The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[lorenae]

For resort guests to book at 7am on the day of check-in, are the ILLs available? The website says you need a resort ID. If you haven't checked in, where do you get that resort ID?

Once you complete the online check in, the system will recognize you as an on-site guest for that day.

 

[Intr3pid]

Once you complete the online check in, the system will recognize you as an on-site guest for that day.

Thanks, and does this also work for those staying at Swan/Dolphin booked through Marriott?

 

[aeasterling]

I know I can try for a BG for Remy but I've read that the wait to actually ride after your BG is called seems to be in the 30 minute range. I don't think my 2 year old is going to be able to wait that long. Paying for the ILL$ might be worth it if the wait isn't as long as the BG's. Anyone have experience they can share?

We did it both ways last week. First time we purchased an ILL for 6:30. We walked right through the line onto the ride - maybe took 5 minutes.

The next time, I got a BG at 7am. We were called at 1:30 (BG 51). We waited in line 30 minutes.

 

[nurseberta]

It 100% works. Was holding 3 most of the day at MK today via combo of expire and 120 minute eligibility. Booked HM for 10. RD in rain so short lines , then expired HM . At 1102 booked JC for 130 (120 min rule) first tapped into HM at 1105 and booked Splash, then after second tap added BTMR. Don't think the first or second tap mattered, just that after 120 min I was eligible to book and after expiration I was also eligible to book, then after ride (second tap) was again eligible to book. Worked great all day, w the caveat that it was low crowds due to terrible monsoon rain

this is high level stacking! Kudos!!!

 

[JenLT]

I really hope they don't close stacking loop holes anytime soon!

 

[Bevo in VA]

Greetings all. Just want to thank all the advice given in this thread. My family is just back from a 4-day trip - each park one full day and I learned so much from this thread. First time going in 7 or 8 years so my goal was to fit as much in as possible. Paid for G+ for each day. As others have said, G+ was most beneficial at MK, although ((I think) we used it pretty effectively in the other parks as well. Overall, we were very happy with G+. We fit in 20 rides and still had time to do some shopping and eat at CRT. If anyone is interested to see how we used it for MK our day went as follows:

7 AM got Jungle Cruise LL for 10:15 AM; ILL for Space Mountain for 9:30 AM(probably not needed); ILL 7DMT for 4:30 PM
8:30 AM Rope Drop - Rode - Pooh, Tea Party, Dumbo, Tomorrow Land Speedway, Space Ranger Spin
9:30 - 11 Rode Space Mountain, Liberty Square Riverboat. Did some shopping / ate snacks etc...
11:00 AM got BTMRR LL for 12:30 PM (G+ stack set up here)
11:05 Rode Jungle Cruise; got LL for Splash Mountain for 11:30 PM
11:30 Rode Splash; Got LL for Haunted Mansion for 1:30 PM
12:30 Rode BTMRR; got LL Peter Pan for 4 PM. Did Country Bear Jamboree, Hall of Presidents
1:30 Haunted Mansion, got LL for Pirates of the Caribbean for 3:30 PM
2:20 - lunch break at CRT
4:00 Rode Pirates, got LL for Little Mermaid @4:30
4:30 Rode PP, got LL for flying carpets @4:45
4:45 Rode Carpets, got LL for Small World 5:30
5:00 Rode Mermaid; 7DMT; Watched Tiki Room
6:00 Small World

I'm sure we got lucky in that the crowd level was 4 as judged by TP and I did have to refresh a few times on some of the rides to get an optimum return slot. With larger crowds, there's no way we would have been able to get the return times to make everything work. I had been tracking return times on Thrill Data to kind of plan out a rough schedule ahead of time. Could have potentially dropped some of the rides, but wanted to give the kids the full experience. We didn't have to wait more than 10 minutes for any ride and didn't have to do too much backtracking until the end of the day on some of the non-headliners. Could have probably been a little more efficient there but had dessert party to get to by 6:30.

Hope this is helpful to some folks!

 

[Sydnerella]

ARRIVAL DAY QUESTIONS - help with how to best book G+ with hopping please

- Park Reservation: AK 2-5 - just a short visit couple rides and a trail or two (1 of 2 visits this trip)
- Hop to EP 6-10

7am-8:45am at airport before takeoff: look for G+

I assume it’s too early to book anything at AK since we won’t be there until 2-230?? But if anything come up in that window, book it.

Can I book G+ at the “hop to” park G+ before entering my reserved park?

Flight departs 9am EST - assuming I won’t have access even with wifi in the air to book

Flight arrives MCO 12:15pm EST
Landing Book G+ by 1215 - AK
ME to Riviera and Check in
Uber to AK by 2-230

Book G+ at 2:15 on way or upon AK arrival

Then keep going trying to stack some for EP later.

Hoping to get G+ for TT at minimum 630 or later - one or two of these: SE, Soarin, LWTL: would be nice at night too before Harmonious

Is that possible??

 

[g-dad66]

So here’s what Genie+ did for us today at HS:

7:05 got 5:25 LL for Slinky Dog
11:00 got 4:20 LL for Millenium Falcon
1:00 got 7:30 LL for Tower of Terror
3:00 got 6:55 LL fo RnR Coaster
5:00 planned (but actual 4:50 after tap-in for Falcon) got 5:05 LL for Toy Story Mania

Also had purchased ILL$ for 3:00 Rise and 4:00 MMRR

Started park day at 3:00, finished before 8:00: all 7 major HS attractions done without a wait for any of them.

Had planned to do Early Entry to get walk-ons for ToT and RnRC (and would have booked the 2 ILL$ for the morning) but this was Park Day #5, and we were too wiped out to start early.

So how much does this cost us?

Thinking ahead, I foresee doing HS in one day (not 2 like this trip). Park ticket for 5th day costs about $35. Disney gets $40 from us for G+ and ILL$, so Disney comes out a little bit ahead there.

But we save over $500 for 2 resort rooms and a day of food for 4.

 

[leeniewdw]

That's an amazing day and now I'm thinking about doing an afternoon day at HS to do something similar (on arrival day) and then doing the Merriest AH at MK. Wow.

 

[g-dad66]

That's an amazing day and now I'm thinking about doing an afternoon day at HS to do something similar (on arrival day) and then doing the Merriest AH at MK. Wow.

i was a little worried that the Tower of Terror LLs would run out before 1:00. At about noon, it actually showed Unavailable for a while.
Prior to noon, MFSR was consistently showing later times than ToT was, so that’s why I booked it at 11.

 

[leeniewdw]

i was a little worried that the Tower of Terror LLs would run out before 1:00. At about noon, it actually showed Unavailable for a while.
Prior to noon, MFSR was consistently showing later times than ToT was, so thatI’s why I booked it at 11.

I've bookmarked your post (along with other narrative posts). Will review and re-review before our trip in less than a month. It seems like an afternoon at MK or HS is a better "plan" than trying to use G+ for a morning only, particularly at HS.

 

[badeacon]

I know I can try for a BG for Remy but I've read that the wait to actually ride after your BG is called seems to be in the 30 minute range. I don't think my 2 year old is going to be able to wait that long. Paying for the ILL$ might be worth it if the wait isn't as long as the BG's. Anyone have experience they can share?

Several weeks ago we were able to get BG on 2 days. When BG called, one day wait was 45 mins and next was 35 mins

 

[CookieandOatmeal]

We did it both ways last week. First time we purchased an ILL for 6:30. We walked right through the line onto the ride - maybe took 5 minutes.

The next time, I got a BG at 7am. We were called at 1:30 (BG 51). We waited in line 30 minutes.

Several weeks ago we were able to get BG on 2 days. When BG called, one day wait was 45 mins and next was 35 mins

Thank you for sharing your experiences. Sounds like we will be better off doing the ILL$ if we want to avoid the long wait in line.

 

[Theresa88]

I am going with a group of 9 in February, and six are staying off property while three are staying on property. Can one of the three staying at a resort book an ILL at 7am for those not staying on property?

 

[aeasterling]

I am going with a group of 9 in February, and six are staying off property while three are staying on property. Can one of the three staying at a resort book an ILL at 7am for those not staying on property?

No, if you mean the ILL$ (ie FOP or ROTR) you won't be able to. When we were there last week, my son was only there for 2 days with us and so had separate tickets. So even though he WAS in our room, he wasn't a resort guest in the system. On our first day, I tried to buy ROTR at 7am and I wasn't able to include him.

 

[mab2012]

I explicitly tested this scenario last week. The system has a single eligibility time that it sets when you book a LL reservation. The expiration of a reservation is only indirectly tied to eligibility time, sometimes.

Every time you book a G+ LL reservation, it sets a eligibility return time, which is the earlier of the end of the reservation return window and 2 hours from the current time (or 2 hours from the park opening time if you’re booking before opening time). Every time you book, it sets a new time and there’s only one time it’s tracking.

So if it’s 9:00 am and you book a 10:15-11:15 am reservation, the eligibility time is set to 11:00 am. If you wait until 11:00, the eligibility time hits and you can book, but that new booking sets a new eligibility time. Say you booked a 11:30-12:30 at that point. Now your eligibility time is 12:30. If you wait until 11:15, nothing happens. You can still tap in and regain eligibility, but the expiration of your 10:15-11:15 reservation does nothing, because that was never set as an eligibility time in the first place.

The confusion arises because tapping in on any reservation resets eligibility, and canceling any reservation resets eligibility, so it’s easy to think that expiration of any reservation would reset eligibility. But it doesn’t work that way.

So in programming terms (speaking to the general audience here, not specifically @dmunsil, who I suspect already understands this):

Tapping into or cancelling a ride are actionable "events" that the system can respond to. That is, when one of those things happen, the system is explicitly "aware" it has happened and can/will take actions to handle it. The expiration time of a ride, on the other hand, is a passive event that the system isn't actively aware of; it just happens in the background, without anyone actually doing anything, and the system doesn't necessarily immediately "know" that something has changed.

Based on what we know about how the system is working, I strongly suspect the implementation is something like this:

• When a LL is booked, a timestamp is set tracking the next eligible booking time**
• When an existing LL is used ("tapped in") or cancelled, the eligibility timestamp is cleared
• The user can book a new LL if (and only if) no timestamp is set, or it is in the past. In practice, the way this likely works is that whenever a page is loaded that might allow a LL pass to be booked, the system does a check on any existing timestamp against the current time, and clears the timestamp if it is in the past.

** Until @dmunsil posted the information above, I assumed that the next eligible booking time would be set based on the 120 minute rule (adjusted for park opening) or the expiration time of the earliest LL pass currently booked, whichever was earlier. But based on this new clarification, it sounds like they've taken the even simpler option of setting the timestamp based on the earlier of the 120 minute timeout window and the expiration time of the LL just booked. This has important implications for someone who understands specifically how the system works and is trying to maximize it, but will go completely unnoticed by the vast majority of users, who will not typically be purposely letting a LL expire with the expectation of then being able to immediately book another.

My personal opinion is that the major result of these implementation choices - ie. the ability to hold and rebook multiple LL passes throughout the day - was deliberate, or at the very least well understood by the system developers. Anyone with programming or UI design experience will recognize that more nuanced handling of "extra" passes created when the 120 minute eligibility timer expires would quickly become complicated, both technically, but especially in terms of the user's ability to understand the system. I think they deliberately erred on the side of simplicity, with the understanding that the "no re-ride" rule and the capacity of the system would naturally limit its use.

The "loophole" created by the 15-minute grace period was probably an oversight, or maybe a known consequence that they decided to allow. The only sensible way to "fix" it would be to set the expiration timer at the end of the 15-minute grace period, instead of the official end time of the LL window. That should be a really easy change. But it might create a source of confusion for users who are not aware of the grace period, and maybe they don't want to draw attention to it? As long as the loophole doesn't have any significant impact on the overall system (and it seems unlikely it would, considering how few people will understand it, let alone make the effort to exploit it), they might just decide to leave it alone.

My thanks (again!) to @dmunsil for the clear and unambiguous test results!

 

[mab2012]

You can do it from anywhere. The only thing you need to be in the park for is getting a 1pm boarding group.

Except from outside of the US.

So irritating that Disney is geofencing international users. If the nearly 330 million Americans who are not currently at Disney can see and use the tip board, is there any rational reason to block international users from doing the same?

And yeah, I can pay for a VPN service to get around it, or use one of the crappy, ad-supported free ones. But I really shouldn't have to.

</rant>

 

[Sydnerella]

Can a G+ LL attraction be booked for the park im hopping to before i tap into the park where my park reservation is at?

 

[itf]

Except from outside of the US.

So irritating that Disney is geofencing international users. If the nearly 330 million Americans who are not currently at Disney can see and use the tip board, is there any rational reason to block international users from doing the same?

And yeah, I can pay for a VPN service to get around it, or use one of the crappy, ad-supported free ones. But I really shouldn't have to.

</rant>

Agreed - even if they restrict it to people with linked passes it would be a start.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

How do you pick a lightning lane time later than what Is shown? I also can’t seem to edit, other than changing my party.