How Many Rides Can We Do in a Day With Genie+ and Pay-Per-Ride in Disney World? | the disney food blog (2024)

Disney Genie+ JUST debuted in Disney World, and we have so many tips to share with you!

With Genie+, the free Disney Genie system, and Individual Attraction Selection, there’s a lot to learn these days and that can be a hefty task. Is it worth it to navigate the complicated waters of the new tech? Well, today we challenged ourselves to see how many rides we could do in one day using Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selection (pay-per-ride)to find the answer to that question!

What Limits Already Exist With the New Systems?

Let’s start by discussing Disney Genie+. It costs $15 per ticket, per day (plus tax), and includes the ability to book a return time for an attraction, during which time you’ll be able to use that ride’s Lightning Lane and skip the standby line.

You’ll only be able to use an attraction’s Lightning Lane if you purchase Genie+ and reserve a time to visit that attraction in advance. On top of that, you can only book one Genie+ selection at a time, unless you fall under a specific rule.

You can only use Genie+ on each attraction one time per day. So, if you book an early morning pass for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, use it, and then want to ride Thunder Mountain again later in the day…you’ll need to wait in the standby line. So keep that in mind during your trip!

Genie+ is available for over 40 rides in Disney World.

Click Here to See Our Guide to Buying Genie+

Not all rides are available through Genie+. Select highly popular rides are NOT included in the $15 Genie+. In order to skip the lines at these rides, you’ll need to use the Individual Attraction Selection feature (pay-per-ride).With this service, you’ll pay to use the Lightning Lanes at these rides individually.

The price will vary depending on the ride and season. You may only buy two pay-per-ride selections per person for each day.

Click here to see how to book and buy pay-per-ride attractions.

How Many Rides Can You Do in One Day?

So, utilizing Genie+ and Individual Attraction Selection, just how many rides did we get through in each of the parks today? We had several reporters in the parks testing this out — one in Magic Kingdom, one in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, one in EPCOT that later hopped to Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and one that spent the majority of their day in Hollywood Studios.

Magic Kingdom

At Magic Kingdom, our reporter started making Individual Attraction Selection purchases at 9AM, when the park opened, since they weren’t staying at a Disney World hotel. They also made their first Genie+ Lightning Lane Selection at 7AM.

And…by 5:20PM ET they had done nearly EVERY SINGLE ATTRACTION that has a Lightning Lane — either through the Lightning Lane itself or through the standby line. For Lightning Lanes specifically (either as pay-per-ride or Genie+) they did: Splash Mountain, Barnstormer, Dumbo, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, “it’s a small world,” Tomorrowland Speedway, Mad Tea Party, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Pirates of the Caribbean.

When we reached out to this reporter last, they were working their way through some final things in Magic Kingdom and already had a Lightning Lane scheduled for Jungle Cruise. NEARLY EVERY RIDE IN MAGIC KINGDOM FOLKS!

EPCOT

At EPCOT, we also rode attractions through a mix of standby, pay-per-ride, and Genie+.

In terms of Lightning Lanes (either pay-per-ride or Genie+), our reporter in EPCOT got through Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Test Track, Spaceship Earth, Soarin’, and Living with the Land.

In addition to that, they were able to ride Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure using the virtual queue, and rode Frozen Ever After in the standby line thanks to a recommendation from the free Genie planning service. All of that was done by about 4:15PM.

Then, this reporter hopped over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios for some more fun!

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

At Hollywood Studios, the reporter who hopped over from EPCOT arrived and was able to ride Rise of the Resistance using the pay-per-ride selection they had made early in the morning. They were also able to ride Tower of Terror using a Lightning Lane all by about 5:30PM.

A separate DFB reporter spent their morning and has spent some of their afternoon in Disney’s Hollywood Studios. This reporter was able to specifically use Lightning Lanes to ride Aliens Swirling Saucers, Toy Story Mania, and Slinky Dog Dash.This was done by about 4:38 PM.

This reporter had quite an interesting experience though. They made their first Genie+ Lightning Lane selection at 7AM for Slinky Dog Dash, but the return time for Slinky Dog Dash wasn’t until 4-5PM. They were then able to make another Genie+ selection 2 hours after Disney’s Hollywood Studios opened due to the 120 minute rule. The fact that they had to wait those 2 hours to make the next Genie+ selection could have had a large impact on their day.

Also, this reporter purchased a pay-per-ride selection for Rise of the Resistance. When their return time arrived, the ride went down, so they got a redemption pass to come back later. The ride reopened and they were able to ride until…the ride broke down AGAIN and they were evacuated. They then received another redemption pass. That impacted their day as well.

Aside from those rides, the reporter was able to ride some other attractions utilizing single rider or standby.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Finally, we reach Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Much like Magic Kingdom, our reporter was able to do a LOT in this park. Ultimately, our reporter went through nearly every ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom utilizing either (and sometimes BOTH) the standby and lightning lanes.

Specifically, our reporter was able to ride the following rides using Lightning Lanes (either pay-per-ride or Genie+ as appropriate): Expedition Everest, Navi River Journey, Flight of Passage, Kilimanjaro Safaris, DINOSAUR, and Kali River Rapids.

Many of the attractions here had pretty short wait times though. In fact, there were many where the use of a Lightning Lane really made no difference in terms of wait time. But there were others, like Flight of Passage, where there was a substantial difference.

Click here to get a look at the wait times with Genie+ and pay-per-ride.

Those are the results of today’s experiment! Many of our reporters got to do quite a lot by utilizing a combination of pay-per-ride, Genie+, and the standby/single rider lines. In some parks, particularly Magic Kingdom, the use of Genie+ and pay-per-ride was helpful. In a park like Animal Kingdom, the use of Genie+ was not really as impactful, though the purchase of a pay-per-ride for Flight of Passage was beneficial in terms of cutting down on wait times.

If getting through as many rides as possible is your goal in Disney World, carefully consider what park you’ll be visiting and how Genie+ or pay-per-ride could impact your goals. Stay tuned to DFB for all the Disney Genie+ news, updates, tips, and advice for your upcoming trip!

Get all the details on Disney Genie, Genie+, and Individual Attraction Selection here!

Do you think this makes Genie+ worth it? Let us know in the comments!