The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[scrappinginontario]

UPDATE:

This is a great thread and in no way trying to take discussion away from it but I wanted to share that there is FINALLY a summary thread discussing Everything Genie, Genie+ Individual Lightning Lane. (Sorry it took so long to create! The complexities of Genie absolutely overwhelmed me!)

Everything Genie, Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane

A shoutout to @g-dad66, @GBRforWDW and @cjlong88 for helping with the creation of the thread. @g-dad66 was a HUGE help and much of the wording is his and I appreciate his help so very much!!!

 

[wisblue]

Here is how I did this on Thursday 1/20. We were having a pool day and heading into Hollywood Studios at night for dinner, toy story land and one other ride.

Woke up at 6:30am and purchased Genie Plus for my group.

At exactly 7am everything opens. I wanted Slinky Dog for around 7:30pm so I needed to wait a few seconds for the booking time to move to that point. Remember with Genie Plus reservations you cannot choose a time slot. You get the earliest available. Slinky Dog moves extremely quickly. Every time I refreshed the page it moved about one hour. Right at 7am, the first available time is 9am. After one refresh, the first available time is now 10am. Another refresh and it moves to 11am and so on. So I would say around 30 seconds after 7am, I grabbed Slinky Dog for 7:30pm - 8:30pm.

At this point I am done until 11am. I cannot book my next Genie Plus until two hours after the park has opened.

At 11am I look again but the return times for everything I am interested in is only at around 3pm. I’m not heading into the park until around 5pm so I wait another half hour and check again.

At 11:30am, Rock n Roller Coaster has moved to 5pm so I book it. Now I cannot make another one until 1:30pm.

1:30 pm I check and see that Toy Story Mania is at 6pm. Not bad but it interferes with my dinner so I keep checking every few mins for the next half hour. Finally it has moved to 7pm and I grab it. Now I cannot make another one until 3:30pm.

The only thing remaining that I want at this point is AlienSwirling Saucers and I want it late, for around 8pm. Checking at 3:30pm it’s only out to around 5pm. I keep checking for the rest of the night and eventually grab it for 8pm.

So that’s a summary of how you can stack. When I walked into the park at 5pm I had 4 Lightning Lanes ready to go. The week before my trip I would kinda practice every day. I would check the app throughout the day and pretend I was in the park and see if I could book the things I wanted at the times I wanted. It helped a lot to get a feel for what time slots would be available at different booking times throughout the day. Good luck!

This is a perfect example of what you can also do on an arrival day. You can start building the stack at home, at the airport, or on the road. Throw in an IALL or two and you can do as many as 5 or 6 of the top attractions at DHS even if you’re not arriving until the afternoon.

You could also do it if you’re starting at Epcot or DAK and hopping to DHS.

 

[wisblue]

So once I use it for a ride, I can automatically book the next ride, right? Thank you!

This is true if you are only booking one LL at a time. But, if you have two or more LL outstanding, you can only book a new one after you use the last one that you booked (or two hours after you booked it).

This is explained in the excellent new pinned thread Everything Genie, Genie Plus, and Lightning Lane.

 

[LarryBoy]

Here is how I did this on Thursday 1/20. We were having a pool day and heading into Hollywood Studios at night for dinner, toy story land and one other ride.

Woke up at 6:30am and purchased Genie Plus for my group.

At exactly 7am everything opens. I wanted Slinky Dog for around 7:30pm so I needed to wait a few seconds for the booking time to move to that point. Remember with Genie Plus reservations you cannot choose a time slot. You get the earliest available. Slinky Dog moves extremely quickly. Every time I refreshed the page it moved about one hour. Right at 7am, the first available time is 9am. After one refresh, the first available time is now 10am. Another refresh and it moves to 11am and so on. So I would say around 30 seconds after 7am, I grabbed Slinky Dog for 7:30pm - 8:30pm.

At this point I am done until 11am. I cannot book my next Genie Plus until two hours after the park has opened.

At 11am I look again but the return times for everything I am interested in is only at around 3pm. I’m not heading into the park until around 5pm so I wait another half hour and check again.

At 11:30am, Rock n Roller Coaster has moved to 5pm so I book it. Now I cannot make another one until 1:30pm.

1:30 pm I check and see that Toy Story Mania is at 6pm. Not bad but it interferes with my dinner so I keep checking every few mins for the next half hour. Finally it has moved to 7pm and I grab it. Now I cannot make another one until 3:30pm.

The only thing remaining that I want at this point is AlienSwirling Saucers and I want it late, for around 8pm. Checking at 3:30pm it’s only out to around 5pm. I keep checking for the rest of the night and eventually grab it for 8pm.

So that’s a summary of how you can stack. When I walked into the park at 5pm I had 4 Lightning Lanes ready to go. The week before my trip I would kinda practice every day. I would check the app throughout the day and pretend I was in the park and see if I could book the things I wanted at the times I wanted. It helped a lot to get a feel for what time slots would be available at different booking times throughout the day. Good luck!

Thank you so much, this is a great explanation of stacking! Not sure if we will be stacking much now that I understand it because we will be arriving next Friday and will start three days in the parks on Saturday. Our plan right now is to start Saturday at the MK. We will probably G+ for MK. If we decide to park hop can we get LL for another park on the same G+? Is Genie + good for the whole day in any park or is it one park per G+?

 

[NJlauren]

Im reading all this about arrival day, and am rethinking my arrival day park yet again! My daughter loves all the rides at HS, now I’m wondering if I should stack a 2, 3, tower and rocking rollercoaster and maybe rise before we head to Epcot for the evening…

 

[Brian4891]

Thank you so much, this is a great explanation of stacking! Not sure if we will be stacking much now that I understand it because we will be arriving next Friday and will start three days in the parks on Saturday. Our plan right now is to start Saturday at the MK. We will probably G+ for MK. If we decide to park hop can we get LL for another park on the same G+? Is Genie + good for the whole day in any park or is it one park per G+?

I did not park hop, but my understanding is that if you have a park hopper ticket then the genie will show you times for your 2nd park available after 2pm only. You do not have to purchase it twice for two parks on the same day.

 

[g-dad66]

Thank you so much, this is a great explanation of stacking! Not sure if we will be stacking much now that I understand it because we will be arriving next Friday and will start three days in the parks on Saturday. Our plan right now is to start Saturday at the MK. We will probably G+ for MK. If we decide to park hop can we get LL for another park on the same G+? Is Genie + good for the whole day in any park or is it one park per G+?

Genie+ is good for the whole day for all the parks. Haven't read an account yet of anyone getting LLs in all 4 parks in one day, but I'm sure there will be one soon.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Thank you so much, this is a great explanation of stacking! Not sure if we will be stacking much now that I understand it because we will be arriving next Friday and will start three days in the parks on Saturday. Our plan right now is to start Saturday at the MK. We will probably G+ for MK. If we decide to park hop can we get LL for another park on the same G+? Is Genie + good for the whole day in any park or is it one park per G+?

Thanks. I updated the Genie thread with the information re: Genie+ being for a day, not a specific park.

 

[Lsdolphin]

So I have park reservation for HS on 1/26 but intend to go to MK that evening for the extended hours...i plan to use Genie+ to do TSM in the morning and then hop to MK later. I wanted to use Genie+ to stack a few rides at MK for later in the day . How do I use the Genie+ In the morning after I use the TSM LL to stack LL for the MK for later in the day when my park reservation is for HS?

 

[scrappinginontario]

So I have park reservation for HS on 1/26 but intend to go to MK that evening for the extended hours...i plan to use Genie+ to do TSM in the morning and then hop to MK later. I wanted to use Genie+ to stack a few rides at MK for later in the day . How do I use the Genie+ In the morning after I use the TSM LL to stack LL for the MK for later in the day when my park reservation is for HS?

Once you’re ready to start stacking MK attractions and are eligible to book, just select an attraction in the MK. It will automatically show you only LL times after 2:00 if you’re looking at a park you’re hopping to.

 

[g-dad66]

So I have park reservation for HS on 1/26 but intend to go to MK that evening for the extended hours...i plan to use Genie+ to do TSM in the morning and then hop to MK later. I wanted to use Genie+ to stack a few rides at MK for later in the day . How do I use the Genie+ In the morning after I use the TSM LL to stack LL for the MK for later in the day when my park reservation is for HS?

You select the MK attraction that you want, and it will only offer you times after 2pm (since you can't parkhop until 2pm).

 

[T'Lynn]

Here is one example. This was November 6 at Hollywood Studios:

7:05 am: Book Slinky Dog Dash for 5:25-6:25
11:00 am: Book Millenium Falcon for 4:20-5:20
1:00 pm: Book Tower of Terror for 7:30-8:30
3:00 pm: Book Rock n Roller Coaster for 6:55-7:55
5:00 pm: Could have booked Toy Story Mania for 6:30-7:30

I love this HS stacking strategy and have a question about how the LL system works. Using this example, when you tap into your first ride (MFSR at 4:20) would you then be able to book another LL? Or would 7pm be the last eligible time?

 

[GBRforWDW]

I love this HS stacking strategy and have a question about how the LL system works. Using this example, when you tap into your first ride (MFSR at 4:20) would you then be able to book another LL? Or would 7pm be the last eligible time?

It's based on last booked ride, so since RnRC was selected at 3pm, you'd either have to ride RnRC or wait until 5pm, whichever is soonest. In this case, 5 is soonest, so they would have gotten TSM, where they could check in as early as 6:30. Since that's less than 2 hours after 5, you could select something else after going through both touchpoints

 

[Pookie9922]

What are the chances of RDing RotR only to have it breakdown and ruin my RD strategy? Staying on property and planning on early entry RDing. Trying to decide if I should buy $ILL or RD it. We've already ridden it once in DL, but it's still a must do. I'd love to not pay $75 for G+ AND $75 for RotR, but I'd also like my day to go exactly as I planned! Curious % of mornings RotR is a plan ruin-er.

 

[bsmcneil]

I had my husband log in as me on the app using his phone so we could book both attractions simultaneously. I booked Slinky and he took care of Rose.

Can I borrow your husband?

I'm feeling really stressed out about our DHS day in particular. I'm not sure I can really teach my almost 9 year old what to do (or be up with me at 6:59am) so that we can navigate SDD and ROTR. Grrr, G+!

 

[Dee MarWil]

You could have someone back home do it. A parent or friend. You don’t have to be in Florida to book things.

I'm feeling really stressed out about our DHS day in particular. I'm not sure I can really teach my almost 9 year old what to do (or be up with me at 6:59am) so that we can navigate SDD and ROTR. Grrr, G+!

 

[T'Lynn]

Can I borrow your husband?

I'm feeling really stressed out about our DHS day in particular. I'm not sure I can really teach my almost 9 year old what to do (or be up with me at 6:59am) so that we can navigate SDD and ROTR. Grrr, G+!

I’m going to try to log in on two devices and try to book simultaneously as much as I can!

It's based on last booked ride, so since RnRC was selected at 3pm, you'd either have to ride RnRC or wait until 5pm, whichever is soonest. In this case, 5 is soonest, so they would have gotten TSM, where they could check in as early as 6:30. Since that's less than 2 hours after 5, you could select something else after going through both touchpoints

Thanks! That makes sense

 

[bsmcneil]

You could have someone back home do it. A parent or friend. You don’t have to be in Florida to book things.

I don't really have that person, unfortunately.

 

[cjlong88]

Can I borrow your husband?

I'm feeling really stressed out about our DHS day in particular. I'm not sure I can really teach my almost 9 year old what to do (or be up with me at 6:59am) so that we can navigate SDD and ROTR. Grrr, G+!

Lol. If you plan on acquiring evening times, I would say get SDD first. Rise will be around and you shouldn’t have an issue getting both. If it’s morning times you’re after, God’s speed! I’ve only ever tried evening return windows for HS. Those morning times just go so fast.

 

[bsmcneil]

Lol. If you plan on acquiring evening times, I would say get SDD first. Rise will be around and you shouldn’t have an issue getting both. If it’s morning times you’re after, God’s speed! I’ve only ever tried evening return windows for HS. Those morning times just go so fast.

Got it - that really helps! I'm most concerned about just getting them - not really when (evening would work out for Rise as we're doing Droids and have an Oga's ADR in the evening - that said, it breaking down ... blah).