The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[persnickity]

I've been tracking this thread pretty closely and don't think anyone has posted first hand experience despite it being discussed. One thing that has been pointed out, is the very small window to get this to work (15 mins or less) and that if you somehow screw up and are 16 mins late, you don't ride the ride you had a LL for and you cannot get another LL for that ride. Bottom line (for a park opening at 9am), is you gain your stack of 2 LLs one hour (well 50 something minutes) earlier than if you just do the same thing at 11am ( for a 10:XX-11:XX return window) and then tap into a ride during the actual window.

I'm not sure I'm brave enough to try this (despite an hour being a very nice perk).

I'm thinking we'll try this for something low stakes, like one of the Fantasyland rides that don't get huge waits.

 

[leeniewdw]

I hear that. But on a very busy day, that hour might see return windows creep farther and farther away. I wonder whether being able to double-stack starting one hour after park opening, rather than two, could make a huge difference in terms of your ability to get a large number of good rides.

Yeah, I agree. For us, due to some shuffling around on a very short trip, this would be useful for us at HS where we don't plan on staying all day (or even very far beyond noon). I've got almost a month before we go, so will look to see if anyone confirms their experience. I'm not even sure we need G+ for that day now that we won't be hopping to MK (instead to EP). I need to see what kind of return times are available around 10:15am to see if it even makes sense to try. Today was a bad day to sample, due to the rain. Honestly, if we could do MFSR, ToT, RnRC, TSM, Star Tours, we'd probably be happy. I feel like that might be possible even w/o G+.

BUT, we were hoping to try it out just to have the experience before a 6 person trip in Feb. So we may do it (and eat the $32).

 

[Tiggr88]

Thanks! I'm brand new to G+, is it a glitch or do rides run out of LL selections?

They can run out but typically not into later in the day for the most popular and not at all for the less popular. SDD seems to be going very quickly and may actually run out in the morning. MFSR at HS, JC and PP at MK seem to be other popular ones that run out sooner than most, but typically are still available through late morning and afternoon.

Keep in mind that as it gets more crowded, they will start to run out sooner and more often. And the return times will obviously push out faster as well.

Thrill data can show what it is like for a particular day. You can see the LL availability for MK yesterday a little ways down on this page.

https://www.thrill-data.com/waits/park/wdw/magic-kingdom/2021/11/04

 

[CarolynFH]

Follow-up to my earlier question. Has anyone confirmed in general that booking a new LL after the expiration of your previous return window does not negate your 15-minute grace period?

I've seen more than one report of success - e.g. window was 10-11, at 11:02 booked another LL, then tapped into the ride at 11:10 without incident. So it's working, at least for now.

 

[Sjm9911]

They run out. But they will say Not Currently Offered. For example, Slinky Dog Dash at Hollywood Studios has run out.
Nothing has run out yet at MK.
The disappearance of Splash and HM is either a glitch or an alien abduction.

Down as in broken. Not as in ran out.

 

[Tiggr88]

I've seen more than one report of success - e.g. window was 10-11, at 11:02 booked another LL, then tapped into the ride at 11:10 without incident. So it's working, at least for now.

If the park opened at 10, that would be an example of this working. If the park opened at 9, then that could just have been the 120 minute rule working.

 

[dmunsil]

I've been tracking this thread pretty closely and don't think anyone has posted first hand experience despite it being discussed.

I guess I haven't always been explicit about it, but everything I've been posting about I have verified as working. Disney can change many of the policies for Genie+ at any time, but as of last week, it worked I've said.

 

[leeniewdw]

I guess I haven't always been explicit about it, but everything I've been posting about I have verified as working. Disney can change many of the policies for Genie+ at any time, but as of last week, it worked I've said.

Oh great! Thanks for sharing your experience!

 

[JakeAZ]

I know the info is here somewhere, but I can't find it.

Do you have to tap into your park before you book your 2nd Genie+ LL? Say, around 7am, I book an afternoon Slinky return. Do I have to tap into HS to be able to keep booking in 2 hour increments, or can I do that from the hotel if anticipating a late arrival?

Thanks

 

[dmunsil]

I know the info is here somewhere, but I can't find it.

Do you have to tap into your park before you book your 2nd Genie+ LL? Say, around 7am, I book an afternoon Slinky return. Do I have to tap into HS to be able to keep booking in 2 hour increments, or can I do that from the hotel if anticipating a late arrival?

Thanks

You can do it from anywhere. The only thing you need to be in the park for is getting a 1pm boarding group.

 

[KrazeeK120]

I don't think this is accurate. Why wouldn't rider swap work the same as it did under fastpass? (Subject to the fact that they limited the number of those who can "re-ride" in the swap scenario).

It works the same, if you actually need to do a rider swap. However, in this scenario, it sounds like it’s a set of parents, a set of grandparents, and a small child. It makes the most sense for one couple to use their LL and then the other couple to use theirs. There would be no swap occurring.

An instance where a swap would be useful would be a family with 2 parents, a tall enough child, and a too-short child. Parent 1 rides with tall child. Child can’t get another LL for the same ride. The swap can be used so parent 2 doesn’t have to ride alone. Tall child can also ride with parent 2.

Another scenario where it’s useful is if the party is using the standby line.

 

[JakeAZ]

An instance where a swap would be useful would be a family with 2 parents, a tall enough child, and a too-short child. Parent 1 rides with tall child. Child can’t get another LL for the same ride. The swap can be used so parent 2 doesn’t have to ride alone. Tall child can also ride with parent 2.

This our scenario.

How does it work for Genie+ rider swap?

Do we all (me, my wife and my taller son) need to have a LL or do just me and my taller son need to have one?

If all 3 of us need to have one, that leaves my smaller son out of the mix for awhile as we can't get him a LL to ride something by himself...

Ideally we'd want me and my older son to get a LL for RNRC and my wife and smaller son to go ride something else with a LL. Then my wife can ride RNRC with my taller son via rider swap and I could go find something to ride with smaller.

 

[Boardwalk III]

Tried googling this with no luck. Does anyone know if an iPhone 7plus works with the Genie app? My husband has a 6 now which doesn’t work and has a newer phone on order, but it may not come in before our trip. He has a friend that can lend him a 7+. Will that work?

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Tried googling this with no luck. Does anyone know if an iPhone 7plus works with the Genie app? My husband has a 6 now which doesn’t work and has a newer phone on order, but it may not come in before our trip. He has a friend that can lend him a 7+. Will that work?

I have an 8 and that works, so you're 50/50.

 

[Tiggr88]

I have a 7 and it seems to work fine. I would bring a travel charger for the park. Good advice in general but I suspect the older devices batteries drain faster.

 

[moorish]

I also have a 7 and it works fine.

 

[soniam]

I vote for alien abduction.

Good news is Haunted Mansion just popped back up!

I wonder if they take it off if the ride has gone down.

Tried googling this with no luck. Does anyone know if an iPhone 7plus works with the Genie app? My husband has a 6 now which doesn’t work and has a newer phone on order, but it may not come in before our trip. He has a friend that can lend him a 7+. Will that work?

I asked about the 7 as well, because someone specifically said that it was only half working on their 7. It sounds like others have said it's working. i would just make sure the OS and app are as up-to-date as possible. We are in the same boat. DH has a 7 with a 13 on backorder. It's supposed to arrive during our vacation. I did get my 13 mini already, so we have 1 phone that should work.

 

[dmunsil]

The iPhone 6s works as well; just checked.

 

[MNDisneyMommy]

We're staying off property this trip, so far it sounds like Slinky might be the only thing we struggle with if we go the G+ route. Are they releasing another "set" at opening time for off property G+ purchasers or is it just the 7am resort crowd getting decent times now?

 

[elgerber]

We're staying off property this trip, so far it sounds like Slinky might be the only thing we struggle with if we go the G+ route. Are they releasing another "set" at opening time for off property G+ purchasers or is it just the 7am resort crowd getting decent times now?

Anyone can book SDD at 7. It’s only the paid ILL that off-site have to wait for park open to purchase.