1 Day at Studios - advice?

[kathi]

The Story: I used to be a WDW expert. We visited 3 times a year, DVC, APs, the whole thing. When the new system started this summer, I cancelled 2 trips (Oct and Dec) because I just didn't have the time or bandwidth to figure all the new stuff out and it felt like a horrible money grab. I let our APs lapse and just planned to cruise for a few years. Now my family is asking for one day in the park following our 14 night sailing on the Fantasy. The date will be Sunday, January 2nd.

What we want to do: All the big rides including: ROTR, SDD, MFSR, TSM, ToT. We will not be able to rope drop since we are getting off the ship. Probably arrive around 11:30 am.

The Ask: Is this possible? What kind of ticket and add-on scenario gets us more or less what we want to do? Help me out!

 

[baozi]

I was there last Sunday (Nov. 7). In that specific day (also a very busy day, as that weekend MK and Epcot were full in the afternoon) everything except SDD was a walk-on during night. Starting at 8:00pm I completed 4 rides: TSMM, TSMM-2, MMRR and ROTR just standby and existed ROTR at 9:22pm (park close time was 9:00pm).
So it is sort of unpredictable, especially on Jan. 2, which should be much busier. If budget is not a problem and if you want to be guaranteed to finish your list, buy Genis+ and book SDD at 7:00am, then buy Individual lightening lines for MMRR and ROTR at park open time (if it runs out by the time park opens, then your best bet would be probably standby near park close and pray that the ride does not break that night), then book one of (MFSR, TSMM, TOT) 2 hours after the park opens. These covers most of your list. Cost is approximately $40/person ($15 for regular Genis+, $15 for ROTR and $10 for MMRR), though it might be more expensive on busier days.
Genie+ is built on top of the old fastpass+ system, though they added the check that you can book one ride at most one time per day.

 

[kathi]

Thank you for the specifics - very helpful. (I'm going to watch some videos explaining in more detail how I get the add-ons. I'm still clueless. $40 pp is doable for us for the the one day. Want to be sure we can get as much in as possible. Do I select those add-ons after I purchase the tickets?

 

[baozi]

Genie+ can be included in the ticket, or buy it on midnight of your park day. Individual lightening lanes need to be bought starting from 7am for resort guests (I guess you are not) or park open time otherwise, limit 2 per day. Hollywood studios has 2 attractions eligible for individual lightening lanes: ROTR and MMRR.

 

[kathi]

Genie+ can be included in the ticket, or buy it on midnight of your park day. Individual lightening lines need to be bought starting from 7am for resort guests (I guess you are not) or park open time otherwise, limit 2 per day. Hollywood studios has 2 attractions eligible for individual lightening lines: ROTR and MMRR.

We are DVC so will qualify as resort guest. When you buy a lighting line ticket, do you pick your time or is it next available? Thinking if we book at 7 am but know we will not get to the park until 11:00, will that be a problem?

 

[baozi]

Then you may first try to secure a SSD, then ROTR individual around 7:00am.
Genie+ is next available, but you can wait a little bit and refresh, you will get the time slots you want. But also it is not uni-directionally evolving, slots are often restocked, so if at certain point you see the next available slot is 5:00pm, maybe when you keep refreshing, you will see some for 1:00pm.
After you secure one regular Genie+ at say 7:30am, you can grab another one two hours after park open time. You mentioned that you still do not know what Genie+ is, it is just a slightly modified Disneyland version of fastpass program (i.e. Maxpass, and as I mentioned, adding the check of once per attraction per day) which is only accessible when paid.
Individual Lightening lane you can choose time slots.

We are DVC so will qualify as resort guest. When you buy a lighting line ticket, do you pick your time or is it next available? Thinking if we book at 7 am but know we will not get to the park until 11:00, will that be a problem?

 

[kathi]

Then you may first try to secure a SSD, then ROTR individual around 7:00am.
It is next available, but you can wait a little bit and refresh, you will get the time slots you want. But also it is not uni-directionally evolving, slots are often restocked, so if at certain point you see the next available slot is 5:00pm, maybe when you keep refreshing, you will see some for 1:00pm.
After you secure one regular Genie+ at say 7:30am, you can grab another one two hours after park open time. You mentioned that you still do not know what Genie+ is, it is just a slightly modified Disneyland version of fastpass program (i.e. Maxpass, and as I mentioned, adding the check of once per attraction per day) which is only accessible when paid.

I watched a video so I'm getting more clued in and your advice is so helpful. Thank you so much for your patience. So do you think with the anticipated crowds on Sunday, January 2nd, we would be able to accomplish our "big ride" goal at Studios using Genie + and purchase of ROTR?

 

[baozi]

Should be. Altogether you listed 5 rides, with Genie+ and ROTR just 3 left (definitely you should be able to secure SSD at 7:00am), and with 9.5 hours - 1 hour for those 2 rides = 8.5 hours left, even if you cannot get anything else with Genie+ (which I think will not be the case at all), there should be no problem riding the other 3. Similar to fastpass+, keep refreshing if nothing is available.

I watched a video so I'm getting more clued in and your advice is so helpful. Thank you so much for your patience. So do you think with the anticipated crowds on Sunday, January 2nd, we would be able to accomplish our "big ride" goal at Studios using Genie + and purchase of ROTR?

 

[kathi]

Should be. Altogether you listed 5 rides, with Genie+ and ROTR just 3 left (definitely you should be able to secure SSD at 7:00am), and with 9.5 hours - 1 hour for those 2 rides = 8.5 hours left, even if you cannot get anything else with Genie+ (which I think will not be the case at all), there should be no problem riding the other 3. Similar to fastpass+, keep refreshing if nothing is available.

Also Star Tours and Muppets - but they are not usually hard to get on and MMRR, if the line is short. We are not ones to wait in long lines - we will just abandon ship and go eat/drink. Hoping that will not end up the case for much of the day! You have been super helpful, thank you so much.