4 days with G+ or 5 days without it?

[ImarriedGrumpy]

We have a June 2022 trip planned (postponed from June 2020) and are trying to decide if we should switch to 4 days in the parks with G+/ILL or do 5 days without it.

Background info: I've been to WDW a handful of times, but my last trip was 2005. After I moved to CA, I switched to trips to DLR and go about once a year and usually spend 2-3 days each trip. At DLR we always park hop because it's so easy, and we used to get MaxPass for one day to get the ride photos, photopass, and get on as many rides as possible and then use the other park days as more relaxed time.

This June 2022 WDW trip is with my DS14, who has never been to WDW, and our friends (a family of 3 with a DD16) who have also never been to WDW but are our favorite friends to do DLR trips. We're planning on a couple days at Universal to see the stuff not in Hollywood, and our priority at WDW is to see the attractions not at DLR. While we all love POTC, for example, we will be okay skipping it because we know we'll catch it again at DLR. We're rope drop people - even the teens will get up early for Disney trips - and at DLR we usually go until park close.

We had a pretty good plan in place two years ago when we were booking everything, but obviously so much has changed that we're needing to rethink everything. We are staying at CBR for skyliner access (I did warn them that it's a huge resort - I did an overlay of the size of CBR over all of DLR so they could get an idea) and decided to stick with that. But now we're debating if it would be better to switch to 4 park days and shave off one day from the trip entirely so we could put the money towards G+ and ILL.

So what do you all think? Those who have been recently, what would you suggest? Again, we don't need to hit anything that overlaps with DLR, so we're not trying to get on everything at every park.
TIA!

 

[PepperjackDragon]

It is really not necesssry at Epcot or ak. You might save a few minutes here or there and during peak times might save an hour or two but even with those waits you can easily do those parks without g+. It can be useful at HS and is very useful at MK. I would suggest keeping 5 days, and add two days of G+ by finding some other cost cutting measure such as food etc.

and adding adding frozen to the G+ definitely helps with it at Epcot-if it is still included in June-, it is really the only ride it would be particularly useful for. While that is a long line it’s obviously not worth cutting out an entire day just to save some time in line on frozen.

 

[g-dad66]

I know what the answer to this would be for us.

We would do the 4 days, purchase ILL for Remy, Flight of Passage, and Rise, and purchase G+ for at least 3 days (will save time for Test Track and Frozen at Epcot and a bunch of stuff at MK and HS).

This could avoid waits of more-than-20 minutes for probably most everything (especially true for you if you skip some attractions which are duplicates at DLR).

The savings from shaving one day off should more than offset the G+/ILL cost, and not having to wait in line so long in Orlando's miserable summer humidity sounds like a really good deal to me.

 

[CynBeth]

I would keep 5 days but do Genie+ for all of them. We were there Thanksgiving Week don’t have kids and don’t do roller coasters or anything with a drop and it was packed. We did almost everything we wanted using Genie+ and paying for some of the extra fee rides did a few standby lines that were short and things like COP and Tiki Room that usually do not have much of a wait and Peoplemover was 30 minutes.

We stayed at CBR and there is an internal bus to the Skyliner.

 

[HeiHei2018]

It depends on your priorities. If you go for rides like my family, reduce the days and spring for G+. That’s our plan for the next trip. If you go for ambiance, spend some time at the pool, and skip G+.

 

[mouschievous]

After hearing other people's feedback, we opted not to add G+ to our tickets and will add it daily as needed. It saves $0 to purchase in advance, and this way we only add it the days we think it will be useful. We likely will not add it to our AK or EP days, especially since we're doing Epcot more than once. We probably will for our first MK and HS days, but not the second.