Disney Genie Plus Strategy, Tips & Tricks for Hollywood Studios at Walt Disney World 

Would you happen to know what happens if, for example, I pay for Rise of the Resistance for the full family and then one of the kids decides they don’t like the ride, would I be able to use their purchased ride on another member of my party to ride again? Seems like a waste of money if a party member backs out of wanting to ride at the last minute. I’m also not clear how child swap works with purchased lightening lanes. Can the parent still take another guest on with them, if that guest has already paid and ridden the ride with another member of the party?

Thank you so much for this lovely comment. That means a lot coming from a Cast Member. Thank YOU for all you do to make our experiences so magical when we are in the parks. 😃

Hello! If someone in your group decides they do not want to ride and you’d like for someone else to ride instead, just have that person use their Magic Band or park ticket card to tap in at the entrance. You have paid for the LL so anyone can use it. They will not check ID or anything. As for Rider Swap, I do not know for certain how that works on Individual Attraction LL’s like Rise. I will make a note to find out for you next time I am in Hollywood Studios. Thanks for watching!

@@EarScouts thank you so much and keep up the great videos. Love watching your practice trips. I’d love to know your thoughts on the alternative approach to Genie+ and stacking rides throughout the day while you relax at the hotel and then attend the park in the evening to smash through all reservations close together without needing to play the slots while in the park. Maybe an idea for another video :)

Thanks for the suggestion! 😃

I love that our videos are a part of your multitasking! 😂 Thanks for watching! 😃

Sorry I’m so late responding - it’s been crazy with the holidays. Hope you had an amazing vacation! Thanks for watching and leaving this awesome comment. Happy new year!!! 🎊

Hello! Thanks so much for this kind comment. Sorry it has taken me so long to respond. We went to Anaheim for a week to attend the D23 Expo and to do some videos in Disneyland and we are just now getting caught up. 😂 It has definitely been a whirlwind since the Genie Plus video took off and we are so grateful to folks like you who have supported our channel and left encouraging messages like this one, so thank you. Hope you have an amazing trip! 😃

Aww - thanks so much for this sweet comment! I can’t wait to hear how your trip goes in October. Good luck with the Genie Slots!!! 🍀🧞‍♂️🎰

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to leave us this lovely comment - we really appreciate it. 😃

Thank you! So glad you liked the video (and the Slinky Dog ears). 😃

Thanks so much for watching! Hope you have a great time at the parks. 😃

Thank you! 😃

Aww - thank you! ❤️

Aww - thanks. We appreciate all the support and good vibes you bring to our channel with comments like this. 😀

I’m at a Boston-themed restaurant right now and the menu is absolutely covered in the word “wicked.” 😂 Thanks for continuing to support our channel - we really appreciate it!

Thanks for checking out our new video - you were early and we appreciate it! 😃 That monsoon came out of nowhere. You can really see it in the video - it was blue skies and then bam! 😂 That’s Florida in the summer.

Thanks so much for watching and sharing our videos with your friends! That helps our channel immensely and we really appreciate it! 😃

Thanks so much! Erick does a lot of the editing and he’ll be glad to hear you enjoyed it. 😃

Thanks so much, Dan!

Hi Clara - thanks so much! Your comment brought a smile to my face. 😊

Aww - thanks so much. We really appreciate your support of our channel! 😃

Thanks so much! 😃

Thank YOU for watching! 😃

So glad to hear it! Thank YOU so much for watching. We really appreciate it. 😃

Good luck! 🍀🧞‍♂️🎰

Thanks Todd! I’m glad you enjoyed it because I felt a little conflicted about this one. Things definitely didn’t go nearly as well as they typically do for us at Hollywood Studios and I considered re-shooting it. But then I had the same thought you mentioned here. It seemed good to share that not every day is perfect and we still had a great time and got (almost) everything done. We’ve gotten great feedback on it, so I’m glad we went this direction. Thanks - as always - for watching and leaving helpful comments like this one! 😃

It’s crazy! 🤪 We’ve been so lucky to have such an amazing community of people following our channel here on RU-vid. We really appreciate you guys - thank you! 😃

Awesome - hope you have a great trip. Good luck with those Genie Slots!!! 🍀🧞‍♂️🎰

Hi Sarah! We’re so glad to hear that. Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to let us know how your trip is going - we really appreciate it! 😃 Are you still at WDW?

Aww - thanks so much. And extra thanks for recommending us! Our channel is growing so fast thanks to amazing and supportive people like you - thank you! 😃

It wasn’t our perfect day, for sure. But it all worked out in the end. 😃 Thanks for watching - please let us know how everything goes!

It was a pleasure meeting you, as well! Thanks so much for taking the time to leave this note and let us know how everything went. Time to start planning the next trip yet? 😄

Thanks so much for saying hi - it was lovely meeting you! Glad to hear you had a great trip and got to ride Rise! ❤️

Thanks so much, Todd. I’m glad you enjoyed it. I sing along every time. 😂 I’m like you, the first time I went I was thinking “this probably isn’t going to be my cup of tea” but it is so good! I enjoyed reading this - thanks so much for sharing this comment. 😃

So exciting! Good luck with the Genie Slots and thanks so much for watching our videos. 😃

Hi Natalia - thanks so much for watching. This is such a beautiful time to be in the parks, the decorations are just amazing! Hope you have an amazing vacation. 🎄😃

Thanks so much, Katrina! I hope you have an amazing day next time you’re in the parks - and good luck with those Genie Slots! 🍀🧞‍♂️🎰

That’s great to hear. We love reducing Disney anxiety levels! Hope you have an amazing trip! 😃

Thanks so much! Hope you have an amazing trip - you’ll have to let us know how it goes. 🤞 Good luck!

Thanks so much! We’re so glad you enjoyed the video. 😃 That sounds like a great plan. We have a video coming soon where we do early entry at Hollywood Studios. I think you’ll find it helpful. Thanks for watching!

Thanks so much, Joseph! We’re so glad you had a good experience in the parks. And thank you for taking the time to let us know how everything went. 😃

😂 - thanks so much. We love making these videos, so it’s really awesome to hear when other people enjoy what we’re doing. 😃

Thanks so much, Vicki! I really do enjoy riding the rides and trying all the food at the parks. It never gets old for me and I really hope it never does. 😃

Thanks so much and welcome to the channel - we appreciate your kind note and hope you enjoy the new videos we have in the works! 😃

Thanks so much - we’re so glad you enjoyed it. 😀

Congratulations on your wedding!!! Hope you have an unforgettable trip - you’ll have to let us know how everything goes! 😃

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to let us know how your trip went - we really appreciate it! Glad to hear you had a great time at the parks! 😃

Hi Heather! It was great meeting you. Thanks so much for saying hi! Hope you had a great time at the parks. 😃

Thank YOU so much for watching! 😃

Thanks Kimberly! If you haven’t watched it yet, be sure to check out the 27 tips video - it was basically the first in our Genie series and it adds a lot more to what we cover in this one. Thanks for watching! 😃

@@EarScouts oof .. that is the video I watched and was referring to, not sure how my comment ended up on this video! Lol 🤷‍♀️ But no matter I plan to watch all your videos!

That’s so nice to hear! Thanks for watching and best of luck with those Disney Genie Slots! 🍀🧞‍♂️🎰

Lol - yes. Lots of people have been asking when this one was coming. 😂 Thanks for watching and supporting what we do. We really appreciate it! 😃

Hi Carmela - nicely done! 🙌 Thanks for taking the time to let us know how your day went at Hollywood Studios. 6:30 pm is great! 😃

Awesome - we can’t wait to hear how things go. Thanks for watching!

Thanks so much for watching, Diana. We hope you have great luck with the Genie Slots! 🍀🧞‍♂️🎰

Thanks so much, Stacey! May the force be with you. 😃 Hope you guys have a great day at Galaxy’s Edge.

Thank you so much for watching and sharing this awesome comment. We really appreciate it! 😃

@@EarScouts I need help with one thing...I watched your video on how to book and cancel a Lightning Lane for some in the party that don't want to go. My question is...Can you do the same thing with a pay per ride like Guardians Of The Galaxy? Do you get a refund or credit on the purchase or is it different than Genie Plus and you''re just out of luck? Thanks!

I have never tried, but it is my understanding that you cannot cancel an Individual Attraction Lightning Lane for a refund. The only way to get a refund is if the ride goes down during your window and you are unable to ride due to the timing of when it reopens or because it doesn’t reopen at all. If it never reopens, the refund should be automatic, but if it reopens later and you choose not to go (because of conflicting plans, for example) you would have to go to Guest Relations and request the refund.

@@EarScouts Thanks!

That was a really fun experience - did you enjoy it? Thanks so much for watching and saying hi! 😃

Thanks so much - we’re glad you found it helpful! We ended up invoking the two hour tule more than I intended in this video. 😂 But as you can see, it still works out. If you play those slots, you can always get everything done that you want to do…eventually. Please let us know how it goes!!! Good luck. 🍀🧞‍♂️🎰

@@EarScouts Love your vids!! Just wanted to know, if I make a Genie+ reservation early in the morning, is it possible to buy ROTR even before riding the Genie + one?

@@noams1000 You can’t get a genie+ reservation for ROTR. It is only the ILL (pay to ride) or the standby lane so the only way to ride it twice is to stand in line AND purchase the Individual Lighting Lane.

Thanks! I would say that we actually had a harder time in this video than we normally do getting return times that were close to when we booked them. It is usually a little easier, but the park was very crowded and I think a lot of people were using Genie Plus. We noticed that all of our Lightning Lane lines were a bit longer than usual. I would expect that most days you can snag a return time for Mickey & Minnie that is an hour or less away by playing the Genie Slots. It depends on crowd level, though and you’ll get a feel as the day goes on. If you have a lot of early luck, it might be worth playing the slots longer for even better return times. If you feel like you aren’t getting anything good even after playing for 10-15 minutes, you might need to grab whatever halfway decent time you can get. I feel like this video shows it on a day that is about as hard as it usually gets. Christmas or July 4 would probably be worse (for example), but not by much.

@@EarScouts Thank you for taking the time to write this detailed reply! I appreciate all of the info, and the videos, and the fact that you reply to viewer comments! I love your channel… can’t wait to put these tips to use this fall! Thanks for all of your hard work!

Yes! Those had been out of stock for ages and I found them in Magic Kingdom when we were making our Genie video. 😃 Thanks for continuing to watch out videos - we really appreciate it!

Thanks so much for watching and taking the time to let us know how your trip went - we really appreciate it! 😃

Hi Paige! Sorry for the delay. We have been moving this past week and life has been a little crazy. 🤪 I definitely recommend rope dropping Rise. We made a video all about early entry at Hollywood Studios and we showed the two most popular options - Slinky vs Rise. In your case, I’d say book Slinky as your first LL and go do Rise at early entry. Just be sure you are there really early. You can see more details in that video I mentioned. Good luck! 🍀

Great advice. It’s always fun to experience something you love in a new way. And I do love water rides, so it might have been amazing. 😂 It’s actually rare to get to ride those rides in the rain because they usually get shut down pretty quickly. I’m going to make it a point to try a rainy day coaster at my next opportunity. Thanks for watching! 😃

😂 Slinky was NOT a fan of that elevator. 🤣 Thanks for watching!

Thank you! I use the ones that have little tiny screws and they come with a mini allen wrench. You can buy them at the pin stores at Disney World, but I get them much cheaper through Amazon.

Wow! That sounds like an epic day! Thanks for watching and taking the time to let us know how your day went. 😃

Thanks for the vote of confidence, Dan! 😃

Aww - thanks so much.😃 The way the system works is this: whenever you badge in at a ride, it will first use a standard Genie Plus Lightning Lane if one is available. If one is not available and there is a bonus LL, it will use that. So as long as you don’t try to badge in somewhere you don’t currently have a Lightning Lane reservation (and at the correct time) you should be fine. If it ever accidentally ate your Bonus LL, they would likely help you at Guest Relations, but that is not likely to happen if you badge in with a valid regular LL. Thanks for watching!

Hello! We just did early entry twice to film our early entry video and we did Rise first on one day and Slinky first on the other. What’s cool about doing Rise first is that if you are toward the very front of the line (you’ll need to be at DHS really early - like 7:15 to 7:20) they will actually let you start the ride before early entry even begins. The downside is that the ride is often slow to start working for the day, so you might get stuck. It’s a bit of a gamble, but a fun one. If you do Rise first, I’d book Slinky as my first LL. If you do Slinky first, I’d book Tower of Terror as my first LL because it is still running at half capacity.

Hi Shauna - thanks so much for watching! I have good news and bad news. The good news is that everyone can book a Genie Plus Lightning Lane at 7am - no special hotel needed. The bad news is that this is not true for Individual Attraction Lightning Lanes like Rise of the Resistance. If the park is super busy, you might have trouble booking Rise, but most days there are still reservations available when the park opens (which is when you can book). Fingers crossed you won’t have any issues. You’ll have to let us know how it goes. 🤞

Hi Lori! We are planning a series of park hopping videos using Genie Plus. Not sure which parks we will hop to/from yet, but I’ll add this request into the mix. Thanks for watching! 😃

Hi Mary Ann - thanks for watching and for this suggestion. Multiple people have asked for us to do a series about our “perfect day” in each of the parks. I think this might be how we will approach it. Less zigzagging and more of a leisurely pace, but still getting everything done.

@@EarScouts That sounds amazing. I'd watch that just to get a Disney fix. Picking up tips would just be icing on the cupcake.

Wow - that sounds dreadful. We sure hope you come back soon and enjoy the parks with normal crowds and lots of luck with the Genie Slots. Thanks so much for watching! 😃

Thanks so much for watching our videos! This is a very good question and I don’t know the answer. My suspicion is that it will let you as long as they are linked to your account, but I honestly don’t know for sure. If you try it out, please let us know what happens - I’m very curious. Good luck! 🍀

@@EarScouts Thanks! I will let you know. 😁

Hi Priscilla! Last time I checked, you could use Genie to meet Mickey and Minnie in Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom (MK was just Mickey when I was last there). Hollywood Studios didn’t offer a Lightning Lane for Mickey and Minnie, though you could use Genie Plus to meet other characters.

Thank you! That sounds like a great plan. Genie will be more useful in the DHS part of your day. Hope you have a great trip - let us know how it goes!

@@EarScouts we are back from our trip and this strategy worked out pretty well. The only problem is that Genie won't let you pick a later time for your LL, it's just first available (after 2pm if it's for the park you are hopping to). So, I actually booked Festival of the Lion King for our first LL because there were no late times at HS yet and this was the only thing we were planning to do at AK that might need a LL. Then, I got Slinky Dog, Millennium Falcon, MMRR, TSMM, and Alien SS stacked for the evening. Those were all the rides we wanted so it worked out great. But, I could have gotten them in a little better order if I could pick the times I wanted when I wanted a time later than Genie was showing me.

Yes - that is the biggest challenge with stacking. Usually the times get late relatively quickly for Slinky Dog, but lots of rides take forever to show return times late in the day. I really wish they would let you manually choose a later time. Thanks for letting us know how everything went!

We have not yet tried either of those, but you are the second person to ask us this question so we might need to check these out in a future video. Thanks for watching!

Thank you so much for the Super Thanks, Richard! We'll put that to good use at Mickey's Not-So-Scary Halloween Party tonight. 🎃 We're so glad you have enjoyed our videos and found them helpful. We hope you have an epic vacation - maybe we'll bump into you at the parks while you are here so we can thank you in person. Safe travels! 😃

Hello - and thanks for the suggestion! We really need to do some more videos without Genie Plus. Hope we can get some up before your trip. Thanks for watching! 😃

Hello! We get this question a lot and so we actually included a detailed explanation of how this works in our original Epcot genie video - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Q2iNrCOPonY.html The short answer is that you will see the exact same return times that we do whether you are a party of 1 or a party of 12. Unlike FastPass before it, Genie doesn’t make it more difficult for large parties to book Lightning Lanes. Thanks for watching!

Hi Jessica! Sorry for the delay in responding. We were in Anaheim last week and we are finally getting caught up. 😅 These are great questions. If you book right at 7am on the dot, you will get a good return time. I have never gotten a return time that was not within the first 15 minutes of the park opening when booking right at 7am. If you are late to book the first ride, that can be a different story. I would suggest trying to get something within the first hour of park time if you are late booking the first ride. As far as what is a good return time - it really depends on the crowd level, the particulars of the attraction (for example - has it been down for a lot of the day, which would cause Lightning Lanes to get backed up a bit). The best way to know what a good return time is is to simply play the slots for a good 10 minutes or so. If you get a return time that is within the next 20 minutes or so and it is a popular ride, just grab it. It's not worth wasting more time playing the slots for an extra 5-10 minutes on your return time. I also suggest editing your selections and playing for two rides at once. That way, you can see what return times look like for both as you play and you'll have more luck snagging a good time on one of them. Typically, anything under 15 minutes is great and you should just grab it. 15 minutes to 30 minutes is also really good and I would only keep playing if it was a less popular ride. If it is busy and a very popular ride, 30 minutes to 60 minutes is okay and I might just settle for it, especially if I have other things I want to do like grab a snack or shop. Over 60 minutes is typically when I will keep playing the slots. Keep in mind, though - just like a real slot machine, you don't ALWAYS win. Unlike a real slot machine, you USUALLY win, but there is no guarantee so trust your gut. If you play for ten minutes and the time just keeps getting worse and never seems to get better, cut your losses and book it or try playing for something else. I'll usually play for something else and try again later and that usually ends up working out well for me. That is a really long answer, but hopefully it helps. 😂

@@EarScouts thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my questions. That really helps!

Awesome! Very nicely done. 🙌 And thanks for the shout outs - we really appreciate it. 😃

Wow - that’s a lot to pack into 4 hours. Nicely done! Thanks so much taking the time to let us know how your trip went - we really appreciate it! 😃

@@EarScouts thanks! I learned from the best!

Hi Eli! First off, thanks for watching. 😃 As for the Individual Attraction LL for Rise of the Resistance, it will ask you who in your party you wish to book for, so it is easy to filter out those who don’t wish to ride. Hope you have an amazing trip!

So glad to hear it all worked out! 😃 Thanks for letting us know how everything went.

Hi Tamara - yes, if you need to book an Individual Attraction LL and regular LL at 7am (and/or a Virtual Boarding Group for Guardians of the Galaxy) it is best to have multiple people helping. Just make sure you are linked in My Disney Experience and set up so you can manage each other’s Lightning Lanes, etc. Each person can log into their own account on their own device and work on these different tasks at the same time. Good luck! 😃