Disneyland vs WDW

[kitkat4622]

for those who have done both do we really need genie+ to do DL?
we may be going next spring and I don't want to have to micromanage on my phone to get on rides.
We will probably be there 4 full days

 

[Brandonius]

Do you need it? Nope. Definitely not. Rope drop, single rider, and evening lines will be just fine for the big rides, especially over 4 days. Will you ride less than if you had genie? Probably. But if not using your phone is important, you'll be totally fine over 4 days with slightly planned out itineraries and either rope drop, late nights, or both.

 

[Mike_M]

I agree with @Brandonius. It’s a great time saver and helps out with some of the longer queues on certain attractions. But I wouldn’t call it a requirement.

Many of the longer queues are entertaining themselves and could easily be considered a walking part of the attraction rather than just a line to get to the attraction (BTMRR, Indy, Mr. Toad, Millennium Falcon, and even HM & POTC have queues that I usually enjoy regardless how long they are). The queues also have heavy and lite times to look for (the return of parades and nighttime shows can help with easing the queues on many attractions).

DL park itself is especially fine for the most part without G+ and is mostly useful on the busiest of days and on just a handful of attractions to help cut down on line times.

 

[Kerr84]

I think it is totally worth it at DL. You basically can get a LL for all of the rides offered way into the night AND photo pass is included. I don’t think it is stressful the way WDW is.

 

[longboard55]

Agree with Kerr if you are spending the full day it is totally worth it. We loved it. Normally we only go for a few hours and don't do many rides, but we did to a full day for a birthday party and it was amazing how well it worked for us.

 

[chezcurrie]

A nice in-between could be getting it for 1 day of your trip and using it to maximize things you either haven’t done yet, or really want to re-do. I don’t find its too much time on my iPhone as I usually just book our next return while in line for the attraction.

Ultimately it is up to you how you use it - some see it as they must ride as much/every ride possible in order to get “your money’s worth” while others use it to make their day more carefree and ride a select number of rides with shorter lines. Neither way is better than the other, just options.

 

[rpfennig]

We did a mix on a trip we just took (April 22 - 29) because the first couple days were for the Dapper Day weekend. On the Saturday we knew we were going to spend some time just walking around Galaxy's Edge and going to the Dapper Day Expo and then on the Sunday morning it was the Fantasyland rides that don't have lightning lanes, a wine tasting and a longer dinner so it didn't seem to make a lot of sense to get. Monday was an all day excursion to Universal Studios Hollywood so the Tuesday had a larger rest break scheduled.

The last two days we used Genie+ and definitely got more rides in. It didn't always save a tonne of time... for example, we had a lightning lane for Matterhorn that lined up with it just coming up after it had been down since opening so standby was 10 minutes and lightning lane was a walk on. Some rides have earlier merge points (for example, Indiana Jones Adventure and Star Tours) where it doesn't have a huge impact but it made a big difference on Space Mountain. However, by day 5 of the trip we were facing the Weary Feet Rebellion of 2022 and it was just nice to have some shorter lines.

Ultimately it is up to you how you use it - some see it as they must ride as much/every ride possible in order to get “your money’s worth” while others use it to make their day more carefree and ride a select number of rides with shorter lines. Neither way is better than the other, just options.

The days we did use Genie+ did feel a bit more carefree and relaxed. We didn't optimize every selection and got 6-7 lightning lanes each day but it meant we got to do some rides like Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout that we wouldn't have done otherwise based on longer posted wait times (75 minutes) and do some of the shorter wait time rides in between scheduled lightning lanes. The other place we saved time on was with the single rider line for Radiator Spring Racers. We managed to ride it twice in a row from beginning to end in 30 minutes on a posted stand by time of 60 minutes. Basically 5 minutes from entering the single rider queue to being in a car.