The two Walt Disney World theme parks with the fewest Genie+ lightning lane attractions are Epcot and Animal Kingdom. Epcot has nine and Animal Kingdom has eight. This is a far smaller amount that Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

Also, just like Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, there are several Genie+ lightning lane attractions that may not be worth your use of lightning lane spot. Remember under standard circumstances you can only hold one lightning lane at a time.

At Epcot, the attractions that will not be valuable use of your lightning lane selections are:

• Disney & Pixar Short Film Festival
• Journey Into Imagination with Figment
• Living with the Land
• The Seas with Nemo and Friends
• Turtle Talk with Crush

As you can see that only leaves you four Genie+ lightning lane attractions that have real value.

I would suggest if you purchased Genie+ on an Epcot day then choose attractions in this order:

1. Test Track
2. Soarin’ Around the World
3. Mission Space (if you want to ride Green side! If only wanting to ride Orange, then move this to last)
4. Spaceship Earth

If you think that is a small list, we should examine Animal Kingdom options.

The eight lightning lane attractions at Animal Kingdom are:

• The Animation Experience at Rafiki’s Planet Watch
• Celebration of the Festival of the Lion King
• Dinosaur
• Feathered Friend in Flight
• It’s Tough to Be a Bug
• Kali River Rapids
• Kilimanjaro Safari
• Na’vi River Journey

Of this list, only four of them have any real value using a Genie+ lightning lane.

The suggested order of priority at Disney’s Animal Kingdom would be:

1. Na’vi River Journey
2. Kilimanjaro Safari
3. Dinosaur
4. Kali River Rapids

Now if that list does not look very impressive to you then we reach the first issue.

Should someone purchase Genie+ if they are visiting Epcot or Animal Kingdom?

Initial evaluations are probably not.

Now, we have not factored in park hopping yet. You might find purchasing Genie+ for a day when you are going to MK or DHS at some point to be worth it even if you are spending part of day in Epcot or AK. Of course, you may decide to do a real long day starting at Animal Kingdom at 8am or earlier.

You could then park hop to Epcot to finish the day. Having Genie+ would make it much easier to ensure you would complete all desired attractions in both parks in more relaxed fashion. This would give you time to enjoy the attractions without a lightning lane.

You could also consider waiting in longer standby queues for Flight of Passage and Frozen Ever After to avoid having to pay for an individual attraction access lightning lane for those. We will need more data to conclude how to use Genie+ on days guest intend to park-hop.

CONCLUSION:

Truly, none of us want to spend money on something that used to be free at Walt Disney World. Yet, this is where we are with Genie+. If you are only going to Animal Kingdom or Epcot on a slow to moderate crowd level day, then Genie+ may not help you very much. You could save your $15 plus tax per person for a nice quick service meal or some items from a food festival booth.

In contrast, if you are starting (or ending) your day at Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios, then buying Genie+ has great value.

Since many guests park hop during their day, you have options. You could start at Epcot with a plan to park hop to Magic Kingdom around 2pm. With that plan, you could rope-drop attraction at Epcot while booking Genie+ lightning lanes at Magic Kingdom for after 2pm. Now, you could show up at Magic Kingdom with three lightning lane in hand already for Magic Kingdom walking in like a VIP with almost no wait in the middle of afternoon. The options are limitless. Only time will tell as we examine guest reports and crowd data to see how Genie+ can be wisely used by theme park guests.

What do you think? Comment and let us know!