Disney Genie and Genie+ at Walt Disney World

[Patcheslee]

I don’t think there’s any one time of day that would please everyone in regards to booking time. If they let you choose a return time however, I think that would satisfy most people. I used Genie solo back in January and that was one of my biggest peeve. My other biggest annoyance was just randomly being booted out or the screen freezing during those first few precious minutes at 7am.

Wonder if it's possible to create an app that would tie into the Genie+ and book for people. Say select the attractions and possibly 2hr time ranges that would be acceptable for each, priority, and it do the rest. Pretty much let a computer go the refresh routine.

 

[mikejs78]

Wonder if it's possible to create an app that would tie into the Genie+ and book for people. Say select the attractions and possibly 2hr time ranges that would be acceptable for each, priority, and it do the rest. Pretty much let a computer go the refresh routine.

Pretty sure Disney would shut down any program that did stuff automatically like that...

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

But it wasn't a slow day at EP. It wasn't a slow week/day anywhere that week. Standby lines were very long for most rides. I got GoTG, Remy, Soarin, and TT on a second day that week...stacking them for afternoon because we didn't feel the need to do rope drop. I don't think my experience is all that rare (I've seen plenty of other people accomplish the same or better this summer -- prior to mid-August.). I think some people either don't understand the logistics of G+ (I've seen lots of posts where people think if you book a 4:00 return time for something at 7:00 a.m. that you can't book another LL until after you tap in at that ride...among other things) or they're trying too hard to make everything "perfect" and constantly wishing that FP would return. That's a lot of wasted energy.

Also, it's not difficult to book FOP & Safari on the same day as one is ILL and the other is LL. Easy to get both at 7:00 a.m.

Maybe the thing that helped me is that we don't plan to do many ADRs during our trips (we have far better restaurants at home...but that's a whole different thread) and this past trip we ended up not planning any because we wanted to focus on making up for lost time on the rides. We also don't have young children (all of our kids are 17 and older) which means we don't have to be concerned with sleep schedules. So we have nothing that we need to plan around -- we can very much go with the flow.

I'm sorry that not every one is successful with G+. I was just sharing my experience to show that it *is* possible to use G+ effectively during a busy time (I'm not talking about holiday weeks) because it seems like only negative experiences get shared and believed.

I agree having no ADR's and maximum (schedule) flexibility are ways to be more successful with G+ (and ILL's, BG), and that we should use this forum to discuss both the good and bad of the new pass system. For now, it is what it is, so we should figure out how to work with it (or work around it).

We need a shorthand term that covers all 3! G+/ILL/BG is annoying to type out. Can I call it "FP3"?

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

My post was in response to this line:



It’s clear that not everyone does know that. I had no way of knowing if you did or not. It read to me that you thought getting both was the lottery.

I thought you'd read enough of my posts to remember me. My bad.

Vying for G+, ILL's and Boarding Groups are somewhat all the same. They are all a kind of gamble. It is a lot like playing a slot machine.

Or perhaps I should liken it to the carnival games in AK's Dinoland. If you win, you can keep the small prize, or players can keep playing in hopes of winning the bigger stuffed animal at $5 a pop. With G+, gamblers might get a better time, or they might get an even less preferred return time.

When I got a low number boarding group, it strongly made me think of an electronic slot machine. And that was back when I was vying for a Rise BG, back in 2019.

Now getting passes resembles gambling/gaming even more than it did back then.

 

[G00fyDad]

Wonder if it's possible to create an app that would tie into the Genie+ and book for people. Say select the attractions and possibly 2hr time ranges that would be acceptable for each, priority, and it do the rest. Pretty much let a computer go the refresh routine.

Great. You just gave them the idea to add a bot detector to the app. Now we will have to click "I'm not a robot" check box and choose all the crosswalks, busses, boats, or Mickeys. (/sarcasm)

 

[nickys]

Wonder if it's possible to create an app that would tie into the Genie+ and book for people. Say select the attractions and possibly 2hr time ranges that would be acceptable for each, priority, and it do the rest. Pretty much let a computer go the refresh routine.

I believe someone has tried this.
But it got a lot of kick back because you have to give the app your MDE log-in details. That made it a no-no for everyone I saw discussing it.

 

[G00fyDad]

I believe someone has tried this.
But it got a lot of kick back because you have to give the app your MDE log-in details. That made it a no-no for everyone I saw discussing it.

At least one person out there has it then. The person that wrote the program.

 

[co10064]

Reiterating what has already been said here... but I think Genie+ is only worth it if you're an infrequent visitor who plans on being at one theme park from open to close, AND if you purchase it with the expectation that you will likely only get 3 true headliner rides for the whole day and maybe 2 more minor attractions.

This trip I had a much better experience with Genie+ than during my last visit in February. I suspect it is because the parks were less crowded this time (though the parks were still much busier than I expected for September).

I still think they need to update the app to hold the return time you see on the tip board instead of sometimes randomly shaking it up.

Oh, and the modification process should be easier. Even if I can't select my desired return time, I would prefer to not have to delete my current Lightning Lane before taking a chance and changing it to something else.

 

[G00fyDad]

Another thing... some rides are clearly giving out too many Lightning Lanes. At the Magic Kingdom for example (the one park best suited for Genie+ because of its "plethora" of attractions), Peter Pan should not be seeing 200 guests go for every 1 party from stand-by. And yes, I counted.

Last thing... I wouldn't waste my purchase on this at Animal Kingdom unless I was park hopping somewhere else that night.

200 to 1? You actually expect us to believe you counted 200 people for every 1 standby guest? Okay.

 

[Purduevian]

Wonder if it's possible to create an app that would tie into the Genie+ and book for people. Say select the attractions and possibly 2hr time ranges that would be acceptable for each, priority, and it do the rest. Pretty much let a computer go the refresh routine.

I kinda wonder if there's a market for a virtual "tour guide" of sorts. Pay someone a certain amount of money to manage your groups G+ reservations remotely. You could text/call them to keep them updated on plans/ tap ins. They can play the refresh game for you.

I actually kind of did this once with my sister in the FP+ days. I was bored at home and she would say she was tapping into Tot. I would get her a basically instant RnRc by the time she was off the ride. Sometimes she would get to re-ride the same ride twice back to back (impossible now I know)

Edit: also today is the first day G+ has sold out! (Everyone stay safe down there)

 

[Stevie Amsterdam]

Edit: also today is the first day G+ has sold out! (Everyone stay safe down there)

I could be mistaken due to the time difference, but aren't the parks closed today and tomorrow? Could that be the reason why Genie+ appears to be sold out, as in 'not available for purchase'?

 

[mikejs78]

Another thing... some rides are clearly giving out too many Lightning Lanes. At the Magic Kingdom for example (the one park best suited for Genie+ because of its "plethora" of attractions), Peter Pan should not be seeing 200 guests go for every 1 party from stand-by. And yes, I counted.

Last thing... I wouldn't waste my purchase on this at Animal Kingdom unless I was park hopping somewhere else that night.

When was this?

 

[anchorman314]

Yeah actually... the party ahead of us was just a single rider and they quite literally let her go and held us after 200 people went thru the lightning lane. But pop off I guess

We didn't move for like 4 minutes.

Funny story time. I was in WDW at the beginning of May. We got in line for Peter Pan when the wait said 45 minutes. 45 minutes later, we hadn't made it into the bedroom yet, but we figured we had already committed, so we forged on. Shortly after that, one member of my party decided to leave the line and wait for the rest of us outside. He also started observing the merge and told us it was something along the lines of 1 standby party for every 12 or so LL parties. By the time we got into the final standby hallway (about 2 hours after getting in line), we could see that it was indeed moving by only 1 party every 5 or so minutes. When we saw a single rider 2 parties ahead of us get taken as the only person from the standby line, after the CM had taken him up to the merge point, another member of my people jokingly said out loud "we should just say we have 15 people". Everyone laughed. When the CM came back and asked how many in the next party, the family of 3 in front of us said 15! The CM said "hmm, ok", looked around the corner, and when it was time for the next standby party, all 15 members of our "family" walked up to the merge point. 'Ohana!

 

[Vacationeer]

I could be mistaken due to the time difference, but aren't the parks closed today and tomorrow? Could that be the reason why Genie+ appears to be sold out, as in 'not available for purchase'?

I’m curious too.

No other mentions about G+ selling out on Tues Sept 27, the last day WDW parks were open before the Hurricane Ian closure.

 

[Purduevian]

I could be mistaken due to the time difference, but aren't the parks closed today and tomorrow? Could that be the reason why Genie+ appears to be sold out, as in 'not available for purchase'?

Yes, I was just making a joke. I know when Disney stopped letting people pre-buy G+ there was a fear that you would have to stay up until midnight to buy G+ (before it sold out) then wake up at 7am to book the first LL. As far as I know G+ has never sold out... Although yesterday/today are the first 2 days that people were unable to buy G+ aka "sold out".

 

[co10064]

When was this?

This past Monday at about 3pm or so.

 

[crazy4disney]

Im
Not saying this is made up or not but this is definitely not the norm for any ride. Only chance this has to being true is if the ride was down & they were trying to play catch for a short time. But im a betting man & would wager this does not happen often if ever…

 

[Hawg G]

I looked around 1230am, and it said G+ not availabke for the day.

 

[CAV]

Disney spent a billion dollars on the system. They use the latest technology, algorithms, wifi, Bluetooth, cellular service and more. However, the failure point is a $15 dollar a xxxx hour college student controlling the merge point.

 

[Stevie Amsterdam]

$15 dollar a year

Now now, things aren't that bad.