Is there anyone who has gone recently that did not purchase Genie+ at all and would care to share their experience with me? Still trying to sort through all the options. If it helps our trip is our going to have two people, just me and my wife.
On the flip side can anyone tell me their experience if it caused you to be on your phone a lot during the day with Genie+? I'm not too hung up on the $30 it would cost us, it's more so I don't want to have to be on my phone a lot. Call me old fashioned but I think that is really where my problem boils down to
Semi-recent.
We did not buy G+ for Epcot. I did buy ILL for Rat in Epcot. My experience might not match others though...it took over an hour to get my ticket at GS for some reason, and that was a mid-day arrival. That was also during Flower Fest though, so I accepted sampling of a few foods was going to be part of our day. The park looked nice, but the topiaries weren't quite as exciting as prior years.
Rat, TT, and Soarin' had solid waits. Next day, we arrived for EE- but Epcot opened a few min before it was officially supposed to open- AND my ticket did not work, so we got held up a bit. By the time we got to Rat on 2nd day, wait was pretty long. I think we waited about 45-50, which is not something we'd normally do. Curiously, that was also extra hours night in Epcot. So we rode Rat a third time that night and only waited like 5-10minutes! Again, say the PM 2 extra hours were the best part of going to WDW right now. (Only stayed deluxe the min nights we needed.)
Otherwise, Imagination had some wait, but probably only 10-15min. Soarin' had a decent wait during reg park hours. For TT, we now mostly do single rider. I don't care about designing a car. In the morning, SE had a wait, but nothing when we went on it. Nemo was walk-on. the first day, we made a point of seeing Harmonious. I agree with what others have said. Illuminations was long-overdue for an update, but Harmonious is not a great replacement. The prior fireworks could be seen form whole lagoon and beyond. Now much of the show is like the one at Universal in that if you can't see the screen, you miss most of it. The music also isn't as cohesive. It was okay, but not a must-see like prior shows were. (Illuminations/Wishes/HappilyEA)
When we did use G+, I did a little refreshing. Taking the first G+ you see is often a mistake- except if you get SDD or GGCRewind. If you get either of those, book INSTANTLY.
Before your visit, play around with G+. That will give you a baseline of how G+ offerings jump around, and trends of how quickly waits grow. Though you can't really trust what you see, it at least gives you a baseline. when you actually go to book, times jumpt way more than that.
With FP+, you could book, then modify. So it paid to keep looing. With G+, if you don't book, refreshing sometimes = watching times slip further and further away from you. It is a bit of a sinking feeling
