We’ve created a simple guide to the upgraded Disney World Fastpass service complete with everything you need to know about reservations, planning ahead, magic bands and the best Fastpass+ attractions. 

Disney Has Replaced Its FastPass With Disney Genie

When the theme parks at the Disneyland Resort in California and Walt Disney World in Florida reopened after having closed for the pandemic, they did not offer the line-skipping programs FastPass+ (at Disney World) Fastpass and MaxPass (at Disneyland). Temporarily halting the programs was one of many changes the parks made amid the pandemic.

What Is Disney Genie+?

Disney Genie+, one of the new line skipping options, resembles Disneyland’s MaxPass program. As with MaxPass, Disney Genie+ costs $20 per day per person at Disneyland. It costs $15 per day, per person at Disney World.

The service, which can be accessed through Disney World’s My Disney Experience and Disneyland’s apps, allows users to choose the next available times at participating attractions and experiences on the days of their visits. When it is time to return, guests can use special Lightning Lane entries to skip the standby lines.

With Disney Genie+, guests are able to listen to audio vignettes about the attractions, presumably while they are waiting to board rides. The snippets include expert commentary from Imagineers. At Disneyland, the extra-charge service includes unlimited Disney PhotoPass downloads as well. Disney World instead tosses in augmented reality PhotoPass “lenses”that allow visitors to take enhanced photos with their digital devices.

According to Disney, popular attractions such as Haunted Mansion, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad are included with Disney Genie+.

In addition to Disney Genie+, Disney is giving visitors the option to purchase Individual Lightning Lane reservations at up to two especially high-demand attractions per day.

Also, by replacing the complimentary Fastpass and FastPass+ programs with the paid Disney Genie+ program, a lot fewer visitors will likely opt to participate. Therefore, fewer people will be sashaying past the folks in the regular queues and skipping the lines. That should reduce the wait times in the standby lines, thereby making them more tolerable.