I'm feeling overwhelmed.

[Annchristine65]

Haven't been to Disney since 2014. We are going to Universal the first week of April. I decided to surprise the family with 2 days at Disney, one at Epcot and one at HS because my husband and daughter are huge Star Wars fans and of course we love Disney it just never seems to fit in the budget. Anyway I did purchase the genie + because I really want to make sure we get on both Star Wars attractions. Does anyone have any tips or strategies to make sure that happens.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

First, know that Rise Of The Resistance is not part of Genie+, so purchasing it won't help there. However, ROTR is something you can make a separate Individual Lightning Lane purchase to ride. The only other option for ROTR other than ILL purchase is a standby line. That can be unpredictable for wait times, but it's usually pretty long. If both SW attractions are critical, right at 7AM, be on your MDE to purchase an ILL for ROTR (that's assuming you are staying at a Disney resort - if not, you'll need to wait until park opening). Right after making the ROTR purchase, you could go on an make a G+ selection for Smuggler's Run - then you'd likely get both. Hope that helps a little bit to get your started with your planning.

 

[AnnaKristoff2013]

First, know that Rise Of The Resistance is not part of Genie+, so purchasing it won't help there. However, ROTR is something you can make a separate Individual Lightning Lane purchase to ride. The only other option for ROTR other than ILL purchase is a standby line. That can be unpredictable for wait times, but it's usually pretty long. If both SW attractions are critical, right at 7AM, be on your MDE to purchase an ILL for ROTR (that's assuming you are staying at a Disney resort - if not, you'll need to wait until park opening). Right after making the ROTR purchase, you could go on an make a G+ selection for Smuggler's Run - then you'd likely get both. Hope that helps a little bit to get your started with your planning.

If he’s not staying on property he’s not likely going to be able to purchase rise of the resistance, since it generally sells out before it opens for off-site guests.

 

[Annchristine65]

First, know that Rise Of The Resistance is not part of Genie+, so purchasing it won't help there. However, ROTR is something you can make a separate Individual Lightning Lane purchase to ride. The only other option for ROTR other than ILL purchase is a standby line. That can be unpredictable for wait times, but it's usually pretty long. If both SW attractions are critical, right at 7AM, be on your MDE to purchase an ILL for ROTR (that's assuming you are staying at a Disney resort - if not, you'll need to wait until park opening). Right after making the ROTR purchase, you could go on an make a G+ selection for Smuggler's Run - then you'd likely get both. Hope that helps a little bit to get your started with your planning.

Thank you so much! So you can make an ILL and Genie + at the same time I was thinking I would have to wait until after the 120 minutes or until I punched into the first ride at which time I thought a lot of times would be taken. And we are staying onsite so I can start looking at 7 AM.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

ILL and Genie+ are separate. You can make ILL purchases (up to 2 per day) without the additional purchase of Genie+. On the other side, if you do purchase Genie+, it doesn't help with your ILL.

If/when you purchase the ILL for ROTR, you'll be allowed to select from a range of available times. However, when you get the LL pass through Genie+ for Smuggler's Run, you'll only be able to select the 'next available' time slot that comes up - it'll be a 1-hour return window. Have a great couple days at Disney!

 

[Miffy]

Thank you so much! So you can make an ILL and Genie + at the same time I was thinking I would have to wait until after the 120 minutes or until I punched into the first ride at which time I thought a lot of times would be taken. And we are staying onsite so I can start looking at 7 AM.

Yes, G+ and ILL$ are separate entities. I would do Rise first, since it can sell out pretty quickly. You get to choose a time with the ILL$ purchase, but my experience in December was that by the time I got to paying for the ILL$, the time was later than the one I'd originally seen. If this happens to you--and it likely will--accept the time and book the ILL$. Because if you back out and try again, there may be nada available at that point.

It's much easier to get a G+ for MFSR. If you and another member of your traveling party both have MDE on your phones, you should both try for Rise at 7 because inexplicable problems come up and you want to do all you can to get your ILL$ for Rise. Don't worry about overbooking, because if one of you successfully books it the other person will be shut out since they'll already have a reservation.

Be prepared for anything at all to happen. One of the mornings we were at DHS in December the entire ILL$ system was broken. It wasn't obvious--it looked like it could just be a problem with our connection, for example--but I checked here on the DIS and saw that everyone was having the same problem. ILL$ came back up while we were in the standby line for MMRR (I highly recommend this, btw) during Early Theme Park Entry and we were fortunate that we'd been checking our phones every couple of minutes and were able to snag an ILL$ for RotR.

Check out the thread on Early Theme Park Entry. It's really worth doing, even if you get just one ride out of it . . . and don't mind leaving the resort before breakfast.

Edited for clarity.

 

[Annchristine65]

Yes, G+ and ILL$ are separate entities. I would do Rise first, since it can sell out pretty quickly. You get to choose a time with the ILL$ purchase, but my experience in December was that by the time I got to paying for the ILL$, the time was later than the one I'd originally seen. If this happens to you--and it likely will--accept the time and book the ILL$. Because if you back out and try again, there may be nada available at that point.

It's much easier to get a G+ for MFSR. If you and another member of your traveling party both have MDE on your phones, you should both try for Rise at 7 because inexplicable problems come up and you want to do all you can to get your ILL$ for Rise. Don't worry about overbooking, because if one of you successfully books it the other person will be shut out since they'll already have a reservation.

Be prepared for anything at all to happen. One of the mornings we were at DHS in December the entire ILL$ system was broken. It wasn't obvious--it looked like it could just be a problem with our connection, for example--but I checked here on the DIS and saw that everyone was having the same problem. ILL$ came back up while we were in the standby line for MMRR (I highly recommend this, btw) during Early Theme Park Entry and we were fortunate that we'd been checking our phones every couple of minutes and were able to snag an ILL$ for RotR.

Check out the thread on Early Theme Park Entry. It's really worth doing, even if you get just one ride out of it . . . and don't mind leaving the resort before breakfast.

Edited for clarity.

Thanks so much this was very helpful!!