This is my fear too. G+ was "fair" where in everyone going to the park that day could wake up at 7 and make a LL for the ride they most wanted to do that day. Onsite guest only had an advantage for buying ILL before park open.
We let our APs expire in May (out of state), and I am so glad we did before spending 4k+ for 3 people to renew. We got Universal ones this spring and will happily use my express pass after 4 that is included. We were going to do 3 days at Disney with 2 park days at the end of our NYE Universal trip, but I don’t know if it’s worth the hassle and $$ now. We would have to stay onsite to have any sliver of a chance at getting LLSP or any decent on LLMP
I renew in December. My biggest issue is we have Jollywood tickets and of course the trip is like 3 days after our AP expire, so we are going to Disney no matter what for Jollywood. If I buy park tickets for the rest of the weekend I am already looking at like 1/3 the cost to renew, so they may get me for another year...
I think the new system they just implemented is considered the fix for the things people didn't like about Genie+! Early mornings, no pre-booking, very little advantage to on-site guests. The things they changed about the "pay" system were things some folks were asking for! The biggest change, for us, is the advantage we get for pre-booking staying on-site. If we don't stay on-site, I'd be questioning the value, too, unsure of what might be available at 3 days out.
Wow - that's 9 days out for Tiana and mid-afternoon is the earliest time? That situation probably isn't going to improve for quite some time as people look to experience the new ride.
Sorry, but can you explain why you wouldn't have the 7-day advantage for an on-site weekend stay?
[I hate explaining disney logic, but here goes lol] If I understand correctly, everyone (staying onsite gets a 7 day head start but can book length of stay. If it's like with the old FP system or the current dining reservation system, that means that when you go to book headliners, the first days of your trip are usually booked up but days at the end of your stay might have openings because people checking in during the few days before you have already had a shot at those early slots during their 7 day+ window. If you only stay 3-4 days, most slots, if not all, will be booked up. It's like with standard dining res advice that if you want something like Space 220 or Ohana, when your window opens you should check towards the end of your trip and work backwards.
I think they are saying that even with the 7 day advantage, if you are only doing a 2-3 day trip you still may not get the "big" rides reserved, like SDD or currently Tiana (this one will die down especially in winter). You will lose out to guests with longer stays.
Blah...that really stinks. We often will RD AK, no need for fastpasses and then hop to another park. What a waste...maybe we just won't purchase on those days.
Actually there's good news on that front. It's been worked out that if you change your profile settings in the MDE app to say that your country is the United States, quit the app, turn off Location Services (just for MDE should be fine, but some people are putting it in Airplane Mode as well to be sure) then open the app again, it should work fine and allow you to make Lightning Lane purchases from outside North America. People have tried this on both iPhone and Android and are reporting back good results, so hopefully it will also work for you (until Disney "fix" it of course!)
Having just done this, for a 3 night stay, I was able to book Tiana for my second day (so 7+1), and had SDD availability on both 7+1 and 7+2. Even right now at 8:15, I can book SDD on 7+2 for 11:55 if I wanted to, which is way better than same day G+ availability at the same time.
