My Disney brain is broken

[Christine]

OP, I felt exactly as you did prior to my Disneyland trip this past June. Everything seems like it changed so much from my last trip in 2019 and the Genie+ and Lightening Lane thing just had me shutting down every time I tried to wrap my brain around it. But in the end, it all worked out well. My advice, try not to read anymore about how to navigate it. Words just don't seem to capture it and it makes it sound worse than it is. There's a few videos out (don't have links to them--sorry) that essentially shows a person doing it on their phone. I watched that a couple of times and then figured, okay, I just know where I need to log in and what I need to do first. Once I got in the park and started, IT WAS SO EASY. Really. And in then end, I loved it so much better than the FastPass system of 2019 where you had to actually book what you wanted to ride MONTHS in advance. I hated that. The Genie+ works much better for those of us that don't want to decide 2 months in advance what day and time we want to ride Flight of Passage for example. Ugh. So in that regard, I'm a fan.

The dining reservations seem to be the same as they were before so you should be a pro at that.

 

[BrianL]

We've been 3 times since the pandemic and I had almost talked myself out of that first trip. I found it to be no harder than the old way just a change in timing. Used to book ADRs at 180 days and now 60 (we had our parks planned anyway due to EMH, ADR etc but now we make a park reservation), used to book fastpasses now we but Genie+. We loved the Lightening Lane option and used it several tines. Yes you pay for it but for us we live 800 miles away so time is money and we were happy to pay to skip the line. Pre covid I remember refusing to get up at 4 am to be at HS to get on the newer Star Wars rides, happily paid our $15 each to ride it with getting up so early or standing in line for hours. LL and Genie+ are now line items in our budget. I hope you can find a way to enjoy the parks again. I never felt we were looking at phones, riding less or spending more time, if anything mobile order and LL have us more time to do more.

OP, I felt exactly as you did prior to my Disneyland trip this past June. Everything seems like it changed so much from my last trip in 2019 and the Genie+ and Lightening Lane thing just had me shutting down every time I tried to wrap my brain around it. But in the end, it all worked out well. My advice, try not to read anymore about how to navigate it. Words just don't seem to capture it and it makes it sound worse than it is. There's a few videos out (don't have links to them--sorry) that essentially shows a person doing it on their phone. I watched that a couple of times and then figured, okay, I just know where I need to log in and what I need to do first. Once I got in the park and started, IT WAS SO EASY. Really. And it then end I loved it so much better than the FastPass system of 2019 where you had to actually book what you wanted to ride MONTHS in advance. I hated that. The Genie+ works much better for those of us that don't want to decide 2 months in advance what day and time we want to ride Flight of Passage for example. Ugh. So in that regard, I'm a fan.

The dining reservations seem to be the same as they were before so you should be a pro at that.

Glad to hear some good experiences. I know it'll still be a great time, I've just got to get my head around it (and the increased costs). I have a friend who may want to go now, so I might be able to get something going with someone else involved.

 

[Moliphino]

Not sure we will ever return to WDW because of all the advanced planning required. I don't want the anxiety. DL is our park now. It's has seen some significant changes but still is not as bad as WDW. Hopefully it stays that way.

I would like it if it was advance planning. This needing to get up at 7am every day of the trip if you use Genie+/LL and having no control over what times you get just sounds awful to me. Instead of a little anxiety 60 days out and plenty of time to move things around, now you get anxiety every morning you're there.

 

[AustinTink]

I would like it if it was advance planning. This needing to get up at 7am every day of the trip if you use Genie+/LL and having no control over what times you get just sounds awful to me. Instead of a little anxiety 60 days out and plenty of time to move things around, now you get anxiety every morning you're there.

We stopped going to WDW when the reservation system was implemented. Maxpass at DL was the bomb!! Loved it. Now we are in the same boat as you with this Genie+ mess. We will try it out for the first time this month. It may be our last Disney trip for a while if it is just horrible.

 

[slo]

I’m the opposite of many…. DD18 and I love the challenge of planning everything we want to do when at WDW. We tag teamed Genie + and we had success with this and would recommend Genie + to everyone. It definitely does feel like it takes tactical planning before you go, but we love that. We‘re already in serious planning more for our June trip

 

[Moliphino]

We stopped going to WDW when the reservation system was implemented. Maxpass at DL was the bomb!! Loved it. Now we are in the same boat as you with this Genie+ mess. We will try it out for the first time this month. It may be our last Disney trip for a while if it is just horrible.

I thought FP+ was fantastic. Get everything set ahead of time and then get to enjoy the trip without worrying about getting on the headliners.

 

[Colleen27]

Not sure we will ever return to WDW because of all the advanced planning required. I don't want the anxiety. DL is our park now. It's has seen some significant changes but still is not as bad as WDW. Hopefully it stays that way.

DL has been our main park for a few years too, since DD went off to college in Cali and gave us a good excuse to go. But we haven't been back there post-pandemic yet.

We've been 3 times since the pandemic and I had almost talked myself out of that first trip. I found it to be no harder than the old way just a change in timing. Used to book ADRs at 180 days and now 60 (we had our parks planned anyway due to EMH, ADR etc but now we make a park reservation), used to book fastpasses now we but Genie+. We loved the Lightening Lane option and used it several tines. Yes you pay for it but for us we live 800 miles away so time is money and we were happy to pay to skip the line. Pre covid I remember refusing to get up at 4 am to be at HS to get on the newer Star Wars rides, happily paid our $15 each to ride it with getting up so early or standing in line for hours. LL and Genie+ are now line items in our budget. I hope you can find a way to enjoy the parks again. I never felt we were looking at phones, riding less or spending more time, if anything mobile order and LL have us more time to do more.

We went once since covid started, but early on in the reopening when it was no crowds, no FP, masks required. That was wonderful, so unplanned and spontaneous!

I would like it if it was advance planning. This needing to get up at 7am every day of the trip if you use Genie+/LL and having no control over what times you get just sounds awful to me. Instead of a little anxiety 60 days out and plenty of time to move things around, now you get anxiety every morning you're there.

That's a big part of what I'm finding to be such a drag. This trip is DD's 21th birthday bash. Early mornings aren't meant to be on the agenda! But the friend who is traveling with us has never been to Disney before and my husband hasn't been in almost a decade, so most of the high-demand rides are on the to-do list and we're planning to do a lot of hopping to Epcot in the evenings. Getting up at 7am isn't my idea of vacation... especially not if I had a couple drinks the night before.

I thought FP+ was fantastic. Get everything set ahead of time and then get to enjoy the trip without worrying about getting on the headliners.

Same. Of all the iterations of Disney's skip the line systems, FP+ and MaxPass (at DL) were my favorites.

 

[Ss77]

We leave in exactly 2 weeks, actually we will be at the swan this time in 2 weeks! I can’t believe it came so fast and all I have is our park resys and our ADR but I’m used to more planning. Last time we were there was April 2021, was great! Yes there were masks, but low wait times and no fp+ but plain old fun!!!!
I’m not sure what to expect and I’m really not keen on genie +, I was originally thinking mid August will have low wait times, but now I’m not sure!
Oh and the crazy rain and flooding is starting to freak me out..
ok rant over ;$

 

[AustinTink]

DL has been our main park for a few years too, since DD went off to college in Cali and gave us a good excuse to go. But we haven't been back there post-pandemic yet.

We'll be at DL very soon. Fingers crossed it's not pure insanity!

 

[leebee]

Ten days until we leave and I can't wrap my head around doing all the work of planning this vacation. We have 3 day park hoppers, park reservations, resort (POFQ) and 2 ADRs and that's it. I can't wrap my head around all this Genie+ stuff, the extra money, the late night/early morning crap. A good friend went in June without G+ and she said by doing early opening they felt they got as much done as they usually do. I'm going with that. This is just too complicated and, quite honestly, silly, all this planning for a vacation at a theme park.

 

[GTBB]

We have booked for next May - coming from overseas so it’s been longer than usual between trips, I always loved the planning but I think I’m going to struggle this time - so much seems to have changed….

 

[PrinceRaki]

It was so much fun and the vacation started when planning your vacation. Now everything is stressful. But still is always fun to be at WDW

 

[pahoben]

I was thinking about this a few hours before reading your post. I used to understand the system and actually looked forward to planning our trip. I thought well maybe a month before we visit I will try to figure something out. It seems to me that they have penalized planners by including "day of" conditions. How that helps anyone is a mystery to me. It is like they have substituted chess for poker for planning purposes. In poker you can plan perfectly and still go bust.

 

[Ss77]

We decided on this Aug trip as kind of a see ya later to Disney. I think it’s time to not go every year and take our son to other places.. I want to be excited but the uncertainty and these awful rain storms are putting me off. We’ve gone during summer before and it always rains around 2:00.. is it getting worse?

 

[Christine]

Ten days until we leave and I can't wrap my head around doing all the work of planning this vacation. We have 3 day park hoppers, park reservations, resort (POFQ) and 2 ADRs and that's it. I can't wrap my head around all this Genie+ stuff, the extra money, the late night/early morning crap. A good friend went in June without G+ and she said by doing early opening they felt they got as much done as they usually do. I'm going with that. This is just too complicated and, quite honestly, silly, all this planning for a vacation at a theme park.

leebee, the early morning start still seems to work (at least at Disneyland this past June, it did). I did have G+ but on one of my park days, we did get there at rope drop and I was able to get on a good amount of rides for about 2 hours without needing Genie+. At that point, it started to get really hit or miss and very quickly got overwhelming. But if you stick to early arrival, you can make it work without Genie+. I had my two adult kids with me and they aren't always in the mood for rope dropping, so I just paid for the Genie+. That said, I thought it was well worth it and so easy to use (although, like you, prior to actually getting to the park and using it, my brain was SHUT DOWN over it).

 

[Breezy_Carol]

A Disney trip shouldn't be this difficult!

I am feeling the exact same way. We have been with the kids 4 times since 1992 and several other times without them so not a newbie. This is overwhelming.

Once I got in the park and started, IT WAS SO EASY. Really.

This is very good to hear.

This needing to get up at 7am every day of the trip if you use Genie+/LL and having no control over what times you get just sounds awful to me. Instead of a little anxiety 60 days out and plenty of time to move things around, now you get anxiety every morning you're there.

I agree. But, our 60 day window on ADRs was while we were on vacation at the beach. We are staying off property so DD and I were getting up every morning early to make ADRs.

We leave in exactly 2 weeks,

Two weeks from today we will be in MK>

Luckily DD is the planner of this trip for 8 of us going so I am leaving it to her. And she is a planner.

 

[Miffy]

We've been 3 times since G+ was implemented and it wasn't really until the last trip that we felt like we had some kind of a plan. One thing that's helpful to us is that we're only 2 people (me and my sister), so it's not like we're buying G+ and ILL$ for several others as well.

That being said, we just decided to purchase G+ nearly every day of the trip and are satisfied if we get only 1 or 2 attractions out of it. It's worth it to us to not stand in a long line. And we always purchase the ILL$ for RotR and FoP. Yes, it's expensive, but we factor that into the cost of the vacation.

We do some RDing and some later-in-the day G+/ILL$ stacking. Depends on how tired we are from the previous day. When we discovered that even if we were near the front of the RD line for MK we still couldn't make it to PPF in time to not wait, we started using our first G+ for PPF.

OP, it may take you a few days of your vacation just to figure out what strategy works best for you. We now always have a plan A and a plan B in mind when we get our initial 7 a.m. choices.

It's not impossible but it's quite different from the previous system and of course it'll probably change again! Enjoy your trip!