GeniePlus Pitfalls! You MUST memorize PASSWORD and link HOTEL to app

Freddie Bicknese

New Member
Original Poster
We recently went to WDW and had a bad experience with the Individual Lightening Lanes. Despite reading many helpful tips on this forum and elsewhere I did not know that at 7am when you try to make an ILL purchase quickly, before it is sold out by 701 am, the app will ask you for your app PASSWORD. I didn't know mine and the app never had asked for it when booking restaurants with a credit card. It took me 1 minute to get a temporary one and that was enough to cost us Rise of the Resistance. We're not waiting in a 3 hour line for anything.

But that's not the only mishap. I had also failed to LINK my HOTEL reservation to the app properly. The Experian confirmation number isn't what you need. I had to get it from the Dolphin front desk. You need to be staying at an on-property hotel to book an ILL at 7am, which I didn't know despite all my research, so we missed out on Avatar due to that. By the time I got the number and linked it to the app, sold out.

In addition, if you have an Android phone there is a glitch in the Genie app that prevents you from cancelling LL reservations for some attractions. So make sure you have an Apple user in your group.

Also bring a PORTABLE battery as you need the app all day and will run out of battery.

Finally look for the few rides that offer Single Rider entry. If it wasn't for that we wouldn't have been able to do Smugglers Run.

Genie Plus is worth the money, yes, because you will skip a few lines. But you won't have a perfect day or skip the best ride lines unless you get all these details right. Like life, expect some disappointment and frustration and you will be just happy enough.

Disney instead should create a lottery like system where people are assigned ride times days or weeks before their visit. This takes the stress and competition out of vacation. Having to wake up at 6 on each vacation day to try to get everything perfect at exactly 7:00:00 am, and then being crushed when my one little oversight delayed me by a few seconds and caused me to miss the two best rides, just about spoiled the trip for me. It felt like a math test where if you get a 99 out of 100 you fail.

I am writing this for this forum rather than contact Disney because I know they won't care what I say, but maybe this can help the readers navigate this needlessly treacherous system and have as magical a trip as possible.
-Freddie Bicknese
 

lukacseven

Well-Known Member
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. WDW Swan and Dolphin can be misleading, as they are not technically WDW Resort Hotels and do not include the benefits of staying "on proprty." So, that would be the explanation for why the room key and the 7:00 am selections would not work. I just back and had no issues. We stayed at CSR and I did a password save on the app with face recognition. If you log into the app at 6:58-6:59 AM and keep scrolling to refresh, when it hits 7:00 you can go straight to the attraction and reserve an ILL followed by a LL or 2 LL selections to start the day. Resort hotels also offer 30 minute early entry. We had no issues with the magic bands and the room and did online check-in through MDE. I have had issues in the past with magic bands not linking to room entry and park tickets, but not this stay, but that was prior to the MDE app.
 

nickys

Premium Member
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. WDW Swan and Dolphin can be misleading, as they are not technically WDW Resort Hotels and do not include the benefits of staying "on proprty." So, that would be the explanation for why the room key and the 7:00 am selections would not work. I just back and had no issues. We stayed at CSR and I did a password save on the app with face recognition. If you log into the app at 6:58-6:59 AM and keep scrolling to refresh, when it hits 7:00 you can go straight to the attraction and reserve an ILL followed by a LL or 2 LL selections to start the day. Resort hotels also offer 30 minute early entry. We had no issues with the magic bands and the room and did online check-in through MDE. I have had issues in the past with magic bands not linking to room entry and park tickets, but not this stay, but that was prior to the MDE app.
This isn’t actually true. The Swan and Dolphin get all the perks that onsite resorts do, other than using magic bands to charge to the room.

To link a reservation to MDE you do need a Disney reservation number, and there are sometimes issues with reservations becoming unlinked. The front desk at those resorts can help with issues and the best way to make sure you’re all set is to check the night before so you have time to ask for help.
 

correcaminos

Well-Known Member
I do a thumbprint and face recognition to make sure log ins go quickly. We find that for quick processing like BGs that android wins over iphones every single time. So good to have a mix. No issues with glitches on our end with androids but we have both. Also the guest experience people can fix if you do run into issues.

Sorry about the issues with linking though. I've heard mixed bag on linking from Swalphin in the past. Wish they'd make it easier for most.
 

Register on WDWMAGIC. This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.

Back
Top Bottom