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

[Westerner]

It doesn’t work so well for HS anymore. It works wonderfully for MK, Epcot, and AK. If you buy the ILL and get a top tier LL for HS at 7, at 11:00, your choices are likely to be AS2, Star Tours, Muppets, Frozen Sing-a-Long, and Beauty and the Beast. If you refresh for a looooong time, you may get TSM to pop up. On Tuesday around noon, I refreshed for 90 minutes to try and get something besides Star Tours, TSM, or AS2. I finally took Star Tours. Then, due to the fact that I had to refresh so much, my next window was pushed ahead that much more. I had no issues stacking in HS in February; however, HS is a tough beast right now.

HS stacking was challenged in Feb, there was a big thread about it, its a good read. LL availability is better of late, possibly due to earlier hours, or Disney tweaking the system in response to complaints. HS opens at 830 now. I see several decent LLs available at 1030/1230 this week on thrilldata. So I think stacking at HS is still viable.

 

[godfather927]

It doesn’t work so well for HS anymore. It works wonderfully for MK, Epcot, and AK. If you buy the ILL and get a top tier LL for HS at 7, at 11:00, your choices are likely to be AS2, Star Tours, Muppets, Frozen Sing-a-Long, and Beauty and the Beast. If you refresh for a looooong time, you may get TSM to pop up. On Tuesday around noon, I refreshed for 90 minutes to try and get something besides Star Tours, TSM, or AS2. I finally took Star Tours. Then, due to the fact that I had to refresh so much, my next window was pushed ahead that much more. I had no issues stacking in HS in February; however, HS is a tough beast right now.

This is probably a dumb question, but what's the advantage of booking a LL for the stage shows? Is it to guarantee a seat in the first couple rows?

 

[bambialways4ever]

It doesn’t work so well for HS anymore. It works wonderfully for MK, Epcot, and AK. If you buy the ILL and get a top tier LL for HS at 7, at 11:00, your choices are likely to be AS2, Star Tours, Muppets, Frozen Sing-a-Long, and Beauty and the Beast. If you refresh for a looooong time, you may get TSM to pop up. On Tuesday around noon, I refreshed for 90 minutes to try and get something besides Star Tours, TSM, or AS2. I finally took Star Tours. Then, due to the fact that I had to refresh so much, my next window was pushed ahead that much more. I had no issues stacking in HS in February; however, HS is a tough beast right now.

It's 11 am right now and MFSR, MMRR, RnRC, TsM all have LL times when I looked a couple minutes ago.

 

[Westerner]

So yeah, sounds like HS is not really worth Genie+ for us because there are only two, maybe three, rides we really need it for. Our favorite is TSM so we probably just need to try to time it for a reasonable standby line.

One point worth considering is that even though you may not get that many G+ bookings at HS, they may save you a significant amount of time, 114 minutes on average on a high crowd day according to this TP article. It analyzes how much time G+ saves you on average at the various parks for different crowd levels. Whether the time saved is worth the $ is up to each individual.

 

[HydroGuy]

HS stacking was challenged in Feb, there was a big thread about it, its a good read. LL availability is better of late, possibly due to earlier hours, or Disney tweaking the system in response to complaints. HS opens at 830 now. I see several decent LLs available at 1030/1230 this week on thrilldata. So I think stacking at HS is still viable.

Disney just updated hours for week of March 27 and they did not (yet) bump DHS to 8:30AM opening. So for now it is 9AM that week.

https://www.disboards.com/threads/when-do-park-hours-come-out.3873773

 

[jbish]

Our favorite is TSM so we probably just need to try to time it for a reasonable standby line.

I think you would have great success with TSM at Rope Drop or later in the evening. Here are the wait times per Thrill Data for TSM - green is less time, red is more time. It's a little blurry but you can see that the wait times in the first hour are very manageable as most people are heading to SDD, ROTR, MFSR, or maybe the Sunset Blvd. rides.

 

[GBRforWDW]

This is probably a dumb question, but what's the advantage of booking a LL for the stage shows? Is it to guarantee a seat in the first couple rows?

Mainly just to guarantee a seat without standing in a long line not knowing if you'll get in. We used it for BatB and Frozen in December. Probably unnecessary, but we wanted to do the shows and not stand in line, so win win.

You do get first pick of seats in BatB if you're there early, but you sit around and wait longer. Frozen has a big room where you line up before the theater opens, and people mix around, but if you stand by the doors, you're likely to be told by cast members to move all the way down the rows so people aren't climbing over you, etc, because the rows are 1 long row. BatB has 3 or 4 seating sections, so you can sit in the middle easier

 

[DisneyFive]

This is probably a dumb question, but what's the advantage of booking a LL for the stage shows? Is it to guarantee a seat in the first couple rows?

LL for shows have very little value in my opinion

Dan

 

[knarly]

We just got back from our March 5-10 trip and really had a great time. There were a few challenges, but we rode pretty much everything we wanted to (sometimes multiple times) and had good luck with Genie+. I think it helped that we were staying in the MK area and had park hoppers, so we could line up a few popular rides in the morning at whichever park, then take a resort break and stack some MK rides for the afternoon/evening. We only waited standby for a handful of rides the whole trip. Cast members were uniformly friendly.

I admit to being irked that we wound up paying extra for Genie+ and a couple of ILLs on top of the already-pricey park tickets, but at least the system worked pretty well for us. We booked our top priorities at 7 and then had a loose list of what we'd else we'd like to ride so we could take advantage of whatever was open during our next booking window, which often included decent attractions like the MK mountain rides. I mostly just checked my phone when I knew we had another booking window available. Didn't do a ton of refreshing, although I hear some people have good luck getting a more precise time frame that way.

As others have said, Hollywood Studios was the most challenging. Our 7-year-old isn't very interested in shows, so there wasn't much to do between (limited) ride reservations. And you really had to choose your priorities; we prioritized Rise of the Resistance and MFSR (and got great windows for those at 7), so that meant missing out on Slinky Dog Dash since all those windows get snapped up immediately. And the park was hot! Snack breaks were key here.

Animal Kingdom was a nice surprise; we'd never been but decided to switch out an MK reservation one day to check it out. It was definitely a more relaxed vibe, nice for late in our trip. Our son loved seeing all the various animal habitats scattered around. And the Kilimanjaro Safari was a highlight for sure. So many cool animals! We spotted a last-minute lunch reservation at Yak and Yeti and snapped that up too.

Anyway, everyone's complaints are definitely valid, and Genie+ has some irritating quirks, but we still had a wonderful time. And my son got to ride Space Mountain three times, so he was happy, haha.

 

[scrappinginontario]

This is probably a dumb question, but what's the advantage of booking a LL for the stage shows? Is it to guarantee a seat in the first couple rows?

Personally, we haven’t seen the value of using LL for a show as you still need to arrive early snd there it doesn’t mean better seating.

 

[SkyGuy]

It's 11 am right now and MFSR, MMRR, RnRC, TsM all have LL times when I looked a couple minutes ago.

I was just there, and compared to my early February trip it was like pulling teeth. The day we arrived in Feb, I started stacking on the plane, and had 5 rides in hand before we entered the parks at 2pm - Rise, MMRR, Tower, MF:SR, Slinky, TSM (first two were ILL), and I was able to get RnR and Star Tours and we were done by 5pm. This time at 2:00 I’d have to refresh for a very long time. When things popped up, it likely wasn’t there when I clicked. I wasn’t stopping to add anyone else either. I was clicking straight through and figured I’d add my son later. It was a real chore for sure. Just because you see availability doesn’t mean it’s there. I had no issues at the other parks. If the ride popped up, it was available.

 

[jbish]

When things popped up, it likely wasn’t there when I clicked. I wasn’t stopping to add anyone else either. I was clicking straight through and figured I’d add my son later. It was a real chore for sure. Just because you see availability doesn’t mean it’s there. I had no issues at the other parks. If the ride popped up, it was available.

You actually brought something to my attention I hadn't thought of yet - I'll be getting LLs for my family of 5. But the system doesn't know that when I'm refreshing for availability yet. Is that why sometimes those times disappear? We have no way of knowing if a random time shows up to be booked maybe is just for one person or 10. For you, maybe it's okay that you try to add just one more person to your reserved LL, but I don't think that would be an option for me with my family. I haven't done this in practice just yet so it hadn't even occurred to me that the systems doesn't know how many you're booking for until you actually click on the time.

 

[Jennasis]

G+ sometimes assigns a later return time than originally displayed particularly during the 7am rush when return times are rapidly getting later. But the reverse - an earlier ride time than displayed - generally doesn’t happen, I havent read any reports of that, though plenty of the former.

It happened to us!

 

[Neverbeast]

The deluxe Epcot hours from 9-11 were pretty good. The park was empty and we rode everything we wanted.

Do you happen to remember what all you did or in what order? The rides are so far apart at Epcot I’m trying to wrap my mind around what’s possible or a good way to hit rides without making my family run between everything.
I thought we’d probably try to do Soarin’ and Remy during the day, and at the start of EE do frozen, then head up to future world stuff like test track and spaceship earth. Did that seem doable to you on your busy night?

 

[Neverbeast]

You actually brought something to my attention I hadn't thought of yet - I'll be getting LLs for my family of 5. But the system doesn't know that when I'm refreshing for availability yet. Is that why sometimes those times disappear? We have no way of knowing if a random time shows up to be booked maybe is just for one person or 10. For you, maybe it's okay that you try to add just one more person to your reserved LL, but I don't think that would be an option for me with my family. I haven't done this in practice just yet so it hadn't even occurred to me that the systems doesn't know how many you're booking for until you actually click on the time.

I’ll be booking for a group of 11 feeling really nervous about whether this will work at all for us. We don’t need every ride together but obviously I had hoped to do some things like the safari, JC, MMRR, and frozen/Remy together. I wish more large parties were sharing their experiences with G+

 

[MainMom]

I’ll be booking for a group of 11 feeling really nervous about whether this will work at all for us. We don’t need every ride together but obviously I had hoped to do some things like the safari, JC, MMRR, and frozen/Remy together. I wish more large parties were sharing their experiences with G+

When are you going? We are traveling on May 31 & will have 7 in our party.

 

[Neverbeast]

When are you going? We are traveling on May 31 & will have 7 in our party.

Not until September. So lots of time for everything to change anyway. but you know, I would like to set expectations early. Please please do a big write up of how it goes for you!

 

[Rubymom46]

I have mostly been a watcher on this board over the last few months but wanted to post and thank those that give so many great tips on this site. We recently returned from a March 4-8 trip and had an amazing trip. I was very worried going in after seeing so much negativity all over the internet about WDW. But using many of the tips from here, we did great.

Genie + worked great for us. We went to Disneyland in 2019 and used MaxPass there so I think that helped me understand Genie better. We were able to ride everything we wanted even with the high crowds. Like many have said on here, stacking for the evening works well. MK is the best, HS worked pretty well too. Not necessary for Epcot and AK but saved us line wait time so was still worth it.

Rise of the Resistance: Don’t give up if you don’t get a ILL in the first 7am drop. The last day we were there both my daughter and my phone froze and they were gone when we got our phones working. Tried again at 7:15 on the sky liner on our way to HS. Got a 9:40 time and was able to help another family get one as well. I think most people give up and assume they are all gone for the day so keep trying in that first half hour. This was on a sold out day as well.

Get there early and use the EMH if you are onsite. Every morning we would make our Genie selections at 7 and then head to the parks immediately. Worked well for us with timing for 8:30 opening. We were able to ride so much in the first two hours and then stack Genie for later in the day. We rope dropped Remy and were on and off before EMH even started. The skyliner is awesome. My goal is to stay at all the WDW resorts but will be hard to go back to bus only location.

For us, the trip was what we made it. I totally understand the frustration of getting less and paying more. Will probably mean shorter and fewer trips for us but WDW is still a great vacation if you go in with a combo of being prepared and flexible.

 

[lynzi2004]

Do you happen to remember what all you did or in what order? The rides are so far apart at Epcot I’m trying to wrap my mind around what’s possible or a good way to hit rides without making my family run between everything.
I thought we’d probably try to do Soarin’ and Remy during the day, and at the start of EE do frozen, then head up to future world stuff like test track and spaceship earth. Did that seem doable to you on your busy night?

I’ve done 2 of the nighttime hours (once during Christmas week and once last week) during BOTH times Test Track was down during the event due to rain. If test track is a priority at all I would do a lightening lane or single rider during the day and count it bonus if it’s not raining that evening.
Soarin, Nemo, Spaceship earth are ALL walkon during the entire event. The only exit during the evening was on the Nemo side of Spaceship earth, they wouldn’t let us leave on the test track side and made us walk all the way around in the pouring rain so keep that in mind! I don’t know if it was a one time thing or if that is how it is every night.
Frozen has also been complete walkon at both events I attended…even though the app was showing a 35+ minute wait. They won’t let you walk from Frozen to Remy through the China area after hours so keep that in mind…I was disappointed as I was wanting some no crowd pics. You have to go back to the entrance of WS and through Canada. Remy is the only ride I’ve seen with much of a wait…Christmas week is was 15-20 min after about 9:30, I don’t know about this time as we didn’t walk back there. There is no good way to do the late hours and hit everything, so I would just prioritize your favorites and do the other couple during the day!

 

[lynzi2004]

I have mostly been a watcher on this board over the last few months but wanted to post and thank those that give so many great tips on this site. We recently returned from a March 4-8 trip and had an amazing trip. I was very worried going in after seeing so much negativity all over the internet about WDW. But using many of the tips from here, we did great.

Genie + worked great for us. We went to Disneyland in 2019 and used MaxPass there so I think that helped me understand Genie better. We were able to ride everything we wanted even with the high crowds. Like many have said on here, stacking for the evening works well. MK is the best, HS worked pretty well too. Not necessary for Epcot and AK but saved us line wait time so was still worth it.

Rise of the Resistance: Don’t give up if you don’t get a ILL in the first 7am drop. The last day we were there both my daughter and my phone froze and they were gone when we got our phones working. Tried again at 7:15 on the sky liner on our way to HS. Got a 9:40 time and was able to help another family get one as well. I think most people give up and assume they are all gone for the day so keep trying in that first half hour. This was on a sold out day as well.

Get there early and use the EMH if you are onsite. Every morning we would make our Genie selections at 7 and then head to the parks immediately. Worked well for us with timing for 8:30 opening. We were able to ride so much in the first two hours and then stack Genie for later in the day. We rope dropped Remy and were on and off before EMH even started. The skyliner is awesome. My goal is to stay at all the WDW resorts but will be hard to go back to bus only location.

For us, the trip was what we made it. I totally understand the frustration of getting less and paying more. Will probably mean shorter and fewer trips for us but WDW is still a great vacation if you go in with a combo of being prepared and flexible.

We were there March 5-8 and I agree with your statements! I think we really hit the sweet spot on crowds where the Genie+ was really helpful. Too crowded…genie runs out, too slow…genie isn’t needed. We were able to basically book next available throughout our MK day or finally about 2pm start stacking for the evening. We easily got Pan and 7DMT for morning hours. Remy was the only one we had a bit of trouble on and it just glitched at the right time. We were even able to do HS for evening on arrival day and got great LL times for the evening throughout our travel day…there was basically availability all day. Several times the 2nd or 3rd drops of rides got us RotR, Test track (booked at 1:30 even though it had previously been sold out), Splash, Jungle Cruise, etc. I’m still not a Genie+ fan but if Disney could figure out how to make it work in all crowds like it did during our 6-7 crowd level days…they would have far fewer complaints!!!

We never had to wait for Skyliner, monorail, bus, or boat it was all on point this trip. For instance, after our HS night we walked out at 9:15 and was on the skyliner by 9:20. We got to POP bus stop at 7:20 and was on a bus by 7:30…although we were standing, but still better than the lines I’ve seen there before. We rope dropped Space that day and were on one of the first rides of the day. We then moved to GF and had great monorail and boat service. I would give anything if they would go back to 2 fireworks shows. Those crowds are ridiculously intense! But overall a near perfect trip!