The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[Dis Dragon]

I don’t think this statement is accurate.

When the window opens at 7am you can book a reservation for a park you're hopping to with return times starting at 2pm or later. You don't have to be scanned into the park.

The only thing that stinks about this is if you're not planning on immediately hopping you have to basically camp your phone if you want one around 5pm per say until reservations reach that return time. Huge inconvenience.

 

[snikki]

Molly from allears did every attraction at DHS via LL. She did not book SDD first. She had a theory and went with it and it worked out well. She posted it on her IG story. @allearsnet is the handle

 

[LSUfan4444]

The only problem with booking something late in the day is you run into the issue a poster on this board had. They booked SDD for later in the day but once the 120 min cool down period ended there was next to nothing left to book. In a case like that it's a waste of $15.

In every park since since the launch there have been attractions available to book on G+ throughout the day. Yes, some have sold out but at 11, 1 and 3 pm, every day in every park there has been availability.

 

[Dis Dragon]

I've been keeping data sets of when things were booking out - if they were able to get a SDD reservation (gone around noon) they would still be able to get a Millenium Falcon (the next burnt out FP, which gone around 2-3pm) - everything else would still have a ton of availability.

There are the straggler ones that people cancel and others can pick up later in the day, so maybe that's what happened?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

not sure how that happened when the only thing to sell out in the past few days was Slinky Dog and occasionally Millennium Falcon (but not 2 hours after opening). My guess is that they were just getting times they didn't want.

 

[LSUfan4444]

When the window opens at 7am you can book a reservation for a park you're hopping to with return times starting at 2pm or later. You don't have to be scanned into the park.

The only thing that stinks about this is if you're not planning on immediately hopping you have to basically camp your phone if you want one around 5pm per say until reservations reach that return time. Huge inconvenience.

Exactly and why I think using that later day G+ makes sense most when hopping. You're paying for the convenience of not having to refresh and think about it all day. If you pair your G+ with one or two ILLs and possible stack another one in your second park and just focus your morning on standby and leave your phone in your pocket/purse/backpack, there is definitely value in that.

Most of the people who are used to hopping and making their FP+ for later in the day pretty much did the same thing....rope dropped and rode all they could while the waits were low and when it got to a point where there was nothing they were willing to wait for, they left knowing their FP+ was waiting or them. You can use G+ and ILLs in a similar fashion.

 

[Rick195275]

I have a DVC AP and, at least for now, the only option is to add Genie+ on each day that you want to use it. Adding it in advance for the whole visit, or for specific days, isn’t an option.

You don’t have to stay up until midnight to buy it because it will not sell out. Just buy it for the day when you wake up so that you’re ready to make a selection at 7 AM if that’s what you want to do.

One thing to keep in mind if anyone in your party does not have an AP. Those people would have to make their Genie+ purchases separately. For example, in my group of 4 I am the only one with an AP. I can buy the AP for myself, and one of the other 3 can purchase for them using her MDE account. Clunky, I know, but that seems to be the way it is because AP park reservations are in a separate pool.

I have been told by a CM in a chat that, once everyone purchases Genie +, the whole group will be treated as one party and can make G+LL reservations together.

Hmmm this is pretty off putting to me. Me and my daughter both have APs but will be traveling with a group that will have regular tickets and had intended to leave the planning on things like this to me. It seems like that’s now impossible?? I was on the fence about getting it at all but this seems to be pushing me away. Not going until February so maybe they will iron some things out by then but that makes no sense to me to treat 2 groups of resort guests differently. I can’t same I’m surprised though… as far as I know APs still have issues booking park reservations as a resort guest when the AP pool is full.

 

[Kazi7]

SDD was deliberately put into g+ to make people get that, no reason for MMRR to be ILL except its new. SDD wait time is almost always higher than MMRR standby.

This makes a lot of sense to me. It seems like park hopping with your stacked LL passes for HS will become a thing, at least among people in the know. It works for me because we much prefer Slinky in the dark, otherwise we just skip it. Standby line at park close always seems to be at least 45 min. Going to be interesting to see how long the RnRC, ToT, MFSR will last into the day. If I could get 4-5 LL passes in the afternoon-evening for HS, I'd probably pay the $15.

 

[snikki]

I would rather do 3-4 headliners in the PM saving myself 180 minutes vs 8 regular rides saving myself 80-120 minutes.

There’s no right or wrong way to do it. Everyone will do what’s best for their touring style.

98% of Disney park goers aren’t on these sites trying to figure out the best strategy. They’ll get G+ and book them starting around 9-10 am, 5-6 a day and be happy with it.

 

[rmclain73]

So here is a what if situation building on the hopper stacking strategy.

Say you load your hopper park into the My Day section of the MDX app and begin scheduling LL's as its discussed now at 7:00am. You are set and now have 3 attractions booked (2 IIALL and 1 LL) for after 2:00pm. Would it then be possible to go in and change your park reservation for the day and make the park you were going to hop to your new park reservation if its available? Would the system let you do this? Would they then cancel out your booked selections for later in the day? If this were to work you could then go back to bed and have a nice relaxing morning. Maybe get some pool time in and do the park later in the day.

 

[LSUfan4444]

8:45 am, Fri Oct 22, TP crowd level 4,
SDD G+ return time at 7:35 pm, Smugglers Run 3:05 pm, RNR 11:25 am, ToT 11:10, TSMM, 11am Star Tours 9:50

 

[LSUfan4444]

I would rather do 3-4 headliners in the PM saving myself 180 minutes vs 8 regular rides saving myself 80-120 minutes.

There’s no right or wrong way to do it. Everyone will do what’s best for their touring style.

I would even say I would rather wait in six 20 minutes lines than one 60 minute line.

 

[LSUfan4444]

8:50 am, Fri Oct 22, TP crowd level 4,
G+ return times: BTMR 12 pm, Haunted Mansion 11:05, Jungle Cruise 11:50, Pooh 10am, Peter Pan 12:20, Pirates 10:25, Splash 10:55, Speedway 9:45 am

 

[LSUfan4444]

Would it then be possible to go in and change your park reservation for the day and make the park you were going to hop to your new park reservation if its available? Would the system let you do this? Would they then cancel out your booked selections for later in the day? If this were to work you could then go back to bed and have a nice relaxing morning. Maybe get some pool time in and do the park later in the day.

I havent seen it tested but theoretically, yes...based on park availability.

 

[rmclain73]

I would rather do 3-4 headliners in the PM saving myself 180 minutes vs 8 regular rides saving myself 80-120 minutes.

There’s no right or wrong way to do it. Everyone will do what’s best for their touring style.

98% of Disney park goers aren’t on these sites trying to figure out the best strategy. They’ll get G+ and book them starting around 9-10 am, 5-6 a day and be happy with it.

THIS EXACTLY!

Everyone has such a different style when at the parks. Some prefer to have a slower start and go in late, while others like first thing.

I think we sometimes forget that such a small percentage of Disney travelers come on this board or even know if its existence. Being in the parks last week it is so very clear that most people are figuring things out as they go, and are still having a great time. They don't know what they don't know. Also, a good portion of the people may not even be aware of Genie+ and or may not be able to pay for it. I think the percentage of people really taking advantage of any type of stacking benefit is very low in the scope of things.

 

[LSUfan4444]

8:55 am, Fri Oct 22, TP crowd level 1
G+ return times: Test Track 1:55 pm, Soarin 11:35 am - there is nothing else significant here in regards to wait times. Everything else is within the first hour

 

[LSUfan4444]

9 am, Fri Oct 22, TP crowd level 1
Safari 11:10 am - thats it...everything else has availability within the hour

 

[Jrb1979]

To each their own but I don't see value in Genie+ in using like FP+ and using it for 3 rides. If it was free I would be all for it. Since I am paying for it, I want to use for 6 to 7 rides a day.

 

[wisblue]

We have a 9 night trip with 7 Park days at the end of June booked. 2 days Mk, 2 days has, one day each Epcot and Animal Kingdom. We will probably only use Genie+ at MK, and at that probably only 1 day. We are rope droppers so on a longer trip we have plenty of time to get everything done.

I think this makes sense for a longer trip if you’re like us. We are not power repeat riders and almost never do the same attraction twice in one day. We’re satisfied if we do each of our favorites once in a trip, and will do them a second time on a different day if we can. But if we’re going to be there for more than 4 days we like to have some relaxing time outside the parks too, especially if it’s very hot, which it will undoubtedly be in June.

 

[leeniewdw]

All depends on what your must do's are. It makes no sense to me to scramble all morning in a park on my phone, draining my battery when I can find standby lines 10 minutes or less pretty easily for the first 30 min - hour. I'd rather book that first one later in the day.

I agree here. The challenge I'm facing is that we're going to be traveling with our 20-something kids/SOs and I have no clue how game they'll be for using this approach. Because if the decide to bail on getting up/out/in park early, then they may be waiting a long time for rides when they arrive in park. I guess it's still a better strategy to book later because that way whomever is in park early can go about their RD rides and there's no risk in booking a headliner return time the others will miss and get locked out of another LL for it.

FP+ was at least easier on the group planning because you can target the times/rides in advance and get some buy in. If this was just us 2, the whole thing would be so much easier to navigate, lol.