How is your Genie+ Experience?

[jennypenny]

@Lorana -- The tip board for each park will show you the earliest time available or if the LL$ are gone for the day. You can watch from home to see how it works. If I look right now, it shows me that RotR is gone for the day (although some extras will pop up briefly at 9am). Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway shows that it has a LL$ available at 1:40pm, so there will be some available from that point onward. Some evening spots will be taken but you'll have your choice.

My experience from last week was that Rise went early (so did SDD but that's G+). FoP was usually still around by 11am except on weekends. Remy and Frozen were around until lunch. Space Mtn never sold out. I can't recall how fast Mine Train sold out since we didn't plan on riding, but like I said, you can watch from home before you go to see trends.

note: Make sure you are checking the trends on the day of the week you plan to visit. We saw a lot of variability in days (except for Rise). MK was busiest on Monday and HS on Tuesday. Weekends were pretty busy everywhere. If you watch a couple of weeks before hand, you should be able to judge which parks are best on which days for later entry. Also, make sure you refresh the times by swiping down a couple of times ... sometimes earlier times pop up. Sometimes not.

One more thing, the purchasing procedure for LL$ is cumbersome and sometimes the time you get is a little later than the time you clicked on originally. Not horrible, but one of ours was 45 minutes later than advertised by the time we entered the code and clicked purchase.

 

[Matty B13]

@Lorana -- The tip board for each park will show you the earliest time available or if the LL$ are gone for the day. You can watch from home to see how it works. If I look right now, it shows me that RotR is gone for the day (although some extras will pop up briefly at 9am). Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway shows that it has a LL$ available at 1:40pm, so there will be some available from that point onward. Some evening spots will be taken but you'll have your choice.

My experience from last week was that Rise went early (so did SDD but that's G+). FoP was usually still around by 11am except on weekends. Remy and Frozen were around until lunch. Space Mtn never sold out. I can't recall how fast Mine Train sold out since we didn't plan on riding, but like I said, you can watch from home before you go to see trends.

note: Make sure you are checking the trends on the day of the week you plan to visit. We saw a lot of variability in days (except for Rise). MK was busiest on Monday and HS on Tuesday. Weekends were pretty busy everywhere. If you watch a couple of weeks before hand, you should be able to judge which parks are best on which days for later entry. Also, make sure you refresh the times by swiping down a couple of times ... sometimes earlier times pop up. Sometimes not.

One more thing, the purchasing procedure for LL$ is cumbersome and sometimes the time you get is a little later than the time you clicked on originally. Not horrible, but one of ours was 45 minutes later than advertised by the time we entered the code and clicked purchase.

Wow, this is way more planning than was needed with the FastPass system!

 

[Moneypenny]

@Lorana --

One more thing, the purchasing procedure for LL$ is cumbersome and sometimes the time you get is a little later than the time you clicked on originally. Not horrible, but one of ours was 45 minutes later than advertised by the time we entered the code and clicked purchase.

This was our experience as well. And we did have trouble buying an LL for ROTR for one member of our party. For some reason the app said it was "too early for park hopping" even though he had a park reservation at DHS just like the rest of us. That was an hour at Guest Relations to fix. But, back to the timing - when I clicked to purchase, the time it gave us was Noon, which was perfect since we had a 1:00 ADR. After I purchased, the app showed the time as 1:00. We assumed it would be fine for us to be late to the ADR, so we rode the ride first and were late to the ADR. They gave us a lot of grief for being late even after I explained what happened.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

This was our experience as well. And we did have trouble buying an LL for ROTR for one member of our party. For some reason the app said it was "too early for park hopping" even though he had a park reservation at DHS just like the rest of us. That was an hour at Guest Relations to fix. But, back to the timing - when I clicked to purchase, the time it gave us was Noon, which was perfect since we had a 1:00 ADR. After I purchased, the app showed the time as 1:00. We assumed it would be fine for us to be late to the ADR, so we rode the ride first and were late to the ADR. They gave us a lot of grief for being late even after I explained what happened.

I'm very surprised to hear that the system isn't set up to hold that reservation for you as you complete the purchase. That's pretty unacceptable. Ask you to pay more to select a time to just walk on but then not give you the time you were purchasing? Only Disney.

 

[CBMom01]

I'm very surprised to hear that the system isn't set up to hold that reservation for you as you complete the purchase. That's pretty unacceptable. Ask you to pay more to select a time to just walk on but then not give you the time you were purchasing? Only Disney.

I had a website do that to me recently. I selected my items, went to check out my cart, got a message that there was a problem with my payment so I re-entered my card and just before I clicked "submit" realized that something had been removed from my cart (no longer available between the time I started entering my checkout info and clicking submit). I was really steamed and ended up buying nothing because of it.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

I had a website do that to me recently. I selected my items, went to check out my cart, got a message that there was a problem with my payment so I re-entered my card and just before I clicked "submit" realized that something had been removed from my cart (no longer available between the time I started entering my checkout info and clicking submit). I was really steamed and ended up buying nothing because of it.

If it's just placed into a cart then I get that it's still like it's sitting on a shelf unlike if you were physically in the store. That kind of has to happen since people (including me) put stuff in and then leave it for days. I'd hope though that once you head to check out there should at least be an amount of time that the product remains yours. I'm not certain if I've ever "lost" an item once I've begun check out without some website error. That would be terribly annoying just like losing the LL time. I guess at least it told you that vs just letting you continue and then randomly substituting something else.

 

[Lorana]

@Lorana -- The tip board for each park will show you the earliest time available or if the LL$ are gone for the day. You can watch from home to see how it works. If I look right now, it shows me that RotR is gone for the day (although some extras will pop up briefly at 9am). Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway shows that it has a LL$ available at 1:40pm, so there will be some available from that point onward. Some evening spots will be taken but you'll have your choice.

My experience from last week was that Rise went early (so did SDD but that's G+). FoP was usually still around by 11am except on weekends. Remy and Frozen were around until lunch. Space Mtn never sold out. I can't recall how fast Mine Train sold out since we didn't plan on riding, but like I said, you can watch from home before you go to see trends.

note: Make sure you are checking the trends on the day of the week you plan to visit. We saw a lot of variability in days (except for Rise). MK was busiest on Monday and HS on Tuesday. Weekends were pretty busy everywhere. If you watch a couple of weeks before hand, you should be able to judge which parks are best on which days for later entry. Also, make sure you refresh the times by swiping down a couple of times ... sometimes earlier times pop up. Sometimes not.

One more thing, the purchasing procedure for LL$ is cumbersome and sometimes the time you get is a little later than the time you clicked on originally. Not horrible, but one of ours was 45 minutes later than advertised by the time we entered the code and clicked purchase.

Thank you!

Will there be an issue purchasing if we are on different ticket types? My DH and I have APs but the kids do not. The kids are managed under my login, however, and don’t have their own MDEs.

 

[CarolynFH]

We assumed it would be fine for us to be late to the ADR, so we rode the ride first and were late to the ADR. They gave us a lot of grief for being late even after I explained what happened.

The general recommendation is to eat first and be late for the VQ/LL/ILL$, being ready to show the ADR in your MDE or the receipt for the meal to the CM at the ride entrance. I suspect it may be easier to work a group of people into an ongoing ride queue than it is to find a table for them in a booked-up restaurant.

 

[corpcomp]

I have to say after using Genie+ the first time and one ILL - Railroad - which was really poorly done compared to Rattat (we got group 75 - was told each group is about 100 people - took 8.5 hours to get on), we don't like it. Fast Pass was much easier and we were able to plan ahead better. Hate having to get on the first G+ ride before I could try and find another which was 2 hours later.

On our last day, we decided not to go into MK which we reserved, slept in and after 2pm walked over to EPCOT. We were not allowed in because we had not entered MK that day. Had to have Guest Relations re reserve us into EPCOT to get in at all. Had no idea.

 

[Sandisw]

Wow, this is way more planning than was needed with the FastPass system!

Actually it really wasn’t once you got the first one done and just added whatever you wanted next.

I think the suggestion to watch ahead of time just gives those who may want to not go early have an idea of how it’s working.

But it really is not needed to use it day off. The girls in our group had no issues with the things they want to do and felt the $15 was worth it for them.

 

[Sjm9911]

Actually it really wasn’t once you got the first one done and just added whatever you wanted next.

I think the suggestion to watch ahead of time just gives those who may want to not go early have an idea of how it’s working.

But it really is not needed to use it day off. The girls in our group had no issues with the things they want to do and felt the $15 was worth it for them.

I'll agree that its way more planning and work. By girls do you mean kids that have to do everything? Or older kids and or adults that may be ok with skipping stuff? Because there is a big difference. I found that its eaither more planning, up front and during or more walking back and forth or just waiting. The waiting wouldn't be as bad if there were meet and greats to spend the time. But there isnt. Planning is better for me, the walking the park 3x over did me in.

 

[The Jackal]

Wow, this is way more planning than was needed with the FastPass system!

And you have to wake up at 7AM everyday to do this. It gets old fast if your not an early riser. I work from 3PM to 11PM so we are not early risers.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

And you have to wake up at 7AM everyday to do this. It gets old fast if your not an early riser. I work from 3PM to 11PM so we are not early risers.

This is a big part of the fail to me. We liked the similar system at DL quite a lot and it did not allow you to book any FP's until you had actually entered the park. It worked very well and we sometimes wouldn't enter until late morning and still had no issues with availability. And this was all in conjunction with the still operating paper FP's.

 

[Matty B13]

And you have to wake up at 7AM everyday to do this. It gets old fast if your not an early riser. I work from 3PM to 11PM so we are not early risers.

Most of our house is up by 6 AM most days, so that isn't a big deal for us........ But we are usually trying to eat breakfast and get going, I don't want to have to be trying to get LL passes in the morning. I think we are going to try and not use it when we go in Jan-Feb next year and see how it goes using the standby lines.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

I have to say after using Genie+ the first time and one ILL - Railroad - which was really poorly done compared to Rattat (we got group 75 - was told each group is about 100 people - took 8.5 hours to get on), we don't like it. Fast Pass was much easier and we were able to plan ahead better. Hate having to get on the first G+ ride before I could try and find another which was 2 hours later.

On our last day, we decided not to go into MK which we reserved, slept in and after 2pm walked over to EPCOT. We were not allowed in because we had not entered MK that day. Had to have Guest Relations re reserve us into EPCOT to get in at all. Had no idea.

We also had that issue! My 19 year old son and his friend slept in and went to join us at Epcot at 2:00 but hadn‘t tapped into the reserved park AK. That is ridiculous that this is an issue. If you have park hoppers it shouldn‘t matter after 2:00. After the first time when we slept in again I changed it myself in the website because you can’t do it in the app.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

We also had that issue! My 19 year old son and his friend slept in and went to join us at Epcot at 2:00 but hadn‘t tapped into the reserved park AK. That is ridiculous that this is an issue. If you have park hoppers it shouldn‘t matter after 2:00. After the first time when we slept in again I changed it myself in the website because you can’t do it in the app.

It might seem stupid, but the requirement is very clear. Hopefully, they'll get back to park hopping anytime, anywhere again. But for months now, the hopping situation is what it is - and you either need to tap into the park you have reserved before hopping (after 2PM), or change the park reservation, if available.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

This is a big part of the fail to me. We liked the similar system at DL quite a lot and it did not allow you to book any FP's until you had actually entered the park. It worked very well and we sometimes wouldn't enter until late morning and still had no issues with availability. And this was all in conjunction with the still operating paper FP's.

I agree with this too. We only went to disneyland once in 2018. I remember liking the max pass system so I assumed I’d like the genie+. The genie system just didn’t work for us. I was trying to remember what was different or why Disneyland worked better. I bet that’s it. If you can’t book until your in a park it would free up a lot of time slots.

 

[Mickeypooh99]

It might seem stupid, but the requirement is very clear. Hopefully, they'll get back to park hopping anytime, anywhere again. But for months now, the hopping situation is what it is - and you either need to tap into the park you have reserved before hopping (after 2PM), or change the park reservation, if available.

This was our first trip since the pandemic. I read a lot of Disney info, but I missed that. I don’t feel it was very clear. There are so many new things it’s difficult for me to figure everything out. It didn’t work well for our family This time. We had 8 adult which is a small group compared to our normal trips. We had 2 -19 year old boys who wanted to do their own thing. We are used to having annual passes or hoppers and coming and going as we please. We always travel with groups. We book multiple rooms at the boardwalk. I make a basic plan and everyone does their own thing. Then we meet up for dinner etc. That’s what used for make it a good vacation destination for us. In fact we had decided to upgrade to annual passes and changed our minds. This was just too much for us. It’s fine. Obviously Disney has no lack of customers. We just won’t be going back for a couple years.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

This was our first trip since the pandemic. I read a lot of Disney info, but I missed that. I don’t feel it was very clear. There are so many new things it’s difficult for me to figure everything out. It didn’t work well for our family This time. We had 8 adult which is a small group compared to our normal trips. We had 2 -19 year old boys who wanted to do their own thing. We are used to having annual passes or hoppers and coming and going as we please. We always travel with groups. We book multiple rooms at the boardwalk. I make a basic plan and everyone does their own thing. Then we meet up for dinner etc. That’s what used for make it a good vacation destination for us. In fact we had decided to upgrade to annual passes and changed our minds. This was just too much for us. It’s fine. Obviously Disney has no lack of customers. We just won’t be going back for a couple years.

I cannot argue with any of your points - it's tough keeping up with the changes and requirements - so many changes in the past 2 years. Maybe when you decide to return, things will be a bit clearer and easier to navigate.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

This was our first trip since the pandemic. I read a lot of Disney info, but I missed that. I don’t feel it was very clear. There are so many new things it’s difficult for me to figure everything out. It didn’t work well for our family This time. We had 8 adult which is a small group compared to our normal trips. We had 2 -19 year old boys who wanted to do their own thing. We are used to having annual passes or hoppers and coming and going as we please. We always travel with groups. We book multiple rooms at the boardwalk. I make a basic plan and everyone does their own thing. Then we meet up for dinner etc. That’s what used for make it a good vacation destination for us. In fact we had decided to upgrade to annual passes and changed our minds. This was just too much for us. It’s fine. Obviously Disney has no lack of customers. We just won’t be going back for a couple years.

I feel like I've never been before in trying to get caught up on everything you have to do now. Planning January trip for fist time back since January of 2020.