Claudette’s single rider (Genie+) report - April /May 2022

[Claudette]

I have done a few dining reports before and currently have one live (linked below) but I have never been tempted to write a trip report before now. However with all the changes, the general busyness at WDW and the less than popular new Genie+ system, I thought I would share my experiences this time.

Anyone that has read my dining reports will know that I normally travel with husband “Nev”, a Harry Potter tribute alias. But this time I am alone as Nev does not like the look of the WDW changes.

I am not planning to go offsite or visit any other parks, so there might not be a lot of variety in this report. I will declare upfront that it is primarily going to be focused on my experiences in the parks and using Genie+.

I am an on-site guest and currently at the Boardwalk Inn, a week on Saturday I will move to the Contemporary for my final three nights. I always intended to get Genie+ and a week before travel I decided to add it into my booking for the duration of my travel.

Below I will keep an index and will link each day to the relevant post in the thread as I will keep a single thread running. The park listed is the one I hold a park reservation for, but there could be some park hopping.

INDEX

Arrival day: Hollywood Studios
Day 1: Animal Kingdom
Day 2: Hollywood Studios
Day 3: Magic Kingdom
Day 4: EPCOT
Day 5: Park free day
Day 6: Hollywood Studios & Magic Kingdom
Day 7: EPCOT & Hollywood Studios
Day 8: Hollywood Studios
Day 9: Magic Kingdom
Day 10: EPCOT
Day11: Animal Kingdom
Departure day:

[loves2plan]

Looking forward to reading along and hearing your experiences

[Claudette]

Originally Posted by loves2plan

Looking forward to reading along and hearing your experiences

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Thank you. Arrival day coming up, it got off to a barnstorming start.

[ClaireNJ]

Sounds like a fab solo trip, I’m looking forward to it 🇺🇸❤️
So much better when it’s live as we can follow along too 🙊
Have FUN x

[Claudette]

I flew from Gatwick with BA and in club world. I opted to do an in person covid test, I really don’t fancy the online ones, so I booked the drive through Express Test at Gatwick airport and once done I made my way to the Gatwick Hilton for the night.

I competed VeriFLY the afternoon before but being in club I felt no compulsion to do twilight check in as I like to keep my bag with me. I didn’t even do online check in and got a bit of a shock in the morning when I saw the queue for club, I counted and there seems 27 people ahead of me, which is pretty unheard of! Fortunately it was super quick and it was 25 minutes from leaving my hotel room to clearing security.

I had two new experiences to contend with at Orlando airport. The first was Global Entry, I completed the approval process in LAX in January so this was my first time flying as a fully fledged GE member. I thought I would be merely using a different lane, but there are some machines that you need to go to first to get a ticket. Some people got their ticket by nothing more than facial recognition, whereas others had to scan their passport as well, I was facially recognised. The whole immigration process took no more than five minutes. I expected that I would then be waiting an hour for bags, but these also started coming off within maybe a further 5-10 minutes. The carousel was getting packed with cases, because it was that quick most people were still in the immigration line! Worked for me though.

My other first at Orlando airport was Mears Connect, the replacement Disney Magical Express. Well I have never been on the Magical Express either, I just have never fancied the idea of it and have heard horror stories of the waits. But I decided I should give it a go.

Well I should have trusted my earlier instincts. Never again! I waited 40-45 minutes before I gave up, by then the line was starting to stretch beyond the Mears check in desks, adults were sat on the floor, children lying on the floor getting a nap. Yes, never again indeed. I thought I would share those travel day experiences as everybody hopes for a smooth travel day but now onto the main point of my report…

I was always intending to go to Hollywood Studios on my first night, but before I pre purchased Genie+ I had thought I would just take a wander around and look for short queues. Since I had pre-purchased it, I thought I need to try and make the most of it, so I decided to splash out on BA Wi-Fi and see what I could do.

I first went on the MDE app at what would have been 9:25am Orlando time. I had checked into the WDW hotel online and was good to go, within seconds, I appeared to have accidentally booked a Tower of Terror lightening lane, which I was pretty pleased with. But it was an accident of scrolling and I decided to throw it back and try again. No more than five minutes of fiddle faddling and bingo, Slinky Dog 6:45pm. My flight was landing at 3:20pm.

At 2 hour intervals whilst still in the air, I went on the app and picked up Mickey & Minnie’s runaway train and then Toy Story. By the time I landed, pickings were getting slim and I realised I was not going to see Tower of Terror again. Also Rock n roller coaster appeared to have been down the entire day. I really wanted Aliens and at 7pm, whilst in the park, I got it.

Summary

I got the following lightening lanes, the time shown is the start of the window:

Slinky Dog Dash 6:45pm
Mickey & Minnie’s 7:00pm
Toy Story Mania 7:45pm
Aliens 8pm.

After I finished my lightening lane rides, I joined the Slinky Dog queue just before closing and got to ride in the dark. An excellent partial day at WDW.

[ClaireNJ]

Can’t believe you got all those rides while up in the air
That’s brilliant
What a let down the airport transfer was ☹️😩

[WIGGYSMUM]

Claudette what a fab travel day , apart from the airport transfer
Looking forward to reading the rest of your experiences 🤗

[Goldia]

I'm glad you decided to start a trip report to document your genie+ experiences. I'm looking forward to this. A successful start for travel day at HS. Good luck with AK today and I hope you have a fun trip.

[Claudette]

Originally Posted by ClaireNJ

Can’t believe you got all those rides while up in the air
That’s brilliant
What a let down the airport transfer was ☹️😩

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I know and not only got them but they so nicely stacked up timing wise too.

Originally Posted by WIGGYSMUM

Claudette what a fab travel day , apart from the airport transfer
Looking forward to reading the rest of your experiences 🤗

See more...

I live and learn and won’t be booking Mears again.

Originally Posted by Goldia

I'm glad you decided to start a trip report to document your genie+ experiences. I'm looking forward to this. A successful start for travel day at HS. Good luck with AK today and I hope you have a fun trip.

See more...

I’m not long back from AK and have an hour before I go to a last minute dining reservation so I will make a start now.

[Claudette]

I had planned quite a different day to the one I ended up having. I couldn’t decide whether to do Animal Kingdom first thing or last thing, so I came up with a plan to go first thing, leave the park and have a nice relaxing lunch somewhere and then go back and stay until close.

But after my long day yesterday, I didn’t feel up to an early start. Although I was awake, I fancied a slower start and so I had some resort time before heading over in the early afternoon.

At 7am I was online to see what was available. I found it was too early for all of the Genie+ rides because I wouldn’t be there early enough for the slots. Strangely Avatar was not available, even though I was logged on at 7am. I subsequently discovered it was down for most of the morning, as was Everest for a couple of hours.

It wasn’t worth booking anything until about 10am when I picked up a Navi River for the afternoon. Then just before I was heading over, Avatar came back online and I managed to slot that it and I booked Its Tough to be a Bug which was immediately available so I planned you go there first.

After I did my Bugs Life and then Pandora rides, I booked everything else one at a time working my way around from Pandora. Next was Kilimanjaro Safaris, then Everest which I went back on three more times back to back as a single rider, ending with Dinosaur. I could easily have added in Kali River, but I don’t like it so I didn’t. I think I could have easily fitted Lion King too if I had wanted.

My conclusion is that stacking wasn’t necessary and indeed doesn’t really work for Animal Kingdom as availabilities do not tend to be much in the future. The only exception today was Navi River which I did book several hours before I went on it. For everything else it was simple to book each in turn as and when required. I know a lot of people say Genie+ isn’t worth it for AK, but I think it helped to avoid a couple of long queues.

Summary

I cannot remember my exact timings today but my lightening lanes were along the lines of:

Tough to be a bug 1:30pm
Na’vi River 2:30pm
Avatar 3:15pm
Kilimanjaro 4:15pm
Everest 5:10pm
Dinosaur 5:55pm

That looks like some big gaps, but Avatar took forever loading, Kilimanjaro was about twice as long as normal due to giraffes and then rhinos on the path and after my Everest lightening lane I snuck in a few single rider turns. Another good day I think.