Weird Genie+ question...

[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!

 

[Jedimike]

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!

It will automatically give you earliest time available for each ILL. You will only be able to select times for LL$ (7DMT and Space Mountain). For a 3 PM arrival time, the first thing I would do at 7 AM is pay for LL$ and pick your times. Then I would just track the LL times for rides like Peter Pan and Jungle Cruise until the return times hit 3 PM. Depending on the day you go, that might be before 8 AM, or later in the morning.

 

[DavidNYC]

This was one of my many major complaints about Disney plus. Sorry - but you're not touring the park the way Disney wants you to . . . you're supposed to be there right at park opening and be there all day so you'll be able to do rides when Disney tells you to do them. You unfortunately have to keep monitoring the app constantly to watch when the first ride you want lets you book a window that falls when you'll be there. Wonderful consideration of their customers on Disney's part isn't it?

(You'd frankly better off having a reservation at a different park and then hopping to MK since it won't give you times before 2pm for a park you don't have a reservation for (unless they've changed that too . . .)

 

[Grasshopper2016]

If you are going to be on or near property, I think the best plan would be to make a reservation for a different park, but make your LLs for MK. That way, at 7:00 a.m., if you book an LL for MK, it will automatically give you a time of 2:00. Same at 11:00 and 1:00 --- you won't be assigned a time any earlier than 2:00.

Two things, though. (1) You would have to get to MK before 3:00, since your first LL will expire at 3:15, even with the grace period.

(2) You will actually need to scan into the first park at some point before hopping to MK, which can be a serious pain the butt depending on your schedule for the morning and early afternoon. Alternatively, if the parks are not at capacity, you might be able to change your park reservation from the other "throw away" reservation to MK, just before heading to MK. I did that one day on a recent trip, and it did not cause me to lose any of my LLs (or ILL$) at MK. But I had a Cast Member at the Disney Guest Services desk at my resort do it for me, so that I could make sure that nothing would go wrong. I wasn't sure that they would be willing to do it. And just because that one Cast Member did it for me doesn't necessarily mean that you might not run into problems from a different Cast Member.

 

[Westerner]

This was one of my many major complaints about Disney plus. Sorry - but you're not touring the park the way Disney wants you to . . . you're supposed to be there right at park opening and be there all day so you'll be able to do rides when Disney tells you to do them. You unfortunately have to keep monitoring the app constantly to watch when the first ride you want lets you book a window that falls when you'll be there. Wonderful consideration of their customers on Disney's part isn't it?

It's Genie+ not Disney+.

It's not true that you have to be there at park opening and stay all day. You just have to be there for your LL return times. The trick is finding times that work - in this case, after 3PM. Shouldn't be too hard - as a previous poster suggested, for the 7AM pick, choose a ride that sells out rapidly - like JC - to get a return time after 3pm. By the 11am pick many rides should have return times after 3pm. Just need to set an alarm for 11AM and every 2 hours after that to make your picks. You don't have to be on the phone more than that unless you want to.

 

[Kazi7]

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!

Your experience might not be the same as mine since the parks have been so crowded lately, but last Nov, we had a park reservation for HS but couldn't arrive until 4pm. I bought G+ and made a Slinky reservation for evening, which wasn't difficult since it fills fast. But at 11am, we wanted ToT or RnRC for late afternoon and the times weren't out that far yet. I actually had to keep checking until 12:15 for a late enough time. No big deal since I was in a place I could keep checking back, BUT then I wasn't eligible to get my 3rd LL until 2:15 (2 hrs after booking), which was a bummer. I kind of wasted an hour and 15 min of booking time just waiting until the return times were late enough.

 

[g-dad66]

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!

It won't take long after 7am for the earliest return to be after 3pm for Jungle Cruise and Peter Pan.
By 11am, you will have plenty of post-3pm choices (Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, Big Thunder, Splash, Haunted Mansion, Pirates)
By 1pm, you will have those same ones plus more (if you want Big Thunder or Splash, grab them by 1pm because they will both probably be sold out by 3pm).
3pm will probably be your last chance for Haunted Mansion (Pirates will still probably be available later)

 

[DavidNYC]

It's Genie+ not Disney+.

It's not true that you have to be there at park opening and stay all day. You just have to be there for your LL return times. The trick is finding times that work - in this case, after 3PM. Shouldn't be too hard - as a previous poster suggested, for the 7AM pick, choose a ride that sells out rapidly - like JC - to get a return time after 3pm. By the 11am pick many rides should have return times after 3pm. Just need to set an alarm for 11AM and every 2 hours after that to make your picks. You don't have to be on the phone more than that unless you want to.

You pretty much proved my point. You want to arrive late. Well - then at 7am you have to select a ride like Jungle Cruise when it hits 3pm. And then set your alarm every 2 hours to see what selection of rides the app is letting you choose from. My point stands - you have lost a tremendous amount of flexibility compared to those who are there all day and compared to previously. I ask you - what sounds better . . . what you laid out above which they are limited to or just getting to plan 3 rides after 3pm a month in advance so you don't actually have to be up at 7am and set an alarm every two hours . . .

Face it - in going to parks for 30 years and actively following Disney for 20 years - I have never seen greater anger at Disney and have never seen as many people complaining about the difficulties of a Disney trip. It's not remotely close.

 

[Westerner]

You pretty much proved my point. You want to arrive late. Well - then at 7am you have to select a ride like Jungle Cruise when it hits 3pm. And then set your alarm every 2 hours to see what selection of rides the app is letting you choose from. My point stands - you have lost a tremendous amount of flexibility compared to those who are there all day and compared to previously. I ask you - what sounds better . . . what you laid out above which they are limited to or just getting to plan 3 rides after 3pm a month in advance so you don't actually have to be up at 7am and set an alarm every two hours . . .

Face it - in going to parks for 30 years and actively following Disney for 20 years - I have never seen greater anger at Disney and have never seen as many people complaining about the difficulties of a Disney trip. It's not remotely close.

You're right there is a lot of anger and frustration around G+ as compared to FP+, but your arguments don't seem to apply well to OP's case. I wouldn't characterize OP as having lost flexibility when they get to enter the park when they wish and still be able to get multiple LL's fairly easily, nor do I think being on your phone 4x at 7, 11, 1, 3 amounts to "constantly".