Genie Plus - Experiences and Reviews

[disneycat321]

This has been our experience as well. Being here now for the past 4 days in the park; you see just how poor an experience Genie+ creates for anyone not using Genie+.

Astronomical wait times on any ride with LL and normal/acceptable wait times on every other ride across both parks.

Guess it’s working as intended to make Disney more money; just sad to see the park turn into this after all these years.

100%. I am just grateful that far less rides are in the G+ system than at WDW, where basically everything is. That’s DLR’s saving grace right now - at least there’s something else you can ride!

 

[tdhickey]

This has been our experience as well. Being here now for the past 4 days in the park; you see just how poor an experience Genie+ creates for anyone not using Genie+.

Astronomical wait times on any ride with LL and normal/acceptable wait times on every other ride across both parks.

Guess it’s working as intended to make Disney more money; just sad to see the park turn into this after all these years.

Agree, we had 3 non Genie+ days and some of the lines were super frustrating and you could feel the inequality in the line management way more than I recall with Fast Pass.

 

[tdhickey]

One issue we had was that my Android phone was not very cooperative with the "tip board" and could not be used to order Genie+ or book LL's. I could redeem LL, but not book them. A cast member confirmed the app is buggy on Android phones at times.

Be sure to have an iPhone in your party, we had to use one to book LL and buy Genie+

 

[sweethannah]

We arrived today. Landed at SNA at 8:30 and were in the parks an hour later.

Genie + is no MaxPass. I’ve never paid more and I’ve also never spent so much time in line in the 10 years we’ve been coming. We were able to accomplish only 4 rides in 5 hours, and I was a MaxPass pro. I needed guest services twice to fix app issues. I’m sure the next few days will still be fun, but it’ll also probably be our last Disney vacation.

Sorry to hear you feel that way. I too would describe myself as a MaxPass pro and you've confirmed the fears I have about Genie +. I wish there was the option to book a ride more than once, more money but you get less. I don't understand it tbh. I'd pay $20 for the old MaxPass happily. As an android user I hope the app glitches are fixed by August.

 

[sweethannah]

Thanks for all the real-world experiences. I like how some of you leverage the rides being down to score bonus passes. I did that all the time with MP.

I thought you were only allowed to book a ride once per day. Maybe the better phrasing would be, you are only allowed to book and ride once per day. What happens if I, for example, book Space because it's down and I'm hoping to get a bonus pass. If Space comes back up during my window but I don't actually ride it., am I allowed to book it again? Does that make sense?

Thanks!

I'd like to know too! Also if I'm understanding correctly if I book Indy and it goes down I can use my bonus on Space and I can book again for Indy because I haven't ridden it? But if I end up using the bonus on Indy I can't re-book Indy because it's one and done? Thanks in advance!

 

[DLRExpert]

I'd like to know too! Also if I'm understanding correctly if I book Indy and it goes down I can use my bonus on Space and I can book again for Indy because I haven't ridden it? But if I end up using the bonus on Indy I can't re-book Indy because it's one and done? Thanks in advance!

You can rebook Indy. Once it turns into a bonus it becomes a separate and extra LL pass.
However, for ILL it is only for the same attraction.

 

[disneylover102]

Yeah just think of it this way: once you get a bonus LL the system forgets you ever booked that ride in the first place. Once that bonus comes in you’re automatically eligible to book another LL (unless the 2 hours had already passed) and you can always book the original ride again. The only way the system won’t let you rebook a ride is if you redeemed a normal LL for that ride when it wasn’t broken down during your window and therefore you didn’t get a bonus from it

 

[xipotec]

Holy Cow….35 minute standby at ROTR in DL???
Cant be?

 

[poptart90]

Holy Cow….35 minute standby at ROTR in DL???
Cant be?

I'd love to believe it, but I doubt it.

Our experience in March was the that DL App was completely worthless. Worthless because it was wrong almost 99% of the time. Not the CM's fault. If you walked over and looked at the posted wait time next to the attraction, it was correct. Problem was the App almost never updated in time to prevent a MASS flood of people rushing over to something they thought had a low wait time, but actually had a much higher wait time. Which then ballooned the stand-by line to a ridiculous wait. The App was so far behind, it was ludicrous. Especially given Genie+ was touted as this highly adaptable helpful tool. If the Super High Tech App can't update like the CM-boots-on-the-ground, it's GAH-bage IMO. I kept scratching my head trying to figure out how on earth Disney IT managed to destroy a perfectly functional and helpful App (under FP/MP, that is).

Anyway, this created a ton of unnecessary walking back and forth to different attractions to figure out what was worth attempting. In DCA, I finally resorted to stopping by the Carthay Circle Guest Services board (which was always correct). Made me wish for the Jolly Holiday board every time we were in Disneyland.

We are taking our first family trip to WDW this summer. I'm very interested to see if the App times are more reflective of the actual wait times for those parks.

And since this is the Genie+ experience thread , I'll give my two cents. We hated it. Not surprised with the latest announcement put out by Disney ("people can experience 2-3 attractions if they get there early in the day" bit) as this was also our experience. Never did I feel I accomplished so little while simultaneously being glued to my phone continuously refreshing refreshing refreshing refreshing.....not my idea of a Disney vacay.
MP was FAR SUPERIOR.

From now on, we're going to skip Genie+ entirely and just pay for the ILL's. We'll rope drop everything we can, then wait until almost close to pick up anything we missed.

And never again bother with Genie "flying in" to offer a suggestion to ride an attraction that is closed or a dine at a restaurant with zero availability!

 

[Ladyslug]

We used Genie+ on both of our park days (Monday and Tuesday, parkhopping, open-to-close with a brief late afternoon break) and it was very worth it for us (party of two, no children). We started both days in Disneyland, got there for rope drop, and while we were waiting for the park to open, we would book a LL for DCA (Guardians one day, Grizzly the other) and thus have a later return time LL ready to go while the two hour delay didn't hurt us because standby lines were short in the morning. We did have a few ride closures that caused our LLs to convert to LLEPs, but that just allowed us to have more flexibility later in the evening and to rebook the closed rides (they all came back up later, with the exception of Grizzly). We ended up riding pretty much everything we wanted to multiple times with minimal waits, and even had enough time left over to do extra stuff we wouldn't typically do to fill in time before our return windows opened (Winnie the Pooh, Castle Walkthrough, Sorcerer's Workshop) as well as plenty of time for snacks, water breaks, Dapper Dans, Doctor Strange, Cars Land at sunset, and getting stuff from the Food & Wine booths. Several of the LL return lines were so fast we barely had time book another LL before we had to board the ride vehicle. Whenever we booked a LL for a return time that was more than 2 hours out, my sister would set a 2-hour timer to remind us to book something else so we wouldn't lose any time. We did try to have a game plan in advance for what we wanted to get done, so we were mostly on our phone to check return times when it was almost time to book another LL, just to see what rides would work for location and timing (especially later in the day as return times started to extend) -- we didn't really do any book-and-cancel moves to try and game return times or anything.

We did not do ILL -- we rope-dropped Rise (ended up being about a 40-min wait, even with it being down for 10-15 min at park open), used the single rider line for RSR (20-30 min wait at around 6:30pm), and waited in a posted 40-minute standby line for Webslingers at around 9pm (actual wait time: 45 min).

We did experience a glitch where the Haunted Mansion LL reservation didn't go through for my sister (we think maybe cell service dropped out when she was in the middle of booking), but Guest Relations was able to get it taken care of quickly and we were still able to ride together during my reservation window (I think it was thanks to a little Plaid Pixie Dust). And if you are going standby, it is definitely rough, especially at peak crowd times. The standby return times can start to become really questionable because the LL folks are highly prioritized, and it is hard to stand there and watch what feels like a zillion people from the LL line pass through while your line barely ever moves. Our Star Tours standby wait at about 11:30am was way off (posted 25 min, actual 40 min), which was frustrating since we were just doing that to fill in time before our Space Mountain return, and 25 minutes would have been perfect filler. Since my visits to DL are usually just 2-day trips, I will be building Genie+ into my budget for the foreseeable future as it just makes everything more efficient.

 

[xipotec]

We used Genie+ on both of our park days (Monday and Tuesday, parkhopping, open-to-close with a brief late afternoon break) and it was very worth it for us (party of two, no children). We started both days in Disneyland, got there for rope drop, and while we were waiting for the park to open, we would book a LL for DCA (Guardians one day, Grizzly the other) and thus have a later return time LL ready to go while the two hour delay didn't hurt us because standby lines were short in the morning. We did have a few ride closures that caused our LLs to convert to LLEPs, but that just allowed us to have more flexibility later in the evening and to rebook the closed rides (they all came back up later, with the exception of Grizzly). We ended up riding pretty much everything we wanted to multiple times with minimal waits, and even had enough time left over to do extra stuff we wouldn't typically do to fill in time before our return windows opened (Winnie the Pooh, Castle Walkthrough, Sorcerer's Workshop) as well as plenty of time for snacks, water breaks, Dapper Dans, Doctor Strange, Cars Land at sunset, and getting stuff from the Food & Wine booths. Several of the LL return lines were so fast we barely had time book another LL before we had to board the ride vehicle. Whenever we booked a LL for a return time that was more than 2 hours out, my sister would set a 2-hour timer to remind us to book something else so we wouldn't lose any time. We did try to have a game plan in advance for what we wanted to get done, so we were mostly on our phone to check return times when it was almost time to book another LL, just to see what rides would work for location and timing (especially later in the day as return times started to extend) -- we didn't really do any book-and-cancel moves to try and game return times or anything.

We did not do ILL -- we rope-dropped Rise (ended up being about a 40-min wait, even with it being down for 10-15 min at park open), used the single rider line for RSR (20-30 min wait at around 6:30pm), and waited in a posted 40-minute standby line for Webslingers at around 9pm (actual wait time: 45 min).

We did experience a glitch where the Haunted Mansion LL reservation didn't go through for my sister (we think maybe cell service dropped out when she was in the middle of booking), but Guest Relations was able to get it taken care of quickly and we were still able to ride together during my reservation window (I think it was thanks to a little Plaid Pixie Dust). And if you are going standby, it is definitely rough, especially at peak crowd times. The standby return times can start to become really questionable because the LL folks are highly prioritized, and it is hard to stand there and watch what feels like a zillion people from the LL line pass through while your line barely ever moves. Our Star Tours standby wait at about 11:30am was way off (posted 25 min, actual 40 min), which was frustrating since we were just doing that to fill in time before our Space Mountain return, and 25 minutes would have been perfect filler. Since my visits to DL are usually just 2-day trips, I will be building Genie+ into my budget for the foreseeable future as it just makes everything more efficient.

How were crowds thou?

 

[Ladyslug]

Crowds were worst in the middle of the day (11a-5p), but overall I'd say moderate crowds, since it was a Monday and Tuesday after most Spring Breaks are done. There was what appeared to be an influx of locals around 6pm (that's when the Food & Wine Festival booth lines got longer), but I never felt like I couldn't move through the parks fairly smoothly (except for some clogging in Fantasyland midday), so it must not have been too crowded.

 

[disneymum58]

How long is the return time window when you book a Genie + lightening lane?

 

[ironband74]

How long is the return time window when you book a Genie + lightening lane?

1 hour, with a 5 minute early to 15 minute late grace period. So the window is given as an hour, but in reality is 1hr 20 minutes

 

[PirateBoatDropRide]

Sorry to hear you feel that way. I too would describe myself as a MaxPass pro and you've confirmed the fears I have about Genie +. I wish there was the option to book a ride more than once, more money but you get less. I don't understand it tbh. I'd pay $20 for the old MaxPass happily. As an android user I hope the app glitches are fixed by August.

This is my main issue with G+ at DL. I just want the ability to book the same ride more than once in the same day if it's avilable. I actually would have less is issue with G+ at DL if we could do the same rides more than once. I think it does stink that it makes a day without G+ far more difficult and they really should have kept Max Pass+ at DL, but G+ could be fine with some changes for those that decide to pay for it.

 

[Porsche4]

We are leaving next week for a weeks stay. We intend to rope drop and ride as many things as we can standby in the first couple of hours of park time then start using G+ to re ride things as the day goes on, effectively letting us do our favourites twice a day. We will have a mid afternoon break and re enter the parks about 5pm to get dinner and maybe just do fill in things like Art of Animation and shopping. I'm not sure how successful we will be but we will give it a go. I have been really stressing about the predicted crowds as all the night time entertainment starts back up the day we arrive but I now figure that with 8 days in the park & G+ we will get more than enough ride time. I also think we may try getting on some rides during the night time parades which hopefully may draw some crowds from the rides. I also think once we re enter the parks we will keep an eye on the crowd levels and try and pick a night with the lowest crowds to experience the night time entertainment ourselves but I am not too stressed about getting the optimum viewing spot. I would have liked to get a booking for a viewing package but as I am in Australia and time zones are way out I couldn't be on the App immediately these dropped so missed out. We will just try and grab ourselves a spot somewhere half an hour before start time but I am not too fussed if we miss the night time stuff, I'm just looking forward to spending time with my daughter and finally having some Disney fun.

 

[Nhebron]

My experience this week (spring break) with rope dropping and then coming back in the evening was that most of the genie + passes for the headliners were gone in the evening. Genie+ was helpful to manage wait times late morning through afternoon.

 

[Porsche4]

My experience this week (spring break) with rope dropping and then coming back in the evening was that most of the genie + passes for the headliners were gone in the evening. Genie+ was helpful to manage wait times late morning through afternoon.

Yes thats what I was thinking might happen so I thought we would start using G+ around 10:30 to ride the more popular rides a second time after rope dropping them first then when we return from our afternoon break just do filler things like wandering around Galaxy's Edge or hopping on the train for a circuit of the park. I'm thinking that even though the crowds will be pretty full on in the nighttime for the return of all the entertainment we will just wander around and enjoy all the lighting effects in all the different lands.

 

[robert_j]

We were in the parks on Thursday and Friday for the first time in five years, and it was packed! We found that it is possible to take full advantage of Genie+ (i.e., to book everything you are eligible to book), but you have to be very strategic about it.

In practice that means following two principles. First, use Genie+ throughout the day instead of saving it for the afternoon, when the return times are long. Second, prioritize rides that have the longest return times, since the return times only stretch out further as the day goes on.

Using these principles, we went on a ton of rides, but we were also on our feet from rope drop to close both days. While it is fresh in my mind, here is what we did, in case others find our approach helpful:

Disneyland (Thursday)

Rope drop: Tomorrowland

Space Mountain was closed, so we ended up doing standby for Star Tours and Buzz Light Year (both walk ons). Star Tours is a favorite and we knew we wanted to go on it at least twice, so we saved our Genie+ for a second run in the afternoon. Meanwhile, at park opening, we booked our first Genie+ for Indiana Jones. We were planning to go to Adventureland next, and we would have been fine to ride Indy then, but really we were hoping Indy would close and we could get a multi-experience pass to use later.

Early Morning/Adventureland

On our way to Adventureland, we learned that Indy did in fact close so we got our first multi-experience pass of the day. Then we got on line for Jungle Cruise standby, with probably a longer wait than usual for that time of the morning because all the Indy people went over.

Mid Morning/Lunch

Walked on Small World, used Genie+ for Haunted Mansion and Big Thunder Mountain. We also put in our mobile order for Jolly Holiday around 10:30 so we could get the noon return window we wanted. Throughout the morning I was monitoring the app for the return times we wanted for ROTR and Millennium Falcon so we could do those around the same time after lunch; we must have had those booked by about 10:40 because I did not use Genie Plus again until the two hour window expired right after lunch. For the rest of the morning we mobile ordered Dole Whips and went to the Tiki Room, then did photos in the castle area. We were done with lunch by 12:40, when I was eligible to book my next LL, so I booked Star Tours for the afternoon, then went over to Galaxy's Edge.

Afternoon: Galaxy's Edge/back to Tomorrowland

Went on Rise after lunch (ILL) and then Millennium Falcon right after that (LL). Then we took some time to explore Galaxy's Edge. In the meanwhile, we saw that Space Mountain was up and running, so at 2:40 we scheduled Space Mountain for 6:00-7:00. We went back to Tomorrowland, and while waiting for our Star Tours return window to come up, we did standby for Autopia. Then we went on Star Tours, went back to Galaxy's Edge for droid making (4:50) and light sabers (5:50). We went back again to Tomorrowland for our Genie+ reservation for Space mountain, rode Space with the droid and the lightsaber (not our original plan, but somehow it worked). Then we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner, and on the way scheduled Genie+ for Indy for after dinner (around 9:30-10:30).

Dinner/Evening

We had an 8:00 dinner reservation at Napa Rose; by 9:30 we were back in the parks and discovered that Indy was down again, so we unexpectedly collected our second multi-experience pass for the day. We immediately used one of our multi-experience passes for Alice, then walked on Pinocchio because the standby was short. We had an Oga's reservation at 10:15, and were done by 10:45 -- no one really cared for the drinks! Then we did standby for Millennium Falcon, which was 30 minutes, and we were done by 11:15. Then we used our second multi-experience pass (thank you Indy) to ride Big Thunder mountain for a second time. Then we went over to Indy at 11:30 expecting to end the day with it -- there were no LLs available but happily the standby line was so short that we were out by 11:55. That left just enough time to hustle to Peter Pan before closing.

Summary

You have to be strategic, and know what your priorities are, but using this plan we were able to ride the following on a very crowded Thursday:

• Star Tours (2x)
• Buzz
• Jungle Cruise
• Small World
• Haunted Mansion
• Big Thunder (2x)
• ROTR
• Millennium Falcon (2x)
• Autopia
• Space Mountain
• Alice
• Pinocchio
• Indy
• Peter Pan

Of course, it helped that we had two multi-experience passes because Indy closed twice.

California Adventure (Friday)

For California Adventure we discovered that we could not book our Genie+ reservations too closely together because the LL queues would get really backed up. We waited a good 30 minutes to get on Goofy's Sky School with Genie+. We also had a lot more down time between rides because it was so crowded and standby was not really an option.

Rope drop: Soarin' Over California/Pixar Pier

We rope dropped Soarin' Over California because it is a favorite and we wanted to ride it twice, especially since it was the original version that we love so much. We also figured (correctly) that most people would be going to Radiator Springs Racers, and our general strategy was to go in the opposite direction from the crowds. After Soarin', we went to Pixar Pier, where Toy Story, Incredicoaster, and Mickey's Fun Wheel (stationary) were all walk ons, so we could save our LLs. Meanwhile, at the start of the day, we booked our first LL for Guardians and bought an ILL for Web Slingers for around the same time.

Mid Morning: Avenger's Campus/Cars Single Rider

Right as we were getting off Incredicoaster, we discovered that Radiator Springs Racers was down, and all of those crowds shifted over to Pixar Pier. So we left Pixar Pier and went to Avenger's campus to use our first LL for Guardians, then immediately booked Toy Story to ride a second time, since the standby line had picked up by then. We rode Web Slingers with ILL, then went back to Pixar Pier for our Toy Story Genie+ reservation, and immediately booked Soarin' for a return time after lunch. By that point, Radiator Springs Racers was open, so we rode that using single rider. We did plan to buy an ILL for RSR so we could ride it as a group, but we wanted to save that for after dark. Single rider seemed to be the only viable way to ride RSR twice because the standby lines were so terrible.

Mid Day

By mid day things got tricky because the return windows were getting very long. After riding Soarin' again we got LLs for Grizzly River Run for a 5:00 return time, Incredicoaster for 6:00 (for a second run, after walking on it in the morning), Goofy's Sky School for 7:00, and Monster's Inc. for 9:00. In between these reservations, there was a lot of waiting, so we ended up taking advantage of food and wine, doing standby for Little Mermaid twice, going to Mickey's PhilharMagic, and then doing standby for Guardians to ride it a second time. It turned out to be only about 40 minutes for the Guardian standby in the late afternoon (despite a 60 minute posted return time), and since we were doing a lot of waiting anyway, we thought we might as well wait in line.

Evening

We had dinner at Lamplight Lounge at 8:00. Then we had two more LLs booked: Cars for 9:00 (ILL) and Monster's Inc. for 9:30. The problem was that Cars went down after we got on line, and it was not until 9:30 that it was up and running again, and 9:45 before we were off it. So we spent a lot of time on the LL queue for Cars and almost did not make it to Monsters' Inc. before closing. We had hoped to end the night with a standby for Incredicoaster, but all the waiting in the LL queues prevented that. Earlier in the day, we also encountered long waits in the LL queues for Grizzly River Run and Goofy's Sky School, so I can only imagine what the regular waits must have been like.

Conclusion

It was another crowded day on Friday, and we were in the parks from rope drop to close, with a lot of time waiting around managing the crowds, but we were still able to do:

• Soarin' Over California (2x)
• Toy Story (2x)
• Incredicoaster (2x)
• Mickey's Fun Wheel
• Guardians (2X)
• Web Slingers
• Radiator Springs Racers (2x)
• Little Mermaid (2x)
• Grizzly River Run
• Goofy's Sky School
• Monster's Inc.

Concluding Thoughts

You can get a lot done on a crowded day with Genie+. That said, I spent the last two months doing research, was almost constantly strategizing during the day, and slept for about 5 hours over a 48 hour period on Thursday and Friday (on Saturday we slept and hung out at the pool!). For people who do not want to plan the day down to the minute, or pay for upcharges like ILL (to say nothing of Genie+ itself), it is much harder.

 

[ironband74]

You can get a lot done on a crowded day with Genie+. That said, I spent the last two months doing research, was almost constantly strategizing during the day, and slept for about 5 hours over a 48 hour period on Thursday and Friday (on Saturday we slept and hung out at the pool!). For people who do not want to plan the day down to the minute, or pay for upcharges like ILL (to say nothing of Genie+ itself), it is much harder.

Nice! We're here this week, first day is tomorrow. Very much appreciate the intel! I've been doing the same over the last few months, doing dry runs with the app and working through different scenarios and contingency plans. Super excited to either rock the plan or fail spectacularly tomorrow!