Genie + Strategy For Families with Young Children

[Future_WorldPhonencian]

Wanted to know others thoughts/ plans/ experiences about Genie plus usage with a young family. Currently have 2 children and one infant (obviously infant does not need a ticket) that do not meet height requirements for all the rides, nor will they want to ride everything. One is right at 44inches, The other is 37.5 inches (hoping for 38inches by our trip) How are other families considering Genie during their day? What parks do folks see the value in purchasing Genie Plus for vs not? Im assuming child swap/ rider swap is still functioning the same as back in the day, but would love first hand experiences.

Please keep the comments analytical and avoid anything that could get this thread shut down. We are pre-pandemic park veterans so we know what it was like "before" lets move forward and help each other out.

 

[Future_WorldPhonencian]

My first Impressions:
1. MK: is an obvious choice to by Genie + for our entire group for at least one day of our trip.
2. AK: We can probably navigate AK without Genie + for anyone
3. Epcot: Surpisingly, our older/ taller child is most interested in/ excited for the rides in this park (Test Track, Soarin' Spaceship Earth, Mission Space) I could see us buying Lightning Lane for just him and the 2 adults... but I am not sure how we will ride other family rides with the 4th child in tow. Hard to justify Genie + for 3 mid tier attractions for a 3 year old (Nemo, Spaceship Earth, Living with the Land). Can this park be done easily without Genie +? Can we still use Rider Swap to keep our time in lines to a minimum?
4. DHS: This is the toughest of all. This park has the most rides that my wife and I want to experience (Runaway Railway, Star Wars, Tot/ RnR), but very few kid rides, can we combine rider swap with one adult lightning lane or is that "against the rules?" The rides that the kids can do are marquee rides, but we run the risk of them getting scared after waiting in line: Slinky Dog, Millenium Falcon, Midway Mania. Its hard to pay $15 to skip just 2 or 3 rides, but I know lines can get very long in this park.

For more context we are going week prior to Christmas, so I know crowds will be heavier later in the week.

 

[Anna131517]

We have three kids and have taken all of them to WDW as infants but never used rider swap. I loved the old FP system because I could plan our day, but actually don’t plan on using Genie+. We aren’t all the picky about which rides we go on, the cost for five people on top of ticket prices is ridiculous, we usually leave the parks for the day in the late afternoon, and I refuse to be glued to my phone on vacation. Given the ages of your children, if you’re not going at a super busy time (Christmas, Spring Break) you may not need it depending on how often you go and what you want to do.

 

[Cotta]

I think your kids will want to ride much more than you think. As far as ride swap goes you both need to have genie+/ILL to ride. The other option would be to utilize single ride lines on TT, RnR, etc. if only one of you is going at a time.

 

[lanejudy]

Can we still use Rider Swap to keep our time in lines to a minimum?

Rider swap is still available. If you don't have Genie+, the first party gets in the standby queue while the 2nd party does something else with the little one(s) -- snack, restroom, shopping, another attraction. If the first party wants to use the LL, all riders will need to have Genie+ (or I$LL) for that attraction.

but I am not sure how we will ride other family rides with the 4th child in tow.

4th child? Or 4th ticket-holder? (I'm assuming you mean the middle child). Those rides would need to be done standby if you don't want to purchase Genie+ for the middle child.

Only you can decide if Genie+ is "worth" $15 for the middle child which allows your family to use LL for attractions with the whole family. Or look at it the other way: is Genie+ a "waste" of $45 (for 2 adults + taller child) if you only use it for some attractions.

 

[ZeeWP]

When I think of Genie+ and my kids, I am thinking of it less "is it worth it to lose X amount of time standing in line" but more "is it worth it to lose X amount of time standing in line while the kids are cranky/hungry/tired/bored..." I mean some of it is just the kids learning to be patient and blah blah, but standing in line longer than 30/40 minutes drives me bonkers. So I don't want to stand in line much longer than that with the kids.

Taking that into consideration, I think G+ is worth it in semi busy days in all parks, MK and HS even when it's slightly busy. When it's super busy (Christmas, thanksgiving) I don't know because will there even be enough G+ tickets available?

 

[Spunky946]

Honestly not being able to use genie plus to reride rides, it’s a deal breaker for me. We don’t love to necessarily ride all of the bigger rides all the time, but could ride buzz light year over and over again, and with genie plus it Can’t happen. Stupid if you ask me. If anything I’d consider magic kingdom

 

[Wendysofftoneverland]

My kids are 43 inches and 36 inches and we aren't buying Genie + at all. The way I understand it, you only get 1 choice of return time, so it might end up being during nap time or meal time, and I don't think that lack of flexibility will work for us. The biggest reason though is just on principle, I'm not paying to ride rides when I already bought an expensive ticket for entry. I could see HS being a park in which the Lightening Lane could come in handy, based on what a disaster it was for us with long lines for everything when there was no FP. However, several of the rides have a 38-40 inch height requirement. For Magic Kingdom, it might depend on what rides you are ok with skipping (like Peter Pan's Flight) without Genie Plus.

 

[fgaini]

MK for me is a must. Seriously considering Epcot. No need for AKL. Will likely use lightinh for Studios. Got a very young daughter and we cannot spend much time in line.