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Post by reblzmom on Jun 26, 2023 18:52:29 GMT -5
We have yet to use, or need it. I realize that others do want/need it. In that case, it seems best to figure out how to make it work rather than complaining, which ain't gonna do nothing. For us, it's an irrelevance, so I don't need to game it. Cheers. Bingo. As usual, whining/complaining is useless. There you go making sense,,,,, |
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Post by helenabear on Jun 26, 2023 21:09:59 GMT -5
Did you ever play bus roulette? Always.....and still do!
Our Labor Day Weekend trip will have a few of those park days.....First bus is the Park we will visit.
There are times I wish I didn't hesitate about a certain club LOL Did you ever play bus roulette? I don't know that we ever did, but we did often change our minds at the bus stop if we noticed there was a huge party with ill-behaved children going to the park we wanted to go - we would just sit while they boarded and then say, "How about Hollywood?" Or a couple times waiting for what seemed like an eternity for the bus going to wherever you wanted to go, and saying "hell with this" and getting on a different bus instead. That all makes sense. I didn't do it often but if we missed a bus for something we'd often just take next bus. Now we do plan more but some of it is out of necessity and not Disney forced. We have yet to use, or need it. I realize that others do want/need it. In that case, it seems best to figure out how to make it work rather than complaining, which ain't gonna do nothing. For us, it's an irrelevance, so I don't need to game it. Cheers. Bingo. As usual, whining/complaining is useless. This is so true! I actually decided to use it in June. Glad I did. We opted to change how we did some stuff which took out my free time to try to see friends in the area on the weekend  but it worked. I am trying to adjust to new realities and G+ actually did work for my immediate party. Not all the time but I'm not a total hater now...... oops. Still wish they had an AP add on so we could just get it if AP with X amount extra a year. |
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Post by rowrbazzle on Jul 7, 2023 13:45:45 GMT -5
I just got back today from Disney. I paid $23 or 24 daily for Genie+. We hit 2 parks on the same day 3 times. I would say this change is probably a wash or a little more expensive based on our habits. Pretty typical of the direction Disney has been heading. To all the anti-Genie+ folks out there, I get it. They did away with FP and rebranded it so they could charge for it. It does make me angry. However, I just paid for it for 6 days. And each day I paid for a premium ride LL, sometimes two. This is for a family of six, so I shelled out over $1,000 total for it. Many would call that ridiculous, but I loosely tracked wait times and how long we waited with our LLs. (The only standbys we did the entire trip were during extra hours after 11PM on Barnstormer and Dumbo). I estimate that we saved 4 hours each day, and that is probably a light estimate. That is 24 hours saved on this trip. That is like 2-3 park days worth of time. I spent ~$2,500 on airfare. I paid $6,800 on annual passes. I spend $3,000 on annual DVC dues (not to mention the tens of thousands on the contracts themselves). And food/snacks/souvenirs! I may be a spoiled jerk and have, in turn, spoiled the DW and DKs. But we couldn't Disney like we do without it. And I feel like it enhances the trip so much that I can't not do it. And the cost is honestly a drop in the Disney $ bin. Again, I would be happy to go back to the old system. But we did average 7 LLs daily versus the 3 we used to get. Call me crazy, dumb, or wasteful, but the math works for me. (And to be crystal clear, the new system still makes me mad)  Edit - I read through the comments on this topic. There probably is nobody on here who plans out rides any more than I do. Our family loves riding rides. I set the alarm for 6:55AM every day on the trip, then set an alarm for the next time I can schedule a LL. My family (besides me) like to sleep in and hit the parks starting around Noon. I usually have 4 LLs stacked up by the time we enter the park and add 2-3 more while we are there. It takes good scheduling and knowing which rides run out first to get them stacked up properly. I am sure I am not offering any new ideas. I realize some would definitely balk at the time and effort spent doing this when we are supposed to be "relaxing" on our vacation. It used to feel like that, but after doing it enough it has become routine. And the early alarm makes it easier for me to get up and run in the mornings. It has also become a challenge to schedule the perfect day (catching all the different rides everyone wants in an order conducive to the geography of the park and spacing well enough to grab snacks, rest, or catch a parade in-between). After reading that, I am starting to re-evaluate my mental health.  I'm curious about your Genie+ strategy. We're a family of 5 and tried using it a couple different days - at Magic and Hollywood. This was early in the Genie+ days so perhaps we just did it poorly. But it simply didn't work well for us. Not even considering the price, we just didn't get nearly as much done compared to the days of Fastpass+. I'd really like to hear how you approach it, though. On our last trip we spent a lot more time in line than I would've liked. It has me reconsidering my anti-Genie+ stance, but I'm also concerned I'll wind up "doing it wrong" and not get many rides with it. Got any advice? |
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Post by nickys on Jul 7, 2023 14:46:40 GMT -5
I just got back today from Disney. I paid $23 or 24 daily for Genie+. We hit 2 parks on the same day 3 times. I would say this change is probably a wash or a little more expensive based on our habits. Pretty typical of the direction Disney has been heading. To all the anti-Genie+ folks out there, I get it. They did away with FP and rebranded it so they could charge for it. It does make me angry. However, I just paid for it for 6 days. And each day I paid for a premium ride LL, sometimes two. This is for a family of six, so I shelled out over $1,000 total for it. Many would call that ridiculous, but I loosely tracked wait times and how long we waited with our LLs. (The only standbys we did the entire trip were during extra hours after 11PM on Barnstormer and Dumbo). I estimate that we saved 4 hours each day, and that is probably a light estimate. That is 24 hours saved on this trip. That is like 2-3 park days worth of time. I spent ~$2,500 on airfare. I paid $6,800 on annual passes. I spend $3,000 on annual DVC dues (not to mention the tens of thousands on the contracts themselves). And food/snacks/souvenirs! I may be a spoiled jerk and have, in turn, spoiled the DW and DKs. But we couldn't Disney like we do without it. And I feel like it enhances the trip so much that I can't not do it. And the cost is honestly a drop in the Disney $ bin. Again, I would be happy to go back to the old system. But we did average 7 LLs daily versus the 3 we used to get. Call me crazy, dumb, or wasteful, but the math works for me. (And to be crystal clear, the new system still makes me mad) Edit - I read through the comments on this topic. There probably is nobody on here who plans out rides any more than I do. Our family loves riding rides. I set the alarm for 6:55AM every day on the trip, then set an alarm for the next time I can schedule a LL. My family (besides me) like to sleep in and hit the parks starting around Noon. I usually have 4 LLs stacked up by the time we enter the park and add 2-3 more while we are there. It takes good scheduling and knowing which rides run out first to get them stacked up properly. I am sure I am not offering any new ideas. I realize some would definitely balk at the time and effort spent doing this when we are supposed to be "relaxing" on our vacation. It used to feel like that, but after doing it enough it has become routine. And the early alarm makes it easier for me to get up and run in the mornings. It has also become a challenge to schedule the perfect day (catching all the different rides everyone wants in an order conducive to the geography of the park and spacing well enough to grab snacks, rest, or catch a parade in-between). After reading that, I am starting to re-evaluate my mental health. I'm curious about your Genie+ strategy. We're a family of 5 and tried using it a couple different days - at Magic and Hollywood. This was early in the Genie+ days so perhaps we just did it poorly. But it simply didn't work well for us. Not even considering the price, we just didn't get nearly as much done compared to the days of Fastpass+. I'd really like to hear how you approach it, though. On our last trip we spent a lot more time in line than I would've liked. It has me reconsidering my anti-Genie+ stance, but I'm also concerned I'll wind up "doing it wrong" and not get many rides with it. Got any advice? It makes a big difference now that you can modify the times. That was maybe a change that’s happened since you used it? If our priority was Milenium Falcon I would book that at 7am. If the return time was earlier than we wanted then I would check again in 30 minutes or an hour and then modify our return time. It made it much easier to fit in around our other plans, such as spending the morning at Disney Springs and then getting to DHS around noon. There was only one day when I missed the crucial window and the return time for one ride suddenly jumped from about 3pm to 7pm; we ended up just sticking with what we had. There is one site in particular called Thrill Data which shows the return times for rides according to when you book. Other sites like Touring Plans have used that to show at-a-glance charts of when rides will usually sell out of G+ which allows you to decide which ride to go for first, and then what your 2nd and subsequent selections should be based on what you want to achieve that day. Another improvement was that the MDE app now tells you when you can make your next selection. I just used an alarm on my phone to go off 5-10 minutes before so I didn’t forget. Your strategy really depends on whether you have a set list of rides you really MUST do that day, in which case you might want to stack the return times starting at 7am with the most important one (to you). Or whether you just want to do as many rides as you can, in which case you might just want to wait until just before opening and book one, ride and book another etc. For us, because it had been 6 years since our last trip, we very much wanted to make sure we rode our favourites so we stacked return times for those rides and padded out the rest of the day with things that had low waits or no G+ |
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Post by pooh bears mom on Jul 7, 2023 16:30:34 GMT -5
Got Genie Plus today, did not get one ride. I know its probably me - can't teach an old dog new tricks. I was able to get a refund.
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Post by dlwdwdvc on Jul 8, 2023 7:04:40 GMT -5
I would like to believe the updates and change will make it simple …
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Post by johnb on Jul 8, 2023 10:17:29 GMT -5
I just got back today from Disney. I paid $23 or 24 daily for Genie+. We hit 2 parks on the same day 3 times. I would say this change is probably a wash or a little more expensive based on our habits. Pretty typical of the direction Disney has been heading. To all the anti-Genie+ folks out there, I get it. They did away with FP and rebranded it so they could charge for it. It does make me angry. However, I just paid for it for 6 days. And each day I paid for a premium ride LL, sometimes two. This is for a family of six, so I shelled out over $1,000 total for it. Many would call that ridiculous, but I loosely tracked wait times and how long we waited with our LLs. (The only standbys we did the entire trip were during extra hours after 11PM on Barnstormer and Dumbo). I estimate that we saved 4 hours each day, and that is probably a light estimate. That is 24 hours saved on this trip. That is like 2-3 park days worth of time. I spent ~$2,500 on airfare. I paid $6,800 on annual passes. I spend $3,000 on annual DVC dues (not to mention the tens of thousands on the contracts themselves). And food/snacks/souvenirs! I may be a spoiled jerk and have, in turn, spoiled the DW and DKs. But we couldn't Disney like we do without it. And I feel like it enhances the trip so much that I can't not do it. And the cost is honestly a drop in the Disney $ bin. Again, I would be happy to go back to the old system. But we did average 7 LLs daily versus the 3 we used to get. Call me crazy, dumb, or wasteful, but the math works for me. (And to be crystal clear, the new system still makes me mad) Edit - I read through the comments on this topic. There probably is nobody on here who plans out rides any more than I do. Our family loves riding rides. I set the alarm for 6:55AM every day on the trip, then set an alarm for the next time I can schedule a LL. My family (besides me) like to sleep in and hit the parks starting around Noon. I usually have 4 LLs stacked up by the time we enter the park and add 2-3 more while we are there. It takes good scheduling and knowing which rides run out first to get them stacked up properly. I am sure I am not offering any new ideas. I realize some would definitely balk at the time and effort spent doing this when we are supposed to be "relaxing" on our vacation. It used to feel like that, but after doing it enough it has become routine. And the early alarm makes it easier for me to get up and run in the mornings. It has also become a challenge to schedule the perfect day (catching all the different rides everyone wants in an order conducive to the geography of the park and spacing well enough to grab snacks, rest, or catch a parade in-between). After reading that, I am starting to re-evaluate my mental health. I'm curious about your Genie+ strategy. We're a family of 5 and tried using it a couple different days - at Magic and Hollywood. This was early in the Genie+ days so perhaps we just did it poorly. But it simply didn't work well for us. Not even considering the price, we just didn't get nearly as much done compared to the days of Fastpass+. I'd really like to hear how you approach it, though. On our last trip we spent a lot more time in line than I would've liked. It has me reconsidering my anti-Genie+ stance, but I'm also concerned I'll wind up "doing it wrong" and not get many rides with it. Got any advice? If this helps...our DHS morning usually looks like this: (buy G+ before 7 AM) 7 AM--get SDD LL and (if we're riding it) buy Rise ILL for after lunch Arrive 1 hour before early entry opening time At RD, ride ToT Ride MMRR Ride Toy Story Mania Ride Millennium Falcon (it's usually now time to use SDD LL) Ride SDD via LL Look for LL for TSM or ToT--TSM is usually available with a short or no wait--we'll get ToT LL as soon as we scan in at TSM Ride Aliens if wait is short(10 min or less) Ride Star Tours or see Muppets Lunch at 11 AM at HBD Lounge Use remaining LL (ToT or TSM) Rise (if we're doing it) Start stacking LL's for evening park Pool time |
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Post by mcd on Jul 8, 2023 13:40:38 GMT -5
I just got back today from Disney. I paid $23 or 24 daily for Genie+. We hit 2 parks on the same day 3 times. I would say this change is probably a wash or a little more expensive based on our habits. Pretty typical of the direction Disney has been heading. To all the anti-Genie+ folks out there, I get it. They did away with FP and rebranded it so they could charge for it. It does make me angry. However, I just paid for it for 6 days. And each day I paid for a premium ride LL, sometimes two. This is for a family of six, so I shelled out over $1,000 total for it. Many would call that ridiculous, but I loosely tracked wait times and how long we waited with our LLs. (The only standbys we did the entire trip were during extra hours after 11PM on Barnstormer and Dumbo). I estimate that we saved 4 hours each day, and that is probably a light estimate. That is 24 hours saved on this trip. That is like 2-3 park days worth of time. I spent ~$2,500 on airfare. I paid $6,800 on annual passes. I spend $3,000 on annual DVC dues (not to mention the tens of thousands on the contracts themselves). And food/snacks/souvenirs! I may be a spoiled jerk and have, in turn, spoiled the DW and DKs. But we couldn't Disney like we do without it. And I feel like it enhances the trip so much that I can't not do it. And the cost is honestly a drop in the Disney $ bin. Again, I would be happy to go back to the old system. But we did average 7 LLs daily versus the 3 we used to get. Call me crazy, dumb, or wasteful, but the math works for me. (And to be crystal clear, the new system still makes me mad) Edit - I read through the comments on this topic. There probably is nobody on here who plans out rides any more than I do. Our family loves riding rides. I set the alarm for 6:55AM every day on the trip, then set an alarm for the next time I can schedule a LL. My family (besides me) like to sleep in and hit the parks starting around Noon. I usually have 4 LLs stacked up by the time we enter the park and add 2-3 more while we are there. It takes good scheduling and knowing which rides run out first to get them stacked up properly. I am sure I am not offering any new ideas. I realize some would definitely balk at the time and effort spent doing this when we are supposed to be "relaxing" on our vacation. It used to feel like that, but after doing it enough it has become routine. And the early alarm makes it easier for me to get up and run in the mornings. It has also become a challenge to schedule the perfect day (catching all the different rides everyone wants in an order conducive to the geography of the park and spacing well enough to grab snacks, rest, or catch a parade in-between). After reading that, I am starting to re-evaluate my mental health. I'm curious about your Genie+ strategy. We're a family of 5 and tried using it a couple different days - at Magic and Hollywood. This was early in the Genie+ days so perhaps we just did it poorly. But it simply didn't work well for us. Not even considering the price, we just didn't get nearly as much done compared to the days of Fastpass+. I'd really like to hear how you approach it, though. On our last trip we spent a lot more time in line than I would've liked. It has me reconsidering my anti-Genie+ stance, but I'm also concerned I'll wind up "doing it wrong" and not get many rides with it. Got any advice? I get up a little before 7am daily (we always stay on property). Our family (besides me) likes to sleep in on vacation, and we don’t make it to the parks until Noon or later. I book the individual LLs (if any) at 7AM and book them for sometime between Noon and mid-afternoon. Then I also book my first Genie+ LL. I chose rides like Slinky Dog that book up the fastest. Even if the time is earlier than I want, I book it anyway. If you don’t book it, it will delay when you can book the next LL. You can go in and edit the LL to push back the time as the times change throughout the day. Then I get another LL option at 10:30AM. So I book the next most popular ride. I keep watching the LL times to edit what I already have so they fit into my scheduling window. Then I can book another one at 1PM. Rinse, repeat. I can usually snag 6 rides within a 4-5 hour timeframe. It helps if you ride the ride and use the LL because it can move up when the system allows you to book the next one, but I already said our family likes to start in the afternoon. It’s a lot of time on my phone, but it works. Nickys already mentioned it was helpful when Genie+ updated to allow you to edit your LL time (Individual LLs don’t allow this so be smart about when you book it; I usually schedule that ride first). Also, the system allows you to overlap the 1 hour windows. That also helps as I try to be strategic geographically as well as with time. I try to time it where we can jump right on the next ride. That doesn’t work 100% of the time, and it gives us a chance to grab a drink or some ice cream, etc, when there is a time gap. It has taken some time to get really good with it, and it isn’t like I am the only one who does it well. I have picked up additional tips on places like this or YouTube. We still go to the parks to ride rides. My kids are weenies with their stamina 😉, so this is the only way we could ride all we do for the time we are at the park. I don’t like that its so expensive and time-consuming to work out. I do like that I save us at least 4 hours of standby team each day. The only way to do better is a VIP tour or at late extra hours/events. We try to take advantage of those when we can, also. I hope that helps! |
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Post by dlwdwdvc on Jul 8, 2023 14:36:34 GMT -5
Very helpful
Thank you
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Post by Adelard of Bath on Jul 8, 2023 16:53:05 GMT -5
(buy G+ before 7 AM) 7 AM--get SDD LL and (if we're riding it) buy Rise ILL for after lunch Arrive 1 hour before early entry opening time At RD, ride ToT Ride MMRR Ride Toy Story Mania Ride Millennium Falcon (it's usually now time to use SDD LL) Ride SDD via LL Look for LL for TSM or ToT--TSM is usually available with a short or no wait--we'll get ToT LL as soon as we scan in at TSM Ride Aliens if wait is short(10 min or less) Ride Star Tours or see Muppets Lunch at 11 AM at HBD Lounge Use remaining LL (ToT or TSM) Rise (if we're doing it) Start stacking LL's for evening park Pool time Wife and I have a very different vacation style: Sleep until ~9am give or take Lounge around the room and cook breakfast Sometimes go to the pool, sometimes not Open app and look at wait times for various parks Change existing park reservation to whichever park looks quietest, as long as we feel like doing that one Go catch the bus, talking about where to eat lunch Wander around park Not saying either one's right, I just found the difference between the two interesting. |
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Post by bakerworld on Jul 8, 2023 17:34:19 GMT -5
I am so glad when my kids were young that all we did was stand in line. Of course, it was the 90's and the crowds weren't like now.
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Post by mcd on Jul 8, 2023 17:47:40 GMT -5
(buy G+ before 7 AM) 7 AM--get SDD LL and (if we're riding it) buy Rise ILL for after lunch Arrive 1 hour before early entry opening time At RD, ride ToT Ride MMRR Ride Toy Story Mania Ride Millennium Falcon (it's usually now time to use SDD LL) Ride SDD via LL Look for LL for TSM or ToT--TSM is usually available with a short or no wait--we'll get ToT LL as soon as we scan in at TSM Ride Aliens if wait is short(10 min or less) Ride Star Tours or see Muppets Lunch at 11 AM at HBD Lounge Use remaining LL (ToT or TSM) Rise (if we're doing it) Start stacking LL's for evening park Pool time Wife and I have a very different vacation style: Sleep until ~9am give or take Lounge around the room and cook breakfast Sometimes go to the pool, sometimes not Open app and look at wait times for various parks Change existing park reservation to whichever park looks quietest, as long as we feel like doing that one Go catch the bus, talking about where to eat lunch Wander around park Not saying either one's right, I just found the difference between the two interesting. It’s interesting to get on these Disney sites and see wide ranges of preferences, priorities, and opinions about where to go and when. Our mind is so focused on all the rides we want to hit that it didn’t occur to me that plenty of people go to the parks to do things besides riding rides. We go to meals, parades, and fireworks. But riding the rides we enjoy is always a focus. I like hearing how other people do things and find it especially interesting when it’s the exact opposite of what we do. |
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Post by johnb on Jul 9, 2023 10:14:32 GMT -5
We go pretty hard in the morning, up to lunch, then chill in the afternoon at the pool.
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Post by rowrbazzle on Jul 11, 2023 15:45:46 GMT -5
Thank you nickys, johnb, and mcd for sharing your approaches to Genie+. I really appreciate it. I feel better about using it - that it won't be as bad as last time at least.
By the time FP went away, I'd gotten pretty adept and scoring fastpasses on the app. Especially with rerides, we could do so many rides at Magic with what felt like relative ease. I need to retrain my brain for a different system. It's just frustrating to know that I need to pay $$ each time I want to do this. I think that's the main thing that has stopped me from pulling the trigger. Forking over $100 and potentially not have it work well is a difficult proposition.
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Post by pooh bears mom on Jul 11, 2023 19:27:25 GMT -5
Purchased the genie plus yesterday. Starting to get the hang of it. But we still did not get “big” rides. We started at Hollywood and FP’d Toy Story, then star tours (not worth the fast pass, but still used it), hopped to magic K, FP’d pirates, Buzz, Little mermaid, Haunted mansion, then did the philharmonic (no FP for that). So all in all, we got 6 FP’s for the day. We started our day around 11 and ended our day around 6. So we did get a lot in, in a short period of time. But none of the rides were any of the big rides, but still it was nice to not have to wait in line. Would I purchase again yes, would I purchase for my entire stay - no. Will decide on day by day basis as we also like to sleep in, then go to whichever park seems the least busy and adjust from there:) I still don’t understand why Disney doesn’t give something to insight guests like universal gives the express pass to their hotel guests. Not quite sure how Disney markets staying at their resorts over offsite resorts. The evening magic hours are only twice a week - mondays and wednesdays and there are still pretty long lines at remy and frozen in Epcot.
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but it worked. I am trying to adjust to new realities and G+ actually did work for my immediate party. Not all the time but I'm not a total hater now...... oops. Still wish they had an AP add on so we could just get it if AP with X amount extra a year. 
