Disney Genie announcement

[StarrySkye21]

I know this is somewhere in the nearly 300 pages, so I apologize for asking again. I’m just not sure where to find the exact answer.

Anyway, we are doing MK for an entire day, but 1/3 of our party can’t arrive until after 3 pm. Because if this, we would like to save the best headliners for when they are with us. The plan is to do the more kiddie rides and shows and in the meantime stack g+ passes for those headliners.

My hope is to do the double stack technique where I book the first g+ ride (a kiddie ride) around 11 and subsequently grab a second g+ pass just before we enter the ride queue. From that point on, we would be doing mostly standby while stacking up headliners for later in the day.

If I am able to manage this (will depend on crowd size and what time g+ passes are booking out to), is it allowable to have more than two rides stacked up for use later in the day?

for example:

At 9 am book Dumbo for return time of 10:45.
At 11 am book Splash for a 3:20 return time (+1).
Enter Dumbo at 11:01.
At 11:02 book Big Thunder for a return time of 3:45 (+2).
At 1 pm book Pirates for a return time if 4:30 (+3).
At 3 pm book Peter Pan for a return time of 5:00 (+4).

As you can see, if all goes according to plan (yeah, I know), I could potentially have 4 g+ passes stacked up in time for the rest of our party to join us.
Is this allowed?
Thanks!

Edited: I just realize that I could potentially have a couple more stacked up since at 1:02 I would have yet another window to book an attraction. My brain hurts.

 

[leeniewdw]

I know this is somewhere in the nearly 300 pages, so I apologize for asking again. I’m just not sure where to find the exact answer.

Anyway, we are doing MK for an entire day, but 1/3 of our party can’t arrive until after 3 pm. Because if this, we would like to save the best headliners for when they are with us. The plan is to do the more kiddie rides and shows and in the meantime stack g+ passes for those headliners.

My hope is to do the double stack technique where I book the first g+ ride (a kiddie ride) around 11 and subsequently grab a second g+ pass just before we enter the ride queue. From that point on, we would be doing mostly standby while stacking up headliners for later in the day.

If I am able to manage this (will depend on crowd size and what time g+ passes are booking out to), is it allowable to have more than two rides stacked up for use later in the day?

for example:

At 9 am book Dumbo for return time of 10:45.
At 11 am book Splash for a 3:20 return time (+1).
Enter Dumbo at 11:01.
At 11:02 book Big Thunder for a return time of 3:45 (+2).
At 1 pm book Pirates for a return time if 4:30 (+3).
At 3 pm book Peter Pan for a return time of 5:00 (+4).

As you can see, if all goes according to plan (yeah, I know), I could potentially have 4 g+ passes stacked up in time for the rest of our party to join us.
Is this allowed?
Thanks!

Edited: I just realize that I could potentially have more stacked up since at 1:02 I would have yet another window to book an attraction.

I had a similar plan to this, but someone pointed out that it's probably going to be 1:02 and 3:02 because the 2 hour cool down window moves the 1pm to 1:02 since you booked your last LL at 11:02. Other than that I think this works (as of now!)

Edit to your edit: I don't think you can stack again at 1:02, I think you one and only slot at that time is 1:02.

 

[Bevo in VA]

The problem with your example is you have to take the next available time. If you book a 9AM Dumbo, the return time will be 9:00. With G+. you can't select return times.

 

[StarrySkye21]

The problem with your example is you have to take the next available time. If you book a 9AM Dumbo, the return time will be 9:00. With G+. you can't select return times.

Correct. If there’s virtually no crowd the return time wouldn’t be far out. I’m actually hoping for more crowd to help push those return times later.

 

[TropicalDIS]

Today in Magic Kingdom is a great example of why you shouldn't waste your money on Genie+ and IA$ (and it looks like people are not doing it)

Theres only 2 rides with an actual standby wait of 30 mins or more
1) Peter Pan is currently 40 (Note that it was down for some time today)
2) Seven Dwarfs currently 33

Every Genie+ return time is within 10 mins except Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion and Peter Pan

IA$ for Seven D and Space return times are both within 5 mins....


People are not paying for this and good for them


You dont need to pay for it

All depends on the crowd level. Will be testing this out in a couple weeks.

 

[HopperFan]

I'm looking forward to your impressions from your first trip. I trust you to give a fair evaluation of it. Please report back when you've had first-hand experience with it.

Background: Been going to Disney since it opened, last 15 years DS and I go 4-6 weeks. Annual Passholder. DS is disabled and while he has a DAS we rarely use it and relied on FP+ because it was fast & easy to use on my phone. I am very efficient at using my phone. We would use DAS maybe once or twice a day, sometimes not at all. We have not had AP for 26 mos due to COVID not allowing us to renew - we paused to go to DL which got Covid-cancelled. We went in July with full family buying regular tickets. We now are back and have opted for Pixie Dust pass so we can only go Mon-Friday and have blockout dates. Holidays and Weekends could change the value.

We are booked for this week, Mon-Fri. We can book 3 days so we booked M, Tu and Th. I was given a bonus day at Epcot today and we booked Friday after we used Monday. This means it is not worth it for me to spend 6-8 hours on the phone for advance DAS which gives us preselected times. So we can just book one when we arrive through the gate. I did use his DAS in conjunction with the Genie+ but tried to mostly rely on Genie+.

As promised ... that I would report back how Genie+ worked for us, promised I'd be honest and go in with an open mind. My preconceived opinion was that Animal Kingdom and Epcot would be a waste of money. But since it's just the two of us and it's all new, I decided to invest in it each day and have a better idea of it's value to share.

I do not object to the $15 per person per day, actually I think it is reasonable .... but value will come with how much I can use it AND YES I am going to compare to how much I could use FP+. With FP+ no matter how many you used, you got your money's worth since it was free but once you are charging me for a service - I want my money's worth.

Monday - Animal Kingdom
(Arrived at 9am / Left at 4:45 pm)
Got up early and bought Genie+ (EASY)
- Safari (booked at 7 am)
- Navi
- FOTLK
- Dinosaur
- Bird Show
- Bugs Life
Since I said earlier I'd need at least 5 to feel like I broke even ... we went over but it was completely unnecessary for Bird Show and Bugs Life. It worked fairly seamlessly other than some universal glitches. The times offered were acceptable and practical. My gut feeling is that you'd be better off paying for the ILL for Flight of Passage and waiting in lines. EE wasn't a long wait and not worth paying ILL to skip that line. So I think I will stick with it's not worth it for AK, unless it's a super crowded time of year. Maybe if there are more attractions (Primevil replacement, NEMO, Raft Ride) it will be a good value. *Now when EE goes down for an extended REFURB, will they remove another ride from LL to make it an ILL? If so it's def reduced the value.

Tuesday - Magic Kingdom
(Arrived 11am / Left 7 pm)
Got up early and bought Genie+ (EASY)
- Haunted Mansion (booked at 7am)
- Under The Sea
- Buzz Lightyear
- Tea Cups
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Small World
I think it is worth it at Magic Kingdom. Considering we arrived 2 hours late and left 2 hours early, we could have easily booked 4+ more. The limited number was on me, they were there to use. We also had lunch at Tony's, snack at CHH and shopped a bit - that may have given us a couple more. I will likely always buy it for MK. Park specific issue was Jingle Cruise still had almost a 30 minute wait even with LL. SB (which I would never do anyway) must have been brutal. At different times of day PP had HUGE return line, so as a slow loader that might be a negative. No issues moving stuff around as needed. As expected a few top ones stopped offering late in day but wait times were actually reasonable so that might have changed as we were leaving.

Wednesday - EPCOT
(Arrived 11am / Left 4pm)
Got up early and first booked Boarding Pass for REMY (EASY)
Bought Genie+ (EASY)
- Spaceship Earth (booked at 7 am)
Able to adjust this as we ran later
- Nemo (strange issue with this)
And folks, that was it! EPCOT was a complete loss since for us with Nemo we walked on in SB. Now we were there only 5 hours, had REMY pass and had a nice sit down lunch, with short shopping trip (Creative Store, whatever it's name, was less than stellar in inventory). All rides were easy to get with only TT being a very late option. At 7 am TT's was already at noon. By time we arrived it was 2 pm and didn't take long to jump to 7 pm. Made no sense since wait times were not bad at all. It was the emptiest we've seen TT in a while. Why the delayed time I don't know other than to try to keep guests in the park. In the end, try to book REMY Boarding Group or just pay - I almost paid $8 to ride again. Surely check line times from days prior before buying it. I wasted $32.

GLITCHES so far ....

- At least 4-5 times now when I look at LL options/times I hit Book and not until it Confirms do I see that the time had completely changed as much as an hour.. CHECK YOUR final confirmation to make sure it works for you. I had to go back and change all of those. Also make sure you do Confirm. It might look like the booking has happened but you have to play it all the way through. I missed a couple and only when checking what I had did I see it was missing.

- Today I had Nemo booked. When I came out of lunch I checked it to make sure we didn't have to move it. It was not on My Genie Day so I changed over to Tip Board. There it showed it was booked but when I opened it no options to add people, to cancel, to do anything with it. I went to a Blue Umbrella and showed them. He assured me I had a time and that is the time where it says Booked. I didn't believe him because it looks like a slot "to" book. I went over it a couple times with him and he was confident he was correct. I went to Nemo and she says "you are late". I showed her everything on my phone and she at least was honest to say she didn't understand what it was saying, how to fix it and there was nothing she could do to let us in. No matter to me it was a walk on, I was just trying to keep using the app. NOW IN HINDSIGHT, I think what happened ... and this might have been addressed elsewhere ... we missed our window and because we had already booked, it was not going to let us book again. We couldn't cancel because it expired. I just had not seen the "Booked" with a green check show up on any other LL options that we had already used. I would go through that closely when we were trying to repeat something for DS. It def was something showing I hadn't seen in three days.

- BIG GLITCH. CM says "IT is aware of it" to which I said "It should have been fixed before it went live". At this point I don't think the CMs are any more knowledgeable or comfortable with this system than we are (no surprise). No matter what park I was in the TIPS BOARD thought I was in the Magic Kingdom. EVERY TIME I open that page, unless I was just on it and app didn't close, I had to "Change Park". I told them "This whole app is built on and functioning on knowing where we are at all the time, and the one page we use the most doesn't know where we are at." So 95% of the time when I opened that page to book a LL or look at wait times ... I had to change the park, other than Tuesday because I was in the Magic Kingdom.

OH, the Photo Filters you get with Genie+ are FUN! We loved using them and I hope they really are planning on expanding this. So much potential here, and I'm sharing them with people so a bit of PR.


Tomorrow is Hollywood Studios and excited about trying it there. We actually have DHS both days because Monday when I went to book Friday, MK was blocked out. So this will be my first days HOPPING and using it.

After the next two days I'll update on this with final thoughts. At this moment there are pros and cons, and it will always be impacted by your own touring style, times of year, crowd levels etc.

 

[wisblue]

Hopper, thank you for your comments.

One thing that I will add about the value of Genie+ (that I will be testing myself in 2 weeks) is that that value can be much greater if you are planning to hop to a second park.

Our entire group of 4 only has 3 park days with no reservations at Epcot. I intend to get Genie+ each day for trial purposes if nothing else.. On the day we start at DAK I plan to get my first LL for the Safari and buy an ILL for those of us that want to do FOP. Then we’ll do EE and Dino during Early Entry. If available at a convenient time I might get a LL for Navi, which is not a must do for us. That takes care of the rides we care to do. We can spend the rest on the trails or shows where LL is no help.

But, the main value in the Genie+ will be for the late afternoon when we plan to go to MK before staying for the Christmas event.

While Genie+ may not be worth it if DAK is your only park for the day, you could use it to get several attractions at your second park, especially if you can build a stack starting after you’ve used one or two LL at DAK. I plan to try that.

 

[HopperFan]

Hopper, thank you for your comments.

One thing that I will add about the value of Genie+ (that I will be testing myself in 2 weeks) is that that value can be much greater if you are planning to hop to a second park.

Our entire group of 4 only has 3 park days with no reservations at Epcot. I intend to get Genie+ each day for trial purposes if nothing else.. On the day we start at DAK I plan to get my first LL for the Safari and buy an ILL for those of us that want to do FOP. Then we’ll do EE and Dino during Early Entry. If available at a convenient time I might get a LL for Navi, which is not a must do for us. That takes care of the rides we care to do. We can spend the rest on the trails or shows where LL is no help.

But, the main value in the Genie+ will be for the late afternoon when we plan to go to MK before staying for the Christmas event.

While Genie+ may not be worth it if DAK is your only park for the day, you could use it to get several attractions at your second park, especially if you can build a stack starting after you’ve used one or two LL at DAK. I plan to try that.

1000% agree. I have not hopped (had planned to but so far DS was “done” early) so couldn’t report hands on. Today we try. In my final overview I will for sure add that plus - especially since it adds value to your travel time.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thanks so much for your honest, clear, easy to read experience @HopperFan! I look forward to hearing more once you've enjoyed your next 2 days in the parks!

 

[HopperFan]

Background: Been going to Disney since it opened, last 15 years DS and I go 4-6 weeks. Annual Passholder. DS is disabled and while he has a DAS we rarely use it and relied on FP+ because it was fast & easy to use on my phone. I am very efficient at using my phone. We would use DAS maybe once or twice a day, sometimes not at all. We have not had AP for 26 mos due to COVID not allowing us to renew - we paused to go to DL which got Covid-cancelled. We went in July with full family buying regular tickets. We now are back and have opted for Pixie Dust pass so we can only go Mon-Friday and have blockout dates. Holidays and Weekends could change the value.

We are booked for this week, Mon-Fri. We can book 3 days so we booked M, Tu and Th. I was given a bonus day at Epcot today and we booked Friday after we used Monday. This means it is not worth it for me to spend 6-8 hours on the phone for advance DAS which gives us preselected times. So we can just book one when we arrive through the gate. I did use his DAS in conjunction with the Genie+ but tried to mostly rely on Genie+.

As promised ... that I would report back how Genie+ worked for us, promised I'd be honest and go in with an open mind. My preconceived opinion was that Animal Kingdom and Epcot would be a waste of money. But since it's just the two of us and it's all new, I decided to invest in it each day and have a better idea of it's value to share.

I do not object to the $15 per person per day, actually I think it is reasonable .... but value will come with how much I can use it AND YES I am going to compare to how much I could use FP+. With FP+ no matter how many you used, you got your money's worth since it was free but once you are charging me for a service - I want my money's worth.

Monday - Animal Kingdom
(Arrived at 9am / Left at 4:45 pm)
Got up early and bought Genie+ (EASY)
- Safari (booked at 7 am)
- Navi
- FOTLK
- Dinosaur
- Bird Show
- Bugs Life
Since I said earlier I'd need at least 5 to feel like I broke even ... we went over but it was completely unnecessary for Bird Show and Bugs Life. It worked fairly seamlessly other than some universal glitches. The times offered were acceptable and practical. My gut feeling is that you'd be better off paying for the ILL for Flight of Passage and waiting in lines. EE wasn't a long wait and not worth paying ILL to skip that line. So I think I will stick with it's not worth it for AK, unless it's a super crowded time of year. Maybe if there are more attractions (Primevil replacement, NEMO, Raft Ride) it will be a good value. *Now when EE goes down for an extended REFURB, will they remove another ride from LL to make it an ILL? If so it's def reduced the value.

Tuesday - Magic Kingdom
(Arrived 11am / Left 7 pm)
Got up early and bought Genie+ (EASY)
- Haunted Mansion (booked at 7am)
- Under The Sea
- Buzz Lightyear
- Tea Cups
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Small World
I think it is worth it at Magic Kingdom. Considering we arrived 2 hours late and left 2 hours early, we could have easily booked 4+ more. The limited number was on me, they were there to use. We also had lunch at Tony's, snack at CHH and shopped a bit - that may have given us a couple more. I will likely always buy it for MK. Park specific issue was Jingle Cruise still had almost a 30 minute wait even with LL. SB (which I would never do anyway) must have been brutal. At different times of day PP had HUGE return line, so as a slow loader that might be a negative. No issues moving stuff around as needed. As expected a few top ones stopped offering late in day but wait times were actually reasonable so that might have changed as we were leaving.

Wednesday - EPCOT
(Arrived 11am / Left 4pm)
Got up early and first booked Boarding Pass for REMY (EASY)
Bought Genie+ (EASY)
- Spaceship Earth (booked at 7 am)
Able to adjust this as we ran later
- Nemo (strange issue with this)
And folks, that was it! EPCOT was a complete loss since for us with Nemo we walked on in SB. Now we were there only 5 hours, had REMY pass and had a nice sit down lunch, with short shopping trip (Creative Store, whatever it's name, was less than stellar in inventory). All rides were easy to get with only TT being a very late option. At 7 am TT's was already at noon. By time we arrived it was 2 pm and didn't take long to jump to 7 pm. Made no sense since wait times were not bad at all. It was the emptiest we've seen TT in a while. Why the delayed time I don't know other than to try to keep guests in the park. In the end, try to book REMY Boarding Group or just pay - I almost paid $8 to ride again. Surely check line times from days prior before buying it. I wasted $32.

GLITCHES so far ....

- At least 4-5 times now when I look at LL options/times I hit Book and not until it Confirms do I see that the time had completely changed as much as an hour.. CHECK YOUR final confirmation to make sure it works for you. I had to go back and change all of those. Also make sure you do Confirm. It might look like the booking has happened but you have to play it all the way through. I missed a couple and only when checking what I had did I see it was missing.

- Today I had Nemo booked. When I came out of lunch I checked it to make sure we didn't have to move it. It was not on My Genie Day so I changed over to Tip Board. There it showed it was booked but when I opened it no options to add people, to cancel, to do anything with it. I went to a Blue Umbrella and showed them. He assured me I had a time and that is the time where it says Booked. I didn't believe him because it looks like a slot "to" book. I went over it a couple times with him and he was confident he was correct. I went to Nemo and she says "you are late". I showed her everything on my phone and she at least was honest to say she didn't understand what it was saying, how to fix it and there was nothing she could do to let us in. No matter to me it was a walk on, I was just trying to keep using the app. NOW IN HINDSIGHT, I think what happened ... and this might have been addressed elsewhere ... we missed our window and because we had already booked, it was not going to let us book again. We couldn't cancel because it expired. I just had not seen the "Booked" with a green check show up on any other LL options that we had already used. I would go through that closely when we were trying to repeat something for DS. It def was something showing I hadn't seen in three days.

- BIG GLITCH. CM says "IT is aware of it" to which I said "It should have been fixed before it went live". At this point I don't think the CMs are any more knowledgeable or comfortable with this system than we are (no surprise). No matter what park I was in the TIPS BOARD thought I was in the Magic Kingdom. EVERY TIME I open that page, unless I was just on it and app didn't close, I had to "Change Park". I told them "This whole app is built on and functioning on knowing where we are at all the time, and the one page we use the most doesn't know where we are at." So 95% of the time when I opened that page to book a LL or look at wait times ... I had to change the park, other than Tuesday because I was in the Magic Kingdom.

OH, the Photo Filters you get with Genie+ are FUN! We loved using them and I hope they really are planning on expanding this. So much potential here, and I'm sharing them with people so a bit of PR.


Tomorrow is Hollywood Studios and excited about trying it there. We actually have DHS both days because Monday when I went to book Friday, MK was blocked out. So this will be my first days HOPPING and using it.

After the next two days I'll update on this with final thoughts. At this moment there are pros and cons, and it will always be impacted by your own touring style, times of year, crowd levels etc.

Part 2 is coming sooner than later because we decided last night we were not going to buy Genie+ for today. We spent the day at DHS, and had hoped to hop to MK to finish out to finally watch Enchantment. I realized DS was not going to make it, so we hung in a bit longer and saw the holiday lights start to come on, then left. Sad to not see Tower of Terror lit up but I push him too hard and we can lose the rest of the trip. SO now I had to decide about today. We were booked at DHS again, then were hopping to EPCOT for Harmonious (I hate that is so late). When we got to room I saw we reservations at MK had opened so I switched from DHS to MK. Plan was go around lunch or later, then still hop to EPCOT for Harmonious and big thing I wanted to see Spaceship Earth lit up. I decided I would not book Genie+ for just an afternoon, we'd done most the rides the other day anyway. Enchantment would wait until January. It's just another projection/firework show - I'd rather see Harmonious which is different.

Well we woke up to POURING RAIN!!!! Poor runDisney runners. I didn't have it in me to go to MK in the rain just because, so I jumped on computer and switched our reservation to EPCOT, planning to go just for evening. I also bought a Individual Lightning Lane Pass for REMY for 8:25-9:25 pm. Hoping to walk out, pick a spot and see the show. Purchasing the LL is so easy, love I can pick a time!!!!! I think it cost more than it had all week though so guess Friday is part of the weekend upcharge. Honestly since I didn't buy Genie+ and won't be spending any other money at Disney today, I'm fine with it. I waited too long to decide to book a Boarding Group this morning, and I won't be in the park at 1 pm for the next round so ... I am paying for convenience right now.

Yesterday we used Genie+ at DHS and I think it's worth it there. I know people say it's not a "full day park" but it always has been for us. My issue is that there are "walk on" things to do aka all the shows, a couple low wait rides like Alien, Muppets and Star Tours and the rest are basically "E TICKETS" which eats up your whole day. Long waits for ToT, RnR, Slinky, TSMM, MFSR, Rise, MMRR ... that is basically open to close with barely a potty break.

Thursday- Disney Hollywood Studios
(Arrived 10am / Left 7 pm)
Got up early and bought Genie+ (EASY)
- Alien Saucers (booked 7 am)
- Star Tours
- Muppet 3D
- Rock N Roller Coaster
- Toy Story Midway Mania
Might not be prime choices but the times weren't working for us with lots of back and forth walking.

First thing I noticed when I went to book my 7 am was that the return times for most the big ones were way out. MFSR was offered for a 3:26 return time, but by 9:30 am they were offering it at 11:50 am. Returns times got more palatable on some of them once the park had opened and lines filled in. Something to consider when using it. We could have continuing booking until close and there was plenty to book if we hopped. Again had we arrived at opening stayed until closing we could have added so much more. I am happy with how our day went. We took out time to eat at PizzeRizzo (my son loves it there and I couldn't get his favorite Sci Fi.....) and we had our 35 minutes we were allowed at Oga's Cantina. We hit all the stores to see what they have (wow, DisMart ... only Galaxy Edge had unique stuff) and he needed a few sit down and rest 15 minutes.

My final conclusion about Genie+ ....

No secret I was upset about losing FP+, it made trips for my son and I so much better. I had three booked in advance, it was super simple to roll that pass the rest of the day, I had my choices of times and bottom line it was a tool that was free. With Genie+ I basically have none of that.

I won't lie, day one when I had to pay them $33 for the day to use the system, it wasn't a positive feeling. BUT it's not going anywhere and I can either pay out or not use it. Does it have value? WELL that is the question that there is no one answer to because there are so many variables that affect that. Individual Lightning Passes .......... flashback to the ticket books, which I hate. For some of the rides it is well worth it, for other rides it would be wait times and individual desire to determine worth.

PROS:
- If you are going to have to pay, I find the price reasonable.
- VERY easy to buy it initially online.
- Ability to buy daily, so for days or parks you don't want, it's not required.
- It allows you to lock in some really long wait time attractions, so you can spend that time doing lower wait time attractions (or eating etc).
- Being able to book one at 7 am is equal to booking 1 pre-visit like before.
- You are able to do all the work on your phone no matter where you are located.
- It is similar to FastPass enough to make many happy.
- Includes the fun photo filters, and my hope is they expand on this.
- Based on those in the lines, I would say so far not many were using compared to crowds.
- One day it was frozen BUT I immediately got push notices they wanted to update the app, so we sat and let it update. I didn't notice anything new and some glitches were still there but at least they are actively working on it.

CONS:
- Major Glitch, Tip Board location not functioning well
- No choice in return times.
- No ability to modify time, you have to cancel and start over.
- To get a later time you have to wait to try later and risk times still not working or no times.
- Too often the time offered for top attraction is hours out.
- VERY IMPORTANT to learn the angles in working the 120 minute stacking system.
- To get value at Epcot & AK, you need to be park hopping where you can use it more.
- SO you need the cost of hopping on your ticket to utilize ^
- Very inflexible, which makes the day more rigid. I found there was less ebb & flow for us.
- No flexibility in time; you have ONE hour, get there.
- Check your Confirmations to make sure you got the time you thought you booked, it can jump.
- No matter what I keep hearing ... what I experienced and saw others, you have to stay on your phone more. The idea I can book and forget about it until I ride means I won't be riding much via the Genie+ unless it is all low wait ride times which why bother. The adjusting our return times allowed us to make our time in the park effective.
- Our experience at rides and Guest Experience Blue Umbrellas that CMs are no more knowledgable about the system than guests such as ourselves. At several locations saw guests bully themselves through when it appeared (when you travel with a non-verbal person you listen to everything) they should not have gone in. CMs were not confident.
- They need to make lines more protected. Saw three groups jump in line at Jungle Cruise, the second scanner wasn't working so they got through. When you pay for something line jumping not cool.

INDIFFERENT:
- No repeating attractions, even if you miss your time it is counted as used.


Genie+ is a great option depending on variables ...
so the decision to use it is a very individual decision.
- MK and DHS a plus
- Epcot and AK a plus if you are hopping and using at other parks
- Not a plus if only doing a few hours per day in the parks
- Not a plus for regulars or locals
- A plus if once in a lifetime trip or your days are limited aka one day per park
- A plus if park hours are shorter
- If you have kids too small for most rides, might not find a plus other than MK
- Study wait times on the days before your trip to make sure you need it
- Wait times might be reasonable so spend money on the ILL
- Learn the 120 stacking rules, always book one at 7 am, check for adjusting times sooner
- Study app in advance so day of it's a breeze, and realize most the app is clutter

Would I rather have FP+ back, yes, but I can work with this just fine.

 

[gharter]

I think your assessment is very close to ours.
Genie + is worth it at MK and HS. AK if its crowded. See no reason to ever use it at EPCOT.
If they fix Genie + to where you can pick times and modify times, do an attraction more than once , would be great improvements.

 

[LindaOwl1]

Thanks for the great review HopperFan! I learned one new thing about G+ and I'm not happy about it - Does not confirm with the time you booked : You can hit "book" for 9AM and it confirms with at 10:30 time?? This is going to have me scrambling to adjust my plans even more than I was expecting.

 

[CarolynFH]

Part 2 is coming sooner than later because we decided last night we were not going to buy Genie+ for today. We spent the day at DHS, and had hoped to hop to MK to finish out to finally watch Enchantment. I realized DS was not going to make it, so we hung in a bit longer and saw the holiday lights start to come on, then left. Sad to not see Tower of Terror lit up but I push him too hard and we can lose the rest of the trip. SO now I had to decide about today. We were booked at DHS again, then were hopping to EPCOT for Harmonious (I hate that is so late). When we got to room I saw we reservations at MK had opened so I switched from DHS to MK. Plan was go around lunch or later, then still hop to EPCOT for Harmonious and big thing I wanted to see Spaceship Earth lit up. I decided I would not book Genie+ for just an afternoon, we'd done most the rides the other day anyway. Enchantment would wait until January. It's just another projection/firework show - I'd rather see Harmonious which is different.

Well we woke up to POURING RAIN!!!! Poor runDisney runners. I didn't have it in me to go to MK in the rain just because, so I jumped on computer and switched our reservation to EPCOT, planning to go just for evening. I also bought a Individual Lightning Lane Pass for REMY for 8:25-9:25 pm. Hoping to walk out, pick a spot and see the show. Purchasing the LL is so easy, love I can pick a time!!!!! I think it cost more than it had all week though so guess Friday is part of the weekend upcharge. Honestly since I didn't buy Genie+ and won't be spending any other money at Disney today, I'm fine with it. I waited too long to decide to book a Boarding Group this morning, and I won't be in the park at 1 pm for the next round so ... I am paying for convenience right now.

Yesterday we used Genie+ at DHS and I think it's worth it there. I know people say it's not a "full day park" but it always has been for us. My issue is that there are "walk on" things to do aka all the shows, a couple low wait rides like Alien, Muppets and Star Tours and the rest are basically "E TICKETS" which eats up your whole day. Long waits for ToT, RnR, Slinky, TSMM, MFSR, Rise, MMRR ... that is basically open to close with barely a potty break.

Thursday- Disney Hollywood Studios
(Arrived 10am / Left 7 pm)
Got up early and bought Genie+ (EASY)
- Alien Saucers (booked 7 am)
- Star Tours
- Muppet 3D
- Rock N Roller Coaster
- Toy Story Midway Mania
Might not be prime choices but the times weren't working for us with lots of back and forth walking.

First thing I noticed when I went to book my 7 am was that the return times for most the big ones were way out. MFSR was offered for a 3:26 return time, but by 9:30 am they were offering it at 11:50 am. Returns times got more palatable on some of them once the park had opened and lines filled in. Something to consider when using it. We could have continuing booking until close and there was plenty to book if we hopped. Again had we arrived at opening stayed until closing we could have added so much more. I am happy with how our day went. We took out time to eat at PizzeRizzo (my son loves it there and I couldn't get his favorite Sci Fi.....) and we had our 35 minutes we were allowed at Oga's Cantina. We hit all the stores to see what they have (wow, DisMart ... only Galaxy Edge had unique stuff) and he needed a few sit down and rest 15 minutes.

My final conclusion about Genie+ ....

No secret I was upset about losing FP+, it made trips for my son and I so much better. I had three booked in advance, it was super simple to roll that pass the rest of the day, I had my choices of times and bottom line it was a tool that was free. With Genie+ I basically have none of that.

I won't lie, day one when I had to pay them $33 for the day to use the system, it wasn't a positive feeling. BUT it's not going anywhere and I can either pay out or not use it. Does it have value? WELL that is the question that there is no one answer to because there are so many variables that affect that. Individual Lightning Passes .......... flashback to the ticket books, which I hate. For some of the rides it is well worth it, for other rides it would be wait times and individual desire to determine worth.

PROS:
- If you are going to have to pay, I find the price reasonable.
- VERY easy to buy it initially online.
- Ability to buy daily, so for days or parks you don't want, it's not required.
- It allows you to lock in some really long wait time attractions, so you can spend that time doing lower wait time attractions (or eating etc).
- Being able to book one at 7 am is equal to booking 1 pre-visit like before.
- You are able to do all the work on your phone no matter where you are located.
- It is similar to FastPass enough to make many happy.
- Includes the fun photo filters, and my hope is they expand on this.
- Based on those in the lines, I would say so far not many were using compared to crowds.
- One day it was frozen BUT I immediately got push notices they wanted to update the app, so we sat and let it update. I didn't notice anything new and some glitches were still there but at least they are actively working on it.

CONS:
- Major Glitch, Tip Board location not functioning well
- No choice in return times.
- No ability to modify time, you have to cancel and start over.
- To get a later time you have to wait to try later and risk times still not working or no times.
- Too often the time offered for top attraction is hours out.
- VERY IMPORTANT to learn the angles in working the 120 minute stacking system.
- To get value at Epcot & AK, you need to be park hopping where you can use it more.
- SO you need the cost of hopping on your ticket to utilize ^
- Very inflexible, which makes the day more rigid. I found there was less ebb & flow for us.
- No flexibility in time; you have ONE hour, get there.
- Check your Confirmations to make sure you got the time you thought you booked, it can jump.
- No matter what I keep hearing ... what I experienced and saw others, you have to stay on your phone more. The idea I can book and forget about it until I ride means I won't be riding much via the Genie+ unless it is all low wait ride times which why bother. The adjusting our return times allowed us to make our time in the park effective.
- Our experience at rides and Guest Experience Blue Umbrellas that CMs are no more knowledgable about the system than guests such as ourselves. At several locations saw guests bully themselves through when it appeared (when you travel with a non-verbal person you listen to everything) they should not have gone in. CMs were not confident.

INDIFFERENT:
- No repeating attractions, even if you miss your time it is counted as used.


Genie+ is a great option depending on variables ...
so the decision to use it is a very individual decision.
- MK and DHS a plus
- Epcot and AK a plus if you are hopping and using at other parks
- Not a plus if only doing a few hours per day in the parks
- Not a plus for regulars or locals
- A plus if once in a lifetime trip or your days are limited aka one day per park
- A plus if park hours are shorter
- If you have kids too small for most rides, might not find a plus other than MK
- Study wait times on the days before your trip to make sure you need it
- Wait times might be reasonable so spend money on the ILL
- Learn the 120 stacking rules, always book one at 7 am, check for adjusting times sooner
- Study app in advance so day of it's a breeze, and realize most the app is clutter

Would I rather have FP+ back, yes, but I can work with this just fine.

Thanks for such a great report.
How much was the Remy ILL$? I skim most of these posts so don’t remember seeing the actual price very often.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Thanks for the great review HopperFan! I learned one new thing about G+ and I'm not happy about it - Does not confirm with the time you booked : You can hit "book" for 9AM and it confirms with at 10:30 time?? This is going to have me scrambling to adjust my plans even more than I was expecting.

Yeah, I'm sure for busy rides this is worse. Probably a thousand people clicking SDD all at the same time. So all you can do is click fast

 

[gharter]

Does not confirm with the time you booked : You can hit "book" for 9AM and it confirms with at 10:30 time??

That happened to us as well. A 9 am showed up , clicked on it and it returns with 10.

 

[HopperFan]

Thanks for such a great report.
How much was the Remy ILL$? I skim most of these posts so don’t remember seeing the actual price very often.

I'm pretty sure it was $8 on Wednesday - I've tried to screen shot but I don't see that I did. Today I paid $11 each. It has been reported weekends will be higher and then of course holidays even higher than that.

At this point I'm budgeting for the two of us (AP so back in January for week) an extra $35 a day for Genie+ or ILL. And honestly, it makes me think twice about any of my TS I used to book almost daily. It will just come out of our dining budget, which is fine with me, not missing anything with that.

 

[HopperFan]

Thanks for the great review HopperFan! I learned one new thing about G+ and I'm not happy about it - Does not confirm with the time you booked : You can hit "book" for 9AM and it confirms with at 10:30 time?? This is going to have me scrambling to adjust my plans even more than I was expecting.

Yeah, I'm sure for busy rides this is worse. Probably a thousand people clicking SDD all at the same time. So all you can do is click fast

I could not have clicked any faster ... but I understand why it happens. It is why it is so important to check your final confirmation.

It also causes other problems, like it books you during an ADR which could be an issue if system is bumping your time.

I saw lots of folks arrive consistently around 40 minutes early (one was 80) for their LL time. Most were for real upset and pulling their phones out. I don't think they were trying to pull anything - I think the system booked them later and they arrived based on what they thought they booked.

 

[gharter]

I saw lots of folks arrive consistently around 40 minutes early (one was 80) for their LL time. Most were for real upset and pulling their phones out. I don't think they were trying to pull anything - I think the system booked them later and they arrived based on what they thought they booked.

I didn't see any of that when we were there, but that would be really frustrating. Luckily, I had watched a video earlier that talked about you might get the time you thought you clicked on, so i was watching. That needs to be fixed as well. If I click on a 9 am LL, it should hold it for me until I decline or cancel rather than give you a new time before you confirm.

 

[HopperFan]

I didn't see any of that when we were there, but that would be really frustrating. Luckily, I had watched a video earlier that talked about you might get the time you thought you clicked on, so i was watching. That needs to be fixed as well. If I click on a 9 am LL, it should hold it for me until I decline or cancel rather than give you a new time before you confirm.

Exactly, give you 15 seconds, what can that hurt. I know I punched through in single digit seconds.

I was very surprised how crowded the parks were this week compared to photos I was seeing last week. Lots of international visitors so maybe this starts a holiday time for them.

At first I thought, you know, there will be those who don't get it or trying to get through, but it kept happening. I also learned unlike FP+ there is NO early entry. They kept us outside until the clock said exactly what our time was.

All a learning curve and Disney will keep making app and operational adjustments.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thanks for such a great report.
How much was the Remy ILL$? I skim most of these posts so don’t remember seeing the actual price very often.

Cost of ILL$ according to this post (as of Nov 5, 2021 - subject to change) are:

Magic Kingdom	Mon - Thurs​	Fri - Sun​
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train	$10​	$12​
Space Mountain	$7​	$9​
EPCOT
Frozen Ever After	$9​	$11​
Remy's Ratatouille Adventure	$8​	$11​
Disney's Hollywood Studios
Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway	$8​	$10​
Rise of the Resistance	$15​	$15​
Disney's Animal Kingdom
Avatar's Flight of Passage	$11​	$14​
Expedition Everest	$7​	$7​

I would anticipate that we may see these increased prices apply on holidays also. Has anyone heard if this will/will not happen?