In our introduction to Genie+, we talked about what Genie+ is and how it works. In this installment of our series on Genie+, we will discuss some strategies to make the most of your Genie+ purchase.
But First, Disclaimers
Obviously, it is difficult, if not impossible, to come up with a park strategy that will work for everyone in every situation. There are so many variables that could disrupt even the best laid plans of the Mouse and men (and women):
- Changes to what rides are and are not eligible for Genie+
- Ride closures
- Time of year
- Weather
- Changes to how Genie+ works
- Luck
So while we believe that the general concepts of our strategy below are sound, they might not be perfect for everyone on every day. Feel free to take the concepts and “salt to taste” based upon your own preferences and experiences.
Main Goal = Maximize Time Savings
The goal of our strategy is to maximize the amount of time you can save with Genie+. And in the context of Genie+, saving time equates to minimizing the time spent waiting on line. Let’s face it, while waiting on lines at WDW is a necessary evil to some extent, it really isn’t how we want to spend our vacation. Now Disney has done a decent job at plussing up some of their ride queues to make them a little more interesting. However, given a choice between standing in line or pretty much anything else, I think most people would choose “pretty much anything else”
With that in mind, we feel that it is best to use Genie+ on rides with the longest wait times.
If you take nothing else away from this article, please at least remember this.
General Strategy
With the goal of using Genie+ on the rides with the longest wait times, here is our general recommended strategy
- Before 7am: Purchase Genie+ so that you are ready to make your first ride selection right at 7am
- 7am SHARP: Select the ride that generally has the longest wait time and limited Genie+ availability
- When your next Genie+ window opens (either because you have checked in to your previous selection or it has been two hours since your last selection or park opening), select a ride that generally has the next longest wait time
- Repeat #3 until you run out of rides to select
- While you are waiting for your next reservation time, use the standby line for rides with shorter wait times
- (OPTIONAL) Arrive at the park in time for “rope drop” (i.e. when they drop the rope to allow guests to start boarding rides) to ride popular attractions using the standby line which might have shorter wait times early in the day. This is especially effective if you can take advantage of early entry for WDW hotel guests.
Some Items of Note
There are a couple of items to be aware of with this strategy.
First, popular rides with long standby wait times are going to be popular Genie+ selections as well. Because of this, it is likely that your Genie+ return time is going to be later in the day, even if you make your reservation at 7am. If you remember from our previous article, Genie+ return times are handed out in time order. You don’t have any control over what time you get. So if lots of people reserve a ride before you, even if it is milliseconds before you, your reservation could be in the afternoon (or evening) for many popular rides.
There are some ways to handle this, if you are willing to put in some work. Genie+ allows you to modify a reservation time. If the time is too early, just come back to the app later and see if the next available time is later in the day. This may be a good strategy if you got an afternoon time but you really wanted to take an afternoon break and would rather have an evening time.
In addition, as people change and cancel their reservations, it is possible that an earlier reservation suddenly comes available. You can stalk the app, refreshing the availability times and if an earlier time becomes free, modify your reservation to snag it!
Of course, looking for better times is hit or miss. Plus, it requires you to bury your nose in your phone which might not be the way you want to spend your vacation. However, you might get some good results even if you limit your checking to bathroom breaks, snack stops, and the like.
The second item to be aware of is a consequence of the first. Because your reservations might be later in the day, you will likely be able to make fewer reservations. It is likely that your reservations for a popular ride will be more than two hours away, so you will have to wait the full two hours before making your next one.
However, keep in mind that the goal isn’t to get the most reservations but to save the most time!
Rides that don’t have long wait times will generally be available within two hours, but there isn’t much point in using Genie+ for these rides since the time savings will not be that great. So, even though our strategy might reduce the total number of Lightning Lanes you can get, you will save more time because you’ll be using them on the most popular rides.
Magic Kingdom
[Note: Thanks to thrill-data.com for providing wait time data and Genie+ availability data which helped in putting together these lists. I would highly encourage readers to explore this site if you want to do a deeper dive]
In the remaining sections, I am going to list out what rides to target for Genie+ reservations. I am going to list out the top 5 (or so) rides which have the longest lines. In addition, I am going to highlight in bold the rides which also are very popular with Genie+ reservations. If you want to ride any of these bolded options, you should use snag reservations for these rides early, rather than waiting. If you wait, you might find that there are no more reservations left for them!
Here are the Genie+ attractions at MK that generally have the longest wait times:
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Jungle Cruise
- Space Mountain
- Meet Mickey at Town Square Theater
- Haunted Mansion
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
If Peter Pan and/or Jungle Cruise are on your “must-do” list, I would suggest snagging reservations for these two rides first. Alternatively, you can get a Genie+ reservation for one and rope drop the other.
Note that while Seven Dwarves Mine Train is not a Genie+ ride, it does offer Individual Lightning Lanes as a separate purchase. If you want to ride it, consider getting an ILL for it. If you do decide to go this route, make sure you reserve it ASAP, since this is a popular ILL selection.
Epcot
Here are the Genie+ attractions at Epcot that can have long wait times:
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
- Frozen Ever After
- Test Track
- Soarin’ Around the World
All three of the bolded rides above are prone to running out of Genie+ reservations by mid-afternoon if not earlier, so I would definitely prioritize these three if any of them are on your “must-do” list. If you need to ride all three, I would plan on rope dropping one, and then trying to use Genie+ for the other two, just in case you can’t get a reservation for all three.
If I had to pick one to prioritize over the others, I would choose Remy. Not only does it have some of the longest wait times currently, but it is also an extremely popular Genie+ choice.
Guardian’s of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind is available as an ILL. However, it is also available as a virtual queue, which means you can reserve a return window free through the application. I would only purchase an ILL if you can’t get into the virtual queue.
Animal Kingdom
Here are the Genie+ attractions at AK with longer wait times:
- Navi River Journey
- Kilimanjaro Safaris
- Meet Favorite Disney Pals at Adventurer’s Outpost
- Expedition Everest
- Kali River Rapids (depending upon the time of year)
Honestly, I don’t really feel like it is worth getting Genie+ at Animal Kingdom, given that most wait times are pretty reasonable without it on most days. But if you do, above are some rides to prioritize.
On the other hand, I do think that the ILL for Flight of Passage is definitely worthwhile. This is a super popular ride with wait times that can be measured in multiple hours. Therefore, you can save a lot of time by purchasing an ILL for this ride. In fact, I would use the money I would have spent on Genie+ to purchase this ILL and call it a day!
Hollywood Studios
Last but not least, here are the most popular Genie+ attractions at HS:
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
- Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Millennium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
- Toy Story Mania
I not only bolded Slinky Dog Dash, but I italicized it as well. This is, by far, the most popular Genie+ reservation. If you want to get a reservation for it, I would highly recommend that you get it at 7am sharp. And even then, you might get a return time late in the day.
HS also has the distinction of having the most popular ILL: Rise of the Resistance! If you want to save a few hours standing in line, snag an ILL for this ride ASAP. For non-Disney resort guests, it is possible that you might not be able to get one at all, since Disney guests will have a two hour head start on you. But don’t despair. Keep refreshing that app and maybe you will get lucky!
If all else fails, you can rope drop either Slinky Dog Dash or Rise of the Resistance. However, be prepared to arrive super early so you are right at the front of the line when the rope drops!
One Final Note
If you are visiting the parks during a super busy time of year (ex: Christmas, Spring Break), all bets are off. You should probably have reasonable expectations about what you will be able to do with crowds at their highest level. My suggestion is forget about any strategies. Just pick the 3 or 4 rides that you really want to do and target those for your Genie+ reservations. Then anything else you are able to do will be gravy!
I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have your own special Genie+ strategies, please let us know about them in the comments. We would love to hear about them!
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