Early morning strategies for offsight guests

[kristennn]

This is my first trip using genie plus, and in the past we have mostly stayed on sight. We are going in early March and staying offsight because my parents have rented a condo nearby for 3 weeks and we are staying with them. We have been 6-8 times in the past and we have always arrived before rope drope - did a frw headliners asap and then set up our first fastpass for maybe 90-120 minutes after park open. I get that this doesnt work anymore and need to find a new way.
Mostly I am wondering .... with ETPE guests getting early access, what is the optimal time to arrive for offsight guests wanting to reduce wait times? Do we head to a headliner first thing or will lines already be long? Do we head to a 2nd or third most popular ride first and then try and get genie plus for best ride? Do we just try and do genie plus for best ride possible and then head to our second and third choices regardless of having to wait longer? We are going to Epcott, Animal kingdom and magic kingdom. We only have 3 days and are choosing to skip hollywood studios this trip. Thank you in advance for any advice you might offer

eta- we will be driving there and parking in lots.

 

[sweetmama17]

Most headliners will have a line by the time you get in. There are a few exceptions and I'd still show up at rope drop. If you are going to use G+ and ILLs you should be able to do everything you want.

MK: start with Frontierland as that land is not open early.
Epcot: start will Soarin and work to get G+ for your other must do headliners
Animal Kingdom: start with Everest and work G+ for the others

 

[gharter]

Most headliners will have a line by the time you get in. There are a few exceptions and I'd still show up at rope drop. If you are going to use G+ and ILLs you should be able to do everything you want.

MK: start with Frontierland as that land is not open early.
Epcot: start will Soarin and work to get G+ for your other must do headliners
Animal Kingdom: start with Everest and work G+ for the others

Agree.
MK - I would start at Adventureland or Frontierland as those were not open to EE.
AK - I would not go to Pandora as those lines will be huge. Consider either ILL$, G+ or ride at the end of the day.

 

[Muskrat191]

We were offsite in October. We always arrived early so we were at the front of the offsite pack. At MK, we started at Jungle Cruise and ended up on the second boat (which saved us from having to get a Jungle Cruise G+). At AK, we started at the safari as it was opening 1/2 hour after park opening (and actually opened around 15-20 minutes after park opening). At HS, we started at Minnie and Mickey's. It had a lineup, and took us about 40 minutes to get through the lineup + preshow + second lineup and actually get on the ride. At Epcot, we managed to get a very early Remy G+, so we went straight there in order to book our second ASAP. We got Test Track G+, and did standby for Frozen after Remy.

 

[MousetersInc]

You should probably check thrilldata in case I'm wrong, but my perception is: rope drop always matters. Even when deluxe guests rope-dropped earlier than you, even when onsite guests did, if you look at any given ride, your wait is still shortest in the morning. So figure out what Genie+ won't be able to help you with (will you buy ILLs? If not, rope-drop them), or what you want to "augment" Genie+ with. If you're goal is just "I want to ride each of the biggest rides once," then Genie+ can probably help you do it without unreasonable waits (except on high-traffic days). But if it's "I want to ride Space Mountain 10 times," then you might want to do one of them via rope-drop.
Another issue is "stacking." If you're not familiar with it, google it—it's a "whole thing." But the short version is the philosophy that your Genie+ reservations are "worth more to you" when wait times are high, in the later part of the day. Even if you're not park-hopping, it could make sense to use the shorter standby times in the morning, while "stacking up" reservations for the afternoon, then reap the fruits of your labor when waits are longer.

 

[chris1212]

We were just there early December staying off site. At MK rope dropped Frontierland and walked onto BTMRR and Splash.

At Epcot we headed straight to Frozen Ever after and was on in less than 20 minutes.

At AK we rope dropped Navi, since we had bought ILL for FOP and had already booked a G+ for the safari.

 

[boredghost]

Take note that if things are really busy you may miss out on ILL. Those go on sale for off-site at park open, so on/site guests who have access at 7am May have snatched them all up for the day. This was the case when we went as a group of 4 couples President’s Day week Feb ‘22. One of the couples was off-site so they were never able to snag Rise, FoP or Remy ILL.