Re: the pool
Although 4:00pm may be the official check-in time, you may be able to get into your room earlier. Some others may have tricks to make that happen, but talking to a cast member at the check-in desk can work wonders.
During our last trip our room was not yet available when we arrived at the hotel. The kids immediately went to the nearest bathroom, threw on their swim trunks and they were in the pool.
Re: Genie+ tricks
There is a whole thread on Genie+ education and tricks on this forum. ( The Genie Thread! All WDW Info Here ) I have not read all of it and I have not partaken in its use, but here is what I can gather for your situation.
- You will not be in a park until the afternoon.
- Let’s say that the afternoon park you will be picking is MK.
- WDW is still using park reservations.
- WDW is still enforcing no moving from your reserved park for the morning to another park until 2pm.
With Genie+, it will look at the park you have reserved for the morning when selecting your attractions. So if you were to book an Park Reservation for AK, Genie+ will allow you to book attractions for AK starting at 7am. However, if you instead searched for attractions in MK, it would not show you anything available until at least 2pm. Therefore you could start reserving your afternoon rides.
It seems like this “loophole” is still open and can be utilized for your situation.
Once you have reserved your first Genie+ reservation at 7am, the next one is typically available to you 2 hours after park opening. So if MK opens at 9am, you can book or “Stack” a second Genie+ reservation at 11am (2 hours after park opening).