The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[Scooley01]

When Disney first announced details of the Genie program, they called them Individual Attraction Selections. When Genie actually was implemented in October, Disney called them Individual Lightning Lanes, and that's what they're called in the MDE app. No explanation given by Disney, and it definitely leads to confusion!

Oh yeah that's definitely confusing! My only experience with that so far is through YouTube videos, so I guess the ones I've watched have all been older haha!

 

[kilik64]

I think they should just do what All Ears does and call em Fancy Rides.

 

[Westerner]

When Disney first announced details of the Genie program, they called them Individual Attraction Selections. When Genie actually was implemented in October, Disney called them Individual Lightning Lanes, and that's what they're called in the MDE app. No explanation given by Disney, and it definitely leads to confusion!

Individual Lightning Lanes was an unfortunate choice of name as it abbreviates to ILL. A poor PR choice on Disney's part. Too bad, b/c $ILL's can be pretty good value for $ in terms of wait time saved.

 

[jbish]

Thanks for reposting this--I hadn't seen it.

I'm still kinda lost though. You could book your hop-to park G+ at 7. It wouldn't be for a time before 2 pm, but you could do it, so you could get your late-afternoon SDD first thing, without having to do this buggy (haha) experiment.

For the record, you couldn't pay me to do ITtBaB ever again!

Yeah, not a fan of the attraction itself. lol

So my theory is, if I get to use my first LL at 7:30, and then get to book my second one right at 7:30 (ex. SDD in afternoon), then I will be eligible for my next one at 9:30.

Alternatively, if I just started booking for HS right away, my first one would be at 7 (where, sure, I have a very good chance at getting what I want), then the next time I would be eligible to book would be at 10 (two hours after HS opens). So the science experiment is that by starting to book at AK, I could set myself up to book 30 mins before the rest of the HS crowd. Hope that’s makes sense.

 

[pens4821]

These post are just outright depressing. So it pretty safe to say, this summer G+ is going to be an absolute nightmare for guests.....but at the same time, it may be the only way to ride many attractiosn with less than a 2 hour wait.

Disney need new management.

I disagree, but many will agree with you. I was there a couple weeks ago with all sold out parks and was pleased with genie+. Does it suck having to pay for what was free? Yes. Could it be better? Yes. But we got 5 rides done with it in each of MK, HS, and ep. It did take some time refreshing for HS, but nothing crazy and we did it while we weren’t doing anything anyway. I was more than pleased with genie+ and actually wish I would’ve got it the other three days too to be honest.

 

[pens4821]

It seems like the gist from this thread is that it’s useful to get the paid service for MK but not Epcot or AK because of lack of attractions, and studios because they go too quick. Anyone who would disagree with that assessment?

I would get it at every park. That’s what we read too about not getting it at ep and Ak (we didn’t visit there this trip). We were planning on using it our first and last days of 6 (hopping to MK first, HS last). Our 5th day I got it for epcot and was more than pleased I did. Yeah, the lines weren’t horrible there for what we got, but it saved us over a couple hours of waiting in line.

 

[Disturbia]

Edited post 3839 for Genie+ usage on MK day

 

[Miffy]

Yeah, not a fan of the attraction itself. lol

So my theory is, if I get to use my first LL at 7:30, and then get to book my second one right at 7:30 (ex. SDD in afternoon), then I will be eligible for my next one at 9:30.

Alternatively, if I just started booking for HS right away, my first one would be at 7 (where, sure, I have a very good chance at getting what I want), then the next time I would be eligible to book would be at 10 (two hours after HS opens). So the science experiment is that by starting to book at AK, I could set myself up to book 30 mins before the rest of the HS crowd. Hope that’s makes sense.

Got it! Thanks for explaining. I await the results of your experiment!

 

[Disturbia]

SDD and ROTR showed unavailable pretty quick


This system is pretty messed up. I booked 5-6 for ROTR during the evening drop at 7:15 am and after I clicked payment it jumped without a warning to 7:10-8:10, which conflicts with 8:30 dining at Steakhouse71 (for Rider Switch we need 35-40 mins each time) I am not spending another hour at the front desk. Ridiculous!

And the weather; conditions favorable for funnel clouds, thunderstorms all day.

 

[Westerner]

SDD and ROTR showed unavailable pretty quick


This system is pretty messed up. I booked 5-6 for ROTR during the evening drop at 7:15 am and after I clicked payment it jumped without a warning to 7:10-8:10, which conflicts with 8:30 dining at Steakhouse71 (for Rider Switch we need 35-40 mins each time) I am not spending another hour at the front desk. Ridiculous!

And the weather; conditions favorable for funnel clouds, thunderstorms all day.

Yeeesh! Sorry this happened, it’s really unfair for RotR time to shift after *payment*. Maybe try talking to blue umbrella people in park? I seem to recall that sometimes there wasn’t that long of a line of people waiting to talk to them.

 

[mom2rtk]

SDD and ROTR showed unavailable pretty quick
View attachment 659157
View attachment 659158
This system is pretty messed up. I booked 5-6 for ROTR during the evening drop at 7:15 am and after I clicked payment it jumped without a warning to 7:10-8:10, which conflicts with 8:30 dining at Steakhouse71 (for Rider Switch we need 35-40 mins each time) I am not spending another hour at the front desk. Ridiculous!

And the weather; conditions favorable for funnel clouds, thunderstorms all day.

View attachment 659164

How they ever thought this would be OK in a system is just beyond me.

What a mess indeed.

 

[g-dad66]

How they ever thought this would be OK in a system is just beyond me.

What a mess indeed.

And why haven't they fixed it in 5 1/2 months now?

They can't be getting too many compliments from people saying, Hey, I really like the fact that I don't end up with the time that I chose.

 

[ScarletFire]

I've been micro-managing from KY my DD24 DHS day. It's been successful!

LL 7am: SDD 3:05 and RISE 4:25.

Rope Drop ToT, RnRC and MMRR. All completed by 9:00! I've trained my DD24 well!!

LL 10:30am: RnRC 2:40. Wants to ride again.

I hate, HATE that there is no way to modify times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! At 7am, you take what you get and then see way earlier times. And, the time your reserve is not the time you get! Why????????????? I know it's a rhetorical question.

 

[Disturbia]

Fixed ROTR via chat; TOT did the same thing; will try to fix in park or just forget it

 

[Disturbia]

Yeeesh! Sorry this happened, it’s really unfair for RotR time to shift after *payment*. Maybe try talking to blue umbrella people in park? I seem to recall that sometimes there wasn’t that long of a line of people waiting to talk to them.

The thing is there was a lot of availability starting at 4 pm, so it wasn’t like I was selecting the earliest drop either. At 7 am I got error messages twice for 4-5 and 5-6 when I selected them.

I’m just glad they were able to fix it via chat (missed the text, but specified a time frame I wanted).

 

[Westerner]

I've been micro-managing from KY my DD24 DHS day. It's been successful!

That's a great idea. Book G+ and $ILL's from home for family that's in the park. I might do it for BIL, if he asks nicely. And if he doesn't I'll still do it but I might pick different LL's.

 

[Disturbia]

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse

 

[LMO429]

The ride time changing AFTER you pay sounds completely illegal!

 

[Disturbia]

Got passes changed with a big ‘we will not accommodate any others. This is a one time thing!’

 

[pens4821]

Got passes changed with a big ‘we will not accommodate any others. This is a one time thing!’

View attachment 659288

Glad you were able to get both sdd and tot and that they have fixed your times so that they work better for you. Like I said when we were there a a couple weeks ago, genie+ can work, even at HS. We had a lucky day doing 5 things we wanted (6 including lying for ILL).

That’s one thing I forgot to mention about my thoughts on genie+. Not only do I think it’s better for park hoppers, but it’s also better if you don’t have any dining planned either. The days we used it we either did qs or had our ts earlier in the day.