The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[Turksmom]

So then the only way I can stack afternoon park G+, is if we pretty much do Early Entry at the first park, maybe purchase 1 ILL there and do standby for the rest of the morning, right?

I think it really depends on the popularity of what you want to book in either park and the times available. In theory, you could book an early return time in your first park, book a second with a short return time, and continue to do that before starting to book in the next park, if you are going for later return times or rides that don't generally "sell out". Or you could book something harder to reserve in the second park, wait the 2 hour cool down period and then book for your first park.
I'd look at the app a few times before your trip to get an idea of how quickly times disappear for your desired rides.

 

[detroitdad]

I think it really depends on the popularity of what you want to book in either park and the times available. In theory, you could book an early return time in your first park, book a second with a short return time, and continue to do that before starting to book in the next park, if you are going for later return times or rides that don't generally "sell out". Or you could book something harder to reserve in the second park, wait the 2 hour cool down period and then book for your first park.
I'd look at the app a few times before your trip to get an idea of how quickly times disappear for your desired rides.

Makes sense! Thanks

 

[Doingitagain]

We have two young children in our travel party whose accounts are managed by a parent. Can anyone in the travel party get Genie+ LL reservations for the entire group, including the kids?

 

[brockash]

Here now...I did not have to click anyone in my party to get genie+ or LL. All who had a valid ticket were already selected and those who didn't (I have about 15 on my friends/family list) were not listed, just as it was for virtual ques.

I have an android and the ppl. in my current party are also ppl. I manage - we have same account. Just trying to figure out what the difference is for those who are having to select each person.

 

[ucf_knight]

Keep in mind the the Genie+ gives you the next available time, not a choice. What happens is the major rides are already giving out late morning LL even if you get on to select right at 7. BUT if you opt for a ride available earlier, by the time you can book your 3rd or 4th LL, those major rides are giving out evening slots. It is 9:55 a.m. right now and JC is giving out 6:15 LL and Peter Pan is giving out 4:00 LL.

And this is why I can’t understand the appeal for our family to get G+ Back with FP+ I would book three attractions to be completed typically before noon. Once lunch rolled around we would eat and I’d grab our next FP with the refresh method and could typically always get a headliner attraction. And rinse and repeat if we wanted to stay past 1-2 pm in the parks. Now it seems that if you get 2 attractions done by lunch with G+ you’d be lucky and when it comes to pull your next selection most stuff seems gone. Is this basically how it is? Maybe magic kingdom is better with g+ but the other parks I don’t see how you’d get 3 g+’s done before noon.

 

[Meglen]

And this is why I can’t understand the appeal for our family to get G+ Back with FP+ I would book three attractions to be completed typically before noon. Once lunch rolled around we would eat and I’d grab our next FP with the refresh method and could typically always get a headliner attraction. And rinse and repeat if we wanted to stay past 1-2 pm in the parks. Now it seems that if you get 2 attractions done by lunch with G+ you’d be lucky and when it comes to pull your next selection most stuff seems gone. Is this basically how it is? Maybe magic kingdom is better with g+ but the other parks I don’t see how you’d get 3 g+’s done before noon.

Pretty much.

 

[cjlong88]

And this is why I can’t understand the appeal for our family to get G+ Back with FP+ I would book three attractions to be completed typically before noon. Once lunch rolled around we would eat and I’d grab our next FP with the refresh method and could typically always get a headliner attraction. And rinse and repeat if we wanted to stay past 1-2 pm in the parks. Now it seems that if you get 2 attractions done by lunch with G+ you’d be lucky and when it comes to pull your next selection most stuff seems gone. Is this basically how it is? Maybe magic kingdom is better with g+ but the other parks I don’t see how you’d get 3 g+’s done before noon.

I’ve experienced success with refreshing while using G+. People still make changes to their plans and cancel LL’s. We were able to grab Test Track, TSM, Smugglers Run, Big Thunder, and more. Refresh also worked great for finding better times. The only difference is you can’t modify, so that means you can’t grab a LL until you see the ride or time you want. This felt scary, but I just trusted that someone better would pop up, whether it be another ride or a better time, and it almost always did.

I think the last time we used G+ was over a holiday weekend and I grabbed 7 LL’s for great attractions in one day. We were able to do that with FP+ in the days of old because we knew how to work the system to allow that to happen. G+ is the same in that regard, it’s just that it’s so dang new and many guests aren’t figuring out how to maximize it yet. They look at what’s offered and assumed that all there is (or isn’t). But if you’re used to refreshing on FP+ and had some persistence, I think you will be surprised that you may have success doing that again. While I’d much rather prefer a free system, I have found the best feature of G+ is no tiers. The biggest downside for us is that we only get to book a LL for every attraction once. Would be great if they offered an unlimited option since we love repeating rides on our favorite attractions.

 

[brockash]

And this is why I can’t understand the appeal for our family to get G+ Back with FP+ I would book three attractions to be completed typically before noon. Once lunch rolled around we would eat and I’d grab our next FP with the refresh method and could typically always get a headliner attraction. And rinse and repeat if we wanted to stay past 1-2 pm in the parks. Now it seems that if you get 2 attractions done by lunch with G+ you’d be lucky and when it comes to pull your next selection most stuff seems gone. Is this basically how it is? Maybe magic kingdom is better with g+ but the other parks I don’t see how you’d get 3 g+’s done before noon.

Yes, we're having issues getting more than 1 fpass/genie (many times not even 1 if looking for a more popular ride) before noon which is a bit of an issue trying to go back mid day.

 

[Doingitagain]

I am confused how this works with a large group for both Genie + and ILL$. We will have nine. Does there have to be nine slots open at the same time for us to book? Or do we just pick a time and it lets us select our whole party?

 

[Brett Wyman]

I am confused how this works with a large group for both Genie + and ILL$. We will have nine. Does there have to be nine slots open at the same time for us to book? Or do we just pick a time and it lets us select our whole party?

If a single person is booking all the Lightning Lanes, then yes, 9 spots would need to be open. If more than one person is booking for multiple "groups or families" then you'll need to synchronize times as best you can. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes either way

Honestly, Genie+ is a complete waste at AK and a pretty big waste HS(unless you want to LL shows). Its okay at Epcot and beneficial at MK(due to the sheer number of rides). With a group that size Id save the money to ILL the big rides at AK and HS, maybe get it for Epcot(but probably not) and definitely get it for MK, but get there as early as you can and make sure you book your first ride at 7am sharp.

 

[MainMom]

If a single person is booking all the Lightning Lanes, then yes, 9 spots would need to be open. If more than one person is booking for multiple "groups or families" then you'll need to synchronize times as best you can. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes either way

Honestly, Genie+ is a complete waste at AK and a pretty big waste HS(unless you want to LL shows). Its okay at Epcot and beneficial at MK(due to the sheer number of rides). With a group that size Id save the money to ILL the big rides at AK and HS, maybe get it for Epcot(but probably not) and definitely get it for MK, but get there as early as you can and make sure you book your first ride at 7am sharp.

This is funny to me because when G+ was first announced all of the proponents on here insisted your group size didn’t matter and if there was a time you could get it if you were 2 or 12. I was told this multiple times as a selling point for G+. Just another thing that was too good to be true.

 

[scrappinginontario]

If a single person is booking all the Lightning Lanes, then yes, 9 spots would need to be open. If more than one person is booking for multiple "groups or families" then you'll need to synchronize times as best you can. I wouldn't want to be in your shoes either way

Honestly, Genie+ is a complete waste at AK and a pretty big waste HS(unless you want to LL shows). Its okay at Epcot and beneficial at MK(due to the sheer number of rides). With a group that size Id save the money to ILL the big rides at AK and HS, maybe get it for Epcot(but probably not) and definitely get it for MK, but get there as early as you can and make sure you book your first ride at 7am sharp.

We’re all so different. For us, G+ worked at MK and DHS but wasn’t needed at Epcot or AK.

I will say we were there at medium busy days which I know makes a difference.

At DHS we were able to secure LL for SDD, TSM, Star Tours and ToT. There were more available after that but we did not select them as we ride stand-by (Frozen sing-a-ling, Muppets, Beauty snd the Beast).

 

[Brett Wyman]

This is funny to me because when G+ was first announced all of the proponents on here insisted your group size didn’t matter and if there was a time you could get it if you were 2 or 12. I was told this multiple times as a selling point for G+. Just another thing that was too good to be true.

I have VERY recent experience, like 5 days ago, of having to book 4 of us a LL for Space Mountain and having to get the next slot for the 4th. It would show up with the 3, but not 4. Luckily the CM there let our fourth person slide. Not sure how that would work for 9 though!

We’re all so different. For us, G+ worked at MK and DHS but wasn’t needed at Epcot or AK.

I will say we were there at medium busy days which I know makes a difference.

At DHS we were able to secure LL for SDD, TSM, Star Tours and ToT. There were more available after that but we did not select them as we ride stand-by (Frozen sing-a-ling, Muppets, Beauty snd the Beast).

Yeah it depends on touring styles too. We very rarely stay until park close and we did get to HS a little late that day, I'd say about 9:30. SDD was completely gone and ToT was very late afternoon(so no good for us). We literally only used it on Star Tours which was basically always open along with the shows. Biggest waste of money on the trip for sure. I think one consensus is you can definitely get your moneys worth at MK, due to the sheer volume of rides.

 

[elgerber]

Yeah it depends on touring styles too. We very rarely stay until park close and we did get to HS a little late that day, I'd say about 9:30. SDD was completely gone and ToT was very late afternoon(so no good for us). We literally only used it on Star Tours which was basically always open along with the shows. Biggest waste of money on the trip for sure. I think one consensus is you can definitely get your moneys worth at MK, due to the sheer volume of rides.

Curious, did you not try to book any Genie+ until you got to the park?

 

[Brett Wyman]

Curious, did you not try to book any Genie+ until you got to the park?

We did not. I was never sure we were going to use it this trip so I bought it right a 9:30 when I saw the crowds. So yeah we could have had ONE more ride if I booked at 7am. We did ILL ROTR at 7am but it broke about 11am and never came back! Our time was 12:45pm.

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

I have found the best feature of G+ is no tiers.

Although this is technically true, many of the rides that would have been the Tier 1 FP+ selections are now ILL$ and not included in G+. So there kinda are still several tiers (with even bigger price tags associated with the top tier).

 

[Miffy]

We’re all so different. For us, G+ worked at MK and DHS but wasn’t needed at Epcot or AK.

I will say we were there at medium busy days which I know makes a difference.

At DHS we were able to secure LL for SDD, TSM, Star Tours and ToT. There were more available after that but we did not select them as we ride stand-by (Frozen sing-a-ling, Muppets, Beauty snd the Beast).

We actually ended up using one of our G+ selections at DHS for Beauty and the Beast and were really happy with the great seats we got. I usually end up sitting in the bleachers but these seats were center orchestra and pretty close. That being said, the only other G+ selection we used that day was TSM. We RD'd MMRR and had an ILL$ for RotR, which was down during our scheduled time, which is how we ended up going to B&tB. Worth it? I can't say. We started thinking of G+ as just another ILL$--getting one attraction out of it was better than nothing.

One day we were at DHS in December (not the above-referenced day) we bought G+ and were not able to use it for anything, since the times we got conflicted with the rest of our schedule--Oga's, lunch ADR, and ILL$. On the way out of the park, I stopped by GET, just to let them know what had happened. I wasn't expecting anything, but thought they should be aware of how G+ didn't work for us. They gave us a full refund and also an anytime G+ for TSM, however, we were exhausted by then and were leaving the park, so we didn't get to use it. I have to say that the GET people I've encountered at WDW are all terrific.

 

[cjlong88]

Although this is technically true, many of the rides that would have been the Tier 1 FP+ selections are now ILL$ and not included in G+. So there kinda are still several tiers (with even bigger price tags associated with the top tier).

Yes, but these tiers function at a fundamentally different level. Having to pay for it separately, in my mind, is vastly different than simply not being allowed to book a specific attraction simply because the rules say so. The current is a financial restriction that I have the option to book it or not. The former is a systems restriction that forced me to, at times, prebook rides before I could book the rides I would have rather used. Epcot is a great example of that. The fact that I couldn’t prebook TT, Frozen, and Soarin’ because they were all tier 1 was not fun. I found myself booking FP’s for attractions I simply didn’t need or want.

Again, I prefer a free system. I was a FP super user. But G+ allows me to walk into Epcot with three of the biggest attractions booked should I choose spend on ILLS. I don’t hate that.

 

[bigrigsby71682]

I want to purchase Genie+ for our MK day in a week. We won't be entering the park until 3pm so of course I want to make a selections at 7am/11am/1pm/3pm. When I make my first 3 selections will I be able to get a time after 3pm for each one or will it automatically give me the earliest time possible, which wouldn't be helpful because we won't be in the park at that time. Thanks so much everyone!

 

[scrappinginontario]

I want to purchase Genie+ for our MK day in a week. We won't be entering the park until 3pm so of course I want to make a selections at 7am/11am/1pm/3pm. When I make my first 3 selections will I be able to get a time after 3pm for each one or will it automatically give me the earliest time possible, which wouldn't be helpful because we won't be in the park at that time. Thanks so much everyone!

The bookable times will be displayed. You can refresh by pulling down your screen and see the updated times and book when your desired time is displayed.

Warning: The time you see as 'available' when you select your LL will most likely be different (sometimes by as much as a couple of hours) by the time you actually choose your LL time. Be sure to look at the actual time you booked once booking is complete as it will be later than what you initially saw when you decided to book it.