been a week or so since I'm back from marathon weekend. I was afraid to check this thread in case it was like 30 pages to catch up on, but not too bad.
I used genie plus a few days on my trip and found it sometimes incredibly frustrating and sometimes incredibly useful. Parks were mobbed every day I went there, with a few days showing on the TP Lines app as 10s. So this not a time to assume you could just ride everything you want via standby.
As far as the app goes and paying for things, it just didn't work. I was unable to purchase ILL or G+ myself at all. This may have been an issue with my older phone and app, but the technology was not working. On the day of my flight out I tried to purchase around 3am just before I headed to the airport and was basically just told via chat to try after 7 in case it didn't recognize my lodging yet. At 7 nope, at 9 nope. So I just went and did my race pickup stuff before heading to DHS in the afternoon. There I checked with blue tent and they were not able to give me any useful information, and went to GS who had me submit an app trouble ticket but couldn't find anything wrong with my account. At 4pm I wasn't paying for this, so I had to wait til the next day. Thankfully they told me that if there is an issue, Guest Services at the front desk of the resort could handle it for me.
Now I'd be up at 3 or 4 and heading down to GCH (Poly) for race buses anyway, so I stopped there after my app wouldn't work and they added Genie+ for me. This was another DHS day so I wouuld check it out at 7a to see what's available after the 5k. In about 10 seconds the slinky dog times were late in the day, and after about 2 they were gone. I had no interest in this as intended to do a Space 220 lounge time in the evening and would rather not ride than go that route. However, after a few more minutes it seemed they released more inventory and I picked up a slinky for 1 something. Keep in mind that it'll show you the return time before you accept it, so if you don't like it just cancel and try again. You may wish you kept the time but I'd rather not have to deal with cancellation time later if a good time came up.
1/6 - I was able to get to DHS for just after 8:30 even after the race so I went to GS and purchased a 12ish MMRR and 5:30ish 7DMT, then walked on ToT (one elevator wait) and then short wait at TSMM since the park was open already. Line was really long and scary but not too bad. Hit SWGE for a ronto wrap and was going to do ST but saw that Baseline Tap House was open early. Baseline really was not as good as I expected but that's outside the scope of this discussion. 11am I added a G+ for PPF at MK and then did Muppets and started towards my other DHS passes. Knocked out MMRR and Slinky, and rested/unpacked a bit at hotel. The later into MK and did a few rides there. I didn't keep track of everything but was able to use G+ to hit a few rides and then catch the new evening show.
1/7 - same crap with G+ again, hotel bought for me. After race but before 9 I purchased a LL for Frozen as an anchor point. This was going to be a DAK day with a hop to epcot, and if G+ is useful in the non-mk parks it's most useful to hop. Didn't get there for park open or early entry, but had myself an 9:40ish NRJ. Got caught between my first scan and my 2 hour window at 10 and lost valuable time trying to book safari for afternoon. Checked with blue tent and they didn't even offer to help adjust times lost due to the app saying I wasn't yet eligible for return. I had to restart everything to get it functioning. At least at this point I know they are mostly useless other than to try and teach people how to use the app. Many people having trouble with the app and figuring out how to do these things. Anyway I found an 11:30sih safari later and got rid of the crappy one I was holding. Opened up Pizzafari, poor choice, then watched Kitetails, rode safari, and went to Dinoland to play some games. Dino LL were too late in the day so I walked over to the bird show and enjoyed that.
Skipped over to Epcot to check out the world showcase and creatioins/club cool. Frozen was down so I wandered a bit until it came back up and then used that. Everything was mobbed at this point and I figured I should rest before the half. Could have gotten a pass for the less popular things and even a late Soarin, but I didn't bother.
1/8. The usual G+ thing at the hotel, only now I need to get to the monorail for the race start, so it's really in the way walking over there instead of right to the TTC. Scored late lunch at Skipper from the parking lot after the half. Then checked at hotel when I got back and was able to get another 7dmt for mid afternoon. This MK day was another 10, and I didn't even get there until 10:30. So this kind of late start would normally doom my day, and this is where it showed Genie+ at it's best. Had a 9:50 Pooh and just made it in there. Grabbed a HM after swiping in and proceeded to IASW for standby. Then did HM LL, got and went to Buzz LL, watched MILF, Next was speedway standby, although we stopped at speedway before unload for at least 5 mins with no indication what it was for. Did BTMR LL and then lunch. So within 3 hours of a late arrival with a forecast of 10, I had already done 4 lightning lanes on Genie plus. Now if I had tried for PPF or JC I would have been on a later cycle with the 2 hour refreshes, so some of this is strategy. After lunch I did my 7DMT ILL and then a LL for the camel spi(tt)er. Also during this time I stacked a Splash pass so I did that, treehouse, watched cavalcade, and waited to meet Mickey on my way out. Left by 6pm to rest up a bit, but was finally happy with Genie (though really just at the one place it's very useful).
1/9. Didn't bother with Genie+ this day as I was likely to only go to epcot, and I didn't need to ride anything else that bad. Had a good day even though it was pretty full. Got to check out the Jammitors out front and the seas without really much of a wait. Mexico ride was way too long for me so I didn't bother there. This was my last time at the Space 220 lounge and I got the "full" lunch. I had to attempt running there as I was nearly 20 mins late, though I brought the dopey medal to hope they took pity on me. They did thankfully, as when I was late a day or two before due to a delay on Soarin the girl at the desk tried to send me packing without waiving the no show fee. Didn't really do much this day and Genie plus would have been a waste.
1/10 - check out day. I didn't even pack up really the night before so I was having troubule getting my stuff done before leaving Poly. Did go to the front desk to purchase Genie+, though this time it was like 6:45 and there was a huge line of people who just couldn't use the app or get anything to work. I did get to someone by just about 7 and he wasted 2 minutes trying to troubleshoot when I told him that I'd already done this dance 3 times. Ultimately got out of there and then back to the room. Best I could do a few mins late was 9:40ish HM.
By the time I got everything down to the front desk and got over to MK, the lines were long to get in. This day was supposed to be a 6, but it looked as full in the early time as it did when I showed up around 10:30 on Saturday. They also opened the park a few mins early so I was competing with everyone right at 9. Ran to PPF and got in line about 9:02 when the sign said 50. I know nobody uses their 9a passes right away so I figured it'd be about 20-25. Splash was being refurbed or I'd have done that again first. Went to HM and they wouldn't let me in early, so I did the Ariel ride and then back to HM. Grabbed FP for carpets again after that, and then for Dumbo. In dumbo I managed to score a 10:50 or so Pooh, so I knocked out one last ride and hit the monorail to go back to Poly. I had an 11:50 mears bus and made it with about 15 mins to spare. Still managed 4 passes and 2 standby in just over 2 hours, though I have years of FP+ training to help me navigate all the potential pitfalls. Again it shows that MK is by far the easiest place to have a good day with G+. Now I have an AP so for me to wander in for 2 hours costs me nothing extra. No way I'm paying a gate charge and then the 15 for a couple hours, but I found the money worth it on this day to just do a little bit. If it were my whole family there I'd have just gone to the park for a couple standy rides and not bothered with G+ on this day.
More or less I think there are a lot of places this app and the process can be improved, but the "next available" concept cuts down on some of the searching here. And having to cancel/rebook instead of modify makes people more likely to just hold what they have instead of potentially screwing something else up.
I also was able to easily just wait a few minutes at 7am for times to get later so as to start stacking for the afternoon. This is especially useful if you want to hop to MK later and just ride one or two things with G+ in the morning at a different park. And being able to have overlapping windows is a huge help to me based on how I like to plan out my day.
That being said, it should be a lot easier for people to throw their money at Disney. Once the app says no, many people will just forget about it and not spend the money. Then when they also can't get on rides because of the LL taking up a lot of the throughput, they get doubly ed off. There is danger here if they aren't careful.
The other thing I noticed is people getting out of lines at times to walk to the LL entrance when asked if they had a genie+ for that ride. You'd think based on fastpass that people would know these are reservations, but they went out of their way to say that it's more flexible and easy than Fastpass and rebrand everything. Therefore it is unnecessarily confusing to the customers.
