Admittedly, I should have spent more time researching Genie+, but I just didn’t have the time (I know, I have time to complain on here, I should have time to research). I am up bright and early to give my parents the best day ever at Epcot. I log into MDE and hit ‘join’ at 7am and get a boarding group for Remy. Ok. Yay. But I want to purchase a lightning lane for it, not the boarding group. I click on ‘purchase a lightning lane’ and it tells me they are ineligible because they aren’t staying onsite. I look on the website and it says onsite, plus Swan and Dolphin (and I think Shades of Green). They are staying at Swan.
I am annoyed, but I go on with my selection for Genie+ without the purchase of a lightning lane. I figure it will let me select a time, so I click on Soarin, the one ride they really want. The return time is 10:25am and they plan on arriving around 1pm. Ok, I don’t see a way to change it and I know you can only ride once with Genie+, so I cancel. And look for another one I can grab around 1pm, but everything is either at 10am or 4pm or later.
So I am still contemplating the whole lightning lane debacle for Remy. I decide to see what happens if I click on another Lightning Lane option. This one goes through! Right through…for something I don’t want…There is $18 down the drain.
Anyhow, I’m done complaining and will now take the time to watch some YouTube videos because it’s not quite as intuitive as I was hoping. Hoping I will figure it out today and will make tomorrow amazing for them.
I put myself in the top tier of planners and WDW gurus, and I detested G+ on my previous trip, aside from actually using the LL to bypass a few long lines obviously. It was frustrating to use and put me in a bad mood throughout my trip. Having to pay for something and then planning around unknowable return times until the moment of selection. The interface is pretty but not easy to figure out. Took me a half day to get the feel for it, and I’m usually quick to figure things out. I should have paid for it ahead of my trip just to play around with it.
I thought I would be okay with unknowable return times because I thought itnwould work like DLR maxpass. But the parks at DLR have 4 times the number of rides using MP, no drops and no ILL. So the wait times disgributed in a nice predictable pattern.
Now that you are no longer under the 7:00 AM time crunch can you log out/in to try for ILL again, or are they all gone for the day? My thought is maybe logging out will remind the app Swan is a qualifying resort.
I was annoyed the other day with the whole login with security code thing. Finally got a hit from Reservation Finder and clicked on the link. It wanted me to log in with the security code. By the time I finished messing around with that, the reservation was gone. I was already logged into MDE, so I don’t understand the criteria for when it will require a code.
Now that the park is open they should be able to purchase ILL. They don’t have to wait until they get there - is that correct?
(Should have been able to purchase at 7, but let’s pretend they aren’t on site.)
Yup, Here is the problem with it, the concept is not bad but the nuance rules and frustrations when you miss a specific window is where it falls apart. Pair that with unclear rules about who can do what and when and you end up frustrating users.
I was just talking to a coworker who just came back from WDW. She had the same frustration regarding booking LL+ from the Swan. It’s supposed to get that onsite perk to book at 7;00 AM, but Disney IT doesn’t seem to recognize that.
So something new I just found. I had the reservation linked previously (it’s how I got California Grill at 60+ days). But when you mentioned it, I just looked on MDE and the park pass was there, but the resort stay was gone. I just re-linked it again. We’ll see if I can actually make a reservation for tomorrow morning. I’ll keep you all posted. I would say, check day before and day of that the Dolphin reservation is still there!
