The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[Selket]

If you do trust everyone not to mess up, the best would probably be for everyone in the group to have their own MDE account and to add each other to their Friends and Family list with authority to share plans. That’s how our family of all adults does it. When I’m on the trip they usually defer to me to make the plans, but they can help with things like booking LL or making mobile orders using their own accounts.

*** edited to say I was able to add one son after he made his own account so I think it is working for us - thanks!

So the other 3 (DH, & two young adults) do not have MDE. Right now I see their park tickets, park reservations, etc. So from what you're saying they can create their own MDE account and choose to share their plans with me. How does MDE pick up that the person named "Bob" in my account is my child named "Bob" who just made his own MDE?

 

[5DisneyNuts]

Suggest turning wi-fi off before trying for passes or VQ.
Wi-fi seems to be what causes the app to loop back to log in over and over. I was able to duplicate the issue consistently with wi-fi on, and didn't have it happen on mobile. FYI.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

So at 812 am, sdd still has passes today. ROTR does not

Predicted overall crowd level today is a 4 with HS at a 2 per tp, so this is not shocking.

 

[Selket]

I helped this family. Using refresh for them and got them Rise, slinky dog and MMRR.

where is my commission Disney?

Are you there all week? I'm headed down and could use some help lmao. I'm joking but that was really nice of you. Hopefully when I'm able to do it - it will all make more sense.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Suggest turning wi-fi off before trying for passes or VQ.
Wi-fi seems to be what causes the app to loop back to log in over and over. I was able to duplicate the issue consistently with wi-fi on, and didn't have it happen on mobile. FYI.

That's going to stink for international users, but as long as the ILL$ are selling out, Disney has no incentive to fix this.

 

[5DisneyNuts]

That's going to stink for international users, but as long as the ILL$ are selling out, Disney has no incentive to fix this.

Yes, I should add I tried both at resort and in the parks. I have an android. GET CM said the app works better on iPhone.

 

[leeniewdw]

This is very ambitious, but I wish you the best of luck!

We were there last week and yes, I know Thanksgiving is a week unto itself, but getting a ROTR LL and a SDD LL is a tall order. You really have to decide which one you want the most. Getting the LL for SDD only requires a few clicks but the IAS for ROTR requires a few more. All those seconds matter.

You should have no problem grabbing IAS for MMRR.

SDD was available well after 7am today. Had I been booking for our arrival, I would have had to wait until the return window met our ability to be in the parks. ROTR was also available after 7 for awhile.

will it be that way Friday? Who knows.

I am worried this may have been a glitch today. Maybe not... but my tip board and day were glitchy all day in MK..

So at 812 am, sdd still has passes today. ROTR does not

So yesterday things looked perfect for my very ambitious plan haha. Today was different. SDD went initially within a minute. MFSR went into my return time preference (mid-late afternoon) pretty quickly. So, thought we might flip to grabbing MFSR and forgo SDD (we've ridden it before). About 7:20 I looked again, MFSR return times were back to morning! I know this has been reported but I hadn't seen it before. Today I *should* have been able to grab SDD and RotR, but I think we're prioritizing MFSR > SDD, so I'll check what the deal is at 11am today.

And SO interesting that SDD went back to available later! I refreshed a fair amount at 7:20 and never saw it become available again.

 

[BrotherCraig]

Just got back from 6 days at Disney World and 5 days at Universal. Had a great time although the rain made things a little more challenging at Disney. With that said, Genie+ was a big success for us. We went to HS, Epcot, and MK.

HS: At 7 AM, booked Slinky Dog. Bought ROTR (ILL). Did not make Early Entry into the park but got there right at 9 AM. Hit ToT and it was a 7 minute wait (posted 20 minutes). Ended up having 4 rides booked at once using Genie+ and it worked out great. Hit every ride but Rockin' Rollercoaster. Genie+ was a lifesaver and made it a great day.

Epcot: At 7 AM, got Virtual Queue for the Remy Rat ride. Bought ILL for Frozen. Decided to not rope drop Epcot since we got those rides so got into Epcot at 11 AM. Used LL for most of the rides there but didn't have to for most there. Genie+ was not much of a value here but still was happy with it.

MK: At 7 AM, ILL Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (didn't care for that ride although kids enjoyed it), LL for Peter Pan. Ended up having 5 rides booked at once by late afternoon (Space Mountain ILL, BTMR, JC, Haunted, and Pirates). Genie+ was great for us at MK.

Merriest Christmas after-party was a bust for us. We only lasted one hour there because of the rain and cold. Cancelled parade and was told no fireworks (although they ended up having it). Big waste of money for our family.

 

[emmabelle]

And SO interesting that SDD went back to available later! I refreshed a fair amount at 7:20 and never saw it become available again.

Today, I saw them all gone by 7:01am for SDD. Awesome... now I can spend even more time on my phone hoping that more will pop up later.

 

[5DisneyNuts]

Today, I saw them all gone by 7:01am for SDD. Awesome... now I can spend even more time on my phone hoping that more will pop up later.

Hahaha exactly.
Just to add my experience, when something popped up, I received errors trying to book and was not successful.
Also it's not FP+ refresh, the timing has to be right. If your eligibility window isn't open you won't be able to book.
By the time you cancel a G+ to book SDD it will be gone.
Based on how quickly SDD sells out, I wouldn't be surprised if MMRR becomes G+ and SDD ILL$

 

[5DisneyNuts]

Predicted overall crowd level today is a 4 with HS at a 2 per tp, so this is not shocking.

I'm curious how crowd calendars are low, yet MK/DS park reservations sold out with G+ options seemingly available later. Does Disney reduce park capacity that much?

 

[4_canucks]

I've seen many posts mentioning posted wait times inaccuracies, and some with references to Touring Plans being more accurate. For those who use TP in addition to MDE for wait times, do you visit TP's website via a browser, or are you using their app (and is it the "lines" one)? I have not subscribed to TP yet but want to get a sense of whether it'd be flipping between two apps or an app and a browser page or..

thanks in advance.

 

[BrotherCraig]

I've seen many posts mentioning posted wait times inaccuracies, and some with references to Touring Plans being more accurate. For those who use TP in addition to MDE for wait times, do you visit TP's website via a browser, or are you using their app (and is it the "lines" one)? I have not subscribed to TP yet but want to get a sense of whether it'd be flipping between two apps or an app and a browser page or..

thanks in advance.

I used the app the whole time and it was pretty close to being accurate. Disney posted wait times were off quite a bit.

 

[BrotherCraig]

I'm curious how crowd calendars are low, yet MK/DS park reservations sold out with G+ options seemingly available later. Does Disney reduce park capacity that much?

Crowd Calendars are off. Not accurate this year in my experience the last couple of weeks.

 

[Figment1990]

It definitely didn’t feel like a 3/10 in either HS or epcot yesterday. At HS slinky was up to 90 min by the time we left around 2 pm and various others kept popping up to 70-80 min regularly. Perhaps it’s a lightning lane effect but it made it a bit stressful. I guess I’m just not a holiday traveler. At Epcot it was SOOOOO crowded in the world showcase at night. I knew it was like that for food and wine but wasn’t expecting it for holiday festival. Just way more crowds than I like to navigate. I will flip the plans next time and do world showcase in the daytime and future nature discover celebration wall world in the evening.

also ourwait times almost always matched disneys posted times.

 

[Mango7100]

I guess! Apparently their travel agent has promised to do all that for them.. and didn't.

Yikes, the travel agent should have never promised to do Genie+ for them. I be getting a new agent…or just not use one (we never have for any trip)

 

[itf]

I'm curious how crowd calendars are low, yet MK/DS park reservations sold out with G+ options seemingly available later. Does Disney reduce park capacity that much?

Yeesh so even a TP Level 2 HS day there's 0 availability for off-site guests for ROTR.

 

[dez1978]

Yeesh so even a TP Level 2 HS day there's 0 availability for off-site guests for ROTR.

Or remy unless you have reservations for Epcot. Id planned to hop to Epcot but looks like that might not work

 

[leeniewdw]

I'm curious how crowd calendars are low, yet MK/DS park reservations sold out with G+ options seemingly available later. Does Disney reduce park capacity that much?

Wow, I didn't realize the park reservations where sold out. If I'm reading TP right, HS is sold out on Friday and that happened on 11/28. Thank goodness we firmed up our plans (just) before that happened!

And you're right. There are LLs for 2-4pm for ToT, RnRC, TSMM still available.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I've seen many posts mentioning posted wait times inaccuracies, and some with references to Touring Plans being more accurate. For those who use TP in addition to MDE for wait times, do you visit TP's website via a browser, or are you using their app (and is it the "lines" one)? I have not subscribed to TP yet but want to get a sense of whether it'd be flipping between two apps or an app and a browser page or..

thanks in advance.

The lines app is worth the price of the subscription. That's what I use.