Genie Plus - Experiences and Reviews

[matt101980]

You got 3 ILL selections? I thought the system only allowed you to book 2 ILL selections even if park hopping.

I read that also. But it allowed me to book 3. Right after I scanned into web slingers I opened the app and immediately booked racers. So I can confirm it allowed me 3.

 

[Malcon10t]

You got 3 ILL selections? I thought the system only allowed you to book 2 ILL selections even if park hopping.

2 per park is my understanding, but since DL only has 1, you can only book one in DL. Off to make sure I read it right.

From the Disney website:
"
When to Select Attractions
You can purchase individual selections for up to 2 different attractions per day upon entering a theme park. Note: Lightning Lane entry for these attractions will only be available to purchase individually and are not included with Disney Genie+ service."

Reads to me as 2 per day per park.

 

[SherylLC]

SO excited to try Genie+! You did A TON!!! Impressive!

 

[PirateBrigade]

Your only a true baller if you remember Fantasia ice cream

I don't remember it, but as one of 5 kids, we never got treats when we were at Disney! Way too expensive, when we could go back to the hotel and pick up a few gallons on our way! It's okay, I've made up for lost time in that department as an adult!

Oh you guys are amateurs

Bet your parents didn't bring an unplugged rice cooker full of rice and cans of corned beef (sometimes spam) to eat in the Disneyland parking lot out the back of your van

 

[JC1984]

Oh you guys are amateurs

Bet your parents didn't bring an unplugged rice cooker full of rice and cans of corned beef (sometimes spam) to eat in the Disneyland parking lot out the back of your van

The good ole days when outside food was banned. No we had to go home to eat lunch

 

[Jaina]

Oh you guys are amateurs

Bet your parents didn't bring an unplugged rice cooker full of rice and cans of corned beef (sometimes spam) to eat in the Disneyland parking lot out the back of your van

You are so right! But I remember leaving the park to go back to the room and eat or driving to find a cheap McDonald’s! I also remember staying at the Jolly Roger, whatever hotel that is these days, and hopping on a different hotel’s shuttle bus to get a ride into the parks, ha ha!

 

[ociana]

Oh you guys are amateurs

Bet your parents didn't bring an unplugged rice cooker full of rice and cans of corned beef (sometimes spam) to eat in the Disneyland parking lot out the back of your van

I could never forget the avocado green and cream colored cooler that my mom packed with PBJs and carrot sticks for our lunch. We would go back out into the parking lot to eat before heading back inside. Sometimes my mom would make us go sit in the picnic area for a while, but we preferred to scarf it down and get back to the rides. If the trip was a total splurge, we got one mint julep and a fritter to share between the 3 or 4 of us.

On that note, does anyone remember when they served a single fritter and it was the size of a large navel orange? They were so eggy and light on the inside - my food sense memory of those is super strong!

 

[jordan13402]

we used Genie+ on our three days (this past sat through monday) and it was WELL worth it....the photopass add on was fantastic...this was a couples trip for me and my wife and we took a ton of pictures

 

[DC in DC]

Hello- Is there still a possibility that the LL will "run out" for Rise such that we need to get to DL as early as possible? We are not morning people and it would be an extreme effort for us to get there at rope drop. But if we roll in later, is there a possibility that we would be shut out of Rise? I might be getting confused with the prior iteration where there were posts about all the slots getting taken in the virtual queue?

 

[mdmost]

Hello- Is there still a possibility that the LL will "run out" for Rise such that we need to get to DL as early as possible? We are not morning people and it would be an extreme effort for us to get there at rope drop. But if we roll in later, is there a possibility that we would be shut out of Rise? I might be getting confused with the prior iteration where there were posts about all the slots getting taken in the virtual queue?

Maybe on the weekend or really busy days but right now you can get a 6:50 PM ILL for Rise. I would bet the $20 price tag is a real breaking point for people who got to DLR but not so much for WDW since it's primarily all vacationers with limited time who are already paying a heavy premium to be in the parks.

Looking at CA, both ILL are still available at $7. RSR is closer to running out with a 7:35 time you can purchase right now.

This would be an interesting thing to track starting next week when school is out and the parks get busier.

 

[DC in DC]

Maybe on the weekend or really busy days but right now you can get a 6:50 PM ILL for Rise. I would bet the $20 price tag is a real breaking point for people who got to DLR but not so much for WDW since it's primarily all vacationers with limited time who are already paying a heavy premium to be in the parks.

Looking at CA, both ILL are still available at $7. RSR is closer to running out with a 7:35 time you can purchase right now.

This would be an interesting thing to track starting next week when school is out and the parks get busier.

Thanks for your quick reply. We will indeed be there in the last week of December where we are prepared for crowds.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

Sticking this thread at the top of the forum

 

[GabrielMom]

We were limited to only 2 ILL purchases yes dec 17 and today dec 18.

Today was busiest day of our trip (Saturday). We were able to purchase a 1pm lightning lane for Rise at 10am.

 

[pindecisive]

I love solo trips too. I always have more fun with my DH, but there's something nice after jumping on a flight and spending a day at DL and flying back home in the evening.

I loved MaxPass, so Genie+ isn't a reach for me. The only downside is I can't be on a ride after checking in, to set up a pass for the same ride right after. I'm hoping that comes back with Genie because I love doing Buzz a few times before everything else.

 

[chezcurrie]

Thought I’d add some of our experiences using Genie+ on our recent Dec13-17 trip. Used it 2 out of 3 days and found it well worth the price point for our family of 5, even during lighter crowds in the am. Our boys are 12, 8 and 5 for reference, so our 5 year old couldn’t ride everything and we used Rider Swap.

- Rider Swap + LL was inconsistent. At Indiana we did not need to show all 5 lightning lanes, for Incredicoaster once we did, second time we did not. I wish they would clarify this because I would have preferred to use my son‘s LL for an attraction he would enjoy (instead we got dole whips and rode the carousel, really can’t complain but it can be confusing.)

- If you cancel a reservation, you are able to immediately rebook one, assuming there is availability. Our dinner at Lamplight was running later than expected so I was able to cancel and rebook TSMM for a slightly later time. Also did this one night when we decided to book it to DCA before close and cancelled our space mountain for incredicoaster.

- I do wish it allowed a re-ride option like MP, as often the LL for my 5-year old was not used, and I could have easily taken him on another ride using his LL (like Toy Story when the big boys rode Incredicoaster), but then still re-rode TSMM as a family.

- The instant return times we saw might make you think Genie+ is not necessary, but with a 5 year old this was GOLD. It made the day feel very spontaneous as I could say: what do you want to do next? Then book it immediately. Made the morning VERY productive and we were able to take a longer mid day break.

- That said, I wish you could choose your return time even if there is instant availability. I would have loved to stack our PM park like the good ole MAxPass days. In the former times that meant I could do that on our break, and not be chained to my phone when we went back.

Hope some of this might be useful. In truth my favourite day of all was when I took my 5-year old to do Fantasyland and the tiki room in the am and his big brothers and dad went to DCA. That morning was magic.

 

[goodshepherd]

Just a review, we just did genie + in DCA and in disneyland on 24, 25, 26th of december.

DCA genie plus? i want to say this was almost a waste of money...... i mean they had a few things closed for the day like goofys roller and jellyfish i think........ but it still saves us a few hours of line time........
we got a multipass for goofys sky school, and it wasnt good for toy story mania, or web, or radiator.

so DCA genie plus was nice to skip lines on monsters, soaring, and toy story...... hmmm thats about it i guess
we hit radior springs 1st thing to wait in line and it wasnt bad at 8 am, like 30 min.
web slingers they said was flooded on the 24th and closed down for an hour and we didnt get a pass for waiting in line for 40 min lol


for genie+ at disneyland, this is a whole nother strategy here we hit disney on 25th and 26th.
going in at 8 am, all the rides are 5-10 min lines so we hit the old school rides in the middle 1st, peter pan, cinder, pinochio, alice, mad hatter and u can konk those out really fast at 8 am

then we used genie+ only when the lines were too long to wait, later in the day.


this worked well for us.

so hands down, definately worth it at disneyland, and maybe save the money at DCA depending on what you wanna ride

 

[Martenique]

To add another genie plus experience, here are my measured wait times versus posted wait times for our recent trip. I started the timer when we entered the line for standby and when we entered the line to scan for lightning lane, and I ended it when we sat in our seats. We bought genie plus 4 days and bought two ILLs, and I thought they were all worth it for two people who visit Disneyland every 5 years or so. Lightning Lane saved us time on nearly every ride, possible exceptions being the times we used it for Splash Mountain and Roger Rabbit. (We saved time against the posted wait time, but I think standby was much shorter at those times.) The grace period of 5 minutes before and 15 minutes after worked for us. Note that around 10 minutes after, the reservation disappeared from my app but our tickets still worked up to 14 minutes 30 seconds. (I definitely don't recommend cutting it that close though, lol.) Also, we were able to book LLs for the other park in the morning before we could hop and it gave us a 1:00 return time even though the posted return time was much earlier.

12/26 (in park 4 pm)
Pirates posted 35 actual 17
RSR posted 120 ILL 20
Guardians posted 40, actual 47

12/27 (in park 8:10 AM)
Space Mountain posted 10 actual 13
Alice posted 5 actual 3
Snow White posted 10 actual 3
Mr Toad posted 5 actual 5
Pinocchio posted 5 actual 2
Storybook Land Canal Boats posted 10 actual 14
Teacups posted 5 actual 3
Small World posted 10 actual 16
Star Tours posted 35 LL 9
Buzz posted 45 LL 6
Guardians posted 90 LL 17
Incredicoaster posted 40 LL 11
Space Mountain posted 70 LL 10


12/28 (in park 7:45 AM)
Guardians from RD actual 16
Guardians posted 15 actual 14
Maters posted 15 actual 12
Toy Story posted 40 LL 5
Pixar Pal Around Non-Swinging posted 5 actual 15
Soarin posted 65 LL 12
Incredicoaster posted 80 LL 8
Monorail posted 5 actual 4
Indiana Jones posted 75 LL 19
Haunted Mansion posted 50 LL 14
Jungle cruise posted 35 actual 30
Railroad posted 25 actual 18
Matterhorn posted 40 LL 7
BTMRR posted 25 LL 10

12/29 (in park 8:45 am)
Jungle Cruise posted 5 actual 10
Pirates posted 5 actual 8
Winnie posted 5 actual 4
Millennium Falcon posted 90 LL 18
Haunted Mansion posted 50 LL 10
Splash posted 30 LL 5
Grizzly posted 5 actual 3
Indiana Jones posted 55 LL 11
BTMRR posted 50 LL 9
Rise of the Resistance posted 80 ILL 15
Splash posted 20 actual 5
Space Mountain posted 55 LL 10
Peter Pan posted 35 actual 36
Guardians posted 30 LL 12
Soarin posted 30 LL 11
Incredicoaster posted 15 LL 5
Monsters posted 5 actual walk on
Matterhorn posted 20 actual 5
Splash posted 5 actual walk on

1/1 (in park 8:45 am)
RSR posted 60 SR 4
Incredicoaster posted 20 actual 14
Goofy posted 5 actual 3
Silly Symphony Swings posted 5 actual 4
Little Mermaid posted 5 actual walk on
Grizzly posted 5 actual 2
Grizzly posted 5 actual 3
Soarin posted 50 LL 10
Haunted Mansion posted 45 LL 19
Indiana Jones posted 70 LL 20
BTMRR posted 20 LL 6
Canoes posted 5 actual 1
Guardians posted 70 LL 18
Roger Rabbit posted 20 LL 3
Gadget posted 20 actual 2
Rise of the Resistance posted 200 actual 108
BTMRR posted 25 LL 5
Pirates posted 15 actual 6
Pirates posted 15 actual 3
Space Mountain posted 30 LL 7

Edited to add: the second BTMRR on 1/1 was from a multiexperience pass we got when Roger Rabbit was down during our original window. We were able to use the pass for BTMRR and also rebook another lightning lane for Roger Rabbit.
To summarize, we waited in a total of 779 minutes (about 13 hours) of ride lines on this trip. We waited 433 minutes for standby vs. a posted 640 minutes, so standby lines were on average 68% of what was posted. We also waited 342 minutes for lightning lane vs. a posted 1590 minutes. If we assume posted times were correct, we saved 1248 minutes (20.8 hours) with lightning lanes. If we assume the posted standby wait for lightning lanes would have a similar knockdown to what we saw (68%), we saved 734 minutes (12.2 hours). This was about $10 per person an hour (or about $7.50 per person an hour not including the ILLs). Another way to look at it is that we saved 12.2 hours and spent 13 hours in line, so lightning lanes allowed us to do roughly twice as much as we otherwise would have been able to.

Edited again to add some more statistics:
Although standby waits were on average less than what was posted, in 8 out of 35 cases (23%), the standby wait was longer than what was posted. The worst case was the Pixar Pal Around on 12/28, when we waited 10 minutes longer and 3x as long as was posted (15 minutes vs. a posted 5). In contrast, for lightning lane we never waited in a line longer than even half of what was posted. The worst case was Haunted Mansion on 1/1, when we waited 19 minutes to get to a buggy for a wait posted at 45 minutes, or 42% of the posted wait. (Note: we got on the HM elevator relatively quickly, but there was a huge buildup between the elevator and the vehicles.)
The max we waited in a lightning lane was 20 minutes, and the average was 10.7 minutes.
The max we waited in standby was 108 minutes (for Rise), and the average was 11.9 minutes. Keep in mind that we mostly only rode standby at the beginning or end of the day and for less-frequented attractions (with a few notable exceptions), while we mostly used lightning lane for the popular rides during the busier times.

 

[chezcurrie]

To add another genie plus experience, here are my measured wait times versus posted wait times for our recent trip. I started the timer when we entered the line for standby and when we entered the line to scan for lightning lane, and I ended it when we sat in our seats. We bought genie plus 4 days and bought two ILLs, and I thought they were all worth it for two people who visit Disneyland every 5 years or so. Lightning Lane saved us time on nearly every ride, possible exceptions being the times we used it for Splash Mountain and Roger Rabbit. (We saved time against the posted wait time, but I think standby was much shorter at those times.) The grace period of 5 minutes before and 15 minutes after worked for us. Note that around 10 minutes after, the reservation disappeared from my app but our tickets still worked up to 14 minutes 30 seconds. (I definitely don't recommend cutting it that close though, lol.) Also, we were able to book LLs for the other park in the morning before we could hop and it gave us a 1:00 return time even though the posted return time was much earlier.

Nice to see the return times for park hopping worked - I got immediate returns earlier in Dec. That makes it so much nicer to be able to stack in the PM!

 

[disneylover102]

Can anyone confirm that you can hold an ILL for both WEB Slingers and ROTR at the same time? I’m starting in DCA on Friday and want to do WS shortly before park hopping and I want to do ROTR shortly after park hopping but since ROTR runs out way faster I’ll need to hold both at the same time

 

[JohnR5101]

I really appreciate the data you collected. This makes it easier to evaluate whether to get G+ or not. Of course, its not purely a data driven decision. My wife would go for saving any amount of time in line. Her threshold is about 30 minutes wait time. So its nice to see that its quite practical to have G+ just to have that more relaxed experience (or do more things).

Also, I read in another thread that yes you can hold 2 ILL's at the same time.