Everything Genie, Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane - Please Read Posts 1-7

[sheilafri]

Foolish Mortal has good general guidelines. I’d suggest following wait times for a period leading up to your trip to monitor trends with rides and attractions you are interested in.

 

[The Foolish Mortal]

I’d suggest following wait times for a period leading up to your trip to monitor trends with rides and attractions you are interested in.

That's exactly what I do the week or so leading up to a trip

 

[CoasterGT24]

My family is coming to WDW in early November. We have only used genie+ at Disneyland, and there most of the rides had immediate return times. What are the return windows like in WDW for rides like Pirates, HM, etc? Are they mostly immediate or several hours later? For which rides do lightning lanes sell out for the day, and what time are they usually gone? We will be doing MK, Epcot, and Hollywood studios. No Animal Kingdom this trip

This is when LL sells out for each WDW attraction: https://www.thrill-data.com/lightning-lane/wdw

 

[AustinTink]

Just wanted to pop in and say that Genie+ and ILL’s made our trip! We were able to do everything we wanted using Genie+. I loved the modify trick for grabbing your LL in the morning and moving the time throughout the day to have them stacked in the evening. That was such a win for us.

The only park day we had trouble with was our MNSSHP night. No Genie+ meant longgggg waits. We wished we had the Genie option during the party.

 

[it398]

Can you view the available Genie+ times before purchasing Genie+ for the day?

Some days we like to like to visit the Waterpark in the morning before heading to the themeparks in the afternoon/evening. Trying to understand if we can see the next available ride slots before we commit to purchasing Genie+ on those days?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Can you view the available Genie+ times before purchasing Genie+ for the day?

Some days we like to like to visit the Waterpark in the morning before heading to the themeparks in the afternoon/evening. Trying to understand if we can see the next available ride slots before we commit to purchasing Genie+ on those days?

Yes you can on the Tip Board although how you see them changes.

From 7:00-7:15AM you will need to click into each attraction to see when the next available LL return time is.

After 7:15AM the next available LL return time will be populated on the Tip Board.

You may wait to purchase G+ until after your time at a water park but you will loose at least 2 and possibly more windows when you may book LL return times for after your WP visit. This is what us referred to as ‘stacking’.

If you choose to purchase G+ at/before 7AM you may select your first return time for a time when you will be in the park.

E.g. Jungle Cruise is very popular so its return times will quickly move to later in the day when you plan to be in the park. You can book shortly after 7AM for later in the day. Then, 2 hours after MK opens you can take a moment to book another popular attraction for when you plan to be in the MK. 2 hours later, do the same thing.

By doing this, by the time you enter the MK later in the day you can have 3 or 4 LLs ‘stacked’ for the time you will be on the MK.

Note: you can also Modify a LL time once you have booked it but I did not explain that here (it’s in pg 1 if this thread) as you will be at a WP so I’m trying to take as little amount of your time away from that as possible.

Above is a strategy but per your original question, yes, if you choose to wait until after you WP visit to decide if you want to purchase G+, you will be able to see the current LL availability to make your decision about purchasing.

UPDATE:
I just did some ‘research’. Today is a ‘quieter’ day in the parks compared to other times of the year. at 7:15 the LL return times for all attractions are still early in the day (at MK - latest are JC at 11:10 and PP AT 11:30) so you would need to book and then later (before your LL expires) modify to a later time.

 

[Wood Nymph]

I could use some suggestions since we never bought Genie+ before. We are going to Epcot tomorrow with a person who has never been to Epcot. The rest of us have been there a lot. We want to do Test Track, Remy and the Frozen Ride. We have a noon reservation at San Angel Inn. We won't ride Galaxy. She wants to see the World Showcase.

Is there a good way to do the LL selections so that I can get LLs for all three rides? I'm not worried about other rides that day.

Suggestions?

 

[CoasterGT24]

I could use some suggestions since we never bought Genie+ before. We are going to Epcot tomorrow with a person who has never been to Epcot. The rest of us have been there a lot. We want to do Test Track, Remy and the Frozen Ride. We have a noon reservation at San Angel Inn. We won't ride Galaxy. She wants to see the World Showcase.

Is there a good way to do the LL selections so that I can get LLs for all three rides? I'm not worried about other rides that day.

Suggestions?

Right now, with lower crowd levels, it is likely you can grab all 3. When busier, you can usually only get 2 out of 3. The past week, Frozen has been going the fastest. I would book that at 7 AM and then Remy at 11 AM (or once you redeem Frozen if before 11 AM). Then grab Test Track at 1 PM.

 

[Wood Nymph]

Right now, with lower crowd levels, it is likely you can grab all 3. When busier, you can usually only get 2 out of 3. The past week, Frozen has been going the fastest. I would book that at 7 AM and then Remy at 11 AM (or once you redeem Frozen if before 11 AM). Then grab Test Track at 1 PM.

Thank you for your response. I decided to rope drop Test Track and Soarin' before the park opened for regular guests. I booked Remy at 7am for a 12:45 time. I booked Frozen at 11am for the afternoon. Then I was able to eventually move Frozen so that we rode it right after lunch at San Angel Inn. We eventually moved Remy to 7:05pm. All the other rides we did were walk ons today. I had to keep going back to look for better times. But it ended up working perfectly. It was a very low crowd day so I think that made a huge difference.

 

[inspectorgadget]

I have watched videos and have read about how to modify a G+ LL time. However, when are you able to start modifying it? For example, if I book a LL at 7am and I want to modify that time, when am I able to do that? Is it right away? Is it at 7:30 when they start showing times? Is it at park opening?

 

[scrappinginontario]

I have watched videos and have read about how to modify a G+ LL time. However, when are you able to start modifying it? For example, if I book a LL at 7am and I want to modify that time, when am I able to do that? Is it right away? Is it at 7:30 when they start showing times? Is it at park opening?

You may start trying to modify immediately. I will say my experience is, the more popular the attraction the more often the LL options may change. This is a short video of what I experienced trying to modify Peter Pan's flight at 7:02AM. You will see each time I pulled down the screen to refresh, a different return time was offered.

Will also share that because they are changing so often, by the time I chose a return time to book, the actual time it booked did change by 5 or 10 mins but not a lot. (That portion of the video was removed as it shared our personal information)

 

[inspectorgadget]

You may start trying to modify immediately. I will say my experience is, the more popular the attraction the more often the LL options may change. This is a short video of what I experienced trying to modify Peter Pan's flight at 7:02AM. You will see each time I pulled down the screen to refresh, a different return time was offered.

Will also share that because they are changing so often, by the time I chose a return time to book, the actual time it booked did change by 5 or 10 mins but not a lot. (That portion of the video was removed as it shared our personal information)

Thank you for showing me that, it was helpful. The last time I went to Disney was before you were allowed to modify times - you had to cancel and rebook at that point.

 

[inspectorgadget]

Oops I hit Post Reply before I got to finish typing. I am going to Epcot and will be trying to get either Remy or Frozen for first LL. Is it recommended I keep refreshing to get a time I like or should I just book one and then modify it? From what I've read, Epcot LL times are usually further out than MK LL times

 

[CoasterGT24]

Book first then modify. Safer that way, and you should see the same times.

 

[inspectorgadget]

Book first then modify. Safer that way, and you should see the same times.

Thank you, I will do that.

 

[kwdw]

Question about ILL for ROTR. We are starting our day at AK, and hopping to HS. We are hoping to get an ILL for ROTR between about 6 and 9 pm. Is it selling out first thing at 7 am?

 

[Tom_E_D]

Question about ILL for ROTR. We are starting our day at AK, and hopping to HS. We are hoping to get an ILL for ROTR between about 6 and 9 pm. Is it selling out first thing at 7 am?

Not lately. Graphics on this webpage show its availability

 

[miked1978]

What are the chances we get ILL$ for Avatar?? We will not be staying at a resort so i can't buy until park opens. We will be there Sunday Oct 1st.

 

[scrappinginontario]

What are the chances we get ILL$ for Avatar?? We will not be staying at a resort so i can't buy until park opens. We will be there Sunday Oct 1st.

This one really is too close to call. The heat map below shows FoP availability for the past month and it changes day to day re: availability at park opening. This information is from Thrill-Data.com

 

[WaywardMemphian]

We made a spur of the moment decision to come to Orlando this past weekend. We got park hopper tixs for this Friday. Our plan was to shoot for Guardians at Epcot with the 7 am virtual queue and purchase an ILL Tron tix for between 2pm and 6pm at WDW. My questions are:

Is that even possible?

Can you purchase ILLs for Tron and Guardians at the same time? (To double dip on Guardians or bad luck on the VQ)

Can you select a time at point of purchase?

Will Tron be around for purchase at park opening? We favor Guardians over Tron, that why we start at Epcot.