The Genie Usage, Tips and Strategy ONLY Thread

I think to clarify how many G+ you can have, we need to stop thinking about it as "how many I am holding" and start thinking of it as:

You can get another G+LL when:
1) The clock of 120 min runs out OR
2) When you tap into a ride/attraction

Whichever is first

That's how it works.
It may need another 'or'. Or if your time runs out for an existing selection. In theory you can make a G+ for 9-10AM and even if you don't tp in, you will be able to make another at 10. If you do, you will not be able to make another at 11, just as if you had tapped in and had to wait. Not sure why anyone would do that, you should probably cancel the first for reasons explained above, but technically you will be able to select another efter your window has expired if you don't tap in.
 
Maybe this has been answered but I can’t seem to find the answer…
If we are hopping from AK to Hs (8 AM opening for AK, 9AM opening for HS), if we make a first LL at 7:00 for HS (trying to stalk LL in the afternoon for HS), can we make our second LL selection at 10:00 or only at 11:00?
If it’s at 11:00, would it be a good strategy to make a LL for 8-9 Navi, tap in that ride at 8:01 and make one LL for HS at 8:01 - then I guess I would be able to make one at 10:01?
 
Maybe this has been answered but I can’t seem to find the answer…
If we are hopping from AK to Hs (8 AM opening for AK, 9AM opening for HS), if we make a first LL at 7:00 for HS (trying to stalk LL in the afternoon for HS), can we make our second LL selection at 10:00 or only at 11:00?
If it’s at 11:00, would it be a good strategy to make a LL for 8-9 Navi, tap in that ride at 8:01 and make one LL for HS at 8:01 - then I guess I would be able to make one at 10:01?
If the park opens for all guests at 8am you should be able to make a reservation at 10am
 
Maybe this has been answered but I can’t seem to find the answer…
If we are hopping from AK to Hs (8 AM opening for AK, 9AM opening for HS), if we make a first LL at 7:00 for HS (trying to stalk LL in the afternoon for HS), can we make our second LL selection at 10:00 or only at 11:00?
If it’s at 11:00, would it be a good strategy to make a LL for 8-9 Navi, tap in that ride at 8:01 and make one LL for HS at 8:01 - then I guess I would be able to make one at 10:01?
From what someone here told me based on their personal experience with Epcot and HS, the 2 hours depends on the park you make the G+ selection in and not the park your reservation is for.
 
Maybe this has been answered but I can’t seem to find the answer…
If we are hopping from AK to Hs (8 AM opening for AK, 9AM opening for HS), if we make a first LL at 7:00 for HS (trying to stalk LL in the afternoon for HS), can we make our second LL selection at 10:00 or only at 11:00?
If it’s at 11:00, would it be a good strategy to make a LL for 8-9 Navi, tap in that ride at 8:01 and make one LL for HS at 8:01 - then I guess I would be able to make one at 10:01?
The two hours is counted from the opening time of the park the ride is in. So if your 7am booking is at HS, you can book next at 11. If it’s at AK, you can book next when you tap in or 10:00, whichever comes first. I personally tested this yesterday.

As to strategy, a lot depends on whether you want a Slinky Dog LL reservation. If you do, then you’ll need to grab it pretty early, and because HS isn’t your reserved park, that means you’re going to likely wait 2 hours after booking it. Millennium Falcon is kind of similar, in that if you wait on it, times will be gone or very late by the time you’re ready to hop. So your plan isn’t bad. Get Na’vi as close to 8 as you can, tap in and get Slinky. Ride standby for 2 hours and then get more AK rides until you see that your next HS ride is getting late, then switch to booking HS.

Honestly, I think it’s way easier to do HS first, then hop to AK than the other way around. But it really depends on the specific rides.
 
It may need another 'or'. Or if your time runs out for an existing selection. In theory you can make a G+ for 9-10AM and even if you don't tp in, you will be able to make another at 10. If you do, you will not be able to make another at 11, just as if you had tapped in and had to wait. Not sure why anyone would do that, you should probably cancel the first for reasons explained above, but technically you will be able to select another efter your window has expired if you don't tap in.
fixed it
 
Ok, so this is all confusing. Lol. But i think i finally worked out a strategy. At least for MK. That will work for us. I may just try stacking 2 eary. So JC at say 11 am and get another before tapping in. RD sdmt, and then PP and HM , then the mountians. From there roll the 2 genie + slots for the rest of the park. Hit space last. Then take a brake around 3 pm. Go back after dinner. Will it work well? IDK. We could re ride some of the stuff we did at RD in the evening.

HS is a biy easier for us, as the kido only wants SDD, and toy story land. Ill get a rise pass, and then maybe we will do something else. I did get the genie + for the other parks also, so we can rd and then get pases to ride 2x. Or sleep in, lol. All the 7 am stuff will make me tired!
 
This is the first time in years we will be doing hoppers. We only have 4 days so we want to maximize touring.

Instead of stacking for the afternoon park, couldn't I just use G+ during the morning, then when 11AM rolls around, start "stacking" LLs for the second park? Won't I only really be missing out on the 7AM additional LL? Seems kind of a waste to not use G+ in the AM just to have one extra LL waiting for me in the later park.

Not trying to be critical but just making sure I have my head around this correctly...
 
Instead of stacking for the afternoon park, couldn't I just use G+ during the morning, then when 11AM rolls around, start "stacking" LLs for the second park? Won't I only really be missing out on the 7AM additional LL? Seems kind of a waste to not use G+ in the AM just to have one extra LL waiting for me in the later park.
That makes sense. At 11am you’d have to pick a LL return window beyond 1:00. Then at 1:00 you could stack a second. So long as effective LL returns are available that would work. What will ultimately save more time in line is the question…..having a 3rd stack afternoon/evening in Park 2 when lines might be longer, or using G+ for a couple hours at open of Park 1 when lines might be shorter?
 
That's for one person. Family of four $132. That's the cost of a nice dinner. Multiply that by 5-7 days and it's a big chunk of change

If you are in the park for 5-7 days, I can't imagine you'd need G+ for all of those days. I can see using it for MK and HS for your first visits to those parks but I can't imagine you'd need it for re-visits and AK and EP given all those days.

For short trips and multi-park days, sure. We're spending an afternoon/evening at EP in December and I'm still not sure we'd need G+. We might do it anyway because it'll be our first day in the parks since it was announced and just to see how it all works, but I'm certain it's not necessary.
 
If you are in the park for 5-7 days, I can't imagine you'd need G+ for all of those days. I can see using it for MK and HS for your first visits to those parks but I can't imagine you'd need it for re-visits and AK and EP given all those days.

For short trips and multi-park days, sure. We're spending an afternoon/evening at EP in December and I'm still not sure we'd need G+. We might do it anyway because it'll be our first day in the parks since it was announced and just to see how it all works, but I'm certain it's not necessary.

This is what I’m thinking too. We are doing 9 nights with 8 day hoppers. I am trying to align our days to make G+ more beneficial. Like hopping between MK and DHS and getting G+ those days. On the days we hop between AK and EP I won’t get it. On a day we are just doing WS I won’t get it. It is having me mix up my days differently. We used to do MK/EP hop and AK/DHS hop.
 
That's for one person. Family of four $132. That's the cost of a nice dinner. Multiply that by 5-7 days and it's a big chunk of change
Yes that’s exactly what we’re looking at for 4 riders 7 days, so downgraded our resort; we probably will use it for 5-6 days. We do have ADRs 5 nights (food allergies so quick service takes 15-30 mins extra waiting for chef). We will not do park hopping as we want to enjoy each park and not turn it into a ride count challenge.
 
That's for one person. Family of four $132. That's the cost of a nice dinner. Multiply that by 5-7 days and it's a big chunk of change
So true, that is a big chunk of change. Also note, while Q didn't stand in line as long as M, M rode all the rides and was done before Q. Q had a lot of down time and a lot of time "fiddle faddling" trying to find a good time to ride. Q also had two snacks while M just had a cup of coffee but could easily have gotten a snack along with her cup of coffee and eaten it while walking to the next ride or even in the portion of the line that she was standing in before it became the usual line. It really depends on if your goal is to ride as many rides as you can or your goal is not be standing in lines. That might also depend on time of year. If you are standing in outside non-shaded lines in the middle of July (SDD I'm looking at you) it might be worth the shorter standing lines option. If it's winter and cooler and cloudy (ish) and you have the Kindle app on your phone, the standing in a long line might not be the bad option and save yourself some money and still get to ride as many rides.

It might also depend on your mind set. For example: my son and I have been going to the parks since long before any FP system so if you wanted to ride a ride, you stood in line. So, for us, standing in line is just sort of normal. We rarely used the recent FP system since we are not planners and had no idea what park we wanted to go to on any given day, much less what rides we would be in the mood to ride. We did sort of use the old paper FP system. When we did use the last FP system we only booked a FP if it was no longer than 30 min. out from when we thought we would be off the ride we were currently waiting in line for, since we always had park hoppers and weren't even sure we wanted to stay in the current park. We never booked more than one FP at a time. I don't see us constantly on our phone trying to find the next ride just so the line would be shorter. We do usually go for at least 6 days, 5 nights so even if we only get 5 day tickets, since those are always PHs, there is plenty of time to ride the rides we want to and not spend $45 a day extra (me, my son, his SO).
 
So true, that is a big chunk of change. Also note, while Q didn't stand in line as long as M, M rode all the rides and was done before Q. Q had a lot of down time and a lot of time "fiddle faddling" trying to find a good time to ride. Q also had two snacks while M just had a cup of coffee but could easily have gotten a snack along with her cup of coffee and eaten it while walking to the next ride or even in the portion of the line that she was standing in before it became the usual line. It really depends on if your goal is to ride as many rides as you can or your goal is not be standing in lines. That might also depend on time of year. If you are standing in outside non-shaded lines in the middle of July (SDD I'm looking at you) it might be worth the shorter standing lines option. If it's winter and cooler and cloudy (ish) and you have the Kindle app on your phone, the standing in a long line might not be the bad option and save yourself some money and still get to ride as many rides.

It might also depend on your mind set. For example: my son and I have been going to the parks since long before any FP system so if you wanted to ride a ride, you stood in line. So, for us, standing in line is just sort of normal. We rarely used the recent FP system since we are not planners and had no idea what park we wanted to go to on any given day, much less what rides we would be in the mood to ride. We did sort of use the old paper FP system. When we did use the last FP system we only booked a FP if it was no longer than 30 min. out from when we thought we would be off the ride we were currently waiting in line for, since we always had park hoppers and weren't even sure we wanted to stay in the current park. We never booked more than one FP at a time. I don't see us constantly on our phone trying to find the next ride just so the line would be shorter. We do usually go for at least 6 days, 5 nights so even if we only get 5 day tickets, since those are always PHs, there is plenty of time to ride the rides we want to and not spend $45 a day extra (me, my son, his SO).
From my experience, food is not allowed in the lines. They made us eat our dole whip before entering Jc even the outdoor queue that wasn’t in the roped official area (thirsty kids in direct sunlight; part of the family was waiting in line).

We were also told everyone including the baby has to wait in the outdoor line for SDMT if we wanted to do rider switch (20 mins of 60 min wait). This change was this June; we did rider switch old way nov 2020
 
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So true, that is a big chunk of change. Also note, while Q didn't stand in line as long as M, M rode all the rides and was done before Q. Q had a lot of down time and a lot of time "fiddle faddling" trying to find a good time to ride. Q also had two snacks while M just had a cup of coffee but could easily have gotten a snack along with her cup of coffee and eaten it while walking to the next ride or even in the portion of the line that she was standing in before it became the usual line. It really depends on if your goal is to ride as many rides as you can or your goal is not be standing in lines. That might also depend on time of year. If you are standing in outside non-shaded lines in the middle of July (SDD I'm looking at you) it might be worth the shorter standing lines option. If it's winter and cooler and cloudy (ish) and you have the Kindle app on your phone, the standing in a long line might not be the bad option and save yourself some money and still get to ride as many rides.

It might also depend on your mind set. For example: my son and I have been going to the parks since long before any FP system so if you wanted to ride a ride, you stood in line. So, for us, standing in line is just sort of normal. We rarely used the recent FP system since we are not planners and had no idea what park we wanted to go to on any given day, much less what rides we would be in the mood to ride. We did sort of use the old paper FP system. When we did use the last FP system we only booked a FP if it was no longer than 30 min. out from when we thought we would be off the ride we were currently waiting in line for, since we always had park hoppers and weren't even sure we wanted to stay in the current park. We never booked more than one FP at a time. I don't see us constantly on our phone trying to find the next ride just so the line would be shorter. We do usually go for at least 6 days, 5 nights so even if we only get 5 day tickets, since those are always PHs, there is plenty of time to ride the rides we want to and not spend $45 a day extra (me, my son, his SO).
They were just testing a specific list of rides though. In the 3 hours of saved time Quincy could have done a lot of other rides/attractions as well.
 

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