Is Genie+ more worthwhile in Disneyland?

[NothingClever]

My experience with Genie+ in Disney World has been that it's really only useful for about 2-3 rides before 1:00 pm. Can anyone comment on whether they've found it to be more useful/worthwhile in Disneyland than in Disney World?

 

[Blue32]

By almost every person's account i have ever read....yes. far more useful than WDW. BUT DL also many rides without Genie+ and ILL. Touring with OR without Genie+ is for the most part much easier at DL than WDW.

 

[Aladora]

We've used G+ at both and I would say 100% it is more worthwhile at DLR than at WDW.

Edited to add something that I posted after our November 2022 WDW trip re: G+.

We used G+ and ILL when we were in DL in March so I knew the system. I really feel as though we got more out of it at DL as compared with WDW. I suspect that this is a combination of a few things that are all tied together.


1. Area of each park. When you compare the parks and their acreage WDW parks are all larger than DLR ones. Going from largest to smallest on each coast: DL 98 acres, DCA 72 acres. MK 106 acres, HS 136, Epcot 299, AK 580. The larger size means a lot more walking back and forth to get to the LL rides we were able to book.


2. Number of LL rides in each park. This goes hand in hand with point #1, When you remove entertainment and character meets from the available LL attractions and only look at rides, there are as many or more LL rides at DLR when compared to WDW, with the exception of MK. (We only did MK for the Christmas party so LLs were not really a factor at all) DL 12, DCA 8, MK 16, HS 8, AK 5, Epcot 9.


3. Capacity. Given the larger area of WDW parks, although the exact number is not know, it is safe to assume that the capacity of the East coast parks is higher than those on the West coast.


So, when you add all three of those things together, you get more people battling for fewer LLs, and more area to walk between rides. All of the "top tier" rides sold out of LLs pretty early in the day and when you factor in the 2 hr wait this meant that there were LLs we were just not able to get.


Oh, and HS...wow was that a mess on the 18th! For quite a bit of the morning there were 4 attractions down at the same time! ToT, RnR, SDD, and M&MRR were all down for a significant portion of the day. This put a TON of pressure on the other attractions and made for some insane posted wait times! We ended up getting a LL for AlienSS, M&M, and paid for RotR. Definitely not worth the $ we spent on G+ that day.

 

[mdmost]

A lot more worthwhile at DLR than WDW simply because less people use it. Locals hate it as it increases standby times but for non-locals who have limited time, it's great. DCA you can jump from Genie+ to Genie+ and fill in the few non-Genie+ rides in between.

At DLR, if you rope drop, you really don't even need Genie+ until around 10-11am for most of the rides. So I always recommend riding Genie+ rides in the early morning and save the Genie+ option for later so you can ride again.

 

[Pluto468]

We've used it at Disneyland and found it very helpful. Out of a 5 day trip, we only felt we needed it for 3 of the days.

 

[roctavia]

Any thoughts on really busy days at DLR for Genie? We arrive tomorrow but our park days will be thursday- sunday and I anticipate it will be very busy. (I am attending a conference, otherwise would not have picked a holiday weekend!) I know at WDW G+ is almost useless on really busy days. Do we need to worry about running out of LL options at Disneyland when it's busy, or not until a lot later in the day? I know WDW would have days where places like HS would have almost nothing left by 11am...

 

[Pluto468]

Any thoughts on really busy days at DLR for Genie? We arrive tomorrow but our park days will be thursday- sunday and I anticipate it will be very busy. (I am attending a conference, otherwise would not have picked a holiday weekend!) I know at WDW G+ is almost useless on really busy days. Do we need to worry about running out of LL options at Disneyland when it's busy, or not until a lot later in the day? I know WDW would have days where places like HS would have almost nothing left by 11am...

Crowd levels were 9 when we went last June. We never had a problem running out of LL later in the day.

 

[J_GN]

At DLR, if you rope drop, you really don't even need Genie+ until around 10-11am for most of the rides. So I always recommend riding Genie+ rides in the early morning and save the Genie+ option for later so you can ride again.

I second this 100%. At both DL and DCA, if you rope drop or close to it, lines for LL rides are usually pretty short, so it makes the most sense to ride those standby in the morning and then save Genie+ LL's for later in the day and do the rides a second time when the lines are shorter. Just check the app periodically and pay attention to LL return times, so you don't miss out. And note that the ILL rides like Rise and Radiator Springs Racers always have long standby lines.

 

[Kit Jackson]

I think it's worth it especially if you are interested in PhotoPass. The photographers are amazing.

 

[NothingClever]

This has all been very helpful - thanks!

 

[CandyMouse]

Any thoughts on really busy days at DLR for Genie? We arrive tomorrow but our park days will be thursday- sunday and I anticipate it will be very busy. (I am attending a conference, otherwise would not have picked a holiday weekend!) I know at WDW G+ is almost useless on really busy days. Do we need to worry about running out of LL options at Disneyland when it's busy, or not until a lot later in the day? I know WDW would have days where places like HS would have almost nothing left by 11am...

My DH and I went last year on Memorial weekend and it was great Sat. and Sun. but more busy on Monday Memorial day! We had Genie+ for the first time and it worked out well for getting a few G+ rides later in the day.

 

[Chickinvic]

I used it daily for our DL trip in November and it is very useful. Can't speak to how useful at WDW since I haven't been back there since 2019. I do know I HATED WDW's fastpass system (which was completely unfair to anyone staying off site). So, I'd likely prefer Genie+ at WDW over what they had in place before.

 

[Lumpy1106]

I've only been and used it once on a pretty busy day. We skipped 6 lines and rode pretty much everything we wanted. YMMV...

 

[DesertScorpion]

We just returned from a trip and had Genie+ for all four park days. It was great and allowed us to hit a ton of rides in both parks. Even allowed us to ride some back to back as we were able to skip the line the first time with an immediate return and then the line was only about 20-30 minutes after so we hopped into the standby line.

 

[MissDisney21]

If we are rope dropping and trying to stack rides for afternoon when it is busier, which rides usually have the later return times? For both DLR and CA?

 

[GatorChris]

It's useful. Is it a value? When you have a family of 5 and it costs $100+/day to do it, it becomes like the hidden hotel parking fee...but for every single person. It's really a rip off. I miss Legacy FP.