The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[goofynut41]

If we get there at rope drop can we do all all star wars first and then LL TOT and SDD?

 

[JakeAZ]

If we get there at rope drop can we do all all star wars first and then LL TOT and SDD?

We did this Thanksgiving week, however only because we lucked out during the 7am cluster and got a LL for SDD at 10:20am.

We arrived at HS at 7:45am. Got through bag check and entranced and were queued at the tunnel for about 10 minutes. Then they started letting us in and the line for ROTR never stopped. We were on and off the ride before 8:30am. We went to MFSR next and were off before 9am. Did all of Toy Story land after and due to the SDD LL, we were done with both lands by 10:45am.

It really just depends on how crowded it is when you go and how lucky you get during the 7am Genie drop for SDD.

 

[JakeAZ]

First, note that you had to BUY access to SDMT. Doesn’t that give you pause at all? Something that was previously free, you now have to pay to get. Second, you lucked out in getting the attractions you mention in the order you wanted them. Some of us don’t want to rely on luck when we are paying thousands of dollars. Going to DisneyWorld shouldn’t be like visiting a LasVegas casino…

100% on the money. It's stupid. But if you are going, you have to jump through the Disney hoops and play by the Disney rules / rely on luck in order to make sure you're able to enjoy the thousands you've already spent.

For those reasons, we have no plans to return.

 

[KBL3782]

Were you able to book ILL$ the next day (and subsequent days) at 7:00? Or did the system still not recognize your Dolphin reservation? If you were, did you do anything to get the system to recognize it? We will be staying at the Swan later this month. We're arriving at night, so we're not going to the parks on arrival day. But I'm hoping to purchase hard-to-get ILL$s at 7:00 the next morning. And I'm very concerned about reports of the Genie system not recognizing a Swan or Dolphin reservation, even though it is still showing in MDE.

I stayed at the Dolphin this past weekend & had that issue. My friend had booked the reservation, she was able to buy G+ but I was not (even thought it showed up in MDE). We were fortunate to be at the Christmas party when we realized the problem so a quick stop at Guest Services and they were able to fix it so I had no issue the next morning. I believe it is also something the hotel is able to fix, so it may be worth a call to them prior to arrival or at least talk to them when you check in?

 

[persnickity]

While this is true, what about all the times someone refreshes for a potential better time? Wouldn’t the availability for those be based on how many people canceled a G+ for a particular time? For example, if one person canceled their 1:15 PM RnR G+, a family of four wouldn’t see that because there was just one available at that time (when let’s say its currently booking out at 3:00 PM…which is what would show up for the family of four), but someone looking for just one person would see the 1:15 available time. Even if a party of three canceled an earlier time slot a family of four still wouldn’t see that, but parties of 1, 2, and 3 would.

You choose your time before selecting your party - they have purposefully created this system to not factor in the number of riders. So, yes, the family of four can still see and book a reservation that was dropped by a smaller party.

If they increase the number of LL reservations allowable per hour in any significant way (surely they are considering this, as waits even during Thanksgiving week were very, very low), they may need to factor in party size before displaying availability.

 

[Datfan1]

Newbie question here. When I stack rides do they still have to be 2 hours apart?

 

[leeniewdw]

Newbie question here. When I stack rides do they still have to be 2 hours apart?

The return times? No. That was never the case. You can have return times that overlap. The 2 hours is between making reservations if you are not actually going to use the reservation/return time before 2 hours elapses.

 

[TropicalDIS]

While this is true, what about all the times someone refreshes for a potential better time? Wouldn’t the availability for those be based on how many people canceled a G+ for a particular time? For example, if one person canceled their 1:15 PM RnR G+, a family of four wouldn’t see that because there was just one available at that time (when let’s say its currently booking out at 3:00 PM…which is what would show up for the family of four), but someone looking for just one person would see the 1:15 available time. Even if a party of three canceled an earlier time slot a family of four still wouldn’t see that, but parties of 1, 2, and 3 would.

I don't think so. I think the new system goes by # of time slots, that's it. If a 1:15 PM time slot is cancelled for LL, then there will be 1 1:15 time slot going back into the system, up for grabs by whomever is quickest to get it.

 

[BethR9]

If I try to book SDMT right at 7am for an ILL, what time should I expect to ride that (meaning what time do you think the first available ILL to book would show up)? This will be on a crowd level 9 day over MLK weekend.

 

[DavidNYC]

If I try to book SDMT right at 7am for an ILL, what time should I expect to ride that (meaning what time do you think the first available ILL to book would show up)? This will be on a crowd level 9 day over MLK weekend.

The problem with the phrase "right at 7am" is that you probably are actually talking somewhere between 7am and 7:02 am and seconds make big differences first thing in the morning. It doesn't look like 7DMT is as nuts as SDD you'll probably still be able to range from early morning to early afternoon depending on how fast your fingers are.

 

[BethR9]

The problem with the phrase "right at 7am" is that you probably are actually talking somewhere between 7am and 7:02 am and seconds make big differences first think in the morning. It doesn't look like 7DMT is as nuts as SDD you'll probably still be able to range from early morning to early afternoon depending on how fast your fingers are.

Thank you! First time using ILL, will choices of times pop up or just one time and I have to take it? Trying to plan everything else for that day as well so want to be prepared if this throws off my other planned things.

 

[DavidNYC]

Thank you! First time using ILL, will choices of times pop up or just one time and I have to take it? Trying to plan everything else for that day as well so want to be prepared if this throws off my other planned things.

I believe the paid rides do offer you choices throughout the day that are available (unlike the regular Genie+ rides). So you can choose a little later in the day if that works.

 

[Figment1990]

Who are these people cancelling? I bet the amount is low. I know we were not willing to lose our “for sure” rides…

And then, when could you book again? What if it was a pick from earlier and you made another since then? Would you cancel only to have to wait another two hours to book again?

We canceled a LL for Aliens during thanksgiving week just because we were in TSL and our bodies were asking us not to trek over to ToT and then back to TSL. We waited 20 min when we could have waited none with the LL but it was still less time than walking back and forth across the park. We definitely cancelled and didn’t just let it expire.

 

[Figment1990]

Thank you! First time using ILL, will choices of times pop up or just one time and I have to take it? Trying to plan everything else for that day as well so want to be prepared if this throws off my other planned things.

For ILL$ you will want to tap on the paid LL on the tip board and then select the hour you are interested in and then the 15 (or so) minute time frame below that and then your party.
For busy times I highly recommend having a plan that allows you to accept a time that is in a 2 hour period and selecting the earlier time, in case by the time u tap thru to the next screen it has jumped forward. For example, we wanted to ride RotR somewhere between 11-12:30, so we were sure to tap 11 and then 11:00 quickly just in case it jumped to 11:30 or 12:00 we would be ok. (Rather than tapping for say 12:00 and ending up with a 12:45 or something that ran into an ADR).

It does seem that there is a 10 min hold once you get to the payment confirmation screen. You will see this message at the top of your screen.

My second recommendation is that if you are trying for a high demand ILL$ and G+ on the same day, ask a second person in your party to do the other. You can do this from the same MDE account on different devices. It is helpful for things like SDD and RotR (or MFSR if u are trying for an early time).

Finally, if you don’t get your ILLs at 7:00, keep trying for at least 10-15 min. Same with G+. This is because of that 10 min hold. It seems to replenish the inventory after the hold.

Andif you find yourself needing to do a 120 min booking at say, 12:04 or 10:03, or 1:02, this is not necessarily a bad thing. More times than not my app would crash on the hour more than on the off minutes. It makes it more difficult to get hard to secure G+ during busy times but it is a tiny bit less stressful than seeing the “we’re sorry, something went wrong” message.

 

[Sydnerella]

Yes, but this isn’t fast past.

I’m sure you are right, there are some who may cancel and will.

From my experience thanksgiving week, I only saw one or two attractions pop up that were previously already distributed. And that was over several days and after many refreshes (my poor family, my face was glued to my phone all week).

I can corroborate your experience TG week. Not much for cancellations and the G+ LLs were gone earlier than all the times I found when I researched prior to our trip. So by the third booking there was little left sometimes.

And to the point from @katyringo about time spent to be prepared - Many hours were spent figuring out a strategy but much was blown out of the water by the demand and technology limitations, app issues, mid-trip adjustment to how the LL eligibility even worked and ride malfunctions.

I’m sure we fared better than people who don’t know Disney as well nor spent time learning the new system - but it still really sucked to deal with and have my phone out as much as it was needed. Not to mention the GET visits.

I can see how it would be more productive and beneficial in less crowded situations - heck, we got more done 11/20 and 21 than we did the other days at those parks because they hadn’t changed the eligibility rules yet and crowds were not super peak yet.

 

[Loopster]

You choose your time before selecting your party - they have purposefully created this system to not factor in the number of riders. So, yes, the family of four can still see and book a reservation that was dropped by a smaller party.

If they increase the number of LL reservations allowable per hour in any significant way (surely they are considering this, as waits even during Thanksgiving week were very, very low), they may need to factor in party size before displaying availability.

I don't think so. I think the new system goes by # of time slots, that's it. If a 1:15 PM time slot is cancelled for LL, then there will be 1 1:15 time slot going back into the system, up for grabs by whomever is quickest to get it.

Interesting! That makes sense. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[duder92]

Im on site and trying to add genie+ through the app. when I get to the screen to purchase it and scroll down, the button that I assume says next or purchase is blank and nothing happens when I press it.

Any ideas?

 

[NMPensFan]

Im on site and trying to add genie+ through the app. when I get to the screen to purchase it and scroll down, the button that I assume says next or purchase is blank and nothing happens when I press it.

Any ideas?

This happened to me yesterday. Had to go to front desk and by then everything worthwhile was gone. LL total waste of money. Today sdd was never an option. Still refreshing like mad

 

[leeniewdw]

We canceled a LL for Aliens during thanksgiving week just because we were in TSL and our bodies were asking us not to trek over to ToT and then back to TSL. We waited 20 min when we could have waited none with the LL but it was still less time than walking back and forth across the park. We definitely cancelled and didn’t just let it expire.

Also, if you don't cancel a ride before it expires, you can't rebook it that day. So if people are running behind or need a break and realize you can't get to the ride before it expires, it makes sense to cancel and then try to rebook. We accidentally let our Mission Space LL expire because were running behind and TT had a long line (even for LL). It didn't matter because Space was a walk on, but people will WANT to cancel if they plan on trying to re-book a LL for the same ride.

 

[Cotta]

Im on site and trying to add genie+ through the app. when I get to the screen to purchase it and scroll down, the button that I assume says next or purchase is blank and nothing happens when I press it.

Any ideas?

I would delete the app and reload.