The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[bigrigsby71682]

Thanks for the response! So if at 7am I wanted a Big Thunder or Pirates (things that are never in danger of selling out quickly) for 6pm or so I can scroll through and pick a time?

 

[DeeBee3]

Sort of a technical question and/or asking for feedback: anyone here NOT buy Genie+ but purchase individual lightning lanes for those specific rides. We are only going to Epcot (1 day) and MK (1 day). We don't mind if we miss rides as we can just go again next year. However, in Epcot we want to try our best for Remy and my girls love Frozen. Otherwise, we don't mind waiting or moving around based on wait times.

Has anyone done just the paid lightning lanes and not paid the extra for Genie+ ?

 

[CarolynFH]

Sort of a technical question and/or asking for feedback: anyone here NOT buy Genie+ but purchase individual lightning lanes for those specific rides. We are only going to Epcot (1 day) and MK (1 day). We don't mind if we miss rides as we can just go again next year. However, in Epcot we want to try our best for Remy and my girls love Frozen. Otherwise, we don't mind waiting or moving around based on wait times.

Has anyone done just the paid lightning lanes and not paid the extra for Genie+ ?

DH and I bought ILL$ for Remy and FoP in January, didn't buy G+ at all. However, we didn't care how much or little we rode other than those two, so our touring style is probably different from yours.

 

[DisTXMom]

Thanks for the response! So if at 7am I wanted a Big Thunder or Pirates (things that are never in danger of selling out quickly) for 6pm or so I can scroll through and pick a time?

No, you can only select from a list of times for ILLS rides such as 7 dwarves mine train. For LL rides such as Big Thunder and Pirates, it will display the next time available and that is the time you will get/ subject to changes in checkout as posted above. Your best bet is book the most in demand things first and hope their is availability at 11/1.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Sort of a technical question and/or asking for feedback: anyone here NOT buy Genie+ but purchase individual lightning lanes for those specific rides. We are only going to Epcot (1 day) and MK (1 day). We don't mind if we miss rides as we can just go again next year. However, in Epcot we want to try our best for Remy and my girls love Frozen. Otherwise, we don't mind waiting or moving around based on wait times.

Has anyone done just the paid lightning lanes and not paid the extra for Genie+ ?

Yes, many have successfully done this. Reports are throughout this thread but scattered. It is possible though.

 

[bigrigsby71682]

Darn! I want to reserve BTM/Pirates/Buzz…..none of which will be first available past 3pm at 7am. Sounds like Genie+ plus might not be wise for me that day. Thanks!

 

[scrappinginontario]

Darn! I want to reserve BTM/Pirates/Buzz…..none of which will be first available past 3pm at 7am. Sounds like Genie+ plus might not be wise for me that day. Thanks!

You are eligible to book at 7am but you don't have to book at 7am. Keep an eye on availability (possibly pin your 2 most desired to the top of your tip board) and refresh occasionally to see where the return times are at. As more and more book the times will get pushed out.

I'd recommend starting to watch the app now to see approx when the attractions you want are reaching 3PM or later to help you decide if you might like to purchase G+ for your day.

 

[DisTXMom]

Darn! I want to reserve BTM/Pirates/Buzz…..none of which will be first available past 3pm at 7am. Sounds like Genie+ plus might not be wise for me that day. Thanks!

If jungle cruise or Peter Pan are on your list, they may have times ~3pm pretty early. Keep in mind, your 2nd LL pull will be at 11 if you pull your first one between 7-9am, so you could watch times and book your first one by 9 and then book big Thunder at 11 and hopefully pirates at 1.

 

[bigrigsby71682]

sadly they aren’t! The rides I need require waiting hours thus wasting the value of having Genie+. Add me to the list of people who miss fastpass and being able to pick your times haha

thanks for the info though!

 

[DeeBee3]

DH and I bought ILL$ for Remy and FoP in January, didn't buy G+ at all. However, we didn't care how much or little we rode other than those two, so our touring style is probably different from yours.

I think we are in the same boat. Although we love to do rides, we also enjoy roaming around so riding a million rides in 1 day isn't a big deal. Thanks for the input!

 

[Boardwalk III]

Darn! I want to reserve BTM/Pirates/Buzz…..none of which will be first available past 3pm at 7am. Sounds like Genie+ plus might not be wise for me that day. Thanks!

Any chance you have a park hopper tickets? If so, you can reserve another park in the morning and NOT use G+ there (though you’d have to check into the morning park first), then you can start stacking MK attractions at 7 AM because they will automatically give you times after 2 PM since that is your park-hopping park.

 

[bigrigsby71682]

Any chance you have a park hopper tickets? If so, you can reserve another park in the morning and NOT use G+ there (though you’d have to check into the morning park first), then you can start stacking MK attractions at 7 AM because they will automatically give you times after 2 PM since that is your park-hopping park.

I thought of that but I would have to go to that park first

 

[SuzyQue]

Yes, Your scenario should work, or at least it worked a few weeks ago when I tested it. Cancelling a G+ LL always makes you eligible to book a new one, no matter which one you cancel. It does not need to be the most recent one.

Edit: Disney changed the rules at some point in the last few weeks. Cancelling any reservation other than the one you most recently booked does nothing.

By "does nothing", do you mean you then are not eligible to book a new one?

 

[pinkxray]

I’ve been having some vision issues the last few weeks so have not followed this thread like I’d hoped.
We will be in MK this Sat with Genie +.
We are staying on site so will be there before 8:30 to be in line for Tomorrowland and make Space Mountain our first ride.
We would like to ride both Splash and Thunder Mountain. Will head to one after space and make a Genie LL for the other. Is one more popular than the other? Not sure which one to pick for Genie.

 

[DisTXMom]

I’ve been having some vision issues the last few weeks so have not followed this thread like I’d hoped.
We will be in MK this Sat with Genie +.
We are staying on site so will be there before 8:30 to be in line for Tomorrowland and make Space Mountain our first ride.
We would like to ride both Splash and Thunder Mountain. Will head to one after space and make a Genie LL for the other. Is one more popular than the other? Not sure which one to pick for Genie.

I’ve been watching BTMRR and splash and Splash seems to be a little more popular, with its return times running about an hour ahead of BRMRR. That being said, I think we will attempt to get an early return for BTMRR (9-10), ride it with LL and then grab the next LL for Splqsh or just hit it without LL immediately after BTMRR. Thought there is 1) BTMRR is a short ride, so we can knock it out pretty early with LL, 2) BTMRR has been getting some pretty long lines at rope drop and LL let’s us get it done quickly whether or not it had long lines 3) we can hit pirates and other things in the area while we wait for the Splash LL, which I’m hoping will still be in the morning if we book jr by around 920 when we do BTMRR 4) we love splash but I’m not ready to get wet at 9am in March when it may have cool mornings. If, when we arrive at BTMRR it has a very short line, we would probably do it twice- 1 with LL and 1 without. Our plan may be flawed, but this is our plan :

 

[kc51570]

I’ve been having some vision issues the last few weeks so have not followed this thread like I’d hoped.
We will be in MK this Sat with Genie +.
We are staying on site so will be there before 8:30 to be in line for Tomorrowland and make Space Mountain our first ride.
We would like to ride both Splash and Thunder Mountain. Will head to one after space and make a Genie LL for the other. Is one more popular than the other? Not sure which one to pick for Genie.

Splash goes down a lot more often and at least if you have a LL if it went down, you would receive a new one. The lines are also usually longer there unless it’s cold. We have never had trouble getting on Thunder in the AM although that can be down on occasion as well.

 

[MsVanderquack]

I have read through this thread and the other main thread for Genie+ but I can't seem to find the information I'm looking for.

We have an extended family (18 people) trip coming up in the fall and I'm trying to figure out what will be best for us. We are currently all listed as F&F and none of us are AP. I'm trying to get a better idea of how F&F works with booking Genie+ and figuring out our best strategy. We all plan on purchasing Genie+ as we go but we're not all planning to do the same things. My concern is when I get up to get say SDD for my family (4 people) I just want to click through as quickly as possible to get a return time. But it's my understanding if we're F&F that everyone would be selected, and I'd have to take the time to deselect everyone else, is that correct? If that is the case I'm wondering if it's better to not be F&F for this trip.

Does anyone have experience with this?

re: selecting people when selecting LLs

if you go into your genie planner foreach day of your trip you cando “roll call” and select who you’ll be with that day. Those people will be automatically selected when you book your LLs. Doesn’t help when you have different people wanting different rides on the same day, but if you’re going to be in charge ofbooki by for a certain smaller group within your large party it will be helpful. Your party is larger than the max for LL bookings so you’ll need to split into at least two groups.

It is clunky and you have to go through a few menus to find it and start planning your genie day. I hope they streamline the menus and declutter Genie in the future.

 

[MsVanderquack]

For example, just now, I needed to book 4 people for HS hopping to Epcot and 2 for just HS. I did all 6 of us for roll call at HS, then selected the 4 for Epcot hopping.

The Epcot bookings automatically had the 4 selected, because I had selected them previously as planning to hop to Epcot.

When I booked my first G+ at HS, I had to deselect those not riding. However when I selected my next G+ for the remaining group, they were automatically selected because the others weren’t eligible for another G+ yet.

Is this a lot to do? Yes, it is. Lol
I hope the roll call tip helps some folks though! I appreciate everyone’s help on here. I would not have managed without it. Disney’s official info is way too optimistic.

 

[brockash]

I’ve been having some vision issues the last few weeks so have not followed this thread like I’d hoped.
We will be in MK this Sat with Genie +.
We are staying on site so will be there before 8:30 to be in line for Tomorrowland and make Space Mountain our first ride.
We would like to ride both Splash and Thunder Mountain. Will head to one after space and make a Genie LL for the other. Is one more popular than the other? Not sure which one to pick for Genie.

I'd rope drop BTM and fastpass Splash...reason is that Splash is more likely to b down at park opening than BTM.

 

[Duck143]

re: selecting people when selecting LLs

if you go into your genie planner foreach day of your trip you cando “roll call” and select who you’ll be with that day. Those people will be automatically selected when you book your LLs. Doesn’t help when you have different people wanting different rides on the same day, but if you’re going to be in charge ofbooki by for a certain smaller group within your large party it will be helpful. Your party is larger than the max for LL bookings so you’ll need to split into at least two groups.

It is clunky and you have to go through a few menus to find it and start planning your genie day. I hope they streamline the menus and declutter Genie in the future.

I'm sorry to have to ask this, but do you have to have Genie+ purchased to do this and if not, can you explain where you can set your "roll call". BTW, I was a pro with the old app and now I just can't get a handle on where everything is in this new updated one. It's pretty frustrating!