Disney Genie announcement

[MainMom]

My wife and I used Genie+ at MK today. I have mixed feelings. First, we were satisfied that we got our money’s worth. We arrived at the park fashionably late (10am) and decided after arrival to give it a try. We used it for 9 attractions, and it saved a lot of time at each. The negatives: you can’t use it to repeat attractions; we couldn’t manage to work in Jungle Cruise; the MDE app was a little fluky in that I would have to open and close it a few times to bring up G+.

Headed to Studios and AK tomorrow. We will probably buy G+ to see how it performs there

Curious as to which rides you used it on and if you were crisscrossing the park a lot. Also, how long were you in MK? Thanks!

 

[LSUfan4444]

if you want to add it in advance you have to change your ticket type. Think of it like adding a park hopper to a standard ticket and like a park hopper, you have to add it to every day, whether you use it or not. The advantage to G+ is you don't have to add it to every day and can just add it each day on the day you want tot use it. Adding it ahead of time commits you to the purchase but you still have to go online each day to add your attractions.

Until they add the ability to pre-add attractions in advance I see no real benefit (to the guest) to adding it to your entire stay in advance. Even if you think you know you will use it every day, alot can happen (weather, new experiences, the platform can change with no notice, etc) so the longer you keep your money and not just commit to giving to Disney the better position it puts you, the guest, in.

 

[Bama Mom]

i want to try to use genie+ for park hopping after 2 p.m. for mk. Can someone explain, as a resort guest, how I do that exactly at 7 a.m.
If I log in and am offered a.m. for my theme park reservation park but i want the second park of my day instead how do i do that?

From my understanding the system is suppose to be smart enough to recognize you are hopping to that second park so it will only generate times after 2:00pm for you to choose. So you would just change the park to your second park and the system will recognize that isn't the park you have reservations for first and as long as you have hopping abilities tied to your tickets it will know to only show times after 2:00.

 

[PaladinButters]

I have been playing with G+. My trip isn’t until November 2022 but I did make park reservations. When I go go to My Genie Day to to My Day it shows park hours and has Epcot as opening at 9 am and AK closing some days at 9 pm. I’m sure it’s nothing but odd to see.

That's fun - just checked mine and all park hours are 9-9. Some kind of placeholder? I'd much rather the 'average guest' got told hours were not released rather than ones that would be changing.

 

[emmabelle]

If you know for sure you want G+ every day, it doesn't hurt to add it now. But, if you want to try it first and see how it goes, just add it day by day. No real advantage either way.

so the $15 a day thing wouldn't sell out in advance of our trip?

 

[LSUfan4444]

so the $15 a day thing wouldn't sell out in advance of our trip?

Nope

 

[mshanson3121]

so the $15 a day thing wouldn't sell out in advance of our trip?

It will never sell out. However, attraction availability will. So you may have paid $15 for very few rides.

 

[Miffy]

For anyone who's been in the parks and using Genie, G+, and/or ILL$: What's been your experience with phone battery drain?

For example, have you needed to recharge your phone more than once during the day? More than twice? Never?

TIA

 

[katyringo]

Posting this again. A lot of questions being asked again are answered here:


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. Park opening of the park you are buying for. If you are buying Remy and are off site, you can buy Remy when Epcot opens.

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.

 

[mshanson3121]

For anyone who's been in the parks and using Genie, G+, and/or ILL$: What's been your experience with phone battery drain?

For example, have you needed to recharge your phone more than once during the day? More than twice? Never?

TIA

Not myself, but most reports (people and bloggers) say it is draining their phone quickly.

 

[CWTC]

For anyone who's been in the parks and using Genie, G+, and/or ILL$: What's been your experience with phone battery drain?

For example, have you needed to recharge your phone more than once during the day? More than twice? Never?

TIA

We bought the MagSafe iPhone battery packs specifically for this reason. After hitting 2 parks the last two morning/early afternoon the packs have been drained to about 20% and phone holding around 80% (they aren’t designed to fully charge phone). Then we recharge for dinner/evening: even after boo bash the same pattern held. I’m not sure how our phones would have managed without the battery packs but to be fair we use them heavily in line, on transport, etc.

edited to add: we have iPhone 13 pros and this is a review on the battery packs we have.

https://www.theverge.com/22588777/apple-magsafe-battery-review-size-iphone-12-mini

 

[DisneyKidds]

Nope

Right, Disney has said G+ will never sell out. Unfortunately, during busier times that doesn’t guarantee that useful G+ LL return times for better rides (think Splash and Thunder) will actually be available. My fear is that when we go next July (or for people going around the holidays) and consider using it a lot more rides will run out of return times than the handful we’ve seen the past couple of days.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

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.

Has anyone offsite been able to confirm the part in bold?

 

[leeniewdw]

Pretty sure you need to tap into your reserved park before hopping. I think that’s the way it’s worked for a while now with the park reservation system and hoppers. Can others confirm?

Dan

That is correct. You must tap into your reserved park before hopping to another.

Thanks to you both. Makes things more complicated for a travel/day1 parks, but good to know!

Except for travel day; you can choose not to hop, so Epcot reservations are ok and you can try for the 7 am Boarding Group…assuming Epcot is your travel day park

I'm not sure I'm following. This is our travel/day 1 itinerary. Flight departs RDU around 11am arriving around 1pm. We won't be in the parks until probably 2:30. I'd like to be able to start making our LL selections at 7am. I might even be able to make 2 additional reservations before we take off. But at 7am (and possibly the next 2 time slots I can request add'l LL), the timeslots are going to be too soon for us to actually use. If I select a diff park then our reservation, the system knows I won't be there until 2pm.

I really don't want to make 6 people, travel, arrive, tap into the morning park, just to immediately turn around and head to the park where we have LL! Does anyone have a suggestion?

If I just use our park reservation for the park we want to visit upon arrival, I'll have to keep refreshing until I see a time slot that we think we can use -- AND I can't use the morning to stack LLs. I mean, we're paying for park hoppers for that day and only using half the day AND paying for G+, it seems like we should be able to use G+ to our advantage without a time wasting tap in.

 

[LSUfan4444]

My fear is that when we go next July (or for people going around the holidays) and consider using it a lot more rides will run out of return times than the handful we’ve seen the past couple of days.

Depends on how you use it. If you will judge it's value on quantity (meaning how many rides you use it regardless of time saving) on and not quality (time it saves you waiting vs just using standby regardless of how many rides you used it on) you will struggle to think it's worth it on busier days.

On busier days, if you use standby as your friend when waits are low (rope drop and park close) and use G+ and ILLs later in the day when standby is longer, you can have success.

The key to happiness is to view it as G+ and Ills vs standby only and not G+ and Ills vs Maxpass, FP+ or FP.

You have to look at what is being offered and what the options are if you plan to go.

 

[Miffy]

Here's a positive thought about the complexity of the new Genie/G+/ILL$ system: The more complicated it is, the less likely it is that an unprepared guest will know how to use it or even know that they can use it. Therefore, for those of us in the know, we will have a distinct advantage, much like the advantage we had with FP+.

It was my experience that a heckuva lot of park visitors didn't know how to use FP+, didn't know they could use it, didn't know it existed, didn't know it was free, etc., etc., etc. Despite the fact that WDW resort guests were always informed about FP+ after booking and many times after that--especially on the day they could actually start booking FP+s--yet many people weren't taking advantage of it.

I expect Genie et al. will be the same. Those of us who've studied up will have an advantage over the people who don't know, don't understand, or can't be bothered.

Does this mean that I like that it's so complicated? No, I do not. But I also suspect (and I hope I'm wrong) it's possible there's an underlying reason for the complexity, and I won't be at all surprised when, a few weeks or a few months from now, WDW starts selling something like Uni's FOL pass and charging $250 or $300 per person, per day for it. It will be simple and straightforward: Ride everything everywhere with instant LL access. Ride as many times as you want, with the exception of the headliners, which you can ride only once. Period. Besides the convenience, the simplicity of this will be a huge selling point. Would I buy this? Certainly not.

 

[Sjm9911]

Anyone know if you can split up a party? So 2 people get LL for one ride and 1 person gets another one? Then regroup for the next LL with all three together?

As for battery packs , amazon has a small one thats like 25 $ and will recharge you phone to full 4 times. I xan share a link if anyone wants. I got mine for the last disney trip in 2019 and its still going strong.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Has anyone offsite been able to confirm the part in bold?

Park opening of the park you are buying for. If you are buying Remy and are off site, you can buy Remy when Epcot opens.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Here's a positive thought about the complexity of the new Genie/G+/ILL$ system: The more complicated it is, the less likely it is that an unprepared guest will know how to use it or even know that they can use it. Therefore, for those of us in the know, we will have a distinct advantage, much like the advantage we had with FP+.

Totally agree. I am not trying to convince anyone to buy it. The less that do, the easier it is for me to make it work and the more valuable it becomes and the better standby waits are when I do chose to use them.

 

[MainMom]

A separate post for experiences would be nice. I would like to know how groups of 5+ found genie+/ILL$ useful or not. My group will have 7 next June and I have previously traveled with 11-13 during the summer. I could never effectively utilize FP+ 4th+ after our first 3 without a very long time spent on my phone. Most of the reports are for 1-2 people who stay in the park all day.