Here Now & Just Back - A Place To Share Your Recent Experiences

[ellbell]

Gotcha, thanks! You sound like you may have some experience with this...do you happen to have a decent strategy for LL/rope drop for those who can't get in until 9?

Not really just because I always stay on site and pretty much just go with the flow now. I guess it depends on priorities though. I myself show up for early park entry.

 

[riversend22]

Not really just because I always stay on site and pretty much just go with the flow now. I guess it depends on priorities though. I myself show up for early park entry.

Ok well thanks anyways! We always used to stay on site, but my mom bought a house in Florida so we now save some cash to stay there. But it definitely complicates the planning process hahaha

 

[ellbell]

Ok well thanks anyways! We always used to stay on site, but my mom bought a house in Florida so we now save some cash to stay there. But it definitely complicates the planning process hahaha

I don't know how to drive so I'm pretty much stuck on site unless I want to pay for ubers or my husband comes with. He isn't a fan so doesn't come often.

 

[M SH]

Correct, except that my 120-minute window started at HS’s opening time since I booked Slinky as my first attraction. It’s our third time using this strategy and I honestly don’t know a better way to experience HS for us. We can get all the heavy hitters done in 4-5 hours with no waits.

how does one select genie+ attractions for the evening to stack? i thought genie+ gives you the time, and you don't select it?
so let's say you want to book SDD and other attraction after 2 hrs, for an evening at HS, but won't be in the park till then. how do you tell genie plus to give you the time after let's say 4 PM?

 

[cjlong88]

how does one select genie+ attractions for the evening to stack? i thought genie+ gives you the time, and you don't select it?
so let's say you want to book SDD and other attraction after 2 hrs, for an evening at HS, but won't be in the park till then. how do you tell genie plus to give you the time after let's say 4 PM?

Correct, you can’t tell Genie+ what times you want. But the most popular attractions will begin to show evening times the fastest.

Slinky was showing evening times about 1 minute after 7am. When 11am hit and I was eligible to book my next LL, Millennium Falcon was already showing evening returning times. By 1pm (my next booking window) Rock n Roller Coaster showed evening return times, and so on and so forth. This is where the order in which you book your LL’s is important if you are planning to only get evening times.

When your 120 minutes run out and the time is still to early for you. Do a bit of refresh for a few minutes. Times will move later and you can find a time that will work better for you. I did this a few times if the time slot I was offered was just a bit too early.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

Can someone please explain how Genie+ works in regards to having multiple people in a party? By that I mean, if you have a group of 5, can each individual person book their own lightning lane, or do all the people under the MDE account have to book together? I'm not sure if that makes sense but for context: I bought the tickets for my sister and her daughter so they are currently under my account, but she's under the impression that she can book her own lightning lane fast passes separately from me and I'm not sure if that's true. Obviously we would link tickets. Does anyone have info on that?

You will have access to book for anyone on your friends and family list. You can select all or a subset of people from the list. Your daughter will be able to do the same from her account.

 

[T'Lynn]

Correct, except that my 120-minute window started at HS’s opening time since I booked Slinky as my first attraction. It’s our third time using this strategy and I honestly don’t know a better way to experience HS for us. We can get all the heavy hitters done in 4-5 hours with no waits.

This is a great strategy. I'm planning for late March and will follow this example for HS!

 

[Kazi7]

Correct, you can’t tell Genie+ what times you want. But the most popular attractions will begin to show evening times the fastest.

Slinky was showing evening times about 1 minute after 7am. When 11am hit and I was eligible to book my next LL, Millennium Falcon was already showing evening returning times. By 1pm (my next booking window) Rock n Roller Coaster showed evening return times, and so on and so forth. This is where the order in which you book your LL’s is important if you are planning to only get evening times.

When your 120 minutes run out and the time is still to early for you. Do a bit of refresh for a few minutes. Times will move later and you can find a time that will work better for you. I did this a few times if the time slot I was offered was just a bit too early.

I have a slightly different experience with getting LL in HS for later in the day that I haven't seen discussed. In mid November we planned LL at HS but couldn't be in the park until 4:30pm. At 7am, I got SDD for 7pm. At 11am I wanted to get RnRc or ToT for around 5 but the times weren't out that far yet. I can't remember what times were showing for MFSR but we didn't care about getting LL for that as we often ride single rider. So I kept refreshing for a few minutes but the times were still too early. I ended up having to wait until 12:15 to get a LL for ToT after 5pm. Thankfully I was in a place with good wifi and I had time to search, although it was a pain to keep checking back every few minutes. However, the thing that got me was that I wasn't eligible to get another LL until 2:15, not 1:00 as I had hoped. I think at 4:15 I ended up getting RnRc but I had to do a lot of refreshing to get a 5:30 return as I wanted to have a time close to ToT so we could knock them both out in a row.

People hardly ever talk about not getting late enough LL choices at HS. Maybe back in November, there weren't as many people using Genie+ yet. The parks weren't too crowded that week either, so that probably made a difference.

 

[cjlong88]

I have a slightly different experience with getting LL in HS for later in the day that I haven't seen discussed. In mid November we planned LL at HS but couldn't be in the park until 4:30pm. At 7am, I got SDD for 7pm. At 11am I wanted to get RnRc or ToT for around 5 but the times weren't out that far yet. I can't remember what times were showing for MFSR but we didn't care about getting LL for that as we often ride single rider. So I kept refreshing for a few minutes but the times were still too early. I ended up having to wait until 12:15 to get a LL for ToT after 5pm. Thankfully I was in a place with good wifi and I had time to search, although it was a pain to keep checking back every few minutes. However, the thing that got me was that I wasn't eligible to get another LL until 2:15, not 1:00 as I had hoped. I think at 4:15 I ended up getting RnRc but I had to do a lot of refreshing to get a 5:30 return as I wanted to have a time close to ToT so we could knock them both out in a row.

People hardly ever talk about not getting late enough LL choices at HS. Maybe back in November, there weren't as many people using Genie+ yet. The parks weren't too crowded that week either, so that probably made a difference.

Completely agree. How crowded it is, what rides you want to book, how many are using G+, etc. will all affect what availability one might see every 120 minutes. As always at Disney World, YMMV.

 

[Thomasboys]

Correct, except that my 120-minute window started at HS’s opening time since I booked Slinky as my first attraction. It’s our third time using this strategy and I honestly don’t know a better way to experience HS for us. We can get all the heavy hitters done in 4-5 hours with no waits.

I'm trying to figure out how this works. So on your Epcot day you park hopped to HS that afternoon? But you were able to start booking LL at HS opening? Did you just start booking your LL times for after 2p? We have two Epcot days and they are not all full park days for our family. I'm thinking your strategy would be a good one for us to pop over to HS for a few afternoons. I bet this would be good for our AK day too. Do you use LL at Epcot at all in the morning??

 

[Thomasboys]

We are having SO MUCH FUN! A little walking back and forth, but a small price to pay for skipping all these lines.

update: snagged a last minute TSM LL with some refreshing while walking between attractions. Might not make it if ToT LL doesn’t move quick enough, but no big deal.

ETA: we made our TSM LL and are celebrating with cocktails at Oga’s after park close!

EPIC day!!!!!!

 

[scrappinginontario]

I'm trying to figure out how this works. So on your Epcot day you park hopped to HS that afternoon? But you were able to start booking LL at HS opening? Did you just start booking your LL times for after 2p? We have two Epcot days and they are not all full park days for our family. I'm thinking your strategy would be a good one for us to pop over to HS for a few afternoons. I bet this would be good for our AK day too. Do you use LL at Epcot at all in the morning??

If you want to use G+ for the park you are hopping to, the times displayed will be 2:00 or later as you don't have a reservation for that park.

 

[cjlong88]

I'm trying to figure out how this works. So on your Epcot day you park hopped to HS that afternoon? But you were able to start booking LL at HS opening? Did you just start booking your LL times for after 2p? We have two Epcot days and they are not all full park days for our family. I'm thinking your strategy would be a good one for us to pop over to HS for a few afternoons. I bet this would be good for our AK day too. Do you use LL at Epcot at all in the morning??

If you have a park hopper ticket, you can book your first LL at any park starting at 7am. If you choose a park for which you do not have a reservation for, it will only offer LL return times after 2pm since that is when you can officially enter your second park.

For Epcot we used early entry. Official park open was 10am with early entry beginning at 9:30 am. We arrived at IG around 8:55 and headed straight for Remy. We were held in line for a bit and then were let through the queue around 9:15ish maybe. It was a walk-on. Then we did Soarin’, LwtL, and Nemo as a walk-on as well. We didn’t feel the need to use LL at Epcot because one day we hopped to Epcot for the evening and rode the other attractions during the Deluxe Evening Hours.

 

[Thomasboys]

If you have a park hopper ticket, you can book your first LL at any park starting at 7am. If you choose a park for which you do not have a reservation for, it will only offer LL return times after 2pm since that is when you can officially enter your second park.

For Epcot we used early entry. Official park open was 10am with early entry beginning at 9:30 am. We arrived at IG around 8:55 and headed straight for Remy. We were held in line for a bit and then were let through the queue around 9:15ish maybe. It was a walk-on. Then we did Soarin’, LwtL, and Nemo as a walk-on as well. We didn’t feel the need to use LL at Epcot because one day we hopped to Epcot for the evening and rode the other attractions during the Deluxe Evening Hours.

Thank you! We plan on taking advantage of early entry and will be there an hour before opening to be in a good spot, so I feel good about our ability to get through things quickly. Although, it will be spring break so it will be busy. So when you did your Epcot morning described above, you just started snagging LL at 7a for HS in the afternoon, right?

 

[M SH]

I have a slightly different experience with getting LL in HS for later in the day that I haven't seen discussed. In mid November we planned LL at HS but couldn't be in the park until 4:30pm. At 7am, I got SDD for 7pm. At 11am I wanted to get RnRc or ToT for around 5 but the times weren't out that far yet. I can't remember what times were showing for MFSR but we didn't care about getting LL for that as we often ride single rider. So I kept refreshing for a few minutes but the times were still too early. I ended up having to wait until 12:15 to get a LL for ToT after 5pm. Thankfully I was in a place with good wifi and I had time to search, although it was a pain to keep checking back every few minutes. However, the thing that got me was that I wasn't eligible to get another LL until 2:15, not 1:00 as I had hoped. I think at 4:15 I ended up getting RnRc but I had to do a lot of refreshing to get a 5:30 return as I wanted to have a time close to ToT so we could knock them both out in a row.

People hardly ever talk about not getting late enough LL choices at HS. Maybe back in November, there weren't as many people using Genie+ yet. The parks weren't too crowded that week either, so that probably made a difference.

this is exactly why i think genie+ is the worst thing that happened. FP+ was much superior, even just day of, as you were offered and can search for different times that suits your touring style. It would have been much better if they just had kept FP+ and charged the same amount for it as genie+ to satisfy their hunger for more money grab; but i guess no amount of complaining can help anymore as this system is here to stay.

 

[cjlong88]

Thank you! We plan on taking advantage of early entry and will be there an hour before opening to be in a good spot, so I feel good about our ability to get through things quickly. Although, it will be spring break so it will be busy. So when you did your Epcot morning described above, you just started snagging LL at 7a for HS in the afternoon, right?

Correct. That day HS opened at 9am, so 11am ended my first 120-minute cool down and I was able to book another, then another at 1pm and 3pm, etc.

 

[MMSM]

I have a slightly different experience with getting LL in HS for later in the day that I haven't seen discussed. In mid November we planned LL at HS but couldn't be in the park until 4:30pm. At 7am, I got SDD for 7pm. At 11am I wanted to get RnRc or ToT for around 5 but the times weren't out that far yet. I can't remember what times were showing for MFSR but we didn't care about getting LL for that as we often ride single rider. So I kept refreshing for a few minutes but the times were still too early. I ended up having to wait until 12:15 to get a LL for ToT after 5pm. Thankfully I was in a place with good wifi and I had time to search, although it was a pain to keep checking back every few minutes. However, the thing that got me was that I wasn't eligible to get another LL until 2:15, not 1:00 as I had hoped. I think at 4:15 I ended up getting RnRc but I had to do a lot of refreshing to get a 5:30 return as I wanted to have a time close to ToT so we could knock them both out in a row.

People hardly ever talk about not getting late enough LL choices at HS. Maybe back in November, there weren't as many people using Genie+ yet. The parks weren't too crowded that week either, so that probably made a difference.

I don’t understand why you weren’t able to book at 7am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm using 120 min rule. Why did it say 2:15 and 4:15

 

[elgerber]

I don’t understand why you weren’t able to book at 7am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm using 120 min rule. Why did it say 2:15 and 4:15

Because the time they wanted to book for was not available until 12:15, so when they booked then, 2 hours out was 2:15

 

[scrappinginontario]

I don’t understand why you weren’t able to book at 7am, 11am, 1pm, 3pm using 120 min rule. Why did it say 2:15 and 4:15

The OP was not able to book at 1pm, 3pm etc because at 11:00 they did not see a return time that worked for them so they kept refreshing until 12:15 when they got the return time they wanted.

Once they booked a LL at 12:15 that started their 120 min timer so the next time they would be eligible to book would be 2:15, 4:15, etc.

The 120 min timer starts when someone makes a LL reservation, not when they're eligible to make it.

 

[PortieOwner]

Just to confirm, without reading all 830 pages, if I am staying on-site, at HS I can grab a LL at 7am for Smugglers, enter the park at 8:30am (early entry), then at 9am I can grab my next LL (Tower of Terror), then ride Smugglers at 9:30am, and I can immediately book another LL (my third of the morning) following that ride for Midway Mania?