quick question about quick trip

[akmomesq]

My family has chosen DL for our vacation spot many, many times over the past 13 or so years and I've spent a bazillion hours on this board getting great tips but I have very little experience with Genie+. I've only had one chance to use it - right after it went live in DL last year. I remember being frustrated with the limitations but I probably would purchase it again if I were going with my family.

I recently had the opportunity to sign up for a conference in Anaheim, I'm going with a co-worker who has never been to DL. We'll be in the parks two evenings next week (Monday and Tuesday).

My question is whether Genie+ is worth it given our circumstances: we're only able to go in the evenings - we'll likely get there about 5:30 p.m. - and because of that, have chosen to just do one park per night. Given how late we'll be arriving, is it worth it? (A more precise question: will it be useful?)

 

[wassily]

Looking at yesterday's fastpass return time data from yesterday, at 5:30pm, the return time for
Space Mountain was 9:40pm
Indy 10:30pm
Mill Falcon 7:30pm
BTRR: 7:00om


You could do it for the smaller rides.. but not really worth it as after 10pm, you can almost walk onto rides like Buzz, Star Tours etc..
I wouldn't do it unless you can scan in the morning and then stack lightning lanes around 1:30pm for Indy to ride at 5:30pm and then at 3pm stack the LL for Space to ride at 7:00pm. Then from there, you will have more flexibility on LL choices for the remainder of the "big" rides.

 

[starlite_]

If you can scan in the morning, any time really even if you need to sneak over during a conference break or something, I would totally get it and stack LLs so that when you do get there you can have short waits. You can even have the opportunity to get some MEPs to use for re-rides or any ride that doesn't have a LL. (Check the pinned post on this forum for details)

 

[gelatoni fan]

If your coworker has never been to Disneyland, ask if there are any rides they specifically want to do. I mostly think it'll save time for Space Mountain and Midway Mania. Other rides will likely get short enough at night that I don't think Genie+ would be worth getting for them.
Don't forget that if you're doing the night shows at Disneyland (electric parade, fantasmic, fireworks), you won't be spending that time on rides which should factor in to your plans.

Also, how do they feel about roller coasters and single rider? Some people want to do all the thrill rides while others would rather spend time watching the Marvel shows.

I generally lean towards just enjoying the night shows and whatever rides you can get unless they have a lot of rides on the Genie+ list that are absolute must dos.

 

[wassily]

Yeah, for California Adventure, single rider it all the way. Especially for RSRR.
Can do this for RSRR, Webslingers, Incredicoaster Grizzly and Sky School.
You'll knock out the big riders there.. so you just have to do standby for Midway Mania and Guardians.
Midway Mania get emptier after 9pm... can be like a 20min wait or less.
Guardians varies..sometimes you can get on pretty quickly after 9pm.

For Disneyland, you can single rider Matterhorn, Falcon and Splash.
These all go pretty fast due to ride config.

 

[akmomesq]

Thanks everyone! I had totally forgotten about using the single rider option - that’s a fantastic idea. And thanks for analysis based on recent return times - that was really helpful.

I’ll talk to my coworker and check conference times. If it works out to scan early, we’ll do that. If not, I think utilizing single rider is the way to go.

Much appreciated, everyone, thank you!

 

[danceintherain]

Single Rider is my suggestion. We also had later ILL availability on our trip. So we got it for WS and RSR when they had 60+minute long standby waits with immediate return on ILL. The only reason they had super long lines in the first place was because it was Star Wars Night, so everyone who didn't have party tickets flocked to CA and clogged up the lines. We did RSR like 4 times in a row earlier in the day with almost no wait using the single rider line.