The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[Dr Gunnie]

We returned from our trip this week and just wanted to give my experiences with G+ and purchasing LL. I was a huge spreadsheet planner in the FP days and the new system had me super nervous. Overall, we had a great experience and even though I prefer the FP system because you can plan well in advance, we got to ride everything we wanted to. We did stay on site.

The strategy that worked best for us was stacking in the afternoon/evening. We park hopped, so we would rope drop one park and I would use maybe 1 G+ selection in the morning, then start stacking the rest for the afternoon/evening. When we rope dropped, we were able to get a few bigger rides first in standby with minimal wait, then did our early G+ selection. Throughout the day, we could grab about 5 selections for our afternoon/evening park which really made those fun. We did purchase FoP, Rise, and 7D during our trip.

I can go in more detail if anyone is interested, but if your a first time G+ user and your nervous about your upcoming trip, it can be done with minimal stress. Good luck!

 

[Frozen2014]

Am a pre-planner too with a spreadsheet so feel less prepared for our upcoming trip. One question about stacking...when you do so, do you pay attention to the location of the rides so you're not running from one end of the park to the other? Or you just select based on priority and hard to get rides?

 

[cjlong88]

Am a pre-planner too with a spreadsheet so feel less prepared for our upcoming trip. One question about stacking...when you do so, do you pay attention to the location of the rides so you're not running from one end of the park to the other? Or you just select based on priority and hard to get rides?

I do try to make it so I zig zag as little as possible. It’s not always perfect, but I’ve done it a few times now where I overlap return times for rides right next to each other to help me stay in one area and keep it organized. Stacking does require you to book in the order of most to least popular so every two hours your next selection’s return time is pushed out far enough so it’s not too early, but sometimes that means getting a return time that’s not 100% ideal. Because MK and HS are so small in terms of park size, I didn’t find that to be too big of a deal at those. AK and Epcot are a different story.

For me though, zig zagging is significantly better than waiting 120 minutes to ride one attraction because it’s next door to the attraction I just got off of. We usually use that walking time as an opportunity to pick up a snack or do something else in between so it’s not seen as time or steps wasted.

 

[Frozen2014]

I do try to make it so I zig zag as little as possible. It’s not always perfect, but I’ve done it a few times now where I overlap return times for rides right next to each other to help me stay in one area and keep it organized. Stacking does require you to book in the order of most to least popular so every two hours your next selection’s return time is pushed out far enough so it’s not too early, but sometimes that means getting a return time that’s not 100% ideal. Because MK and HS are so small in terms of park size, I didn’t find that to be too big of a deal at those. AK and Epcot are a different story.

For me though, zig zagging is significantly better than waiting 120 minutes to ride one attraction because it’s next door to the attraction I just got off of. We usually use that walking time as an opportunity to pick up a snack or do something else in between so it’s not seen as time or steps wasted.

Thanks. That helps. This is one worry as I have only been to WDW only once before and that was awhile ago...so I don't know the parks very well (and this will be our first time at AK). Kind of feel like I need to study the maps beforehand. For us too, it'll be August so guess we don't want to zip zag too much...but true, better than waiting the 120 minutes and then missing the Genie+ as it's sold out. Even for non-stacking park (MK?), still want to try and book things close to where we are...but that requires knowing the park layout....since Genie selections need to be done on the spot and quick.

 

[DL1WDW2]

I thought Genie “planned” your day according to this strategy of keeping your movement organized …avoiding the zigzag.
I guess not .

 

[Frozen2014]

I thought Genie “planned” your day according to this strategy of keeping your movement organized …avoiding the zigzag.
I guess not .

Am questioning about the Lightning Lanes that you book on the app. Not the Genie feature.

 

[Disturbia]

Thanks. That helps. This is one worry as I have only been to WDW only once before and that was awhile ago...so I don't know the parks very well (and this will be our first time at AK). Kind of feel like I need to study the maps beforehand. For us too, it'll be August so guess we don't want to zip zag too much...but true, better than waiting the 120 minutes and then missing the Genie+ as it's sold out. Even for non-stacking park (MK?), still want to try and book things close to where we are...but that requires knowing the park layout....since Genie selections need to be done on the spot and quick.

AK and Epcot had the most zig zagging we had to do. Limited rides means it’s even harder to book a second tier 2 ride. At Epcot, I would not recommend overlapping plans, especially after 2 pm. It took a good 15 mins to speed walk from Soarin to Remy with intense congestion in Canada and France (food booth had a 45 min wait) from guests entering via the Skyliner.

 

[Disturbia]

I thought Genie “planned” your day according to this strategy of keeping your movement organized …avoiding the zigzag.
I guess not .

Allears had reported Genie recommending going all the way back to POC vs riding Little Mermaid when they were in Fantasyland. I think it prioritizes rides (in demand) vs distance. You can choose to ignore the recommendation and not have it appear (but then it won’t show that recommendation again?)

 

[Disturbia]

Am questioning about the Lightning Lanes that you book on the app. Not the Genie feature.

We booked Lightning lanes later in the day to avoid conflicts. However there were still unforeseen delays (Steakhouse71 took 2 hrs with desserts to go and we almost missed SDMT)

 

[CarolynFH]

I thought Genie “planned” your day according to this strategy of keeping your movement organized …avoiding the zigzag.
I guess not .

No, Genie plans your day in order to distribute guests more evenly across the park and among the rides. If the rides you want are in too much demand, it will recommend another ride that doesn't have such a long line. I believe that Genie is programmed to be blind to geography.

 

[Disturbia]

This video helps compare using Genie and not:

 

[Dr Gunnie]

Am a pre-planner too with a spreadsheet so feel less prepared for our upcoming trip. One question about stacking...when you do so, do you pay attention to the location of the rides so you're not running from one end of the park to the other? Or you just select based on priority and hard to get rides?

We didn’t really look at locations. There were a couple times we had two rides reserved for the same reservation window (say 7:00 - 8:00), we just made sure to hit the first one at 6:55 to give us enough time to get to the second one. I can see where that might be a problem though if you have younger kids who are walking.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Do you still need to be a resort guest to bool Individual LL rides at 7am?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Do you still need to be a resort guest to bool Individual LL rides at 7am?

Yes.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

Yes.

Thank you

 

[paopiru]

We returned from our trip this week and just wanted to give my experiences with G+ and purchasing LL. I was a huge spreadsheet planner in the FP days and the new system had me super nervous. Overall, we had a great experience and even though I prefer the FP system because you can plan well in advance, we got to ride everything we wanted to. We did stay on site.

The strategy that worked best for us was stacking in the afternoon/evening. We park hopped, so we would rope drop one park and I would use maybe 1 G+ selection in the morning, then start stacking the rest for the afternoon/evening. When we rope dropped, we were able to get a few bigger rides first in standby with minimal wait, then did our early G+ selection. Throughout the day, we could grab about 5 selections for our afternoon/evening park which really made those fun. We did purchase FoP, Rise, and 7D during our trip.

I can go in more detail if anyone is interested, but if your a first time G+ user and your nervous about your upcoming trip, it can be done with minimal stress. Good luck!

So glad to hear you managed to ride all you had planned for with G+/ILL. I'm a spreadsheet fan too and this trip we are staying off site. Do you think not having early hours would have made a big difference in getting to ride first tier rides?

 

[TheDailyMoo]

If I'm with a toddler for the first time and I'm not looking to stack because I don't know how late we'll be staying in parks or if we'll even come back after hotel break/early dinners, what is the best strategy? Is it just to grab the earliest/best rides and keep doing that until we leave? If we do that and end up coming back into park after a hotel break...let's say like 3pm...are there still decent rides left to grab almost immediately?

 

[vinotinto]

Serious question here, at what time are ya’ll having dinner, with all the late afternoon and evening stacking?

 

[Smugpugmug]

Serious question here, at what time are ya’ll having dinner, with all the late afternoon and evening stacking?

Are you asking for table service dinners or dinner in general? Because when I did stacking for HS on my last trip, my group and I ate at Backlot Express around 7:15-7:30 pm-ish due to all of our stacked LLs being between 5:00-7:00

 

[paopiru]

If I'm with a toddler for the first time and I'm not looking to stack because I don't know how late we'll be staying in parks or if we'll even come back after hotel break/early dinners, what is the best strategy? Is it just to grab the earliest/best rides and keep doing that until we leave? If we do that and end up coming back into park after a hotel break...let's say like 3pm...are there still decent rides left to grab almost immediately?

I think it depends on the park you are visiting. If you are at MK then there are lots of rides with G+ open slots way into late afternoon / night. If you are going to HS options may be limited.