Genie 301: What's Stacking, Precious? 

Thank you, this is the best video on stacking that I’ve watched

Thank you so much for doing these teaching episodes! I just booked our trip and despite being VERY confident with everything else having gone many times, I was so confused on how to go about Genie+. I feel better about it now!! 🙏🏻❤️

This really changes our way of doing things at the park. We’re used to rope dropping and getting our rides in until 1:00 or so, then going back to the pool to relax, getting ready for our dinner reservation, and relaxing in the parks for the rest of the evening, going back to get plenty of sleep before getting up early the next day to rope drop the next park. This shifts everything to the evening, One problem I see is I have to make my dining reservations 60 days in advance, so I now have to work around my preexisting dinner reservation. Also, if I go to a different park in the morning, I have to rope drop that park to avoid the longest lines, so I’m “burning the candle at both ends.” I did notice when we went I. October that more and more people are rope dropping so the advantage of getting to the parks early has diminished greatly. We’re DVC members so we can take advantage of the half hour early entry but once we get out of the first ride the lines are already long everywhere else.

This worked out perfectly! I'm going to animal kingdom and magic kingdom in one day and now I know I need genie+ to make the most of the day!

Thank you thank you thank you!!! This is going to be a huge help - this, combined with optimizing with Lines, is going to be terrific. Appreciate all your help - after having to delay our trip at the last minute two years ago, this will help set the stage for a phenomenal vacation experience for our kids. Owe you big time!!!

Interesting episode! Fun to watch...

Came for the pro trips. Stayed for the enduring LOTR reference 😂😂😂

Love that shirt!

I love that shirt!

Great great t shirt

Thank you. This is so helpful.

Another amazing breakdown of this new system. Extremely valuable!! Thank you so much!!

nice video, very informative and educational

I love your shirt lol

Thanks for the stacking info! May I ask what graphics program you are using for the chalkboard and pointer??

Love these videos, thank you!!

Please, make more videos like this? Pretty please, with a cherry on top??

nice video! informative about stacking. Good luck.. denden

This is going to make evenings packed. Disney needs to extend evening hours back to 11pm

HOW DOES THE DAS WORK WITH GENIE +, LL???

Very helpful video! Thank you for posting!

I was super confused on what this video was even about. I have no idea why youtube's algorithm sent me here, but now I know Disneyworld has something called Genie+ to skip lines. Thanks potato hobbit shirt lady! :) Now if only I wasn't just some single guy so I had reason to go to Disneyland! :p

Great video. This is exactly the strategy we will be using for our August MK visit. Resort/pool morning and MK afternoon and evening. If we are combining this with Extended Evening Hours in MK would you recommend certain rides using G+ and others with EEH?

I am hearing there have been no great rides available with lightning ,has anyone run into this while trying to stack lightning lane passes?

If your a resort guest when does the 120 min time start at the 7 AM window or when the park opens?

In any park, is it wise to rope drop the ILL rides if you don’t want to pay for them? So doing 7Dwarves Mine Train first as you’re stacking for the evening?

If I am in AK in the morning and plan to hop to MK in the afternoon. How does the booking rule apply to two (or more) parks? If I stack rides for MK the way in your video , I wouldn’t be allowed to book rides for AK for the morning of the same day , is that correct ? Thanks a lot!

Where did you get your shirt!!

Omg! Where can I get that shirt?!?

@TouringPlans How does the stacking approach change now that you can't begin the process until your 2 PM park hop?

How does this work in high volume days?

If I am staying at The Poly and I have 30 minutes early entry does my 120 rule start then or at the official park open?

How do you get that red, yellow, green? I am subscribed to TP

Can someone tell me if this still works? And if it works at Disneyland too?

Can two people be signed in to the same account- 1books iLL (RotR) while 2 books SDD? And if extra paid rides booked how does that affect 120 minutes rule and G+ stacking rides?

Love this series, thanks! Most of my remaining questions center around rider switch, which it sounds like will be covered in the next video. We're going April 23-May 1 with a 40 inch child and an infant. It sounds like the sole rider switch advantage we'll have with Genie+ is the ability of the bigger kid to ride twice. This would be once with each parent, first on his own Genie+ reservation and then with the rider switch extra passenger benefit. Since each rider needs their own reservation, the parents in this case don't get any extra rides out of it. My question is: is this correct, and is there something we should be doing to make better use of Genie+ with rider switch in this situation? If you can use our family in any examples you make, even better. Thanks!

Thanks for the tips! We just got back from Florida and used the knowledge gained from your videos to plan and execute and successful vacation.

Our first day we won’t arrive at HS until 4:00pm. Is it possible for me to stack while I’m traveling throughout the day to Orlando? Can I make my first G+ reservation from my house? The second one from the airplane? The third one from Orlando airport? Etc.

these videos are great! I would love to see a strategy for Hollywood Studios. It seems like things run out way too fast in Hollywood for stacking to work...but I also don't think it's that easy to grab something soon enough to use the other strategy (try to grab a LL for something that is in less than two hours so you can get one faster).

How does this situation work: - Park reservation for Animal Kingdom, which opens at 8am - Book Jungle Cruise Genie+ for 5pm right at 7am (planning to park hop in the afternoon to Magic Kingdom, which opens at 9am, after a morning at Animal Kingdom) - When can I book my next Genie+? Two hours after Animal Kingdom, my starting park, opens (10am)? Or two hours after Magic Kingdom, where I booked my last Genie+, opens (11am)?

Following your example I wait until 5 pm to select my next ride and then go on Jungle cruise; when I scan in jungle cruise can I select another ride?

I don't get it (stacking). Sorry if this has been asked an answered but it seems like I can get more rides in if I get early ride times and keep getting them asap (right after I check into a ride). If I can get a new reservation under 120 min, I get more rides than if I only get reservations on a 120min clock. Maybe do a compare (your stacked sched vs a asap sched) so I can see what the advantage is. Thanks

This is great - thanks! So, just to confirm the strategy, you should try to book your first Lightning Lane 6 hours after the park opens, correct? That would be the earliest in order to be able to stack 4.

My only issue with this system is that 60 days out we make our dining reservations and that has conflicted with ride booking times...very frustrating

Love mash potatoes too 😊 and great advice if like me you are not a rope dropper! Do you have any data led advice if staying at a deluxe and using genie + with extra evening hours?

Also? If one is bad at knowing when their 2 hour ends.....does the app tell you when you can get another? Or do you need to know that.

In the example shared, how does the morning look?

I agree with the sentiment that it shifts the bulk of its value to the late afternoon on, which means that it doesn’t help much during the peak crowd time or for anyone who doesn’t all-but close out the parks. The nice things about the previous system is you could tailor that part to however you and your family liked to tour.

Can you start stacking earlier in the day?? Like say 1ish? Then roll them from there on? Say the park opens at 9… that means I can get one at 7, one at 11, one at 1 right before going on my first ride. By keeping them close together then I can ride 3 things and get more passes right? Or does that not work?

Do you need to be in MK all day to make this work? We will have park hoppers....could I start the day at AK and just utilize the standby line, while making all these times for MK later?

So I’m still confused on the ones you made. After each one is used in the example. Can you immediately use another pass? You have all those stacked in the evening. But after each one can you make another genie reservation? Also when we did genie plus all I saw were times for now. You telling me I should wait until times show up for later? The app doesn’t give you that much flexibility

Thanks for the tips! Question: Are there multiple check points within a ride’s line? Or can you book the next genie reservation immediately after the initial scan at the beginning of the ride? Looking forward to learning more about rider switch and can you “double dip” so each guardian can ride with both/all kids? Meaning the kids can ride twice? How does stacking work when using rider switch? Do you have to wait until everyone in the party has checked in before booking the next ride?

Great info, just like your blog posts :) Also I love your t-shirt. (I have your t-shirt ;))

I don’t follow why the subsequent reservations have to all be after 4:30/Jungle Cruise? Why couldn’t you book something at 3:30pm before Jungle Cruise?

Loved your strategy, but dreading my upcoming trip. 90% of my full time job is scheduling, now I have to be consciously thinking about scheduling all day at Disneyland? This is probably going to ruin my desire to visit Disney.

On the first example of stacking this plan would be a ton of walking back and forth, which is why the FPP system was preferred so you don't walk across the park various times

This did not work for us, we would use our pass and ride and it would not let me make another reservation till I hit that 120 minute mark. So no matter what I tried I was only able to make a reservation every 120 minutes, what did I do wrong?

I still don’t get why people would want to do this rather than go on the first ride right away and then book a second when they check in. Only if they don’t want to ride anything in the morning or have other plans, or for hopping after 2:00? Seems silly. I want to ride rides all day. Also - so if I book at 7:00 I can’t wait 120 mins and book another at 9:00? That kinda stinks. Have to wait until two hours after park open ?

I assume one person can make reservations for the whole family, but what if some want to do different things. How can various family members get different Genie+ reservations?

Potatoes 🥔

Wait, so why not check into Jungle Cruise at 4:30pm instead of waiting till 5pm to book another ride? Doesn't 4:30pm come before the 120 rule?

I don’t understand why it has to be all in the afternoon? If I grab the first reservation in the morning, why not?

How about Doing something for off site guests. Not everyone can afford to stay on site. Like best strategies for getting popular rides off site.

One of the best shirts I’ve ever seen.

Has anyone had luck in booking lightning lanes without scrambling all over the park? I am curious if you can do this and still stay within each land.

If you have a park reservation for Animal Kingdom, will Disney allow you to book G+ for Magic Kingdom (assuming your target is after the 2pm park hopper time)? And do you have to check into Animal Kingdom before you can start stacking at MK?

Man...I liked being able to plan a day in advance - make ADRs, then fastpass+ so you know what your day is going to look like. This way, you're scrambling at the last minute to work things into your plans, and if your Genie+ conflicts with an ADR, you're out of luck.

I have a couple questions and they both relate to how “park open” is defined. Firstly, I had Genie + for my trip in early January. During that time, I couldn’t get my second lighting lane reservation until 2 hours after I scanned ticket at the front of the park to be admitted. As someone who likes to sleep in on vacation this was quite a surprise. My second question is related to Morning Extra Magic Hours. Does the park “open” at its normal posted time for day guests or does the two-hour timer begin when morning extra magic hours begin?

Great info! Do you see that there may be times when by 3p there are no rides available for Genie Plus for a family of 4? The crowds are crazy right now and I do wonder if that could happen.

If you are park hopping and booking lightning lane for the afternoon at second park, will genie + automatically offer you times starting at 2 or do you have to continue to wait for afternoon times to open up like your example at MK?

Would it be a better for me just to book my next ride after I scan into the ride. Combined with the half hour early with the Disney hotel and rope dropping.

Great video! Off topic- where did you get your T-shirt?!?! I love it and must have one.

This makes me never want to go back to Disney, this isn't how the parks were meant to be experienced.

At 15:05 you mention starting at AK and hopping to MK in the afternoon. AK opens at 7:30am that day - does that mean if you make your initial G+ reservation for MK before 7:30am, you'd be eligible to make your second reservation for MK at 9:30, since that's two hours post-AK opening? Or do you have to wait until two hours after the park you are making the reservation for opens?

Great job on the “teaches” episodes ! My question relates to busy days at HS. In February I was the tourmaster for our group. I was hoping to stack later in the day but after the first 1or2 LL, all of the headliners and most else were no longer available. I know there are drop times later but those are even a bigger challenge to nab. Any specific strategies for busy HS days ? We always stay on site.

Probably not the best idea to eat dinner before space mountain. 😆😄😅😂🤣

Is stacking better than using genie+ during the day?

I guess what I’m confused on is why you “have to” stack in the afternoon… like why can’t I book Peter Pan at like 11:00 am when I book my first one at 7:00 am and then at 9:00 am book space mountain for 12:00pm? So that why I can utilizing genie plus for more of my day?

Will this somehow be optimized by the Lines app some day? Or at least some help with if a LL is smart to take or not?

Any advice for using Genie+ alongside DAS?

Question: So one of the days I’m going to be going to AK, the park opens at 7:30am, which means EE is at 7am. Am I able to make a LL reservation at 7am and then again at 9:30am since I’m staying on property? Is that how it works?

GREAT INFO....question though...instead of waiting at 5. couldn't you have scanned in jungle cruise at 430....then got another choice? It was my understanding no matter how many you have stacked...once you scan in and ride one of those stacked....obviously the earliest one....couldnt you have scanned in jungle cruise...then got another....instead of waiting until....5? I know in your example you waited till 5 to get another....I didnt know if that was a rule...or just your choice...I assumed you could ALWAYS get another once you scan....regardless of how many stacked.

One question/confirmation-The key here is that it is only the latest booked return time that matters for making LL before the 2 hrs if you tap in?. So the ability to get a new LL when you tap into a ride only applies to the last reservation you made. In your example the order of return times was the same order that you booked the LL. But what if you had booked the Haunted mansion (or some other ride) at 5PM for a 6PM return time? Does that mean you can make a new reservation at 6PM? It seems like a combo of stack and roll would be to make the last LL before you plan on being at the park with a close return time (so as above- plan on being in the park at 6PM- use the HM LL). Then you could continue to book rides with quick turnarounds (that you want to go on) in a rolling fashion, while still using your stacked LL. .

Thank you for this. I’m confused a bit toward the end of your stacking scenario. You wait to check into jungle so you get to the 120 min eligibility to make one for after haunted mansion. But then obviously check into jungle cruise. You say that at 7 you can make another because the 120 min rule arrives before haunted mansions 9 return. But when you’ve scanned into jungle, doesn’t that negate the 120 min rule? Doesn’t that send you into the use and grab option? My son tried this yesterday. Had a 11:00-12:00 (made at 7) for tower of terror. At 10:30 (120 past opening), he got star tours for 10:35. Checked in and rode and then before checking into tower, tried to make another genie. It denied and said he wasn’t eligible to make another until until 12:45. So not only could he not get a genie once he finished scanning at tower, but not for 45 min past the timeframe. He had no others booked for the rest of the day. I told him that I had no idea why it did this and to ask a cast member to help. Thoughts?

10:59 Wouldn’t you be able to make another LL reservation at 4:30pm rather than 5pm if you checked into the first LL right when that window opens?

What sort of advantage would I get in booking anything on a high crowd day if I sacrifice booking a main headliner at 7am, and instead follow an 8am, 10am, 12pm schedule?

My group for our upcoming trip is myself, wife, 12 year old and 15 year old. Will the children be able to do genie + reservations for themselves and/or the adults as well? Can a child buy an Individual lighting lane? I want all hands on deck for trying to get ILL and g+ reservations.

Where is Brian?

Do you have to be in the park or just have a reservation for the park to create a stack? In other words can I create a stack and not enter the park until my first ride?

We have a large family, there are 7 of us. Does the number of people in your party have any bearing on getting a Genie+ ride reservation? I thought I heard it does NOT, that it doesn't matter if you have 1 or 10 people in your group. But for the paid individual lightning lanes (Rise of the resistance) it WILL make a difference as to how many are in your party. Are those correct?

Is there a downside to stacking rides for the morning vs. the afternoon and evening?

Is there a video on how to combine genie+ with a Touring plan? I have genie+ but I want to still use a touring plan to maximize my day. While stacking seems great, I still want to watch the parade and fireworks.

So basically half your day is spent not riding any of the top tier attractions and you are forced to cram everything in the last half of the day. Oh and pay extra for the inconvenience. Your doing your best though in light of this. 😑

We made the mistake of doing rope drop today. A complete waste of time. Did stack 4 from 6:40 to 915, 3 were from 745-915. Rode splash,pirates, jungle and hunted during that time. Standard wait was over an hour each. First thing today we said genie+ was not worth it, but we changed our minds later in the day. We would just not start our day until later and stack throughout the day. Again early pass was not worth it! It just herded us to an area of the park to make it easier on crowd control.

Based on your booking times, and return times, this strategy has you crossing the park multiple times, which means more walking. This is what Genie was supposed to eliminate.

i am so not looking forward to our July trip to WDW. I'm already so stressed, i can't imagine the basket case i'll be by the time july rolls around.

Can I please get a spreadsheet of guest ratings for attractions with the number of votes they received?

It just seems like a lot more stress on the day of… and potential for a lot of walking. I am really torn on if this is worth it for our party

I'd assume stacking ahead of time isn't advised with a 3 and 12 year old?