Disney Genie Is Now Live Post Your Hints and Tips

[bcassidy]

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I wish that was working for me! I even tried deleting and reinstalling that app, but I'm just stuck in this endless loop even though my reservation shows in the app.

 

[prestoncaldwell]

uggh

I know what I won't be wasting any money on....

 

[jknc]

For those saying, I won’t use it or I won’t spend money on G+ etc. why?

 

[ThistleMae]

I haven't decided whether to use it or not. I checked out the app and not being that familiar with it, it will take me a bit of time to adapt and figure out what I'm doing. I don't want to be spending a lot of time on the phone. I think I'm just going to stroll and maybe when I sit and have a snack, I might check it out some more. I definitely don't think it will be worth it at either Epcot or Animal Kingdom, but may consider MK. We shall see. Heading there on Saturday...whoo hoo!

 

[jordan13402]

so with Genie+ will I be able to scan into a ride at the entrance with my phone?

 

[prestoncaldwell]

For those saying, I won’t use it or I won’t spend money on G+ etc. why?

A couple reasons:

1. Reading here, the platform is a god awful mess, with unreliable times and varying success even getting it to work.
2. I'm not sure how much real time savings it gives over just going standby and using extended hours.
3. And this is a big one--Disney has a vested interest in applying social engineering in a way that doesn't benefit the guest, but rather optimizes crowd control. Disney designed Genie for Disney's benefit, both in profit and crowd engineering, not to enhance your experience as a guest. Touring Plans, for all its shortcomings, exists for the crowdsourced benefit of its subscribers. I would rather use TP to best navigate the path I want to take through a park than have Genie try to force me on a different path that suits Disney's needs, not mine. It has long been proven that Disney has been either egregiously errant in posted wait times, or cynically manipulative of guest behavior by purposefully misstating them, for example. I'd like to give them the benefit of a doubt on that and assume that their system is just flawed, but if their wait time system is flawed, how can I depend on Genie to manage precious in-park time?

 

[Geemo]

For those saying, I won’t use it or I won’t spend money on G+ etc. why?

I am disappointed that Genie+ only allows one use per attraction on the list.
Especially since some of the rides on the list are not one I generally ride.
I use to us MaxPass to ride certain ride multiple times.
In my opinion, Genie+ is too expensive for what you get.

 

[KPeterso]

For those saying, I won’t use it or I won’t spend money on G+ etc. why?

I plan to try it a couple of times our of curiosity, but being a local with a magic key, I go a lot. If things have a long line, we skip it. It would add up too quickly. Now if Disney offered an add on to the AP of the Genie, I would definitely consider doing a year long add on upgrade to my pass. I want to try it out a bit and decide if I am interested in adding it to some of my WDW days for my trips in March and September there.

 

[jknc]

so with Genie+ will I be able to scan into a ride at the entrance with my phone?

I’ve seen people do this on YouTube.

 

[Didi8367]

Has anyone seen/heard any reports of how it’s going today? Are people able to use it, etc?

 

[twitch]

For those saying, I won’t use it or I won’t spend money on G+ etc. why?

I don't see myself spending money on G+. And we used MaxPass to the Max.

But there's a big difference between the cost of MaxPass being added to an AP and the per-day cost of G+. If I make 12 visits to DL on my SoCal AP (sorry... MK), then for the two of us, we could spend as much as $480, more than twice as much as what we paid for MaxPass. (I think we added it on to our first pass for $75, and then paid $100 for the year after that.)

Since we're just the lowest tier keyholder, we have lots of blockout dates. We tend to visit on Thursday, when things aren't necessarily as busy. Each trip is its own adventure, and we know that we'll be back again.

Also, we are a married couple with no kids. We enjoy spending time together whether we are hiking a mountain, seeing a show, cooking a meal together, watching TV, or standing in line at Disney. We also make good use of single rider lines (especially RSR), and it's OK if we don't ride together--after all, we got to spend time together waiting in line!

Additionally, we're finally transitioning out of park commando style touring where we feel like we have to ride EVERYTHING every time we go. Over the last 6 years, we've ridden everything countless times (although, I keep a detailed record in the Notes App on my phone, so I COULD actually count them if I wanted to). Consequently, we're at the point where we don't mind if we only hit two or three headliners a day and fill the rest of the day with shorter waits. Plus... having waited an hour to ride Star Tours before... the 10-15 minute waits for that ride right now are amazing!

So...to put it another way, I've conquered my FOMO... and am better able to roll with the punches. I don't love waiting in lines, but (as Jack Reacher says) "you have to be somewhere"--and there are many places in life that are worse than a DL line. We can spend that money on something else.

That's a very long answer to your short question... and I realize that it is not a universal response that covers everyone's situation. Other guests have very different scenarios and reasons for buying (or not buying) G+.

Lastly, having said all of that -- I haven't ruled it out entirely. I suppose that if we landed there on a busy day, we might shell out the money. But that's certainly not my primary strategy, and I'm not even sure I think it's likely.

 

[DLRExpert]

Some thoughts after two days of testing (in reality confirming things from today since day one was so bad).

- I would wait to buy Genie+ until you enter the park. See what the Stand By wait times are like when you enter the park.
- You may want to buy the Individual Lightning Lane (ILL) as the Rise line is long, BUT it is kind of up to you as there will be a time the Stand By line will go down to 60-70 minutes (in reality it should be less). From a Star Wars fan perspective you also miss out on all of the props in the queue if you use LL.
- If you are park hopping and you only have 1 day to see both parks then buy Genie+, I would probably wait for Rise and purchase ILL for Web Slingers and Racers.
- You can enter Disneyland through the Monorail station and buy Genie+ and book LLs.
- Free Genie is worthless for trip planning. As expected they use it as an opportunity to upsell you into G+, ILL, and food.
However, it is good in seeing if dining reservations are available.
- One way to make Genie+ worth it on slow days is to bring back the option to use LL on the same attraction multiple times.
- You can use the LL barcode or your Ticket barcode on the LL scanner.
- If an attraction breaks down the LL return time for that attraction shoots up by an hour or two (This is not the case for ILL attractions). When the attraction opens back up the LL return time goes down as well. Probably a way to lessen the release of a Multiple Experience Pass.
- Trying to scam the system by taking a screenshot of your LL barcode , then cancelling your LL, and using the screenshot does not work when you scan.
- Refresh trick still works, but hard to see or test during the first two days as the LL return times were only minutes away from the actual LL return time.
- You can cancel a LL if your return time has been called.
- You can save money if Single Rider is an option during your visit.
- With a small amount of attractions at DCA. LL selections for certain rides tend to go faster. For example 115pm, we are at a return time of 330pm for Guardians. Note, Guardians was also down on Day 2 for a while so this could be the cause.
- If you rope drop DCA, you don't need G+. However ILL for WS and Racers makes things even easier.
- If you are using G+ enter each LL attraction as your Top Pick in the app. It will help in seeing the LL return times and help if you do the refresh trick.
- I do not think this is going to take off as a huge success for Disney at Disneyland. Fastpass was free, MaxPass was an additional fee for comfort and ease of use since you did not have to go to every FP machine to get a FP. With G+ and ILL being a paid option I do not see it being used as much at Disneyland especially by Magic Key Holders.

ME

 

[DLRExpert]

Has anyone seen/heard any reports of how it’s going today? Are people able to use it, etc?

No problems for me on an Android phone today.

 

[starlite_]

I do not see it being used as much at Disneyland especially by Magic Key Holders.

I have the feeling, this is the point. If I could go more than once a year I wouldn't care for G+ either. But as an international traveler, one really has to try to max out the days you have to get the most out of your visit imo. And that should help out with it I think, if not everyone buys it then it works best for those that do. At least in theory.

 

[MissouriTink]

If you book a Lightning Lane (say Toy Story) and it has an immediate return time can you ride that one and then immediately book for another ride (say Incredicoaster) as soon as you exit the first ride or do you have to still wait the pre-determined amount of time (can’t remember if it was 90 or 120 minutes) before booking your second ride?

 

[MiddKid]

- You can use the LL barcode or your Ticket barcode on the LL scanner.

This triggered a question in my mind. Our last few family trips have been to WDW (MagicBands) and am curious how scanning works for our upcoming Disneyland trip (next week). When I get a LL pass, do I scan the code on my phone at the checkpoint and then they count all 5 of us in? I'm used to the WDW version where we all tap in, but I would assume this is a one-time scan for the whole group...right? All 3 of my kids have phones so I could set it up so they each have access but probably easier to just do one scan.

Thanks!

 

[MonocularVision]

Just checked Disneyland rides and every single Genie+ LL had an immediate return time except for Indy which was 10 minutes later. Rise’s ILL$ has a return time only 30 minutes out (and a standby listed as 60 minutes)

The posted standby lanes for everything seem extremely low (even if they are inflated). Seems to be a very slow day today.

 

[DLRExpert]

If you book a Lightning Lane (say Toy Story) and it has an immediate return time can you ride that one and then immediately book for another ride (say Incredicoaster) as soon as you exit the first ride or do you have to still wait the pre-determined amount of time (can’t remember if it was 90 or 120 minutes) before booking your second ride?

As soon as you scan your TSMM LL, you can book for Incredicoaster.

 

[DLRExpert]

This triggered a question in my mind. Our last few family trips have been to WDW (MagicBands) and am curious how scanning works for our upcoming Disneyland trip (next week). When I get a LL pass, do I scan the code on my phone at the checkpoint and then they count all 5 of us in? I'm used to the WDW version where we all tap in, but I would assume this is a one-time scan for the whole group...right? All 3 of my kids have phones so I could set it up so they each have access but probably easier to just do one scan.

Thanks!

There is an open slot near the bottom of the scanner. You use the Ticket or LL barcode on your phone or the physical ticket you get when you go through the turnstiles. The circle light above will spin and then turn green when you are confirmed to go in.

 

[MissouriTink]

As soon as you scan your TSMM LL, you can book for Incredicoaster.

Thank you so much! I am here now and may give it a shot. Lines were pretty short this morning but were starting to pick up right before we left for a break because we didn’t want to hang out in the rain. If the return times remain immediate like they looked this morning it might be a good way to run through all of those rides really quick later this afternoon. IF the system is working today that is.