Here Now & Just Back - A Place To Share Your Recent Experiences

[DonTheDuck]

Great to hear all this positive feedback! 1 week away on my end can’t wait.

 

[scrappinginontario]

That is key, but everytime I tried to do that right at 7am last week they were already at mid-day thirty seconds in, or if it did show early availability by the time I clicked through it moved it an hour ahead. I wanted to give it a chance, but after using it last week, I'm not a fan.

Your experience was ours too and one of the many challenges of using Genie+. It’s hard to plan a day when I choose a time and within seconds, when I confirm my booking it’s an hour or more later than what I selected.

 

[Westerner]

Yes, it is a goofy (no pun inteded) system, but, we got it to work.

A lot of truth here!

 

[leeniewdw]

Your experience was ours too and one of the many challenges of using Genie+. It’s hard to plan a day when I choose a time and within seconds, when I confirm my booking it’s an hour or more later than what I selected.

This is what makes it so tough to 'plan' your day because the window is so small as is the margin for error (not really error, perhaps better word is margin for success). That's why when I relayed our experience on Saturday at DHS, I tried to include each post that the day turned out to be NOT crazy busy/in demand/whatever is the right word. To be able to grab SDD at 9:40 am and have multiple choices for RotR at 8:57am is a clear indicator that our day was not a "bad" day.

 

[Boardwalk III]

That is key, but everytime I tried to do that right at 7am last week they were already at mid-day thirty seconds in, or if it did show early availability by the time I clicked through it moved it an hour ahead. I wanted to give it a chance, but after using it last week, I'm not a fan.

Exactly this. It’s like playing roulette, and not a fun way to start each day of a vacation. Not to mention the 6:45 am daily wake up requirement.

We did it in November. I was well prepared with tips etc. and it was mostly a bust. Couldn’t manage around ADRs or other plans at all. We’ve just canceled our April trip as just don’t have it in me to re-live it again so soon, and hoping things will improve by this fall/early next year.

I’ve been following along with interest folks who have had some luck stacking for later in the day & may try that next trip if we use G+ at all. But with our kids now grown we really do enjoy our nicer ADRs and would have to give those up on those days. Sigh.

 

[leeniewdw]

I’ve been following along with interest folks who have had some luck stacking for later in the day & may try that next trip if we use G+ at all. But with our kids now grown we really do enjoy our nicer ADRs and would have to give those up on those days. Sigh.

I can imagine working around dining ADRs. We don't typically do ADRs because our trips are so short and we don't want to give up that chunk of time (the last time we did we had to wait so long even though we had a reservation that it just seemed a huge time suck), but even with an ADR for Oga's which we knew would be 45mins max, you had to pause when it came time to make an LL and figure out the time impact and if it would work, etc. And you also knew if you didn't act fast the time you were looking at might be gone by the time you tried to reserve.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I’ve been following along with interest folks who have had some luck stacking for later in the day & may try that next trip if we use G+ at all. But with our kids now grown we really do enjoy our nicer ADRs and would have to give those up on those days. Sigh.

I've heard it recommended you go to your ADR and then when you return to the attraction you have a LL or ILL$ for, show the CM and ask to ride, being prepared to show ADR receipt. Not sure it always works but is worth the try.

Dropping an ADR at the last moment may incur the $10 charge/person.

 

[momz]

Hollywood studios is PACKED today. It’s about a million degrees and the crowd is pressing in. This is the hottest park. Impossible without Genie plus.

 

[leeniewdw]

Wow, glancing at the app, it certainly is COMPLETELY different than when we were there on Saturday. On Saturday, I was able to grab LLs at 1:45pm, 3:45pm for rides that are (currently) showing completely booked. Today is a day for refreshing for sure!

 

[jbish]

Interesting, because I actually took time this morning between 7-7:30 to track G+ LL availability (planning out my own strategy for our trip) and saw quite a bit of high demand LLs pop back up around 7:10 and 7:20, with early return times, even! At around 7:12, saw MFSR and MMRR return times as early as 10ish, SDD even popped up for several refreshes. Again saw a bunch pop up around 7:23. Then I thought - oh yeah, it hasn't been busy these past couple of days so this is probably not what it will look like in April. So I'm surprised to hear how crowded it is!! Gives me hope that waiting for the 7:10 drop might actually work for us.

Here's Thrill Data for this morning showing how long LL were available:

 

[Lady Hiss]

Just back - lowered expectations, increased $$ = Diminished Disney
Adults-only trip, 4 days, deluxe resort, PH tix

We went into the trip knowing the experience would be different than that last 30 trips we've taken to WDW. Boy, was it ever. We decided our line-waiting limit would be 30 minutes which, of course, resulted in not riding much. Also, decided not to spring for more than one day of extra expense (Genie+, iLL), just to see what we could manage to do without it. Answer: not much.

Lessons learned: Rope drop combined with lots of time on your phone with Genie+ and iLL are the keys to getting on rides; diminished experience for more $$ is a given; crowd control efforts have not worked; CMs are just people doing a job - the days of fun guest interactions are mostly gone.

Here's a synopsis of our park days (with one rope drop day, one Genie+ & iLL day):

Parks were clean and beautiful, especially Epcot for F&G.

Epcot:
Took Friendship boats to IGW - CM's were very talkative (amongst themselves). However on one trip, there was a singing CM who made everyone smile.
F&G decor is awesome with some nice seating areas near Creations shop with garden themed info. I miss the garden seminars...
Rides/Experiences: Remy (rope drop, another on a iLL pass); Soarin' - 20 min wait in the AM; Spaceship Earth - 15 mins (no update planned anymore?); Experiences: listened to the mariachi band at Mexico (very fun); did American Adventure & Pixar Short Films; caught a little of Garden Rocks Skillzmatic concert - fantastic.
The construction barriers In Epcot result in more walking and the park experience is less enjoyable due to what's missing;. Food lines were crazy long esp at food booths; ride lines got long by 10 AM; stayed for Harmonious one night (soooo disappointed in this and feel bad for all who spent so much time designing it - a mishmash of forgettable, screechy songs with a message that was completely lost on us; weird repetitive mechanics; same with fireworks) - one and done for us.

MK:
Great CM on the ferry boat, calling out 'Happy Birthday! or Welcome, Princess! to those boarding the boat. The worst crowds were here. We didn't ride anything and left after going to Starbucks. All lines were 40+ minutes, even our old stand-by, Tomorrowland Transit Authority. Not fun. Not magical.

HS:
Used iLL for RotR and bought Genie + for TSM, saw Muppets, couldn't get good time for any other rides & decided not to spend time on our phones trying to refresh and get better offerings. As it was, Rise went down when we entered it so had to come back later, which was a pain as we'd hoped to park hop elsewhere, had an ADR elsewhere.

AK:
Took a bus from Grand Floridian. Bus CM, when asked if he liked being a bus driver: 'Eh, it's a job' (so not much magic there)., however he was very talkative to a teacher on the bus, telling her how much he admired teachers so I guess that's a good thing.
Went to AK Starbucks - short wait, efficient service. Walked the Gorilla Trek (excellent views of mom, baby, brother, etc.); Triceratops Spin; missed Expedition Everest being available; lines for others rides were 40+ minutes; ate at Flame Tree BBQ (very good)

The lack of flexibility offered by Genie+ and iLL is a major flaw, IMHO, not to mention the expense. The Genie+ times available were usually mid to late afternoon with no other options unless you wanted to risk cancelling one to get another or keep refreshing, hoping something popped up. Some of us think getting up at 7AM is a pain then waiting another 2 hours to make another Genie+ ressie is not guest friendly. Is there a 'modify' button that I missed somehow? For those of us who used the old FP+ system effectively, this new system is a complete bust. The stand-by lines were ridiculous (think Great America-type waits). So, for those that like to Rope Drop and don't mind the time rules when using Genie+, Disney will probably be a wonderful experience, for those of us who don't, well, we're SOL.

Despite the lack of magic, we still had a good trip - mostly due to the weather - 75+ degrees each day. Better than dirty snow and sub zero temps at home.

 

[SkyGuy]

Wow, glancing at the app, it certainly is COMPLETELY different than when we were there on Saturday. On Saturday, I was able to grab LLs at 1:45pm, 3:45pm for rides that are (currently) showing completely booked. Today is a day for refreshing for sure!

We had Oga’s reservations yesterday at 7:35. Around 2:00, I decided to try to stack some rides for HS (we did MK in the morning and were quite successful doing the tap and grab method even though it was crowded). I refreshed for 75 minutes trying to get RnR, and while it popped up, maybe, three times, it was never available when I clicked on it. I finally took TSM for 7:55-8:55, then at my next reset, I got Star Tours at 6:30-7:30. Way different than our trip on early February in which I easily had four rides ready for an afternoon in HS.

 

[leeniewdw]

Interesting, because I actually took time this morning between 7-7:30 to track G+ LL availability (planning out my own strategy for our trip) and saw quite a bit of high demand LLs pop back up around 7:10 and 7:20, with early return times, even! At around 7:12, saw MFSR and MMRR return times as early as 10ish, SDD even popped up for several refreshes. Again saw a bunch pop up around 7:23. Then I thought - oh yeah, it hasn't been busy these past couple of days so this is probably not what it will look like in April. So I'm surprised to hear how crowded it is!! Gives me hope that waiting for the 7:10 drop might actually work for us.

I wonder if in those early hours it's people who are the designated "get the LL at 7am person" who then try to rise the rest of their traveling party and get overruled for a 9am return time or for whatever ride they've chosen? So they cancel and try to rebook or something thus creating the slots?

 

[Lsdolphin]

Your experience was ours too and one of the many challenges of using Genie+. It’s hard to plan a day when I choose a time and within seconds, when I confirm my booking it’s an hour or more later than what I selected.

Exactly! And when you have someone with a health issue that can only be in park a few hours but doesn’t qualify for DAS it’s really difficul! Fast pass+ always worked out great for us. We did our 3 rides and left happy. Last trip we were lucky to get one ride a day with Genie + and although We were there for rope drop we couldn’t compete with the “running of the bulls”

 

[scrappinginontario]

Exactly! And when you have someone with a health issue that can only be in park a few hours but doesn’t qualify for DAS it’s really difficul! Fast pass+ always worked out great for us. We did our 3 rides and left happy. Last trip we were lucky to get one ride a day with Genie + and although We were there for rope drop we couldn’t compete with the “running of the bulls”

Are you able to go back to a park later in the day? We had great success in early Feb stacking LLs in the late afternoon/early evening.

 

[Lsdolphin]

Are you able to go back to a park later in the day? We had great success in early Feb stacking LLs in the late afternoon/early evening.

Actually I did try that and was Able to stack HM, POC, and PP for the evening but it was just too much to go back...and just doesn’t work to wait and go later in day ...just seems the morning hours are when there is less discomfort.

 

[jbish]

I wonder if in those early hours it's people who are the designated "get the LL at 7am person" who then try to rise the rest of their traveling party and get overruled for a 9am return time or for whatever ride they've chosen? So they cancel and try to rebook or something thus creating the slots?

Can you expand on what you mean by the underlined part? Are you talking about a delay caused by selecting others in your party?

 

[lfcfan]

We had Oga’s reservations yesterday at 7:35. Around 2:00, I decided to try to stack some rides for HS (we did MK in the morning and were quite successful doing the tap and grab method even though it was crowded).

Hi @SkyGuy,
We have a long trip in May that will give us multiple MK days. I was thinking it would be good to do one morning/day of just tap and grab method--I don't really care what we ride, just would enjoy "keep riding." I will tackle the big rides on other days, with other strategies, $ILL for 7DMT, stacking etc.
Can you give me an example of what a tap and grab morning might look like? In other words, what rides and what order? The only thing I won't ride is Astro Orbiter.
I will add that Space is our favorite and I am bummed I can't buy my $ILL for it (I am going very much for convenience this trip.) Any tips for riding Space is appreciated. I imagine we may start there/end there at least some of our MK days.
We are traveling with our college age son but happy to ride anything in the park. Thank you so much!

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

I wonder if in those early hours it's people who are the designated "get the LL at 7am person" who then try to rise the rest of their traveling party and get overruled for a 9am return time or for whatever ride they've chosen? So they cancel and try to rebook or something thus creating the slots?

Can you expand on what you mean by the underlined part? Are you talking about a delay caused by selecting others in your party?

I think PP is talking about the designated LL planner reserving an early time and then trying to get the rest of their group out of bed to get ready so they can make it to that early LL time. But the rest of the group overrules getting up that early, rolls over, and goes back to sleep. So, then they end up cancelling and trying for a later time.

 

[leeniewdw]

Can you expand on what you mean by the underlined part? Are you talking about a delay caused by selecting others in your party?

I think PP is talking about the designated LL planner reserving an early time and then trying to get the rest of their group out of bed to get ready so they can make it to that early LL time. But the rest of the group overrules getting up that early, rolls over, and goes back to sleep. So, then they end up cancelling and trying for a later time.

Yes, that's exactly what I meant.