To + or not to +, that is the question.

[PrincessHanasMom]

I would love to hear from experienced WDW travelers who have been. No matter how much I read and hear from friends who have been recently, I can’t decide whether we should buy Genie+ and/or ILLs and, if so, for all parks or just certain ones. . Would LOVE some expert input.

Here are our circumstances:
- We are traveling in March during a week predicting HEAVY crowds. (Level 10 at MK all week according to Touring Plans).
- We have not been since SWL, and are a big Star Wars family. So, Batuu will be a focus for us.
- We are staying on site and WILL be taking advantage of early entry.
- Current travel plans include 2 kids (8 & 13) and in-laws who are both 71, so super fast walking is probably out of the question.

What would you Disney experts who have travelled recently suggest??

 

[Wayland10]

If you aren’t staying at a Deluxe resort with the two extra hours at MK and Epcot, then I would probably plan for G+ and ILL$ under those circumstances.

 

[CynBeth]

We went in November around Thanksgiving had 2 days in each park and bought the G+ in advance for every day of our trip and purchased ILL for certain rides. We don’t do roller coasters or anything with a drop and got to see most of what we wanted. We were glad we had park hoppers because we had issues when trying to purchase the extra fee rides where it would either ask me to sign in or send a passcode by e-mail over and over and by the time that stopped it was all sold out. For example could not get ROTR our first HS day but was able to book it for at night the next day after our time at AK. We got there and it had broken down. Waited an hour and it came back up. Heard it was the second time it happened that day and a lot the whole time there from what others said.

 

[The Foolish Mortal]

I think its really a question f whether you want to spend the money. Genie+ and ILL will (almost) always result in shorter waits for your group. So the question become whether the added costs of those services is worth the time saved to you? For me, it depends.

We used Genie+ for the first time a couple months ago while at Epcot. We are glad we tried it out but ultimately decided it was not worth it at that park. We didn't want to spend on ILL and it really only saved us time on, maybe, two lines (because we rope dropped Frozen, used the virtual line on Remy, and most wait times were pretty short that day anyway). On our upcoming trip next month, we have decided Genie+ is worth it during our MK day because there are so many more attractions where its likely to save us time, but we are not planning to use it on the day we go to Epcot.

Ultimately, we can afford it every day of our trip. But it just doesn't seem worth it on those days where its not going to save us a lot of time.

 

[PrincessHanasMom]

We were glad we had park hoppers because we had issues when trying to purchase the extra fee rides

Similar: we don’t ride the big coasters, but do like the more kid-friendly ones. We are not park hoppers.
Were you glad you had Genie+, or did you feel it was t worth the money?

 

[CynBeth]

Yes we were so glad we had Genie + and paid extra for ROTR, MMRR, FOP, and Remy ride lines were awful around Thanksgiving. Hardly had waits at all for the ones we booked. The longest was test track where it took us 30 min to get on the ride from scanning in and then got stuck for 10 minutes in the middle of it. We got to do almost everything we wanted which includes some non Genie + rides, shows, movies, and attractions.