Very impressed- you seem to have had a great trip and you were able to make wonderful use of the time, even with so many ride outages... Thanks for taking the time to share. (Haven't had the pleasure of Genie + yet, coming up this spring and not looking forward to it.) You seem to have done really well on a busy weekend- love to hear any tips you have to share.
Hey Counting Stars, if you haven't used
Genie+ yet, I recommend starting here:
WDW Prep School, and reading her info first. I like the info here on the boards, but sometimes it is too much and I just want straight info. That site also breaks down which rides to book first, etc.
But here is what I know and what works for us.
We use the "stacking" method. I book my Genie+ plus selections for the afternoon when the parks are the busiest. We use the morning to knock out rides that tend to have shorter wait times. Keep in mind buying Genie+ is completely optional. But yes, we buy Genie+ multi-park experience each day. We are family of 3, only going to the parks for a few days. We aren't there for a week or 10 days where you can just spread out what you do. We also buy the paid lightning lanes ($LL), think Tron, Guardians, 7DMT.... We buy those and use them to fill afternoon slots.
I do modify my Genie+ selections to get them to the time slots I want. This is the key to booking that first Genie+ option at 7:00 am. You can't pick your time, you get what you get. But you CAN modify. You just have to watch the times. It might feel like you are on your phone a lot, but I'm using my phone to take pictures, so yep, I'm already on it.
At 7:00 am my hubby is helping with booking. Depending on your park that day you have Virtual Queues you are trying to get and you want to buy your paid LL and book your first Genie+ selection.
7:00 am - Virtual Queue for Tron or Guardians - all hands on deck!
Then my husband buys our $LL's depending on the park - these you can pick your time window.
I am booking our first Genie+ selection
If the park opens at 8:00 (not early entry time, official park opening), you can book your next Genie+ selection at 10:00 am. I set alarms on my phone to go off every 2 hours. The
MDE app will also tell you what time you can book. The alarms helped me to not miss my next selection time. I also don't stress if I don't get the perfect time slot. You have a 1 hour window to redeem your Genie+ selection.
Always happy to help and answer questions!