Need Advice - Genie + while park hopping

[Hitchhiking Ghost]

Originally we were not going to park hop, but just added it to our upcoming December trip. What is the best strategy when parking hopping early in the day. If we start out at MK for our 1st park, I know we cannot hop until 2:00pm. When booking Genie + in this instance, if we are going to EPCOT am I better off right in the morning trying to get a LL for Remy or Frozen, then wait two hours to see what I can then snag at MK? I'm kind of assuming if I book Genie + for MK in the am, that little or nothing would be left by the time we get to EPCOT at 2:00 (at least for Remy, Frozen or TT). What about DHS, would same thing apply, try for M&M Runaway for after 2:00 instead of a MK ride? The park hopping has kind of thrown me for a loop, so I'm trying to figure out the best approach to it while still trying to get some value out of G+. Thx

 

[g-dad66]

This depends in part on how busy the parks are (it will be very busy if you are going in the last half of December), and also what time MK opens (likely will be 8:00 instead of 9:00 on party days and could be 7:00 during Christmas weeks).

Hopping from MK to Epcot:
To get LL for Remy, you will need to book it at 7:00 am (or soon thereafter; you won't need to wait long for the LL time to be after 2:00).
Afer that, in order to get LL for either Test Track or Frozen, you will need to book by 10:30. By 12:30, both of these are likely to be gone, so this plan gets you two LLs in Epcot and none in MK (if MK opens at 8:00). If MK opens at 9:00, Remy may be your only Epcot LL, because Test Track and Frozen may both be gone by 11:00.

Or if you forego Remy, you could book one LL early in MK (Jungle Cruise or Peter Pan would be your best bet) and then book Frozen or Test Track as your next LL. This plan will get you one LL for Epcot, and probably 3 or more in MK (probably 2 or more 2 hours after booking the Frozen or Test Track LL).

Hopping from MK to DHS:
Slinky Dog is the only DHS ride that will have a 2:00 or later LL time before MK opening. If you book it as your first LL, then at 11:00 (assuming 9:00 MK opening), you could start booking MK LLs, or you could book your second LL for DHS (by now, Runaway Railway, Falcon, Rock n Roller Coaster, Tower of Terror should have LL return times later than 2:00).

If you forego Slinky Dog (LLs may be gone by 11:00), then you could do several MK LLs before starting your DHS LL stacking.

 

[coasternut22]

g-dad66 said it best, so I won’t elaborate any more on specific plans. Just know the rule that you can’t book a selection at another park until the return times are past 2pm. With rides like Remy, Slinky, and Jungle Cruise, this can be difficult to predict between 7-8am. Also between 7-7:30am, you will not see the return time on the refresh screen, only on the confirmation screen. So you may have to cancel a couple of times and rebook to get an optimal return time.

When it comes to value and G+, it’s going to be very subjective because everyone will use it differently. We also don’t know what you value more. Is it getting the top 3-4 rides in both parks, or is it not having to stand in any lines in one park and not minding waiting in lines for another. If it’s the former, then g-dad66 gave some good pointers. If you are just stacking for the second park, then just get that first one booked and keep at it every two hours. The situations you describe present many different value scenarios. This is going to be more of a personal decision more than anything else.

 

[bluezy]

I agree with the game plans of the PPs. I just wanted to add that if you do rope drop at MK (and I mean be close to the front of the pack), you can knock out several rides there without needing to use Genie+ for the morning. Of course this assumes that you have another day at MK that you do intend to use Genie+ to hit some of the big rides -- or hop back to MK at night and do some rides during the fireworks. You could also schedule an ILL for 7DMT for late morning on the day you're hopping to another park.

When we were there for 8 days in June, we had one day at each park that we focused on getting on our "must do" rides so that usually meant getting LLs for as early as possible in the morning and also taking advantage of rope drop. The other days, we'd play by ear as to whether we used G+ for the park we were going to first or if we'd use rope drop there and stack rides for late afternoon/evening at the park we were hopping to -- or a combination of both. We hopped to MK several times during the week because there's always *something* left on Genie+ for later in the day at that park. And we rode several rides with no real wait during the fireworks one night. Both methods (scheduling G+ for early in the morning or stacking for later in the day) work well. It just depends what you want to get accomplished that particular day.

 

[Hitchhiking Ghost]

g-dad66 said it best, so I won’t elaborate any more on specific plans. Just know the rule that you can’t book a selection at another park until the return times are past 2pm. With rides like Remy, Slinky, and Jungle Cruise, this can be difficult to predict between 7-8am. Also between 7-7:30am, you will not see the return time on the refresh screen, only on the confirmation screen. So you may have to cancel a couple of times and rebook to get an optimal return time.

When it comes to value and G+, it’s going to be very subjective because everyone will use it differently. We also don’t know what you value more. Is it getting the top 3-4 rides in both parks, or is it not having to stand in any lines in one park and not minding waiting in lines for another. If it’s the former, then g-dad66 gave some good pointers. If you are just stacking for the second park, then just get that first one booked and keep at it every two hours. The situations you describe present many different value scenarios. This is going to be more of a personal decision more than anything else.

Thanks g-dad and coasterut - a big help. We will be there first week of December with park days going from Saturday to the following Friday (7 park days total). It has been interesting planning this trip. It has been 7 years since our last visit, kids are older, new rides have appeared, but we are also spending the first three park days with another family and final four on our own. In addition, we are trying to plan around the Candlelight Processional and then some specific dining reservations that we want to have on certain nights. All of that has led to some very interesting scenarios as to which park to start with and whether or not to hop, and then you throw in the mix Genie + and this is, to quote Alladin, "a whole new world" for me. One thing I am trying my best to do is reset my expectations. Even before kids my wife and I would like to go usually the Sat/Sun after Thanksgiving for a week to 10 days, and back then, '90's and early 2000's that was a very slow period. I am doing my best to alter my expecations for that not to be the case and if it isn't then great, but if it is, then we'll be prepared. Fortunately it isn't about the rides as much anymore, but the experience, but that said, having not done Avatar (Pandora), RoR, MMRR, Remy, Frozen or Guardians, I'd hate to miss them. Thanks again for the advice, will have to give it a couple rereads