First Use of Genie+ / ILL - Value Analysis

[sdk1231]

There have been reports of guests being denied boarding if their return window has expired which is why many are stressed. Until you show up and try you won't know if you'll be allowed to ride or not. Personally, I wouldn't risk it.

Oh, I hadn't heard this. Very good to know. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Revan]

Just my experience, we did MMRR 3x on 2(11/6 & 11/10) separate days this past week in stand by and never waited more than 30 minutes, despite the wait time posted between 60-75 minutes and it felt like we moved the whole time, so it never felt that long. If the outside queue seems to be constantly moving then disregard the wait time.

I also noticed Space Mountain‘s real wait and posted wait were significantly off. We jumped on RoTR right when it re-opened around 9:30 on 11/10 and even though the stand-by was posted at 75 minutes we were through the ride in 40.

It feels like Disney is really inflating stand by times on ILL, I was posting these to Lines, so recorded times from entry to ride.

 

[sdk1231]

Just my experience, we did MMRR 3x on 2(11/6 & 11/10) separate days this past week in stand by and never waited more than 30 minutes, despite the wait time posted between 60-75 minutes and it felt like we moved the whole time, so it never felt that long. If the outside queue seems to be constantly moving then disregard the wait time.

I also noticed Space Mountain‘s real wait and posted wait were significantly off. We jumped on RoTR right when it re-opened around 9:30 on 11/10 and even though the stand-by was posted at 75 minutes we were through the ride in 40.

It feels like Disney is really inflating stand by times on ILL, I was posting these to Lines, so recorded times from entry to ride.

Thanks for sharing your experience with posted wait times vs. actual wait times at some of the headliners. Very interesting! I keep trying to put together my thoughts about the Genie+ value (after waffling on my original thoughts)... and posts like yours are helpful. With this information as well as real-life examples shared by others, I'm just not seeing Genie+ coming down on the "value-add" side for me personally.

It seems that people are averaging about 3 Genie+ Lightning Lanes a day, and not all of them for good rides or at particularly convenient times. $60 per day for a family of 4 to ride 3 rides using LL, one of which is probably not that great a ride, and with ride times that may or may not be convenient... that just doesn't seem to be a very good value.

At this point, I'm leaning toward not purchasing G+ for my NYE trip for these reasons: MK has an Extended Evening Hours during our trip. My husband and I don't really care about rides all that much. My 17 year old has a couple of favorites (that she can get up and early entry rope drop if she wants to ride them that bad) and my 21 year old is a CM. I'll probably purchase ILL for ROTR, but that's probably about it.

Thanks again for sharing your experience.

 

[Revan]

Thanks for sharing your experience with posted wait times vs. actual wait times at some of the headliners. Very interesting! I keep trying to put together my thoughts about the Genie+ value (after waffling on my original thoughts)... and posts like yours are helpful. With this information as well as real-life examples shared by others, I'm just not seeing Genie+ coming down on the "value-add" side for me personally.

It seems that people are averaging about 3 Genie+ Lightning Lanes a day, and not all of them for good rides or at particularly convenient times. $60 per day for a family of 4 to ride 3 rides using LL, one of which is probably not that great a ride, and with ride times that may or may not be convenient... that just doesn't seem to be a very good value.

At this point, I'm leaning toward not purchasing G+ for my NYE trip for these reasons: MK has an Extended Evening Hours during our trip. My husband and I don't really care about rides all that much. My 17 year old has a couple of favorites (that she can get up and early entry rope drop if she wants to ride them that bad) and my 21 year old is a CM. I'll probably purchase ILL for ROTR, but that's probably about it.

Thanks again for sharing your experience.

We did Genie+ 1 day out of 6. We got a late start to Magic Kingdom on the 9th, the park was crazy when we went through the gate at 9:30ish and I purchased it then. 6 people, $100. We only got Buzz, IASW and Pirates before 3pm, when we jumped to HS and got RR (6:15PM) and MM (8:15PM). I thought it was a total bust and waste of $100. We had already ridden the MK rides earlier in our trip (downpour day.) Out of the 6 days we did everything without Genie+ or ILL in super bust park days with runners and the end of Jersey week. We set our line waiting threshold to 60 minutes.