Park Cris-crossing

[bakenatj]

I had 27,242 one day last trip (December) I couldn’t tell you what we did that day. Lol Most days were a bit less that that.

In August of 2021, we were leaving MK and the monorail was an insane wait, so I had the brilliant idea to walk to the TTC via GF....3 miles later we got to our car after a long day. My wife was not impressed with my "brilliant" idea. I don't remember what we had for steps but I think we had around 10 miles that day. I was ready for bed!

 

[jsbowl16]

This was all planned as part of Genie Plus by that Disney exec that said people are too fat and need smaller food portion sizes in the parks. She is looking out for our well being by providing more daily exercise, lol.

 

[megs1313]

that's exactly what I found.

 

[kandlsutton]

I refused to pay $15 extra per person in December except at HS. I was ok with paying extra for the ILL at most parks to ensure we got to ride without a 2-3 hour wait time.

In May, we have a short holiday weekend trip with opening of GotG. I spent so much extra $$$ on Genie+ and ILL, but found it worked out really well with park hoppers. At 7am, I selected a LL ride that goes quick and has a later return time for Park #2. Then we hit early entry at Park #1 and did all the rides we wanted there standby. At 10:30am (2 hours after park #2 opened), i selected another LL with a return time close to 1st selection (close as in proximity and time). Had lunch in Park #1. At 12:30, picked up another LL for Park #2. And so on until we were able to redeem our earliest LL. We were able to stack 5 LL at HS - SDD, TSM, MFSR, RnRC, ToT - and bought ILL for RotR. Probably could’ve squeezed in MMRR too.

So very little criss-crossing since I was able to snag the LLs for later. Just have to monitor return times for your must do rides and hopefully get it when your 2 hours is up.

Genie+ is better when combined with park hoppers. Not sure you get that much more from Genie+ than early entry hours for rope droppers. But for late arrivals, I think Genie+ can definitely work to minimize afternoon wait times.

SHHHHH - please keep my “secret”…

 

[chalee94]

We should start a thread; "What were the most steps you have ever had at Disney." Mine was somewhere in the 20,000s.

I broke 30K but that includes walking back and forth between DHS and Epcot instead of taking the boats (pre-Skyliner)

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

In August of 2021, we were leaving MK and the monorail was an insane wait, so I had the brilliant idea to walk to the TTC via GF....3 miles later we got to our car after a long day. My wife was not impressed with my "brilliant" idea. I don't remember what we had for steps but I think we had around 10 miles that day. I was ready for bed!

We like to take the resort monorail when the express is backed up. One extra stop but usually much quicker.

 

[ChadsGirl]

We just got back from our first trip using Genie+. Another factor that I found caused more issues with more walking/criss-crossing was how frequently major attractions went down. For example, on our MK day I booked a mid-morning LL since we were going to rope drop, and kind of work our way around to the LL, hitting things with shorter waits along the way. But then both Haunted Mansion and Splash went down for hours which completely interrupted our plans.

This is a bit off topic, but I was gobsmacked at how often attractions went down.

 

[sewingmolly]

This past Tuesday we did 30k steps at EPCOT. We were trying to get as much done as possible at the end of our trip. We did GOTG, then Remy, followed by Soaring, then Frozen, then Space 220. I would not recommend that much crisscrossing, especially in the heat.

 

[mmackeymouse]

I'm so glad to see this thread.

A few weeks back, I had posted in another thread that FP+ made it so much easier to minimize walking, and someone had replied that was untrue, that FP+ and Genie+ both work similarly- they both work more productively when criss-crossing the park.

I insisted they were wrong- that being able to pick times certainly helps to group your plans together and do less walking.

I am very glad to hear that I am not the only one who feels that Genie+ is much more difficult on minimizing walking than FP+.

 

[Jonfw2]

I'm so glad to see this thread.

A few weeks back, I had posted in another thread that FP+ made it so much easier to minimize walking, and someone had replied that was untrue, that FP+ and Genie+ both work similarly- they both work more productively when criss-crossing the park.

I insisted they were wrong- that being able to pick times certainly helps to group your plans together and do less walking.

I am very glad to hear that I am not the only one who feels that Genie+ is much more difficult on minimizing walking than FP+.

You are right and they are wrong. With FP, there was always plenty of time to plan and strategize and you could always make use of your time between FPs.

With G+, it’s race to the next thing so you can book the next thing.

 

[jelona]

The only way I can see utilizing Genie Plus is on half days at the parks... which is a waste because if you spend money on tickets... you want to be at the parks all day!
But, on our Magic Kingdom Day, we will be doing extended hours. so, I will have 11pm - 1am to ride. I'm going the end of July, so it will be HOT. my plan is to stay at the resort till our 1:30pm lunch reservation at MK. I'm going to stack my rides while at the resort for that evening. so that way I'm better planned out. Hopefully with doing that, it'll be less walking.
I think being able to sit down and map out what you want to do is way easier to plan, just like with the old fast pass system. The thing about genie+ is having to do a lot of it on the go and not fully being able to concentrate on what you're doing.
I'm going to set alarms and things for my 120min rule, but if I'm walking around in the park, sometimes it's hard to just stop what you're doing, especially if you have to refresh constantly and try to get what you want.

Some people might be good at that though. I'm not someone who can walk and be on their phone at the same time. Haha.

 

[Praying Colonel]

On our mini trip in late April I did 19.854 (EP & MK), 24,482 (DHS & MK) and 18.768 (EP & MK). I was surprised the DHS/MK day was so much more, but we did a lot of criss-crossing at DHS trying to overcome the large # of attractions that were down. Plus they were not running trams to/from where we were parked, even though it wasn't close enough to really call it "close."

 

[gharter]

You are right and they are wrong. With FP, there was always plenty of time to plan and strategize and you could always make use of your time between FPs.

With G+, it’s race to the next thing so you can book the next thing.

completely agree.
the biggest difference I see is FP+, I could modify passes, change rides, times, etc and ride the same ride as many times as I could get a FP+ for. None of those are true for Genie +.
There certainly seems to be more urgency with Genie + if you are to get your moneys worth.

 

[Shughart]

and we are already doing our mental preparation to just be happy we are there.

This is depressing

But for late arrivals, I think Genie+ can definitely work to minimize afternoon wait times.

As much as I loathe the death of fastpass+ and replacing it with this system, I am considering trying it for one of our DHS days. We are a DAS family and that works for us 95% of the time but my DAS kiddo will NOT do TOT which is a favorite for half the family, and with one tower running only it might be worth it. Do you have to buy it for the whole family or can you just buy it for certain members?

 

[joyjoy]

Do you have to buy it for the whole family or can you just buy it for certain members?

You can just buy it for whoever is going to ride

 

[Frozen2014]

Funny I just saw this thread as just yesterday, I was taking screen shots of park maps and circling groupings of rides that were logistically near each other. Trying to get familiar with the parks and so with Genie+, can "try" can at least consider the location of rides when booking LLs. I know though, in reality, I'll just take what we can get....and thus, probably doing lots of cris-crossing.

We just got back from our first trip using Genie+. Another factor that I found caused more issues with more walking/criss-crossing was how frequently major attractions went down. For example, on our MK day I booked a mid-morning LL since we were going to rope drop, and kind of work our way around to the LL, hitting things with shorter waits along the way. But then both Haunted Mansion and Splash went down for hours which completely interrupted our plans.

This is a bit off topic, but I was gobsmacked at how often attractions went down.

This brings up a good question. What do you do if you have LL booked and you see (on the app) that the ride went down. Do you need to walk to the ride to have your LL switched to an "anytime" ride (think that's what happens if I didn't misunderstood)? Or do you need to wait for the end time ... and then how to get the LL back?

 

[Marionnette]

This brings up a good question. What do you do if you have LL booked and you see (on the app) that the ride went down. Do you need to walk to the ride to have your LL switched to an "anytime" ride (think that's what happens if I didn't misunderstood)? Or do you need to wait for the end time ... and then how to get the LL back?

It's automatic. If the attraction goes down at any point during your return time and you haven't already redeemed your reservation, then it will change to a multi-experience G+.

 

[state08]

Funny I just saw this thread as just yesterday, I was taking screen shots of park maps and circling groupings of rides that were logistically near each other. Trying to get familiar with the parks and so with Genie+, can "try" can at least consider the location of rides when booking LLs. I know though, in reality, I'll just take what we can get....and thus, probably doing lots of cris-crossing.


This brings up a good question. What do you do if you have LL booked and you see (on the app) that the ride went down. Do you need to walk to the ride to have your LL switched to an "anytime" ride (think that's what happens if I didn't misunderstood)? Or do you need to wait for the end time ... and then how to get the LL back?

It automatically shows up on the app. You’ll get a pop up notification that something about your lightning lane reservation has changed and then you’ll be able to book a new one while also having the anytime pass.

 

[coachk34]

We just recently returned and averaged over 22, 000 steps per day for our 5 park days. The most was 25, 500 at Animal Kingdom. I agree that Genie+ makes it much harder to avoid criss crossing parks. We tried to keep stuff close together and sometimes it worked but usually it did not. Having to go 1 pass at a time has to be the reason.

We experienced many rides being down, the mulit passes can be great or they can hurt as well.