The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[g-dad66]

You can do it on the Tip Board too by clicking on “edit selections”.

Good tip. That's even easier.

 

[wisblue]

NM

 

[StarrySkye21]

Just left today. We did 1 park per day and it was stupid crowded. We are primarily ride-people. Quick service restaurants and maybe 1-2 shows. Open to close. Our goal is to ride as many rides as we can. I went into our trip quite nervous over genie+ and how the crowds would affect it. Spoiler: I now LOVE genie+. We had an amazing, magical time even though it was sooo crowded. We purchased genie+ on 2 of the 4 days and did not buy any ILL$. Here’s what we did:

Day 1 Epcot: no Genie+. We scored a boarding group for Remy at 7 am. Longest actual line we waited in was Frozen at about 50 minutes. We were able to ride every single ride and even Test Track twice. A couple shows. Even left early because we were tired and had done everything we wanted to. No regrets not getting Genie+for Epcot even with the crowds.

Day 2 Animal Kingdom: no Genie+. Longest wait was Flight of Passage of probably 45 minutes. We did every ride except Navi River (we didn’t think it was worth the hour wait) and were able to catch
a couple shows. Rode Dinosaur 4 times (daughters favorite) and Everest 4 times (my favorite). We saw all the animal exhibits and attractions. Again, no regrets on not getting genie+. It was such a chill day, full of rides even though people were everywhere.

Day 3 Magic Kingdom: genie+ day. Rope dropped Seven Dwarves and selected Peter Pan as our first lightning lane with a return time around 11. Until 11 we rode Space mountain and the rides with the smallest waits (like Little Mermaid). At 11, before tapping into Peter Pan we selected our second lightning lane. From there we selectively double stacked lightning lanes all day. Refreshing the tip board worked every time giving us our ideal time within a minute or two of refreshing. We rode every single ride minus Dumbo (kids say babyish) and Splash (down all day). Lines were long on everything but we flew by in the lightning lanes. Did Space Mountain on standby twice. Thunder mountain 3 times. We ran out of things to do by 5 or 6 and debated going back to the hotel but for the first time ever decided to camp out in front of the castle to have a prime spot for Enchantment. Worth it. Genie+ was definitely worth it.

Day 4 Hollywood Studios: genie+ day. Crazy crowded. Forgot to book our first lightning lane at 7 and by 7:08 Slinky was completely gone. I started constant refreshing and a 10:30 slot popped up within a minute or two. Snagged it, so perfect. We Rope dropped Rise and were probably among the first 200 people in line. It was down for a bit but we managed to get on and off by 9:10. To kill time until we could tap into Slinky and start our double stack, we did Millenium Falcon and Star tours on standby. Then it was time for Slinky and to selectively double stack lightning lanes for the rest of the day. I refreshed the tip board over and over and scored great return times all day. Lines were insane (over 100 minutes for most every ride, rise 200 minutes) so we felt privileged to use the fast lane for everything but Mickey and minnies railroad which ended up about an hour wait. We rode every single attraction with Millenium Falcon and Star tours twice. We did 2 shows. And got back in line for Rise just before they closed. Posted wait of 195 minutes ended up to be 45. Genie+ Well worth it. We heard several people complain that they only managed to ride 2-3 rides all day while we rode 13. We felt so spoiled.

We are SO GRATEFUL for the advice and experience from these forums that allowed us a vacation better than we imagined. I hope our experiences help others!

 

[princesswahooey]

Just left today. We did 1 park per day and it was stupid crowded. We are primarily ride-people. Quick service restaurants and maybe 1-2 shows. Open to close. Our goal is to ride as many rides as we can. I went into our trip quite nervous over genie+ and how the crowds would affect it. Spoiler: I now LOVE genie+. We had an amazing, magical time even though it was sooo crowded. We purchased genie+ on 2 of the 4 days and did not buy any ILL$. Here’s what we did:

Day 1 Epcot: no Genie+. We scored a boarding group for Remy at 7 am. Longest actual line we waited in was Frozen at about 50 minutes. We were able to ride every single ride and even Test Track twice. A couple shows. Even left early because we were tired and had done everything we wanted to. No regrets not getting Genie+for Epcot even with the crowds.

Day 2 Animal Kingdom: no Genie+. Longest wait was Flight of Passage of probably 45 minutes. We did every ride except Navi River (we didn’t think it was worth the hour wait) and were able to catch
a couple shows. Rode Dinosaur 4 times (daughters favorite) and Everest 4 times (my favorite). We saw all the animal exhibits and attractions. Again, no regrets on not getting genie+. It was such a chill day, full of rides even though people were everywhere.

Day 3 Magic Kingdom: genie+ day. Rope dropped Seven Dwarves and selected Peter Pan as our first lightning lane with a return time around 11. Until 11 we rode Space mountain and the rides with the smallest waits (like Little Mermaid). At 11, before tapping into Peter Pan we selected our second lightning lane. From there we selectively double stacked lightning lanes all day. Refreshing the tip board worked every time giving us our ideal time within a minute or two of refreshing. We rode every single ride minus Dumbo (kids say babyish) and Splash (down all day). Lines were long on everything but we flew by in the lightning lanes. Did Space Mountain on standby twice. Thunder mountain 3 times. We ran out of things to do by 5 or 6 and debated going back to the hotel but for the first time ever decided to camp out in front of the castle to have a prime spot for Enchantment. Worth it. Genie+ was definitely worth it.

Day 4 Hollywood Studios: genie+ day. Crazy crowded. Forgot to book our first lightning lane at 7 and by 7:08 Slinky was completely gone. I started constant refreshing and a 10:30 slot popped up within a minute or two. Snagged it, so perfect. We Rope dropped Rise and were probably among the first 200 people in line. It was down for a bit but we managed to get on and off by 9:10. We then selectively double stacked lightning lanes for the rest of the day. I refreshed the tip board over and over and scored great return times all day. Lines were insane (over 100 minutes for most every ride, rise 200 minutes) so we felt privileged to use the fast lane for everything but Mickey and minnies railroad which ended up about an hour wait. We rode every single attraction with Millenium Falcon and Star tours twice. We did 2 shows. And got back in line for Rise just before they closed. Posted wait of 195 minutes ended up to be 45. Genie+ Well worth it. We heard several people complain that they only managed to ride 2-3 rides all day while we rode 13. We felt so spoiled.

We are SO GRATEFUL for the advice and experience from these forums that allowed us a vacation better than we imagined. I hope our experiences help others!

Thanks for the detailed report. This gives me hope for our Christmas week trip. I'm also nervous about Genie+ but sounds like as long as you're prepared, it can work to your advantage!

 

[Luisfba]

Just left today. We did 1 park per day and it was stupid crowded. We are primarily ride-people. Quick service restaurants and maybe 1-2 shows. Open to close. Our goal is to ride as many rides as we can. I went into our trip quite nervous over genie+ and how the crowds would affect it. Spoiler: I now LOVE genie+. We had an amazing, magical time even though it was sooo crowded. We purchased genie+ on 2 of the 4 days and did not buy any ILL$. Here’s what we did:

Day 1 Epcot: no Genie+. We scored a boarding group for Remy at 7 am. Longest actual line we waited in was Frozen at about 50 minutes. We were able to ride every single ride and even Test Track twice. A couple shows. Even left early because we were tired and had done everything we wanted to. No regrets not getting Genie+for Epcot even with the crowds.

Day 2 Animal Kingdom: no Genie+. Longest wait was Flight of Passage of probably 45 minutes. We did every ride except Navi River (we didn’t think it was worth the hour wait) and were able to catch
a couple shows. Rode Dinosaur 4 times (daughters favorite) and Everest 4 times (my favorite). We saw all the animal exhibits and attractions. Again, no regrets on not getting genie+. It was such a chill day, full of rides even though people were everywhere.

Day 3 Magic Kingdom: genie+ day. Rope dropped Seven Dwarves and selected Peter Pan as our first lightning lane with a return time around 11. Until 11 we rode Space mountain and the rides with the smallest waits (like Little Mermaid). At 11, before tapping into Peter Pan we selected our second lightning lane. From there we selectively double stacked lightning lanes all day. Refreshing the tip board worked every time giving us our ideal time within a minute or two of refreshing. We rode every single ride minus Dumbo (kids say babyish) and Splash (down all day). Lines were long on everything but we flew by in the lightning lanes. Did Space Mountain on standby twice. Thunder mountain 3 times. We ran out of things to do by 5 or 6 and debated going back to the hotel but for the first time ever decided to camp out in front of the castle to have a prime spot for Enchantment. Worth it. Genie+ was definitely worth it.

Day 4 Hollywood Studios: genie+ day. Crazy crowded. Forgot to book our first lightning lane at 7 and by 7:08 Slinky was completely gone. I started constant refreshing and a 10:30 slot popped up within a minute or two. Snagged it, so perfect. We Rope dropped Rise and were probably among the first 200 people in line. It was down for a bit but we managed to get on and off by 9:10. We then selectively double stacked lightning lanes for the rest of the day. I refreshed the tip board over and over and scored great return times all day. Lines were insane (over 100 minutes for most every ride, rise 200 minutes) so we felt privileged to use the fast lane for everything but Mickey and minnies railroad which ended up about an hour wait. We rode every single attraction with Millenium Falcon and Star tours twice. We did 2 shows. And got back in line for Rise just before they closed. Posted wait of 195 minutes ended up to be 45. Genie+ Well worth it. We heard several people complain that they only managed to ride 2-3 rides all day while we rode 13. We felt so spoiled.

We are SO GRATEFUL for the advice and experience from these forums that allowed us a vacation better than we imagined. I hope our experiences help others!

congrats! Glad it worked so well.

looks like refreshing does pay dividends then? I’m going to gues your initial return times on HS for the big rides were a few hours out but you were able to get them back to a reasonable time by refreshing? I had heard reports that refreshing want working as well but it seems maybe we just need to be more patient?

 

[bsmcneil]

Is it better (or possible) to have two people/MDE accounts doing this in the am? I'm a single parent taking my kids - but I can probably teach/talk the oldest through to do it while I also do it (thinking of DHS in particular, for SDD and ROTR). (or maybe even recruit someone back home to help that morning)

 

[katyringo]

So it's a sold out day for HS and rise still has LL availability at 830am.

I leave Friday but these are some of the first sold out days we will see so I want to watch trends

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Agree - will be interesting to see how G+ and ILL trend over the upcoming busy holidays.

 

[StarrySkye21]

congrats! Glad it worked so well.

looks like refreshing does pay dividends then? I’m going to gues your initial return times on HS for the big rides were a few hours out but you were able to get them back to a reasonable time by refreshing? I had heard reports that refreshing want working as well but it seems maybe we just need to be more patient?

yes, refreshing worked perfectly. For example, we had grabbed a Tower of Terror pass for 7 pm. We were over by it at 2 pm and didn’t want to wait till 7. TOT was showing completely unavailable so I did a little test before canceling our slot. You rapidly refresh the quickest way repeatedly. I saw that a slot opened up and was gone again within seconds. I took the chance, canceled our 7 pm and started rapidly refreshing. Within 2 minutes or so a 2:30 slot popped up. Immediately grabbed it and were good to go. We did this a few times at HS and MK. You may not be quick enough, but don’t give up. Just rapidly refresh. Even if it shows availability 3 hours from now, if you refresh an earlier time will likely pop up. If you are speedy you can get it.

You can practice at home. Find a ride like Millenium Falcon that is popular and learn how to rapid refresh. Watch the times bounce around. Sometimes it takes a few minutes but they will drop in earlier times as people cancel theirs.

Edit: here is the way I found refreshes fastest on the iOS app so you don’t have to scroll: On the tip board, find the ride you want. Click the standby option and then click the back arrow to go back out. Now just tap the tip board tab at the top over and over.

 

[CJK]

Edit: here is the way I found refreshes fastest so you don’t have to scroll: Scroll down to the ride you want. Click the standby option and then click the back arrow to go back out. Now just tap the tip board tab at the top over and over.

Thanks for this, and for your report. We were there last week, and were too scared to do the refresh method. We did it for a few seconds, but the available times continued to get later and later, so we gave up!

 

[Chughes812]

yes, refreshing worked perfectly. For example, we had grabbed a Tower of Terror pass for 7 pm. We were over by it at 2 pm and didn’t want to wait till 7. TOT was showing completely unavailable so I did a little test before canceling our slot. You rapidly refresh the quickest way repeatedly. I saw that a slot opened up and was gone again within seconds. I took the chance, canceled our 7 pm and started rapidly refreshing. Within 2 minutes or so a 2:30 slot popped up. Immediately grabbed it and were good to go.

It sounded like you had stacked LL. Did canceling ToT not affect your ability to carry 2 LL at once??

thanks for sharing!

 

[StarrySkye21]

It sounded like you had stacked LL. Did canceling ToT not affect your ability to carry 2 LL at once??

thanks for sharing!

nope, we still kept double stack all day.

 

[Figment1990]

hey all, got our first G+ this morning for SDD! Had 3 of us on our phones and just kept refreshing until we saw the time that was the earliest we knew we could make it (it’s our travel day). DS had fast fingers and got us right at tht time he saw (4:20). We did it thru the tip board and had it set up as our only selection for the time being.

 

[Luisfba]

It sounded like you had stacked LL. Did canceling ToT not affect your ability to carry 2 LL at once??

thanks for sharing!

for G+LL, do you pretty much get the LL as soon as you click on it from the tip board, or are there other confirmation screens (that if you arent fast getting through them you may lose the LL regardless)?

 

[StarrySkye21]

for G+LL, do you pretty much get the LL as soon as you click on it from the tip board, or are there other confirmation screens (that if you arent fast getting through them you may lose the LL regardless)?

There’s a confirmation screen to click through. I was sometimes too late and the confirmation screen showed a later return time than I wanted so I’d back out and try again. I believe it will ultimately give you whatever time is shown on the confirmation screen even if you are slow to click through to the final confirmation.

 

[lostprincess_danie]

Adding our experience with first time (and only for that trip) using Genie+ from 11/16 at HS. Our plan was to book Slinky first thing and hope for a afternoon slot. Arrive at 8:15 to queue for early entry. Do Rise then MMRR standby before waits ballooned. Things went sideways when Genie+ malfunctioned and we ended up having to push everything to late afternoon/evening when we did not plan to be at the park. Felt like I was playing catchup the entire day and we only did a handful of attractions.

Overall notes:
- Guest Experience CMs (blue shirts and umbrellas in the park) are the most qualified to help. Chat, phone and front desk may help but it's wasted time if they can't.
- Screenshot EVERYTHING
- A CM told us there's no info in the app to let you know when cool down ends. Just make a mental note.
- It was exhausting keeping up with everything even for just the two of us. Info is scattered throughout the app so I had to resort to typing up in notes all our return times and cool down times.

6:00a Attempt to purchase Genie+. The button to confirm purchase was blank and not functioning on my nor husband's phones.
6:10 MDE online chat said I could not do a purchase until 7. I told them that's not true, it is midnight for G+. 7am only for ILL$. CM said they could not help me. Needed to go to the resort front desk. (We turned phones on and off. Logged in and out. Deleted and reinstalled app.)
7:00a Husband ran to the front desk so I could finish getting ready.
7:20a Front desk CM purchased G+ for us. Husband said he still could not make an LL even though purchase was active.
7:28a Front desk CM got Slinky for us at 7:55p. It was the last time slot available. Decided to go ahead to HS and work out additional Genie problems there.
We were at the back of pack for early entry but made it inside and to Galaxys Edge at 8:40.
Waited about 45 min for Rise.
Went to Guest Experience tent to see what could be done about our Genie+ purchase not working. CM was very patient and helpful. She offered a anytime LL for our choice of attraction to "make up for missed time" (excluding SDD, Rise or MMRR) We chose Midway Mania.
10:00 stopped for a drink.
Standby 60 min for MMRR and it broke down as we entered the theater screen room. Given recovery LL pass.
11:00 Booked RNR for 3:00
11:15 Lunch at Ronto roasters
12:00 Went back to hotel to regroup after frustrating morning.
1:30 booked TSMM for 6:20p.
3:00 Back to HS.
3:15 Redeemed RNR.
3:40 Redeemed MMRR recovery LL
4:05 booked Muppets for 4:10. When we got there the next show was posted to start in 10 min. We actually waited 12 minutes until admitted to theater. (I do not see the benefit of LL for shows.)
5:45 Redeemed TSMM complimentary LL
6:18 Rode Mania again with our "regular" LL.
6:52 Mania comp LL was still showing in app so we tried again. The tap style turned blue but they let us in after I showed them the pass on my phone.
7:55 Redeemed Slinky.
Wondered around and left at 8:45.

 

[Sjm9911]

Adding our experience with first time (and only for that trip) using Genie+ from 11/16 at HS. Our plan was to book Slinky first thing and hope for a afternoon slot. Arrive at 8:15 to queue for early entry. Do Rise then MMRR standby before waits ballooned. Things went sideways when Genie+ malfunctioned and we ended up having to push everything to late afternoon/evening when we did not plan to be at the park. Felt like I was playing catchup the entire day and we only did a handful of attractions.

Overall notes:
- Guest Experience CMs (blue shirts and umbrellas in the park) are the most qualified to help. Chat, phone and front desk may help but it's wasted time if they can't.
- Screenshot EVERYTHING
- A CM told us there's no info in the app to let you know when cool down ends. Just make a mental note.
- It was exhausting keeping up with everything even for just the two of us. Info is scattered throughout the app so I had to resort to typing up in notes all our return times and cool down times.

6:00a Attempt to purchase Genie+. The button to confirm purchase was blank and not functioning on my nor husband's phones.
6:10 MDE online chat said I could not do a purchase until 7. I told them that's not true, it is midnight for G+. 7am only for ILL$. CM said they could not help me. Needed to go to the resort front desk. (We turned phones on and off. Logged in and out. Deleted and reinstalled app.)
7:00a Husband ran to the front desk so I could finish getting ready.
7:20a Front desk CM purchased G+ for us. Husband said he still could not make an LL even though purchase was active.
7:28a Front desk CM got Slinky for us at 7:55p. It was the last time slot available. Decided to go ahead to HS and work out additional Genie problems there.
We were at the back of pack for early entry but made it inside and to Galaxys Edge at 8:40.
Waited about 45 min for Rise.
Went to Guest Experience tent to see what could be done about our Genie+ purchase not working. CM was very patient and helpful. She offered a anytime LL for our choice of attraction to "make up for missed time" (excluding SDD, Rise or MMRR) We chose Midway Mania.
10:00 stopped for a drink.
Standby 60 min for MMRR and it broke down as we entered the theater screen room. Given recovery LL pass.
11:00 Booked RNR for 3:00
11:15 Lunch at Ronto roasters
12:00 Went back to hotel to regroup after frustrating morning.
1:30 booked TSMM for 6:20p.
3:00 Back to HS.
3:15 Redeemed RNR.
3:40 Redeemed MMRR recovery LL
4:05 booked Muppets for 4:10. When we got there the next show was posted to start in 10 min. We actually waited 12 minutes until admitted to theater. (I do not see the benefit of LL for shows.)
5:45 Redeemed TSMM complimentary LL
6:18 Rode Mania again with our "regular" LL.
6:52 Mania comp LL was still showing in app so we tried again. The tap style turned blue but they let us in after I showed them the pass on my phone.
7:55 Redeemed Slinky.
Wondered around and left at 8:45.

About what our day was like there. Lol. At least you got to ride some stuff, but it is way more complex and stressful then it need to be. And when a ride goes down, it really throws a wrentch in the plans.

 

[katyringo]

Does it use the payment method you have stored in the app?

 

[StarrySkye21]

About what our day was like there. Lol. At least you got to ride some stuff, but it is way more complex and stressful then it need to be. And when a ride goes down, it really throws a wrentch in the plans.

We had an interesting discovery with rides being down. The morning we went to MK, we reserved a time for splash mountain. Well it ended up being down the entire day, but you could still grab passes to it. If the ride was still down when it was your turn to ride, it converted the genie+ pass to a special pass that you could use on any LL you wanted (except the two ILL$). So we would use that special pass on rides like Big Thunder (kids favorite) and then immediately grab another Splash Mountain slot. It was this way that we were able to ride Thunder mountain in the lightning lane multiple times.

 

[CJK]

Does it use the payment method you have stored in the app?

yes