Genie+ is NOT as wonderful as everyone is saying

[gharter]

We are planning to visit UO during our next trip to Orlando. For us, it's well worth the price of 1 night in their upper-end hotels to get 2 days of Unlimited Express Pass. That's 2 fewer days spent at Disney. 5 fewer meals. Fewer snacks. Fewer adult beverages.

We will still visit Disney and use our DVC points but they will be mostly resort days with breakfasts, snacks and lunches at the villa. And we plan to do cocktail hour in the villa before any dinners and coffee/desserts afterwards. The savings will offset any G+/ILL$ purchases that we decide to make on the few park days. But, TBH aside from Remi and GotG we have already done everything else and have no intentions of jumping through the hoops that you need to do in order to secure LL/ILL$.

Thats what we did earlier this month and loved Universal. Their express pass was wonderful.
Other than hagrids and Velocicoaster (Early entry for these), we used express pass to ride all the rides and attractions we wanted to.

 

[MommyMouse143]

FYI: for those who might not know. The one of the things that is different about Genie+ is that the times go through the end of the day and then cycle back. (At least this was the way it worked in December.)
With FP, the times moved later and later until all FP were gone for the day for that attraction.

The first day we used Genie+ I did not start looking until slightly after 7:00 am and the time that showed for the attraction we wanted was 6:00 pm which was far later than we wanted, but I booked it thinking times would just keep getting later, until all Genie+ reservations for that attraction was gone. However, once the Genie+ went to a time close to park closing, when I refreshed Genie+ it showed a time of 10:00 am (the park opened at 9:00am) So from then on if I did not like the time that was showing, I just kept refreshing until Genie+ cycled to the time we wanted.

news to me! thanks!

 

[gopherit]

Disney's excuse that Genie+ is set for 7am so as to "level the playing field" for non-planners is weak, given that they still utilize 60 day dining ADRs and all "special events" (pre/during/post fireworks receptions, etc). Honestly... I don't even need 60 days out for Genie+, but I DON'T wanna be getting up at 6:45am either. (It's tough enough if you come from a western time zone!) I'd be content being able to plan 30 days out w/ an onsite resort ressie, 15 days offsite. That means I have my dining ADRs already set, any special events planned, and park passes and reservations in hand as well. And I arrive to my vacation already knowing what my Genie+ selections of the day are. I then have the "Go live" option starting at 7 am if I wanna cancel them and take my chances at a different Genie+ opening... or over the course of the day to see what's available. But at least I know in advance what I have, what to expect.

But if my wishes for Disney changes were nickels, I could afford to just buy a mess of LL-paid options, lol, which is probably what they WISH I would do. I'm just not convinced that patron displeasure with Genie+ even registers on Disney's radar, given that people are still packing the parks, and with all the other "noise" they seemed to be more focused towards.

 

[MickeyMouse3!]

From everything I've been reading/hearing about Genie, the only ones that think Genie is good, are the ones who created it, and even they are now saying it sucks. The actual users seem to be ahead of the game on that.

 

[Blondie58]

First day using it. It's not the fantastic panacea that everybody has been saying it is. I got Thunder Mountain at noon. Can't get anything else booked until 11. 7 dwarves mine train would have cost me another 12 dollars per person to book. I'll give an update later what I think. I'm just putting this out there as a contrary opinion about Genie+

YMMV

Not sure who said it is wonderful. 12 day trip in October. 14 day trip in December/January. We very much dislike the new "outdated" system and so miss fast passes. We traveled with folks that have been to WDW four previous times and a couple that has never been. No positive comments from either. Being married to tech when on vacation and trying to unplug is miserable let alone the added costs. (Add to charging for magic bands, charging for bus transportation, no bag tags, increased ticket prices, no park hopping until 2:00, making park reservations ahead of time, the full on political commentary, the decrease in expectations for employees, begging for a printed menu, limited room servicing, a decrease in concierge services - just not the same pre-pandemic WDW.)

 

[Stargazer65]

Not sure who said it is wonderful.

That was tongue in cheek.

 

[recmouse]

We used it a few days on our December vacation and then stopped. It's horrible and a waste of money. My friend and I would meet in the kitchen every morning at 6:45am or earlier and were not happy about it. It's not fun and it's not helpful. Never again!

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

You all have talked me out of it for our next (and last for a long time) trip. That's if we don't cancel the whole trip!

 

[Stargazer65]

You all have talked me out of it for our next (and last for a long time) trip. That's if we don't cancel the whole trip!

We've still had a great trip, one of our best ever, in spite of Genie+ not being a great option. The negative hype is somewhat amplified here IMO.

 

[Marionnette]

We've still had a great trip, one of our best ever, in spite of Genie+ not being a great option. The negative hype is somewhat amplified here IMO.

If G+ was not "a great option" then it does deserve the negative hype that it gets. Your trip was one of your best not because of G+ but because you found ways to make it your best in spite of G+'s failings.

 

[Stargazer65]

If G+ was not "a great option" then it does deserve the negative hype that it gets. Your trip was one of your best not because of G+ but because you found ways to make it your best in spite of G+'s failings.

Yes, that's true. Genie+ deserves the negative hype, but I meant I wouldn't cancel a whole trip because of Genie+ negativity.

 

[SL6827]

We always rope drop, so we are up very early every morning regardless. But what I think Disney will have to do with Genie+ to make it a more enjoyable and productive product is too raise the price, unfortunately. That will suck, but I think that's what's going to happen.

 

[Matty B13]

We just got back, and are still not big fans of Genie+. Even though we get up early around 6 am normally, which allowed us to buy Genie+ each day and try to get LL reservations each morning, it still put a lot of unnecessary worry for our mornings on top of trying to get everyone up and feed before heading to the parks. We found that Genie+ was pretty much useless for AK if you rope drop in the morning and don't want to do Avatar. For Epcot unless you want to pay for Remy, and need to get on Test Track or Frozen it was also useless. For HS we roped dropped Millennium Falcon, and then hit Toy Land for the Saucers and Mania, and then got in line for Mickey & Minny. We paid for Rise of the Resistance (Won't Do that Again). We used Genie+ to stack LL reservations to come back that evening and due Slinky Dog and any other rides that were available. For MK we rope dropped and rolled LL reservations till about noon, and then stacked LL reservations for the evening when we headed back to the resort.

So we found that Genie+ really only worked for MK & HS for us, and didn't really need it for Epcot & AK. We usually rope dropped each park in the morning and left around noon and then stacked LL reservations for the park that we were going back to in the evening. This also worked because we had a rental car and cut our transportation times in half, since we like to swim in the afternoon when the parks start to get really crazy. Also Touring Plans listed these park days in the 5 to 6 crowd level. I don't think Genie+ would be very usable above these crowd levels, because the LL reservations would be very limited and you might only get 2-4 rides on it.

I think they really need to add a "AM" and "PM" request for all LL reservations, instead of showing people reservations in the morning for 4 PM, which is useless at 8 AM. Also, had the time of the reservation change at the last screen to confirm it multiple times, they need to freeze the reservation once it has been selected. Overall we made it work, but it definitely changed the way we do parks, by having to do rope drop each morning, instead of waiting for our FastPass reservations to head to the park. The stacking strategy works well, but you have to be on top of the Tip Board every 2 hours to make the LL reservation, which means keeping your phone by your side which is tough at the pool in the afternoon.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

Yes, that's true. Genie+ deserves the negative hype, but I meant I wouldn't cancel a whole trip because of Genie+ negativity.

Sorry, I need to clarify. We are not toying with the idea of cancelling the whole trip because of G+. It's many things. But if we go, I'm almost certain we will not add on G+.

 

[ScarSimone]

I love it. Nothing better than setting an alarm everyday while on vacation to get up and throw away money. Getting up earlier on vacation that I do on a work day is a dream come true for me.

End Sarcasm.

I'd actually pay double for the old FP+ system. Get up ONCE 60 days out and be done with it.

 

[artesian]

Not sure if this is a dumb question or not. Can't I somewhat defeat G+ by doing rope drop and trying to be at the front of the queue in the morning? We are at the point now if we miss a couple rides for crowds we don't really care. So in EP for instance. Will I have a shot at getting on Remy's by doing the beeline straight there and queueing up? If so I backtrack to TT if it's an hour by then I'm ok with that. We always had FP+ schedule in the old days an hour out from drop cause we knew we could squeeze a headliner or two from drop time. Am I flawed in this logic now? We have zero intention paying for G+.

 

[Matty B13]

Not sure if this is a dumb question or not. Can't I somewhat defeat G+ by doing rope drop and trying to be at the front of the queue in the morning? We are at the point now if we miss a couple rides for crowds we don't really care. So in EP for instance. Will I have a shot at getting on Remy's by doing the beeline straight there and queueing up? If so I backtrack to TT if it's an hour by then I'm ok with that. We always had FP+ schedule in the old days an hour out from drop cause we knew we could squeeze a headliner or two from drop time. Am I flawed in this logic now? We have zero intention paying for G+.

Not sure about Remy, but yes if you rope drop you can usually get a top tier ride, and/or rides done in the morning. Better bet is to do a 2nd tier ride first, and then wait for the initial flood of people to hit the top tier rides to clear out and then do it.

For MK for example, we tried rope dropping Peter Pan, but it had a large que right after rope drop, and we ended up at Small World. If we had headed for Small World first, and then done Peter Pan it would have worked out better.

HS, if your not doing Rise of the Resistance or Slinky Dog, you can rope most of the other rides and walk on Millennium Falcon, Toy Story Mania, Mickey & Minnie, and Saucers. Not sure of Tower of Terror or Rockin Roller Coaster though.

As far as our Family of 5 with 3 kids under 11 year old, we saw no need to get Genie+ for AK or Epcot. But we have ridden every ride at WDW except Remy, and see no need to pay for it. So we hit the rides that don't have long ques and save the longer wait ones for the evenings after 8pm.

 

[Blondie58]

Not sure if this is a dumb question or not. Can't I somewhat defeat G+ by doing rope drop and trying to be at the front of the queue in the morning? We are at the point now if we miss a couple rides for crowds we don't really care. So in EP for instance. Will I have a shot at getting on Remy's by doing the beeline straight there and queueing up? If so I backtrack to TT if it's an hour by then I'm ok with that. We always had FP+ schedule in the old days an hour out from drop cause we knew we could squeeze a headliner or two from drop time. Am I flawed in this logic now? We have zero intention paying for G+.

Not a dumb question at all. After one day of Genie and having to be ready with tech in hand at 7:00 to buy and schedule we did rope drop all subsequent days. We were NOT thrilled at all by this as we are not rope droppers. We always walk each morning and then have breakfast and then head to parks with FPs already scheduled.

 

[finchy3]

We will be at DL for 10 days and won't use Genie+, we would rather single ride it and not be glued to our phones all day.

 

[Stargazer65]

Will I have a shot at getting on Remy's by doing the beeline straight there and queueing up?

Yes, we did that. We came in from the front of the park for rope drop and we waited less than a half hour for Remy. Then we rode it two more times in a row at park closing with a 10 minute wait each time.