The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[michaeldorn1]

Try pulling the screen down. This is what does it on my android app.

I've tried that, and nothing seems to happen. I have an iPhone BTW.

 

[MrBellatrixLestrange]

I consider myself to be pretty smart and I can't follow half the stuff in this thread.

I'm not terribly bright so imagine how difficult this is for me! On the positive side I'm terribly, terribly attractive, I mean we're talking about Uber-drivers-dropping-their-pickups-when-they-see-me-on-the-curb-just-to-take-me-somewhere-for-free level of good looking. That's actually never happened but I'm considering holding my breath waiting for it.

 

[William B]

I've tried that, and nothing seems to happen. I have an iPhone BTW.

Hopefully someone with an iphone can help. As soon as I drag or pull the screen down it immediately says checking availability at the top and gives me the most recent info

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

As someone who generally plans like crazy, researches like crazy, and ENJOYS the ins and outs of all of it.... this is stressing me the frig out. I keep reading and re-reading these threads thinking that maybe THIS time it will make sense to me, but.... nope. Still overwhelmed

 

[KrazeeK120]

As someone who generally plans like crazy, researches like crazy, and ENJOYS the ins and outs of all of it.... this is stressing me the frig out. I keep reading and re-reading these threads thinking that maybe THIS time it will make sense to me, but.... nope. Still overwhelmed

You are not alone!

 

[Bevo in VA]

This question is gonna show my tech ignorance: I've seen many posts from others suggesting "refreshing" their MDE app to over come some tech issues with . But, I can't figure out how to "refresh" it on my phone? Any advice?! Thanks for any help here.

On the Tip Board, tap on the "Standby Line" box under the ride you want. It also says "more details" in this box. That will take you to a new screen showing ride details. From there tap on the "LL" and it will put you back into the Tip Board with newly refreshed times (if available). Repeat as necessary.

 

[Grasshopper2016]

It is 1:00 on a Monday. Looking at DHS LL return times: SDD, ToT, and MFSR are all completely sold out for the day. TSM is not available until 5:55; RnRC is not available until 6:05; AS2 is not available until 4:20. Even Star Tours is not available until 2:35. I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. Just what are you getting for your $15?

 

[wilkydelts]

It is 1:00 on a Monday. Looking at DHS LL return times: SDD, ToT, and MFSR are all completely sold out for the day. TSM is not available until 5:55; RnRC is not available until 6:05; AS2 is not available until 4:20. Even Star Tours is not available until 2:35. I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. Just what are you getting for your $15?

Most people have probably whipped through those rides with Genie + early in the day. You could have easily used 4 or more by now stacking them.

You can not re-ride so many of the evening ones are people hopping over to DHS

 

[BrotherCraig]

It is 1:00 on a Monday. Looking at DHS LL return times: SDD, ToT, and MFSR are all completely sold out for the day. TSM is not available until 5:55; RnRC is not available until 6:05; AS2 is not available until 4:20. Even Star Tours is not available until 2:35. I'm sorry, but this is ridiculous. Just what are you getting for your $15?

Did you book your first ones at 7 AM this morning or just now getting to it?

 

[Grasshopper2016]

Most people have probably whipped through those rides with Genie + early in the day. You could have easily used 4 or more by now stacking them.

Did you book your first ones at 7 AM this morning or just now getting to it?

I'm not in the park. Just practicing for my trip next month. I'm genuinely curious if people are successfully "whipping through" all of these rides early in the day with Genie+. I have seen reports that SDD has a return time in the afternoon within seconds of the booking window opening at 7:00 a.m. Let's say you get SDD for 11:30-12:30. At 11:00, you are able to book a second LL. But, the last time I looked at precisely 11:01, the return windows for most of these rides were already well into the afternoon. In fact, MFSR was already at 5:50-6:50. So let's say you grab that one before it's too late. Then, at 11:30, you could tap into SDD and grab a third LL --- Maybe for T0T at 3:15-4:15 (if you're lucky).

But that would mean that you have only actually ridden one LL ride before 1:00. Hardly "whipping through" them all. At 1:00, you are eligible to book another ride. But, as I just noted, the windows are way out by 1:00. You could grab RNRC for 6:05-7:05. You will be eligible to book again at 3:00, and then again when you scan in to ToT at 3:15, but what's going to be left by then. Star Tours for 6:00? Muppets?

And remember that today is a random Monday during a relatively calm period. TP has today as a 5 on the crowd calendar. What is availability going to look like on an 8-10 day?

 

[cjlong88]

Reports have been pretty consistent that the 2h timer for booking a second LL is based on the opening time of the park where you booked your first LL, not the park you have a reservation for.

So if you book your first at HS, you should be eligible to book a second two hours after HS opens, regardless of where you are at that time.

This is excellent news. Thank you! Excited to be there this weekend.

 

[soniam]

What happens if you miss your ILL$ time slot? Let's say I book RotR for 1:00-2:00, and then my lunch ADR runs long because the restaurant was behind in seating. So I arrive at RotR at 2:10. I'm assuming that there is a 15-minute grace period, since I have read that there is one for regular Genie+ LLs. Can anyone confirm that?

But what if I don't get there until 2:20 (after the grace period). Am I just out of luck? Does Disney just eat the $60 that I paid for my family?

I would talk with the CM at the attraction. I also would not overlap ILL with an ADR by an hour. Book the ILL to start an hour after your ADR started. If you still can't make the ILL, explain this to the CM at the attraction. I suspect they will cut you some slack. I have never had a meal run a complete hour behind, talking about getting seated and eating. We have been close once with the Plaza though.

I've tried that, and nothing seems to happen. I have an iPhone BTW.

Pulling down from the Tip Board worked for me. iOS 15.1 & latest MDE. It said checking availability and showed a spinning wheel near the top.

 

[wilkydelts]

I'm not in the park. Just practicing for my trip next month. I'm genuinely curious if people are successfully "whipping through" all of these rides early in the day with Genie+. I have seen reports that SDD has a return time in the afternoon within seconds of the booking window opening at 7:00 a.m. Let's say you get SDD for 11:30-12:30. At 11:00, you are able to book a second LL. But, the last time I looked at precisely 11:01, the return windows for most of these rides were already well into the afternoon. In fact, MFSR was already at 5:50-6:50. So let's say you grab that one before it's too late. Then, at 11:30, you could tap into SDD and grab a third LL --- Maybe for T0T at 3:15-4:15 (if you're lucky).

But that would mean that you have only actually ridden one LL ride before 1:00. Hardly "whipping through" them all. At 1:00, you are eligible to book another ride. But, as I just noted, the windows are way out by 1:00. You could grab RNRC for 6:05-7:05. You will be eligible to book again at 3:00, and then again when you scan in to ToT at 3:15, but what's going to be left by then. Star Tours for 6:00? Muppets?

And remember that today is a random Monday during a relatively calm period. TP has today as a 5 on the crowd calendar. What is availability going to look like on an 8-10 day?

Are you refusing to take part in the stand-by in any capacity?

Your MF:SR issue is resolved by simply doing it early morning right after or instead of RISE or late in the evening when times drop like a rock for it.

 

[disneyfam1986]

Is Genie + worth if if you are mid day break people?

 

[PixieT78]

Is Genie + worth if if you are mid day break people?

This is us and it is looking to me like the answer is yes. If you follow the stacking advice, you can stack the G+ attractions for your afternoon/evening park.

When we go in May, we plan on getting G+ for the whole trip and my thoughts are rope drop every day (well, maybe skip one) for stand-by lines at one park, mid-day break for lunch/nap/pool time and head back out to a different park around 4/5 for an evening filled with Lightening Lanes. At least that is my hope! We will be testing for our longer Sept trip to see what makes sense for us though too so we'll see how it all goes!

 

[elgerber]

Is Genie + worth if if you are mid day break people?

We always take a mid day break. It worked great to have a couple of rides reserved when we got to our 2nd park for dinner.

 

[wisblue]

I've tried that, and nothing seems to happen. I have an iPhone BTW.

I have an iPhone and what I do is hit the “Tip Board” tab and that seems to do the trick.

I can also pull down from the top of the screen ( just under the Tip Board/My Day tabs) and get the “Checking Availability” message that others have described.

But, hitting the Tip Board tab produces a message “Populating Your Tip Board” and seems to produce the same result with less effort.

I know that when I do that at 7AM, each time I hit the tab the LL return time for Slinky is shooting further into the day.

 

[michaeldorn1]

I have an iPhone and what I do is hit the “Tip Board” tab and that seems to do the trick.

I can also pull down from the top of the screen ( just under the Tip Board/My Day tabs) and get the “Checking Availability” message that others have described.

But, hitting the Tip Board tab produces a message “Populating Your Tip Board” seems to produce the same result with less effort.

I know that when I do that at 7AM, each time I hit the tab the LL return time for Slinky is shooting further into the day.

Thanks to all of you that shared their advice! It seems to be working well for me now!! Yay!!

 

[wisblue]

I'm not in the park. Just practicing for my trip next month. I'm genuinely curious if people are successfully "whipping through" all of these rides early in the day with Genie+. I have seen reports that SDD has a return time in the afternoon within seconds of the booking window opening at 7:00 a.m. Let's say you get SDD for 11:30-12:30. At 11:00, you are able to book a second LL. But, the last time I looked at precisely 11:01, the return windows for most of these rides were already well into the afternoon. In fact, MFSR was already at 5:50-6:50. So let's say you grab that one before it's too late. Then, at 11:30, you could tap into SDD and grab a third LL --- Maybe for T0T at 3:15-4:15 (if you're lucky).

But that would mean that you have only actually ridden one LL ride before 1:00. Hardly "whipping through" them all. At 1:00, you are eligible to book another ride. But, as I just noted, the windows are way out by 1:00. You could grab RNRC for 6:05-7:05. You will be eligible to book again at 3:00, and then again when you scan in to ToT at 3:15, but what's going to be left by then. Star Tours for 6:00? Muppets?

And remember that today is a random Monday during a relatively calm period. TP has today as a 5 on the crowd calendar. What is availability going to look like on an 8-10 day?

I don’t see how it is possible to “whip through” all of the popular attractions at DHS in the morning just using Genie+.

My priority list of attractions at DHS includes: Slinky, TSMM, ROTR, MFSR, MMRR, Star Tours, RNRC and TOT. Even using some combination of Early Entry, standby, ILL, and Genie + you’re quickly going to run into Genie+ return times that are several hours out.

You can pay for the two ILL attractions, and Star Tours usually doesn’t have a long standby line. Then you can do a couple of the others first thing in the morning. But all of those other 5 are getting afternoon LL return times pretty quickly.

For example, at 9:15 this morning the return times were:

Slinky 6:15 PM
MFSR 4:35 PM
TOT 1:55 PM
RNRC 11:50 AM
TSMM 12:25 PM

Even using the fanciest stacking strategies it’s difficult to do 2 of these 5 with G+ in the morning. By the time the stack is set up you’ll be picking times well into the afternoon.

On the other hand, I think setting up 3 for late afternoon and early evening and doing the others in the morning and early afternoon (either standby or ILL) would be perfect for someone who would want a midday break.

ETA: LL Return times at 9:15 on Tuesday, 11/9:

Slinky: Not Available
MFSR: 3:25 PM
TOT: 2:45 PM
TSMM: 12:10 PM
RNRC: 11:50 PM

 

[ComeToSocialize]

It 100% works. Was holding 3 most of the day at MK today via combo of expire and 120 minute eligibility. Booked HM for 10. RD in rain so short lines , then expired HM . At 1102 booked JC for 130 (120 min rule) first tapped into HM at 1105 and booked Splash, then after second tap added BTMR. Don't think the first or second tap mattered, just that after 120 min I was eligible to book and after expiration I was also eligible to book, then after ride (second tap) was again eligible to book. Worked great all day, w the caveat that it was low crowds due to terrible monsoon rain

This actually isn't the only example of someone somehow going from 1 LL to 3 LLs in a single period I've seen. It goes contrary to all the rules that people have laid out in this thread though.

My guess, and it's just a guess, is that sometimes when you tap twice into a ride, each tap renews your eligibility. I would recommend that everyone try to book after each tap (even though it shouldn't matter) just in case there is a glitch. If it's not the double tap, I'm not sure how this person booked 3 rides in 5 minutes (and again, other people including some bloggers have referenced getting 3 bookings in very short windows of time)