Disney Genie announcement

[aeasterling]

We’re arriving in 3 weeks and part of my group is staying offsite. Am I (staying on property) able to make IAS reservation for ROTR at 7 am for my entire party? Or just those of us staying on property? Reading reports of IAS reservations being gone by park opening now and trying to figure out how to get us all on!

No, this will not work. We had this happen to us yesterday. Our son is only here for part of this trip, so he has separate ticket reservations. We are staying at the Swan, but only my husband, daughter and my reservation was linked to the room. When I went to create the LL at 7am, I could not select my son because it didn't recognize him as a resort guest.

 

[GreatGoofini]

I'm in Canada and the Tip Board always gives me an error. The only way I can get it to work is using a VPN on my phone to fake a US location... Then the Tip Board works flawlessly even if I don't have a ticket.

Ok, I’m in Canada too so that must be it. Thanks.

 

[Gentry2004]

Ok, I’m in Canada too so that must be it. Thanks.

Must be. I’m in Virginia and can see the tip board with no tickets and no trip planned.

 

[wisblue]

One more thing I remembered that I wanted to mention re: G+ LL reservations. The refreshing thing worked to get times to move around. But also - DOUBLE CHECK the reservation time on the confirmation screen. It was often different than the time displayed on the TipBoard. Usually this was just 5-10 minutes - TipBoard shows 4:00-5:00 for it's a small world, but when you click through the the confirmation page the actual time is 4:10-5:10. It does not highlight this so it would be easy to miss it and sometimes it can be much different. When I went to make Big Thunder for after my dinner the earliest time I could find (even after refreshing) was 6:45-7:45. When I clicked through to confirmation it was a 6:05-7:05. Pretty big difference - it worked better for my schedule, but easily could have been the opposite.

Adding to this thought, the difference between the return time shown on the Tip Board and the time shown on the confirm screen can be significant.

Occasionally a time will show on the Tip Board that is presumably there because someone cancelled. If you click on that and someone else beats you to it, your return time could be hours later.

This is the same warning for anyone who tries to get an earlier time than the one they have reserved by cancelling and rebooking. You might end up with a time even later than one you have or, for some things, be shut out completely.

 

[20KLeagues]

Just returned from universal. Express pass is such a superior product it’s not even debatable. We like Disney more than universal but not having to get up at 7am, be on my phone every 2 hours, worry about rides selling out, worry about when I show up to the parks just shows how bad Disney botched this pay for service.

It’a so annoying, confusing, time consuming, stressful and that happens every day that your are there that it ruins the experience

Express pass shows how bad Disney screwed this whole thing up.

 

[wisblue]

This morning I checked in to the app at 7AM ET to see how fast the LL were going for Slinky, ROTR, and Smugglers Run.

I hit the Tip Board tab to refresh at the stroke of 7 and it took the app about 15 seconds to repopulate. By then the Slinky return time was 11:40 AM. Within 5 minutes the Slinky return time was 5:15 PM, ROTR was 2:40, and MFSR was getting into early afternoon.

Because this general pattern seems to be a daily occurrence, anyone who wants to do all 3 of these attractions without a long line or participating in the Early Entry crush to them (which isn’t even an option for offsite guests) should plan to do them in the late afternoon or early evening.

My approach might be:

At 7 AM try to get Slinky at the earliest time I can get. If that time is at the time we might want to be taking a midday break, change it to a later time. The return time seems to settle in at about 5 PM and hold there until the park opens. By mid morning they are gone, so if you don’t make Slinky your first LL pick, you probably won’t get one.

7:02- purchase an IALL for ROTR at the available time that best suits our schedule. I prefer earlier (like 10-11 AM) to provide more flexibility if the ride breaks down, which seems to be as much the rule as the exception. Those earlier times go fast.

11 AM- if we haven’t been able to ride MFSR standby, get a LL for it. By then the return time will probably be in the early evening.

To avoid the EE crushes to GE and Slinky, we can go to RNRC and TOT first and ride TSMM and Star Tours standby with reasonable standby waits. Then we go from there.

Getting a Slinky return time around 5 or later, and a MFSR return time somewhere around that could be a good setup for a stack for someone who won’t be arriving to the park until afternoon, either because of hopping or on a travel/arrival day. Get the third LL two hours after the MFSR one and you’ll have a stack to use as long as LL are available.

Like everything else, once crowds get large and LL for things like RNRC and TOT start selling out, this stack might not yield much, but at least you’ll have 3 good attractions, similar to the FP+ days. And, if you’re willing to pay for IALL you could add two more.

 

[wings91]

so no worth it

 

[wisblue]

Just returned from universal. Express pass is such a superior product it’s not even debatable. We like Disney more than universal but not having to get up at 7am, be on my phone every 2 hours, worry about rides selling out, worry about when I show up to the parks just shows how bad Disney botched this pay for service.

It’a so annoying, confusing, time consuming, stressful and that happens every day that your are there that it ruins the experience

Express pass shows how bad Disney screwed this whole thing up.

How much did the Express Pass cost?

Were any attractions excluded?

 

[20KLeagues]

How much did the Express Pass cost?

Were any attractions excluded?

was included with hotel, we were at hard rock....every single ride is included with no time or ride restrictions **the only rides that do not have Express access in either park are Velosicoaster or Hagrids

Universal has done with all new rides for some time before adding them

 

[michaeldorn1]

Ha Ha! Then I’ll use a picture

OK, now I have proven I am an idiot! ;-) Thanks!

 

[wisblue]

was included with hotel, we were at hard rock....every single ride is included with no time or ride restrictions **except velocicoaster **

Universal has done with all new rides for some time before adding them

So you have to stay at one of their higher end hotels to get that benefit.

Disney would have a very hard time doing that given how many more hotels they have.

You‘re comparing something that Universal sells for over $100 per day per person to something that Disney offers for much less.

 

[20KLeagues]

So you have to stay at one of their higher end hotels to get that benefit.

Disney would have a very hard time doing that given how many more hotels they have.

You‘re comparing something that Universal sells for over $100 per day per person to something that Disney offers for much less.

No they wouldn't.......Include in Deluxe only (like extended hours) and then charge all other hotel guests and sell a limited amount......if they dont sell out then offer to non hotel guests

 

[MakiraMarlena]

the Universal fans will tell you that a room at one of their high end hotels is much cheaper than a room at one of WDW's high end hotels. If you were planning to go high end anyway.

Disney does have the daily price benefit, however with Uni you don't have to schedule, you just walk up and they put you in the special line. Plus I believe you can use express pass for repeat attractions.

I can't bring myself to like Universal on the same level though. I will probably have an AP at Uni when I live in Florida someday, but not until then.

 

[20KLeagues]

the Universal fans will tell you that a room at one of their high end hotels is much cheaper than a room at one of WDW's high end hotels. If you were planning to go high end anyway.

Disney does have the daily price benefit, however with Uni you don't have to schedule, you just walk up and they put you in the special line. Plus I believe you can use express pass for repeat attractions.

I can't bring myself to like Universal on the same level though. I will probably have an AP at Uni when I live in Florida someday, but not until then.

You dont have to.......We have stayed at Hard Rock, got the express pass and visited Disney........Hotel is less than half the price of a deluxe, rooms are nicer and you get express pass included............then we just visit Disney for 2 or 3 days and SAVE A &%^$ ton of money and have a great experience

Especially with all of Disney's on site advantages being canceled to cost cutting measures, might as well get a HUGE benefit from universal, stay at a GREAT hotel for less than half the price while still enjoying WDW, along with Universal


Try it if you havent done it, i bet you will never stay in a WDW hotel again

 

[MakiraMarlena]

I've stayed at all three of the Uni high end resorts and at Cabana Bay.

in both cases I was done with the parks in 2 days and had enough of Uni. Having DVC for 20 years kind of stops me from spending my trips entirely in a Uni resort, but I don't have to pay WDW prices either.

When I move to the area I will have more time for Universal but that will probably be day trips.

 

[20KLeagues]

I've stayed at all three of the Uni high end resorts and at Cabana Bay.

in both cases I was done with the parks in 2 days and had enough of Uni. Having DVC for 20 years kind of stops me from spending my trips entirely in a Uni resort, but I don't have to pay WDW prices either.

When I move to the area I will have more time for Universal but that will probably be day trips.

Right I think Universal is 3 days max right now and thats if you include Volcano Bay........

But you can still stay there for a week and do that and then still do Disney at a fraction of the cost

While the parks dont quite measure up to WDW parks, i think its exact opposite with the hotels.....

the hotels are nicer, cheaper and have free express pass

 

[empedocles]

Idly perusing MDE. 6 1/3 hour virtual queue for Rat at 3:15ish EDT?

 

[MakiraMarlena]

that just means that you can join the queue now, but it might be 8pm before you get called back.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Please take this discussion back to Genie and away from Universal please. There is an entire board dedicated to Universal Studios for those who wish to discuss it.

Thanks.

 

[Monk6552]

Just went to Disney 10/21-10/24 and had Genie+ the entire trip - want to share what I learned in hopes that it may help others! We had a vacation package and were under the impression we had to buy Genie for the entire trip - whether I would do that again remains to be seen.

10/21 - DHS. Overall, G+ seemed worth it for DHS. We got there around 3:00 PM - but made our choices at 7 am - bought both MMRR and RoTR first thing for later in the evening and reserved SDD via G+ for around 4 PM. In retrospect it may have been possible to stack another G+ option after 11 am - but I didn't think to try this. We got to the park and did standby tower, then made it over to SDD. As soon as we were through both LL gates we made another G+ for toy story mania. In the mean time we did RotR and MMRR. After toy story mania we did standby smugglers run. We ended up walking on toy story mania again (because we couldn't reserve it twice via G+). Ultimately we only used 2 G+ that day - in part because we were able to do everything else we wanted standby.

10/22 - MK. Definitely worth it. Again woke up at 7 am - and bought mine train and made G+ for Jungle cruise at 9:15 am (Jungle cruise seemed to be booking up the quickest so we knew we wanted to book it first for an early LL. We had ETPE and got there by 8:30, but didn't try to rush on any rides after looking how quickly wait times went up. Instead we got food and casually went on the carousel. As soon as the rest of the park opened at 9:00 AM we headed to frontierland. We walked on splash mountain and then thunder mountain - the wait was maybe 10 minutes. We then headed to jungle cruise to make it before our window closed. As soon as we got on jungle cruise made another G+ selection for Haunted Mansion - which again I had been watching wait times/G+ options the prior two days and saw it booking up early. Then did standby pirates, got dole whip, then headed to haunted mansion (because we were booking G+ after going on a prior G+ selection we were able to make selections less than 120 min apart). So this doesn't become a 4 page post - we were able to to get on buzz light year, small world, tomorrowland speedway, magic carpet, and thunder mtn a second time all on G+. We did mine train and space mountain via LL$. We did standby dumbo, laugh factory, carousel of progress as well. We fit in every ride we wanted to and the longest line we waited in was 15 for laugh factory (not worth it!) - but for us G+ and LL$ were worth it.

10/23 - Epcot. NOT worth it. We booked test track via G+ - that's the only one we ended up using, they we had a another one for mission space. We were able to get Remy via virtual queue and got on by 1. Did Soarin, figment, spaceship earth, living with the land, and tres caballeros. There just aren't that many rides that require G+ at Epcot.

10/24 - DHS. We already did almost everything wanted on Thursday so it didn't feel terribly worth it to have a second day. We did not get up at 7 am or rope drop. We made G+ for toy story mania and after that we had lunch and then res at Oga's. We did standby Muppet Vision, and then did our second G+ lanes split up and did tower/rockin respectively. I think it would've been more worth it if we rope dropped, but we were worn out!

Overall, for us G+ and LL$ were definitely worth it since we hadn't been in years, it was packed, and we probably won't be back for years, but I can see how it may not be for others like AP holders and those who can go midweek. But there is definitely a skill/game to getting everything you want and you have to be watching what's available and what tends to book up quickly. Hope this is helpful in some way for others!