Do we really have time to go back to resort for break mid-day?

[sponica]

As far as Genie+ goes, this is one of my major hang ups about the service. It feels like buying Genie+ puts us in a position to "have" to spend a full day in the park in order to get the most for our money.

I think for me, I decided to look at it as "what line do I absolutely NOT want to ride standby in?" And I've cost justified it that way. Paying 60 dollars to skip SDD, you betcha!

 

[CaptainAmerica]

I've always wondered how people had time to go back to the resort before Genie

Easy, we don't really re-ride anything. Our WDW trips are 8 nights and we find that to be the perfect amount of time to do every attraction and show exactly once. We're in the parks rope drop to 1:00, then again 4:00 to 8:00 most days.

FP+ worked very well for us. If you hit rope drop every morning, plus FP+, on an 8-night trip that's 32 attractions with little or no wait. That's pretty much everything.

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

I agree, there really isn't a need for G+ at Epcot, especially with how you lay it out.

We pre-purchased G+ for our upcoming 8 day trip, with 2 of the days being Epcot and one AK. Part of that decision was so that I didn't need to get up even earlier to purchase G+ each day we wanted to use it.

I think another consideration for us, with G+, is that our EPCOT days are going to truly be sleep in days. I placed them in our schedule as such. As in, we won't get to Epcot by park open even though it doesn't even open until 10am. In that sense, knowing that we will still be able to G+ both TT and Soarin will be nice.

I agree though, G+ is FAR more useful at HS and MK.

Dan

The bolded part of your comment just gave me an epiphany! They rigged the system to encourage people to just pay for G+ for length of stay (whether they need it every day or not) in order to avoid having to get up even earlier to purchase G+ for individual days. If you could purchase G+ days "ala carte" at a convenient time, people would be more inclined to purchase only on the days they need it. But by spending extra for G+ added to your tickets for the length of stay, you can sleep in (for an additional 5 minutes until 6:59am).

 

[Orsino]

Buying G+ isn’t that much earlier. I just buy it before booking. On HS days that’s buying at 6:55. Not much different than7:00am.
today I bought at 8am for MK since I wanted return times after 3pm anyway.

 

[DisneyFive]

Our kids are old enough now that we are divvying up who has to get up early each morning to book the first G+ of the day. That way not everyone has to be up so early the entire trip.

Prepurchasing G+ makes it so that they don’t have to hassle with the purchase each morning and in case something got screwed up they weren’t having to deal with it. G+ will be useful for us on days we are not at MK or HS but just not nearly as much so. I totally understand and support those who want to purchase it each day of their trip individually.

Dan

 

[jsbowl16]

We always stay at Boardwalk so usually hit Epcot or HS at night and MK and AK in the mornings. We also go a minimum of 9 nights during the summer so need the afternoon break. We are planning on only buying genie plus for two of us that ride all the rides for our HS nights stacking them and then maybe picking up some individual rides on the other days. We will see how well that works. I am watching Resortv1 now and he was able to stack 5 genie plus passes at HS for tonight.

 

[Orsino]

Late afternoon arrival at MK was okay, not great today. We got 4 LL today. A fifth was possible but we decided not to book another LL for after fireworks since we have EE tonight. It is busy today so the 5pm booking was rough. I did see some 7:30 redemptions but passed on them hoping for something in the 600 range. Two minutes before our window opened I saw a 6:00 so I was hoping to get lucky. Did not get lucky.

 

[bluejasmine]

OP here. My DH has health issues requiring him to leave the park and go to a hospital at least three times a day. He has done this for 35 years. He goes in the morning before parks (so, yes, he's up by 4:30 on vacation) and then will need to leave parks no later than 2 pm to receive more medical treatment. He drives about 22 minutes to the hospital that works with him, after dropping us off at our resort to rest and swim (he never has time for that). He has also had a scooter (only on vacation where lots of walking required) for the past 6 years as he has developed a disease in his knee that feels like broken glass in the joint and will swell up with too much walking. We always rent a car so he can make his hospital trips and transport his rented, portable scooter. My sons (senior in high school and 24 year old) will help him break down the scooter. Our life is very complicated already at Disney and all the changes have made it more so. I don't know why my husband insists on Disney for a vacation when it's so hard for him with so little rest, but he is very driven and not too good at relaxing (but a really great guy). Many of the destinations I would prefer to vacation don't have hospitals to accommodate his needs. All this to say, afternoon breaks are a necessity for us, not a preference!

Just wanted to say, your family has a lot on its plate from the sounds of it, but your husband sounds amazing, and strong! He must really LOVE Disney for such dedication, and I personally find it touching and inspiring!

 

[ZealousConvert]

I have to say, we haven‘t been early adopters with either Genie+ or IAS. I feel like I’m on my phone constantly during the workday and the thought of jumping through all those hoops when I can just wing it and stand in line makes me anxious! We REALLY miss FastPass when it was all arranged ahead of time and we could just relax and enjoy the experience. However, full disclosure, we don’t have kiddos. So it’s a totally different park experience for us. Good luck!

 

[bakerworld]

Our first trip with young kids (4, 8, 10) we filled every minute and found this to be a big miss step for our family. We found ourselves short tempered and exhausted by the vacations end. We returned 20 months later and asked the kids what they'd missed the first time and my youngest replied, 'The room.' That second trip and every trip after we focused on a mid-day break. It relaxed us and the kids. This was back when the parks closed at 6 and 7p, before AK existed. So yes, mid day breaks are very possible.

 

[DisneyFive]

…asked the kids what they'd missed the first time and my youngest replied, 'The room.'

Love it. That actually made me laugh out loud.

When our kids were little we actually did the parks open to close for a few years worth of annual trips. I think in the back of our minds we were not sure when we would get back, and wanted to maximize our vacation.

However, the last 3 to 4 years we have taken a midday break every day and really value that rest time. Especially now that we are forced to go in the summer, it is normally when the showers arrive and the heat is the highest so it makes sense to rest or nap in an air-conditioned room for a while and recuperate for a great evening. (as an aside, I just love the feel of the parks at night)

Dan

 

[TheBacklot]

This is so overwhelming. We're going for our honeymoon in April. And I did park hoppers, not thinking about all these strategies we're going to have to implement. My wife will definitely need the break so I don't run her into the ground. So do I do stand-by at the AM parks, then stack for the evening park? Do I do it reverse and just book another LL as I tap into the ride I have the current LL for? We should be relaxing on our honeymoon and I feel like I'm going to have my face in my iPhone during the park days we have.

 

[Gentry2004]

I've always wondered how people had time to go back to the resort before Genie

Same. Just getting my family of 4 through post-pool showers in a hotel room takes 90 minutes. Not to mention all the travel time to/from the parks. When we leave the parks we usually done for the day.

 

[Belle5]

Same. Just getting my family of 4 through post-pool showers in a hotel room takes 90 minutes. Not to mention all the travel time to/from the parks. When we leave the parks we usually done for the day.

We have always rented a car and do not rely on Disney or other transportation. It does not take us 90 minutes. I would say from leaving turnstile area of each park we are 20 minutes, maybe 40 if we have to go to the TTC.

 

[Gentry2004]

We have always rented a car and do not rely on Disney or other transportation. It does not take us 90 minutes. I would say from leaving turnstile area of each park we are 20 minutes, maybe 40 if we have to go to the TTC.

I was saying it takes 90 minutes for the four of us to shower and redress after the pool. Not the travel part.

 

[wisblue]

This is so overwhelming. We're going for our honeymoon in April. And I did park hoppers, not thinking about all these strategies we're going to have to implement. My wife will definitely need the break so I don't run her into the ground. So do I do stand-by at the AM parks, then stack for the evening park? Do I do it reverse and just book another LL as I tap into the ride I have the current LL for? We should be relaxing on our honeymoon and I feel like I'm going to have my face in my iPhone during the park days we have.

If you’re going to take a midday break (which we usually do), and if you are going to spend the second part of the day at MK or DHS, I woukd recommend maybe one LL attraction at the morning park and then start stacking for the second park.

IMHO if you are spending a lot of time with your face in your phone doing this, you are doing something either wrong or unnecessary.

 

[Bullseye]

We always take midday breaks, usually from 12-4, sometimes they end up being longer or shorter than that depending on the weather and how we're feeling. My plan for HS and EPCOT is to stack for the evening. For MK, I'll grab a couple for the morning, then start the evening stack.

This seems like the only way to do it if you want some down time during the day and thrills in the evening!

 

[twodogs]

If you’re going to take a midday break (which we usually do), and if you are going to spend the second part of the day at MK or DHS, I woukd recommend maybe one LL attraction at the morning park and then start stacking for the second park.

IMHO if you are spending a lot of time with your face in your phone doing this, you are doing something either wrong or unnecessary.

I could not agree more. I think some people on these boards who are lamenting everything G+ have not ever actually used it. As a person who was very versed at MP at DLR, I used G+ very easily the week of Christmas. I was nervous about it, based on what I had read here, but honestly, it was fine. I was NOT in my phone all day. I got the ILLs at 7am, as well as the first LL. During a busy time, you will be on the 2 hour lock out for almost all of your LLs, so you book one, and then don’t look at your phone for the next 1 hour and 59 minutes. I don’t see how that is on your phone all day. Since you can’t “modify” the LL, I am not sure what there is to do on your phone during the 2 hour lock out?

During less busy times, when you are booking LLs that are immediate or very soon returns, you will be in your phone more often, but you will also be getting more LLs! I think you can find a strategy to use G+ that will work if you do or do not want a mid day break. There are a lot of helpful folks on these boards that have laid out in detail how they booked things for an open to close day, a mid day break day, etc (I posted about our trip at the time around Christmas). If you think it won’t work for you, it won’t. I hope everyone can find the right answer for them, if it is G+ or not!

 

[SLThomas318]

This is so overwhelming. We're going for our honeymoon in April. And I did park hoppers, not thinking about all these strategies we're going to have to implement. My wife will definitely need the break so I don't run her into the ground. So do I do stand-by at the AM parks, then stack for the evening park? Do I do it reverse and just book another LL as I tap into the ride I have the current LL for? We should be relaxing on our honeymoon and I feel like I'm going to have my face in my iPhone during the park days we have.

I would be hopeful that the system keeps improving... it seems like the xmas crowd had a much better experience then the thanksgiving crowd (we were there at the tail end of Thanksgiving). I was hoping they would keep the early morning entry at 1 hr and have only 1 $LL per park like they did over xmas... that seemed to help the whole experience (at least I don't think I saw as many complaints from the xmas crowd?). I think the only park you can do a tap and go strategy in is MK because of the larger volume of genie+ options. Our next trip is this summer and we're going to try some evening stacks and some days without genie+. Not sure how long your trip is vs how many park days you were planning, but def try to have a break day (or morning or afternoon). I think if you prioritize some break time, then you'll be fine. Disclaimer coming from a type A planner: I know this is all easier said then done

 

[Belle5]

Well, as I said, afternoon breaks are not optional due to medical reasons. I think what we are thinking we'll have to do (for the first time ever) is drop our evening meal reservations most days. Instead of the relaxing TS meal that has always been part of our vacation we will opt for something on the go. That would allow us to make more of those evening hours (short, though they are since we don't qualify for evening hours) and possible stack some Genie+ reservations.