The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[tex1989]

I don't think this is accurate. Why wouldn't rider swap work the same as it did under fastpass? (Subject to the fact that they limited the number of those who can "re-ride" in the swap scenario).

I found the answer on All Ears and it said they still do it but the rules are you have to check in with the child present, designate who will wait, and who will ride a second time, all people participating must have Genie +, and you can only take one person. The comment also said they were strictly enforcing the one extra rider to go back with the person who waited.

 

[soniam]

Glues you to technology! I vacation to get away from tech. The time space between use of the first choice to your next choice is too great. We did not care for at all. BEWARE - system does NOT work with iPhone 6 and only sometimes works with iPhone 7. We conferred with several tech folks that stand at the blue umbrellas to help all the frustrated guests with the system. I must say these young people are very nice but I am sure they roll their eyes when they see the gray hairs coming. lol Also I would like a printed menu.

Question on iPhone 7. Was the OS updated to 15/latest? Was the app updated to latest? Just asking, because my husband's new iPhone won't make it until probably after our trip. I just replaced my 7 with a 13 mini. So, we will at least have one phone that should work. Thanks

I didn’t actually book it, but today at 7 am exactly a 900 Slinky popped up. I refreshed about 6-7 times and at 701 the return time was 5 pm. For comparison at 701 the ROTR ILL return time was 210.

So, it sounds like the best strategy if using G+ and buying ILL is to get SDD G+ first and then buy Rise ILL, right? This is for an onsite stay.

 

[jeneric997]

I have a question about how to keep stacking when one person in your party doesn't ride a ride you have a LL for. Do they have to find another ride or have someone tap their band????

 

[letsgobirds]

Just looked at Thrill data and trying to plan a G+ strategy for tomorrow MK. Wanted to expire / double stack so trying to pick first G+. It looks like Jungle Cruise is the fastest to book out surprisingly with return times already at 11 even around 7. So picking that first would make the early AM without a G+ to use. But picking a different ride then adding that later would give a late return time that holds a slot unused for a while too. Not sure what the best strategy is here. It's like a much easier version of the SDD G+ dilemma

 

[nurseberta]

Ok here is my new plan.......

• Hollywood Studios

6:45-7:20 am breakfast/coffee at BWI
7:00 book SDD G+ early as possible
7:01 book RotR paid early as possible (onsite stay)
7:20 walk to HS for ETPE 8:30
RD MFSR
Ride SDD (add G+ ToT 1 min into grace period tap into SDD after G+ selected, add 2nd G+RnR)
Ride RotR paid
Standby TSM and *** (Alien Swirling Saucers) in between.
Standby MMRR later in the day or trip
fill in shows and snacks/meals as they fit in.

thrill data shows ride popularity for LL to be in this order as far as I can tell
SDD, RotR, MFSR, ToT, RnR

 

[wisblue]

Just looked at Thrill data and trying to plan a G+ strategy for tomorrow MK. Wanted to expire / double stack so trying to pick first G+. It looks like Jungle Cruise is the fastest to book out surprisingly with return times already at 11 even around 7. So picking that first would make the early AM without a G+ to use. But picking a different ride then adding that later would give a late return time that holds a slot unused for a while too. Not sure what the best strategy is here. It's like a much easier version of the SDD G+ dilemma

That is what I have been thinking. Get JC for like 11-12, use Early Entry and standby until 11, book a second LL, then ride JC and make a third LL to set up the stack.

 

[wisblue]

I have a question about how to keep stacking when one person in your party doesn't ride a ride you have a LL for. Do they have to find another ride or have someone tap their band????

I think you can just cancel the LL for the person who doesn’t ride.

 

[nurseberta]

That is what I have been thinking. Get JC for like 11-12, use Early Entry and standby until 11, book a second LL, then ride JC and make a third LL to set up the stack.

If they would only let you over to jungle cruise earlier than 9am you would be able to RD it

 

[wisblue]

If they would only let you over to jungle cruise earlier than 9am you would be able to RD it

You can still do it with a short wait right at 9, but the objective is to get that LL after 11 to set up the stack.

We have always had good luck doing BTMRR, Splash (when it’s warm enough that early), HM, and POC with fairly short waits in the first 2 hours. The standby line at JC generally builds up faster than at the other 4.

So, we will probably go to 7DMT or Space Mountain at 8:30 and then head to the other side of the park at 9.

 

[JenLT]

I’m a little confused about stacking. Our first day we will be going to Hollywood studios. We usually rope drop and don’t go to the park the day we arrive but I think we can make it work with Genie Plus. So on our way there, we can get our first LL at 7:00. Then at 11:00 we can get our second LL. I’m not sure what time we plan on arriving but we could get a third one at 1:00 if we aren’t there yet?
Okay so then after we get there how long do we need to wait until we get a 4th? Do we have to use all of them first? Do we need to wait until 3:00?
I get the premise of getting your LL and then wait two hours and get a new LL right before you tap on. Then you can get another. But it’s having several at the same time already that I am unsure of how it will work. Thanks.

 

[PepperjackDragon]

I explicitly tested this scenario last week. The system has a single eligibility time that it sets when you book a LL reservation. The expiration of a reservation is only indirectly tied to eligibility time, sometimes.

Every time you book a G+ LL reservation, it sets a eligibility return time, which is the earlier of the end of the reservation return window and 2 hours from the current time (or 2 hours from the park opening time if you’re booking before opening time). Every time you book, it sets a new time and there’s only one time it’s tracking.

So if it’s 9:00 am and you book a 10:15-11:15 am reservation, the eligibility time is set to 11:00 am. If you wait until 11:00, the eligibility time hits and you can book, but that new booking sets a new eligibility time. Say you booked a 11:30-12:30 at that point. Now your eligibility time is 12:30. If you wait until 11:15, nothing happens. You can still tap in and regain eligibility, but the expiration of your 10:15-11:15 reservation does nothing, because that was never set as an eligibility time in the first place.

The confusion arises because tapping in on any reservation resets eligibility, and canceling any reservation resets eligibility, so it’s easy to think that expiration of any reservation would reset eligibility. But it doesn’t work that way.

When I was there I saw eligibility would reset when the window for the LL passed. Therefore if I book a 9am ride and wait until 10am then technically I missed the ride and the system counted it as “used” and thus reset eligibility. That should allow one to book another LL at 10:01. However with the grace window you can then check on to the ride. This is my big question for now, does that check in ALSO allow for a LL reservation, thus allowing 2LL as of about 10:05 am, and has anyone actually tried this yet?

 

[wisblue]

I’m a little confused about stacking. Our first day we will be going to Hollywood studios. We usually rope drop and don’t go to the park the day we arrive but I think we can make it work with Genie Plus. So on our way there, we can get our first LL at 7:00. Then at 11:00 we can get our second LL. I’m not sure what time we plan on arriving but we could get a third one at 1:00 if we aren’t there yet?
Okay so then after we get there how long do we need to wait until we get a 4th? Do we have to use all of them first? Do we need to wait until 3:00?
I get the premise of getting your LL and then wait two hours and get a new LL right before you tap on. Then you can get another. But it’s having several at the same time already that I am unsure of how it will work. Thanks.

if you have 3 after making them at 7, 11, and 1, every time you use one, make another one and you can have 3 for the rest of the day. If you haven’t used any by 3 you could get a fourth one then.

As a practical matter, using DHS as the example, by the time you get to later in the afternoon the options for new LL might be pretty limited. But, if you can get 3 good ones and don’t arrive to the park until mid afternoon, what you have should be at least as good as what you could do with FP+, and possibly better if you can add more after you arrive.

I plan to try this at DHS in January on the day we arrive for the Marathon weekend. If everything works right with the airline, I can make 1 LL at the airport before the flight takes off, a second one at 11 after the flight arrives, and a third one at 1. We would hope to get to the park by 2.

 

[nurseberta]

Experiment
so this is the result of my refresh this morning. Granted I do not have tickets for today so I was not allowed to book further. However, SDD was consistently moving forward steadily in return times faster than Rise. I got Rise returns that moved forward to 2-4pm time range and then pop back to earlier windows 3 times ranging from 1040, 11:30, 12:35. SDD moved towards 5-7pm quickly and did not offer earlier windows frequently but I was able to get a few pop back to 3pm from 6-7pm. After 10 minutes I was able to get 9 o’clock hour windows to show for both SDD and Rise.

 

[Sjm9911]

Its also pouring out right now , so that may effect what people go for.
Lol, as i hit send the rain is stopping. Hope it stays like that.

 

[nurseberta]

Darn it! Reminder to check weather report for future tests!!!

 

[Sjm9911]

Spoke too soon raining again, lol. We have epcott today, and since g+ was allready purchased will use it. Most stuff in epcott is indoors and hopefully running. I got VC for remmy, and test track. Idea here is that if it clears up, they will let me use my TT LL later in the day. If not, no big loss. We will hit frozen and soaring at semi RD. And hit the rest with the 2nd LL at noon. I dont think theres a need to stack.

 

[mom2rtk]

People need and have been asking for something like this, and I just saw someone tell someone else to start one. So I’m starting one!

Post up your actual usage experiences here, and your usage strategy or questions IF you plan on using it. No commentary on whether it’s good or bad, no comparisons to things that don’t exist any more (FP+).

This will keep the crybabies and arrogant jerks who don’t like it (myself among them!) from keeping people from seeing info that will actually help them use it!

So happy to have this thread, but have you considered maybe adding top tips to the first post? I feel like a lot of good stuff will get lost, and most people aren't going to go back and read 45 pages (much more as time goes on).

 

[Garyjames220]

so we are going to Disney in May and using genie + the two weeks we are there. We are meeting some friends a few days to

I was wondering if we want to use genie + with our friends, what is the best way of making sure we have the same times to all go together?

 

[wisblue]

So happy to have this thread, but have you considered maybe adding top tips to the first post? I feel like a lot of good stuff will get lost, and most people aren't going to go back and read 45 pages (much more as time goes on).

The moderators have planned to do this and have established a pinned and currently locked thread. But, it hasn‘t been filled in yet.

 

[Tess]

Addtionally, it jeeps saying I need to update the ap, I follow the link and its just remove or open it. I dont want to remove it mid trip.

Ignore it! I kept getting the same thing yesterday when I checked the App--there is no update to be had provided you have the "50th" which you must or you wouldn't be using Genie!