Disney Genie announcement

[dawnball]

You would then need to tap into your reserved park, but then immediately hop over to the park that you have all the G+ booked for. You would actually reserve a park that you do not intend to go to that day, and immediately hop to the park with the G+ attractions.

I wonder if you could just swap your park reservation to the intended park without losing your g+ reservations, assuming availability?

 

[lostprincess_danie]

Note, I do not have tickets for today but am playing around with the app. (1) On the tip board, is there any way to sort by next available LL time or is it only alphabetical attraction name order?
(2) Or sort by standby time in the tip board.
I know this option can still be done by viewing the map, then selecting view list, but not very convenient to back out of genie if I just want to see the lower waits.

My question got lost in the shuffle earlier today. Can somebody help me out?

 

[Disturbia]

If the only impact of this is that we have to buy our Genie+ every day in two separate transactions it will be annoying but not a big deal.

But, if we have to be treated as separate parties for everything, like making G+LL and IALL selections, that will be really annoying.

I‘d be interested to hear how this has worked for anyone else with one of these “mixed” parties.

Can you see if post 4798 is relevant; page 240 (there may be some relevant info on page 238 as well).

 

[elgerber]

A question I don't believe I've seen answered yet - if I am staying onsite, BUT not arriving until later in the day (i.e. flying in that day) - will I be able to choose the return slot for the $ILL later in the day - or is my only choice first available/ to keep refreshing and seeing what is available and buy it once it gives me an option later in the day?

Yes for paid individual rides you select your time.

 

[Disturbia]

My question got lost in the shuffle earlier today. Can somebody help me out?

I would just look at Touring plans wait times

 

[Dis Dragon]

My question got lost in the shuffle earlier today. Can somebody help me out?

No, this is the only way to view it at this time. It's been commented that it's very clunky in it's current form and I would agree.

 

[pixiedust2u]

I’ve read the boards, and the blogs etc. and G+ and just the “free” or should I say included genie….. makes me sad. It seems like SO much time on your phone. And to me that’s just very, unmagical. We were fortunate enough to do Disney in June 2021… and I’m so grateful because I don’t think we’ll ever have an experience like that again.
I don’t mind being on my phone a bit like in the FP + days, but this seems excessive, and takes away from being in the moment with my kids.

 

[katyringo]

Well now it's time to say goodbye to all the genie fun for the night. Had fun following along for the day..

We still have some questions to answer. Tomorrow is another Genie+ day.. it's a great big beautiful tomorrow!

for me myself and I and my family.. already added genie to 4 day tickets and LL rides in the budget.

then again we paid a heck of a lot more than that for express passes at universal.. and our local amusement park this summer..

 

[wisblue]

Can you see if post 4798 is relevant; page 240 (there may be some relevant info on page 238 as well).

That seems like a different issue because it involves different rooms and trying to split payments among different people.

Ours is different because the party is my wife and me and two of our adult daughters in one room (although one of them will actually be staying at her apartment and is just on the room reservation so she can take advantage of Early Entry with us). All of the payments will go through the same credit card.

I‘m not too concerned about this because we are staying at SSR and will be arriving in the afternoon before our first park day. So, we‘ll probably just walk over to Disney Springs and I’ll go to Guest Services there to activate my AP and make sure we are ready to go the next morning.

But, I would still be interested to hear if someone else has to deal with a similar situation when they try to purchase G+.

 

[lorileahb]

Yes for paid individual rides you select your time.

How do you select the time? I may have misunderstood, but I thought times popped up and you only had the choice for that time - is there a way to find a specific time for the ILL (paid individual rides)?

 

[katyringo]

How do you select the time? I may have misunderstood, but I thought times popped up and you only had the choice for that time - is there a way to find a specific time for the ILL (paid individual rides)?

for genie plus you have to take the next available time. For the individual lightning Lanes it will show a time but you click on it and then pick from available times.

 

[DisneyKidds]

It’s been interesting following this thread today. Unfortunately it is just deepening my disappointment in what Disney has become.

No doubt (in my mind at least) Disney has been going in a negative direction for some time now, but this new pay for play, stop trying to beat them and join them (OR is Disney ACTUALLY going to BEAT the other guys at separating you from your money?), nickel and dime commoditization of the parks has taken Disney over the edge.

Is there really any arguing that G+ is less flexible than any previous iteration of FP, and that G+ and ILL$ together cost quite a bit more $ to get what used to be included in the price of your already pricey admission ticket?

I didn’t think so.

However, it’s not the $$$ that disappoints me the most. I mean, people will be clamoring for the whole Genie/LL thing. With so much invested in an expensive trip already what’s a few more five hundy or a thousand bucks across the fam? We are all pot committed, and Disney knows it. Like many we could afford it….and I’ll probably disappoint myself and use it all sparingly despite despising the direction….even though my gut says to not pay out of protest.

No, more so than the $$ it’s the lack of flexibility, the lack of any real sense of community and family that Disney has been showing, and seems to be reinforcing with Genie’s help, that disappoints me most. It wasn’t all that long ago that Disney touted Grand Gatherings and the coming together of generations of families in a Magical place. Now the only magic going on is **POOF** Genie disappearing money from your wallet.

Seriously, one can only make LL reservations for 12 people? We’ve got a trip of 19 people coming up next year. Same 19 people we went with three or four years ago. Then, with FP+, while we had multiple people making FP reservations, at least we could coordinate and have everyone get FP+ reservations around the same time. We succeeded in getting FP rides together, the whole group of 19. There’s not a snowballs chance in hades that happens with G+ next year, as who know what return times might be offered when we have multiple people, at different times, try to make LL reservations, assuming that every family in our group of 19 will even go for adding upwards of $40 a day pp to the cost of the vacation.

People have been opining for a while that Disney no longer cares about loyal, long term guests. They obviously don’t care about large groups, either. This whole thing just reinforces, for me at least, that all Disney really cares about any more is separating as much money from a family as quickly as possible, then moving on to the next, and the next. Disney has always been expensive, but it never felt like they were fleecing you. It’s a shame that has changed as much as it has.

 

[twodogs]

I don't like for me personally it but I at least understand the rationale behind it. It may not be advantageous for some - but it's far from "stupid". Allowing for repeated use will cause the return times to get exhausted much faster. Their goal is to allow as many different people to be able to use LL on each attraction. Taking your "you paid for it" argument - there are lots of other people who paid for it as well and the system won't work if there are too many rides that have all return times exhausted too early. For some rides like SDD it's going to happen anyway - but it would happen with a lot more rides if they offered rerides wtih LL. They need to make sure people who are there later in the day get priority to use LL over someone who's already ridden it.

But this is how MP at DLR operated successfully. FPs for rides were not running out at super early times due to allowing re-rides. Very popular rides like RSR ran out mid afternoon, but were almost always available later in the day with refresh, since you could cancel your FPs if you weren’t going to use them.

 

[MJJME]

But this is how MP at DLR operated successfully. FPs for rides were not running out at super early times due to allowing re-rides. Very popular rides like RSR ran out mid afternoon, but were almost always available later in the day with refresh, since you could cancel your FPs if you weren’t going to use them.

AK and Epcot cannot come close to DLR capacity combined. Sorry makes no sense even though I wish it was possible

 

[MomEadon]

Thank you for asking and the person who answered below answered with just what I was wondering myself!
The more you know!

How do you select the time? I may have misunderstood, but I thought times popped up and you only had the choice for that time - is there a way to find a specific time for the ILL (paid individual rides)?

 

[gharter]

Summary of what I learned today!


Buying genie +

You can purchase genie+ in two ways. You can buy it the day off after midnight or you can add it to your vacation package ticket. If you add it to your package you have to commit to it for every day you have a ticket.

120 minute rule

The 120 minute rule comes into play 2 different ways. The first way is if you book a genie+ at 7am for more than 2 hours after park opening you can make another selection 2 hours after the park opens.

The second way is once the park is open. Once the park has been open and you make a selection that is more than 2 hours away you can make another one in 2 hours.

7am rule for off site

If you are staying off site you can make Genie+ reservations at 7am BUT YOU CANNOT MAKE INDIVIDUAL LIGHTNING LANE SELECTIONS UNTIL PARK
OPENING. I believe this is park opening for the park you have a reservation.

7am rule for on site

If you are staying on site you can make BOTH an individual lightning lane selection and genie+ selection at 7am.

Refreshing

You can refresh the my tips page to try and get earlier or different times offered to you. However you CANNOT cancel or modify an individual lightning lane pass.

You can cancel a genie+ pass and book another one. You cannot modify an existing one.

Park hopping

The app recognizes your park hopper. You can book genie+ selections in other parks after 2pm. You can also make Individual lightning lane selections for other parks at 7am(onsite) or park opening (offsite).

Choosing a time

For genie+ you have to pick the time the app gives you.

For individual lightning lane the app will show a time BUT you can click on it and then will be able to choose from all available times.

You can buy both lightning lane selections at the same time.

Stacking

Stacking is confirmed possible and you can hold multiple Genie+ selections at a time. You can also hold virtual que, individual lightening lane and genie+ selections all at the same time.

Virtual que

Right now Remy is the only ride with the virtual que and the drop is at 7 and 1pm. You can use this along with individual lightning lane and genie+. You can use virtual que and individual lightning lane for the same ride.

Patterns from day 1


Hollywood studios saw rides run out of passes. Rise ran out of individual lightning lanes by 945 and slinky dog and smugglers ran out of genie+ early afternoon.

Magic kingdom saw jungle cruise run out of genie+. Individual lightning lane passes for SDMT and space have not run out. Most return times are right away/ next hour at this moment.

Epcot nothing had run out and return times are right away/next hour.

AK nothing had run out and return times are right away/next hour.


What happens if the ride is down

It seems when a ride is down a ride anytime pass is issued.

similar experience to what we found. Good to know about stacking as it didn't work for us.

 

[Thumper99]

The point is.... it is still available! which means everyone already has the opportunity to get it also. If others choose to ride 5 different attractions.. that is their choice. But there are people/families that choose to do 2 rides multiple times. Why not?
Why should someone that has been there since opening be forced to wait until a late arriving person gets a chance to use it??
There is no reason to limit it to once.... IMHO!!

Maybe it’s still there BECAUSE they aren’t allowing ReRides.

 

[M SH]

This is exactly what we plan on doing when we visit EPCOT on our first day back. Enjoy F&W and get in a standby line or two with low waits in the morning while and start stacking rides for HS. Take a break at the hotel, then head to the HS in the afternoon. If we purchase both MMRR and RotR we can conceivably have 5 LL's ready to go, which would be awesome. But who knows what will be the most effective way to maximize this until we get more information from those using it throughout the next few weeks.

Sorry I don’t really mean to pick on you. I’m reading this post and just makes me think on where we were with FP+ where one could do all of this for no extra charge. But now people are planning on spending on g+ and ias per day and calling it awesome. SMH

 

[fly girl]

I bet you won’t do that again after this trip. Genie+ is a waste of money. IAS I think has real value, but not genie+

Obviously, you are entitled to your opinion, but to say those blanket statements to another poster without knowing how they tour doesn't seem right.

Personally, for my family, ILL does not have value for over half of the rides. SM, FEA, RAT, MMRR, and EE. We enjoy those rides, but I don't like SM at WDW enough to pay $21 for my family of 3. Same with FEA and MMRR. RAT we rode in DLP, it is a early version of MMRR and we weren't impressed enough to pay extra for it here. EE we will utilize single rider. With all that said, I know one thing is 100% certain -- that is just my personal take and all ILL's could hold tremendous value to a different person or family.

Same goes with G+. If I can wait in 5 minute LL lines versus 15-20 minute standby lines over the course of a day at one or two parks I feel it is absolutely worth it. YMMV, and that is totally fine. G+ clearly sounds like it is not for you, but it could be for other people. So just like I won't get ILL's for all those rides mentioned, you won't get G+. What works for both of us is different. And that's ok.

Everyone has their own way of touring the parks. Some see value in none, one, or both G+ and ILL. I think everyone has to figure it out for themselves.

 

[MJJME]

Very disappointing

So I can save an hour or 2 of waiting in line but I have get up 2 hours earlier than I would at 7am, not be able to go when I want in the afternoon because I cannot pick my return time, be on my phone all day and pay $75 for my family of 5? I’ll give up the time I save standing in line, the money and aggravation and sleep in until 9am and be no worse off.