Do I need genie+ in May?

[chaselovesnemo]

Planning to visit the parks with my 6 & 3yo the first week of May. We’re just doing one day at each park. Probably CA on Tues May 2 (since DL has a Star Wars event that night) and DL on Wed May 3rd.

Do you think I’ll need to buy genie+ on those days? I was thinking we’d get it for DL but maybe not CA. RSR is our priority and it’s not included and I’m not sure if my kids will do incredicoaster or guardians.

DH and I have been to the parks many times but this is the first time for the 3YO and the 6YO only remembers WDW. We are rope droppers and will stay to close.

Everything has changed so much since our last trip to DL 4.5 years ago and I am overwhelmed! I don’t know what crowds will be like or how genie+ has affected standby lines.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Genie+ has made the standby lines terrible. Especially on crowded days. Lately, it’s hard to predict which days will be more or less crowded. That will be a big week for Star Wars fans, but it’s hard to say how helpful Genie+ will be.

At DCA with a 3-year-old, you’re looking at just a few rides (assuming your 3-year-old is 40 inches and will actually ride them):

Webslingers
Guardians
Soarin
Toy Story
Monsters Inc

Even so, it could be worth it if your kids want to ride all those rides.

At DL, you’re looking at:

Space Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain
Splash Mountain
Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run
Haunted Mansion
Buzz Light Year
Autopia
It’s a Small World

My son could ride all these at 3 years old … except he was too scared.

Whether or not it’s worth the money … I hate Genie+ and what it’s done to the standby lines. I never buy it when I go with my younger child, but if I’m just with my older son (who is 8 and will ride everything but Incredicoaster), I get it as a special splurge. For occasional guests with few park days I think it’s almost always a good idea. Very low crowd days are so rare these days.

 

[Ryan120420]

Genie+ has destroyed stand-by lines.


If everything is running normally, 80% of an attraction's capacity is given to Genie+. If the Lightning Lane becomes backed up, even just by a little, that ratio goes up to as much as 99%.

 

[Pluto468]

I'll be there the same week as you and plan to play Genie+. If you're only there for 2 days I think it's a good idea to have it for your Disneyland day. At DCA, if you know you want to ride RSR you could just buy an ILL for it.

 

[Kit Jackson]

Also, something to keep in mind is that Genie+ at Disneyland includes PhotoPass, so if you are interested in pictures, especially with some of the characters, that may factor into your decision to get Genie+

 

[chaselovesnemo]

Genie+ has made the standby lines terrible. Especially on crowded days. Lately, it’s hard to predict which days will be more or less crowded. That will be a big week for Star Wars fans, but it’s hard to say how helpful Genie+ will be.

At DCA with a 3-year-old, you’re looking at just a few rides (assuming your 3-year-old is 40 inches and will actually ride them):

Webslingers
Guardians
Soarin
Toy Story
Monsters Inc

Even so, it could be worth it if your kids want to ride all those rides.

At DL, you’re looking at:

Space Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain
Splash Mountain
Millennium Falcon Smugglers Run
Haunted Mansion
Buzz Light Year
Autopia
It’s a Small World

My son could ride all these at 3 years old … except he was too scared.

Whether or not it’s worth the money … I hate Genie+ and what it’s done to the standby lines. I never buy it when I go with my younger child, but if I’m just with my older son (who is 8 and will ride everything but Incredicoaster), I get it as a special splurge. For occasional guests with few park days I think it’s almost always a good idea. Very low crowd days are so rare these days.

These are good points. We decided to bump our tickets to 3 day/one park- but I just found out DL has no reservations for May 3. That means we’ll need to go on a party day.. (Tues May 2) and May the 4th Would you expect it to be extra busy on those mornings from the Star Wars stuff? We could potentially do Monday instead but we’ll be driving from San Diego that morning so I highly doubt we’ll be there by opening.

 

[chezcurrie]

These are good points. We decided to bump our tickets to 3 day/one park- but I just found out DL has no reservations for May 3. That means we’ll need to go on a party day.. (Tues May 2) and May the 4th Would you expect it to be extra busy on those mornings from the Star Wars stuff? We could potentially do Monday instead but we’ll be driving from San Diego that morning so I highly doubt we’ll be there by opening.

DL is still showing availability on May 3 with a park hopper I have in my account - did you try and book it or are you going off of what someone else said?

FWIW I live in San Diego and we do Dland late arrival often - still plenty of time to get things done, esp with G+. However with the ages of your littles you may not even need the late night stuff. May the 4th I think would be especially busy at DL because of the date + the after hours.

EDIT: typo

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

These are good points. We decided to bump our tickets to 3 day/one park- but I just found out DL has no reservations for May 3. That means we’ll need to go on a party day.. (Tues May 2) and May the 4th Would you expect it to be extra busy on those mornings from the Star Wars stuff? We could potentially do Monday instead but we’ll be driving from San Diego that morning so I highly doubt we’ll be there by opening.

Which days will you be there (that you can choose from)? I do expect 5/4 to be very busy, but if you like Star Wars it could be fun!

 

[chezcurrie]

I also just checked my magic key, which still shows availability on May 3 so not sure where you got that info that reservations weren’t available.

As for G+ I treat it as a 3-ride guarantee (kinda like WDW FP of the before times) - so if its worth it to have minimal wait for your top 3 rides I say get G+. It will be necessary at DL imo. Even with littles who don’t ride the big rides it can be very useful for riding things more than once (ie you ride standby in the am when lines are short, book a G+ for later in the day when lines are long, etc.)

Also, read up on MEP - you may be able to “fish” for a MEP for a ride you won’t go on (like Indiana, Matterhorn) and get a multiple experience pass (MEP) you can use for some rides that don’t have LL (Fantasyland rides, pirates, etc.)

 

[chaselovesnemo]

DL is still showing availability on May 3 with a park hopper I have in my account - did you try and book it or are you going off of what someone else said?

FWIW I live in San Diego and we do Dland late arrival often - still plenty of time to get things done, esp with G+. However with the ages of your littles you may not even need the late night stuff. May the 4th I think would be especially busy at DL because of the date + the after hours.

EDIT: typo

When I go to the Disneyland website and try to choose a day for a reservation Disneyland is grayed out on May 3. We have 1 park per day tickets so maybe its different than park hoppers? It’s the only unavailable park day the whole month

That’s great to know about coming from San Diego. I was concerned about Monday morning traffic. How long does it usually take you?

If you have any SD zoo tips please let me know! We will be there on Sunday before Disney.

 

[chaselovesnemo]

Which days will you be there (that you can choose from)? I do expect 5/4 to be very busy, but if you like Star Wars it could be fun!

We fly into SNA on Sunday April 30 at 8am and plan to drive straight to San Diego and do the zoo that day and spend one night there. Monday we were planning to do a few things in SD and slowly make our way to Disneyland.

We have the Desert Palms hotel booked M-Th. Our flight home is Thursday at 6pm from SNA. So we will for sure do Tuesday and Wednesday May 2-3 at the parks but our third day could potentially be Monday May 1 or Thursday May 4.. either day will only be a partial day.

I planned on Monday being more low-key because I’m not sure my little kids will want to do 4 long days in a row but it might be worth the trade-off if crowds are going to be crazy during the morning of May 4. We’ll have to leave by 330ish anyways to catch our flight so we won’t overlap with party people coming in.

 

[chezcurrie]

When I go to the Disneyland website and try to choose a day for a reservation Disneyland is grayed out on May 3. We have 1 park per day tickets so maybe its different than park hoppers? It’s the only unavailable park day the whole month

That’s great to know about coming from San Diego. I was concerned about Monday morning traffic. How long does it usually take you?

If you have any SD zoo tips please let me know! We will be there on Sunday before Disney.

So I just went through the motions as if I was purchasing a new 1-park/day ticket and DL is not available but DCA is - perhaps you can do DCA on May 3 instead? I know its hard with all the after hours stuff to then do DL. Star Wars night doesn’t start until 9pm and with the ages of your littles that still a pretty full day! My 7 year old doesn’t make it that late, LOL.

So you could do DL May 2 and DCA May 3. If fireworks are a priority you can see them from the Esplanade area as well.

As for the drive, I live in North County and it takes me an hour and a bit to get to Dland. If you are in SanDiego proper I would plan on 90 minutes, more if you hit traffic. Definitely be on the road early, I got stuck in nasty traffic this Saturday around 10. Also have a plan for parking -either at DLand structure or your hotel.

For the zoo, I’d try and get a reservation at Alberts - its the only sit down restaurant and I find the other options to not be as appealing. Also its nice to start your day with the bus tour to get a lay of the land and then you can do the skyline and work your way back to whatever area interests you the most.

 

[chezcurrie]

Just saw your response re: 3rd day. I think either the Monday or Thursday as a partial day would be just fine. Depending on where you are flying from if you will be jetlagged I would lean toward the Monday being a partial day as you will likely still be up early. I think the May 4 crowds will be focused on Galaxy’s edge so shouldn’t be too bad - always go with a plan so maybe pick your kids top 2 favourite things for that day and make them happen, smell the roses, etc. You can get a lot done in the morning. So I guess I would ask yourself would you rather have an afternoon/evening start to your DL experience, or end it with a partial day. No right/wrong answer there.

 

[chaselovesnemo]

Just saw your response re: 3rd day. I think either the Monday or Thursday as a partial day would be just fine. Depending on where you are flying from if you will be jetlagged I would lean toward the Monday being a partial day as you will likely still be up early. I think the May 4 crowds will be focused on Galaxy’s edge so shouldn’t be too bad - always go with a plan so maybe pick your kids top 2 favourite things for that day and make them happen, smell the roses, etc. You can get a lot done in the morning. So I guess I would ask yourself would you rather have an afternoon/evening start to your DL experience, or end it with a partial day. No right/wrong answer there.

Thank you so much for your help! After all that, we were able to book Disneyland on May 3 like we wanted. The website was showing full availability today but when I tried to book it was grayed out. I called in and they were able to book it for me fine.

 

[pindecisive]

Planning to visit the parks with my 6 & 3yo the first week of May. We’re just doing one day at each park. Probably CA on Tues May 2 (since DL has a Star Wars event that night) and DL on Wed May 3rd.

Do you think I’ll need to buy genie+ on those days? I was thinking we’d get it for DL but maybe not CA. RSR is our priority and it’s not included and I’m not sure if my kids will do incredicoaster or guardians.

DH and I have been to the parks many times but this is the first time for the 3YO and the 6YO only remembers WDW. We are rope droppers and will stay to close.

Everything has changed so much since our last trip to DL 4.5 years ago and I am overwhelmed! I don’t know what crowds will be like or how genie+ has affected standby lines.

I would buy Genie+ for your DL days, yes. We used it once at DCA but the wait times for rides at DCA were so short, there didn't seem to be a reason to.

 

[seewong]

We generally consider Genie+ a necessity on days where the parks are anything but empty