Everything Genie, Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane - Please Read Posts 1-7

[GBRforWDW]

If you book a genie + at 7am for 5pm slinky dog dash and then at the 11am 120 min rule you book a genie + for star tours at 11:15am, when is your next availability to book? Is it that at 11:15 when you tap in you get another one, but NOT when you tap into your 5pm? Or is it that because you hold the 5pm you are stuck waiting 120 mins all day?

It's based on last pass selection. So if at 11 you book ST for 1115, as soon as you're scanned in there, you can select another ride.

When you scan into SDD at 5, you will not be able to make a new selection, based off checking in only. Obviously if it was part of the 2 hour cool down period, you could book based on that criteria.

 

[KristinU]

Apologies if this has been covered, I may have missed it in my reading through this thread: in order to book an ILL$ do you have to have a park pass for that park for that day? Or can one be made in the morning for a park you intend to hop to for the afternoon/evening?

 

[GBRforWDW]

Apologies if this has been covered, I may have missed it in my reading through this thread: in order to book an ILL$ do you have to have a park pass for that park for that day? Or can one be made in the morning for a park you intend to hop to for the afternoon/evening?

As long as you have park hoppers, you can schedule an ILL$ in any park. If you're selecting a park that is not your reserved park, you'll be shown times after 2pm.

 

[NJlauren]

Has anyone had it happen where your 120 minutes is up and you get an error you can book your next LL till X time?

example I booked 7am test track for 6-7pm then to went at 3pm to book Soarin but it said I wasn’t able to book till 12pm, but it was clearly way after 12pm. I booked no other LLs in this time. If it happens tomorrow I’ll call today wasn’t really an issue but tomorrow I’m planning to stack at MK in the afternoon.

 

[DJFan88]

Found link! Sorry I edited

 

[beachblythe]

Great job on this! I just finished a week here dealing with Genie+ every day and this hits all the points!

A couple things to add:

- I found that the app would let you make a new Genie+ reservation after the first touch point. Did not have to wait for the 2nd touch point.

- The tip board displays the next available time, but you are actually given a one hour window starting at that time. And you are actually allowed to show up 5 minutes earlier and 15 minutes late from that window. So if I see a return time of 2pm on the tip board, that is really good from 1:55pm to 3:15pm. In addition
- If a ride goes down and you hold a Genie plus LL for it you will automatically be given a pass to use on any ride in the park (except paid LL rides). This pass is good from the time your Genie+ reservation was supposed to be until park close. This happened to us one night at Magic Kingdom. By 4pm we had gone on most of the things we wanted so I made a Barnstormer reservation just for the sake of having something. The ride went down and we were able to use it on Thunder Mountain instead. Even if you think you are done, make any reservation even if you don’t plan to ride the attraction. If it goes down it could be useful.

- I definitely agree that the stacking strategy works best at Hollywood Studios, while the “Use and Get a New One” strategy works very well at Magic Kingdom. Other than Peter Pan and Jungle Cruise, the return times for the other rides do not get too much further out than 1 hour from booking time. In that one hour, you can ride what you just tapped into, then ride something with a low wait, get a snack and then it’s time for your next LL. Tap in and repeat the process.

I did not know about the ability to use it 5 minutes before the window starts!! Glad to know that now for my next trip. I stood there and would wait. Oh well.

 

[Nana2Callie]

In the old FP system and magic bands - we would book for all 3 in our party. But, if someone changed their mind and didn't want to ride - then I would allow our GD the unused ride - easy enough by switching magic bands. Is this possible with the Genie, if so how?

 

[g-dad66]

In the old FP system and magic bands - we would book for all 3 in our party. But, if someone changed their mind and didn't want to ride - then I would allow our GD the unused ride - easy enough by switching magic bands. Is this possible with the Genie, if so how?

Same thing. Let them use your magic band.

 

[Nana2Callie]

Thank you!

 

[Flamingeaux]

What is the best way to "modify" a Genie + selection? Can you have two people do it? One pulls up the better time while the other person cancels the original selection.

 

[Mistydurand]

Can anyone help solve this issue…If I have made a park reservation for a specific park (for example, Animal Kingdom ) and at 7am I go to the app to secure ILL passes for Avatar but the timeslot is not until the evening. I don’t want to spend the entire day in AK so do I change park reservations asap (is that possible?) and hop to AK after 2pm? Or since Avatar is really the only thing I want to do at AK, do I just get there early and wait in the standby line? So confusing…!

 

[Brian4891]

What is the best way to "modify" a Genie + selection? Can you have two people do it? One pulls up the better time while the other person cancels the original selection.

It is difficult to cancel and re-book for the most popular rides. You may see a SDD time pop up in the middle of the day that you really want. Your strategy of having someone else cancel and then you re-book immediately after may work. It is possible, but it is by no means a guarantee. That SDD time you want could pop up for one second and then disappear. If you cancel your other SDD time trying to get a better time you could end up with nothing. It's very risky. The best way to get what you want is to be up at 7am and grab it as soon as you see it, and then not mess with it!

On the other rides, that are not as in demand, it's no big deal. Haunted Mansion, for example, will probably have the same return time every time you check it over a given 10 minute timespan. So you have plenty of time to look at the return time, go to your other booking and cancel, and get back to Haunted Mansion and book.

 

[mickey916]

Read through the first few posts and didn't see an answer to this question: What happens if I book a Genie+ and by the time I confirm it switches to a time that falls when I have an ADR? I'm especially concerned about SDD that if that happens, I can't cancel and rebook since there may not be any availability...will guest services help? Do I go late to the ADR or SDD?

 

[GBRforWDW]

Read through the first few posts and didn't see an answer to this question: What happens if I book a Genie+ and by the time I confirm it switches to a time that falls when I have an ADR? I'm especially concerned about SDD that if that happens, I can't cancel and rebook since there may not be any availability...will guest services help? Do I go late to the ADR or SDD?

My experience, and it could vary by cast member and ride, is that if you're late to the ride, they'll let you on as long as its because of something like an ADR or something else preventing you from being in the park. Keep receipts and get screenshots of the conflicting times to help prove your case, but I got on a few rides after the time expired.

 

[Brian4891]

Read through the first few posts and didn't see an answer to this question: What happens if I book a Genie+ and by the time I confirm it switches to a time that falls when I have an ADR? I'm especially concerned about SDD that if that happens, I can't cancel and rebook since there may not be any availability...will guest services help? Do I go late to the ADR or SDD?

Definitely a valid concern. I would try to book a time that is far away from your ADR so that if you end up with a different time it’s hopefully still not interfering with the ADR.

Remember you get a one hour window to go on the ride. And you can show up 5 minutes early and 15 minutes late so it’s really a 1 hour and 20 minute window. I think the ADR’s allow you to show up 15 mins late as well, and I think if you call and tell them you’re running late they will hold it even longer. So given all that you’d have to be really unlucky to have your SDD window fall exactly inside the 2 hours or so you need for the ADR, especially if you’re trying to book a time with some cushion.

As for the guest services, I was surprised at how unhelpful they were. I asked them to switch a 7DMT ILL that I had because the app had crashed that morning and I ended up with a time at night instead of the morning like I had planned. She simply said all times were sold out and there was nothing she could do. So I would not count on getting help from them unfortunately. This was someone at one of the guest services umbrellas in the park. Maybe you would have more luck with the CM outside the ride.

 

[Avery&Todd]

I'm one of those APs holders who had major issues booking Genie+ each morning and I'm wondering if other APs are finding they're NOT experiencing the same issues as when Genie+ first rolled out or are those same "I can't buy Genie+ and I need help" still happening?

Thanks!

 

[JoJoGirl]

FYI for anyone here this week. I’m staying at a Disney resort, and fior the last two days I have not been able to purchase an ILL before 8:00am. I can select my ILL attraction and time and go on to payment, and the charge will be approved on my CC, but then will get a “booking failure” error message.

Luckily I have still been able to get all the ILLs I wanted, including FoP, and this morning RotR - all after 8:00 am.

I stopped at a blue umbrella GET this morning the see if there was a problem with my account, and the TM said it has been a known and widespread issue for the past two days. They are working on it and hope to have it solved soon.

 

[Westerner]

I've seen elsewhere that I can "Add Another Guest" to a G+ reservation if they don't have "a conflicting reservation" but it's not clear what that means.

If someone else in my party at say 11AM books a G+ LL for 5pm for just themselves, and at 11:15 I book an 11:45pm reservation for a different ride, can I immediately add them to my reservation as well? Or will it consider them unavailable since their 2 hour window hasn't closed?

I'm assuming that all these potential loopholes won't work, but just want to be clear before we get to the day of with 1 plan and have to change it.

I suspect it won't allow you to book a LL for someone who's still within the 2 hour "cooldown", because on a recent trip I booked a LL for DW, DD, and myself on Magic Carpets of Aladdin. DW did not want to ride b/c she doesn't like rides that go in a circle. After DD and I tapped in we were able to book another LL but I couldn't include DW. We fixed it by having her tap in to MCoA but not riding. My question is, if I had canceled her unused LL, would she have been immediately been able to rebook without needing to tap in?

Lesson learned for me was be more careful about booking LL's that not everyone will want to go on. On a related tangent: if you let a LL window expire without using it, it counts as your "once per day" LL for that ride.

 

[DL1WDW2]

And to think…Disney Genie was introduced as such a simple way to enjoy the Magic of Genie .

 

[GBRforWDW]

I suspect it won't allow you to book a LL for someone who's still within the 2 hour "cooldown", because on a recent trip I booked a LL for DW, DD, and myself on Magic Carpets of Aladdin. DW did not want to ride b/c she doesn't like rides that go in a circle. After DD and I tapped in we were able to book another LL but I couldn't include DW. We fixed it by having her tap in to MCoA but not riding. My question is, if I had canceled her unused LL, would she have been immediately been able to rebook without needing to tap in?

Lesson learned for me was be more careful about booking LL's that not everyone will want to go on. On a related tangent: if you let a LL window expire without using it, it counts as your "once per day" LL for that ride.

Yes, I did that once or twice with my wife. She had a sore neck so didn't want to ride some things, but I'd book her anyway. I was able to cancel her pass and add her to the next LL selection.