The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I have seen countless reports from reliable sites this works.

Do you have any links (that are not blocked)?

 

[JakeAZ]

Do you have any links (that are not blocked)?

Best write ups I've seen on actual experiences with different strategies is Tom at D tourist blog.

 

[lynzi2004]

Can someone help me understand if I'm planning my arrival day the right way to get the most out of G+ and $IAS?! I think I understand the expiration strategy if arriving early, but I want to make sure I get the best use for the afternoon with a later arrival. We are flying in on a Saturday, Dec 18, arriving around 12pm with EPCOT as our park and a park hopper. (there's still availability at all parks so I can change this if necessary, but for our week as a whole I think this works. ) I'm thinking to first book G+ SDD at 7am for sometime after 2pm. Then book $IAS for ROTR for sometime after 2pm as well. Next I could book a VQ for Remy without the upcharge since that is my park reservation. Here's where I don't know my best bet...does the clock start at 1pm since EPCOT opens at 11am or does it start sooner (most of the other parks open at 9 so can I book a new LL at 11?) Whichever it ends up being, I can pick something else for late afternoon at HS or I could pick something with a quicker return time at EPCOT. I would hope my VQ for Remy was around 12-1pm. If I do a quick return at Epcot, if I wait till it expires, I could then book another LL and then tap in and book another creating a double stack. So I would have Slinky for say 4-5pm (from the 7am booking), but have Test Track from 2-3pm (from the 120 cool down period). At 3:05 book TOT for 6-7pm) and then tap into Test Track and book RnRC from 7-8Pm. Once I got to Slinky and tapped in there I could essentially add maybe TSMM or Swirling Saucers?! Still having my ROTR $IAS to use at whatever time was available as well!

1. Can I book a $IAS at a park I don't have a reservation for?
2. Can I hold G+ LL at two different parks?
3. Does the grace period trick work throughout the day and to your advantage as long as there's LL available? With every LL reservation, if you use the grace period, could you essentially end up with 2 LLs. Obviously, at some point I think that would get terribly confusing, but even just one or two could really help!

Thanks all! Going during a crowded week, I know I need to be prepared to hop on ANY LL I can get bc I'm sure wait times will be long!

 

[twodogs]

I had to stop at page 40 and skip to the end to post this question. Hopefully it is not answered in the intervening pages, but we have a trip (hopefully!) upcoming, so I am hoping to get the answer here. I have been playing with the "refresh" for the LLs, and I do see the time back up (sometimes by a few hours) to a sooner time (like with Max Pass in the past). For the ILL$, does the time ever move earlier with refreshing? I can't imagine it would other than if they are doing drops at times. I don't think you can cancel your ILL$, so earlier times would not come up due to cancellations.

Now back to page 40....

 

[Pookie9922]

My trip isn't until end of March but I'm dying to start planning something, so I'm trying to get a feel for my general strategies for each park.

Background - We (family of 5) are traveling with BIL, SIL, 5yo niece and MIL. BIL/SIL are the antithesis of planners. This is their 1st trip (our 2nd). They will not wake up early or pre-plan anything and will only go throughout the day on the whim of the non-adventurous 5 year old, with the addition that they'd like to do some more exciting rides and will either utilize MIL or rider switch for that. We'd like to do stuff with them, but ultimately we want to maximize our trip experience and will be Early Entry RDing and double stacking G+ when possible to do so. Also MIL has a bad back and will either be walking slow, not joining us all day or using an ECV or all of the above. Hubby says to not plan for them at all, so I'm doing my best to let it go.

So Question #1) When we are booking G+ LL, can we have everyone's tickets linked in my account so I can make reservations for the group but unselect them if they are not with us BUT not let them book anything for us (ie we are not booked in their account)? - last thing I want is for them to make some random G+ reservation and kill my stacks. Follow up to that is, does anyone have any experience with inconsistent groups and eligibility windows? I'm assuming each person has their own individual eligibility time and to be included in a group's LL reservation they must all have eligibility. Is that correct? Is it easy to see everyone's eligibility times?

Question #2) I'm trying to determine which parks I'll need G+. MK and HS feel like a given. Trying to decide epcot and AK. Are people finding G+ helpful in AK or not? We will be Early Entry RDing FOP, possibly buying a later day $ILL for it too since we love it so much. Our only other priorities are the safari and kali rapids. And we like the Animation Experience. Will be skipping Na'vi and ITTBAB and Lion King. Everything else is optional. We do not have park hoppers, so any extra time will be spent eating or in line for additional FOP rides since Everest will be down for our trip. Would you recommend G+ for that day? I'm leaning no and using the $15 on a FOP $ILL or saving it for another park/ride.
# 2b) If BIL+ get a late start, would they need G+?

Question #3) What time (if at all) are FOP $ILL's selling out? I expect BIL/SIL will need to utilize that if they want to ride it, so I want to at least give them a reasonable window they have to wake up by.

Question #4) Given we are staying at the BC and have the super convenient early entry option at Epcot and will be going on a deluxe extended evening hours day, would a G+ be needed at Epcot? Will be skipping Living with the Land and Spaceship Earth. Everything else we like.
# 4b) If BIL+ get a late start and will not be doing extended evening hours, would they need G+?

Crowds look like they might be a 7-8.

Thanks!

 

[dez1978]

dumb question. But if you don't do the stacking thing, and say your 1st LL is at 11, you tap in can you book another one then or do you have to wait until 1 to book something else?

 

[Bevo in VA]

dumb question. But if you don't do the stacking thing, and say your 1st LL is at 11, you tap in can you book another one then or do you have to wait until 1 to book something else?

You can book a new one as soon as you tap in.

 

[dmunsil]

For the ILL$, does the time ever move earlier with refreshing? I can't imagine it would other than if they are doing drops at times. I don't think you can cancel your ILL$, so earlier times would not come up due to cancellations.

Every once in a while during the morning frenzy for Rise of the Resistance you'll see the time back up somewhat, and you can even see a time pop up briefly in the middle of the day after it's been sold out for hours, but extremely rarely. It's a much smaller effect than with the Genie+ LL times, which can bounce around quite a bit for much of the day.

I have some thoughts as to what's going on, but they're just educated guesses:

- When you select a time for an ILL, it holds it for you for 10 minutes. If you back out of that screen, it goes back in the pool for someone else to book. During the morning frenzy, 10 minutes can represent a substantial movement in available times. Getting a time from a few minutes ago may change the reported first available time quite a bit. On top of that, I think they may be batching up the "returns" and putting them back at intermittent intervals. So with Rise, you may see that the latest time is about 6, and then for a little bit (like seconds) there are times around 4 available, then it goes back to 6-ish again.

- Guests can't cancel an ILL, but Disney can. It's possible that the occasional availability is someone who made a mistake or had a problem, went to Guest Relations and got a refund or got their time moved.

 

[michaeldorn1]

OK, this might have already been answered, but... I want to start playinjg around with Genie+ before our WDW trip. So, If I choose just a random date for a park and make a reservation for that date, is it possible for me start playing around with it starting at the time the park opens to check out LL times etc. and practice "stacking" or will I have to purchase LL first? I know this sounds so stupid, but I am soo angsting over all of this LOL!!!

 

[dez1978]

As someone who generally plans like crazy, researches like crazy, and ENJOYS the ins and outs of all of it.... this is stressing me the frig out. I keep reading and re-reading these threads thinking that maybe THIS time it will make sense to me, but.... nope. Still overwhelmed

Same. My ADHD hyper focus is making me go crazy over this, yet at the same time it's just not clicking.

 

[dez1978]

on thrill data I don't see Remy on the graph that shows the LL return times. The other ILL attractions are listed. Just hoping there are still some available at 10 when the park opens (off site)

 

[Disturbia]

I know I can try for a BG for Remy but I've read that the wait to actually ride after your BG is called seems to be in the 30 minute range. I don't think my 2 year old is going to be able to wait that long. Paying for the ILL$ might be worth it if the wait isn't as long as the BG's. Anyone have experience they can share?

We purchased Remy (2:20-3:20 pm) and got BG 10 (called at around 11:00 am) and it took us only 5 minutes to get through the queue on 11/6. We had our almost 2 year old in a Colugo carrier.

Remy BG 10 called at 11 am (done by 11:20) ate at booths as we walked along-France (15 min wait), Morocco, Greece, Pizza (via Napoli)
Test track 12-1 pm took at tail end 1:15 pm; rider switch completed around 2:15 (purchased a baby yoda blanket -59 degrees)
Mission Space 2:05-3:05 (available right away; did not do rider switch) took 30+ mins
Soarin 2:10-3:10 pm (did not do rider switch) took 20+ mins
Remy LLIA$ 2:20-3:20 pm

We had selected a late afternoon for our LLIA$, but were still short on time due to delays-Mission space took 30+ mins and Test track took long due to wheelchairs/groups blocking the lightening lane scans getting rider switch; we were always moved to the side to get RS so not sure why a group of 10 was standing blocking all access. The Test track CM had to consult with another CM who had seen us lined up 3 mins earlier (we were 3 groups away) to clear us as I was 1 min later than grace period to scan.

I would also caution that the crowds are intense in the Canada-France area after 2 pm (park hoppers). The France booth line zig zagged (easily 40 mins) and there were droves of people standing/eating/drinking/slow walking around the entrance to France pavilion. The Remy CM was nice, but slightly annoyed and let my family who were behind enter. We didn't anticipate the crowd and complete block near Canada (music/concert) and intense congestion near France

 

[nurseberta]

I am going at a projected low crowd time in January. I know I generally would not need G+ for AK but I already added it for the length of stay. Thinking I would take advantage of sleeping in! getting a nice breakfast and heading to the park later in the day. Also have reservations at Raglan Road for 6:30pm. If I get to AK by 10-11ish how long do you think it would take to do the park without rushing and doing shows and animals with G+

 

[Sjm9911]

Ok nor reading the back 5 pages. But as i got G+ for the whole trip including the parks I didnt think worth while, at AK it worked the best and as it should. We RD FOP today, slower then usally because part of it broke, had a G+ for navi, and then got all the rest G+ around the park easily. So it was worth it for AK, cut lines of 30 and 60 minutes. I will say the line times , at least in the ones i stood, in all the parks we visited before, were inflated. More so on the paid LL. So while we did skip lines, who knows the atually wait times. So in 7 park days so far, G + was ok in MK, useless in epcott, HS unknown as too many rides broke and DD didnt want to ride a ton. But useless for us there also. Ak surprisingly worked the best. We did shows and rides, not much else and done at 1 pm.

 

[Pookie9922]

Ok nor reading the back 5 pages. But as i got G+ for the whole trip including the parks I didnt think worth while, at AK it worked the best and as it should. We RD FOP today, slower then usally because part of it broke, had a G+ for navi, and then got all the rest G+ around the park easily. So it was worth it for AK, cut lines of 30 and 60 minutes. I will say the line times , at least in the ones i stood, in all the parks we visited before, were inflated. More so on the paid LL. So while we did skip lines, who knows the atually wait times. So in 7 park days so far, G + was ok in MK, useless in epcott, HS unknown as too many rides broke and DD didnt want to ride a ton. But useless for us there also. Ak surprisingly worked the best. We did shows and rides, not much else and done at 1 pm.

This is a great data point. We won't have park hoppers so being done at AK by 1pm is way too efficient! lol Makes me think I can save the $75 and just have a full park day.

 

[acarsme123]

I’m a little confused by something. I’ve been periodically looking at the MDE app trying to wrap my head around how this Genie+ works. One thing I notice at times is a ride will say “standby line not currently available”. I saw this a lot when I was viewing MK. A lot of rides were saying “standby line not currently available” even though it was showing genie+ selection times. I refreshed a few mins after and then those rides were all showing standby times again. Just a temp glitch? But then I changed to Epcot and Test Track was showing no genie+ selections but also showing no standby line available. What does this mean? Are they actually cutting off people from being able to stand in standby lines on some rides?

 

[dmunsil]

I’ve been periodically looking at the MDE app trying to wrap my head around how this Genie+ works. One thing I notice at times is a ride will say “standby line not currently available”.

I think it's a glitch; I've seen it too. It's just Disney's servers getting bogged down. Hopefully they'll get things better tuned before Thanksgiving...

If a ride is actually down, there will be an extra note saying that it's closed, in addition to the "Not Currently Available" message.

 

[nurseberta]

Ok nor reading the back 5 pages. But as i got G+ for the whole trip including the parks I didnt think worth while, at AK it worked the best and as it should. We RD FOP today, slower then usally because part of it broke, had a G+ for navi, and then got all the rest G+ around the park easily. So it was worth it for AK, cut lines of 30 and 60 minutes. I will say the line times , at least in the ones i stood, in all the parks we visited before, were inflated. More so on the paid LL. So while we did skip lines, who knows the atually wait times. So in 7 park days so far, G + was ok in MK, useless in epcott, HS unknown as too many rides broke and DD didnt want to ride a ton. But useless for us there also. Ak surprisingly worked the best. We did shows and rides, not much else and done at 1 pm.

did you go to Rafiki's planet watch? see the animals?

 

[acarsme123]

So since we are going to be staying on-site in March, and we can make ILL selections at 7am before off-site guests, I take it that should be my priority at 7am? But anyone using genie+ (off site and on-site) can make their genie+ selections at 7am, correct? How quickly do the early slot times go for genie+ if I’m busy booking ILL’s at 7am? Should I be booking ILL’s while say my wife is booking a genie+ slot? Can two people of the same party be doing that at the same time? She has her own MDE log in.

 

[Sjm9911]

did you go to Rafiki's planet watch? see the animals?

Nope. Tbh, everyone is to tired. This is the end of the vacation and it was busy.