The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[g-dad66]

It’s hard to tell from the Facebook reports, since most people seem to be reporting what other people have said. But it sounds like you may still be able to rebook after tapping in, as long as you tap in less than 2 hours from when you booked that specific reservation, or something along those lines. In other words, if your return time is right away, you can use it and get something else right away. Folks just aren’t able to test that today because nearly everything is 2+ hours away.

So it would work more like classic FastPass if that’s true. You get a new reservation when you tap in, OR after 2 hours, but not both. But we should know more soon.

If so, this would still allow you to stack.

You just wouldn't be able to double-stack or triple-stack, etc.

 

[DisneyKidds]

I’m skeptical of this rumor that you can no longer make new selections at tap in. Not seeing it anywhere else except the chatter here that is reportedly coming from Facebook. If there’s no stacking going on, it’d be amazing that nearly all G+ LL selections are done for the day already.

Where there is smoke…

When I first saw the ‘grace period hack’ talked about I figured that might be something they eliminated. Sounds like (hopefully) you can still do standard stacking. Based on the chatter it sounds like…whether stacking or not….you now have to wait two hours after tapping in to work you LL reservation (individual or stacks)?

 

[elgerber]

It’s hard to tell from the Facebook reports, since most people seem to be reporting what other people have said. But it sounds like you may still be able to rebook after tapping in, as long as you tap in less than 2 hours from when you booked that specific reservation, or something along those lines. In other words, if your return time is right away, you can use it and get something else right away. Folks just aren’t able to test that today because nearly everything is 2+ hours away.

So it would work more like classic FastPass if that’s true. You get a new reservation when you tap in, OR after 2 hours, but not both. But we should know more soon.

Yes that is what appears to be happening. You can book after tap in, if you don't have another booked.
You can still book another after 2 hours, if your other window hasn't opened yet. But if it opens right after that two hours, you won't be able to get another one until two hours after booked the other one.

 

[DisneyKidds]

Yes that is what appears to be happening. You can book after tap in, if you don't have another booked.
You can still book another after 2 hours, if your other window hasn't opened yet. But if it opens right after that two hours, you won't be able to get another one until two hours after booked the other one.

Hmmm….this would mean you can make the stack, but you can’t work the stacks for new reservations when you tap.

Poopy.

So….if that’s the case then I guess I’ll be pushing for quadruple/quintuple hop stacks (if there are still LL reservations to be had at 3:00 or 5:00, and the return on stack 1 extends past 3:00 or 5:00).

Pivot THAT Cheapek!

 

[CBMom01]

Slinky and Rise are insane. Just back from the World on Sunday and did two days at HS.

Day 1: Went for Rise first, got it no issues. Then tried to get SDD, gone by 7:04. Kept refreshing, at 7:10, more times popped up, and I was able to grab 3:30-4:30.

Day 2: Went for SDD first, got it for 3:15-4:15, completely gone by 7:02.

I'll continue to say this, but Genie is a must for HS. Also paid for Rise and MMRR, which made HS an expensive park day, but we nailed everything we wanted in about 6 hours, made it a very pleasant day.

HS Is a huuuuuuuuuge money sink if you do Genie+, $LL and a droid or saber.

$107 ticket
$214 saber
$16 genie+
$24 for 2 LL
$30 food (and that’s conservative)

You’re at almost $400 pp/day

But if like me, doing it up like that (all in) once or maybe twice in a lifetime the $16 starts to feel insignificant in the big picture

 

[Grasshopper2016]

$16 starts to feel insignificant in the big picture

And that's how they get you. (And me.)

 

[GBRforWDW]

And that's how they get you. (And me.)

Yeah, to me, if you just buy it with your ticket, it's almost not even noticable. Though it's nice you have the option to not get it every day if you don't want it, for AK and Epcot.

 

[dez1978]

I’m seeing reports that as of today, genie plus users can’t keep their stacks rolling and are only able to book every 120 minutes. (They can’t rebook once they tap in). Is anyone in the parks today that can confirm?

I was just coming to ask this as I’d read it on a fb group

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I was just coming to ask this as I’d read it on a fb group

Is this being reported anywhere outside of facebook? Because I’m not seeing it on other reputable forums.

 

[leeniewdw]

[QUOTE="dmunsil, post: 63558844, member: 174088"

So it would work more like classic FastPass if that’s true. You get a new reservation when you tap in, OR after 2 hours, but not both. But we should know more soon.
[/QUOTE]

So (presuming reports are true), nothing today would indicate you couldn't arrive at a park (say on arrival day) with a stack of 3 LLs (presuming availability at time you grab them: 7, 11, 1). And taking this example further....So if I arrived at HS with 3 LLs in the afternoon, as I start to use them, no slots would open up in my stack, but rather I could make another 2 hours after my last reservation grab (in this case at 3pm)?

*I realize this is all hypothetical.

 

[g-dad66]

[QUOTE="dmunsil, post: 63558844, member: 174088"

So it would work more like classic FastPass if that’s true. You get a new reservation when you tap in, OR after 2 hours, but not both. But we should know more soon.

So (presuming reports are true), nothing today would indicate you couldn't arrive at a park (say on arrival day) with a stack of 3 LLs (presuming availability at time you grab them: 7, 11, 1). And taking this example further....So if I arrived at HS with 3 LLs in the afternoon, as I start to use them, no slots would open up in my stack, but rather I could make another 2 hours after my last reservation grab (in this case at 3pm)?

*I realize this is all hypothetical.
[/QUOTE]

I assume the way it would work is:
I have a stack of 3 that I reserved at 7am, 11am,1pm

I now use the first one at 2pm. My eligibility time resets to 4pm (2 hours).
I now use the second one at 3pm. My eligibility time resets to 5pm (2 hours). It replaces the 4pm time. Thus, I cannot double-stack.

Just speculating here. We have yet to learn confirmation of what the change is (if any).

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

So (presuming reports are true), nothing today would indicate you couldn't arrive at a park (say on arrival day) with a stack of 3 LLs (presuming availability at time you grab them: 7, 11, 1). And taking this example further....So if I arrived at HS with 3 LLs in the afternoon, as I start to use them, no slots would open up in my stack, but rather I could make another 2 hours after my last reservation grab (in this case at 3pm)?

*I realize this is all hypothetical.

I assume the way it would work is:
I have a stack of 3 that I reserved at 7am, 11am,1pm

I now use the first one at 2pm. My eligibility time resets to 4pm (2 hours).
I now use the second one at 3pm. My eligibility time resets to 5pm (2 hours). It replaces the 4pm time. Thus, I cannot double-stack.

Just speculating here. We have yet to learn confirmation of what the change is (if any).
[/QUOTE]
That can’t be right. Any time you tap into a ride you must wait 2 hours to make a new LL? So there’s no more booking a new fp after using one?

 

[katyringo]

So (presuming reports are true), nothing today would indicate you couldn't arrive at a park (say on arrival day) with a stack of 3 LLs (presuming availability at time you grab them: 7, 11, 1). And taking this example further....So if I arrived at HS with 3 LLs in the afternoon, as I start to use them, no slots would open up in my stack, but rather I could make another 2 hours after my last reservation grab (in this case at 3pm)?

*I realize this is all hypothetical.

 

[katyringo]

I think the time in which you book matters-

if I book a ride for 12pm at 7am this means I can book another at 11 for a 9am opening.

At 11 I book a ride for 3pm.

I ride my 12pm ride.

I can make another choice at 1pm. At 1pm I make a choice for 6pm.

I ride my 3pm ride.

at 3 pm I can make another choice. I get a 7pm.

at 5 pm I can make another selection. I get an 8pm.

I now have a rides booked for 7 and 8 and can make another choice hypothetically at 7pm..

I've kept 2 at a time most of the day but I'm not booking 2 at a time.. if that makes sense.

 

[Grasshopper2016]

My admittedly uninformed speculation is that this is the new rule:

You can make a new LL reservation when you scan in for an existing LL reservation, UNLESS you have another unused LL reservation still in the system. In that case, you cannot make a new LL reservation until either (1) you scan in for your final existing reservation, or (2) 120 minutes from when you last made an LL reservation.

 

[katyringo]

My admittedly uninformed speculation is that this is the new rule:

You can make a new LL reservation when you scan in for an existing LL reservation, UNLESS you have another unused LL reservation still in the system. In that case, you cannot make a new LL reservation until either (1) you scan in for your final existing reservation, or (2) 120 minutes from when you last made an LL reservation.

me thinks this is correct and more
Lines up with what they advertised and what maxpass did.

 

[dmunsil]

If so, this would still allow you to stack.

You just wouldn't be able to double-stack or triple-stack, etc.

Oh, you could double and triple stack and so forth, it just perhaps takes longer. The big thing is that it doesn't let you maintain your stack once you have it. The big thing that made stacking valuable was that once you had two reservations, you could book a new one each time you tapped into either reservation, so you kept two all day.

I've been reading the FB groups (at least the ones I know about) and based only on first-person accounts from people who seem to understand how the system used to work, It seems most likely that they've adjusted the tap-in behavior, so it only gives you the ability to book if you are tapping into the ride before your eligibility time for that specific ride.

In other words:

• At 9:00 you book a ride from 10:30-11:30. Your eligibility time is set to 11:00 (2 hours after booking)
  • If you tap in at 10:30, you can book again immediately (and your eligibility time is cleared)
  • If you wait until 11:00, you can book again, but now tapping in on the 10:30-11:30 ride will no longer reset your eligibility, because you're tapping in later than the eligibility time that was set when you booked that ride. In other words, you've already "used up" your next reservation.

There are a few other possible ways they could have adjusted things that would explain the observed behavior, and figuring out how exactly the algorithms have changed will take some experimenting.

One thing seems like it could be tricky for Disney about this change. To keep things simple, Disney's literature about Genie+ just says, roughly, "you can book another after tapping in". Disney doesn't even mention the 2 hour timeout or expiration times at all. With this new rule, they will have a fair number of guests who will not be able to book once they've tapped in, and will then go to guest relations to complain, where they will hear (potentially for the first time) about this whole 2 hour thing, which is tricky to understand. Time will tell if that becomes a problem...

 

[dmunsil]

My admittedly uninformed speculation is that this is the new rule:

You can make a new LL reservation when you scan in for an existing LL reservation, UNLESS you have another unused LL reservation still in the system. In that case, you cannot make a new LL reservation until either (1) you scan in for your final existing reservation, or (2) 120 minutes from when you last made an LL reservation.

That could be, though I'm seeing some reports on FB that seem to contradict this. I think it's more likely that you don't get to book again if you already got to book again at 120 minutes (or expiration time) for that specific Genie+ booking. If they store in the database the time a reservation was made (which I can't believe they don't already do; it's such a low-hanging fruit), then it just requires a simple time comparison on the same database lookup they're already doing. So that's a simple change. Checking if you have a future reservation outstanding is a second, potentially larger, database lookup, which would be riskier when you're trying to turn the tapstile green as fast as possible.

 

[elgerber]

I assume the way it would work is:
I have a stack of 3 that I reserved at 7am, 11am,1pm

I now use the first one at 2pm. My eligibility time resets to 4pm (2 hours).
I now use the second one at 3pm. My eligibility time resets to 5pm (2 hours). It replaces the 4pm time. Thus, I cannot double-stack.

Just speculating here. We have yet to learn confirmation of what the change is (if any).

That can’t be right. Any time you tap into a ride you must wait 2 hours to make a new LL? So there’s no more booking a new fp after using one?
[/QUOTE]
not if you have another one currently booked. If the one you tapped into is the only one, then yes.

 

[Grasshopper2016]

That could be, though I'm seeing some reports on FB that seem to contradict this. I think it's more likely that you don't get to book again if you already got to book again at 120 minutes (or expiration time) for that specific Genie+ booking. If they store in the database the time a reservation was made (which I can't believe they don't already do; it's such a low-hanging fruit), then it just requires a simple time comparison on the same database lookup they're already doing. So that's a simple change. Checking if you have a future reservation outstanding is a second, potentially larger, database lookup, which would be riskier when you're trying to turn the tapstile green as fast as possible.

It seems like you understand the IT a lot better than I do. And, as I recall, you were spot on in figuring out how the system operated up until today. But I will say that my speculated rule is a whole lot easier for people to understand and work with than the rule that you are speculating that Disney has implemented. I'm still not entirely sure I've wrapped my head around the rule you are speculating.