Important Strategies and Realities For Making the Most of Your Day

[BridgetBordeaux]

This piece by BlogMickey reveals how they approached the day going into it and how it morphed and changed along the way.

It is a worthwhile read and can help you manage your strategy in the parks.

https://blogmickey.com/2022/03/updated-look-at-using-disney-genie-at-disneys-hollywood-studios/

 

[loves to dive]

It has one glaring issue. They keep mentioning this was for a party of one and a party of 4 would not find it as easy. Another vlog/blogger has proven the number of people in your party up to 10 makes no difference, one or six, no difference. At the time you are making your selection, it does not even ask how many are in your party.

 

[Rosanne]

I've been keeping an eye on this genie/lightning system. Possibly have another trip in August. Or not.

Reading this blog I am stunned at just how complex and time consuming it is to deal with this new system.

I've used all the systems over the years and this is just the most brain-draining exercise.

We were fortunate to go twice with no fast pass at all July 2020 and August 2021. It was awesome.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I have been going back and forth in my mind as to whether to buy Genie+ for Hollywood Studios or not for my next trip. I'm going with a friend that hasn't been to Disney in a LONG time and Tower of Terror is her all time favorite ride, so it would be great to avoid a 2 hour wait. But reading this is so discouraging. How can I stomach spending $45 for my group of 3 to skip the wait for Tower and then MAYBE 1 other "good" ride?

Also like loves to dive said, the number of people in your party doesn't matter when making selections. Allears recently did a video showing that a party of 4 had the same results show up vs when a party of 2 was booking a LL.

 

[bchbetha]

I have been going back and forth in my mind as to whether to buy Genie+ for Hollywood Studios or not for my next trip. I'm going with a friend that hasn't been to Disney in a LONG time and Tower of Terror is her all time favorite ride, so it would be great to avoid a 2 hour wait. But reading this is so discouraging. How can I stomach spending $45 for my group of 3 to skip the wait for Tower and then MAYBE 1 other "good" ride?

Also like loves to dive said, the number of people in your party doesn't matter when making selections. Allears recently did a video showing that a party of 4 had the same results show up vs when a party of 2 was booking a LL.

We got on Runaway Railway, Rock n Roller Coaster, Midway Mania one more and could have likely gotten more but we hopped to Epcot. I bought ILL for Rise and we rope dropped Smugglers. No plans to do ToT. That was our day 1. We got pretty good at stacking our Genies as the trip went on. I was a fan of Genie+.

 

[wisblue]

It has one glaring issue. They keep mentioning this was for a party of one and a party of 4 would not find it as easy. Another vlog/blogger has proven the number of people in your party up to 10 makes no difference, one or six, no difference. At the time you are making your selection, it does not even ask how many are in your party.

It doesn’t ask on the first screen, but the question is whether you end up with the same time as a smaller party when you actually try to book.

 

[wisblue]

I have been going back and forth in my mind as to whether to buy Genie+ for Hollywood Studios or not for my next trip. I'm going with a friend that hasn't been to Disney in a LONG time and Tower of Terror is her all time favorite ride, so it would be great to avoid a 2 hour wait. But reading this is so discouraging. How can I stomach spending $45 for my group of 3 to skip the wait for Tower and then MAYBE 1 other "good" ride?

Also like loves to dive said, the number of people in your party doesn't matter when making selections. Allears recently did a video showing that a party of 4 had the same results show up vs when a party of 2 was booking a LL.

A few questions that might make a big difference:

1. Staying onsite or offsite?

2. What time of year: Peak or just normal busy?

3. Will DHS be your only park of the day and how much of the day are you planning to be there?

4. What do you consider a “good“ ride and what would be your top priorities?

Of course, only you can decide how much you are willing to pay to skip 2-3 lines of 30-60 minutes or more, but I think you can use Genie+ to save quite a bit of time in lines at DHS, especially if you can be at the park early, and be there between about 5 and 8 PM, even with a break away from the park in the middle of the day.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

It doesn’t ask on the first screen, but the question is whether you end up with the same time as a smaller party when you actually try to book.

There is no consistency.

For a recent trip we were a party of 2 and for attempts to book at 7am ...........the time shown.......and the time booked....... were different......sometimes by several hours

 

[snikki]

I read that article yesterday and I don’t think they did bad at all with G+. They got Slinky, MMRR, Smugglers and Star Tours. Even with previous FP+ tiering they wouldn’t have been able to book all of those upfront and there’s zero guarantee they would’ve gotten them the same day with refresh.

I personally look at G+ as a paid FP+ system (but designed as a virtual OG FP system). So I’m perfectly content getting 3 rides a day out of G+ and saving myself 2+ hours a day. If anyone wants more than that Disney will need to at least triple the price. I think people are expecting too much out of $15.

 

[Smugpugmug]

A few questions that might make a big difference:

1. Staying onsite or offsite?

2. What time of year: Peak or just normal busy?

3. Will DHS be your only park of the day and how much of the day are you planning to be there?

4. What do you consider a “good“ ride and what would be your top priorities?

Of course, only you can decide how much you are willing to pay to skip 2-3 lines of 30-60 minutes or more, but I think you can use Genie+ to save quite a bit of time in lines at DHS, especially if you can be at the park early, and be there between about 5 and 8 PM, even with a break away from the park in the middle of the day.

We are staying at AKL May 7-15. We have 2 Hollywood Studios days and our group agreed that we are not buying Genie+ on our second day, we will ride what we can and then leave to spend time at the pool. Our group has never seen Star Wars/don't care about the movies so we are not buying Rise so we mainly want to do Tower, Rockin Roller Coaster, Mania, MMRR and maybe Smuggler's. If we do Genie we will not get Slinky and try to ride it at park close. I'm thinking of just buying it on our first HS day but I'm also reading through the "The big G+ rides at HS gone by 1:07!" thread and seeing just how dire Genie+ looks at that park.

I do agree with snikki in that Genie+ needs to cost more than $15. Universal's Express pass probably won't work at WDW but if Genie was double what it is now I could see it having more value.

 

[Eastern]

I've used all the systems over the years and this is just the most brain-draining exercise.

And what makes it worse is that Disney makes you pay for the brain-drain.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

There is no consistency.

For a recent trip we were a party of 2 and for attempts to book at 7am ...........the time shown.......and the time booked....... were different......sometimes by several hours

The time you eventually get after selecting your LL is not based on party size but demand. It's just a side effect of someone else, or many someone else's) being faster on their phone Your selection is not held for you, thus you end up with a later time. IMO, it's crappy software development by IT but I'm sure there's a reason for it.

 

[BridgetBordeaux]

The time you eventually get after selecting your LL is not based on party size but demand. It's just a side effect of someone else, or many someone else's) being faster on their phone Your selection is not held for you, thus you end up with a later time. IMO, it's crappy software development by IT but I'm sure there's a reason for it.

Yep.....its a crappy system.

The previous system would hold your seat in suspense for a few minutes and give you what you clicked on.

The present system is like playing a roulette wheel.

Although the piece covers a DHS experience, the same situation occurs at the other parks as well.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Thank you for sharing this. It's interesting. Sadly DHS is the worst and best park for G+ at the same time, if that makes sense. There are not a lot of attractions and the attractions DHS does have, are all super popular. Add in TOT running at half capacity and not a lot of other attractions, it's like you almost have to have G+ but as busy as WDW is right now, you're not going to be immensely successful and maximize the value of G+ like you can at MK.

It's like a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. And if you don't do G+, then you pretty much have to either RD or plan to stay till close. Right now as I type this on a Wednesday morning over spring break, out of the 16 G+/iLL$ attractions at DHS, there are 9 G+ available at 11:19am, 2 are rides Star Tours and Swirling Saucers.... and the rest are shows....

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Yep.....its a crappy system.

The previous system would hold your seat in suspense for a few minutes and give you what you clicked on.

The present system is like playing a roulette wheel.

Although the piece covers a DHS experience, the same situation occurs at the other parks as well.

Yeah, and at MK you can do a good bit of refreshing and on some rides even get earlier times or later if you want, definitely not the case at DHS.

 

[wisblue]

We are staying at AKL May 7-15. We have 2 Hollywood Studios days and our group agreed that we are not buying Genie+ on our second day, we will ride what we can and then leave to spend time at the pool. Our group has never seen Star Wars/don't care about the movies so we are not buying Rise so we mainly want to do Tower, Rockin Roller Coaster, Mania, MMRR and maybe Smuggler's. If we do Genie we will not get Slinky and try to ride it at park close. I'm thinking of just buying it on our first HS day but I'm also reading through the "The big G+ rides at HS gone by 1:07!" thread and seeing just how dire Genie+ looks at that park.

I do agree with snikki in that Genie+ needs to cost more than $15. Universal's Express pass probably won't work at WDW but if Genie was double what it is now I could see it having more value.

Staying onsite and having two DHS days gives you a lot of options.

You could skip Genie+ altogether and do the popular rides early and/or late in the day.

Or you could use Genie+ and ETPE to do 3 or 4 of the popular attractions early in the day and then use Genie+ to stack more LL reservations for later in the day. That lets you use the crowded middle of the day for things like a leisurely lunch, or time away from the park.

Unless you are interested in doing some of your favorite rides more than once, you should do fine having Genie+ on just one day.

On the day we had a park reservation at DHS we were able to experience TOT, RNRC, MMRR, TSMM, ROTR (with IALL) and MFSR (using Genie+) all by 11:15. We arrived at park at 7AM before an 8 AM ETPE, and probably could have done all those things if we had arrived any time before they opened the tapstiles at 7:30. But, when you take buses to the parks you can’t always control what time you arrive. We got to the bus stop at 6:30 and a bus came immediately.


The key was going directly to TOT so we could get on the first elevator there. Because so many people are rushing to Slinky and the Star Wars rides the line for TOT builds much more slowly. Definitely go to TOT before RNRC.

If you don’t want to get up early enough for RTPE I would recommend using Genie+ and making your first reservation right at 7 with a return time as early as possible after you know your will be in the park.

 

[SLThomas318]

The time you eventually get after selecting your LL is not based on party size but demand. It's just a side effect of someone else, or many someone else's) being faster on their phone Your selection is not held for you, thus you end up with a later time. IMO, it's crappy software development by IT but I'm sure there's a reason for it.

I’m still not convinced about this… we used it back in Nov so maybe it has changed. We were trying for Small World as our second MK pick (don’t judge… had parents and small kids with… kids had just finished up the carousel and we had an 11ish Peter Pan so we didn’t want to go to another area of the park). It showed me 10:15 and I would click, select our party, and then it’d give me the afternoon? I didn’t accept since that made no sense for our plans. I would refresh, close the app out and go back in, and 10:15 would still show, but it would never stick when I selected it. I “fiddle-faddled” and it eventually gave me 10:45. I understand for the popular rides in the parks when everyone is making selections that the time change is a product of the system trying to distribute everything, but this seemed more to do with party size since the 10:15 never disappeared (or it’s just Disney’s stellar IT).

 

[wdhinn89]

I read that article yesterday and I don’t think they did bad at all with G+. They got Slinky, MMRR, Smugglers and Star Tours. Even with previous FP+ tiering they wouldn’t have been able to book all of those upfront and there’s zero guarantee they would’ve gotten them the same day with refresh.

I personally look at G+ as a paid FP+ system (but designed as a virtual OG FP system). So I’m perfectly content getting 3 rides a day out of G+ and saving myself 2+ hours a day. If anyone wants more than that Disney will need to at least triple the price. I think people are expecting too much out of $15.

When you previously spent $0 dollars for Fastpass and got to ride more rides and more than once, YES, I expect a lot for my $15

 

[unbanshee]

The time you eventually get after selecting your LL is not based on party size but demand.

How is that possible?

Let's say that Genie+ shows a 1pm earliest return time when you refresh. At this point, the app hasn't asked what your party size is. If Disney has four spots left at a 1pm timeslot and ten spots for a 3pm timeslot, surely it would push your party of eight to the 3pm timeslot. That would be an example of how a timeshift could occur based on party size, which is asked between first time presentation and final confirmation

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

How is that possible?

Let's say that Genie+ shows a 1pm earliest return time when you refresh. At this point, the app hasn't asked what your party size is. If Disney has four spots left at a 1pm timeslot and ten spots for a 3pm timeslot, surely it would push your party of eight to the 3pm timeslot. That would be an example of how a timeshift could occur based on party size, which is asked between first time presentation and final confirmation

Nobody will really ever know but G+ behaves the same for 1 to 10 people, it's been proven by a number of vloggers as well as myself. My MDE on my phone is max a party of 4 and my friend's, was 1- we all had the same choices when looking at G+ or iLL$ selections. And the handful of rides we selected, we all got the same times.

Yes, time shifts likely occur for a variety of reasons, IT doesn't hold your time until you click all the way through. It happens to people by themselves and large groups so speed, party size, crappy app development are all likely culprits.