Genie+ during Spring Break Crowds

[melbatoast]

Hi! Can anyone lmk how Genie+ is working during Spring Break? Has there been availability to use it all day or is everything getting booked up early in the day? We used it at Disneyland and had great success, but I've been hearing at WDW you can only get on 1 or 2 rides with it, then can't get anything else the rest of the day. Also, now that they have tiered pricing, is there a price chart somewhere to know ahead of time what the cost will be on a given day? We will be there the week before and after Easter. Thanks!!!!!

 

[coasternut22]

Watch the YouTube channel Earscouts. He has the best G+ videos out there. Watch the 27 tips video for an overall explanation of how it works. His most recent park hoping video for,AK and Epcot was on Presidents’ Day weekend, which was an extremely busy weekend. He also has a video on the busiest time of year where he gets every G+ selection at HS on Christmas Eve. These are the videos you want to watch for the best advice on using G+ on busy days.

 

[melbatoast]

Great, thanks coasternut22! As far as pricing, what is it running during Spring Break?

 

[sheilafri]

I was there last week. It was $22 on Thursday.

I was hopping between HS and Epcot. Got Remy first thing, then booked ToT at 11. No luck after that for Frozen. There were slots for Soarin and oddly, the 1:00 VQ for GotG let me sign up at @ 2. SDD was gone at HS by late am.

If I hadn’t hopped I wouldn’t have been satisfied with how early things sold out.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Genie+ is $29 today. This week is spring break for counties in Florida. I'm here right now (but going to Universal instead) and I'm seeing a lot of Georgia, South Carolina and even Ontario license plates as well so those places might have spring break too.

 

[loves to dive]

Genie+ is $29 today. This week is spring break for counties in Florida. I'm here right now (but going to Universal instead) and I'm seeing a lot of Georgia, South Carolina and even Ontario license plates as well so those places might have spring break too.

UGA spring break was last week, most of the high schools and grade schools in the surrounding counties take theirs at the same time since there are a lot of parents who work at UGA. Not sure about the rest of Georgia.

 

[loves to dive]

We will be there the week before and after Easter

Traditionally the week after Easter isn't horrible but who knows this year. I usually go that week and although the parks aren't even close to empty they aren't as crowded as the month before. I'll be there starting on April 16, which is the weekend of a race so that weekend might be busy.

 

[blistex]

Genie+ is $29 today. This week is spring break for counties in Florida. I'm here right now (but going to Universal instead) and I'm seeing a lot of Georgia, South Carolina and even Ontario license plates as well so those places might have spring break too.

GA Spring Breaks are really spread out - a bunch of larger ATL metro countries have Feb break so our spring breaks are in April, but a similar number just have the one spring break and they're pretty evenly split from what I've seen between last week, this week, and the week after. I'd expect the two busiest spring break weeks to be this week (every FL school I know of, plus plenty of GA schools) and the week before Easter.

 

[bchbetha]

I was there Pres Day week/ a Run Disney event. Pretty good comparison to all but Easter week crowds (those are insane). Genie+ worked great. I had plenty of selections and used it in every park. The big stuff did go by early afternoon (if not sooner) so prioritize the big sellers like Slinky Dog, Remy...

 

[scrappinginontario]

I’m not sure we’ll see true experiences until today as Saturday’s are big arrival days. I think you’ll find it useful to start watching the MDE site starting today to get an idea how things are going, until people start to share their experiences. Also watch the ‘Here Now and Just Back’ thread as that is the thread created for people to share current experiences.

 

[CarolynFH]

Just to add to the Spring Break discussion, this week is Texas schools' Spring Break too.

 

[soniam]

We used it just fine yesterday at MK. I think we got 5 rides, including BTMRR and JC. It was $25. Today it was $29 at Epcot. We got 4 rides but could have gotten more, which included TT. We had FEA but switched it for something earlier. We could have gotten more, but you start hitting stuff that scrapes the bottom of the barrel.

 

[cvjw]

We paid $29 for genie + today and $29 for ROTR. Expensive day. Lots of people here. The most popular rides at HS and EPCOT were gone before lunch today.

 

[SharkBruce]

G+ was $29 at MK on Sunday (3/12). It turned out to be a HUGE ripoff. It was crowded but not unmanageable. BTMRR was down most of the day and other heavy hitters like Pan and Pirates were intermittently shut down. *** Disney - DO BETTER!! My family of 4 had 2 different LL reservations for BTMRR that were eventually cancelled (one was made at 7am the other later in the day when it looked like it might open) - beyond frustrating. We even rope dropped Space Mtn and that had a delayed start due to audio issues. I know there are going to be ride reliability issues BUT if you are going to charge a premium for G+, PLUS one of your main rides is out of service for an extended period of time (Splash Mtn), make an effort to make your customers whole when your operations fall WELL below expectations. I really felt gouged.

 

[sponica]

I'll be there starting on April 16, which is the weekend of a race so that weekend might be busy.

Just FYI, that's MA school vacation week (and I think other states in the northeast)

 

[kittylady1972]

Yikes...seeing these reports about the G+ costs this week (I saw the $29 yesterday...ouch!) and the LL availability have me a little bit scared. I've only purchase it once...a year ago...and hated it but I know some things have changed a bit (like changing reservations). This Friday my daughter and her boyfriend are joining us for ONE Disney day together, and we planned to do EPCOT day and hop to MK. I have already decided to purchase G+ for the 4 of us, maybe using it once or so at EPCOT (we only hope to hit the big rides there: GoTG, Soarin',TT maybe MS) but trying to book our MK rides ahead of time for when we hop that afternoon/evening. Hoping we get at least a few good ones there. Plus we'll probably pay to do a second ride on GoTG after we (hopefully) secure one for free during the 7am drop.

I'll have to keep checking back here for reports...and sounds like I should plan to spend over $100 just for the G+ for the 4 of us.

 

[dez1978]

I feel like I'm going to hate myself in a couple of weeks for planning a trip during spring break. We'll be there March 27-31.

 

[melbatoast]

Yikes is right! We have 7 ppl and the cost is $203 plus any ILL we want.

 

[melbatoast]

I feel like I'm going to hate myself in a couple of weeks for planning a trip during spring break. We'll be there March 27-31.

We have always been there that week as that's when our school break usually is and it was never horrible. And I usually love planning Disney vacations, but now it seems like I can't get any dining ressies, the extra costs for the used to be free FP's, it is stressing me out!

 

[kittylady1972]

We have always been there that week as that's when our school break usually is and it was never horrible. And I usually love planning Disney vacations, but now it seems like I can't get any dining ressies, the extra costs for the used to be free FP's, it is stressing me out!

Ah...I'm with you. It definitely is not as fun. My daughter and BF actually spent this weekend for Spring Break at Universal, so much easier and they got a lot done by booking one night at a hotel that gave them Express access for two days. We have Universal passes also, so this week plan to spend some time there too, but no Express access for us this trip.

In the end just remember to have fun and enjoy yourselves overall. Yes the extra money spent sucks but if you can afford it remember you making great memories.

We actually will doing Disney parks with 2 other adults Sat - Wed, but one has DAS so we have a few things booked with them. Otherwise we just aren't going to stress too much if we can't do a ton of rides, we will just enjoy hanging out and the experiences and memories we are making together.