane access is going to make it even more expensive.

If you and your family are happy to wait in the free Standby Lines, it may not be worth purchasing either.

When Should I Buy Genie Plus At EPCOT?

Genie+ is available to purchase at 12:00 am on the day of your planned visit to EPCOT. For example, if you’re visiting on May 15, then you can buy Genie+ from midnight on May 15.

This is the case if you’re staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel or just visiting EPCOT for the day.

When Can I Make Genie Plus Reservations?

Once you’ve purchased Genie+, you can start booking ride reservations at 07:00 am on the morning of your visit to EPCOT. All reservations are made via the My Disney Experience app.

The main change from the old FastPass+ system is that Genie+ doesn’t allow you to choose specific return times. This means that you have to accept whatever time slot is next available. The time slots are assigned in order of time. So, the 09:00 am slots are the first to go, and then so on.

Once all of the reservations for a ride have gone, they are gone for the whole day. A reservation will only become available again if someone cancels it.

This means it’s important that you start making your Genie+ reservations as early as possible. The most popular attractions at EPCOT typically sell out before the park actually opens.

If you miss your chance to reserve a Lightning Lane for them, you’ll have to wait in the Standby Line with everyone else.

When Can I Buy Individual Lightning Lanes?

Individual Lightning Lane purchases work slightly differently from Genie+ purchases. The time you can make an Individual Lightning Lane reservation varies. It depends on whether you’re staying in a Disney World hotel or not.

If you are, then you can buy and start making your Individual Lightning Lane selections from 07:00 am on the day of your visit. If you’re not, you can start making your Individual Lightning Lane selections from when EPCOT opens.

This gives guests staying on-site at Disney World a big advantage over those who aren’t.

What Are The Individual Lightning Lane Attractions At EPCOT?

There are currently three Individual Lightning Lane Rides at EPCOT. They are Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Frozen Ever After, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure.

Now, this is where things can get a little bit confusing.

The Lightning Lane at Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind can only be booked as an Individual Lightning Lane Reservation. This means you have to pay per person, per ride.

The other two rides can be booked as Individual Lightning Lanes. However, they are both also included in the Genie+ service. This means that if you don’t want to purchase Genie+, you can still book Lightning Lanes for these two rides.

Yet, they are not purely Individual Lightning Lane attractions. If you buy Genie+, then you can book a Lightning Lane at one or both of these rides as a Genie+ reservation.

If you want to secure a Lightning Lane for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, then you have to make an Individual Lightning Lane reservation.

We hope that clears things up a bit.

What Are The Genie Plus Attractions At EPCOT?

Currently, there are 12 attractions at EPCOT that use the Genie+ service. They are:

• Frozen Ever After
• Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
• Test Track
• Journey Into Imagination with Figment
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• Living with the Land
• Soarin’ Around The World
• The Seas with Nemo & Friends
• Spaceship Earth
• Mission: Space – Orange
• Mission: Space – Green
• Turtle Talk with Crush

Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure are only temporarily part of the Genie+ service. This means that each ride will return to being an Individual Lightning Lane at some point.

Or, it may be that one of the rides will return to being an Individual Lightning Lane, and the other will remain part of Genie+.

High-Priority Genie Plus Attractions At EPCOT

Genie+ isn’t cheap. So, you need to know how to make the most of it. This means you should be aware of which EPCOT attractions to have as your top Genie+ Lightning Lane priorities.

Most attractions sell out daily, and reservations for each ride are limited. Therefore, you need to plan carefully and be sure that you book your reservations in the right order.

This doesn’t necessarily mean booking your favorite rides first. It should be based on how quickly the ride is likely to sell out.

For example, your favorite rides might be The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush, and Living with the Land. Yet, these rides don’t tend to sell out quickly, so they should be a low priority.

The list below is ranked in terms of how popular the rides are and their wait times. It’s not a list based on which rides we think are the best.

Frozen Ever After

When it comes to which ride should be your top priority, it’s hard to separate the top two. Both Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure have very long wait times and sell out quickly.

The average wait times for Frozen Ever After are 70 to 80 minutes. When EPCOT is particularly busy, this can go up to 120 minutes. This means it’s essential to book a Lightning Lane through Genie+. Otherwise, you’ll be wasting a good chunk of the day waiting in line.

Both Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Test Track are nearby. So, if you book this as your number one ride, you can easily access the other two after.

If you want to reserve a space in a Lightning Lane for Frozen Ever After, then it should be your first or second priority.

Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure

Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is just as popular and busy as Frozen Ever After. The wait times can even get longer for this ride than for Frozen Ever After. Again, it’s a toss-up to decide which one you should make your number one priority.

Both rides are very popular with kids, so it might be a case of asking your little ones which ride they prefer. As with Frozen Ever After, the average wait times for this ride are between 70 to 80 minutes. This can go as high as 120 minutes on busy days.

Test Track

Test Track doesn’t sell out quite as quickly as the top two rides, but reservations still go fast. The wait times for Test Track are also high, and they average around 60 minutes. This makes it the ideal choice for your third-highest priority.

However, if Test Track is the ride you and your family are most excited about, it might be worth booking it first. The reservations are still very limited, and there’s no guarantee you’ll secure a Lightning Lane if you book it third.

The good news is that Test Track is close to the top two rides on our list. So, if you can’t get a reservation, you can get there quickly after riding one of the other two. This means that you’ll save time even if you have to wait in the Standby Line for Test Track.

Mission: Space

From this point, the wait times start to drop quite dramatically. At its busiest, it’s unlikely you’ll queue for more than 40 minutes for Mission: Space. Usually, the wait times are between 20 to 40 minutes long. This means that the Lightning Lane reservations don’t sell out as quickly.

You should save Mission: Space as a Genie+ selection for later in the day once the top rides have all sold out.

Soarin’ Around The World

Not long ago, Soarin’ Around The World was the most popular ride at EPCOT. It no longer holds this distinction, but it’s still popular. However, wait times don’t usually exceed 50 minutes unless EPCOT is really busy.

Due to this, we’d recommend having this as your 4th or 5th choice for Genie+ Lightning Lane reservations. Usually, reservations are still available in the afternoon.

Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth is a great ride, but the reservations aren’t as sought-after as the most popular rides. In the late afternoon, the wait times are around 20 minutes. Still, in the mornings, they can be quite high.

We’d recommend choosing this as a late afternoon Genie+ selection. If you want to ride it in the morning, then you should have it as a higher priority selection.

Living With The Land

Soarin’ Around The World is the most popular ride in the Land Pavilion. So, Living with the Land often gets overlooked. The only times that this ride gets very busy are at Christmas and Easter.

For this reason, you should be safe to use this as a late Genie+ reservation.

Journey Into Imagination with Figment

You should only really use a Genie+ reservation for this ride during the holiday season. Outside these times, the queues are usually around 15 minutes long. So, it’s generally best to just get in the Standby Line for this one.

Low-Priority Genie Plus Attractions At EPCOT

Next, we will look at the EPCOT attractions that should be your lowest priority. For these rides, it’s not usually worth using a Genie+ reservation for most of the year.

Turtle Talk with Crush

This isn’t a ride, so using a Genie+ reservation won’t save you any queueing time. However, it does give you access to priority seating. Still, the view from priority seating isn’t that much better than from the standard seating.

So, it’s not usually worth having this as one of your Genie+ reservations.

The Seas with Nemo & Friends

The Seas with Nemo & Friends doesn’t often have wait times that exceed 15 minutes. Plus, there are almost always reservations left at the end of the day. This means that there’s not much point in using a Genie+ selection for this ride unless there’s nothing else left.

Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival

As with Turtle Talk with Crush, a Genie+ reservation for this attraction gets you priority seating. It doesn’t save you any time when it comes to queueing. So, having this as one of your Genie+ selections is not necessary.

Tips For Using Genie Plus At EPCOT

Refresh strategy

When you’re trying to book one of the most popular rides, it’s important to use the ‘refresh strategy.’ Often, a ride will appear to be sold out in the My Disney Experience app but will become available after you refresh the page.

If it doesn’t become available after the first refresh, then keep trying. Refresh the page every two minutes, and it will hopefully become available again.

At peak times, lots of guests are using the app at the same time. Many guests will reserve a ride and then change their minds. This means that rides that were fully booked will then have slots available.

The ‘refresh strategy’ works best from 07:00 am until 07:15 am. You can also try refreshing the page at two-hour intervals during the day. On days when EPCOT opens at 9 am, try refreshing the page at 11 am. This is when many guests are looking to make their second reservations.

Make reservations early

There are no two ways about it. If you want to use Genie+ for the most popular rides, you’re going to need to get up early.

Genie+ reservations open at 07:00 am, so you need to be in the app and ready to go before that. The most popular rides can sell out well before EPCOT opens. If you leave it too late, you’ll most likely miss out on the biggest rides.

Also, don’t wait until 07:00 am to buy Genie+. Try and do this at least 30 minutes before the reservations open. You don’t want to spend time purchasing it when you could be making reservations.

Don’t waste time

You need to act quickly when making your Genie+ reservations. Don’t waste time between bookings. For example, let’s say you choose Frozen Ever After as your first reservation of the day. Once you’re in line for this ride, start making your second reservation.

You shouldn’t wait until after you’ve been on your first ride to book your second. If you do, the second ride might be sold out by the time you get off the first ride. To secure high-priority selections, you need to get proactive!

FAQs

What is a virtual queue at EPCOT?

A virtual queue at EPCOT is a digital queue that you join via the My Disney Experience app. A virtual queue is put in place when the wait times for a ride have become exceptionally long. This means you cannot wait in a Standby Line and have to join the virtual queue instead.

The only way of accessing a virtual queue is via the app.

Can I use Genie Plus during Early Theme Park Entry at Epcot?

At EPCOT, certain guests have access to Early Theme Park Entry. This allows them to enter the park before it opens to other guests. However, Genie+ can’t be used during these times. It can only be used during the normal park opening hours.

Does Genie Plus sell out?

The actual Genie+ ticket add-on doesn’t sell out at any point during the day. You can add Genie+ to your Disney World ticket later in the day if you like. However, popular rides run out of reservations very quickly. So, it’s best to buy Genie+ as early as possible.

Can I book a ride twice in one day with Genie Plus?

No, you can only book a ride once with Genie+ in a day. For example, if you booked Test Track in the morning and then rode it, you would have to wait in the Standby Line to ride it again later in the day.