Has anyone been to the parks recently and NOT used Genie+?

[tikilyn]

I would love to hear your experiences at the parks while NOT using Genie+. Did you purchase the IA$? My husband doesn't think we need to purchase Genie+ and is questioning purchasing IA$. He thinks because we will be staying onsite (DVC) and can enter the parks earlier that we won't really need to purchase the add-ons and we should just use the standby lines. I'm on the fence with this plan.

We will be checking in on 12/10 -12/19. I'm not sure how crowded it will be. The last time we went in Dec, it wasn't really crowded but we still used fastpasses (the paper ones). Because if was free. I'm trying to convince him that maybe we should at least bare minimum purchase the two rides IA$ at each park.

Would my Dh plan work for our time frame or should we at least purchase IA$? Help me decide please.

 

[MainMom]

I don’t know about the time frame, but this is basically my plan for our 8 park days in June. I think we will buy ILL$ for some rides, use early entry & probably genie+ for at least one HS day primarily for SDD. We have 3 MK days so we are going to test the first day without Genie+ & see how it goes. We also are not all day in the park people in summer heat so the stacking isn’t appealing to me at all (the one in charge of it all.)

 

[PixieT78]

Is say it would be worth it to purchase $IA for the ones that you want to ride. I’ve never done ROTR, Remys etc so those I’d buy for sure. And I love FOP, But you could take the first couple of days to see what it’s like without G+

 

[MICKIMINI]

We're here now. Just didn't do it! We had dining just about every day for two weeks but checked on the laptop in the morning before leaving for a park. We did partial days.

Our son and DIL however, used Lightning Lane a few times and GP and did get us on ROR, RAT and Runaway Railway. All were fun, but if they weren't here we would not have bothered. They had other friends here for a few days and wanted to get them on all the rides and did. We are not on a tight budget, but I still resist paying for anything extra!

We walked on Soarin', Living with the Land, Muppets 3D, Haunted Mansion with a few minutes wait, HM being about 20 minutes. We saw people glued to their phones, so distracted they were almost walking into people...sad as they are missing the entire point of being on vacation!

 

[jvalic33]

We saw people glued to their phones, so distracted they were almost walking into people...sad as they are missing the entire point of being on vacation!

What a really important point. That is one thing I'm really starting to hate about the whole thing. The phone.... and as the Mom and planner of the whole group, I'm the only one glued to my phone and the one most desperately in need of the vacation....hmmm...that makes me think I may have to delegate this to one of the kids that won't mind as much and just sit back and enjoy the day. Thank you for the thought!

 

[tikilyn]

Thank you for the insight. It sure does make me feel better about not purchasing genie+. I think we'll purchase the IA$ rides only. I keep looking on the app at the standby waits and they don't really seem to bad as of now but who knows when December rolls around.

 

[lovethattink]

We haven’t purchased it. Did MK and DHS. We chose attractions with lower wait times. Though we did wait for RotR and it was 135 minute wait.

Tuesday night we watched Enchanted then speed walked to Jingle Cruise. Wait time said 40 minutes, but we waited about 15 minutes.

 

[gharter]

We were there the first week it rolled out.
Did not use it any day that we were at EPCOT. One morning we did RD for TT then to Soarin', another day was Frozen. After those, we had no issue with any lines, no reason to have Genie +. We also were able to get Remy all 3 days in VQ so never paid for that.
Our last morning, we did HS at RD without Genie +. We did RoTR at RD, then MMRR, RnRC, ToT and Frozen before lunch and leaving.

 

[swooshbear]

Was there Nov 1 - 3 and did not purchase Genie+. Stayed on property and took advantage of the extra 30 minutes but on Monday, SDMT had a delayed opening so rode SM instead. Spent the rest of the time eating, looking for the 50th statues and took a mid day break. Went to Epcot late for Harmonious and rode SE during the extended hours. The posted wait for Frozen was 40 minutes at around 10:30pm but I heard it was way less than that. On Tuesday, rope dropped MMRR and then did a 50 minute standby for Slinky (ride broke down for about 10 minutes). Wait times were off the charts for HS that day so took another break and went back to MK for fireworks. The extra 30 minutes in the morning helps and didn't feel the need to get on rides, but our goal was to eat as many 50th snacks as possible.

 

[MICKIMINI]

Oh, another point...son and DIL were at EPCOT for the late hours (we're DVC) and nothing was open in World Showcase to speak of. We've not seen any mention of this anywhere and it was a total waste of an evening for them

 

[fabfemmeboy]

We go in a week and won't be buying it. I was a bit nervous, but after watching various videos on YouTube it looks like you get through attractions at roughly the same rate with or without G+...but with G+ you spend more time waiting around outside lines and obsessively refreshing, whereas without G+ you spend the time hanging in line. It's not like you get done with things FASTER with G+ than without, it's just a question of where you wait.

 

[Wood Nymph]

We were there Oct 24th to 30th and did not purchase Genie+. We tend to go to the parks early and leave early, then park hop later. Since we don't stay at the parks in the afternoons, it wasn't worth it for us. But we did buy the Individual lightning lane for Rise of the Resistance, which was totally worth it for us because it enabled us to walk on many rides at rope drop.

 

[JenM]

Just got back last night, and we used it for 3 of our 6 park days, and if I had to start over again, I would have skipped it for at least one more of them.

I thought it was the most helpful for MK and DHS, since MK has so many rides (I got so many of them at the end of the night it was almost a joke to see if we could get LL for all of them), and it got us on SDD pretty quickly when the wait was so long.

I got it for AK, but it turned out we didn’t really need it, the waits just weren’t that long. We skipped for Epcot too, although we did get the paid one for Remy. And we skipped it for what was going to be our last day at MK yesterday, which turned out to be a good thing because we didn’t stay long with all of the rain.

 

[sheilafri]

You might use it for a few days. Probably not worth it at AK or Epcot. I didn't use at HS but can see that some people might like it. I went to Epcot in am, back to hotel for a rest then closed down HS. I bought ILL for Frozen one day as the waits were very long and not much else that I wanted to do in that area. Ride ROTR in HS last thing as if you are in line at park close you will get on the ride. I used G+ at MK mainly to see what it was like. LL moved quickly but I don’t like that you can’t choose your time, just shows next available then locks you out for 2 hours. It also limits you to one LL per ride. It does become more useful in the evenings for rides that have capacity left.

 

[hdrolfe]

We were there Oct 25 - 30, I did purchase ILL$ for RoR, FoP and 7DMT on our last day. The 30th was really busy and the only day I wished we had it, we really only rode Splash (3 times), Space (5 times), Big Thunder (twice) and 7DMT once, and took a break in the afternoon because it was so busy. Every other day was great, we rode everything we wanted to with little wait. I wouldn't bother for AK or probably Epcot, maybe HS if it's a busy time of year and MK if it's busy. Heck, at HS we rode Star Tours 6 times. In a row. With no wait. Not my choice

 

[CampbellzSoup]

Going in 3 weeks I can assure you I won’t be buying this

 

[ScottOKW2K]

I'm going the end of December and at this time I have no plans to use Genie+ or LL.

I've been fortunate to have a number of trips in the past so many of the attractions I been able to enjoy numerous times before, and I have plans on returning next year for Food & Wine so this upcoming trip will not be my only opportunity. Also, on my last trip I tried for RotR several times and was unsuccessful every time. Guess what - I still had a blast!

To put this in perspective - I'll be in WDW for NYE. I already have Candlelight Processional, Steakhouse 71, Space 220 and California Grill booked. If I miss doing a few rides - no big deal.

 

[twincruisers]

I used G+ on Oct 20th at DHS and MK and then went on the 21st-23rd to AK/MK, DHS/Epcot, and MK without it. On my G+ day we got 7 LL rides in between two parks and 12 rides overall. I was able to run 11+ rides the 3 days without G+ without too much hassle. That said, we are rope droppers, take a break at 11 and finish at park close. G+ helps but those who plan can do well enough without it. G+ seems to make sense at MK and DHS but didnt seem necessary even then.

 

[imbelle]

I was there beginning Oct 26th and did the trip without Genie+. If you utilize onsite early entry for your biggest headliners, I think you will be fine. The Remy boarding group is much easier to get than ROTR was. At MK (at least when I was there) the actual wait times were half of the posted wait times (with the exception of Jungle Cruise). There was an interesting article on Disney Food Blog where they sent two reporters to the park, one with Genie+, one without. The reporter without Genie+ actually finished their ride list first, though the Genie+ reporter spent less physical time waiting in lines (presumably due to the Genie+ between booking times limitations).

 

[suzywindy]

I was there Oct 31-Nov 5. I am a disney fanatic and I am always up before 7am. I purchased Remy and Rise since those were two we knew we wanted to do. I also purchased Mine train last day. I did the Genie plus one day and it did not work for me since by the time I figured it out we were not going to be staying in the park that long or going back. We decided to do MK old school and waited in lines. We did use the 30 min early entry in each park and that was a winner - rode slinky dog twice, etc - anything of note in each park you get in 30 min sooner you ride. Even though I am a very early riser I so hated waiting every day watching for my phone to turn 7am and quickly refreshing and going to see what was available to purchase at the times we wanted. The system would be wonderful if they would allow you to plan this before your vacation so you don't spend half your time looking at your phone. My next trip I will utilize early entry - late evenings and any after parties and maybe purchase a few lightening lanes.