Disney Genie+ and ILL$ Details & FAQ - Launches 10/19 at WDW, Paid "FastPass" at WDW and Disneyland (date TBD)

[jade1]

This is what makes it more complicated for me. I understand how it works, i just dont have the time at 7 am. We tow a camper to the fort. For us, 7 am is cooking breakfast, and showering, and stowing stuff depending on the weather. This means, getting up at 6 am in order to reach the park at 9 ish. You usally need an hour to reach the front gates depending on where you coming from. Rushing around in the morning to concentrate on picking rides we want and establishing where we will be was not on my to do list. I know i dont have to buy it, but then I would be wasting time in line. And with what we spend on disney, it would be foolish to waste time on line. Its almost like you have to buy it, and they know it. Thats why they priced it cheaper. If it was 50 or 100 extra a day, then only a few would buy it. At 15 , everyone will. Like you said, not made with families in mind. And i really wanted to not have to wake up at 6 am on vacation.

Yep and your already on Eastern time.

Those first few days can be even tougher when coming in from the west.

 

[Missmaureen78]

Sorry if I missed the answer to either of these but will the Hilton hotels by Disney Springs be considered "on-site" for the purposes of booking at 7:00AM? They're included in early entry.

And when booking a LL spot -- is it the "next available" or can you schedule whenever something is open throughout the day? I assume the later...

 

[Marionnette]

Sorry if I missed the answer to either of these but will the Hilton hotels by Disney Springs be considered "on-site" for the purposes of booking at 7:00AM? They're included in early entry.

And when booking a LL spot -- is it the "next available" or can you schedule whenever something is open throughout the day? I assume the later...

When you're referring to LL, are you talking about the Genie+ selections or the ILL$ (Individual Lightning Lane Selection)? There's a difference between the two. LL (Lightning Lane) is the physical queue. I really wish that Disney had come up with more distinctive names for their products! It's causing a lot of confusions.

For ILL$, you will be able to choose your return time when you make your purchase. For G+, you will be offered the next available time slot that can accommodate your party.

As to whether specific Hiltons or any neighboring resort will be included in the 7 AM hustle for ILL$, your guess is as good as anyone's. All guests can book their first Genie+ selection beginning at 7 AM regardless of where they are staying.

 

[snikki]

But it is more complicated: what if the ride you want has a time slot a couple hours away in the morning (because it is very poplular); would you be better off ripping off 2-3 other 'lesser rides' with LL right away, then maybe that first choice only has a return time say 45 minutes away afterwards?

If you choose that first ride 2 hours out, you are not using the LL for at least the next 2 hours.

Sure, it's easy to "go with the flow", but to truly maximize your time will be complicated. Lots of on the fly decisions.

People had to make that choice when refreshing for FP+ too. Pick splash mountain in 4 hours or take HM in 45 minutes. Except with FP+ you didn’t have the 120 minute clause.

 

[Jrb1979]

But it is more complicated: what if the ride you want has a time slot a couple hours away in the morning (because it is very poplular); would you be better off ripping off 2-3 other 'lesser rides' with LL right away, then maybe that first choice only has a return time say 45 minutes away afterwards?

If you choose that first ride 2 hours out, you are not using the LL for at least the next 2 hours.

Sure, it's easy to "go with the flow", but to truly maximize your time will be complicated. Lots of on the fly decisions.

IMO if you really want to maximize your time you take the next time available regardless of ride.

For example earliest LL available is Buzz at open. Then after riding Buzz the next one available is Haunted Mansion and after that Peter Pan.

 

[Sjm9911]

IMO if you really want to maximize your time you take the next time available regardless of ride.

For example earliest LL available is Buzz at open. Then after riding Buzz the next one available is Haunted Mansion and after that Peter Pan.

Lol, that will work out well, splash, then space, then haunted mansion, then buzz. Up to its a small world down to pirates. Dosen't sound like a good plan to me.

 

[Juventus]

Lol, that will work out well, splash, then space, then haunted mansion, then buzz. Up to its a small world down to pirates. Dosen't sound like a good plan to me.

So if you were to pick next available from the get go and wanted to ride everything, you'd be riding the "lesser" rides first as less people will be picking them and there should be better availability. Then say it's 1:00 and you still haven't done BTRR, SPLAH, etc..., now those LL time slots may be even further away (time wise) then when searching earlier in the day. Parks seem to be fullest between 11:00 - 4:00.

I really hope a concrete strategy develops in the coming weeks/months and it's not just a total crap shoot each day.

 

[shawthorne44]

As someone that likes re-rides, I know I'll be waiting in standby even with G+. So, it seems getting the farther out G+ is the best idea when there is interesting standby rides nearby.

 

[Turksmom]

As someone that likes re-rides, I know I'll be waiting in standby even with G+. So, it seems getting the farther out G+ is the best idea when there is interesting standby rides nearby.

The free Genie removes rides from your suggested touring plan if you have already ridden them. My concern would be that G+ won't show available times for a ride once it knows you've ridden, so it may be better to G+ first, and then ride stand by. I don't think we'll know until we see actual usage.

 

[snikki]

Do you have to utilize free genie when using G+?

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

The free Genie removes rides from your suggested touring plan if you have already ridden them. My concern would be that G+ won't show available times for a ride once it knows you've ridden, so it may be better to G+ first, and then ride stand by. I don't think we'll know until we see actual usage.

I really don't think you need to worry about this. G+ is not going to track what you've ridden standby. It will give you the next available time for any ride you haven't already done with G+.

 

[shawthorne44]

I really don't think you need to worry about this. G+ is not going to track what you've ridden standby. It will give you the next available time for any ride you haven't already done with G+.

This seems most likely. Removing the ride off the list seems to have been in free genie. Although on the 2% that it might do that, I'm holding off on buying MB's until next week.

I'll be totally ignoring free Genie except as a platform to reserve the G+ rides.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

I am extremely anxious to see how this works in practice once it launches next week. I am beyond tired of speculation, and I think it's pretty crummy of Disney to not release details for those who will be there for the first couple of days. Years ago my husband and I had the chance to test Fastpass+ before it was officially released and it felt so seamless and we were so excited. But that was free/included, so I think the expectations were lower. Those first people who are going to shell out for Genie+ only to have it possibly not function as advertised, and also potentially eff up a whole day of their vacation....I just feel for them.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I am extremely anxious to see how this works in practice once it launches next week. I am beyond tired of speculation, and I think it's pretty crummy of Disney to not release details for those who will be there for the first couple of days. Years ago my husband and I had the chance to test Fastpass+ before it was officially released and it felt so seamless and we were so excited. But that was free/included, so I think the expectations were lower. Those first people who are going to shell out for Genie+ only to have it possibly not function as advertised, and also potentially eff up a whole day of their vacation....I just feel for them.

Totally agree it sucks for those being the Genie-pigs. My thought is that Disney has been intentionally vague about a lot of the details so that they can tweak certain elements on the fly. The less they publish, the more they can change things without having to put out new communications.

 

[closetmickey]

Yep and your already on Eastern time.

Those first few days can be even tougher when coming in from the west.

BRUTAL from the west coast

 

[monica9]

That's probably a good strategy for anyone who likes to do re-rides but how many rides can you get in before the standby lines build? At DL, it might be quite a few. At WDW, I'm thinking one or two if you're staying onsite and take advantage of the 30-minute early entry. After rope drop occurs for the masses, you're probably not going to see more than 1 short standby queue for Tier 2 attractions. The onsite guests will already be ahead if offsite guests in every line.

That’s our strategy. Rope drop the big rides abd pay for the genie +. We won’t mind waiting an hour for a big ride like RoR if the rest of the week we are getting right on rides. Hate that Disney is milking every penny from us but I will still pay for the convenience.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

That’s our strategy. Rope drop the big rides abd pay for the genie +. We won’t mind waiting an hour for a big ride like RoR if the rest of the week we are getting right on rides. Hate that Disney is milking every penny from us but I will still pay for the convenience.

Pretty much same here. We won’t be buying genie+ for every day of our trip (we’ve got 10 days so that just seems unnecessary), but we’ll do it one day for each park... maybe one extra depending on how it goes. Epcot and AK probably won’t even warrant it but we have small kids so skipping lines is huge…plus we’ll park hop bc to bc squeeze some extra out of those days. Then I’m planning to use the early entry and extended evening hours for most of the big rides (we’re staying dvc). My daughter was great at passing out in the stroller when we took her pre-covid, so I’m hoping they both do well with that this time around so we can take advantage of the night time hours. Probably will wind up buying ILL for FOP, ROTR and Remy.

 

[monica9]

Pretty much same here. We won’t be buying genie+ for every day of our trip (we’ve got 10 days so that just seems unnecessary), but we’ll do it one day for each park... maybe one extra depending on how it goes. Epcot and AK probably won’t even warrant it but we have small kids so skipping lines is huge…plus we’ll park hop bc to bc squeeze some extra out of those days. Then I’m planning to use the early entry and extended evening hours for most of the big rides (we’re staying dvc). My daughter was great at passing out in the stroller when we took her pre-covid, so I’m hoping they both do well with that this time around so we can take advantage of the night time hours. Probably will wind up buying ILL for FOP, ROTR and Remy.

We were debating on only doing a few of our 7 days but then it said you have to reorder each day at 7 and wondering how long it takes abd how long of a process it is? Will it interfere with our getting the first fast pass since everyone else can just log right in? Not sure what to do. I know we definitely don’t need it for one day so that will save us $60 if we did it day by day.

 

[shawthorne44]

We were debating on only doing a few of our 7 days but then it said you have to reorder each day at 7 and wondering how long it takes abd how long of a process it is? Will it interfere with our getting the first fast pass since everyone else can just log right in? Not sure what to do. I know we definitely don’t need it for one day so that will save us $60 if we did it day by day.

You can add G+ whenever you wake up. It just has to be that day. So, anytime after midnight it can be bought.

 

[monica9]

You can add G+ whenever you wake up. It just has to be that day. So, anytime after midnight it can be bought.

Ok so can be purchased before 7 am but the “lightening lane pass” can only be set at 7am?