Do we really have time to go back to resort for break mid-day?

[Belle5]

We are long-time Disney vacation veterans (more than 40 vacations). I have been watching videos of folks going through their park days using Genie+ and as I watch I am wondering, "Where is our pool time/relaxation time fitting into this equation"? Please tell me that if we play/pay Disney's new game called Genie+, we will, indeed, have time to return to our resort/lazy river to enjoy some down-time! I would like to hear from anyone who also prioritizes this time and has made it work within the new system. Thank you!

 

[FutureWorldShowcase]

We are long-time Disney vacation veterans (more than 40 vacations). I have been watching videos of folks going through their park days using Genie+ and as I watch I am wondering, "Where is our pool time/relaxation time fitting into this equation"? Please tell me that if we play/pay Disney's new game called Genie+, we will, indeed, have time to return to our resort/lazy river to enjoy some down-time! I would like to hear from anyone who also prioritizes this time and has made it work within the new system. Thank you!

I'm wondering about this as well. We prefer to either rope drop and stay in the park until mid-afternoon, then call it quits and spend the evening swimming at the resort pool or rope drop, break in the middle of the day, park in the evening. It seems like G+ will make this very difficult to do while actually getting use from the extra money spent on it. I so miss being able to just book FP+ for the times that worked best for us and then being able to plan around that.

 

[randumb0]

I've always wondered how people had time to go back to the resort before Genie

 

[SLThomas318]

So I will say this was our frustration with Genie+. We have 2 young kids and go regularly so we tend to hit the parks early, break, and then go back for the evening. We only used Genie+ for a short 4 night trip right after Thanksgiving and struggled to make it work for our touring style. I could get a good time with the first selection at 7 am or for the rides I had to pay extra for (mine train, ROR), but after that it was a lot of work to find rides/times that fit our touring style. We were able to take our pool break, but it was much later in the day and then I spent most of it checking Genie+ to get evening plans set. It seems to work better if you are staying in the park all day or want to criss cross the park. We have a summer trip and are going to try some days without it… might try some days where we just stack for the evening. I’m hoping we find a way to make it work for our touring style.

 

[Disneylover99]

I would buy Genie for a day, maybe 2 at the MK. Spend the whole day at the parks using Genie. Then wing it (don’t buy Genie) and plan breaks on other park days. Go early, take a break, and maybe head back in the evening.

 

[ComeToSocialize]

If you strategically stack your G+ reservations for the evening, that’s probably the best plan. At MK you should be able to get 4 rides stacked for 5-7pm if you book them in the right order, plus ILL for 7DMT (an order like PP, Thunder, Haunted Mansion, Small World, something like that).

That would of course mean all standby in the morning though.

 

[teachmedis]

We always take midday breaks, usually from 12-4, sometimes they end up being longer or shorter than that depending on the weather and how we're feeling. My plan for HS and EPCOT is to stack for the evening. For MK, I'll grab a couple for the morning, then start the evening stack.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We are old and we never go back during the day. Have a drinky drink somewhere close, yes. Go back to the room no. Even when we are in MK we slip over to CR or Poly for a snip then back to the park.

 

[Moms]

We are rope droppers and mid-day break takers. It has always worked well for us and we stuck with that schedule the week before Christmas. We did purchase Genie + for MK and HS days but found it almost impossible to get more than one or two LL's for rides. It was very busy and by about 10:00 the LL's were coming up for afternoon, evening, or actually gone for the day. We are going for Spring Break and will likely skip Genie + and take advantage of early morning half-hour and evening extended hours and purchase an ILL for Rise of the Resistance and Flight of Passage. Anything else we will just relax and wait in line.

 

[DisneyFive]

I don’t think it will be a problem to find a Genie plus attraction that you can book which would leapfrog your pool time in the afternoon. Let’s say it’s noon and you are ready to go back to the resort, just book a genie plus for a popular attraction that is sometime after your pool time. Then while you are at the pool, two hours later, you can book/stack another one for the hours that you will also be back at the park.

The last few trips we also go back to the resort every day to nap or relax. The plan I mentioned is how we will do it

Dan

 

[Orsino]

We abandoned rope dropping mid vacation. Yesterday we slept in and used the pool before lunch. Then after lunch went to AK (no genie). It was wonderful. We are doing the same thing today and plan to use genie+ stack method to arrive at MK around 2:30-3:00 with three LL in hand and ready to book #4 at 3pm.

 

[kylenne]

This has been my big concern as well, because we have always been rope drop/ midday break/return for evening people. Age has nothing to do with it, with our brain stuff we get too overstimulated and exhausted being in a park all day. I’m thinking we will try out stacking pm rides on our G+ days. Hopefully the week after Labor Day will work in our favor crowd wise but who knows in this new normal.

 

[_19disnA]

We aren't the go-go-go types at Disney and the parks involve MILES of walking. Small children might also need a break or take a nap during the day. On hot/sunny days, you will likely find you need a break. If you have been to Disney many times, then you already know the parks/rides you prefer so I would assume you know where you want to spend your time. We haven't been to Disney since they started the whole Genie thing but it isn't going to change the way we visit the parks. Have always taken a break during the day and don't think that will ever change for us.

 

[Kingoglow]

If you strategically stack your G+ reservations for the evening, that’s probably the best plan. At MK you should be able to get 4 rides stacked for 5-7pm if you book them in the right order, plus ILL for 7DMT (an order like PP, Thunder, Haunted Mansion, Small World, something like that).

That would of course mean all standby in the morning though.

This is your answer. If you want to use Genie+ (you don't have to), then just select LL times for late afternoon when you think you will be back in that park. In the morning, buy Mine Train if you think that your family would enjoy it. Spend the rest of the morning standby on low crowd rides.

Especially since you have been on 40 vacations to WDW, I am POSITIVE that you can figure out what will work.

 

[PaladinButters]

I've always wondered how people had time to go back to the resort before Genie

The trick is to go a lot of days per trip or just a lot of trips. Eventually you don't mind if you're missing something in the parks to do the breaks.

 

[kylenne]

We abandoned rope dropping mid vacation. Yesterday we slept in and used the pool before lunch. Then after lunch went to AK (no genie). It was wonderful. We are doing the same thing today and plan to use genie+ stack method to arrive at MK around 2:30-3:00 with three LL in hand and ready to book #4 at 3pm.

Please let us know how this works out for you, I am very curious because I suspect this might be the move for us.

 

[MainMom]

I don’t think it will be a problem to find a Genie plus attraction that you can book which would leapfrog your pool time in the afternoon. Let’s say it’s noon and you are ready to go back to the resort, just book a genie plus for a popular attraction that is sometime after your pool time. Then while you are at the pool, two hours later, you can book/stack another one for the hours that you will also be back at the park.

The last few trips we also go back to the resort every day to nap or relax. The plan I mentioned is how we will do it

Dan

This is going to be my strategy also. Traveling in the summer we need our mid day breaks & pool time. I will try to grab one LL for the morning park at 7 and then from 11 on stack for our evening park.

 

[kps7795]

We are long-time Disney vacation veterans (more than 40 vacations). I have been watching videos of folks going through their park days using Genie+ and as I watch I am wondering, "Where is our pool time/relaxation time fitting into this equation"? Please tell me that if we play/pay Disney's new game called Genie+, we will, indeed, have time to return to our resort/lazy river to enjoy some down-time! I would like to hear from anyone who also prioritizes this time and has made it work within the new system. Thank you!

For our family, it is not worth a Disney World vacation if we are going to go from rope drop to fireworks. It would be a miserable experience to not have the break in the middle of the day. I would much rather sacrifice some rides and maximize our enjoyment by breaking up the day.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

We have always done mid-afternoon breaks... we did this pre-kids and have continued once we had the littles. We've just never been the ones who can go straight through a full day in the park - it's a vacation, so time by the pool to relax is just as much a priority for us as the parks are!

That said, afternoon breaks are harder in my opinion if you're depending on Disney buses for transportation. It eats up a lot of time between the waiting and the actual transportation time - so if you're spending an hour on transportation to get BACK to the resort and then BACK OUT to the park, you're throwing away 2 hours right off the bat. We prefer to stay at resorts where we can walk/monorail into a park or two because it makes the afternoon break so much easier and more convenient. If you're staying at somewhere with bus access only, I'd consider uber as a Disney bus alternative just so you can maximize the amount of time you're actually spending at the pool/in the room.

As far as Genie+ goes, this is one of my major hang ups about the service. It feels like buying Genie+ puts us in a position to "have" to spend a full day in the park in order to get the most for our money. Our next trip is a 10 day stay so I think what might wind up happening is we actually push through a few days that are more park-oriented with either very short or no breaks on Genie+ days, and then a few days that are relaxation and resort-oriented when we don't have Genie+. We do usually park hop after our break, so I'm thinking the other alternative is just to strategically plan the next Genie+ attraction for after the park hop and take it from there. It's going to be a learning process for sure.

 

[Orsino]

Please let us know how this works out for you, I am very curious because I suspect this might be the move for us.

Earlier this week we did a 5:15pm arrival at MK with 5 LL in hand. We rode 8 higher tier attractions in 4 hours. No swimming that day, but we could have if it was warmer. We hit Enchanted Rose for drinks instead. I’ll let you know how today goes. It’s a bit of an outlier since we have MK EE tonight.