The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[wdhinn89]

Just back from our trip.
used genie + 4 out of the 5 days. I will say by the end of the week I got the hang of it,
Before the trip I watched every genie+ video on allears.net YouTube page which definitely helped.
the biggest things I learned
**avoid that first thing in the morning 120min rule at all costs. It sets you up for a lot of long waits inbetween lightning lanes. One day I only got 2 lightning lanes for the day because of a later Peter Pan LL… our last day I got 12 for the day and still got a LL for pan later in the day.

**lightning lanes keep popping back up through the day. (Even the hardest ones to get) If something looks sold out first thing in the AM it’s actually not. Keep pulling down refreshing.

** alway edit your selections of lightning lane preferences for the next ride you want. Example-after tapping into buzz lightyear I put Tomorrowland speedway as my only ride and kept refreshing till it popped up for only 10 mins later. I used the same strategy for Peter Pan around 4pm when we had used almost all of the others in the park.
KEEP PULLING DOWN AND REFRESHING!

*** you have to be smart with your next ride choice so you aren’t running all over the park. Try and finish a section of the park at a time. Get all those lightning lanes before moving on.

*** you can tap in 5 minutes before your actually LL time starts

***use the 120 min rule for your lunch break.

*** if doing a half day stack LL for later in the day. Make a new LL every 2 hours. I did this as my boys swam in the pool. We had 5 LL waiting for us in HS that night.

My over all thoughts on genie+ system is it is very flawed. So many ways it could be improved. That being said I do think we will get it for future trips.. BUT I do think we will consider not getting park hopper next time because of it. It was the most successful for me on the day I stayed at MK all day.

Do you think Genie+ was necessary/worth it for Animal Kingdom and Epcot?

 

[KTwiegs]

We must have been lucky with our HS days. We got all the LL that we wanted to do. The first time we did 5 LL: Slinky, MFSR, RnRC, TSMM, Tower
Second time 6LL: Slinky, MFSR, RnRC, TSMM, Star Tours** and Alien Saucers. We opted not to do Tower since once a trip is enough for us. I think we could have gotten Tower if we wanted it, but our evening was pretty packed as it was (2PM arrival, leisurely dinner at Brown Derby).

Another possible strategy is to split G+ and ILL onto separate days if you go to Studios on more than one day. We did a short visit to HS on a third day and got Rise and MMRR ILL. I think ILL make more sense on a short morning visit to a park (we hopped to Epcot which doesn't benefit from G+ much).

** didn't really need it, standby was short

Yeah HS was a struggle for me. I think having littles makes it harder because they want slinky, mania etc. but I will tour HS much differently next trip. Rope drop one day. Stack LL another

 

[Orsino]

By 11 AM (or two hours after opening) MFSR might or might not be available.

Yes. I guess we were lucky on not having a super busy day. It was a Saturday (this past Saturday) so I thought it would a busy day. Anyway, it's kind of funny because when I was booking MFSR it was giving me a time too early (we had dinner ADR at 5PM). I ended up booking Spaceship earth at 11AM for a 11:05 return time (immediate), then booking MFSR at something like 11:11 for 5:40PM.

 

[KTwiegs]

Do you think Genie+ was necessary/worth it for Animal Kingdom and Epcot?

Definitely not. I did not get it for our AK/EP day. Rope dropped Navi river and safari was perfect for us. Not doing flight of passage till the kids are a bit bigger.
I did grab a ratatouille LL+$ for one of our park hopping day MK to EP
I don’t see need genie+ there for awhile if ever.

 

[snikki]

I am in the app and under My Day it shows that my park that day is Epcot. When I switch to the Tip Board will it automatically go to that park the day of?

I haven't made any selections or any of that. We don't go until November. Right now when I go to the tip board it will only go to today. It won't populate to November.

 

[Garyjames220]

I was wondering

what happens if a ride goes down and you have a genie plus LL for it, do they give you some sort of pass to go on any other ride instead if you miss your slot for it

when there has been an issue in the past, guest services used to give you some extra fast passes is that still the case with genie plus

also if a ride stops and starts a lot during your experience on the ride do they let you go again if you have paid for it

 

[Westerner]

I was wondering

what happens if a ride goes down and you have a genie plus LL for it, do they give you some sort of pass to go on any other ride instead if you miss your slot for it

when there has been an issue in the past, guest services used to give you some extra fast passes is that still the case with genie plus

also if a ride stops and starts a lot during your experience on the ride do they let you go again if you have paid for it

re your first question - yes. This happened to us on Big Thunder Mountain. It went down during our return window and we got a special replacement LL in the app that was good for a selection of rides but not all. We ended up using it for Haunted Mansion.

don't know about your 2nd question.

 

[jbish]

I am in the app and under My Day it shows that my park that day is Epcot. When I switch to the Tip Board will it automatically go to that park the day of?

I haven't made any selections or any of that. We don't go until November. Right now when I go to the tip board it will only go to today. It won't populate to November.

My upcoming trip isn't until April. Our first park reservation is for Epcot. When I open the Tip Board, Epcot is the chosen park and I can "Edit Selections" to keep my preferred rides up at the top of the list. Two things: a) I cannot "Edit Selections" for any other park, even if I change the park to something else, and b) tomorrow, my "edit selections" would no longer be selected. So my conclusion has been that Epcot shows up for me because it is my first reservation and the selections reset every day.

 

[snikki]

My upcoming trip isn't until April. Our first park reservation is for Epcot. When I open the Tip Board, Epcot is the chosen park and I can "Edit Selections" to keep my preferred rides up at the top of the list. Two things: a) I cannot "Edit Selections" for any other park, even if I change the park to something else, and b) tomorrow, my "edit selections" would no longer be selected. So my conclusion has been that Epcot shows up for me because it is my first reservation and the selections reset every day.

Ah ok. My first park day is Magic kingdom. Makes sense.

 

[LisaRay]

Hmmm I've been trying to figure this out and our trip is in 3 weeks and 1st park day is HS but when I open tip board it shows MK.

 

[Turksmom]

Hmmm I've been trying to figure this out and our trip is in 3 weeks and 1st park day is HS but when I open tip board it shows MK.

scroll all the way down on the page to change the park.

 

[Rivergirl2005]

re your first question - yes. This happened to us on Big Thunder Mountain. It went down during our return window and we got a special replacement LL in the app that was good for a selection of rides but not all. We ended up using it for Haunted Mansion.

don't know about your 2nd question.

Once it went down and you received the special replacement were you able to select another LL right away?

 

[Runnsally]

Once it went down and you received the special replacement were you able to select another LL right away?

Yes you can

 

[Orsino]

Summary of my Genie+ from last week
Note: the 120 minute rule is to the second, so as the day moves along you will be booking at 11AM and 00 seconds, 1PM and 10 seconds, 3PM and 25 seconds etc...

Friday 28 January 2022: Hollywood Studios
7AM booked Slinky for 6:55PM (waited for afternoon return, ended up with evening)
11AM booked MFSR for 6:30PM
1PM booked TSMM for 5:40PM
3PM booked RnRC for evening (don't have record of time)
5PM booked Tower for evening (don't have record of time)

Saturday 29 January 2022: Magic Kingdom
8:55AM booked Jungle Cruise for 3:05PM
11AM booked Buzz for 11:45AM
12PM tap Buzz and booked BTMRR for 8PM-ish
2PM booked PP for 8:05PM
4PM booked HM for 7:05PM
6PM booked Pirates for 8:10PM
6PM+1 cancelled HM to try for a later return time. Denied! Cancelling an 'old' G+ did not create new eligibility.

Monday 31 January 2022: Magic Kingdom
8:13AM woke up and booked Jungle Cruise for 5:30PM [note booked JC earlier in the day today but got a later return time than I did on Saturday]
11AM booked PP for 5:40PM
1PM booked BTMRR for 5:30PM
3PM booked HM for 7:45PM
5PM booked Buzz for 7:20PM

Friday 4 February 2022 Magic Kingdom
8:08AM woke up and booked PP for 2:40PM (we didn't want JC anymore)
11AM booked BTMRR for 4:10PM
1PM booked HM for 7-ish PM
3PM booked Pooh for 7-ish PM
(5PM could have booked Buzz for 8:30PM but opted not to. Found a 7:30 but passed hoping for something earlier since I saw 6:00 shortly before booking window opened. Did not get anything then stopped refreshing to 'enjoy the evening' more. We had EE starting at 9PM anyway)

Saturday 5 February 2022 Epcot! and Hollywood Studios, but mostly Hollywood Studios
7AM booked Slinky immediately showing 9AM but get 2:05PM since we are hopping
11AM arriving at Epcot so book Spaceship Earth with IMMEDIATE return time of 11:05AM that we will also be able to use right away
11:10AM tap into Spaceship Earth and book MFSR for 5:40PM
1:11PM book RnRC for 6:40PM
3:11PM book Star Tours for IMMEDIATE return time of 3:15PM
3:12PM tap Star Tours and book TSMM for 6:30PM (Didn't need this as Star Tours had a tiny standby line, but saved maybe a minute or two. Didn't 'cost' us anything either so no worries)
5:13PM book AlienSS for 6:40 PM (We have never ridden this, so we thought 'why not?')
note: We had dinner at Brown Derby at 5PM, which ran a little slow so we had 4 G+ to redeem between 6:30 and 7:40. We did them in MFSR - Alien - TSMM - RnRC order, and had to hustle to RnRC to get there just after 7:51 making use of the grace period. I don't advise doing this, but it was kind of thrilling.
note 2: now we know 'why not'
note 3: after RnRC we slipped into the standby for MMRR with a posted 15 minute wait. There was an issue with the ride and we ended up waiting longer, but not too bad. After that we went to Rise and rode that standby to close out the night. A pretty good last night at Disneyworld. 6:30PM- 9:20PM rode 6 attractions!

 

[Westerner]

**avoid that first thing in the morning 120min rule at all costs. It sets you up for a lot of long waits inbetween lightning lanes. One day I only got 2 lightning lanes for the day because of a later Peter Pan LL… our last day I got 12 for the day and still got a LL for pan later in the day.

I'm in your camp because I want to avoid even 30-40 minute waits. Some folks don't mind that though.

 

[jocey4577]

Will be using Genie+ for the first time in April. For HS, I’ll try to book SDD right at 7am. What do I do if I can only get a late day return time? Do I keep refreshing to try and get an earlier time? Or just take whatever I get and then deal with the 120 minute rule after park opening? It seems there isn’t much luck with canceling a return time to try to get a better one. Thanks!

 

[Orsino]

For slinky the 120 minute rule should be your expectation. While possible to get slinky before 11am, it isn’t likely and the savings will be minor. Not worth the risk.

 

[VAtink]

Question for you all, does the 120 min rule from park opening start at opening of the park you have park reservations for or for the park you made your first LL at? So say I reserve a LL for Slinky at 7, and HS opens at 9, but my first park of the day is AK which opens at 8, can I make my next selection at 10 or 11? Thanks!

 

[SkyGuy]

Question for you all, does the 120 min rule from park opening start at opening of the park you have park reservations for or for the park you made your first LL at? So say I reserve a LL for Slinky at 7, and HS opens at 9, but my first park of the day is AK which opens at 8, can I make my next selection at 10 or 11? Thanks!

The park in which you made your first reservation.

 

[KTwiegs]

I'm in your camp because I want to avoid even 30-40 minute waits. Some folks don't mind that though.

Yes, to me that what the system SHOULD eliminate if used correctly. Still has so many flaws but I really liked the system when I used it that way.