The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[thanxfornoticin]

One caveat. If the park you are making your LL is not where you have your reservation, it will give you available times after 2pm. This might be handy for hopping. We were there last week of October and were planning to hop to HS. I got online at 7am and was able to get my first LL at 2:30 for SDD.

Great point. Sounds like you can use that as a strategy on some days! Thanks.

 

[Ermise]

I’m reading a lot about stacking, but it seems to really only benefit people who are park hopping or arriving later to a park. My family doesn’t hop, and always rope drops. It seems to me, the best strategy for someone like myself would be to skip the stacking and use Genie+ reservations as early as I can get them?

This is what we did last week at MK and it worked pretty well. We just kept using the earliest available. As the day goes on and return times get pushed out we ended up having a few stacked at the end of the day which was a nice way to finish things up. The "refresh" strategy is not as easy or succesful with Genie+ but it does happen. You don't have to book and cancel either, once you confirm your party it will show you the return time (which by the way is more often than not different than the time originally shown) and you can back out and try again. I was able to get return times for a few rides much earlier than what was originally indicated this way. At HS I was also able to get a Slinky Dog return by doing this in the afternoon. It is tedious and not particularly enjoyable but it does work.

Edit: Once you back out back to the Tip Board screen, drag down at the top to "refresh"

 

[rackerlee92]

I'm reading a lot about G+ at 7am if you are a resort guest. Any off-site reports? How is G+ working if you need to wait until park opens for off-site guests?

Thanks!!

 

[SmittS]

Can I ask. With this, it says you got millennial falcon at 11am. But you went to Epcot first. I assume Epcot opened at 10am. I thought 2nd G+ couldn’t be used until 2 hours after park open of park you are at?

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I had a “Epcot as first park” scenario several pages back, but since found this: https://forum.touringplans.com/t/the-genie-thread-all-wdw-info-here/81599

1. Second LL Reservation A guest may apply for a second LL at the earliest of:
   a) Once you tap in (at both tap points, if applicable) at your first attraction
   b) The end time of your return window (excluding the grace period)
   c) The later of:
   • Two hours after you obtain your first LL
   • Two hours after official opening (i.e., not the early entry opening) of the park where the selected LL attraction is located (this may be the park you are hopping to after 2pm).

So, to your question, for one you can’t park hop from Epcot to HS until 2pm anyways. Also, if Epcot is your first park but you’re making a LL selection after entering Epcot, if that LL selection is in HS, assuming you made a LL selection sometime before the park opened, the next LL selection you make for HS would be two hours after HS opens, not after Epcot opening.

I have an Epcot reservation for an upcoming trip where we’ll be hopping to HS in the mid afternoon timeframe. I plan on stacking LL selections for HS starting at 7am, then will make my next selection at 11am despite Epcot opening at 10am that day. I had previously thought I needed to wait until 12 to make that next selection, but it seems that is not the case.

 

[soniam]

I'm reading a lot about G+ at 7am if you are a resort guest. Any off-site reports? How is G+ working if you need to wait until park opens for off-site guests?

Thanks!!

G+ is available to everyone at 7am, onsite and offsite. It's the individual ones, ILL, like Rise, that can only be purchased by onsite guests at 7am. Rise has been selling out early, often before DHS opens.

 

[Ermise]

We just returned home from our trip last week and here are my observations from using Genie+:

• When I say we rope-dropped, I mean we either made it to where they were holding people before 8:30 but had many people in front of us. We were never at the front of the pack.
• We had no need to purchase any individual lightning lanes and were able to ride all of those rides (except Frozen which we were not looking to) with the longest standby wait being around 35-40 minutes.
• There was confusion from some guests, similar to when Fastpass+ first rolled out, with many people holding up the lightning lane entrance trying to figure out why they were getting the dreaded blue light. It seemed like some people thought that once they had purchased Genie+ that was all they needed to do. They didn't realize they then had to make reservations for individual rides.
• Genie+ was not necessary at Epcot. We used the virtual queue for Remy's at Epcot, joined right at 7am, and received boarding groups 5 and 2 on our two visits (a Tuesday and Friday). Epcot was not busy at all, even with the Food & Wine festival. Soarin' was typically under 30 minutes and Test Track maxed out at 45 minutes. Frozen was the one ride where waits were rarely under an hour. If Frozen is a must ride, try and rope drop in the 30 minute early admission period. Even if you aren't at the front of the pack that will be the shortest wait all day. At park close it was still around 90 minutes.
• Genie+ was not necessary at Animal Kingdom. This park was not busy at all on our visit (Wednesday the 10th). Everest was a walk on all day which I've never seen before. We rode that 3 times in the early admission period then walked over to the Safari shortly after 9am. We waited for 5-10 minutes to get on. Later in the day we rode Everest again multiple times with maybe a 10 minute wait at most. We waited in the standby line for Flight of Passage in the afternoon, twice, and both times waited 35-40 minutes. We waited standby for Navi as well and it was about 25-30 minutes.
• We purchased Genie+ for our first full day of Hollywood Studios and were glad we did. At 7am I made a reservation for Toy Story Midway Mania with a return time of 10:15-11:15. At one point most rides seemed like they had 80 minute waits posted with Tower of Terror at 120 minutes. ToT was not running at full capacity which really increased the wait times. We had roped drop Aerosmith and rode that twice with no wait in the early admission period. Then went to Tower of Terror and waited about 20 minutes. We then were able to use Genie+ for all of the other rides including Tower of Terror and Aerosmith again later during the day. What we found was that there were periods of "nothing to do" while we waited for the next return window to open. We used those periods for relaxing, having a snack, or browsing shops. For the last two rides of the night we rode standby for Mickey and Minnie and then Rise of the Resistance, which we just made by 3 minutes before the line closed. We ended up waiting about 20 minutes for the Railway and 30 minutes for Rise of the Resistance. On our arrival night we came to Hollywood Studios had dinner and then rode Mickey and Minnie, Millennium Falcon, and Slinky Dog all in standby lines. We waited 40 minutes, 30 minutes, and 35 minutes respectively.
• We purchased Genie+ for our days in the Magic Kingdom which is where it had the most benefit by far. Our plan each day was to rope drop Space Mountain, ride a couple of smaller rides, like Buzz and then go to our first ride reservation, which for us was Big Thunder Mountain each day, then continue making ride reservations with the next earliest availability. This meant we were not stacking rides but were moving from ride to ride. As the day went on and return times were later, we did end up having 2 or 3 rides stacked at the end of the day. Jungle Cruise, or Jingle Cruise, was the ride at MK that had the latest return times early in the morning. The standby waits were crazy long so it made sense to reserve that one for later in the day then wait for the window to open back up to reserve another ride. We just picked the shortest standby lines while waited to reserve the next ride.
• At 7am, or shortly after, I made our first reservation for BTMRR each day. What I found interesting was that the first available return time was always around 11am. After you specify your party, the confirmation screen shows the return time again. This time was quite often different than what was listed originally on the Tip Board screen, usually just by a few minutes or so, but some times drastically different so you have to pay attention. I reserved the ride and then wanted to see if I could get an earlier time so I canceled and went through the process again. Each day (3 in total) by doing this cancel/rebook process I was able to reserve a return time of 9:15-10:15am. I also found that I did not have to actually reserve the ride to recheck for earlier times. When I got to the confirmation screen I could back out to the Tip Board, drag the top of the screen down to refresh, and then click into the ride again to see what if the return time changed.
• Throughout the day I was able to reserve some return times earlier than what was being advertised on the Tip Board by going through that process. It was tedious and not as easy as the "refresh" process with Fastpass+ but it was doable. Similar to our plan at the other parks, we got into line for Seven Dwarves Mine Train at the end of the night and had very minimal waits. One day Big Thunder Railroad was down when our ride reservation window opened so it was replaced with the "any ride" reservation. We rebooked for Big Thunder and it was closed again so we received another "any ride" reservation. These were great because they were good for the entire day and we were able to make an additional ride reservations as well. They were good for any ride except Peter Pan, Space Mountain, and Seven Dwarves.

 

[TinkBink]

Trying to keep up and plan our strategy for our trip in May! I'm reading a lot about making another reservation after the 120 min rule or the expiration window for the ride. I thought you were able to make another reservation as soon as you've tapped into your reservation? So if I have a ride from 9-10, I tap into the ride at 9 and then I can make another reservation right then and there? That's what some of the blogs make it seem like but after reading this board I feel like I'm misunderstanding something......

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Trying to keep up and plan our strategy for our trip in May! I'm reading a lot about making another reservation after the 120 min rule or the expiration window for the ride. I thought you were able to make another reservation as soon as you've tapped into your reservation? So if I have a ride from 9-10, I tap into the ride at 9 and then I can make another reservation right then and there? That's what some of the blogs make it seem like but after reading this board I feel like I'm misunderstanding something......

You are correct. You can make another G+ LL reservation after you have done the "2nd tap" of the LL attraction you are currently on. Once you tap the 2nd time (once at the LL entrance, once close to entering the actual attraction), you can make another reservation. You can also make another LL reservation after 120 minutes, in the event you have a LL attraction scheduled more than 2 hours out. Hope that makes sense.

 

[trompettecon]

Going in January and will go directly to HS after leaving our bags at hotel. Will arrive in park around 16h00. So want to make sure I have the right Genie+ strategy. I should reserve the most popular rides (that I'm interested in) for the latest time possible righ? Here is what I'm thinking:
7h00 a.m. = Reserve MF for around 20h00-21h00
9h00 a.m. when park opens = SDD for around 18h00-19h00
11h00 a.m (if able to on the plane) = Reserve Star Tours for 16h00-17h00?

Is there anything else I could do to stack?
Ty

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Going in January and will go directly to HS after leaving our bags at hotel. Will arrive in park around 16h00. So want to make sure I have the right Genie+ strategy. I should reserve the most popular rides (that I'm interested in) for the latest time possible righ? Here is what I'm thinking:
7h00 a.m. = Reserve MF for around 20h00-21h00
9h00 a.m. when park opens = SDD for around 18h00-19h00
11h00 a.m (if able to on the plane) = Reserve Star Tours for 16h00-17h00?

Is there anything else I could do to stack?
Ty

G+ attractions do not give you an option to select a time to return. You get offered 'next available', similar to the original paper FP. So you'll have to be lucky to get the specific times you seek. If you do an ILL attraction that you pay extra for, you can select a time that's available.

Also, if you make a G+ LL reservation at 7AM, you can't make your next until 120 minutes after park opening - so 11AM in your example.

 

[elgerber]

Going in January and will go directly to HS after leaving our bags at hotel. Will arrive in park around 16h00. So want to make sure I have the right Genie+ strategy. I should reserve the most popular rides (that I'm interested in) for the latest time possible righ? Here is what I'm thinking:
7h00 a.m. = Reserve MF for around 20h00-21h00
9h00 a.m. when park opens = SDD for around 18h00-19h00
11h00 a.m (if able to on the plane) = Reserve Star Tours for 16h00-17h00?

Is there anything else I could do to stack?
Ty

You will want to do SDD first, or you will not get it. You cannot book another until 11, it's 2 hours after park opens.

 

[katyringo]

I've been rethinking my HS strategy .. this is long sorry!

as a solo traveler.. I want to ride SDD but it's not be all end all..

I'm going the Monday after thanksgiving as my Hday.. so crowds remain unknown.. could have lingering holiday crowds.. there could be a lull....

But... I'm not park hopping. Rise is a priority so I am inclined to book my ILL for that first... and MMRR (has it ever ran out of ILL in the morning?)

but if I'm not park hopping then could it actually be worse for me to get stuck with a SDD for later after noon and evening and thus locking me out until 11am to book another?

I realize if I don't book SDD first then I probably won't get a genie+ For it..

but would genie then be more valuable to me to be able to book more of the other rides?

Idk.. right now this was my plan:

7am
Buy rise (aim for 12-1 time)
Book SDD
Buy MMRR (aim for 1-2 time)

*booking rise and MMRR for heavy crowd times.

early entry rope drop: head to TT and RR

I can single ride RR

Single ride MFSR...

In theory if I can get an earlier time for SDD then I could use genie+ for some shows, TSMM...


what if I forgo SDD and just start booking other things. Could I get more things with Genie+? I mean.. maybe I just suck up the standby for SDD?

 

[trompettecon]

G+ attractions do not give you an option to select a time to return. You get offered 'next available', similar to the original paper FP. So you'll have to be lucky to get the specific times you seek. If you do an ILL attraction that you pay extra for, you can select a time that's available.

Also, if you make a G+ LL reservation at 7AM, you can't make your next until 120 minutes after park opening - so 11AM in your example.

Oh! I thought you could push back the time to return at will with Genie+ I read everything and still missed something. Thank you TFN!

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Oh! I thought you could push back the time to return at will with Genie+ I read everything and still missed something. Thank you TFN!

It's a new world of LL and strategies! Good luck with your choices!

 

[Grasshopper2016]

I think the following will save you the most waiting time (but conversely, the return window will be out the farthest), in this order:

That's what I hate about this system. You can use G+ for rides that have very long lines. But your return window will be much later, so you won't be able to use it on more than a few rides. Or you can use G+ on rides with return windows that are much closer in time. This will get you on more rides. But those are the rides that have the shortest standby lines (and are less desirable), and therefore you won't really save yourself that much time in line. And you won't be skipping any of the long lines.

I know that stacking can help, especially if you are hopping to DHS and don't use any LL rides in your first park. But it just seems like the system designed to frustrate.

Today we were in MK. Booked jungle cruise at 7:30 for 2:20. Then at 10 booked Peter Pan for 3:05. . . . It was SUPER crowded today.

TP had MK as a crowd level of 4 on Friday. Think of how bad (and comparatively useless) G+ is going to be when the crowd level is 9 or 10!

 

[GBRforWDW]

7am
Buy rise (aim for 12-1 time)
Book SDD
Buy MMRR (aim for 1-2 time

I would grab SDD first. Those are going in minutes. If you ran into an issue purchasing Rise, you might miss out on SDD.

 

[katyringo]

I would grab SDD first. Those are going in minutes. If you ran into an issue purchasing Rise, you might miss out on SDD.

That's helpful. I just wonder if it's worth skipping Genie+ for SDD all
Together knowing I'm spending all day at HS..

 

[GBRforWDW]

That's helpful. I just wonder if it's worth skipping Genie+ for SDD all
Together knowing I'm spending all day at HS..

Hard to say. If you can luck out and score a first hour pass, you'll probably have the best options at other passes, but if you have to wait until 11 for your next one, I think is the worst just cause all the other passes are getting snapped up

 

[soniam]

That's helpful. I just wonder if it's worth skipping Genie+ for SDD all
Together knowing I'm spending all day at HS..

Would you skip SDD? You could try it during EE. I think if you don't get a G+ or don't do it during EE, then you will either wait a very long time or have to ride it right before park closing. However, Monday after Thanksgiving may not be too bad. Decisions, decisions, decisions

 

[TinkBink]

You are correct. You can make another G+ LL reservation after you have done the "2nd tap" of the LL attraction you are currently on. Once you tap the 2nd time (once at the LL entrance, once close to entering the actual attraction), you can make another reservation. You can also make another LL reservation after 120 minutes, in the event you have a LL attraction scheduled more than 2 hours out. Hope that makes sense.

Okay thank you so much for that information!! So our typical schedule is rope dropping to about 12, taking an afternoon break and then park hopping to another park around 4. I'm thinking our best strategy is to book a Genie+ ride for park opening and then tapping in and seeing what we get immediately after that (and continue that trend until we break at 12). Then using the 12-4 break to stack a few rides for the evening park? I know we risk the big rides being gone but we have a 1 and 4 year old and just want to ride whatever we don't have to wait for