The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[persnickity]

I've read through many pages of this thread and I haven't seen the following discussed.

Molly states at about minute 48 of her video that unlike FP+, party size is not a factor in Genie+ selections. The system will show you the next available time regardless of party size. For those that have used it, do you find this is true in practice? If so, I may seriously reconsider Genie+ for our party of 7 on November 22 at MK.

The SECRET to Using Genie+ in Disney World's Hollywood Studios - YouTube

This has always been my understanding - you don't even select your party size until you've clicked on the time you want to book.

 

[JETSDAD]

This has always been my understanding - you don't even select your party size until you've clicked on the time you want to book.

This should make refreshing even easier then. I like it.

 

[Tiggr88]

This should make refreshing even easier then. I like it.

By having next available, rather then selectable time slots, they can do this. It just pushes the next person out a little further that's all. If they ever tried to allow people to make timeslot reservations in G+ like the old FP+ or the current ILL, they would probably have the same issue and require you to select your party in which case the available time slots might be different or not available for larger parties just like FP+.

 

[JETSDAD]

By having next available, rather then selectable time slots, they can do this. It just pushes the next person out a little further that's all. If they ever tried to allow people to make timeslot reservations in G+ like the old FP+ or the current ILL, they would probably have the same issue and require you to select your party in which case the available time slots might be different or not available for larger parties just like FP+.

Yes but the problem with this is that a party of 1 could cancel their time and it could be picked up by a large party. And this issue isn't solved by pushing the next available time out later because I'm grabbing an earlier one off time that's been dropped.

 

[leeniewdw]

This might be taking it a step too far, but I’ve been thinking about that new expiration “loophole” and wondering if this is theoretically possible:

Assuming 9am park open
7am grab first LL for 10:15am
11am grab second LL (after 120 min cool off)
11:15am grab third LL (after expiration window)
11:20am tap into first LL (within grace period) and grab fourth LL

If that works, that would mean by 11:20 I’ve got a triple stack, right? Or have I officially lost it?!

Based on what was described this week, I think it is supposed to work. I'm not sure anyone here has actually tried this though.

 

[dmunsil]

This might be taking it a step too far, but I’ve been thinking about that new expiration “loophole” and wondering if this is theoretically possible:

Assuming 9am park open
7am grab first LL for 10:15am
11am grab second LL (after 120 min cool off)
11:15am grab third LL (after expiration window)
11:20am tap into first LL (within grace period) and grab fourth LL

If that works, that would mean by 11:20 I’ve got a triple stack, right? Or have I officially lost it?!

Your third step doesn't work, because when you get the 11am LL reservation it sets a new eligibility time, so the 11:15 eligibility time no longer applies. If you wait until 11:15, nothing happens other than your regular return window expires.

At any point in time, you are either eligible to book, or you have a single future eligibility time. When you book a reservation, it sets a new eligibility time, making the old time moot. When you use a reservation, it immediately makes you eligible.

 

[AZMermaid]

When you click on the next available time, can it move forward as the confirmation process cycles? Like if you hit 9:30 for slinky, will it change to 11 as you book it? Or is the 9:30 locked in once you press it?

 

[HopperFan]

When you click on the next available time, can it move forward as the confirmation process cycles? Like if you hit 9:30 for slinky, will it change to 11 as you book it? Or is the 9:30 locked in once you press it?

Has happened to me 4-5 times so far in three days. I'm not slow either, I click it, I click select all .... and my confirmation came back a later time as much as an hour. On several of them I cancelled and changed them.

 

[nurseberta]

This might be taking it a step too far, but I’ve been thinking about that new expiration “loophole” and wondering if this is theoretically possible:

Assuming 9am park open
7am grab first LL for 10:15am
11am grab second LL (after 120 min cool off)
11:15am grab third LL (after expiration window)
11:20am tap into first LL (within grace period) and grab fourth LL

If that works, that would mean by 11:20 I’ve got a triple stack, right? Or have I officially lost it?!

I have to say that IF the system allows availability to book after window expires at 11:15, you would need to book at or past 11:16 and then tap into your grace period. I think this may work! But it’s confusing

 

[Sjm9911]

I havent been reading up on it for the last 20 pages. But today at MK, if you semi roped dropped it was basicly useless. Sure i may not have rode, pirates3x or haunted mansion 2x , etc , and i have no clue what crowds were like but i didnt get value out of it. Better value would be for 7dmt , only thing it helped with was jc . But i could have did that later or earlier. We did rd , or early park entry and got there 45 minutes before opening( not really rp for toady, we were far behind) We rode most of the stuff standby with little wait. So , ppf, small world, haunted mansion, both mountains, pirates, then had JC for 11 am, stacked with LM and then buzz, we did space afterwards standby. We took a break at like 1 pm. Went back at like 630, and the LL were way further out then the standy lines or wernt even needed. Walked on pirates in standby, didnt even use the later pirate LL we had later. So it got us on JC , but that was basicly it. Unless they remove the paid LL , and add it to the regular LL, i see little to no value for the $$$. At least for today. The killer was the times for the rides even when refreshed were not in the area we were, or we already rode those rides. It got glitchy at night, and stuff that was LL disappeared from out ap. But was good when you tapped in. Ok, its late. If you have questions ask. Ill try to answer. So , in short , went for the double stack, but we allready did most of the rides that were available. Went back later, and still had no need or ooen slots to double stack again. Better to use it for park hoping or right away. Or not at all.

 

[mommycrawford]

The good FPs were generally available, the rides that would have been impossible to get with FP. So, you use your G+ on rides like Tower of Terror, you hop to another park, use it there on rides like Jungle Cruise, and then you do Star Tours and tiki room the next day without G+. If you just stayed in one park, you'd run out of choices and have to use it on Star Tours eventually.

This was an off-peak weekday, to be fair.

Thank you this!

 

[Sydnerella]

Tips from our experience:

Family of 4; used G+ and ILL; stayed on property

Trickiest Park: HS. Went on two separate days; wanted to be done by 1pm. Goal was no line waiting (we never waited with FP+)
- we booked RotR, both days, at 7am with plenty of availability.
- booked RotR first; which meant by the time we went to book SDD early morning times were gone (SDD was 1pm+)
- Arrived for early morning entry (8:30am)
- Walked on Rock n Roller, TT, Star Tours and Alien Saucer. By the time we finished these we had 20+ minute waits for all other attractions wanted; so had to kill time or wait in line until our ride reservation times came up. Unsure if booking SDD first and then RotR would have yielded better results.
- Tried at 11am to book 2nd g+ but nothing we wanted was available before 1pm.
- Therefore, we did get everything in, but it meant killing time mid morning (could have done droid/saber building or seen a show) and breaking SDD and MF between two days. It also meant we only used 1-2 G+ reservations at HS before we ran out of time (perhaps if we stayed all day it would have been more valuable...)

Best Park Use: MK
- was able to stack attractions and availability for most attractions were within 2-3 hours of time we reserved, making it easy to just roll from attraction to attraction all day.

Best Use of G+
-For us we found Park Hopping to be the best use of G+... being able to book an afternoon attraction while leaving your first park and then the second attraction 120 mins later meant we had two attractions stacked for our later afternoon park fun.
- We found all attractions (except SDD and MF) had availability thought early evening.

Worst Use of G+
- AK. Wasn't needed. Used ILL for FoP, only.

Loved this! Thank you!

So based on ROTR availability you mentioned it seems that a better strategy for HS is to book SSD first or MFSR. I think that we will have one person booking each thing at 7 AM.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

This might be taking it a step too far, but I’ve been thinking about that new expiration “loophole” and wondering if this is theoretically possible:

Assuming 9am park open
7am grab first LL for 10:15am
11am grab second LL (after 120 min cool off)
11:15am grab third LL (after expiration window)
11:20am tap into first LL (within grace period) and grab fourth LL

If that works, that would mean by 11:20 I’ve got a triple stack, right? Or have I officially lost it?!

Right, it sounds like this would work and is why that exploit is so powerful.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Your third step doesn't work, because when you get the 11am LL reservation it sets a new eligibility time, so the 11:15 eligibility time no longer applies. If you wait until 11:15, nothing happens other than your regular return window expires.

At any point in time, you are either eligible to book, or you have a single future eligibility time. When you book a reservation, it sets a new eligibility time, making the old time moot. When you use a reservation, it immediately makes you eligible.

No, step 3 works because of the exploit. His ride has expired which resets the eligibility timer.

 

[LSUfan4444]

at MK, if you semi roped dropped it was basicly useless

If you're looking for the morning, correct. If you plan to RD or semi RD you can book and stack in the afternoon and have a good bit of success

 

[LSUfan4444]

So this morning, SDD was gone for the day at 7:03 am and I'll be honest, we don't even like the ride that much so this is a best case scenario for us. At that time MFSR was around mid day.

We plan to hit HS two days and at least one of them will be a rope drop so we look like we can book (at 7am) a post 11 am MFSR pretty easy, after that add our ILL for RotR for a window that fits out Smugglers Run return window. From 9-11 we can really see how much we get done and know if we will be staying in HS after lunch or hopping somewhere else and use that 11-1 cool down window to use our Smugglers Run and RotR LL's.

Something like this.?.?.?

1. 7am - reserve MFSR for a window around 11:00am and RoTR iLL aiming for 12:40 -1pm
2. Then, at 11 am we can book something after lunch in the park we plan to hop to

So, does this mean we should be able to book another once tapping in at our 11:00 am Smugglers Run or would we need to wait until the return window expired and enter the LL during the grace period?

 

[Sjm9911]

If you're looking for the morning, correct. If you plan to RD or semi RD you can book and stack in the afternoon and have a good bit of success

It was useless at night too, a lot of the rides showed 30 min wait times and were walk on. Space, had few people buying the LL + so standby over flowed there. Pirates were running empty LL boats. If your there at the 3 to 6 pm window then maybe worth it. But the times then were far out for anything decent.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Yeah, I got ya. I wouldn't wait to get there to book something. The key to success would be to book those (jungle cruise, splash, peter pan, etc) rides earlier in the day with return times into the late afternoon and early evening.

Splash can wobble either way...could be 20, could be 50 but it's a solid bet that JC and PP will have standby waits over 30 minutes into the evening.

I think in the end though, if you bought it to experience/insure low wait times and that's what you experienced it is "worth it" but that's just me. I will not view it's value on the amount of times I use it but rather how much time I am not standing in a standby line or waiting for a return window doing things I don't want to do.

 

[g-dad66]

I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but I found a reason to choose Favorites.
We were at Hollywood Studios yesterday and I knew I wanted to book Slinky right at 7:00 to get a decent time slot.
So I selected Slinky as my only Favorite.
That brings Slinky to the top of the list on the Tip Board, and it stays there when you refresh or toggle.

Also when I practiced the day before and I was on the Tip Board page, the Book Experience links didn’t become active at 7:00.
So yesterday I sat on the My Day page and when the time showed 6:59:56 at top of screen, I clicked on Tip Boards tab. It took 3 seconds to get there and the Book Experience link was active.
There may be a better way to do this, and I will continue to be an avid reader of the boards to learn what it is.

 

[g-dad66]

I don’t know if anyone has mentioned this yet, but I found a reason to choose Favorites.
We were at Hollywood Studios yesterday and I knew I wanted to book Slinky right at 7:00 to get a decent time slot.
So I selected Slinky as my only Favorite.
That brings Slinky to the top of the list on the Tip Board, and it stays there when you refresh or toggle.

Also when I practiced the day before and I was on the Tip Board page, the Book Experience links didn’t become active at 7:00.
So yesterday I sat on the My Day page and when the time showed 6:59:56 at top of screen, I clicked on Tip Boards tab. It took 3 seconds to get there and the Book Experience link was active.
There may be a better way to do this, and I will continue to be an avid reader of the boards to learn what it is.

guess that should be 4 seconds, not 3 seconds….