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

[g-dad66]

Wondering other's strategies for Magic Kingdom? Do you try and book rides with a shorter return time so you can book the next one ASAP? Or do you go for the ones that seem to sell out sooner such as Jungle Cruise or Peter Pan but then you have to wait for 2hrs after park open (or 2hrs going forward) to book the next one.

Epcot and HS seemed easier to come up with a plan of attack for first Genie+.

Would love to hear suggestions as I am a bit stuck on MK planning.
I am coming with 2 teens and priorities will be Splash, Big Thunder, Space Mountain, and Haunted Mansion but also want to ride JC, Peter Pan.

Our strategy will be to book Jungle Cruise at 7am for as early as possible, hopefully well before 11:00 return time. After tapping into JC, will book Peter Pan (hopefully again LL will be less than 2 hours out). That should put us in good shape for booking LL for other attractions throughout the day.

We will do Space Mountain during Early Entry, and then will head to Frontierland at 9:00 to do Big Thunder and Splash standby.

Hopefully the 9:00 plan will work better than our March trip when not only were Big Thunder and Splash both down at 9:00, but Pirates was down also.

 

[holyrita]

Does anyone have any insight as to what the times are doing between 7 and 7:15 for the headliners? I have been practicing my genie+ strategy for our upcoming September trip. I can see the times starting at 7:15 and refreshing between 7:15 and 8 am I'm no longer seeing the early time "drops" like I did for our trip in May. If I don't see an early morning time right at 7 am will sometime come up at say 7:10?

I've seen no drops between 7 and 7:15am. I'd recommend booking as early as possible for the best possible time, refreshing during that time period for more drops seems to be gone.

 

[TinkBink]

I've seen no drops between 7 and 7:15am. I'd recommend booking as early as possible for the best possible time, refreshing during that time period for more drops seems to be gone.

Thank you very much! Good to know!!

 

[elgerber]

Our strategy will be to book Jungle Cruise at 7am for as early as possible, hopefully well before 11:00 return time. After tapping into JC, will book Peter Pan (hopefully again LL will be less than 2 hours out). That should put us in good shape for booking LL for other attractions throughout the day.

We will do Space Mountain during Early Entry, and then will head to Frontierland at 9:00 to do Big Thunder and Splash standby.

Hopefully the 9:00 plan will work better than our March trip when not only were Big Thunder and Splash both down at 9:00, but Pirates was down also.

I would not count on Peter Pan being less than two hours out at 11am. Peter Pan books into the late afternoon/evening pretty quickly.

 

[Plan Man]

Haven’t used G+. I have read the intro post explaining how it works and time frames between choosing your next ride etc. my question: when choosing your first ride choice are you able to pick the time for later in day? As an example, I would like to pick Jungle cruise at MK for my 7 o’clock pick but don’t want to ride it until say 11 or so. Can this be done or do you just accept whatever time is listed?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Haven’t used G+. I have read the intro post explaining how it works and time frames between choosing your next ride etc. my question: when choosing your first ride choice are you able to pick the time for later in day? As an example, I would like to pick Jungle cruise at MK for my 7 o’clock pick but don’t want to ride it until say 11 or so. Can this be done or do you just accept whatever time is listed?

You may not select a return time for Genie+ LL attractions, you must accept the next available time. The rides you mentioned - JC is a ride where you can only accept next available time.

If you purchase ILL$ rides (7DMT) you may select a return time.

 

[reddog21]

Haven’t used G+. I have read the intro post explaining how it works and time frames between choosing your next ride etc. my question: when choosing your first ride choice are you able to pick the time for later in day? As an example, I would like to pick Jungle cruise at MK for my 7 o’clock pick but don’t want to ride it until say 11 or so. Can this be done or do you just accept whatever time is listed?

At 7am no times are shown on the tip board for regular LL(around 7:30 they start to show up), you select the ride and a times pops up. On that screen you could not confirm the time and go back in the tip board select the ride again and see what time comes up. It's a bit of a gamble for the more popular rides because if you don't like the first time, the second time may increase dramatically. Once you confirm your LL you can't see any more times for that ride until you cancel it.

 

[Frozen2014]

Our strategy will be to book Jungle Cruise at 7am for as early as possible, hopefully well before 11:00 return time. After tapping into JC, will book Peter Pan (hopefully again LL will be less than 2 hours out). That should put us in good shape for booking LL for other attractions throughout the day.

We will do Space Mountain during Early Entry, and then will head to Frontierland at 9:00 to do Big Thunder and Splash standby.

Hopefully the 9:00 plan will work better than our March trip when not only were Big Thunder and Splash both down at 9:00, but Pirates was down also.

Thanks. I'm looking at thrill data for Jungle Cruise at 7:05am, it's already booking 11:30am and Peter Pan as well books a few hours out. Thinking about it, Is it better to wait a bit for Peter Pan (maybe 3rd LL booking) and hope that you have another one you are tapping into prior to using Peter Pan? Not even sure if that is possible.

Good idea to do early entry for one headliner, Space being a good candidate.

That's so frustrating with Splash, Big Thunder AND pirates down. :-( We're going in a couple weeks so know weather an impact things.

 

[g-dad66]

Yes, 7:05 would be too late for my plan to work. We need to get Jungle Cruise booked between 7:00 and 7:01.

You're right, though, about Peter Pan. If we can tap into Jungle Cruise at about 9:45 (after doing Big Thunder and Splash), the LL return times for Peter Pan will be well into the afternoon. So we will have to wait until about 11:45 to get LL #3.

 

[Frozen2014]

Yes, 7:05 would be too late for my plan to work. We need to get Jungle Cruise booked between 7:00 and 7:01.

Will definitely be on at 7am, but am just thinking by the time we get to the final screen it may switch to a later time (and MK is our first park day so may be a little shaky using Genie+)

 

[Rebecca Pocahontas]

I have a question about the 2 hour window start time.
- If the park opens at 9 am for everyone but 8:30 for resort guests does that mean the window starts counting down at 9 or does it start at 8:30?

 

[g-dad66]

I have a question about the 2 hour window start time.
- If the park opens at 9 am for everyone but 8:30 for resort guests does that mean the window starts counting down at 9 or does it start at 8:30?

It starts counting down at 9 am.

 

[arich35]

If you are booking Genie+ for 10-12 people, how difficult is it to get times? I have no idea what we are going to do to make the most out of Genie+ at MK. We will most likely not being getting there right at opening (staying off resort). And probably taking a break in the middle of the day, we have a couple toddlers

 

[bashuck]

Can you purchase LL to be used during the 4-7PM time of the MVMCP? We will be at a water park earlier in the day. 3 of us have APs but one does not so we are not making park reservations at MK.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Can you purchase LL to be used during the 4-7PM time of the MVMCP? We will be at a water park earlier in the day. 3 of us have APs but one does not so we are not making park reservations at MK.

No you cannot as you would need to have a park reservation in order to add Genie+ to your day. Since you will be entering at 4PM using a party ticket, you will not be eligible for G+.

 

[isabellea]

Anyone booked a parade viewing spot with G+? How is the view? Is it very crowded?

 

[DavidNYC]

Is there any consensus on a pattern of drops throughout the day for LL? I was looking on thrill data and there seem to be some patterns of many of the popular rides becoming available again at 2:50 / 4:50 etc. I was just doing some refreshing to see what times were in prep for a trip next week and at 3:45 suddenly times became available for slinky dog, ToT, RnR all within the next hour.

Any pattern here or does it seem to be just random during the day. Was a bit heartened by that I was able to get all three of those to come up in under 5 minutes of refreshing when they were showing as not available not long before.

 

[ghtx]

Hi. I have a question about my two teenage kids making Genie+ reservations. They are both going to be at Hollywood Studios one day on their own. I've already bought Genie+ for their tickets. I (dad) have the account in MDE and manage everyone else. The kids don't have their own accounts.

Will they be able to make G+ reservations in DHS while they are there, without me, by logging into the app as me? Or do they need to create their own MDE accounts?

 

[CarolynFH]

Hi. I have a question about my two teenage kids making Genie+ reservations. They are both going to be at Hollywood Studios one day on their own. I've already bought Genie+ for their tickets. I (dad) have the account in MDE and manage everyone else. The kids don't have their own accounts.

Will they be able to make G+ reservations in DHS while they are there, without me, by logging into the app as me? Or do they need to create their own MDE accounts?

They can log into your account and book Genie+LLs, ILL$ and VQ for themselves.

 

[sleepymouse]

Do I need to use last one booked first (if 2 hours have not passed since booking it) before I can book another LL? For example, book SDD 7am for 11am, book TSMM at 11am for 12pm, use SDD at 11:15. Will I be able to book another LL after tapping SDD or not until I tap TSMM?