Genie+ during Spring Break Crowds

[maui2k5]

We returned from WDW on Saturday March 18th after 5 days/nights at WDW. We purchased G+ and it saved us countless hours in line. The lines were generally quick except for Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway which was the slowest LL line we experienced. From memory, the LL lines were faster than the FP+ lines we used to experience. Overall, G+ was well worth the cost however I would greatly appreciate being able to book more than 1 at a time or even in advance of our trip like we could do with FP+.

 

[Davey Jones II]

We are on our last day of the visit. We have bought Genie+ and ILL every day. It has been working well for us. Especially since I am with two teens who want to sleep in. We just work on stacking the passes for the afternoon and early evening hours and then go from ride to ride. We have always been rope droppers, but after two days of that we now sleep in, head over in the afternoon, and stay until closing. It has been a much more leisurely trip for us, but still a good one.

That's our plan for our family reunion trip in October (seven people). I figure that we can do the headliners at closing time if (when!) G+/VQ/ILL fails us.

I know you said that it worked well for you. If it actually does something for us, then I'll change my mind. But right now, I have less than zero faith in this new b.s.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Hi! Can anyone lmk how Genie+ is working during Spring Break? Has there been availability to use it all day or is everything getting booked up early in the day? We used it at Disneyland and had great success, but I've been hearing at WDW you can only get on 1 or 2 rides with it, then can't get anything else the rest of the day. Also, now that they have tiered pricing, is there a price chart somewhere to know ahead of time what the cost will be on a given day? We will be there the week before and after Easter. Thanks!!!!!

It depends.
If you are able to book at exactly 7am, and keep on top of your G+ times then you can do pretty well. Yes, attractions get booked, by mid-day not much left in HS. There are also limited attractions in AK. One more caveat is that many attractions close during thunderstorms. if you have G+ or ILL's, then they somewhat evaporate. You get an anytime pass, but limited ability to use it on anything for the duration of the storm. One night we visited, a storm lasted from 7pm almost to park close. BTMRR never reopened. All that time, 7DMT, Splash, Barnstormer, BTMRR, dumbo, Astro, JC, and other attractions were down. AK has similar issues because the animal attractions also all close.

On the other hand, G+ enabled us to breeze through many attractions, esp in AK. My advice is to NOT do what everyone else does. DO NOT head to FoP at rope drop, or Rise, or Slinky, or Mine Train, or Jungle Cruise and wait in the standby. The standbys go from zero to 2hours in mere seconds. Odds are high that even if you go directly there, you will still end up wasting a full hour or more in line.

At present the highest price is $29, but Disney could raise it at any time if they desire. The price of ILL's also fluctuates a little, most run about a $1 extra.

On top of that, Spring break also = higher costs all around. In the general scheme of things, A few dollars extra for G+ is typically less of an upcharge than the extra cost of peak season lodging.

End of March: ASM=$209rack, AKL sav $763rack, and $183/night with the current discount. SSR starts at $440 with the current discount. Mid -August rack runs $165 at All Stars, $614AKL sav view and SSR starts 442, but there should easily be a discount coming up for August. (there is already a good one if you have a Disney Visa: All Stars $123, SSR $311, $614AKL sav.) [THESE are all pre-tax rates.

So one could easily end up paying almost $100 more per night (with tax) just for one's hotel room in peak season. If you are staying at a deluxe hotel the difference could well be $175 extra per night. AKL as quoted above =$168 extra per night.)

Expect top attractions to be gone in less than 10 seconds: Slinky and GoG. On the other hand though, you get long park hours. If you can start early/stay out late, the extended park hours are a nice bonus of going during busy times. When MK is only open 9-6pm, that is very limiting. It is especially limiting whenever there is an afternoon storm.

One potential option on days you buy G+ is to hop. That also costs extra. I don't know though how well that will work this spring though, because Tron just opened. There is likely to be LOTS of people hopping over the MK at 2pm.

This spring, G+ availability might even out a bit.

 

[musicguy856]

It depends.
If you are able to book at exactly 7am, and keep on top of your G+ times then you can do pretty well. Yes, attractions get booked, by mid-day not much left in HS. There are also limited attractions in AK. One more caveat is that many attractions close during thunderstorms. if you have G+ or ILL's, then they somewhat evaporate. You get an anytime pass, but limited ability to use it on anything for the duration of the storm. One night we visited, a storm lasted from 7pm almost to park close. BTMRR never reopened. All that time, 7DMT, Splash, Barnstormer, BTMRR, dumbo, Astro, JC, and other attractions were down. AK has similar issues because the animal attractions also all close.

On the other hand, G+ enabled us to breeze through many attractions, esp in AK. My advice is to NOT do what everyone else does. DO NOT head to FoP at rope drop, or Rise, or Slinky, or Mine Train, or Jungle Cruise and wait in the standby. The standbys go from zero to 2hours in mere seconds. Odds are high that even if you go directly there, you will still end up wasting a full hour or more in line.

At present the highest price is $29, but Disney could raise it at any time if they desire. The price of ILL's also fluctuates a little, most run about a $1 extra.

On top of that, Spring break also = higher costs all around. In the general scheme of things, A few dollars extra for G+ is typically less of an upcharge than the extra cost of peak season lodging.

End of March: ASM=$209rack, AKL sav $763rack, and $183/night with the current discount. SSR starts at $440 with the current discount. Mid -August rack runs $165 at All Stars, $614AKL sav view and SSR starts 442, but there should easily be a discount coming up for August. (there is already a good one if you have a Disney Visa: All Stars $123, SSR $311, $614AKL sav.) [THESE are all pre-tax rates.

So one could easily end up paying almost $100 more per night (with tax) just for one's hotel room in peak season. If you are staying at a deluxe hotel the difference could well be $175 extra per night. AKL as quoted above =$168 extra per night.)

Expect top attractions to be gone in less than 10 seconds: Slinky and GoG. On the other hand though, you get long park hours. If you can start early/stay out late, the extended park hours are a nice bonus of going during busy times. When MK is only open 9-6pm, that is very limiting. It is especially limiting whenever there is an afternoon storm.

One potential option on days you buy G+ is to hop. That also costs extra. I don't know though how well that will work this spring though, because Tron just opened. There is likely to be LOTS of people hopping over the MK at 2pm.

This spring, G+ availability might even out a bit.

Tron shouldn’t cause a large wave of hopping to MK because the VQ will likely fill up before 2pm.

 

[maui2k5]

One potential option on days you buy G+ is to hop. That also costs extra. I don't know though how well that will work this spring though, because Tron just opened. There is likely to be LOTS of people hopping over the MK at 2pm.

This spring, G+ availability might even out a bit.

Hopping with G+ over Spring Break last week actually worked out very well. We would get headliners at the first park and around 11am we would start stacking for the 2nd park. We usually ended up with 3-4G+ at the first park then were able to stack about 4 more before heading to the second park for the evening. We generally would take a break back at the Polynesian after lunch time.

 

[mickeyluv'r]

Tron shouldn’t cause a large wave of hopping to MK because the VQ will likely fill up before 2pm.

While yes, you are correct, it is human nature for people to gravitate to things that are new and heavily advertised.

Disney is currently selling Tron ILL's (for $20!), so some folks buy ILL's then hop to use them.

 

[columbus2016]

We were at Disney this week. We are not rope drop family and we take afternoon breaks - so for us Genie+ was very much worth it. The kids are not into roller coasters, so we didn't hit most of the headliners.

Tue 3/21 (arrival day flight @5:30AM) - Booked Navi at 8AM after flight landed. Arrived at AK @10AM. Rode Navi. Booked Safari.
Festival of Lion King @11AM, Gorilla Falls, Tusker House @12:20. Then rode Safari.
Back to resort (2:30-6PM). While the rest of the family nap, I was on my phone booking stuff for the evening at Epcot. I got Remi and Frozen. And then booked Soarin after we rode Remi.

Wed 3/22 - Booked Remi at 7AM. Arrived at Epcot @ 9:30AM, rode Remi, Soaring (Genie+), Nemo. Back to BC for lunch at Beaches and Cream at 12:20. Pool and nap, I was able to stack Pirates for 6:30PM, Jungle Cruise for 8PM, Peter Pan for 9PM. We had dinner reservation at Skipper Canteen at 7:15PM. We also booked Aladdin and Winnie the Pooh while in MK - but we didn't use Winnie as the kids were DONE by 9:30.

Thurs 3/23 - at 7 AM booked ILL Rise for 1PM and Genie+ MMRR for 10AM. Arrived at HS at 10AM. Rode MMRR, then got Genie+ for TSM. Then another Genie+ after for Star Tours. Lunch at Docking Bay 7, Rise, Droid Depot. Back at resort by 3PM. Back in Epcot for dinner at BierGarten at 6:45PM. I booked Genie+ while in our room for Test Track, Frozen and Remi (Remi was closed @ 8:30 - so we got multiple experience to use the next day).

Fri 3/24 - booked Buzz Lightyear for 10AM. We arrived at MK 10:30. Rode Buzz, booked Tomorrowland Speedway, Mad Tea Party, Barnstormer, Winnie the Pooh along the way. Back to resort at 2:30PM. Pool and rest, booked Remi again. Epcot for dinner at Spiced Road, rode Remi, then Test Track using the multiple experience pass.

 

[JAMJAM]

Genie+ was worth it for us. We were there 3/9 through 3/14 and got a lot done because of it:

3/10 - very late arrival at Boardwalk (1AM!). Family slept in, but I bought Genie+ once we were in our room, plan was to stack LL in the afternoon and it worked exceptionally well. Didn't even set an alarm...woke up at 7:30, booked ILL for SDMT at 1PM and LL for Jungle Cruise at 2PM, back to sleep. Family up around 10, brunch at Trattoria el Forno, at 11 booked my 2nd LL for HM for 1PM. Got to MK at noon...standby PP at noon (posted 75, waited 85), booked 3rd LL for BTMM RR at 1:30 after a little refreshing while in the queue for PP. Did SDMT, HM...BTMM RR was down, got any anytime experience. Booked SM for 5PM. Did our JC LL, refreshed and moved SM up to 4PM. Standby POTC (posted 30, waited 20). BTMM was back up, rode that, went to Tomorrowland, road SM, booked an immediate return time for Buzz, rode that, called it a day.

3/11 - the day I was worried about, HS, but it worked out amazing despite the crowds. Up at 6:50, bought Genie+, got lucky with a SDD LL for 10AM.. also bought ILL for ROTR at 11:30. Got there at the end of early entry (we took the boat, saving our legs), rode MMRR on standby (posted 30 min, waited 20), rode MFSR standby (posted 45, waited about 30), rode SDD, booked an immediate return for Alien SS, rode that, booked an immedate return for TSMM, rode that. Toy Story Land done in an hour! Almost too fast. But it was getting busy. Return times were getting further out, booked ToT for 4PM with the intention of modifying (which I did over the afternoon for 6:30, so we could ride before Fantasmic). Rode rise after a bad experience at Ogas (will post that elsewhere), did Muppets on Standby (was a walkon). Back to Boardwalk for a swim and then to Disney Springs again for dinner. Booked another LL for Star Tours for 6PM. Could have booked another LL for MFSR at 9PM after Fantasmic, but decided against it, long day at EPCOT tomorrow.

3/12 - EPCOT. Got up at 6:50 again, bought Genie+, got a virtual queue for Guardians (Group 100), then booked Remy for 10AM (after modifying/refreshing for about 2 min, initially booked for 1PM), and bought an ILL for Guardians for 11:30. We got to EPCOT at 8:20 (yes, probably should have rope dropped given we were at Boardwalk, but sometimes sleep is just as important), did Frozen standby (posted 30, waited about 20). Test Track was down at open, just opened as we exited Frozen, rode that using single rider (standby posted 45, single rider was a walk on). Rode Mission Space, Orange, on Standby, posted 20, waited 10. Rode Figment on standby, posted 15, pretty much a walk on. Remy went down! Got an anytime experience, which we saved for Remy for later. Booked Soarin with an almost immediate return time, rode that, book Nemo with an almost immediate return time, rode that, booked Spaceship Earth an hour out, as it was time For Guardians...rode Guardians, rode MS, rode Remy, back to the hotel at 2, exhausted from the heat. Virtual queue still hadn't been called, knew it would be when we were in the pool, tried to cancel and get a later virtual queue given more were there at 1...but no luck, so no second ride. Booked another LL for Mission Space as it was a fav for the boys. Came back to EPCOT at 5, walked the International Showcase, rode three Cabaleros, Rode MS again (both Orange via LL and green via Standby, Green was a walk on, Orange standby posted at 25). Dinner at Via Napoli at 7:30, fireworks, bed.

3/13 - oops forgot to set alarm, woke at 7:45, but still did okay. Bought Genie+, booked SM for 1PM, refreshed until I got 10:30AM. Got there for the last few minutes of EE, did Barnstormer, Dumbo, Teacups, Little Mermaid all pretty much walk-ons. Lines started to build everywhere by now, Astro Orbiter 45, waited that long, booked 2nd LL for Speedway, rode that right after Astro, booked Winnie the Pooh about 45 min out, rode SM, watched Carousel of Progress, rode Pooh with LL, booked Magic Carpets, rode that. LL return times were way out for most rides (ie Small World 90 minutes away), I booked BTMRR for 9:20PM at 1PM. Lunch at Casey's, back to the resort, pool time. Booked another LL for Small World for 6:30, and Barnstormer for 7:30 while we were at the resort and Disney Springs. Back to MK around 6, shopped, Small World, tried modifying Barnstormer for something else (HM, Pirates, but Pirates was down), but not much available at this time. Watched fireworks, rode BTMMRR (in the dark for the first time), more pictures in the hub, and back to the resort.

Busy, but very successful 4 days, couldn't have done it without Genie+ and ILLs.

 

[kittylady1972]

Hopefully those at the parks this week are using Genie+ because from what I've read it sounds like crowds are large.

Our experience...I'll try to recall...with Genie+ on Friday March 17th:

We had 4 adults, 1 of which hadn't been to Disney since he was much younger (he's 21) and so everything seemed new to him. My daughter, we'll call her the navigator, had her ideas of what she wanted them to do (this was her boyfriend) and my husband and I were just financing and along for the ride.

Around 4am I woke up and purchased Genie+ (I think it was $29 each).
At 7am I woke up and booked our first Genie+ ride for Test Track (11am?) and I booked Guardians...we had an early return time for that. I also bought Guardians ($12 each I think) for us for later that day. Our plan was to spend time in EPCOT until 2pm, then hop to MK for the afternoon/evening.

DD and boyfriend were meeting us at EPCOT coming from their Spring Break stay on the East Coast of Florida, so they were staying at Riviera Resort and parked there and rode the Skyliner to the entrance. We were staying at AK and drove to the park, so went in the main entrance of EPCOT. Goal for the morning was Soarin at Rope Drop so as soon as they let us enter we met them there.

Around 11am we went to book our next ride and I think we got BTMRR for around 4pm? We then got in line for Test Track where I thought after tapping in twice we could book another ride but we didn't have any luck. I think it told us we had to wait until after 1pm to book the next ride. So that's what we did but it was frustrating. So clearly I misunderstood the rules. We rode Test Track, grabbed some food, walked around World Showcase, rode Donald's Crazy Boat Ride and then walked towards Spaceship Earth to attempt that but the line was super long and it was like a 30+ minute wait. DD wasn't having that, so I think we did Nemo, our second ride on Guardians, some more food and drinks, then left the park. I believe around 1pm DD tried for LL and got Pirates sometime in the 2pm timeframe. Oh I forgot I also had purchased 7DMT so we could do that one, which I think was in the afternoon sometime. I think we also booked a LL for Buzz Lightyear.


All in all with G+ I think we managed to ride Soarin', BTMRR, Buzz Lightyear, POTC. We did regular lines for Monster's Inc, TTA. We took a short break and decided to return around 9pm (11pm closing at MK) and were able to ride HM with about a 5 minute wait and then waited in a long line for Space Mountain at the end of the night (probably 30-40 minutes) since we really couldn't get any other good LL for that day.

Was it worth it? Well for us, trying to do 2 parks in just one day with a 'newbie" of sorts it made sense. The lines for everything else were really not great. So paying for GoTG so we could ride twice and paying for 7DMT plus the Genie+ for the day for 4 people just gave us a few extra things that we otherwise could not have done unless we just spent all day waiting in lines. We did take time to have dinner at Tony's at MK, stop at some food booths at EPCOT for lunch, get some drinks, and take it at a somewhat slow pace. I wish we could have done more at MK, but having only 2pm-11pm there already hindered us. As soon as it showed we were eligible my DD was checking for rides and we did the refresh thing often but didn't have the best of luck, especially for Space Mt which was the other ride she really wanted to do. She did get the Tomorrowland Speedway but we cancelled it. So I guess we booked maybe 4 or 5 rides for our $120 for the day?

 

[HIRyeDVC]

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/g...h-price-sells-out-easter-crowds-disney-world/

Genie+ hits highest price ever at $35 and sells out before noon yesterday. Today, it sold out before 10 am. I guess people love paying for that Genie+, no matter the price!

 

[JungleCruiseFan]

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/g...h-price-sells-out-easter-crowds-disney-world/

Genie+ hits highest price ever at $35 and sells out before noon yesterday. Today, it sold out before 10 am. I guess people love paying for that Genie+, no matter the price!

I don’t want to buy Genie plus at all but our limit for waiting for a ride is an hour. Beyond that we are either skipping the ride for the day or paying to get on quicker. Today at noon epcot had listed wait times of 140-160 minutes for Test Track Remy Frozen and Soarin. We are at Universal right now and walked on Gringotts twice in a row Sunday night without express!
We head to Epcot Friday and even though I didn’t want to pay for Genie plus and think $35 is ridiculous, if I don’t pay it then we will have almost nothing to ride. We are also excited about the return of Epcot forever so we aren’t willing to miss it just to get on a ride.
We stayed onsite for 3 weeks this summer and only bought Genie plus 1 day and we had a blast everyday.

 

[HIRyeDVC]

I don’t want to buy Genie plus at all but our limit for waiting for a ride is an hour. Beyond that we are either skipping the ride for the day or paying to get on quicker. Today at noon epcot had listed wait times of 140-160 minutes for Test Track Remy Frozen and Soarin. We are at Universal right now and walked on Gringotts twice in a row Sunday night without express!
We head to Epcot Friday and even though I didn’t want to pay for Genie plus and think $35 is ridiculous, if I don’t pay it then we will have almost nothing to ride. We are also excited about the return of Epcot forever so we aren’t willing to miss it just to get on a ride.
We stayed onsite for 3 weeks this summer and only bought Genie plus 1 day and we had a blast everyday.

Amazing that rides at Universal were walk-ons. I guess the spring breakers really don't go to Universal? Glad that you were able to enjoy without Genie+. Definitely doable on longer stays by rope dropping and closing out the parks.

 

[JungleCruiseFan]

Amazing that rides at Universal were walk-ons. I guess the spring breakers really don't go to Universal? Glad that you were able to enjoy without Genie+. Definitely doable on longer stays by rope dropping and closing out the parks.

They are here they just don’t get up early or stay late!
Our first day we did over half of islands of adventure before 1pm then went to our resort and swam and relaxed. The rest of the trip we have done our swimming during the day and the parks at night. During the day all the big rides still get long lines but not as long as Disney. The parade at Studios seems to be a big draw as around 7pm both parks have significantly lower wait times. Tonight we ate at Cowfish at 7, got to Islands at 8:30, rode Spider-Man, Storm Force, Kong Skull Island, played the magic wand game in hogsmeade then took the last train to the studios where we played all the wand games with no crowds in Diagon Alley. We were here at Christmas and crowds were crazy but still at the end of the night they leave.
We spend every summer at Disney and never have too much crowds, after watching wait times all week I don’t think we would ever do spring break at Disney but would come back to universal.

 

[kittylady1972]

They are here they just don’t get up early or stay late!
Our first day we did over half of islands of adventure before 1pm then went to our resort and swam and relaxed. The rest of the trip we have done our swimming during the day and the parks at night. During the day all the big rides still get long lines but not as long as Disney. The parade at Studios seems to be a big draw as around 7pm both parks have significantly lower wait times. Tonight we ate at Cowfish at 7, got to Islands at 8:30, rode Spider-Man, Storm Force, Kong Skull Island, played the magic wand game in hogsmeade then took the last train to the studios where we played all the wand games with no crowds in Diagon Alley. We were here at Christmas and crowds were crazy but still at the end of the night they leave.
We spend every summer at Disney and never have too much crowds, after watching wait times all week I don’t think we would ever do spring break at Disney but would come back to universal.

Yep...agree there. We have Universal APs and we know the best times there are morning and evening as well. It's amazing how much you can do after 5 or 6pm at Universal, but the parks to tend to close a bit earlier as well (8pm/9pm). Hagrids at night is just amazing though and worth the wait. Plus you get the free parking at Universal after 6pm (same for most of the Disney parks also...free parking in those evening hours since nobody mans the booths near park closing) which is nice. Our Universal APs our good until mid-December so we'll likely plan a few trips there, maybe staying at our DVC resort but visiting the Universal parks. Seeing the latest prices on Genie+ are really making me scared!

 

[Stormypetrel]

Long time lurker, first time poster…we were there this week and used all the tips I learned from this board. Saturday and Sunday we did MK and Epcot and it worked amazingly; did everything we wanted and more. After that it was a slightly different story.

Monday was our AK day and both Navi River and Flight of Passage were evacuated and down for multiple hours. While they were great at refunding my ILL for FOP (we have small kids who were DONE for the day and could not wait till it was back up), it seemed to have a cascading effect on the crowds at the rest of the park. It was literally shoulder to shoulder people through wide swaths of the park. Never saw this level of crush of people my whole week at Disney! Still, we did everything else on our list by rope dropping everything but FOP and prioritizing an ILL for that.

Tuesday we were back at MK and saw genie plus had increased to $35. Bit the bullet and bought it anyway since it had worked so well on Saturday (when I believe MK reservations were also sold out). Unfortunately both Peter Pan and pirates of the Caribbean were down for a long period of time, multiple hours, which again I think had a ripple effect on all the other rides. Probably the Tron official opening added to demand too (but again, both Saturday and Tuesday were sold out of park reservations so idk). When I was eligible to book again, despite my best efforts to modify and refreshing for…a long time…I could NOT get any return times for any attraction before the evening. Standby waits for rides that were practically walk ons Saturday were ALL an hour or more. Again, with small kids this just did not work for us but might still be worth it if you like to close down the park and your goal is to stack rides for the evening.

Same thing happened yesterday at DHS. Grabbed a lightning lane for slinky dog dash for 1pm. Ride was closed for a chunk of the morning, reopened around 9-9:30 which may have had cascading effects. By the time I was eligible again I was in the frozen singalong with poor cell service and when I finally pulled up the tip board the earliest I could get for any ride was about 7pm. So…basically genie plus was a $35 ILL for SDD for us.

We are not Disney regulars and probably won’t go again for another ~5 years, if ever. SDD was one of the 2 roller coasters my 4 year old is tall enough to ride and was her favorite of the whole week…so for us, I would say genie plus was worth it even though with young kids who are done by 3 you can’t really be guaranteed to maximize its value. Saturday worked perfectly for us but at least in my experience it appears if 1 thing goes wrong in the park it snowballs into too much demand/pressure on other rides…and this is purely my speculation but perhaps that’s why genie plus “sold out” so early those days despite the high prices.

 

[KateMW]

We used it for the first time during Spring Break last week. We thought it worked well. We watched the Ear Scouts videos and basically did exactly what he told us to do. LOL The only park we didn't have a great day in using it was HS, the timing was rough from the start. We learned a lot about the two hour wait that day. You also don't need it at AK but we were able to fly through everything we wanted that day with it and grab a random Remy for park hopping later at dinner time.

 

[tripleup05]

Long time lurker, first time poster…we were there this week and used all the tips I learned from this board. Saturday and Sunday we did MK and Epcot and it worked amazingly; did everything we wanted and more.

Monday was our AK day and both Navi River and Flight of Passage were evacuated and down for multiple hours. While they were great at refunding my ILL for FOP (we have small kids who were DONE for the day and could not wait till it was back up), it seemed to have a cascading effect on the crowds at the rest of the park. It was literally shoulder to shoulder people through wide swaths of the park. Never saw this level of crush of people my whole week at Disney! Still, we did everything else on our list by rope dropping everything but FOP and prioritizing an ILL for that.

Tuesday we were back at MK and saw genie plus had increased to $35. Bit the bullet and bought it anyway since it had worked so well on Saturday (when I believe MK reservations were also sold out). Unfortunately both Peter Pan and pirates of the Caribbean were down for a long period of time, multiple hours, which again I think had a ripple effect on all the other rides. Probably the Tron official opening added to demand too (but again, both Saturday and Tuesday were sold out of park reservations so idk). When I was eligible to book again, despite my best efforts to modify and refreshing for…a long time…I could NOT get any return times for any attraction before the evening. Standby waits for rides that were practically walk ons Saturday were ALL an hour or more. Again, with small kids this just did not work for us but might still be worth it if you like to close down the park and your goal is to stack rides for the evening.

Same thing happened yesterday at DHS. Grabbed a lightning lane for slinky dog dash for 1pm. Ride was closed for a chunk of the morning, reopened around 9-9:30 which may have had cascading effects. By the time I was eligible again I was in the frozen singalong with poor cell service and when I finally pulled up the tip board the earliest I could get for any ride was about 7pm. So…basically genie plus was a $35 ILL for SDD for us.

We are not Disney regulars and probably won’t go again for another ~5 years, if ever. SDD was one of the 2 roller coasters my 4 year old is tall enough to ride and was her favorite of the whole week…so for us, I would say genie plus was worth it even though with young

We were at AK on Monday 4/3 as well. I’ve never seen Disney so crowded. On two different occasions, the pathways became completely clogged. Nobody could move in any directions for a few moments until things thinned out.

We rope dropped Flight of Passage, and then using Genie Plus and standby did every ride (excluding Kali) two or three times each and saw Lion King and Nemo once. So it was a productive day, but I never want to experience crowds like that again.

 

[JungleCruiseFan]

We used it this Friday April 8th at Epcot. $35 is way too much but with how busy it is we wouldn’t have been able to even do half the park. Normally we don’t care as we will go 3-4 times to each park in a trip but this was a Universal trip with just one day at Disney.
We used it on the following that had these posted wait times when we scanned in
Test Track 75 minute wait
Frozen 90 minute wait
Soarin 75 minute wait
Living with the Land 15 minute wait
Nemo 5 minute wait
Spaceship Earth 35 minute wait
Figment 5 minute wai

Without lightning lane we also did
Pixar shorts
American Adventure
Liberty singers
Beauty and the beast sing a long
Pictures at every topiary
Snacks at too many booths to count
Dinner at regal eagle
various shopping
40 minute wait for fireworks in a great spot
Shopping at creations after park close

So… we saved 3-4 hours with lightning lane and were at the park for 12 hours. With how busy it was without lightning lane we would have missed out on way too much for the $800 it cost for tickets and parking for our family of 4. For what we got to do and the fun we had it was worth the $950 with genie and without it I don’t think we would have had $800 worth of fun.

 

[NashvilleMama]

We were at AK on Monday 4/3 as well. I’ve never seen Disney so crowded. On two different occasions, the pathways became completely clogged. Nobody could move in any directions for a few moments until things thinned out.

We rope dropped Flight of Passage, and then using Genie Plus and standby did every ride (excluding Kali) two or three times each and saw Lion King and Nemo once. So it was a productive day, but I never want to experience crowds like that again.

AK was like this when we were there over Presidents Day weekend in February - we always have gone during super high crowd times but had *never* seen it like that and it was completely unbearable with just trying to walk to places.

 

[Stormypetrel]

Yep. Last time I went to Disney (just before covid) was Easter week as well and this was way worse. I really think the, what, 5,000? People who’d normally be sequestered in the queue for FOP or Navi river being unleashed into the park at once makes an enormous difference in how crowded it feels. For me it was similar in MK when Pirates and Peter Pan were down for hours compared to 3 days prior when everything was operational.