Passing on Genie + altogether?

[jtw3549]

My family of 3 is headed to WDW first week of May. This will be our 4th trip in 3 years. We certainly want to maximize every day, usually do rope drop, etc. I gotta tell you though, reading all the Genie + information (good and bad) is really starting to stress me out. I have no problem paying for the LL rides like ROTR, Remy, etc, but using the app itself all day is starting to sound very overwhelming to me.

I’d love to hear from those of you who have chosen not to use Genie + at all and what your experiences have been like. We are preparing for heavier crowds and hoping for not so heavy, just like everyone. The prospect of heavy crowds combined with the stress of being glued to my phone doesn’t sound pleasant to me. Who knows, we may alter our whole touring strategy and sleep in and head to the parks later.

 

[Jennasis]

We have used it. Our next trip in May we will not. It is beyond worthless and stressful. We will do iLL$ for Rise and Space Mountain and that's it.

 

[mom2rtk]

We have used it. Our next trip in May we will not. It is beyond worthless and stressful. We will do iLL$ for Rise and Space Mountain and that's it.

Same. Won't buy G+ again. Will (unhappily) buy a few ILLs.

 

[FBDM66]

I've tried it in all the parks except Epcot. Don't like it and I won't be using it again. I might use ILL$ for RotR but I think I'll try the strategy of waiting till park closing time to hop on the line.
Heading to Epcot tomorrow. Nope- not using it.

 

[DisneyGuy]

We are going the third week of May and decided to probably buy Genie+ for one day just to try it. I have no problem spending extra money if it enhances my experience, but the fact that you can buy it and end up with practically nothing in return is a problem.

I will buy the ILL’s as some of those rides we haven’t done yet but other than that, no Genie+ interest. I don’t want to compete all day on my phone or worry for the next few months about what may or may not happen. I’m going to hope for the best.

 

[Princess Merida]

We used Genie+ on our MK and HWS days. Epcot and AK were far more enjoyable not worrying about Genie+. We rope dropped FOP on AK day and Remy’s on Epcot day and waited for everything else. At MK and HWS with Genie+ we spent A LOT of time on our phones. It was awful. We bought ROTR LL which was worth it for my extended family because it was their first time on. We will be back for Epcots 40th and we will not be purchasing any Genie+ or LL passes. I’m done. This is a big money grab on Disney’s part and they inflate their wait times on the app to entice people to purchase these extras. Disney as I knew it is gone for now. If I can stress anything to you it would be DO NOT skip rope drop. It is very valuable time as is riding the popular rides right before park closing. Rope drop and park closing with a midday pool/nap break would be my suggestion and will be my plan when I return.

 

[Jangles]

We only purchased G+ once. We bought an ILL$ for Rise, booked LL for Slinky and RD’d MMRR. We did everything that we wanted to in HS and then used G+ in MK in the evening. If you are able to RD then you only need G+ for HS. The other parks are manageable. This was over the Christmas holidays .

 

[imbelle]

I did the parks on my own Feb 12th through the 15th without Genie+ or IAS and did pretty well by knocking out the main headliners using early entry for Disney resort guests. For example, on my DHS day I got to the park about 8am for the 8:30 early entry. Went directly to ROTR, from there went to Runaway Railway and was off that by 9:30. From there went to Slinky Dog where the wait time showed as 60 minutes but actually turned out to be about 45 minutes. Walked on Smugglers Run using the Single Rider lane. Most of the posted wait times seemed to be inflated by 20 minutes or so. Luckily I was not affected by any rides going down.

 

[jinkies04]

Thanks for the input! Four of us are headed Mar 25-Apr 1 and we are thinking not doing Genie+ either. We may do $ILL for FOP and possibly Remy if we can't get them standby the first time we head to AK and EP. We will rope drop with early entry doing the headliners and take a break midday. My niece doesn't do any of the rollercoasters so that really helps!

 

[No_strings]

Genie+ really only works for morning goers. If you like to head there in the afternoon or evening you will not get many opportunities to use it. Purchased today and got one ride in HS. It is a waste of money until Disney fixes the system. The other issue is that you cannot pick specific times. Hard to plan your day with dining and partial park days. ILL passes are worth it for must do rides. BTW waited over 90 mins for Space Mountain with a 60 min posted wait time. Universal seems like a better trip.

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I've never used it. Just an ILL for Rise once, for companions who had never been on it. but I don't care if I do rides all the time or not. I have been able to get onto some rides.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

You absolutely can do the parks without it. We've tried it 5 or 6 days now on our trips, and we have found it to be quite useful for the way we do the parks. Contrary to what many say, we did not spend the day with our heads on the phone - didn't need to. We worked out our plan the evening before (which was much nicer in many ways than doing it 60 days out), bought G+ day-of when we wanted to use it (we skipped days where we didn't buy it), one person in the party was up for the 7AM LL reservations, and then we didn't really need to focus on it again until the time came to see what was available when we could book again. As many have said, sometimes booking later in the day, perhaps at another park, worked out well for us, too. Having actually used the product many times now, I'm not going to tell you it's the greatest thing Disney has ever done. But I find that most of the complaints I read about are either people who have not used it yet, people who really dislike the smart-phone tech, or people who just do the parks differently than we do - and that's OK! We are not a RD family, and never have been, but I see the value for those who do it! The biggest complaint we have about G+ and the main reason it's something we'll only use on occasion, is the fact that they have removed the top 8 attractions at WDW from being accessed through G+. That really eliminates a lot of spots that could be very valuable in the G+ app. Sadly, that's not likely to change anytime soon. It's the single biggest drawback for us from the old FP system, FP+, or MaxPass (we used all of them!).

 

[Her Dotness]

DH experimented with trying to get ride times when we were there in mid-November. He was primed and ready before 7:00 a.m. and soon found we'd never have gotten any of the rides we want. Never did buy it or ILL, don't think we missed a thing.

We didn't find standby a lengthy wait, lines moved pretty rapidly. However, we hit parks at rope drop and were pretty much done by noon.

Among friends who've used it, the verdict is pretty much highway robbery for no better chance of getting rides easily.

Chapek has been rumored to say of it that it's pure profit that rakes in the $$$ from a family.

 

[18sprint]

We (family of 7) used Genie + and LL for MK and Studios only. We were there 6 days 1st wk of Feb, stayed at OKW. Will never use Genie+ again. We rope dropped everyday. Had to be on the phone at 7 sharp on MK & HS to attempt to maximize Genie. Stacked fastpasses every two hours after park opening, purchased LL's at the same time. Stayed to park closing so we felt like we weren't ripped off. The system doesn't allow you to pick your times so we were forced to pick other rides that didn't interfere with lunch/dinner reservations. The system also had us going from one side of the park to the other based on what we could get.
The Good: 5 of our family can only make this trip only so often. We had two children with us that I would never have attempted to make stand in line for 2+ hrs so at least they were able to enjoy the new rides.
The Bad: Cost obviously. All spontaneity is gone. Everything has to be planned if you use Genie+ and LL. Because of crowds, you are almost forced to use the system if you want to do things other than simply walk around.

 

[Oneanne]

I'm headed to WDW Saturday and have decided not to get Genie+. A big part of my vacation needs to be using as little tech as possible and I can't see how having to be on my phone all day will be restorative. I will try for ILL$ to RotR, as I've not ridden it before, but that is it.

 

[RMO87]

Does 'Rope Drop' simply mean arriving when the park opens? Or is it some special ceremony for those staying on DIS property? I will be staying off site. I have heard the parking lot opens an hour before the park opens.

 

[SLThomas318]

We used it in November and did not enjoy it at all. I have no problem paying extra if it adds value. Genie+ did NOT add any value. In fact, it added a whole lot of extra STRESS. We are heading back in June and not planning on using it. We had successful mornings rope dropping and had a great experience with Epcot extended evening hours.

 

[tguz]

We passed on all of it when we went in December. We were there long enough to do parks multiple days so we were able to do almost everything we wanted without paying extra. The only thing we wanted to do but didn't was Rise because it was broken down so much during our DHS days.

 

[Princess Merida]

Does 'Rope Drop' simply mean arriving when the park opens? Or is it some special ceremony for those staying on DIS property? I will be staying off site. I have heard the parking lot opens an hour before the park opens.

Rope drop is at park opening. They have sections roped off before opening and when they open cast members let you through to whichever section of the park you are going to. If you are not staying on property the rope drop strategy won’t work as well for you because on site guests have already had a half hour to ride 1-3 things depending on which rides and which parks they choose. Unfortunately, by the time you get in any headliners will already have significant wait times.

Edited to add: It is still beneficial to enter as soon as you can as lines will grow as the morning goes on.

 

[Brett Wyman]

I think there is value in it at MK and MK only. If you get there at rope drop, or hopefully 30 minutes earlier. And have already booked your first LL at 7am. I would never buy it for the other three parks. Complete waste there.