The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[aimes0105]

I had a group of 6-8 mid November. I found with the larger group LL bookings, it would show me a time but when I clicked to the next page to book it would often show a couple of hours later on the booking page. I suspect this is due to the larger group size, and was frustrating.

This has been widely reported by lots of people (even solo travelers) and seems to be a product of multiple people booking at once and the fastest gets the first time and others get pushed out later.

 

[leeniewdw]

• Getting up before 7a every day had a cumulative effect on us and we wished we had built in more mid-day breaks back at the hotel to compensate. (Note from me: The adrenaline from trying to book was real and prevented me from going back to sleep; husband was able to without too much difficulty though).

We were only in the parks for 2 days last weekend and 1 was our arrival day, but on day 2 our plan was to grab our 7am stuff and go back to sleep as we'd attended the MK AHs on Friday night and got to bed late. BUT.... we found that neither of us could go back to sleep. So we laid there and decided to go ahead and get up. We grabbed breakfast sandwich from the food court, ate them back in our room and then headed out to AK. It worked out fine as we were able to ride Everest twice with no wait (arrived around 9am) before we headed to our ILL$ (FOP) and our LL (Safari). By that time the park was getting very crowded (the Gorilla trail was WAY too crowded to be enjoyable) and we didn't really care to ride anything else and left (and went back for lunch, nap, pool time). In the end, it worked out fine and skipping early entry at least gave us an extra hour of sleep I guess. But I could see this being a real pain morning after morning if you weren't planning to be up.

 

[Grasshopper2016]

our plan was to grab our 7am stuff and go back to sleep as we'd attended the MK AHs on Friday night and got to bed late. BUT.... we found that neither of us could go back to sleep.

This is exactly what I'm afraid of!

 

[melking23]

What I’m seeing is people confusing ILL$ (individually paid) with G+ (per day paid).
How many attractions you can book per day shouldn’t have ILL$ included in your calculations because you can’t book G+ for those rides anyway. IGNORE ILL$ AT THIS POINT.

Let’s say’s I’m going to MK. The park opens at 8AM and closes at 8PM. The + is for booking G+, the - is for using booked G+. This example is strictly using the 2-hour cool down period between bookings:
+At 7AM I book Haunted Mansion for 1PM
+At 10AM I book Jungle Cruise for 3:30PM
+At 12PM I book Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for 5:15PM
-At 1PM, tap into Haunted Mansion
+At 2PM I book Splash Mountain for 4:30PM
-At 3:30PM, tap into Jungle Cruise
+At 4PM I book Buzz for 7PM
-At 4:30PM, tap into Splash Mountain
-At 5:15PM, tap into Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
+At 6PM I book Barnstormer for 7:30PM
-At 7PM, tap into Buzz
-At 7:30PM, tap into Barnstormer

On slower crowd days you might be able to book earlier return times than 2 hours out. We’ll use MK’s same 8AM-8PM hours and rides but switch up the return times. This example uses a mix of tap and book and the 2-hour cool down:
+At 7AM I book Haunted Mansion for 9:15AM
-At 9:15AM, tap into Haunted Mansion
+At 9:15AM I book Jungle Cruise for 11:30AM
+At 11:15AM I book Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for 12:45PM
-At 11:30AM, tap into Jungle Cruise
-At 12:45PM, tap into Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
+At 12:45PM I book Splash Mountain for 4:15PM
+At 2:45PM I book Buzz for 5PM
-At 4:15PM, tap into Splash Mountain
+At 4:45PM I book Barnstormer for 6PM
-At 5PM, tap into Buzz
-At 6PM, tap into Barnstormer
+At 6PM I book Small World for 7:30PM
-At 7:30PM, tap into Small World

You have to base the next booking on the previous booking. If your last booked attraction is under 2 hours away, you can book as soon as you’ve tapped in (the 2nd tapstile on some attractions). If your last booked attraction is more than 2 hours away then you have to wait 2 hours between bookings.

Keep in mind that you don’t exactly get to choose your attraction window. The next available window will show. If you don’t like that window, choose a different attraction within the window you need or refresh and hope the window you’re looking for at the attraction you want opens soon for booking.

Let’s say I booked Seven Dwarves Mine Train and Space Mountain ILL$ and they’re in there somewhere. I did not list them because they have no bearing on what I book or tap into using G+. Listing them would only cause confusion.

 

[Rigby]

If I have a return lightning lane time for Rise at 5 p.m. and I show up at 7:30 p.m. can I still get on the ride? Thanks!

 

[JakeAZ]

If I have a return lightning lane time for Rise at 5 p.m. and I show up at 7:30 p.m. can I still get on the ride? Thanks!

Maybe. It really depends on the CM at the LL entrance. I wouldn’t take that chance though. Also, with so much downtime, the ride might be offline later in the night.

 

[bjcaed]

Long time disney vacationer but man this Genie plus has me spinning.
We will be at MK and will rope drop. We will take a mid day break, bad knees,....Park opens at 8:00, we will be in line for Fantasyland at 7:30.
Here is my question. At 7:00 should i book Jungle cruise for early morning, say 9:00 this gives us time to do BTR and Pirates right after 8:00 opening, then after tapping in to JC just book new LL and repeat each LL until Lunch at noon. After last LL before lunch has been used, then start booking LL for after our 5:00 return to the park? HOw do I stack for the evening?
I dont even know if any of this makes sense......
We will be back later in the week for Christmas after hours so whatever we don't ride first day we will get to then.

 

[princesswahooey]

Long time disney vacationer but man this Genie plus has me spinning.
We will be at MK and will rope drop. We will take a mid day break, bad knees,....Park opens at 8:00, we will be in line for Fantasyland at 7:30.
Here is my question. At 7:00 should i book Jungle cruise for early morning, say 9:00 this gives us time to do BTR and Pirates right after 8:00 opening, then after tapping in to JC just book new LL and repeat each LL until Lunch at noon. After last LL before lunch has been used, then start booking LL for after our 5:00 return to the park? HOw do I stack for the evening?
I dont even know if any of this makes sense......
We will be back later in the week for Christmas after hours so whatever we don't ride first day we will get to then.

In theory this works, but you really can't count on getting a return time that early to JC. You only get next available time and JC is most popular at MK, which means it will probably push out to early afternoon depending on crowds. It would be sheer luck or a very empty day if you actually secure that 9am return.

 

[bjcaed]

In theory this works, but you really can't count on getting a return time that early to JC. You only get next available time and JC is most popular at MK, which means it will probably push out to early afternoon depending on crowds. It would be sheer luck or a very empty day if you actually secure that 9am return.

even booking JC at 7:00? I have seen it go fairly fast but not slinkydog fast. I f not I will just book someting else I guess. JC is not a must do for us but its cute

 

[princesswahooey]

even booking JC at 7:00? I have seen it go fairly fast but not slinkydog fast. I f not I will just book someting else I guess. JC is not a must do for us but its cute

Getting the first return window for any most popular rides is not guaranteed. And even if it says 9am when you click on it, by the time you finalize it could already be bumped to 10 or 11 or later depending on crowds. Check out Thrill Data for return times and you'll see how quickly they go. Not say it's impossible, just saying have a plan B.

 

[jeneric997]

So after reading this I have 2 scenarios for tomorrow and I am wondering which is better:
I am flying in and can't get to the park before 11:30 am.

Should I
A: make the first LL for 11:30 am and then just tap and move on
or
B: make first LL for after 1pm (ie: Jungle Cruise) then at 11am make one for any ride that was available as close to 11:30am (ie: Dumbo)- would I be able to tap after the Dumbo one since it was the last one I booked? Is this possible?

 

[JakeAZ]

So after reading this I have 2 scenarios for tomorrow and I am wondering which is better:
I am flying in and can't get to the park before 11:30 am.

Should I
A: make the first LL for 11:30 am and then just tap and move on
or
B: make first LL for after 1pm (ie: Jungle Cruise) then at 11am make one for any ride that was available as close to 11:30am (ie: Dumbo)- would I be able to tap after the Dumbo one since it was the last one I booked? Is this possible?

Tomorrow will probably be crowded, so I would just see what you can get at 7am and adjust.

An ideal scenario would be something for around 11:30am and then book again at 11am for something else. Then you'll be able to book again at 1 or tap in.

 

[swummyh20]

Take screenshots of everything you book!! I am so frustrated!

We have had 5 separate times in the last two days where we booked a specific time for something (even the paid ROTR!!) and when we go back to the app, the TIMES HAVE CHANGED. I am not even talking about clicking on the 1025 SDD LL but then a moment later it’s telling me 1pm in the confirmation. I’m talking about we booked and paid for the 1130 ROTR at 7am and when we went to the app to plan something else, it was changed to 1230pm. Or the test track we booked for 805pm being changed to 905pm.

Has this happened to anyone else??

 

[LSUfan4444]

I think your approach may not be possible. This simplest summary of the rules as they now operate (after the recent elimination of the double-stack) that I have seen is this one. Once you make a reservation . . .

Take a few days off from this fast moving thread, focus on other things and read this....I can't keep up anymore.

On page 110 trying to see what I missed

 

[LSUfan4444]

So with the elimination of the double stack, that basically means you just can't have multiple "lines/stacks" created and continuing to expand?

In it's simplest explanation, you can book another G+ two hours from the last G+ reservation you made OR once you tap into the most recent G+ you made...regardless of what time you're making those reservations for? Is that correct?

 

[GBRforWDW]

So with the elimination of the double stack, that basically means you just can't have multiple "lines/stacks" created and continuing to expand?

In it's simplest explanation, you can book another G+ two hours from the last G+ reservation you made OR once you tap into the most recent G+ you made...regardless of what time you're making those reservations for? Is that correct?

That's correct

 

[ScarletFire]

Wow! This thread continues to evolve. I've not read all pages and I don't think I need too. DH & I using Genie+ at DHS on December 22. And, we are staying offsite for the first time in over 20 years.

I have lots of learning in order to maximize Genie+. At least it's just the two of us. We usually have several family and friends depending on me to make the pixie dust happen. It's my thing!!!

Thanks DisBoards!!

 

[CBMom01]

Would love to hear reviews and advice from folks who used G+ with their first choice at HS being anything other than SDD. SDD being gone at 7:00:01 seems to be dominating the conversation.

 

[JakeAZ]

Would love to hear reviews and advice from folks who used G+ with their first choice at HS being anything other than SDD. SDD being gone at 7:00:01 seems to be dominating the conversation.

MFSM runs into the evening fairly quick too, on crowded days. But there are still times available after the 7am rush.

You can get early return times for any other ride.

 

[EjandMD]

I tried to search but didn't see my issue. Arriving at 11 am MCO, Uber to Riverside, drop bags off to MK. Genie + yes? We will log on 7 am before we get on the plane to pick LL for SDMT and we can pick a 1 p.m ride as well? Will everything be gone? We arrive Dec 15, short trip really there for a dog event but squeezing in 2 days at Disney.