Need help with ticket buying strategy- Hop or not, Genie + or not (or combination)

[Mamiamjo]

I'd like to get some feedback from those that have been there under the current conditions regarding ticket/touring strategies.
For a 7 day trip, would you rather plan your trip using the following ticket strategies...
1) Buy Hopper & Genie+ (would probably hop 3-4 days, but probably not every day)
2) Buy Hopper w/o Genie+
3) Buy Genie+ w/o Hopper (If no Hoppers, we would return to same park as in the morning for 4-5 evenings)
4) Base Ticket only, no Genie+ no Hopper

Thanks!

 

[lockets]

Do you and the people in your party need afternoon breaks? If so do you typically go back to the parks at night to eat, or is it just to do rides?

 

[Mamiamjo]

Yeah we will have some children that will need breaks in the middle of the day. We typically go back mostly for rides

 

[lockets]

Based on that I’d probably do no hoppers but use $ILL to book morning ride and Genie+ to stack as many rides as you can for later in the day. I think that may be less costly and accomplishes what you want?

if later in the trip you suddenly want to do a hopper day I believe it can be added to your ticket, but I could be wrong on that so double check.

 

[MainMom]

We personally always get hoppers. For our trip in June we will have hoppers with genie+. Our plan is to book 7am genie+ in morning park and then stack for afternoon/evening park. We always take a mid day break. I figure I can do some refreshing on break. We don’t hop every day.

 

[Feberin]

We haven't been recently but chose to do genie+ without hoppers for our 6 park days trip. I do feel disappointed that we'll be stuck with that park for dinner and fireworks. But it kept the costs the same and my kids mainly are interested in the rides.

 

[3gr8boys]

if later in the trip you suddenly want to do a hopper day I believe it can be added to your ticket, but I could be wrong on that so double check.

You can add hopper to a ticket during a trip...but, unless something has changed, you will pay for the full ticket's worth of PH days- not just the day you want to add it or just the remainder of your trip.

 

[Miffy]

You don't have to buy G+ for every day of your trip unless you want to buy it at the same time you purchase the tickets. In case you didn't know this.

I always get a PH (if I don't have an AP) but that's my personal preference. You may not have the same needs/wants.

There's a lot of strategizing involved with the new system and after having been in December and using G+ and ILL$, I still don't know what the best method is for my own preferences.

Of course, ideally, money wouldn't be an issue (if only!) and one would just get hoppers, G+, and buy all the ILL$ they wanted and not care if they got the best/most use out of them.

There are so many factors involved, including when you're going, how the rest of your party likes to visit the parks and/or stay at the resort, and how crowded the parks are on any given day--to name just a few.

One thing I'd definitely advise: If you do get G+, make your first reservation as soon as possible and keep on top of it to make more reservations as the day progresses. And if you want to do the E-ticket attractions without waiting in long lines, definitely buy ILL$ for these (RotR, FoP, 7DMT). That combined with rope-dropping will help limit your exposure to long lines.

 

[KristinU]

I recently went through the same decision process. One thing that helped me was I made a spreadsheet with the costs per ticket for each option then calculated the delta between the options. It helped me to see what we were paying per person for whatever ability that was beyond the base. Ultimately we decided to go with hoppers and G+. Another thing that contributed to our decision was having the price locked in now and not wondering if something with G+ would change by the time our trip comes.

 

[loves to dive]

There are a lot of factors to consider. The ages of your children, are you ride centric or do you just like to ride a few rides, do you go often, what is your tolerance for waiting in line, what time of year are you going?
Personally, we always buy hoppers, I can't imagine spending an entire day in only one park. We are also not ride centric, although we like to ride rides we aren't the type that runs from ride to ride and tries to get in as many rides as possible. We also don't mind standing in line. We go often, in my case usually at least twice a year, in my (now adult) son's case usually at least once a year. Because of that, we know if we don't ride a specific ride, it's o.k. we can ride it next time. Waiting in line in the summer or fall can be like the 5th level of a very hot place (cleaned that up) with rain and heat combined, waiting in line in the winter and spring isn't so bad. We rarely used the old FP system (both the paper and the electronic) and when we did, it was usually booking one while standing in line and not for any longer than 30 min. away from when we thought we would get off the current ride, we just don't like to be tied down. I was there in Dec. and it was busy and I did not buy Genie+, I was solo. I rode most of the rides except RoTR and since I've ridden that a number of times it was fine (I didn't ride FoP but that was by choice, I don't like it). We like to go back to the resort and go to the pool or just rest then go to a different park at night.