The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[jar]

Leaving for WDW on Saturday. If I see a time slot available for a G+ reservation, will that slot remain held for me through the booking process or might I click on it and then find out that it's already gone? Sometimes that used to happen with FP+. I'd see something open up out of the blue but by the time I click on it, the next screen says it's not available. Thanks.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Leaving for WDW on Saturday. If I see a time slot available for a G+ reservation, will that slot remain held for me through the booking process or might I click on it and then find out that it's already gone? Sometimes that used to happen with FP+. I'd see something open up out of the blue but by the time I click on it, the next screen says it's not available. Thanks.

That can happen, but I didn't experience it too much. The system will give you next available, as long as it wasn't the last time slot of the day available. I think the only time that happened to me was trying to get Kilimanjaro Safari in the afternoon, they close early and the last pass time is 30 minutes before ride closure. After a couple refreshes, I got a time booked, but it was iffy, since they showed as out.

I don't think I even had times where I selected a time it then gave me a different time. Probably because I quickly was hitting next on the f&f screen rather than editing.

 

[jar]

Thanks. The only ride I'm really concerned about is SDD, since time slots go in just seconds.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Thanks. The only ride I'm really concerned about is SDD, since time slots go in just seconds.

I came back to say, except the fast movers at 7am like SDD and RotR, you could definitely end up with a later time than what you initially clicked just because there's such a high volume clicking at that time. Jungle Cruise and test track may experience a little bit of that as well, though probably not as noticable.

 

[kalista]

[QUOTE="GBRforWDW, post:

I don't think I even had times where I selected a time it then gave me a different time. Probably because I quickly was hitting next on the f&f screen rather than editing.
[/QUOTE]

We had this happen almost every time last week. Return times came up a couple hours later than we clicked on. BUT there were 7of us and we had to edit the party, as not everyone made the trip. Just verify the time before you complete the reservation. (I forgot to do the last step once or twice and they don’t go through!!)

 

[wisblue]

Thanks. The only ride I'm really concerned about is SDD, since time slots go in just seconds.

For SDD especially it is very possible that you could click on a time and by the time you select your party the time might be gone or the available time could be significantly later.

On our trip in November I logged in at 7:00:00 and clicked on a SDD return time of 9:00 (the earliest possible time with a 9:00 park opening). The time we got was at 10:10 AM; I considered that a win.

In that first minute the number of people booking is going going to fill up hours of times pretty quickly. It’s very similar to the old Rise of the Resistance boarding groups or getting boarding groups for a Southwest flight precisely 24 hours in advance.

 

[wisblue]

Also, later in the day, after times have “sold out” or have moved to later in the day, an occasional earlier time might pop up. Those often disappear before you can complete booking, probably because there was only one slot available and someone else beat you to it.

 

[jar]

Also, later in the day, after times have “sold out” or have moved to later in the day, an occasional earlier time might pop up. Those often disappear before you can complete booking, probably because there was only one slot available and someone else beat you to it.

Thanks. Helpful to know. I had FP+ down cold.

 

[wisblue]

Thanks. Helpful to know. I had FP+ down cold.

I really miss FP+ for something like Marathon Weekend when members of the family can’t make rope drop and don’t want to stay out too late because of the early wakeups for events.

It was nice being able to lock up 3 premier attractions for that relatively small window of park time. But, we’ll try to do the best we can to recreate something similar using the current system.

 

[macandcheeseplease]

Only using G+ for our MK day (middle of the week in January). I have some DAS advanced selections and planning on rope dropping Space Mountain with early entry. Torn between Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Pirates of the Caribbean as 7 AM selection. Which would be a better first choice?

 

[joech]

We have been here at DW since the 23 and we tried G+ one day at DhS and we got 2 rides out of the G+. The G+ IMHO is not a really thought out system and it is more of a money grab than anything else. Making ADR almost impossible when you don’t know when G+ will assign the time for the ride. Not the experience we would have hoped and the old FP / FP+ was mile ahead.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Interesting article over at Touring Plans regarding how and when you actually save time in lines using Genie+:

https://touringplans.com/blog/how-much-time-can-genie-save-me/
Might help some better determine their own strategies.

 

[bastraker]

I posted this somewhere else but it never got answered - so I'll try here.

We're leaving in 15 days. We have AP's which I renewed last month. I need to go to guest services and activate them before we enter our first park which will be HS.

When will I be able to add G+? We arrive in the later evening on our first day so we won't go to the parks until the next day. Do you think I can still go on anytime after midnight and add it or will it have to be activated first?

This is our first trip with G+.

 

[g-dad66]

Interesting article over at Touring Plans regarding how and when you actually save time in lines using Genie+:

https://touringplans.com/blog/how-m...er&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter&s=09
Might help some better determine their own strategies.

Interesting read, thanks.

It seems to fit very well with the experiences that have been reported on this thread. I think we have a pretty good handle now on how to best use G+ for our own individual situations.

Will be interesting to see if it goes back to 8 ILL$ next week or stays at only 4. (And if 8, what will replace Everest which is closing for refurbishment).

 

[g-dad66]

Only using G+ for our MK day (middle of the week in January). I have some DAS advanced selections and planning on rope dropping Space Mountain with early entry. Torn between Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and Pirates of the Caribbean as 7 AM selection. Which would be a better first choice?

Big Thunder will save you more time than Pirates will. Standby waits for Pirates have been relatively low (note that I said relatively, because this past week, waits have all been pretty long).

 

[macandcheeseplease]

Big Thunder will save you more time than Pirates will. Standby waits for Pirates have been relatively low (note that I said relatively, because this past week, waits have all been pretty long).

Thanks for the advice! I think between G+ and DAS we’ll get to ride everything we’d like on our MK day!

 

[cubed]

G+ was a huge hit at DHS today as offsite guests. I never saw SDD or ROTR availability, but it was my fault for logging on at 7:15am instead of 7 this morning. I was at least able to book MFSR at 7:15am for an 11:15am return time. At 10:30am, I booked Star Tours for 12:40pm return time. I didn’t see anything I liked when my booking window opened again 2 hours later, so I waited until I saw a time I liked for the Alien Saucer ride. That was around 12:53pm, which pushed my next booking window to 2:53pm (didn’t know that it would get extended, so boo).

At 2:53pm, I noticed there was an available LL for RNRC and I snagged it for a return time of 4pm. The ride was down all day and prime for converting to any time LL per Touring Plans chatter (aka, if you have a LL for a ride that goes down, that converts to an any time LL for almost all rides). We left the park for an afternoon break (and so DH could work for a few hours). 4pm rolled in and my RNRC converted into an any time LL pass. I was also able to book another RNRC at that time, which was another RNRC LL for 4:35pm. Again, that converted into another any time pass. I could have booked another LL at 4:35pm but there was not much available (that we didn’t ride using LL already).

When we returned to the park at 5:40pm, we made it to the Alien saucer ride 10 minutes after our window ended. I was able to get a third RNRC LL that was for 7:40pm and that converted into an any time pass as well. The kids chose MFSR for one of the any time LLs, and it worked even though we already used a LL for it earlier in the day. They chose ToT for the second any time LL. These excluded SDD, ROTR, and MMRR (totally understandable).

Anyway, someone on Touring Plans had a similar experience with any time LLs from a broken ride at MK today. The trick works!

 

[melking23]

Interesting article over at Touring Plans regarding how and when you actually save time in lines using Genie+:

https://touringplans.com/blog/how-m...er&utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=twitter&s=09
Might help some better determine their own strategies.

That link seems to be broken so here’s the correct link:
https://touringplans.com/blog/how-much-time-can-genie-save-me/That’s a good read for those still on the fence for adding to all park days vs a few days.

 

[cjlong88]

I posted this somewhere else but it never got answered - so I'll try here.

We're leaving in 15 days. We have AP's which I renewed last month. I need to go to guest services and activate them before we enter our first park which will be HS.

When will I be able to add G+? We arrive in the later evening on our first day so we won't go to the parks until the next day. Do you think I can still go on anytime after midnight and add it or will it have to be activated first?

This is our first trip with G+.

We bought G+ had our first LL booked before we activated our AP’s when we went in November. If nothing has changed you should have no problem purchasing G+ and booking your first LL before you activate.

 

[GBRforWDW]

That link seems to be broken so here’s the correct link:

Thanks, not sure why it quit working. Oh well, copied the link you posted to update my post.