The End of the 7am Rush at Disney?

May 8, 2023, 1:00 PM · Anyone who has visited the Walt Disney World Resort recently likely is familiar with the 7am rush. That's when guests can start buying Disney Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane reservations for the day. With Lightning Lane reservations booking swiftly on many dates, guests must set their alarms to be on the official My Disney Experience app before 7am in order to try to get what they want when sales open.

But now Disney is working on plans to allow guests to buy those products in advance, eliminating the need for the 7am rush when visiting the parks. Disney is not releasing details yet, but did make the commitment to providing advance Disney Genie+ planning and Individual Lightning Lane selections in its new dump today.

"Our goal is to give you the opportunity to spend less time planning in the park and more time enjoying your visit with friends and family," Disney said in its press release.

Back in the Fastpass days, fans could book those ride reservations weeks in advance of their visit. And on the west coast, Disneyland visitors can purchase Disney Genie+ in advance of their visit with ticket combination deals. (You can find those, along with other discounts, on our partner's Disneyland tickets page.)

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Replies (4)

May 8, 2023 at 2:36 PM

In other words, they're going to let guests book ILL and Genie+ when they buy their tickets, weeks or months in advance of actually visiting the parks. That means the products will sell out even faster and be less valuable because guests will be booking blindly without knowing how busy the parks are prior to their visit. As it stands now, guests visiting for multiple days can visit the parks and if they decide that crowds might warrant buying Genie+ or ILLs for the next day of their trip. Now, Genie+ and ILL will sell out months ahead, just like FP+ reservations sold out under the old system.

Not only will this encourage more guests to book the service blindly, but because it will artificially increase the popularity of the services, Disney will feel justified in continuing to increase the prices.

May 8, 2023 at 2:07 PM

My only experience with LL was on Disneyland trip in March but my sister was handling most of that from tickets. Plus VIP tour let us have an unlimited set for one day. So I can understand some hassles even if I can also see why folks will gladly pay to skp some long lines for big stuff.

May 8, 2023 at 3:31 PM

.... as long as they start to allow us to book one particular ride, multiple times, I'll be happy to use Genie+, once in a while.

..... but, will they ??

May 8, 2023 at 3:45 PM

At the very least, the G+ changes has to be the ability to buy earlier than day of visit. I’m sure Disney would like to package it to every single day that a guest has a park ticket and charge a premium for it. In addition, I would speculate Disney will allow for at least one attraction reservation to be make 30-60 days in advance like the old FP+ system, but I doubt three attraction reservations could be made like the old system.

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