Everything Genie, Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane - Please Read Posts 1-7

[Chris@Blenheim]

The complaints about the old system we're probably in no small part due to the fact that you would have to know exactly what parks you would be at on the exact days to make your preplanned fast pass selections. Those staying at the resorts also had a monopoly on getting it is more premium selections.

So you think we shouldn't stay at a disney resort than? The new genie+ system isn't woth all the extra time taken away from your vacation. Just get rid of all fast passes than..??

 

[KrzyKtty101]

So you think we shouldn't stay at a disney resort than? The new genie+ system isn't woth all the extra time taken away from your vacation. Just get rid of all fast passes than..??

I didn't really share my personal opinion one way or another, just the general consensus about the complaints Disney was trying to address. Personally I tend to be a type one military level planner. I had no issue with the old system. I can't really speak to the new system yet since I haven't used it. Waking up at the crack of dawn every day is what we do on park days anyway. Everybody vacations differently. There is no way that Disney can have a system that works well for everybody. They are trying system that makes them mad money.

Personally I don't see how people think the new system makes you spend all this time on your phone comparative to the old system. When I went to the park even with the old system, I felt glued to my phone at all times. It was not easy to try to manage multiple dinning reservations, multiple fast pass reservations, then making extra fast passes throughout the day, while trying to figure out what ride to go on next with the shortest line. It was the only way I could manage the wait times without ending up in hour long lines. Disney has been a phone heavy park for the last decade.

I think people hate the new system so much that they are looking at the system they had before with rose colored glasses. It was not as perfect as people make it out to be.

 

[disneylover102]

I think people hate the new system so much that they are looking at the system they had before with rose colored glasses. It was not as perfect as people make it out to be.

I agree with this! The old system was free which was obviously great. But if you compare fastpass+ and genie+, paid or not, each has its advantages and disadvantages. Fastpass+ was great because you could book 3 ahead of time but then it was one at a time after that with no 2 hour rule which is a really nice perk of genie+. Genie+ is also much more fair for non-resort guests. Neither system was/is perfect and in order to take full advantage of it you have to be on your phone a lot.

 

[HydroGuy]

I remember when FP+ came out and the long threads here on DIS about how awful it was. Long debates much like the ones on G+ now.

And I agree that FP+ also kept you glued to the phone trying to refresh to get a good FP or improve the one you had. So I am not sure G+ changes things much for most people in that regard.

The only way that would not be the case was for folks who booked their 3 FP+ passes ahead of time and just used those and did not look for more while at the park. Those people probably did exist and I would agree that is better than G+ where you have to keep hunting for FP throughout the day.

 

[elgerber]

I remember when FP+ came out and the long threads here on DIS about how awful it was. Long debates much like the ones on G+ now.

And I agree that FP+ also kept you glued to the phone trying to refresh to get a good FP or improve the one you had. So I am not sure G+ changes things much for most people in that regard.

The only way that would not be the case was for folks who booked their 3 FP+ passes ahead of time and just used those and did not look for more while at the park. Those people probably did exist and I would agree that is better than G+ where you have to keep hunting for FP throughout the day.

Agreed, I was always refreshing. Also FP would not let you overlap, so if it was really busy, you still had down time between attractions.

 

[Thorazine]

We have a large party (eight people), where four people are staying on site and four people are staying offsite. Can I combine us all together into a single party in the app? If I do this, can I make 7 AM individual lightning lane reservations for the entire group, even though half of the group is staying offsite?

 

[GBRforWDW]

The ones staying offsite cannot get an individual lightning lane until the park opens. You should be able to add them to friends and family though to make genie+ LL passes though.

 

[lockets]

ILLs together only if they were added to the on-site hotel room as guests.

 

[scrappinginontario]

The ILL$ post on the first page has been updated to clarify that onsite guests are not eligible to purchase ILL$ for offsite guests at 7AM.

 

[Sweettears]

I remember when FP+ came out and the long threads here on DIS about how awful it was. Long debates much like the ones on G+ now.

And I agree that FP+ also kept you glued to the phone trying to refresh to get a good FP or improve the one you had. So I am not sure G+ changes things much for most people in that regard.

The only way that would not be the case was for folks who booked their 3 FP+ passes ahead of time and just used those and did not look for more while at the park. Those people probably did exist and I would agree that is better than G+ where you have to keep hunting for FP throughout the day.

I will agree with this to a large extent. However I did my phone surfing beforehand and had my FP+ in hand by the time I was at WDW . I rarely needed to make changes once there

 

[scrappinginontario]

For us, phone time didn't really change, if anything, it decreased this time. Unfortunately that was because we were able to secure less LL than we had FP+ in the past.

In the past it was common to secure 8-10 FP+ reservations in MK in a single day. It's not possible (at least I couldn't figure out how to do that) with LL so it meant less time on the phone but also less skipped lines.

In the past we would book our 3 FP+ reservations for early in the day and as soon as those were gone, look for something available soon and use that. Repeat.

Missing FP+ days for so many reasons!

 

[DisneySyd]

You can certainly do this, provided Epcot park reservations are still available. I would definitely not do this for HS or MK unless there are park passes available (only book after 2 pm).

The system will automatically limit you to times 2pm and onwards. I’ve done this a few times this trip. We had reservations at one park and I stacked $ILL and LL for the afternoon in another park. Even if it shows a morning time, when you click it automatically shows you 2pm or later.

 

[gzh6464]

For those that havn't seen the most recent videos from Allears.net and DFB two very good video people....both have said how horrible the crowds have been recently. I have to agree and I've been to Disney dozen's of times in the past 50 years (including holidays and typical busy periods). They are the worst I've ever seen with mobility in places bordering on dangerous (been pushed, shoved, runover by motor chairs, strollers etc..) Pretty insane. Seen cues snaking into places never before. All possibly due to pent up travel needs for the past two years but who knows. Getting hotels and dinner reservations are crazy and G+ has only added to the insanity and of course the cost. They both post some pretty good tips. Some found out the hard way. One tip given is G+ is not worth it in Epcot. I would add AK and possibly DHS (especially if crowds are insane and G+ passes disappear quickly (by noon or early afternoon) unless you feel you are getting your value out of 1-2 passes/per day. In MK it definitely has its place. ILL$ is your call now with only one attraction per park which can be done by early AM RD anyway ( unless you want to do them twice then ILL$ and RD is the way to go).

 

[TLSnell1981]

The recent crowds were horrible and so was our experience with genie plus. Any and all issues required multiple trips to guest services/experience to stand in long lines for solutions. ..per CMs. I have never seen such a mess in all of our 40 years of visits including many spring/fall breaks, Thanksgivings and Christmas.

There were not enough cast members. ...especially trained personnel or services available. They have created a stressful environment instead of a "magical" vacation. I blame this totally on Disney. There is no excuse for how low the Mouse has fallen...

 

[LCoulter]

How current is the list of individual lightening lane attractions on page 1 of this thread? I thought they stopped them?

 

[GabrielMom]

We have been her for one week, everyday is a 9 or a 10 day. I have been able to book the ILL time I want at 717 each day. I have even been able to purchase two (we have park hoppers) for the exact time I want if I wait until 7:17. Everytime I tried at 7am the time changed to a few hours later. I did purchase once at 7am because the time was not changing on the screen but I was trying for a later time at 7pm.

I think if you check a couple days in advance of your trip on ILL availability at 717 am and see it available, it is safe to wait until 717 to try to book. I've been refreshing daily between 7am and 717 during trip and each day new ILL showed up at 717 and lasts a fee good minutes.

I am trying very hard to avoid guest services during this trip. I have found castmemembers to be very rude when having a problem with LLs, and got snarky remark from guest services when requesting refund for Rise ILL after it was down during our return time and we weren't able to wait for it to come back up.

 

[Westerner]

How current is the list of individual lightening lane attractions on page 1 of this thread? I thought they stopped them?

The list of Individual Lightning Lane Attractions ($ILL) in post 4 is current.

A short while ago 3 $ILL’s were moved to G+: SM, Frozen, MMRR. This is supposed to last until August, leaving only 1 $ILL per park. Note: EE in AK is closed for refurbishment.

 

[wisblue]

My FoP experience this morning:
At 7am, I picked 9am, then 9:05am, then on next page confirmed guests. Then next page showed time of 12:40 to 1:40. Too late for us, so I backed out.
There is now no availability. I continually refreshed for the next 16 minutes with no availability and then at 7:17 there is magically availability, and I got exactly what I wanted.

Is the "confirm guest" page before or after you select your time?

Maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but I thought that when you clicked on the Tip Board to purchase that attraction, the first thing that came up was the "confirm guest" screen. Then you saw the place to select an hour, and then a more specific time window, before you would purchase.

I know that if you practice at home the first thing you see is the screen to select your party with the note that you're not eligible because of no park reservation.

When we were onsite I thought the same screen popped up first, but with everyone on the Friends and Family list with a valid ticket and park reservation was preselected.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I remember when FP+ came out and the long threads here on DIS about how awful it was. Long debates much like the ones on G+ now.

And I agree that FP+ also kept you glued to the phone trying to refresh to get a good FP or improve the one you had. So I am not sure G+ changes things much for most people in that regard.

The only way that would not be the case was for folks who booked their 3 FP+ passes ahead of time and just used those and did not look for more while at the park. Those people probably did exist and I would agree that is better than G+ where you have to keep hunting for FP throughout the day.

I agree that people really tend to forget how much complaining there was around FP+! Funny how that works. We've now experienced FP, FP+, and Genie/Genie+/ILL a number of times, and they all had good points and bad points. We were at WDW in early March during an unusually busy time period for us (based on the same timeframe in years past), and we had mixed success with G+. Some days it worked well, others it might not have been worth it. Some days we just skipped it and didn't pay. On the positive side, we found it worked best for us (this might not be the same for everyone) on days we park hopped and we could reserve LL later in the day. We truly believe the biggest negative around Genie+ (and something that probably won't be changing), and the biggest difference from FP+ is ILL. The top-tier attractions not being available as part of the Genie+ selections is completely different from FP+, and it makes G+ less valuable. If all the attractions were part of the G+ options, it would work better - probably much like the old MaxPass system used to at DL. But since Disney is getting $10-$20 per ride per person for ILL, it's not going away. It's only going to get more expensive. My concern with G+ is that they add more attractions to ILL. Guess we'll see.

 

[donaldanddaisy]

Has anyone used G+ for parade viewing? Wondering how it works and whether it might be worth it?