Since late 2021, Disney Parks’ Genie+ service has offered tons of special perks for guests of both Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Reservations for dining and rides allowed guests to try and get more out of their park experience, thanks to the convenience of this FastPass replacement. However, a huge change is about to be made to Genie+’s limitations, and it’s quite gigantic.
In an official post on the Disney Parks Blog, it was announced that starting June 8th, guests will be able to start booking their 2023 trips to Walt Disney World. But that good news came with some caveats that previously did not exist for the Genie+ service. Here’s what the changes to the relatively new program will look like:
Starting June 8, Disney Genie+ will only be offered for purchase through the My Disney Experience app on the day of your visit – we will no longer offer the option to purchase this service pre-arrival as a ticket add-on for dates remaining in 2022 and in 2023. This means that, moving forward, whether you have an Annual Pass, multi- or single-day ticket, you may only purchase Disney Genie+ service on the day of your visit via the app, one day at a time, subject to availability.
No matter the level of your ticket, or whether or not you’re staying on property at one of Disney’s many resorts, you’ll only be able to book the Genie+ service on a day by day basis. Previously, guests could pre-purchase access, bolstered by claims that access would never be limited or sell out. In one official statement, these two new changes will shake up the game for parkgoers in the near future.
Two more things worth noting about the Genie+ changes are that, for starters, this is only effective at Orlando’s Walt Disney World. For the time being, Disneyland won’t be seeing any of these changes; though it probably helps that Anaheim’s Genie+ days came a couple months after Orlando. So these changes could come in the near future.
Also, if you’ve prepaid for access to Genie+ at Walt Disney World throughout the rest of 2022, you’re still covered to access it as if nothing changed. Just don’t forget that the entirety of 2023 will usher in those changes for all. That's something all Disney Parks fans will need to keep in mind, seeing as the clock is ticking to that early June cutoff date.
Shortly before its implementation in 2021, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said that Genie+ was supposed to “improve the guest experience” Of course, that didn’t stop the complaints of Disney World guests involving Genie+, as the first day showed off a host of flaws in the heir to FastPass’s reign on the premium Disney Parks experience. The number of Walt Disney World experiences impacted by the Genie+ alterations can’t be understated, as everything from dining to Disney Princess sightings could be reserved under Genie+.
Limiting the scope to availability on a day by day basis is going to crunch down hard on how guests have planned in the past. Not to mention, these restrictions will only make answering the question of whether Genie+ is worth the money or not even more difficult. For now, if you can get a Genie+ reservation in for your 2022 Walt Disney World vacation, it’s recommended you do so before June 8th change in policy.
