Thanksgiving Week Genie+ Experience and required mobile ordering so far

[ML_LovesDisney]

Hi all, we are here now (arrived 11/24/21 super early). This isn't about strategy, just more of our experience so far. I am a super planner and don't mind planning. How we like to do Disney is do morning or mid-day park time and then back to resort, dinner, Disney Springs in the evenings. That is not really possible with Genie+ if you are wanting to ride as many rides as possible.

Day 1 we went to Animal Kingdom, and we were still in-flight when Genie+ booking and Individual LL became available, so I logged onto SW Wi-fi and was able to get ILL for FoP at 4:05pm. At first, I pulled really early time, but we wouldn't have been at the park yet so I refreshed after a minute and it already to 4:05pm. I also bought ILL for Expedition Everest and we got 3:20pm. MK day was 11/25/21 and Genie+ was slightly more useful there. The problem is, by the time you are allowed to book your next attraction, everything worthwhile is into the evening times. Since there are more rides in MK though, the Genie+ feels at least slightly better because you can stand-by some things (Under the Sea Little Mermaid had 15 min wait at 10am). Yesterday, 11/26/21, we did DHS. I bought Genie+ again, tried to rope drop for ToT and then use our first LL for Rock N Rollercoaster. By the time we made it through the crowds, ToT was at 50 minutes, which went by in about 35 minutes. LL for RR was 10:25am, but the ride went down so we got a "use anywhere but the fancy rides" LL which we used for Toy Story Mania. The teens really wanted to ride RR so I booked another LL for 8:25pm and told them they can go back later after dinner which ended up being okay. They just went in, rode, and rode the bus back to AKL.

Genie+ does not allow for any planning IMO. For example, we have dining reservations today at 9:25am at Polynesian. If I risk it and pay $15 per day times 5 people (daughter has a friend with her), I may pull the first available time for Test Track at 11a and we won't make it over by then. If I wait, I probably won't get a LL at all. I did get a virtual queue for Remy and I am not planning to buy Genie+ today or any ILL. Basically, if you don't buy Genie+, you risk extremely long waits all day long. At least if you have it, you get on a 1-2 things you really want without a huge line.

Having to get up at 7am to book sucks. And I am a morning person and up at that time anyway usually. Yesterday, I really wished I could've slept in because we had been up at 2am the day before for our flight. That is not an option now if you want to book rides and actually get decent times. We haven't had issues with mobile ordering food. I have been ordering around 9am to be safe though and there are plenty of times available. It is extremely annoying though and also doesn't make any sense. At AKL, the Mara QS requires mobile ordering (food choices aren't great either, they don't even have all the food listed on the Disney website menu). Then, we drove over to Port Orleans yesterday to get beignets, and their QS is open, no mobile ordering required.

Do I still love Disney? Yes. Are we still having a great time? Yes. If you are the planner in the family, just prepare yourself to be attached to your phone at all times. Will I adapt to it? Most likely. I do not see myself doing twice a year trips anymore though. Once a year, I can deal with this and the costs because there is still always something to do, some good food remains, and we get to enjoy family time.

 

[Katie Dawn]

Thank you for sharing even though it is sad news.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Sorry to hear of the challenges. Thank you for sharing your honest experiences though as it is helpful for those who follow behind you.

Curious, you are there during an extremely busy week. Have you visited at Thanksgiving before? How do you wait experiences compare to before? Trying to gauge how much is the downfalls of Genie+ and how much is the crowd level.

Thanks!

 

[Disneyfamily145]

Thanks for relaying your experience! We will be at Disney starting the day after Christmas so I’m reading everyone’s experiences for this Thanksgiving holiday as a reflection of how it‘s going to be for Christmas.
For example- Dec 26th week there are NO park reservations available. I wasn’t keen on getting Genie+ and paying extra for LL but given that all the parks are up in capacity I’m assuming that we’ll have to rely on it as well as the rope drops and resort EMHs. $$$$$$$$$

 

[Delirium]

If you are the planner in the family, just prepare yourself to be attached to your phone at all times.

Just shaking my head at Disney management.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

Sorry to hear of the challenges. Thank you for sharing your honest experiences though as it is helpful for those who follow behind you.

Curious, you are there during an extremely busy week. Have you visited at Thanksgiving before? How do you wait experiences compare to before? Trying to gauge how much is the downfalls of Genie+ and how much is the crowd level.

Thanks!

I have been at Thanksgiving one other time. Easter a few times, and NYE a few times. We usually travel on school breaks so almost always traveling during very busy times. I don't think it's the crowds because when we were at MK on Thanksgiving day, I did not feel like the crush of people was "that bad". Granted, it was very busy, but not anything like NYE or Easter weeks I've experienced in the past. I don't think it's so much that the wait times are super different, I think it's that before, we had the option to at least pre-book 3 Fast Passes and know we could ride those rides. With this, there are no guarantees and that is the part that's stressful.

 

[tjmw2727]

We have been visiting during Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring break weeks over the past 10+ years so I can compare and I agree with the OP!!

It doesn't seem as crowded as far as walking paths; and mobile order for us has been a breeze but ADR's were hard to come by and unless you rope drop to park close in our experience G+ was a 2 ride purchase except for MK where we ended up with 4. I do like the parks tip board page with the dining options and mobile order times at each restaurant listed clearly in one place!

In past years knowing that we had 3 definite attractions and a nice meal planned we could then choose what shows to do and what lines to wait in between and be fine with just this. With Genie + it's more complicated to plan around a later day ADR and twice we passed on a favorite attraction for a lesser favorite due to the time slot available.

For us the value doesn't equal the cost especially when you consider the extra $ if you want to purchase a top tier ride.

We have already scaled back on our Christmas vacation buy cutting down from 7 Disney park days to 3 and moving offsite until the 30th for NYE.

eta - the app/internet issues make things even more complicated, we got bounced out of the app while booking G+ and or a an adr which means having to check your email for a code and logging back into MDE.

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

Weird glitch. We ordered Regal Eagle Smokehouse this morning for my husbands lunch (Mobile order required here) and it totally disappeared from my app. He put in his order. I purchased it. Went back to check in for it just now, it’s gone. Luckily, they still had openings. Still super frustrating especially since they force you to do this. Has this happened to anyone else??

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

Update: Epcot day. Got in Remy VQ at 7am. BG 64. It was called at 3p. We went back there and the line was an additional 40 minute wait. Pretty ridiculous so we ended up leaving.

 

[pixiedust2u]

Hi all, we are here now (arrived 11/24/21 super early). This isn't about strategy, just more of our experience so far. I am a super planner and don't mind planning. How we like to do Disney is do morning or mid-day park time and then back to resort, dinner, Disney Springs in the evenings. That is not really possible with Genie+ if you are wanting to ride as many rides as possible.

Day 1 we went to Animal Kingdom, and we were still in-flight when Genie+ booking and Individual LL became available, so I logged onto SW Wi-fi and was able to get ILL for FoP at 4:05pm. At first, I pulled really early time, but we wouldn't have been at the park yet so I refreshed after a minute and it already to 4:05pm. I also bought ILL for Expedition Everest and we got 3:20pm. MK day was 11/25/21 and Genie+ was slightly more useful there. The problem is, by the time you are allowed to book your next attraction, everything worthwhile is into the evening times. Since there are more rides in MK though, the Genie+ feels at least slightly better because you can stand-by some things (Under the Sea Little Mermaid had 15 min wait at 10am). Yesterday, 11/26/21, we did DHS. I bought Genie+ again, tried to rope drop for ToT and then use our first LL for Rock N Rollercoaster. By the time we made it through the crowds, ToT was at 50 minutes, which went by in about 35 minutes. LL for RR was 10:25am, but the ride went down so we got a "use anywhere but the fancy rides" LL which we used for Toy Story Mania. The teens really wanted to ride RR so I booked another LL for 8:25pm and told them they can go back later after dinner which ended up being okay. They just went in, rode, and rode the bus back to AKL.

Genie+ does not allow for any planning IMO. For example, we have dining reservations today at 9:25am at Polynesian. If I risk it and pay $15 per day times 5 people (daughter has a friend with her), I may pull the first available time for Test Track at 11a and we won't make it over by then. If I wait, I probably won't get a LL at all. I did get a virtual queue for Remy and I am not planning to buy Genie+ today or any ILL. Basically, if you don't buy Genie+, you risk extremely long waits all day long. At least if you have it, you get on a 1-2 things you really want without a huge line.

Having to get up at 7am to book sucks. And I am a morning person and up at that time anyway usually. Yesterday, I really wished I could've slept in because we had been up at 2am the day before for our flight. That is not an option now if you want to book rides and actually get decent times. We haven't had issues with mobile ordering food. I have been ordering around 9am to be safe though and there are plenty of times available. It is extremely annoying though and also doesn't make any sense. At AKL, the Mara QS requires mobile ordering (food choices aren't great either, they don't even have all the food listed on the Disney website menu). Then, we drove over to Port Orleans yesterday to get beignets, and their QS is open, no mobile ordering required.

Do I still love Disney? Yes. Are we still having a great time? Yes. If you are the planner in the family, just prepare yourself to be attached to your phone at all times. Will I adapt to it? Most likely. I do not see myself doing twice a year trips anymore though. Once a year, I can deal with this and the costs because there is still always something to do, some good food remains, and we get to enjoy family time.

This is really helpful feedback. And would be even more helpful for Disney to hear. The points about not being able to plan an ADR and effectively utilize Genie + is a huge disadvantage and is going to frustrate many guests. Also, I think it must be noted they market genie + as at least as good if not better than Fastpass + yet… your saying you’re paying for “one maybe two” experiences where you bypass standby.

it doesn’t seem that genie + has had any benefit to shorten standby lines by any significant amount, and on really busy days you can’t even get 1 or two additional reservations. Based on that I’d rather them just bring backFP+ as it was and charge a fee for it.

 

[MagicMoon]

Sadly this is how I felt this week as well.
(1-2 rides with Genie +, constantly on the phone, daily acquisition of passes in the morning, inability to modify an existing lightening lane, having to spend all day at the parks to utilize, lightening lane time changing after booking for another time). It was a very frustrating experience. I hope they reconsider the process. Otherwise, we will no longer be visiting twice a year.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Sadly this is how I felt this week as well.
(1-2 rides with Genie +, constantly on the phone, daily acquisition of passes in the morning, inability to modify an existing lightening lane, having to spend all day at the parks to utilize, lightening lane time changing after booking for another time). It was a very frustrating experience. I hope they reconsider the process. Otherwise, we will no longer be visiting twice a year.

That is absurd and there is no reason for it besides shoddy IT work.

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

I have been at Thanksgiving one other time. Easter a few times, and NYE a few times. We usually travel on school breaks so almost always traveling during very busy times. I don't think it's the crowds because when we were at MK on Thanksgiving day, I did not feel like the crush of people was "that bad". Granted, it was very busy, but not anything like NYE or Easter weeks I've experienced in the past. I don't think it's so much that the wait times are super different, I think it's that before, we had the option to at least pre-book 3 Fast Passes and know we could ride those rides. With this, there are no guarantees and that is the part that's stressful.

We also loved FP+ for this reason and I am sad it's gone.

Trying to remember what we liked about the old paper FPs - because we did like that system as well - and I guess it's just that there were more available.

Back then, you had to rope drop and immediately go to the TSMM FP machines and pull FPs. they would be gone for the entire day in a short amount of time - but not 30 seconds. I think it was like 45 minutes?

it also seemed that you could predict pretty well what you would get - so for Epcot day your group would head to Soarin and one would go to TT to pull FPs and then join the group on line at Soarin (the "FP runner" would join). I think maybe that was somewhat controversial (you know, the line cutting and all) but most accepted a FP runner joining there group without much push back.

But you would know that you get a TT FP for something like 10 or 11 am with pretty good certainty.

Genie+ seems more random?? or is it just they push out further so much quicker?

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

Sadly this is how I felt this week as well.
(1-2 rides with Genie +, constantly on the phone, daily acquisition of passes in the morning, inability to modify an existing lightening lane, having to spend all day at the parks to utilize, lightening lane time changing after booking for another time). It was a very frustrating experience. I hope they reconsider the process. Otherwise, we will no longer be visiting twice a year.

Same happened to us. I actually forgot about that because my daughter was booking a LL and she said "it's at 10:15am", but by the time she went through the prompts, it made it 12:15pm and she didn't realize. Again, it's like you have to screenshot everything and triple check. Not fun. Sorry you're having the same experience

 

[Aimeedyan]

Sorry to hear of the challenges. Thank you for sharing your honest experiences though as it is helpful for those who follow behind you.

Curious, you are there during an extremely busy week. Have you visited at Thanksgiving before? How do you wait experiences compare to before? Trying to gauge how much is the downfalls of Genie+ and how much is the crowd level.

Thanks!

We are semi-local and do Thanksgiving at Disney every year. This year felt like 2019 to me; crowded, but not miserably so. I've never found Thanksgiving to hold a candle to other peak times personally. For instance - I never once waited in line to use the restroom. That, to me, is a good indicator on crowds. We could easily walk down Main St at 1pm on Thanksgiving Day.

I have no interest in Genie+ so if we rode anything, it was standby and just like previous months, every wait was grossly overestimated. I can't help but think if that's their way of selling more Genie+. MMRR on Thanksgiving night? Posted 40. Waited 10. Barnstormer on Thanksgiving Day at 2pm? Posted 40. Waited 15. But we have a young toddler, visit every couple of weeks, and save the biggies for low crowd days so no doubt others faced long lines.

We had a FANTASTIC 4 day staycation but obviously our touring style is really different from people who drop $$$ on big family trips. I'm frustrated for those trying to use Genie+ to their advantage who have spent money and time on it. Every blue umbrella we passed was packed with people so I get the feeling there is a lot of frustration/trouble with it.

 

[twodogs]

That is absurd and there is no reason for it besides shoddy IT work.

I think it is just that with so many people all booking simultaneously at 7am on the dot, the system offers a time to many, but by the time some get through the confirmation screens, the slots have filled for “your“ time, so the booked time is later than what was originally offered. This used to happen at DLR with MaxPass, but the time difference was only 10-15 minutes, not two hours as OP stated happened with G+. I have read with ILL$, the time you are offered/picked is “held” for you for 10 minutes so you can complete the purchase.

But I agree that Disney DEFINITELY has shoddy IT!!!

 

[MagicMoon]

I agree, more than likely too many people booking at 7am. I found it odd though that I purposefully waited for a 7 pm slot (after quickly refreshing 3times), only for it to then be a 2-3 pm booking once confirmed. Then it’s a gamble if you cancel. It would be better if you could modify an existing lightening lane (Genie +) pick. I do like how you can pick your time with ILL.

 

[fbarker]

Just shaking my head at Disney management.

You mean mis-management!! **S**

 

[princess jasmine 76]

We have been visiting during Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring break weeks over the past 10+ years so I can compare and I agree with the OP!!

It doesn't seem as crowded as far as walking paths; and mobile order for us has been a breeze but ADR's were hard to come by and unless you rope drop to park close in our experience G+ was a 2 ride purchase except for MK where we ended up with 4. I do like the parks tip board page with the dining options and mobile order times at each restaurant listed clearly in one place!

In past years knowing that we had 3 definite attractions and a nice meal planned we could then choose what shows to do and what lines to wait in between and be fine with just this. With Genie + it's more complicated to plan around a later day ADR and twice we passed on a favorite attraction for a lesser favorite due to the time slot available.

For us the value doesn't equal the cost especially when you consider the extra $ if you want to purchase a top tier ride.

We have already scaled back on our Christmas vacation buy cutting down from 7 Disney park days to 3 and moving offsite until the 30th for NYE.

eta - the app/internet issues make things even more complicated, we got bounced out of the app while booking G+ and or a an adr which means having to check your email for a code and logging back into MDE.

Our family travels every year for Thanksgiving also and I agree 1 million percent with your synopsis.

 

[bobdacat]

I agree seems like a sneaky way to promote Genie+ by inflating wait times. Most likely will not use when we go down, maybe the fancy rides at best.