6 Ways To Fully Enjoy Disneyland Without Buying Genie Plus

In late 2021, Disney announced their newest line-skipping service, Disney Genie+. Since its debut, it has been praised by some, but loathed by most.

Genie plus costs park-goers an extra $20 per person, per day ($15 at Disney World), on top of what they’ve already paid for their ticket. That can be preventable for some.

You may be thinking your park experience will be diminished if you don’t purchase it. While it certainly does provide you with advantages, it’s absolutely possible to have a great time without it.

Our favorite Disney-centric YouTube channel, Fresh Baked Disney, recently did a video about this (you can view that below), but we’ve decided to put our own version together as well.

Be sure to show them some love by watching the above video and subscribing to their channel. David and his team are huge Disney fans and are constantly putting out great content.

Let’s get into it!

---

1) Rope Drop

Any Disney fan worth their salt will tell you that rope drop is a must. Especially if you’re short on time. It’s the number one way to knock out a lot of rides in a short amount of time.

Essentially, if you’re not here for rope drop, you’ll already be playing catch up by the time you arrive. Whether you’re buying Genie+ or not.

Typically, Disney opens the gates 30-minutes prior to the official park opening time. So if the park opens at 8am, the gates open at or around 7:30am.

Despite the gates opening, the furtherest you’ll get to go is the hub (the area around the Castle). You’ll see literal ropes blocking access to each land.

At 8am (the presumed opening time), Cast Members will take the ropes down and you’ll then be free to go about your day. Where you begin brings us to number two on the list…

2) Start at Tomorrowland

Much like David, we also recommend beginning your day at Tomorrowland. It has the most rides in one land that are included in Genie Plus. Those rides are:

• Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters

• Autopia

• Star Tours: The Adventures Continue

• Space Mountain (This attraction has consistently long lines throughout the day)

If you line up at the rope for Tomorrowland, you’ll easily be able to knock out every Genie Plus attraction within 90-minutes or so. Space Mountain is practically a walk-on during this time.

There’s simply no need for Genie Plus during the first hour or so of rope drop. Most attractions will have a stand-by of 15-minutes or less while some will be a walk-on.

Since Tomorrowland has the most Genie Plus attractions, it makes the most sense to start there. When you’re done, you can start utilizing another advantage…

3) Single Rider Queues

You may not be aware of this, but there are a few attractions in Disneyland that cater to single riders. This is done in an effort to fill ride vehicles as much as possible.

The Disneyland Park attractions that currently offer this are:

• Matterhorn Mountain Bobsleds

• Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run

• Splash Mountain (currently under refurbishment)

• Indiana Jones Adventure (currently paused)

The attractions that offer single rider at California Adventure are:

• Goofy’s Sky School

• Grizzly River Run

• Incredicoaster

• Radiator Springs Racers (a big saver considering this is a Lightning Lane premium attraction)

• WEB Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure (New)

Keep in mind that with single rider, you probably will not ride in the same vehicle with your party. Hence the name. You also don’t get to pick your seat. You go where they need you to go.

If you’re ok with not experiencing the attraction with your party, it can be a huge time saver for all of you. This method doesn’t work well with families with small children, though.

4) Save Non-Genie+ Rides for The Afternoon

There’s a reason why not all attractions are available on Genie+; it’s either their lines don’t get very long or they tend to move quickly.

The two most notable names not included are Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise. Also, Fantasyland dark rides are not included as well.

Based on research, the busiest time of day for Lightning Lane attractions is the afternoon. That’s when most people utilize the service because typically, that’s the busiest time of day.

So if your goal is to not purchase Genie+, a smart tactic for you would be to ride the non-Genie+ attractions in the middle of the day.

5) Look For Stand-By Opportunities in the App

The Disneyland app is a great resource for all park goes. One of the main features of the app is being able to see the wait times at each attraction.

Let’s say you want to ride Matterhorn and the app says the stand-by is 80-minutes. Most people, when they see that, are not going to want to wait in that queue. That’s the advantage!

The reason why that’s an advantage is because the app doesn’t update in real time. So a ton of people check the app, see an 80-minute wait, and head elsewhere. Meanwhile, that line continues to diminish.

So by the time you arrive, that 80-minute wait could have actually turned into a more manageable 45-minute wait. It’s not guaranteed, but if that attraction is important to you, it’s worth a shot.

6) Save Rise of the Resistance For Later

In case you haven’t heard, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, has become the undisputed top attraction at Disneyland Park. The consistent 2-3 hour stand-by queue confirms that.

In short, there’s no real way to “beat” Rise. Your only two options are to wait in the stand-by or purchase a Lightning Lane premium.

You could get here super early for rope drop and head straight for Rise. Our good friends did this and managed to get on fairly quickly each day. However, you’ll be in a massive crowd of others doing the same thing.

Your other option is to save it for after 7pm. By this point, all or most of the Lightning Lane passes would have been used, making the stand-by move a bit quicker.

Just keep in mind that the queue for Rise typically closes 2-3 hours prior to park closing time. This is due to technical glitches that often occur on this attraction causing them to have to reset it regularly.

Another thing you could do is skip it all together. Especially if nobody in your group is a Star Wars fan. With that, your options for Rise are:

• Try your luck at rope drop

• Put it off until after 7pm (but not after 8pm due to it closing early)

• Skip it all together

• Bite the bullet and purchase the Lightning Lane premium

Conclusion

Bottom line, you don’t absolutely need to purchase Genie plus in order to enjoy your vacation at Disneyland. It certainly makes things easier, but it isn’t do or die.

What are your thoughts? Have you used Genie plus? Do you love it or hate it? Do you plan to use the tactics described in this article so you don’t have to purchase it? Let us know in the comments below!

We hope you've found this article helpful in planning your Disneyland vacation. If so, please support our site by sharing it with your friends and family on Facebook or Pinterest. You can further show support by staying on and reading one or more of the related articles above.

Thanks for reading and safe travels!