Slinky and ROTR Genie+/ILL$ Tips and Experiences

[Kevin1281]

Very helpful thread. Thank you.

 

[Westerner]

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[wisblue]

I wonder if it might actually be better to *not* buy RotR at 7:00:00 due to rapidly shifting return windows and instead try at some of the later 7-ish times that often have availability. Return times might be more stable then since the initial crush has passed.

FP- analogy: the horde of rope-drop runners swarming the SM FP machine has already come and gone. While they were rapdily hitting the button on the machine the posted return time got out of date quickly. But after they left things calmed down.

I think the paper FP analogy is correct. You could have gotten into the line at the machine at rope drop and ended up with a FP return time two hours or more later.

The new thread about IALL at 7 AM discusses the availability that seems to appear both at about 7:11 and again at about 7:17. If fewer people are seeking LL spots at those times the issue of time changing might be less of a problem.

 

[Duck143]

I refreshed this a.m. for RotR (just practicing) and there was no availability at 7:15am through to 7:17am, still nothing. Finally at 7:20am very early times dropped in. I saw return times for 10am, 9am and as early as 8:15am. Getting an early time like that is awesome, since the ride goes down later in the day so often.

 

[abtahime]

Has anyone noticed any regularity of Frozen being dropped again throughout the day now that’s it’s been moved to genie+?

 

[wisblue]

Once again Saturday seems to be a good day for getting LL for both Slinky and ROTR.

They disappear quickly, but once they come back they stick around longer than on other days.

We won’t be able to take advantage of that because we will be leaving on Saturday.

Today some Slinky times came up at 7:11, but at 7:17 early times came up for both and stayed up for as long as I kept watching. Now at 8:05, ROTR has return times of 7:30, though Slinky has run out.

 

[ppony]

Logged on before 7 am and when ROTR went live, from the time I started the purchase to concluded it— one second— time went from 11:30am to 5:30-ish pm. You have no recourse on refunds if you can’t make that time, so be aware. Our ASD son would NOT stay in the parks past early afternoon so we were completely screwed out of that $$$. I’m driving a wheelchair in addition to wrangling my ASD 14yo son. Constantly checking for options to open wasn’t an option for us.

 

[Westerner]

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[ppony]

I get that. I don't want to be spending a lot of time refreshing randomly either. But 7:17 seems to yield good results for RotR so if you've got a few minutes to check then, you might want to give it a try.

Sadly, I’m home now and I wasn’t aware of the other options possibly opening that soon or I would have stayed awake. Admittedly, my memory and coordination was stretched beyond my abilities this visit.

 

[KNovacovschi]

Last week I booked ROTR first for around 12 and then when I went to book SDD there were none, this was all before 7:01am. I kept refreshing and about 5 mins later SDD came up for 3pm but when I went to book it it jumped to 6:10pm, which was ok and I just grabbed it. I didn't want to chance not getting it. I then used the 2 hr rule to start booking more however was never able to get TOT or RNR.

 

[wdhinn89]

Logged on before 7 am and when ROTR went live, from the time I started the purchase to concluded it— one second— time went from 11:30am to 5:30-ish pm. You have no recourse on refunds if you can’t make that time, so be aware. Our ASD son would NOT stay in the parks past early afternoon so we were completely screwed out of that $$$. I’m driving a wheelchair in addition to wrangling my ASD 14yo son. Constantly checking for options to open wasn’t an option for us.

That really pisses me off!! We go back to the room for a break and hop to another park at night. I don't want to have to change my plans completely because of a conflicting time on a ride I purchased for a time I did not pick, if I click on 11:30am, that is the time I want, not a time 6 hours later! Disney better get their act together or they will be losing customers fast!

 

[MikeandReneePlus5]

That really pisses me off!! We go back to the room for a break and hop to another park at night. I don't want to have to change my plans completely because of a conflicting time on a ride I purchased for a time I did not pick, if I click on 11:30am, that is the time I want, not a time 6 hours later! Disney better get their act together or they will be losing customers fast!

I saw this happen a lot...don't know why...the time would jump wayyyyy out like you saw...and then come back to regular morning times and early afternoon a moment or two later.

It's bad..I wonder why it happens? Maybe the rush of thousands of people freaks the system out and they just start auto-spreading out across the whole day? And as that initial demand spike wanes the system offers up other times?

It's gotta be explainable. I really wish a Disney software dev person would comment on the DIS.

 

[js]

When we are booking and see a time of, say, 11 am, and then it changes to 5 pm, do we see that it is changed prior to our paying? I'm thinking no.

I'm only asking since we are going the Tuesday after Easter to MK and although purchasing G+, will try to get 7DMT for a time prior to 1 pm.
We are three adults that will be leaving the park around 1-2 pm, to go back to the resort to meet the guys after they play golf, shower and get ready for a dinner/monorail crawl.

If I went and saw an 11 am time and then purchased for three people and got 5 pm, I am kindly going to GS when I leave, how can that just be acceptable?

Thank you.

 

[Westerner]

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[MikeandReneePlus5]

Maybe Disney will provide more info on the inner workings of LL availability and return times but they themselves are probably still tweaking it and figuring out what to do in response to all the complaints. Meanwhile, my hunch is it works like an electronic version of the original FP machines.

At 7AM I picture a crowd of hundreds, maybe thousands rushing the machines and rapidly pushing the button. Posted return time gets rapidly out of sync with reality. Then after the initial crush passes and at various times during the day, Disney restocks the machine somewhat, and the return time becomes less likely to shift on you though still not totally stable.

I think of thrilldata as a spycam watching the machine that takes pictures every 5 minutes that can help us deduce what's really going on, along with scanning Tip Board and people's real life experiences.

Yeah...like maybe the "stock" LL$ with I dunno 5,000 slots through the day as a first offering...most early but some out there late so people can try and choose a nighttime slot if that's what they want, and then those sell out and then there is a "restock".

But it could be avoided if they could just hold the time you click on and take it out of inventory.

 

[HydroGuy]

When we are booking and see a time of, say, 11 am, and then it changes to 5 pm, do we see that it is changed prior to our paying? I'm thinking no.

I'm only asking since we are going the Tuesday after Easter to MK and although purchasing G+, will try to get 7DMT for a time prior to 1 pm.
We are three adults that will be leaving the park around 1-2 pm, to go back to the resort to meet the guys after they play golf, shower and get ready for a dinner/monorail crawl.

If I went and saw an 11 am time and then purchased for three people and got 5 pm, I am kindly going to GS when I leave, how can that just be acceptable?

Thank you.

From what I understand it is worse than that. Yes you see that the window has changed prior to paying. But then after you pay it can get changed again.

For good measure some people report that after that point it can get changed yet again. Some people speculate this is because the ride goes down in the meantime.

 

[abtahime]

We just got back from a very hectic spring break week and thought I would share my experiences on these rides as I was actually pretty happy with my bookings. We did Hollywood studios two different mornings as my kids need a midday break and then we hopped over to Epcot at night for dinner.

day 1:
Booked a genie+ SDD right at 7am. I took the advise I had previously read which was to not be on Disney’s wifi and to refresh just a second before 7am. We ended up with a 10:10am return time.
Booked ILL for rise when Disney seems to do a redrop at 7:17. This is when I booked every single ILL and had good luck each time. This day I tried to get a 10:30. The system did push me back to 10:45 on the next screen but did not change my time during or after payment. I thought the 15 minute change was fine. And this is the only time over booking 6 different ILL on 3 different days that the system changed my time - highly recommend booking during this second drop and not right at 7am. Also, we showed up right at the beginning of our return time and were doing rider swap. Because my husband and I could both get in during our one hour window (and hence didn’t technically need our bands scanned for a Return) they let both of my older two ride a second time which I thought was great!

day 2:
On our second morning we did a genie+ for MMRR because it was the only ride on our list we didn’t get in the first day. My kids still wanted to do SDD so we rope dropped in during early entry and they waited about 10 minutes!

again booked Rise on the ILL during the 7:17 drop and had no problems

We rode everything we wanted (most multiple times), and never waited more than 30 minutes when combining early park hours rope drop with the above bookings, even during spring break. We did not prioritize TOT or RNR. My only complaint with this is if you need a midday break and park hop it makes it really hard to get a second genie+ at HS - the times are just too far out. I was able to book later rides both morning at Epcot though, including Frozen our second day when I had an earlier MMRR genie+. Our expectations were appropriate and we were happy!

 

[js]

From what I understand it is worse than that. Yes you see that the window has changed prior to paying. But then after you pay it can get changed again.

For good measure some people report that after that point it can get changed yet again. Some people speculate this is because the ride goes down in the meantime.

Thank you very much. What a PITA.

 

[wisblue]

Tomorrow is my day to try to get a LL for ROTR and SDD.

Because the weather may be turning ugly tomorrow afternoon and evening I don’t want to get anything for ROTR much later than noon. So, I’ll probably just try at 7:17 to see if I can get something early, and try again on Friday when we plan to go to DHS later in the afternoon.

This morning my target for IALL was Remy from 6-7 because we are hopping to Epcot after starting at MK. I was able to get that time (actually a minute or two before 7:17) while on the bus to MK after turning down a couple of opportunities for slightly later times.

After booking Remy I looked at DHS and ROTR didn’t seem to have as much availability at 7:17 as it has some other days.

 

[CJK]

Tomorrow is my day to try to get a LL for ROTR and SDD.

Because the weather may be turning ugly tomorrow afternoon and evening I don’t want to get anything for ROTR much later than noon. So, I’ll probably just try at 7:17 to see if I can get something early, and try again on Friday when we plan to go to DHS later in the afternoon.

This morning my target for IALL was Remy from 6-7 because we are hopping to Epcot after starting at MK. I was able to get that time (actually a minute or two before 7:17) while on the bus to MK after turning down a couple of opportunities for slightly later times.

After booking Remy I looked at DHS and ROTR didn’t seem to have as much availability at 7:17 as it has some other days.

Good luck tomorrow, and please keep us posted!