You Do NOT Need to Get Up at 7 am for Genie+
One big complaint about Genie+ is that it “forces” Walt Disney World guests to get up early in order to book their first ride reservation at 7 am. This post tests whether that theory is accurate, with a look at Lightning Lane availability later in the morning and when you actually “need” to make first selections for each park. (Updated April 30, 2023.)
I think we can all agree that Genie+ has its share of problems. Paying for what used to be free stings, there have been issues with user interface, and so many policy quirks and changes that it’s tough to stay on top of everything. For many planners, Genie+ would be a step backwards as compared to FastPass+ even if it were free. (But again, it is not.)
With that said, it does no one any good to exaggerate the system’s shortcomings, problems, and woes. Yes, it stinks that a formerly free service was replaced by something that costs money. It’s also true at the same time that not everything about Genie+ is awful. Each subsequent change is not bad news. The service is not wholly irredeemable or without value. The sky is not falling.
There have been a number of tweaks made in the last year to make Genie+ better and easier to use. The addition of the modify button is a huge improvement that improves the service considerably. Beyond that, Lightning Lane availability is better and the service is generally less glitchy.
Among some Walt Disney World fans, there is a seemingly reflexive reaction to announcements or updates on Genie+ that seeks to vindicate their preconceived opinions and validate their anger. Each mention of Genie’s name summons more hostility and outrage. There isn’t even an internal logic to it–if Genie is truly the worst thing ever, it should stand to reason that it’ll likely benefit from tweaking and iteration. Nope. Bad begets more bad.
In part, this just seems to be the way things are nowadays. Everything is either awful or awesome. People form snap judgments and don’t deviate from entrenched positions. They’re either team X or Y, with little middle ground. Obviously, this extends far beyond Disney. Just as it isn’t healthy in other aspects of life…it isn’t here, either.
Again, Genie+ has a lot of problems and shortcomings, all while it continues to increase in price as compared to launch. This isn’t to minimize any of that. Fortunately, as has been explained in myriad posts, you can either leverage it to your advantage or use alternative approaches and avoid the whole thing!
Admittedly, some of the fault lies with us. We’ve shared a lot of strategy to leverage paid FastPass for maximum benefit and become power users of the system. Although we’ve repeatedly offered the caveat that advanced-level knowledge is not necessary for the vast majority of people, the mere existence of so much strategy nevertheless creates pressure.
Even beyond Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, this is something with which we’ve grappled. It might not show from some posts, but we are relatively laid back and spontaneous travelers ourselves when doing things for fun. Our aim is to give you the tools to think differently and beat the crowds so you can get more out of your vacation and enjoy time with your family. With few exceptions, we’re not presenting strict strategy that must be memorized and followed meticulously. (When I say that I hate spreadsheets, I mean it.)
Ideally, the goal is more “teaching you to fish” than anything–putting you in a position to understand how to approach the parks and Walt Disney World’s many convoluted and quirky policies/systems/etc.
We’re cognizant that it doesn’t always work that way in practice. The FOMO machine drives so much of the mindset behind Walt Disney World vacation planning. The substance of an Early Entry at DHS strategy post detailing why that’s superior to Lightning Lanes might carry less weight than the volume of posts about the Genie+ service.
It’s a tough and sometimes delicate balance. My goal is to present a level-headed and honest look at the good, bad, and ugly of Walt Disney World with minimal sensationalism and hyperbole. In furtherance of that, I tend to think more information is better than less, but sometimes that can be perceived differently.
I’m probably just rambling at this point, so I’ll cut this short. First of all, contrary to the fears of many fans, you do not need to be up at midnight to purchase Genie+ or else risk it being sold out at 7 am. As of Spring 2023, Genie+ has sold out exactly 7 times ever, and not once has it sold out before park opening. The earliest it has ever sold out, so far, is 9:45 am and that was during the peak of Easter week. Unless you’re visiting during the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, or New Year’s Eve, there is zero risk of Genie+ selling out before park opening for the remainder of 2023.
So you don’t need to be up to purchase Genie+ before 7 am, nor do you need to be up at 7 am to make your first Lightning Lane selection. The whole point here is to relieve some of the pressure Walt Disney World visitors may feel to get up right at 7 am, use speed strategy, advanced stacking techniques, and so forth. Genie+ does not need to be so complicated, or have high stakes. You do not need to get up at 7 am, or even during the 7 am hour.
When Walt Disney World fans assume they must book at 7 am or be at a huge disadvantage, this is often due to a fundamental (yet oddly persistent) misunderstanding of How the Genie+ 120 Minute Rule Works at Walt Disney World.
As a reminder the clock on this does not start ticking at 7 am (or whenever your first early morning ride reservation is made). The clock starts *at* park opening. If you make your first Lightning Lane selection at 7:00 am, booking Slinky Dog Dash with a 2 pm to 3 pm return window, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios opens for the day at 8:30 am, you can make your next Lightning Lane selection via Genie+ at 10:30 am.
Someone who made their first DHS Lightning Lane selection with a return window of 3-4 pm at 8:29 am can also make their next pick at 10:30 am. Both of you are in the exact same position. In other words, the next round for both examples is 120 minutes after 8:30 am.
Accordingly, it follows that the pertinent consideration is Lightning Lane inventory between 7 am and park opening times. If availability is still good for the most popular attractions, there isn’t much of–or any–disadvantage to sleeping in a little and booking during the 8 am hour. That’s what the screenshots here showcase, with commentary sprinkled in.
It’s not entirely fair to say that inventory is the only thing that matters. After all, the way Genie+ ride reservations work is that you can book one at a time, and can either make another selection after two hours (120 minutes) or once you tap into your previous Genie+ selection, whichever comes first.
As such, if you’re able to book a Lightning Lane return time within the first two hours that the park is open, you’ll usually be able to book another as soon as you tap into your first selection. Meaning that if you somehow scored Slinky Dog Dash for 8:45 am to 9:45 am, you could book your second Lightning Lane as early as 8:45 am and get a slight jumpstart on everyone else.
This offers an advantage, but with a few caveats. First, if you prioritize sleeping in on vacation–the whole reason for avoiding the ~6:45 am Genie+ alarm–it’s probably not a paramount concern. You likely wouldn’t make it to the park that early if you’re not up by 7 am, anyway.
Second, truly savvy strategy usually won’t have you returning to Lightning Lanes during the first ~90 minutes the parks are open–that’s prime time for using standby lines to beat the crowds. You’re not going to want to return to Slinky Dog Dash–or any other ride reservation–that early. (Now, 9:45 am at DHS is a different story–lines are starting to get longer by then. So there is still some upside.)
Finally, anyone booking their second Lightning Lane an hour or so after park opening is almost certainly going to have a return time more than 2 hours into the future, thus subjecting that to the 120 minute rule. At best, they have a 30-45 minute head-start and get a slightly earlier return time for attraction #2 of the day.
That’s not nothing, but it is relatively insignificant over the course of the day. That’s especially true at the parks that are not Disney’s Hollywood Studios, where availability for headliner attractions lasts a lot longer. (EPCOT can be another challenge, as scoring Lightning Lanes for both Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure without making a reservation at 7 am relies on luck with cancellations or ride reservation refills.)
Speaking of which, this also does not take into account Lightning Lane refills, which are going to be a main means of scoring selections at popular attractions later in the day. (See Ride Reservation Refill Rules at Walt Disney World for more on this added availability throughout the day.)
By pure luck/accident, we actually hit one of these while grabbing screenshots for this article. As you can see, Slinky Dog Dash was ‘refilled’ shortly before 8:30 am. This didn’t go quickly, and it still had availability at 8:55 am. (Although not pictured, even past 9:30 am!)
It’s entirely possible–and not at all uncommon–that someone who got up early for the 7:00:00 am Slinky scramble would have a later return time (or miss out entirely) while someone who got up over an hour later would have better success. (To address another misconception: you would have the same success with refills regardless of party size. It does not matter whether you’re a party of 1 or 100.)
In other words, someone who books their first Lightning Lane right at 7 am is not going to be running around the park stacking up dozens of Lightning Lanes while you’re asleep, depleting the ride reservation inventory and rendering Genie+ useless before you’ve even made your first selection.
At best, they will have access to better return times for certain attractions and the ability to tap into their first selection before the park opening 120 minute rule window elapses. That is an advantage, especially when it comes to popular #2 priority attractions that go fast. However, it’s one of degrees and also assumes some speed strategy skill or luck in getting that early return window.
In practice, it often does not work out that way. Anyone who books a 7 am Lightning Lane with a return time over 2 hours after park opening is in literally the exact same position as someone who books 1 minute before park opening. There’s no advantage to booking Jungle Cruise with an 11:00 to 12:00 return time at 7:00 am over Jungle Cruise with a 1:30 to 2:30 return time at 8:58 am. Zero.
Now, this isn’t to say we’d recommend taking a laid-back approach to Genie+ during the week of Thanksgiving, Christmas, or any peak season dates. That’s not a good idea if you want to get as much done as possible, as everything is amplified (for the worse) with 10/10 crowd levels. However, that’s true across the board, and not exclusive to Lightning Lanes. We’d never recommend anyone going over those peak weeks sleep in if they wanted to get a lot done. It simply isn’t a good idea, and for reasons almost entirely unrelated to Genie+.
The actual early riser advantage is the same as it has always been: getting to the parks before the crowds arrive. It’s sort of odd to be quibbling over a theoretical ~30-45 booking advantage for a single Lightning Lane when the park-goers who get up at 7 am will be knocking out attraction after attraction via standby lines during Early Entry and at rope drop. Commando touring strategies beat all other approaches, including the Genie+ service.
That is the real reason we’d strongly recommend getting up early on vacation at Walt Disney World and one that has been discussed in numerous morning strategy posts recently. As always, you’re at a tremendous advantage if you arrive before park opening or stay until park closing. The middle of the day is always the busiest/worst time at Walt Disney World, which is simply a byproduct of behavior of humans on vacation and can’t be “blamed” on new technology. It will always be true that the early bird gets the worm and the night owl gets the…mouse, I guess?
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Does this reassure you at all about using Genie+ when sleeping in at Walt Disney World? Provide clarity about the 120 minute rule in relation to park opening, and why it’s not imperative to make a ride reservation right at 7 am? Have you had success or failure booking your first Lightning Lane closer to park opening instead of right at 7 am? Thoughts on availability around park opening times or later in the day? Are you planning on buying Genie+ or sticking to free standby lines? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment that Genie+ can be a laid back experience if you choose not to stress over it? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
My kids are up at 6-6:30 regardless so I don’t mind 7AM
Thanks Tom. Please continue with more articles about living with the system by understanding the parameters of the “genie game” , being creative, being patient, and intuitive or counter-intuitive.
After all, my first Disneyland visit used paper tickets rating the rides from A to E. My Mom still remembers how wide-eyed I was when I saw Cinderella’s castle from the second floor of our motor-inn. Our family had fun and we never really forgot that.
Let’s hope this new generation of Disney patrons also take away a positive experience.
“Let’s hope this new generation of Disney patrons also take away a positive experience.”
I can understand why fans are so deflated and guest satisfaction is historically low. It’s definitely easier to have a negative experience now–and Disney really should be doing more to proactively address that. You shouldn’t need to read a ton of counter-intuitive strategy posts in order to have a good idea.
With that said, if you do…you’re much better positioned to play the “genie game” and come out ahead. 😉
My biggest headache is trying to work out what strategy to use, early morning entry and rope drop or afternoon/evening stacking. My next trip is planned with my two adult kids who are WDW experts and who are used to and love the commando style of touring as they know we can hit lots of rides early without waits. My problem with this next trip is that for the first time my son will be accompanied by his girlfriend who is absolutely not a morning person. I really don’t want to split our party up as part of the reason for this trip is to get to spend fun time with my son. I am thinking of doing a combination of both early rise and late touring but not sure how to make this work. You can’t follow up a late night touring plan with an early morning entry plan for lack of sleep. Grrr it was so much easier when they were little kids and got up at 6:00 every morning so hitting the park early was never an issue. By the way my daughter and I used Genie + and ILL at Disneyland in April this year and although it really helped us avoid long wait times our biggest complaint like so many others comes from my tech savvy and phone loving daughter who was really fed up with being glued to her phone and having to refresh and refresh and refresh pages all the time. For the first time ever on a Disney trip we experienced Disney overload and were actually happy to be leaving and moving on with the next part of our trip. We have never experienced this before we have always wanted to stay and stay and stay. Guess for me thats the saddest part of the new system.
Anne,
I am so glad to hear that you had a good experience with genie +, at least for a first time user. You know a system is bad when the tech savvy young people don’t want to use technology any more for the day. This was such a poorly planned and even more so poorly executed plan on disney’s part. I have yet to see any higher ups, on video, walking through a park looking at their phone planning their day with genie +. If each board member was required to use Genie + and LL, and park pass reservation system for the duration of a trip, before the full rollout, I guarantee it would never have gotten released. I am not looking forward to using this system, as my kids are also Disney pro’s. I was thinking that I may go as an individual guest before our big trip next year. I may go for 2 or 3 days and use genie + to familiarize myself with it. It is really stressing me out. This used to be fun and exciting prep for family time. Now, not so much.
As far as your concerns about morning vs evening kids, my suggestion is to try one, than the other and let the kids decide. First, do an early morning wake up and visits. At the end of the day ask them how it went. then the next day, do a later start, like after lunch into the evening. See if they like that more. If the kids can not agree, at least you had two days with the entire group. Ask for all to meet for dinner each night as a compromise? Good luck! I am sure you will have a wonderful time!
Thanks for your ideas Ann, as an uber planner its hard for me not to be super organised with itineraries before I go but maybe we will have a very open family meeting soon and discuss the pros and cons and then I can get everyones input before I start. I was super worried before our Disneyland trip but it ended up that my daughter and I had a great time because after all, it really is about the company and the fun you make and we had plenty of that with lots of laughs so it was a great trip.
“…our biggest complaint like so many others comes from my tech savvy and phone loving daughter who was really fed up with being glued to her phone and having to refresh and refresh and refresh pages all the time. For the first time ever on a Disney trip we experienced Disney overload and were actually happy to be leaving and moving on with the next part of our trip.”
This is a very fair complaint, and I fear you’ll experience an even worse version of that at Walt Disney World, as Genie+ is even less user friendly there than at Disneyland.
While not to the same extent as Early Entry, late nights can still be quite productive. Having a couple Genie+ days (MK & DHS) and just doing the other headliners late at night is probably the best approach.
Good luck! 🙂
Thanks Tom, yes I think this time I am going in with a much looser approach to planning. I will have all your tips and tricks stored away to help me along the way so I am sure we will have heaps of fun. I think it really is about mindset, we know the system has a lot of issues and we are ready for larger crowds than we used to experience many years ago but even if we just get to wander around and soak up the atmosphere I will be happy. After all I will get to spend quality fun time with my kids and thats all that matters.
Just arrived home from a trip to Universal and WDW. With the strategies I learned on this site it was really successful touring-wise. Early on we did a bunch of rope dropping and rope rising (my son’s nickname for late nights) with midday breaks, but later on we slept in and arrived late. Some days we bought G+ but others we didn’t. I think we only waited stand-by longer than 20 minutes once, and that was to take refuge from a thunderstorm. We were able to ride ROTR 2 different nights at park closing with minimal waits and Mine Train during extra late night hours. We caught Remi during early arrival, and Guardians with a successful boarding group strategy. G+ worked pretty well in MK and is well worth it there, regardless of whether its an early day or late arrival. Thanks Tom for all the tips; the only thing that got in the way of following your guidance completely was blisters and those nasty Florida thunderstorms. 🙂
Sounds like an excellent trip–thanks for sharing your experience.
For what it’s worth, we jokingly referred to end of the night as “rope rise” in this post: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/genie-plus-versus-standby-strategy-disney-world/
Great minds think alike! 😉
Here now and my biggest gripe is not being able to pick a return time. We are no where near the parks in the middle of the afternoon because of the heat and storms. It makes for an incredibly frustrating experience and I REALLY hope I get a survey.
But that’s not what this post is about. For me getting up before 7 isn’t that bad, especially with the parks closing earlier than I’m used to in the summer. My biggest issue is dragging my incredibly cranky 13 year old out of bed. 😉
This is such an excellent article. (Not surprising, out of the blogs I’ve read, yours is the one I would tend to trust the most). I’m planning my first trip to Disney World as an adult (90s kid), and just started doing research a couple weeks ago. I read one article about Genie+ (yours) and understood it. I’ve been watching wait and return times in the app on and off for a couple weeks and I feel reasonably prepared to use Genie+ at MK and HS, don’t see a need to purchase it at the other two, and it seems as though it will work just fine. I have had the same reaction that you’ve had here to the complaining I’ve seen about it when browsing blogs and forums. People seemed determined to hate it no matter what. Even though it seems it now works better than it did when it initially came out, and no system could possibly be perfect and completely fair. You’re very right that this type of “all or nothing” reaction isn’t a problem unique to Disney World. Thank you for keeping it so real in your thoughts and opinions!
Tom,
I tried to unsubscribe and keep getting your emails. Im tired of reading misleading commentary. A disney vacation or “trip” as you call it, is a dream for many families that can only do this once in a lifetime for their kids and to put in place and test a system (genie) at the expense of hard earned $ is just not right. Don’t ignore the disappointments expressed by many. They are legit as I experienced an unmagical trip and spent well over $12k. My 8th visit to WDW..
Do us a favor and comment on behalf of the visitors and not on behalf of this unsympathetic corporation. I made the best of an awful experience and enjoyed spending time with family which is why we plan for these types of experiences but I will no longer provide any of my hard earned support going forward. Ill be looking for other non disney related experiences.
Not sure why the unsubscribe didn’t work, but sorry about that! I went ahead and manually removed you from the email list.
You spent $12K ??? That’s a whole other discussion.
I don’t disagree necessarily, and I’ve had days where I woke up at 7 and went back to sleep to wait for the times to rise. However, I think it very much depends on your goals. Sometimes I’ll book a ride 20 minutes after I was able to just to get a return time I prefer but conversely sometimes if you only want to stay in the park for so many hours in the morning you might want to get the earliest return time possible on something that gets pushed out late quickly.
Also, while you did address the issue of big crowd seasons, it’s not always predictable. I would not generally recommend sleeping in because you think it’s going to be a slow day because if you’re wrong you already may have missed a ride altogether by 830. Or had it pushed out to the end of the day when you were planning to be elsewhere.
Then of course there is ILL, which us not the point of this post but still… if you’re on site and want to do both, you are better off getting your choice of time slots early than hoping they are still open later. Some do last but some are frequently gone before off site guests even get a shot at them.
Tom I’d be curious for your thoughts if this is objectively more complex than fastpass +. As someone who is an expert in Disneyland but has never been to WDW, this system is easier for me to understand even though I recognize it doesn’t work as well in Florida. My impression from reading comments is that WDW goers seem to consider this harder than fastpass + but I wonder if there’s a bias towards what is familiar. What do you think?
Tom,
We go to the Disney this week for the first time and I literally cannot wrap my head around how to do this! I have a Masters degree in education! Haha! We are in the parks 6 days with park hopper passes. Starting with magic kingdom on the 12th… I am trying to absorb everything you are writing but it is like a foreign language. I am copyrighting this idea disney instead fast pass Disney can I rent a disney employee who knows how to get me through the parks♀️
I have a question Tom. We are long time guests, and will be returning after a 4 year hiatus. We have two college age kids. Our past visits the kids sleep in, I do a run then breakfast, then we hand at the pool till around 12:00. Then parks. Should I still make 7:00am genie plus choices? Do I get to pick my return times? All of mine would have to be after 1 or so. Or do I wait until mid day and start checking? This is all so new and confusing. I am ok with purchasing ll each day as well. When should I do that? First? Before genie plus choices? Thank you for your help. Also, we are going during a slower period, not a holiday or spring break, or summer break.
I also forgot to mention we will be staying at beach club, Disney World.
Hi Ann,
For genie+ you will just want to make your first selection prior to the time the specific park opens so you can be in the group that gets to make their second selection two hours after the park opens. When you go to make your first selection scroll and look for times that are already showing afternoon/evening return times and pick one of those (if everything you want is still morning times just keep checking back until they hit an afternoon return time). I’m not sure how fast stuff goes when not peak season as I was there at spring break but my guess is you will not have to be booking right at 7am just sometime in the morning (slinky might be the exception but as Tom pointed out in the article they do restock over the morning so you might get lucky and get one of those times if missed earlier). I’d probably prioritize the ILL over genie+ and book that first. My experience was that the Rise of the resistance ones go fast for that one I might get up for the 7am window. Again just keep your eye on return times to book when they are showing afternoon times (also note the time you select will likely not be the time you get if booking during the rush of the morning I think for rise I clicked on a 10am time and ended up with 2-3). Hope you have a great trip!
Hello Katelyn. Thank you so much for your wonderful summary and advice! It is si appreciated! I saw someone just post saying I have a masters degree and can’t do this! I am studying now for my masters in special education, and have been to Disney 50+ times and STILL don’t get it! Why did Disney do this. It feels like a bunch of people got in a room and said how do we control crowds? Let’s make a system so complex and convoluted, that no one will want to come at all! I will take your advice, and do a deep dive into our expectations for this trip, and take it from there. Thank you again.
Ann, you can’t choose return times for Genie+ – it’s like the old paper FastPass system if you’re familiar with that. You *can* choose a return time for an Individual Lightning Lane (ILL) purchase, at least theoretically. I’ve never done that. Tom covers all of this in his FAQ about Genie+ and ILL. Here’s that link: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/lightning-lanes-genie-plus-disney-world-faq-guide/#
A) Sleeping in is such a foreign concept to me.
I know that people are into it, but I will never understand why or how it’s a thing.
B) Has a Disney vacation ever truly been relaxing for the family member that’s responsible for making it all happen? I get a ton of joy from seeing my kids wrapped in the Disney bubble, and it’s worth the work. I’ve had relaxing moments at Disney, but the whole experience is always anything but. That has never bothered me.
C) My experience with Genie+ at Disneyland and DCA was that it was semi laid back. Just because I geek out over this stuff some, I noticed I could “use” Genie+ maybe about 5 days before our reservation. Essentially I could monitor return times, and “book” attractions, it just didn’t let me actually book them. I don’t know if it works the same for Disneyworld?
I found having read your blog posts, and then being able to use the app hands on, and kind of see how the return time game works is all your really needed to make it work.
D) Hyperbole is lame, and Genie+ is not the worst thing ever. Always appreciate your more long form/rationale critique of things.
Agreed. I don’t think Walt Disney World is best viewed as a vacation–it’s a trip. While it’s possible to do it in a relaxing way, not if your goal is getting a lot accomplished (as measured by doing attractions). That has always been the case and will always be the case. Genie+ is just the latest wrinkle in that.
I get that complaining “isn’t productive”. Up to a point. If no one complains, or brings their dissatisfaction to the table, then what have we taught our “overlords”? They can keep on doing whatever they want, make us pay whatever the decide, and basically to just roll over and take it. If Disney doesn’t stop ignoring the outcries of all these recent changes and the constant money grab, they will pay eventually. People won’t continue to visit the parks when all the fun is taken away. Other parks will siphon off those families, and Disney will lose it’s standing as the Happiest Place on Earth.
I think you hit the nail on the head with “up to a point.”
It’s one thing to offer constructive feedback about how Genie could be improved upon, or why you won’t return/will spend less money on subsequent visits/etc. as a result of any particular decision. Guest satisfaction surveys are incredibly important.
It’s another entirely to respond to everything related to Genie with a ‘sky is falling’ attitude or proclaim Genie+ is the WORST and demand free FastPass return…while still visiting regularly and spending as much as ever. That’s counterproductive.
I think we’re going to experiment with afternoon G+ stacking. We are frequent WDW visitors and the attractions we want to ride are a mix of popular and unpopular (i.e. we aren’t into Splash/Space Mountain or 7DMT, but would never leave the park without Pirates, Haunted Mansion Carousel of Progress, and the People mover). I think we’d rather sleep in, swim mid day, and stack 3-4 G+ rides in the late afternoon and evening. The last couple years we’ve been rope dropping pretty hard, and have been too tired to stroll around at the end of the night. Obviously this won’t work for everyone, and it probably won’t feel like a good value to many other types of guests but as DVC owners who spend a week every 2-3 years, it makes sense for us.
I think that’s a good idea, especially if rope drop is coming at the expense of evenings. While Early Entry is more productive, morning weather is also less pleasant much of the year than evenings. (Arguably not true for November and December, but who wants to miss Christmas at night?!)
Hi! Just posted a question regarding a similar situation like yours. We also wait until later in the day, but how does genie + work when I need reservations for later in the day or evening only? Not first available. Can I choose the time frames? Also, did you choose lightning lane first? Is that even an option? Thank you.
The first post of yours I ever read was when the parks were closed and some doomsday predictions came out about how un-fun wdw would be when they reopen. I had been planning our trip for a very long time and those predictions had crushed me. Your post saying, basically “now everybody calm down” really helped me.
I’ve now come to really love all of your “now everybody calm down” posts almost as much as your “this is what each flavor of this food is like, because you can’t stop me” posts, which will always be my favorite.
I don’t think I agree that LL was an inevitability. These rumours had been swirling for ages, but didn’t go ahead, presumably because Disney was concerned about the PR hit of withdrawing a formerly free service. Rather, the 2-year suspension (for understandable reasons) meant they could introduce a new service without the PR hit of ending a popular existing service (and the headache of how they would phase over existing reservations).
You know.. I totally get the fact people are angry that it now costs money to get a service that used to be free. Not a huge fan of the idea myself.
But.. isn’t it (sadly) the world we live in?
After a little while, I always see it with two options, keep complaining about the system on every possible occasion (which usually doesn’t end well, looking at my dad always complaining about politics, it gets old you know), or accept that this system is what it is, and either plan in my budget to purchase it and to understand it to take advantage of it / or start having strategies ready to avoid purchasing it and still enjoying the parks (your commando strategies)
In our case, we haven’t visited since 2018. Our plan was to put genie + in the budget, and to still do commando strategies so we can do the most rides possible.
Sure it’s expensive, sure it’s not the best system ever, but again, what do you do? Complaining constantly about the thing won’t make your Disney day a better day. In my humble opinion.
100% on the money.
Constant complaining is unproductive. While Genie+ will be improved upon, they’ll be incremental upgrades and tweaks. There is no going back to free FastPass. The genie is out of the bottle, you might say.
There comes a point where you accept reality, and either adapt or more on.
i awoke before 7 AM to buy ILL; I got Remi at Epcot at a reasonable time; I could not get any time at DHS for Star Wars Rise; I had to wait nearly 3 hours to get on that ride. I got Mine Train ILL after 8 PM and I got Avatar in the afternoon. I was certainly willing to pay for the ILL. I don’t know why I got such late times for Mine Train and Avatar and was not able to get Star Wars Rise. Most of the Genie Plus rides that I wanted I was able to get at reasonable times.
Hi Tom.
I’ve seen you mention this in several posts: “…and can either make another selection after two hours (120 minutes) or once you tap into your previous Genie+ selection (both tapstiles at attractions that have two), whichever comes first.”
Which attractions have only one tapstile?
thanks.
This can be taken care of very simply go back to the original fast passes and not soak people and poor families all kinds of money. it’s bad enough a family of four on the park hopper pass have to pay close to $2600 now you got a pay extra money to go on rides to get an early the lightning rod or whatever it’s called ridiculous.. did you take transportation away for people staying at the resorts so they have to pay close to $200 for a family of four round-trip take a 4. Enough about making money it’s about time for Disney to go back to the original format a family vacation affordable enough that won’t set you back years and years coming home.