Tips for Parks without Genie

[dizneyfiend]

Lines can be shorter later in the day, especially close to closing time.

I see ILL/Genie+ as not paying for the 3 minute experience but as paying for my time. I'd rather pay money not to wait in line for an hour or even 1/2hr. If I can pay to ride an attraction with a 5 minute wait (or a short wait), then I can do more attractions with the remainder of the time I'm not spending in line.

We started looking at it that way as well. We didn’t purchase Genie+ on our first day- Epcot- and I regret it. We definitely did it the next 2 parks. Otherwise it’s back to the olden days of way too much time wasted in lines. I wasn’t happy at all about purchasing btw

 

[disneygeek401]

I will say, while having to pay for Genie+ is annoying, I don't think I could go the parks as a tourist without it. Especially at HS and MK, we saved so much time in the parks with it. There are definitely some features that need to be added, like a modify button but it was worth the money IMO. Without G+, rope drop and at closing time are the best times to ride

 

[Kmilos1024]

We did the parks around New years without genie + and did pay for LL on frozen, ROTR, and FOP. Group of 8 with a 4 and 6 year old. We did get on mostly everything because we were there for 7 days, but I would never do it again without Genie +. Here is the reason, you really feel the long waits as the days go on. You see many people not having to wait while you stand there barely moving. We tried early entry but you have to be up so early to even take advantage of that and then everybody else is there as well. It just was not that enjoyable to jump from line to line. In addition we did Table service many days and taking 2 hours to eat means time in the parks is at a premium. I keep telling my wife next time we are going to get genie+ and go at a much more leisurely pace not on our feet all day in line.

TLDR: For our family not using Genie+ made for a tiring vacation.

 

[Riss]

My family of 8 (6 adults, 2 kids) went late May for a week and didn’t purchase Genie+ and also never felt like we needed it. I think what helped us was getting out of our rooms at a reasonable time (at least for my family) and having a plan on what we wanted to do, like knowing the priorities of everyone.

We ended up leaving our resort most mornings either when the extra early hours started or during them and took a break in the afternoon before returning for the evening.

There could be other factors as well, like crowd levels, but we never felt like it was too bad. Members of our party were able to ride FOP, Rise, and Slinky with waits that weren’t too bad. I think that all of them were less than an hour waits, probably waiting around 40mins for each of them when we did them. They were also done in the evening hours, after like 5pm probably.

But I’d definitely say to have a plan and prioritize. Discuss the night before and plan a desired path.

 

[jimmymc]

Tips would be the same as always: get there early, rope drop your favorites, take a break in the middle of the day, and get on the last few rides at the end of the night.

 

[PoshMom]

If you’re not super picky about what rides you want to go on you should be fine. Just use the free Genie to find rides with shorter times, use early entry and extended evening, and enjoy some non-ride attractions. You can also still pay for an individual lightning lane for the most popular ride at each park.

So they do still have extra magic hours/ extended hours in parks??

 

[levismom]

Soooo … Canadians going to Disney for over close to thirty years now ( my husband even longer ) he was actually born the day DisneyWorld had it’s official opening . DVC Members since ‘97 . Anyways we have lived through the good ol’ days of low seasons and the original fast pass machines and basically just an easier time of getting to a lot of attractions . Has anyone ventured to do the parks WITHOUT purchasing Genie Plus or Lightning Lanes ? Instead just doing it by the early morning entrance and the extra magic hours given to resort guests . For example I’m thinking at AK if you there for your early morning you could go straight to Pandora and then after head over to Everest single rider line ( if it is open ) and that would be the two big rides done without purchasing anything extra ? Any thoughts ?

Just finished Disney trip without any paid ride help and we rode every popular ride with the extra hours without any problems. Longest line was Snow White coaster sign said 70 minutes but took us about 25 minutes. We never wished we got genie, etc.

 

[disneygeek401]

So they do still have extra magic hours/ extended hours in parks??

they have 30 minute early entry into every park every day for on-site guests (and some other good neighbor hotels qualify) and then they have 2 hours of extended evening hours for on site deluxe guests. I believe they do them at EPCOT on Mondays and MK on Wednesdays

 

[PixieT78]

Mine Train is, I think, the only ILL ride I won't pay for. I like it, but I'll most likely just try to do it on the Wednesday I'm doing deluxe hours as it just isn't worth paying for to me.

I got Genie+ back when I got my tickets & you had to have it every day so it is definitely just rolled into my budget at this point. I will do the other paid ILL but probably only once, with the goal to get on standby another time. I have 4 days planned for each of MK and DHS (well, more like 4 half days) so I think between that and Genie+ itself, I should do ok.

Am looking forward to hopefully gaining some pool (or nap) time by having it.

 

[leebee]

Friday, August 19 was a MNSSHP day, and lines/crowds were pretty manageable. We did not use Genie+. MOST attractions were at a 10-20min standby wait time. We were at MK at 7:15, waiting to do Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain when they let resort guests in, only to be told that they were both down. We hightailed it over to FantasyLand to ride Pooh and Peter Pan, then positioned ourselves at the rope line for Liberty Square and were in the first group into Haunted Mansion at park opening. We then shot over to BTMRR and Splash. Each had about a 15min standby line but honestly were closer to a walk-thru. Back to FantasyLand to ride Small World, then over to ride Buzz Lightyear and the PeopleMover. We took a swing thru the Circus to ride Dumbo, rode Little Mermaid, then saw Hall of Presidents, then rode Pirates. DD decided to skip Space Mountain this time and we are not fans of 7DMT (both of which had been down all morning and "opened" with 45min wait times). We were out of Magic Kingdom by about 1:30pm. I think TouringPlans said MK crowd was a "3" that day.

 

[Anthony1971]

The answer is easy. Rope drop. Just got back. The parks in the morning are not crowded. Of course you will need to head to most popular rides first unless you have other priorities. The parks get very crowded around 11am i suspect most who purchase genie plus get there around that time. if I had to purchase genie plus it would be for MK. if you intend on spending a lot of time at HS being there are so few rides that would be a second choice. I saw on several occasions where the LL line was longer than the standby. When rides were down and came back up it mat save time if that ride was still available and you did not get to the ride shortly after it reopened. Being we get park hoppers and can’t leave until around 1:30 I saw no need, we were able to do all the headliners in 3 parks in one day including RoR, Remy and guardians every ride we wanted in MK and more without paying for anything. Yes a long day but we by far do not go to the parks every day. Next park day was a nice slow pace but got on everything in AK including a few shows and everything in EPCOT except guardians - it was down a big part of the day so the free que was very limited- all the countries and got rained out starting at 8pm.

 

[disney-inspired]

We went in January 2022 and only bough Genie+ once. Otherwise, got to the parks early and did a lot in the first few hours.