The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[kiramay]

I have two trips coming up. The first is in only a couple of weeks. Just my husband and I for Food and Wine and the new ROTR ride. Originally I wasn’t going to pay for G+ at all on this trip and just pay for the one ILL ride. But now I’m considering paying for once day to play with it at HS and hopping to Epcot. The plan will be the earliest SDD possible, early ILL ROTR, and RD Tot and RnRC. Maybe squeeze in TSMM and ST.

Then hop. VQ Remy (or ride it another day). LL TT and Soarin. That’s about all we care about.

 

[PaladinButters]

This makes me think it will be sold out early on busy days unless they increase the number available.

I imagine they do (or more like they offer less spots per time slot than they could on the slower days to keep the crowd balance they want) - and it would just scale with the crowd size, but there's still a maximum amount of people that can ride Slinky every hour and everybody wants in. Return time just went from 7:30 to not offered back to 7:50 refreshing while I was checking all this (so two hours-ish after park open for those trying to carry two??) - any busier of a day sounds like a big gamble to not choose this one first so we all kinda get locked into that same strategy regardless.

So.... If we grab Slinky for a later time and try to carry an extra - do we attempt to rope drop Rise and get out of paying the extra money for it or do we just fork the cash over and spend that time hitting something like MMRR or RnRC that we could then repeat later? It would mean more rides total for the day that way.

 

[rmclain73]

We bought Genie+ at MK today. Was not happy to get up at 7, but I did and booked Jungle Cruise at 7:02 for 10:55. We got to the park around 10 and had Starbucks and made our way over to JC. We waited until 11 and booked our 2nd (Pirates) and then clocked into JC. After that, we were able to book another, Peter Pan. Using this strategy we were able to hold 2 LL's all day and used 8.
JC
Pirates
Peter Pan
Small World
Big Thunder
Haunted Mansion
Buzz
Speedway

We could have fit in Splash but nobody wanted to ride that again (we rode Monday). We're all 16+ so some of the more kiddie rides weren't ones we wanted. We stood in stand-by for Mermaid and Mine Train (at 8:15 for 15 minutes).

It made for a more enjoyable day by not standing in lines all day. We were able to have lunch at Crystal Palace and rode the monorail to Poly for rum Dole Whip. Still not sure if it was worth $60 for the 4 of us and the only way it is possibly worth it is if you can double book all day like we did. It's not affordable to spend every day of a weeklong trip.

It's a good thing we had my son's newer phone as my iPhone 10 just could not stay into Disney's wifi and the app would not work at all for me using cell service. It was a royal pain in the butt and if Disney wants to have every single thing on the phone they should have the most tip-top wifi possible IMO.

Great strategy you set up for yourself there! Let me ask you, when you picked your second attraction at 11:00 AM what was the return time that you got? Were all of your rides spaced two hours apart or were you able to still carry 2 even though some were within 2 hours?

 

[Juventus]

What time have ROTR ILL$ been selling out? Any chance for us mere mortals who usually stay offsite to grab one right at park opening before about 6:30 pm? I don't know if I'd trust much of a later time given its (lack of) reliability.

 

[stephk1981]

What time have ROTR ILL$ been selling out? Any chance for us mere mortals who usually stay offsite to grab one right at park opening before about 6:30 pm? I don't know if I'd trust much of a later time given its (lack of) reliability.

We have tried twice this past week without luck....we live about 15 minutes from the park. We have a resort staycation in a couple of weeks, so I think it will be easier then. I may be giving up hope fir a ILL pass for ROTR from home. Hoping you have better luck than we have!

 

[AmishGuy91]

We have tried twice this past week without luck....we live about 15 minutes from the park. We have a resort staycation in a couple of weeks, so I think it will be easier then. I may be giving up hope fir a ILL pass for ROTR from home. Hoping you have better luck than we have!

if you’re local why would you ever pay for a ride? Either rope drop or go near closing and you won’t have much wait even for RotR

 

[stephk1981]

if you’re local why would you ever pay for a ride? Either rope drop or go near closing and you won’t have much wait even for RotR

Both are hard to do with a 3 year old....but I also have a 13 year old, who likes to go...so getting boarding groups before worked really well for us. This not so much, but that's okay! We'll get on eventually!

 

[jojomoore]

Can resort guests book genie plus attractions at 7 am on arrival day? I am trying to decide if using it on arrival day is possible. We usually visit HS toy storyland on arrival day and then rope drop HS another day. I think trying to fit HS into one day during a very crowded time might not be ideal. I think i am going to stalk the attraction wait times to help me plan.

 

[Missmaureen78]

There's been a lot of questions about buying G+ in advance (and having to book for entire trip) vs. buying each individual day. Not sure if this particular angle was covered, but just in case:

We currently have a 3-day park pass booked, to which I've already added G+. We were planning on doing MK, Epcot and HS. This morning, we decided to add a park ticket for the day we arrive and do AK in the afternoon/evening. We do not want G+ for that park. By booking a new ticket (not extending my current one) I could just buy a regular ticket without the G+ add on.

It's cumbersome (and you'd lose out on the small discount when booking a multi-day pass) but if you only wanted to buy G+ for select days, you can book separate tickets for G+ days and non-G+ days. And then not have to worry about adding G+ to your tickets the day of.

**I didn't test if this works if your non-G+ days would be in the middle of your trip.**

 

[Bibbobboo2u]

I'm really trying to think through HS day. No hopper.

I think my plan is going to be to buy individual LL for rise and MMRR- aiming for like the 12-2pm slots. I plan to use my early entry to head toward TT and rocking roller coaster. Im solo
So I can use single rider at RR. So right now my debate is do I go for SDD as my first genie or smugglers run. I think if I can get an earlier return time I would go for SDD.. I just don't know.. need to learn more.

We were at HWS on Tuesday and used G+. You should pull SDD first, as it will eventually give out of return times before MFSR, which still had return times showing at 6pm that day. Of course, every day will be different. I posted more detail about that day in the other Genie thread. Good luck!

 

[g-dad66]

Today could be an interesting one to watch, especially at MK.

Touring Plans has this as a crowd 7 day and in this first half hour they have several expected times longer than the posted times.

It will be interesting to watch how standby waits and LL return times compare to yesterday.

Here are two that I have my eye on because of the way I think we will want to do them.

At 11:00 on October 22
Jungle Cruise return time: 2:05
Peter Pan return time: 1:55

At 11:00 on October 23
Jungle Cruise return time: 2:05
Peter Pan return time: 1:55

Weird that they are exactly the same both days.

Also these are pretty close to the same for both days:
At 11:00 on October 22
Millenium Falcon return time: 4:25
Toy Story Mania return time: 12:10

At 11:00 on October 23
Millenium Falcon return time: 4:15
Toy Story Mania return time: 12:35

 

[cfw213]

Im not sure if this has been discussed today but I’m pleasantly surprised at the return times in MK, specifically because it is “sold out” today. So far they’re tracking about the same as they were all week. I have to think on busy days they allocate more Genie+ than standby.

 

[Missmaureen78]

Im not sure if this has been discussed today but I’m pleasantly surprised at the return times in MK, specifically because it is “sold out” today. So far they’re tracking about the same as they were all week. I have to think on busy days they allocate more Genie+ than standby.

I've been very encouraged by what I've seen today and yesterday.

 

[cfw213]

I've been very encouraged by what I've seen today and yesterday.

Me too. TP has the MK at a 7 today. We are going on an 8 day and I was concerned it would be a bust but honestly it’s looking great.

 

[katyringo]

It's worth saying that the reason HS is going to be a park where genie is most useful but also may require the most strategy with early entry and individual lightening lanes (at least in my brain) is because it simply doesn't have enough rides but houses some of the most in demand rides at WDW.

At Disneyland we used maxpass with a hopper because it's SO easy to just treat the whole Disneyland resort as one big park.. we would start out day with early entry in Disneyland while starting to stack our DCA fastpasses. However now that you can't park hop at Disneyland until 1pm I will anticipate the same thing we are seeing happen at Hollywood studios will happen at DCA. DCA holds some most of the in demand rides on the Disneyland resort (not rise.. but still)...

 

[Disturbia]

I am not seeing how this will work for people who take a mid day break. Very quickly the return times are in our break time. I guess wait and stack for the evening?

If the return times are getting late in the day so fast with moderate crowds how many of these attractions will sell out on the truly crowded times? We go around Thanksgiving and I am not confident that most of the headliners will sell out early. Unless Disney changes their capacity with is always possible.

Book the highest wait Genie+ ride for the earliest time slot, ride one big attraction at/close to rope drop (or pay LLIA$ for it), ride a few more high wait rides, book the second highest for a late afternoon before leaving the parks; stack or take a real break mid day and then come back in the evening for a few more filler rides and save one (or pay LLiA$) for park close.

OR you can try maximizing by riding little kids rides all day long and get your count of rides up

 

[wisblue]

I have two trips coming up. The first is in only a couple of weeks. Just my husband and I for Food and Wine and the new ROTR ride. Originally I wasn’t going to pay for G+ at all on this trip and just pay for the one ILL ride. But now I’m considering paying for once day to play with it at HS and hopping to Epcot. The plan will be the earliest SDD possible, early ILL ROTR, and RD Tot and RnRC. Maybe squeeze in TSMM and ST.

Then hop. VQ Remy (or ride it another day). LL TT and Soarin. That’s about all we care about.

That sounds very similar to what I plan to do at DHS. If by rope drop you mean resort guest early entry you should be able to do all of those things with time to spare before the 2 PM hopper window opens.

 

[kiramay]

That sounds very similar to what I plan to do at DHS. If by rope drop you mean resort guest early entry you should be able to do all of those things with time to spare before the 2 PM hopper window opens.

Thank you! Yes, I mean the new early entry. All the terms have changed. Lol
We’re hoping to have a relaxing trip, no rushing around. Probably hanging out at Brown Derby Lounge or Baseline Taphouse and people watch.

 

[wilkydelts]

I maybe confused on something so please clarify. Why are people waiting to book their second selection until 11a when you are allowed to get one 2hours after original 7a booking? Why not book second pass at 9a?

 

[Welsh_Dragon]

I maybe confused on something so please clarify. Why are people waiting to book their second selection until 11a when you are allowed to get one 2hours after original 7a booking? Why not book second pass at 9a?

You have to wait until 2 hours after official park opening to book your second G+LL.