The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

[Disturbia]

It is an advantage though if it lets you pull a new LL after every one you use regardless of whether you are stacked. Yes you’re not going to be able to do LL’s those first few hours, but the rest of teh day you’re going to be pulling twice as many. This is a bigger advantage the later the park is open.

Each time you pull one you have to wait 2 hours, so if you pulled 3, you wasted 6 hours with no Genie+

 

[g-dad66]

Some more data points from today:

AK at 10:00 (2 hours after park opening)
Safari return time: 11:40
Navi return time: 12:05

MK at 11:00 (2 hours after park opening)
Jungle Cruise: 2:05
Peter Pan: 1:55
Big Thunder: 1:05
Haunted Mansion: 12:55
Pirates: 12:15
Splash: 1:05

HS at 11:00 ( 2 hours after park opening)
Millenium Falcon: 4:25
RnRC: 1:05
ToT: 12:30
TSM: 12:10

EP at 12:00 (2 hours after park opening)
Soarin 12:40
Mission Space 12:10

If we get our first LL for Peter Pan or Jungle Cruise, SDD, and Test Track (all possibly with return times more than 2 hours out, I wanted to see what availability might be like for our second LL. (Not an issue for AK obviously but was just curious about it too.)

Think we will Early Entry rope drop for Space Mtn, MMRR, Frozen, and Navi (possibly FoP but we'll probably go ILL$ on it).

 

[rmclain73]

Each time you pull one you have to wait 2 hours, so if you pulled 3, you wasted 6 hours with no Genie+

yes but it doesn’t matter if standby waits aren’t too bad. They are pretty manageable if you go first thing in the morning. You’re going to end up waiting at some point with Genie+.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Each time you pull one you have to wait 2 hours, so if you pulled 3, you wasted 6 hours with no Genie+

No that’s the whole point. You only have to wait the two hours once. After that you can pull a new one every time you’ve tapped into a ride. You only need to stack two to get double the ll’s for the rest of the day by pulling every time you swipe in.

 

[Disturbia]

No that’s the whole point. You only have to wait the two hours once. After that you can pull a new one every time you’ve tapped into a ride. You only need to stack two to get double the ll’s for the rest of the day by pulling every time you swipe in.

Wait. I thought at 11 am I pull a 4-5; at1 pm pull 5-6 and 3 pm pull 6-7

so nothing 9-11, 11:01-1:01 and 1:02-3

are you saying I can get all evening slots booked on top of each other 11 am onwards?

 

[Disturbia]

Per allears:

“One of the most complicated aspects of Genie+ is the two-hour cool-down rule. When you book a Lightning Lane with Genie+ you can book a new one either when you use your existing Lightning Lane or two hours after selection time.

Theoretically, though, you could even stack more than two Lightning Lanes. If after your Slinky Dog Dash cool down at 11AM, you booked a 5PM Tower of Terror; you would then be able to book a third Lightning Lane after another two-hour cool down at 1PM.

If you made your 7PM Slinky Dog Dash selection after park open, your cool down begins at selection time. So, if you booked at 9:32AM, you’ll be able to book a new Lightning Lane at 11:32AM.”

For a minute there I though I was going crazy

 

[ucf_knight]

I'm really trying to think through HS day. No hopper.

I think my plan is going to be to buy individual LL for rise and MMRR- aiming for like the 12-2pm slots. I plan to use my early entry to head toward TT and rocking roller coaster. Im solo
So I can use single rider at RR. So right now my debate is do I go for SDD as my first genie or smugglers run. I think if I can get an earlier return time I would go for SDD.. I just don't know.. need to learn more.

Smugglers has a single rider too

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Wait. I thought at 11 am I pull a 4-5; at1 pm pull 5-6 and 3 pm pull 6-7

so nothing 9-11, 11:01-1:01 and 1:02-3

are you saying I can get all evening slots booked on top of each other 11 am onwards?

No, that’s not the idea. The idea is to pull two stacked LL’s as early as possible (adjusted for when you plan to be in the park). Once you have two, you will always be able to have two at a time, effectively doubling the number of LL’s you can pull throughout the day. This is because every time you tap into one, you can immediately pull another (again assuming that detail is accurate with regard to stacking). So, by way of example, you pull LL #1 for 11:05 AM first thing in the morning. Then at 11:00 AM (120 minutes past park opening), you pull a second LL. You now have two LL’s at once. For the rest of the day, you will be able to have two at once. This is an advantage. This appears to me to be the game theory optimal strategy for most folks, again assuming that you can use stacked LL’s like this.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Per allears:

“One of the most complicated aspects of Genie+ is the two-hour cool-down rule. When you book a Lightning Lane with Genie+ you can book a new one either when you use your existing Lightning Lane or two hours after selection time.

Theoretically, though, you could even stack more than two Lightning Lanes. If after your Slinky Dog Dash cool down at 11AM, you booked a 5PM Tower of Terror; you would then be able to book a third Lightning Lane after another two-hour cool down at 1PM.

If you made your 7PM Slinky Dog Dash selection after park open, your cool down begins at selection time. So, if you booked at 9:32AM, you’ll be able to book a new Lightning Lane at 11:32AM.”

For a minute there I though I was going crazy

There’s going to be a maximum number of LL’s you should attempt to stack which will vary based on the park hours for the day. We have incomplete information right now on trends including how frequently these times fill up, but I’m confident the optimal strategy is to use stacking to some degree, with adjustments to that strategy based upon crowd level and park hours.

 

[masupo]

Wait. I thought at 11 am I pull a 4-5; at1 pm pull 5-6 and 3 pm pull 6-7

so nothing 9-11, 11:01-1:01 and 1:02-3

are you saying I can get all evening slots booked on top of each other 11 am onwards?

No, that’s not the idea. The idea is to pull two stacked LL’s as early as possible (adjusted for when you plan to be in the park). Once you have two, you will always be able to have two at a time, effectively doubling the number of LL’s you can pull throughout the day. This is because every time you tap into one, you can immediately pull another (again assuming that detail is accurate with regard to stacking). So, by way of example, you pull LL #1 for 11:05 AM first thing in the morning. Then at 11:00 AM (120 minutes past park opening), you pull a second LL. You now have two LL’s at once. For the rest of the day, you will be able to have two at once. This is an advantage. This appears to me to be the game theory optimal strategy for most folks, again assuming that you can use stacked LL’s like this.

Here is a Iink to a video by Kyle Pallo where he discovers what he thinks is a glitch, but is actually stacking two LL's and rolling them continuously after each ride. Some viewers let him know that later in the video.

He went to MK in the morning, left for awhile then went back in the afternoon. Without realizing it, he made a second LL two hours later and was able to carry two at a time after multiple rides.

 

[AndreaA]

I’m curious about what the STANDBY waits were for the rides with distant return times.

 

[AndreaA]

Here is a Iink to a video by Kyle Pallo where he discovers what he thinks is a glitch, but is actually stacking two LL's and rolling them continuously after each ride. Some viewers let him know that later in the video.

He went to MK in the morning, left for awhile then went back in the afternoon. Without realizing it, he made a second LL two hours later and was able to carry two at a time after multiple rides.

I’m not sure why people are saying this is “doubling” LLs. You aren’t doubling your amount of LLs, you’re just carrying one single “extra” and it’s not really an “extra” since if you’d made it for an earlier time, you’d have likely had multiple other LLs before that return time.

First, it’s all just conjecture as to whether or not you’ll be able to pull a later return time first thing in the morning, much less continue to get later return times throughout the day. Why not just aim to get something early and then continue pulling as you go? You’ll end up riding the exact same amount because you’ll be pulling your second LL at 9am and thus have earlier return times for anything you are looking for than if you aren’t pulling your second until 11am or later.

 

[Disturbia]

Here is a Iink to a video by Kyle Pallo where he discovers what he thinks is a glitch, but is actually stacking two LL's and rolling them continuously after each ride. Some viewers let him know that later in the video.

He went to MK in the morning, left for awhile then went back in the afternoon. Without realizing it, he made a second LL two hours later and was able to carry two at a time after multiple rides.

This doesn't contradict what I'm saying. He is booking future rides only and riding current rides standby after riding his initial pass and rolling it until he secures a pass late afternoon. So at 7am he had a current Genie+ for early am but at 11 am when he got the late afternoon, he then had to ride standby big thunder and he does take breaks to eat etc.

IF at the time he rode Big Thunder that had a 1 hour wait and at Peter pan's flight time late pm wait was 20 mins, he was at a disadvantage, you are giving up using Genie+ now for later. But like Jojo pointed out Genie+ is not worth it in the morning, so booking evening passes are better. Jojo couldn't get it to work because he probably doesn't have a pass over 2 hours away.

 

[masupo]

.

 

[Disturbia]

The real question I have (which will really throw fuel on this fire) is:

Can I stack evening Genie+ passes without tapping into the park (say in flight or from the poolside bar)?

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

Here is a Iink to a video by Kyle Pallo where he discovers what he thinks is a glitch, but is actually stacking two LL's and rolling them continuously after each ride. Some viewers let him know that later in the video.

He went to MK in the morning, left for awhile then went back in the afternoon. Without realizing it, he made a second LL two hours later and was able to carry two at a time after multiple rides.

Wow. I just dont’ see how that isn’t going to be the optimal strategy for most people. Being able to roll two lightning lanes throughout the day is almost always going to be superior to grabbing one at a time. It lets you essentially have two LL “paths.” One “path” allows you to grab some of the more popular attractions even though there may be a gap between them time wise. The second path lets you grab less popular filler attractions in between the headliners. Using both of them together probably lets you avoid standby lines altogether on all but the busiest of days.

Edit: This is for Magic Kingdom and/or park-hopping. In the other parks I don’t think there are enough rides for this to matter as much.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I’m not sure why people are saying this is “doubling” LLs. You aren’t doubling your amount of LLs, you’re just carrying one single “extra” and it’s not really an “extra” since if you’d made it for an earlier time, you’d have likely had multiple other LLs before that return time.

You are doubling your LL’s because you are doubling the number of conditions which reset your cooldown and allow you to pull more. If your goal is to get as many LL attractions as possible in a day, in a park like MK you’re almost always going to be able to pull more if you can pull 2 at a time then if you can pull one at a time. It also allows you to pull headliners that may be a few hours away without having a huge gap in your plans because you can use your other LL to pull non-headliners to fill the gaps.

 

[Disturbia]

I'm not going to rope drop and have no interest in riding everything, only a select few rides standby and Genie+ and then will book an afternoon LL and at least one LLIA$. In my case, I'm less likely to do the stacking and will really take a pool break and not look at my phone constantly in the afternoon for riding a 2 min park ride. There are other things to do in the parks besides rides which we enjoy.

IF someone wants to be glued to their phone and look like TWD (as another poster had commented), more power to them. We have never done rope drop and will never do it even if it meant skipping my most beloved ride - FOP

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

The real question I have (which will really throw fuel on this fire) is:

Can I stack evening Genie+ passes without tapping into the park (say in flight or from the poolside bar)?

I’m pretty sure this has been answered (in the large thread) and the answer is yes.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

I'm not going to rope drop and have no interest in riding everything, only a select few rides standby and Genie+ and then will book an afternoon LL and at least one LLIA$. In my case, I'm less likely to do the stacking and will really take a pool break and not look at my phone constantly in the afternoon for riding a 2 min park ride. There are other things to do in the parks besides rides which we enjoy.

I will never rope drop either. I think the stacking strategy I’m referencing is actually better for people like us. I’m not going to be in the parks before 11 am on most days anyway with a 2 year old and a 6 year old, so i can grab my first LL a few minutes before opening for 2+ hours out on some headliner, then pull my second LL at 11 when I get there, and now I’m stacked for the day. I don’t think that’s going to be too difficult to accomplish given the reported return times thus far.