Are people using Genie+?

[Chuck96]

I bit the bullet and bought it for our trip this weekend (WDW). Figured it was a short trip, so we could check it out. I'm quite anti-Genie, but time is money, so I'm interested to see if we save much time. Only going on three days (no hopping), with three of us

Friday - MK
Saturday - AK
Monday - HS

Is there a concise post/thread with the lessons learned or best practices for use? I am not looking for some algorithm to plan my day. I just want to get a few "fast passes." With respect to ILL, I plan to just pay for FoP, as it is our favorite and we will ride it twice. Willing (but not happy) to pay for a short line on one of those rides. I may also pay for my son to ride SW7DT, since we always skip it, but have no interest myself.

 

[ZanyToes]

We were there 3-10. I had zero intention of using it, but after the first day we decided to and it was great. It allowed us to sleep in every morning instead of arriving at park opening. My husband got a few hours of work in each morning, our littles got plenty of rest, etc.. while I stacked ride times for the afternoons and evenings. We really enjoyed being able to spend almost no times in lines but get everything done.

 

[chicagodisneyguy]

We were group of 8 that had 6 park days for our 8 night stay. We bought Genie+ for our two HS days and our two MK days ). We also bought pretty much every ILL available. We spent a total just shy of $1500 total for the trip on Genie+ and ILL. Since we started planning this Jan 2022 trip in late 2020 I had not originally budgeted for this during our initial planning. But if I had it to do over I wouldn't change anything. It saved us many hours each day in the park. Do I like paying the extra $1.5k? Absolutely not. Will I do it again? Absolutely yes. As much of a Disney fanatic I am....I just won't wait in hour+ lines. At almost all rides I was shocked just how many LL people they let in relative to standby. Our wait times in LL seemed to be less than comparable times back during the FP+ days.

The only thing that did bother me about the whole process is Disney is without a doubt inflating their wait times. We waited in a RnR standby line one day when standby was the only option (no Genie+ probably due to recent reliability) and posted time was 45 minutes. We were ON the ride in 20 minutes. We did Space Mountain close to park close and posted 35 minute wait. We walked the entire queue and right on to the ride...no stopping. Our AK and EP days we did not purchase Genie+ and found almost every ride to be less than posted wait times. I think Disney obviously trying to deceive guests in this way pretty obnoxious. While I don't have any proof, I can't believe they aren't purposefully doing it to get more people to buy it.

 

[Her Dotness]

Disney wait times for attractions have always been wildly inaccurate, we've found. Rides posted 30-60 minutes, we often got on in 15-20 in past years, maybe less.

We really didn't see much difference in posted times and how long it actually took when last there in November compared with prior years that same week.

Even though standby lines looked horrifically long, they all moved faster than we anticipated.

That very easily may not be so at busier times of the year, I hasten to add. We've gone the third week of November every year but one since 2010.

 

[LSUmiss]

Curious why it wasn't worthwhile for your trip? We have it for our March trip and I'd love your feedback.

I’ve tried all the strategies like stacking & things like that. I can make it work in MK somewhat & have heard others say the same. But in the other parks it’s just not worth it. By the time you can book another pass, often most things are gone. Also, you have to be up at 7 which is not something I want to do. I realize that’s a personal preference but ridiculous IMO that availability is drastically different just an hour later. Also, you can’t schedule a preferred time like FP plus. So you get what’s available which doesn’t always work for us. And even at MK, we spent $80 for 3 of us & only rode 5 rides with it. We did way better with extra magic on the evening. And when it’s really crowded like thanksgiving week, it doesn’t even work as well as described. I would prefer to just all rides individually instead of spending $15/person ahead of time & gambling it’ll be worth it or allow to prebook at least 3 with purchase instead of at 7am.

 

[starjazz]

We were there 3-10. I had zero intention of using it, but after the first day we decided to and it was great. It allowed us to sleep in every morning instead of arriving at park opening. My husband got a few hours of work in each morning, our littles got plenty of rest, etc.. while I stacked ride times for the afternoons and evenings. We really enjoyed being able to spend almost no times in lines but get everything done.

This actually sounds like a pretty attractive strategy. I mean, I've never slept in at Disney, but using this strategy, I could see the benefit since it seems like any advantage is either related to an early entry or stacking in the late afternoons/evenings. Who's getting all of these midday LLs? Or do they just not exist in the system?