Any special considerations for making dining reservations w/rt Genie/Lightning/Fancy Rides/whatever else replaced FastPass?

[Beacon Joe]

I barely understand how the new ride line systems work. Actually, I'm not ashamed to say that I really have no bloody idea how the new line systems work in a practical sense.

In the recent past, we'd make our ADRs, then select FP+ ride times appropriately. Now we're making our ADRs and have no clue what implications there will be when it comes to ride lines and availability. What things, if any, should people consider when making ADRs nowadays?

 

[Kingoglow]

This is tough to answer because the every day is different and the in-park variables are always changing. Here is what I can tell you from my recent trip:

1) We made an ADR everyday of our vacation, but by the end of my eight day trip, I wished I had made less ADRs.
2) You don't need Genie+ every day of your vacation unless this is your once in a lifetime trip and you will never come back. I purchased Genie+ for one MK day and one HS day. I do not see any value in Genie+ for AK or Epcot.
3) In addition my Genie+ purchases I bought 1 ILL attraction (fancy ride) two different days (once at HS, once at AK). It had no issues enjoying everything I wanted to see at AK without Genie+, as I was able to purchase FoP. There is no need for Genie+ at Epcot.
4a) I tried both Genie+ strategies. For my MK day, I entered the park with Early Hours, knocked out three attractions, had Genie+ and my first LL selected for the 9 o'clock hour. Once the park opened, I ate breakfast and then hit my Genie+ ride and just began selecting my next ride and going there immediately. I had a great day.
4b) For my HS day, I bought Genie+ and ILL for Rise of the Resistance. I booked my first LL for MMRR at 11:30, then went back to sleep. I woke up after the park opened, got ready and ate at the resort. At 10, I was waiting for the bus while I selected my next LL for another afternoon time. I just checked back every two hours and booked the next thing. Both of these methods worked for what I wished to accomplish.
5) There is a point in the day when Genie+ attraction availability just dries up and disappears. You want to be sure that you feel like you got your money's worth out of the system before that. Disney says that the average guest is getting 3 attractions out of Genie+; I got many more than that. I would feel like only 3 attractions is not worth $15.
6) The most difficult part of the whole damn system, is trying to coordinate LL reservations around ADRs. It takes more focus than I would like (on a vacation) to remember when my ADRs are coming up and figure out my travel times on the fly, while refreshing the app to grab LL reservations. It is not easy to do. ADR's at hotels or another park will really call into question the value of purchasing Genie+ due to travel time.
7) I have heard reports of many people having to make a decision between losing value on their $15 Genie+ purchase or being charged the $10 no-show fee for missing an ADR. Guest Relations 'should' be able to help you with these overbooking issues, but it is not guaranteed.

The whole thing will be on you, the user, to manage while you are in the park. It is not a difficult system to figure out, but the whole Genie experience definitely complicates your day as well as adds a lot more stress than previous systems. You don't have any way to practice before hand other than watching and refreshing the tip board prior to your vacation, but I didn't find that it was that helpful.

On the other hand, I think you will be fine navigating the system once you start using it. You will hit some of the bumps that I mentioned above. Reconsider a few ADRs on days that you want to really use Genie+. Ultimately, don't let it stress you out. Enjoy your vacation!

 

[nickys]

I barely understand how the new ride line systems work. Actually, I'm not ashamed to say that I really have no bloody idea how the new line systems work in a practical sense.

In the recent past, we'd make our ADRs, then select FP+ ride times appropriately. Now we're making our ADRs and have no clue what implications there will be when it comes to ride lines and availability. What things, if any, should people consider when making ADRs nowadays?

If you book an ILL and the time clashes with an ADR, you can ask Guest Services to change the ILL time for you.

If you have a clash and can’t get to GS then you should go to your ADR and then go to the ride in question and show them the reservation and receipt.

This only works for ILLs. For LLs I think the onus is on you to schedule around your ADR. If there was a delay then you can always ask the CMs nicely if you can ride.

 

[Beacon Joe]

Thanks for the info. This sounds unpleasant.

Well, it looks like the question is moot for me anyway. The parks have zero reservations available for any restaurant at any park during our trip, at the 60 day mark. Except for Tiffin's, lol. That seems like a bad, bad sign.

Hopefully someone else can use this info.

 

[Beacon Joe]

6) The most difficult part of the whole damn system, is trying to coordinate LL reservations around ADRs. It takes more focus than I would like (on a vacation) to remember when my ADRs are coming up and figure out my travel times on the fly, while refreshing the app to grab LL reservations. It is not easy to do. ADR's at hotels or another park will really call into question the value of purchasing Genie+ due to travel time.
7) I have heard reports of many people having to make a decision between losing value on their $15 Genie+ purchase or being charged the $10 no-show fee for missing an ADR. Guest Relations 'should' be able to help you with these overbooking issues, but it is not guaranteed.

The whole thing will be on you, the user, to manage while you are in the park. It is not a difficult system to figure out, but the whole Genie experience definitely complicates your day as well as adds a lot more stress than previous systems. You don't have any way to practice before hand other than watching and refreshing the tip board prior to your vacation, but I didn't find that it was that helpful.

This is interesting. Based on what little I know (obviously) about the whole system and based on the snippets of advertising I've seen about Genie, I had assumed there was at least some fairly complicated modeling that went into how it builds a day's recommendations. But it sounds like what model or whatever that Genie relies on doesn't even factor in ADRs despite that data presumably being available to the Genie system?

Edit: $15? I thought Genie was free?

 

[RememberWhen]

This is interesting. Based on what little I know (obviously) about the whole system and based on the snippets of advertising I've seen about Genie, I had assumed there was at least some fairly complicated modeling that went into how it builds a day's recommendations. But it sounds like what model or whatever that Genie relies on doesn't even factor in ADRs despite that data presumably being available to the Genie system?

Edit: $15? I thought Genie was free?

Genie is free, but pointless. Genie+, basically paid fast pass, is $15 per person per day.

 

[RememberWhen]

Thanks for the info. This sounds unpleasant.

Well, it looks like the question is moot for me anyway. The parks have zero reservations available for any restaurant at any park during our trip, at the 60 day mark. Except for Tiffin's, lol. That seems like a bad, bad sign.

Hopefully someone else can use this info.

What are your dates? I’m surprised there’s nothing available. We were able to find lots of availability for our July trip at 60 days.

 

[RememberWhen]

What are your dates? I’m surprised there’s nothing available. We were able to find lots of availability for our July trip at 60 days.

I just checked for July 17, Party of 4, and there are tons of options for lunch or dinner in the parks. Do you have a very large group?

 

[Beacon Joe]

What are your dates? I’m surprised there’s nothing available. We were able to find lots of availability for our July trip at 60 days.

Thanks for asking. Some restaurants opened for reservations much later in the day. And more opened up by the end of that week. So much for the whole 60+10 days from check-in at 0545 / 0600 ADR rule of thumb, I guess.

So either customers were booking everything under the sun and then cancelling a few days later... or 60+10 is no longer in effect, because I noticed as the week progressed that restaurants became available in the system (both online and on the app) at exactly 60 days from the desired reservation date.

Did one more perk of staying on site get silently removed or something?

I just checked for July 17, Party of 4, and there are tons of options for lunch or dinner in the parks. Do you have a very large group?

So weird. Same check in date for us, same party size. And a few reservations that we're splitting for 2 person reservations at different restaurants.

You were presented with restaurant openings for all week when you checked on 5/18? I checked every 15 minutes on 5/18 and then obsessively every hour for the next few days. One restaurant became available on at some point later in the day when I first started trying. Nothing else opened up for me until later in the week and then finally this past Sunday. Bizarre. Now I blame Disney's awful IT platforms and ongoing customer data integration problems that have plagued both my and my wife's accounts.

 

[nickys]

Thanks for asking. Some restaurants opened for reservations much later in the day. And more opened up by the end of that week. So much for the whole 60+10 days from check-in at 0545 / 0600 ADR rule of thumb, I guess.

So either customers were booking everything under the sun and then cancelling a few days later... or 60+10 is no longer in effect, because I noticed as the week progressed that restaurants became available in the system (both online and on the app) at exactly 60 days from the desired reservation date.

Did one more perk of staying on site get silently removed or something?



So weird. Same check in date for us, same party size. And a few reservations that we're splitting for 2 person reservations at different restaurants.

You were presented with restaurant openings for all week when you checked on 5/18? I checked every 15 minutes on 5/18 and then obsessively every hour for the next few days. One restaurant became available on at some point later in the day when I first started trying. Nothing else opened up for me until later in the week and then finally this past Sunday. Bizarre. Now I blame Disney's awful IT platforms and ongoing customer data integration problems that have plagued both my and my wife's accounts.

The length of stay is still in effect.

Do you have a split stay? Because if so, each reservation has its own booking window.

But just like before, there are times when some restaurants don’t have reservations loaded on time. Also July is when the Garden Rocks festival is on, and Epcot restaurants are holding back capacity for the special dining packages. Added to which some DS restaurants don’t follow the WDW 60+10 timelines.

 

[RememberWhen]

Thanks for asking. Some restaurants opened for reservations much later in the day. And more opened up by the end of that week. So much for the whole 60+10 days from check-in at 0545 / 0600 ADR rule of thumb, I guess.

So either customers were booking everything under the sun and then cancelling a few days later... or 60+10 is no longer in effect, because I noticed as the week progressed that restaurants became available in the system (both online and on the app) at exactly 60 days from the desired reservation date.

Did one more perk of staying on site get silently removed or something?



So weird. Same check in date for us, same party size. And a few reservations that we're splitting for 2 person reservations at different restaurants.

You were presented with restaurant openings for all week when you checked on 5/18? I checked every 15 minutes on 5/18 and then obsessively every hour for the next few days. One restaurant became available on at some point later in the day when I first started trying. Nothing else opened up for me until later in the week and then finally this past Sunday. Bizarre. Now I blame Disney's awful IT platforms and ongoing customer data integration problems that have plagued both my and my wife's accounts.

No, I was just checking the furthest out that I could see. Our stay is earlier. 7/7-16. So I couldn’t see anything past the 17th. But there was a lot of availability showing for that one date.

Have you been able to get the places you wanted? Our only issue was a not great time for storybook dining (party of 4) at Wilderness Lodge on our arrival day. I’m hoping to find something a bit later, but we can eat early if nothing opens up.

I think there was a different thread that mentioned the Epcot food festival starts up around your arrival. Maybe that is making problems for you if you’re looking at Epcot heavy restaurants.

 

[Beacon Joe]

Thanks for the info. I hadn't considered Food & Wine's impact, but we're only in EPCOT for one day and eventually got our desired reservations. Surprisingly enough several slots for Space 220 eventually appeared, coincidentally 60 days prior to the desired reservation date. Also not a split stay. I eventually secured reservations for everything we wanted. It just took a week to do so, which was a new experience.

Now that I think about it, back in 2019 or 2018, I couldn't book dining reservations online at -60 days from check-in and had to call during my commute to make them for the days after check-in. But back then the whole week was still greyed out on the site, while this year the week was blue and searchable, but no results would appear. Who knows what the heck was going on.

 

[RememberWhen]

Thanks for the info. I hadn't considered Food & Wine's impact, but we're only in EPCOT for one day and eventually got our desired reservations. Surprisingly enough several slots for Space 220 eventually appeared, coincidentally 60 days prior to the desired reservation date. Also not a split stay. I eventually secured reservations for everything we wanted. It just took a week to do so, which was a new experience.

Now that I think about it, back in 2019 or 2018, I couldn't book dining reservations online at -60 days from check-in and had to call during my commute to make them for the days after check-in. But back then the whole week was still greyed out on the site, while this year the week was blue and searchable, but no results would appear. Who knows what the heck was going on.

Really weird. I’m glad you were able to get what you want.

I think the food and wine impact would be for restaurants that are part of the eat to the beat package. It seems like they hold back times for those, but it sounds like that wasn’t impacting your adrs.