The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[HeiHei2018]

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 haven’t been yet with G+, but my plan based on posts here is to grab the earliest time I can on a must do ride at 7 am and then grab whatever will save us time after that. We don’t do the mountains and will likely skip jungle cruise to make it work. Once you are done for the first half of the day, start a late afternoon stack in case you do come back. If you come back, you are in good shape. I am hoping to get Pirates LL and do Bears and Tiki shows, or Buzz and Monsters Inc. If you don’t return, you can cancel, and someone else will be super excited to snag the LLs you cancelled.

 

[pens4821]

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

The three days we stacked we didn’t have dinner ADRs so that helped. One day we went to CHH at MK, then we snacked around epcot, and the last night we didn’t eat until we went back to the resort after the park closed. I think we ate lunch around noon so waiting till 10ish was a little late but just the way it worked out we didn’t have much time.

 

[TheDailyMoo]

i haven’t been yet with G+, but my plan based on posts here is to grab the earliest time I can on a must do ride at 7 am and then grab whatever will save us time after that. We don’t do the mountains and will likely skip jungle cruise to make it work. Once you are done for the first half of the day, start a late afternoon stack in case you do come back. If you come back, you are in good shape. I am hoping to get Pirates LL and do Bears and Tiki shows, or Buzz and Monsters Inc. If you don’t return, you can cancel, and someone else will be super excited to snag the LLs you cancelled.

This is along the lines of what I was thinking. Thank you yes I think that's the best strategy. What really throws the monkey wrench into the mix are the many ADR's we made for each day to take a break and sit and eat. This is going to be an experiment for sure especially the first few days as we get a feel for the new system. I can't believe they got rid of fast passes for this!

 

[MsT82]

I’ve been back to the magic in May and I opted to not overly use Genie+ but I’m going back in December and I want to make use of it. However, everything I read seems to be rope drop and full park days.

We tend to not rope drop and head back to the resort for a couple of hours mid day. Is there anyway to make Genie+ plus work with this setup or does anyone have any tips? Mostly for MK

 

[vinotinto]

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

The three days we stacked we didn’t have dinner ADRs so that helped. One day we went to CHH at MK, then we snacked around epcot, and the last night we didn’t eat until we went back to the resort after the park closed. I think we ate lunch around noon so waiting till 10ish was a little late but just the way it worked out we didn’t have much time.

Yes, I was asking about sit down dinner ADRs. Is Genie+ still worth it if we make dinner ADRs? It sounds like the most use out of G+ is if you can use that late afternoon and evening time to stack.

 

[Disturbia]

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

We did 5 pm Steakhouse71 and CRT 9:25 pm on our MK days.

With the HS late afternoon-evening stacking, we did Topolinos late breakfast (doubled as early lunch) and then Steakhouse71 at 8:30 pm.

 

[Good&Plenty]

(Posted in another thread, but trying here in case it's the right place):

I have a question about this rule (taken from a sticky): If the first LL is booked at 7AM for a park you are hopping to after 2:00, you will be eligible to book a 2nd LL 2 hours after the park where you booked your first LL opens.

My question: Can this rule be used in the following way?

AK will be opening at 8AM during my upcoming August (2022) trip. If I start my day at Epcot (and do Early Entry Rope Drop) with plans to hop to AK in the afternoon, and make my first G+ selection at 7AM for a ride in AK, will my next chance to use G+ at Epcot be at 10AM?

I hope this question makes sense, thanks!

 

[emmabelle]

(Posted in another thread, but trying here in case it's the right place):

I have a question about this rule (taken from a sticky): If the first LL is booked at 7AM for a park you are hopping to after 2:00, you will be eligible to book a 2nd LL 2 hours after the park where you booked your first LL opens.

My question: Can this rule be used in the following way?

AK will be opening at 8AM during my upcoming August (2022) trip. If I start my day at Epcot (and do Early Entry Rope Drop) with plans to hop to AK in the afternoon, and make my first G+ selection at 7AM for a ride in AK, will my next chance to use G+ at Epcot be at 10AM?

I hope this question makes sense, thanks!

Depending when your trip is, I think it's best to try and grab an Epcot one for something for 9am. Once you ride your 9am Epcot one then grab a later one for AK. I just checked and right now AK is still under 2pm for LL's. I think you'll be able to ride an extra headliner that way. JMHO

 

[Good&Plenty]

Depending when your trip is, I think it's best to try and grab an Epcot one for something for 9am. Once you ride your 9am Epcot one then grab a later one for AK. I just checked and right now AK is still under 2pm for LL's. Once you ride your 9am Epcot one then grab a later one for AK. I think you'll be able to ride an extra headliner that way. JMHO

That is terrific advice, thank you! I will do that.

 

[emmabelle]

That is terrific advice, thank you! I will do that.

three weeks ago I was able to grab a Frozen for 9am and then after we clicked in to Frozen, I grabbed a 10:40am Soarin. (Test track already had late LL's and Remy was still a paid $LL that weekend.) At 10:40am after clicking in for Soarin, I started stacking for our night at Magic Kingdom.

I would check the LL times at AK after my first Epcot LL. If they are still early, I would start refreshing to see if I could get an early enough second ride at Epcot.

 

[Good&Plenty]

three weeks ago I was able to grab a Frozen for 9am and then after we clicked in to Frozen, I grabbed a 10:40am Soarin. (Test track already had late LL's and Remy was still a paid $LL that weekend.) At 10:40am after clicking in for Soarin, I started stacking for our night at Magic Kingdom.

I would check the LL times at AK after my first Epcot LL. If they are still early, I would start refreshing to see if I could get an early enough second ride at Epcot.

That's a good plan, thank you. I'm waiting for August 7th to see if rides are shifted back to $ILL. If they aren't, we'd try for an early Remy if at all possible. Then G+ Soarin and TT (Single Rider, hopefully ok with my DS11 and DD9). I'm the only one who wants to reride Frozen this trip.

Hopefully walk on the less busy Epcot rides while stacking for AK. Thanks!

 

[emmabelle]

That's a good plan, thank you. I'm waiting for August 7th to see if rides are shifted back to $ILL. If they aren't, we'd try for an early Remy if at all possible. Then G+ Soarin and TT (Single Rider, hopefully ok with my DS11 and DD9). I'm the only one who wants to reride Frozen this trip.

Hopefully walk on the less busy Epcot rides while stacking for AK. Thanks!

We did single rider on TT that day. It was a 10 minute wait at 10am and we were both in the same car. Standby was around an hour.

 

[Good&Plenty]

We did single rider on TT that day. It was a 10 minute wait at 10am and we were both in the same car. Standby was around an hour.

Terrific to know, thank you. I was planning on not riding and waiting in the gift shop (?) in case my DD9/DS11 went on alone (my husband would be in line w/them). I'll definitely put them all in the single rider lane, thanks!!

I think what you said earlier "I would check the LL times at AK after my first Epcot LL. If they are still early, I would start refreshing to see if I could get an early enough second ride at Epcot." is very helpful. I'll check the app the week or two before we go (end of August) to get an idea of what the ride times look like.

 

[emmabelle]

Last year we were there the last week of August into September and the parks were so quiet. On our AK morning we rode FOP with a 15 minute wait at 9am. When we got off a CM said we could skip the queue and get back in line. My stomach said yeah that’s okay. Haha

 

[Good&Plenty]

Last year we were there the last week of August into September and the parks were so quiet. On our AK morning we rode FOP with a 15 minute wait at 9am. When we got off a CM said we could skip the queue and get back in line. My stomach said yeah that’s okay. Haha

LOL. That's great to hear, I am definitely hoping for the same. Not ideal weather, but worked w/school schedules. Thanks again!

 

[cakebaker]

Do AP's still have to call to buy Genie+ when others on the reservation have regular tickets with genie+ pre-purchased? We were going to wait to add Genie+ until we arrived, but I added it on to each ticket when they announced they were no longer going to offer pre-sales, not realizing it would cause an issue with me buying it every day. Also, my AP is a older voucher, not yet activated. Does it have to be activated to add Genie+?

 

[bashuck]

I’ve been back to the magic in May and I opted to not overly use Genie+ but I’m going back in December and I want to make use of it. However, everything I read seems to be rope drop and full park days.

We tend to not rope drop and head back to the resort for a couple of hours mid day. Is there anyway to make Genie+ plus work with this setup or does anyone have any tips? Mostly for MK

We used to never rope drop and always come back to resort from 1-4 at a minimum. After our last trip I really think we are going to skip going anywhere in the morning and just open the day at the pool. Most times will only do 1 park at all, but maybe 2 where we just go direct from 1 park to the next where we have a pool of fast passes built up. I did not find the lines satisfactory without a G+ reservation, and my wife and daughter are not early risers. We will likely use the pool again when we return as we have no need to get up early. We have made many trips and I certainly understand someone on their 'only' trip not wanting to do this but I'm confident it will be best for us going forward.

 

[MsT82]

We used to never rope drop and always come back to resort from 1-4 at a minimum. After our last trip I really think we are going to skip going anywhere in the morning and just open the day at the pool. Most times will only do 1 park at all, but maybe 2 where we just go direct from 1 park to the next where we have a pool of fast passes built up. I did not find the lines satisfactory without a G+ reservation, and my wife and daughter are not early risers. We will likely use the pool again when we return as we have no need to get up early. We have made many trips and I certainly understand someone on their 'only' trip not wanting to do this but I'm confident it will be best for us going forward.

I was thinking this could be a better strategy. Aim for an afternoon and evening visit but stack in the morning for it. With us only doing one full MK day though I think we might just have to brave wait lines in the morning and stack for later in the day. We can’t rope drop that morning as we’re hoping for an Ohana breakfast before going to the park.

 

[BuckeyeBama]

I am confused (no surprise there ). Can someone explain how you "stack" G+ fastpasses?

 

[MsT82]

I am confused (no surprise there ). Can someone explain how you "stack" G+ fastpasses?

It usually just refers to booking several genie+ attractions. For example, if you aren’t entering the park until afternoon or evening, you can go onto the app, book your first afternoon attraction at 7am, then book another two hours later, then another two hours after that essentially stacking the ride timings so they’re one after the next. When you then tap into the attraction you can stack another one.

This is how I understand it anyway and I may be wrong