The big G+ rides at HS gone by 1:07!

[abtahime]

My experience with Genie+ is that you are more likely to get later return times at a park like Hollywood... even when purchasing ROR. We wanted an early ROR, but when I realized that would be unlikely we made HS our pm park. The chances of purchasing an early ROR and getting an early return time for SDD would require a lot of luck. I would probably rope drop the Toy Story rides, try for an early MMRR, and then maybe rely on single rider for MFSR or hope to pull it via genie+ depending on your kids ages... and then cross my fingers/toes that I could buy ROR for the morning.

As a family with kids who also need breaks we find Genie+ super frustrating for making morning plans in a park

ugh yes I’m super worried about this. I posted this elsewhere but genie+ seems so much more suited to families without young children, which is beyond frustrating when we are all paying the same exact price and Disney is supposed to be somewhere that specifically caters to small kids

 

[snikki]

my two year old is up at 6 each day and since we are all in the same room figure early is doable. We are staying at the Poly, do you have any advice on when we need to be at the bus to get there that early?

My son was the same. Up before the sun so we always got there early.

I would be at the bus stop by 7-7:15.

Good luck!

 

[DisneyFive]

My experience with Genie+ is that you are more likely to get later return times at a park like Hollywood... even when purchasing ROR. We wanted an early ROR, but when I realized that would be unlikely we made HS our pm park. The chances of purchasing an early ROR and getting an early return time for SDD would require a lot of luck. I would probably rope drop the Toy Story rides, try for an early MMRR, and then maybe rely on single rider for MFSR or hope to pull it via genie+ depending on your kids ages... and then cross my fingers/toes that I could buy ROR for the morning.

As a family with kids who also need breaks we find Genie+ super frustrating for making morning plans in a park

ugh yes I’m super worried about this. I posted this elsewhere but genie+ seems so much more suited to families without young children, which is beyond frustrating when we are all paying the same exact price and Disney is supposed to be somewhere that specifically caters to small kids

The old paper FP system (which is essentially what G+ is) got around this by allowing you to use your FP's anytime after the opening of the window. It wasn't explicitly stated, but allowed. So if you pulled a FP, and it was for 2:30-3:30, but that overlapped with the time when you wanted to rest, well you could still leave and use that same FP anytime later in the day. It didn't seem to cause issues back then with the queues. (maybe I'm wrong) I wonder if something like that could be allowed with G+?

Better yet, once securing a G+ LL, allow the ability to modify the time and check if there would be a better time slot that you could choose instead.

Dan

 

[Westerner]

Okay I’m wondering if one of these is a better strategy for navigating HS with 3 kids who will need a midday break by 1ish (we will then hop to Epcot in the evening for an ADR and hopefully a ride or two there). Our goals are ROR, MMRR, TSMM, MFSM, and SDD. Anything else we will consider an unlikely bonus.

We plan on purchasing ROR and genie+ for the day as well as doing RD for on sight guests.

the most common strategy seems to be to get SDD right at 7 for whatever time we get and then hitting up hopefully 2 of the other 3 during early hours and maybe waiting in one long line for the third. Unless we hit the SDD lottery it seems unlikely to get a return time that will allow us to make another genie+ earlier than the two hours after park opening which seems like all of the other return times for rides we want to hit will be pushed for out and/or gone. This is the strategy I have been considering most.

however, would there be value in RD SDD instead, and trying to get an earlier return window on a MMRR or MFSR in order to activate your second genie+ selection sooner? We will be there over what appears to be a very busy 3 week of March, a lot of parks already sold out.

The requirement to be out by 1-ish for midday break and not come back later makes it very hard to get and use 2 G+ LL's for the rides you mentioned. Based on what I see on thrilldata your best chance would be:

7:00:00AM book MFSR or MMRR whichever has earliest return time. Hopefully 10AM or so.
10AM tap in and book TSM for hopefully noonish.

Over the holidays I got an MFSR return time of 9:55AM having booked at 7:00:00AM.

The problem with booking SDD at 7AM is you might not get a return time before 1-ish and then don't get any desired LL's at all. By 11AM all return times prior to 1-ish may be gone for your rides.

 

[Orsino]

The old paper FP system (which is essentially what G+ is) got around this by allowing you to use your FP's anytime after the opening of the window. It wasn't explicitly stated, but allowed. So if you pulled a FP, and it was for 2:30-3:30, but that overlapped with the time when you wanted to rest, well you could still leave and use that same FP anytime later in the day. It didn't seem to cause issues back then with the queues. (maybe I'm wrong) I wonder if something like that could be allowed with G+?

Dan

That was allowed for a while (a long while if I remember correctly) but even in the paper fastpass era, there was a point where they stopped accepting late arrivals. They were mostly strict on the big rides. The less popular rides were more lenient, if I recall.

They got so strict that sometimes we had trouble with legitimate passes (anytime recovery pass).

 

[Westerner]

1. Is it safe to assume that none of the G+ will come back with an AM return time?

4. If we get lucky and SB SDD after reserving it on G+, what is the strategy for releasing it and grabbing something else? Do we still have to wait until 10:30 for next G+?

1. You have a fair chance of getting an AM return time for MFSR, TOT, or MMRR by booking at 7:00:00AM. Possibly prior to park open + 2 or 10:30 in your case.

4. I believe you can cancel an existing LL in MDE. If it is the most recently booked LL you should be able to rebook immediately. If it's not the most recently booked LL, irrespective of its return time, it won't have any affect on when you can rebook.

 

[DisneyFive]

1. You have a fair chance of getting an AM return time for MFSR, TOT, or MMRR by booking at 7:00:00AM. Possibly prior to park open + 2 or 10:30 in your case.

4. I believe you can cancel an existing LL in MDE. If it is the most recently booked LL you should be able to rebook immediately. If it's not the most recently booked LL, irrespective of its return time, it won't have any affect on when you can rebook.

I thought that canceling a LL prevented you from trying for that same attraction that day?

Dan

 

[Westerner]

Hello. I hope you have a great trip.
The take home with Genie+ is it's a gamble. You have a good plan, but all it takes is one circumstance to set the whole plan off track. Is your priority rides? Or reducing line time? Remember although not ideal, it's not genie+ or nothing. You can wait in standby lines. I suggest going with your tentative plan, then whatever you aren't able to secure with genie+ you just decide if it's worth standby or not. Your kiddos sound older, so though again not ideal, could probably tolerate longer lines. What time is best for you to leave to head back to Pop? If your planning on say 8am- 5pm I think that is more than a reasonable amount of time to use RD, Genie+ and standby to get on 4-5 rides.

It's good to have a plan, but set your expectations low, prep your party and be mentally prepared that you might very well have to wait in lines topping 60-100 minutes. Decide in advance what rides the wait is worth and what rides it's not.

I agree G+ can be unpredictable, however one point worth considering is that if you do get a G+ (or two) your wait times for those rides become a lot easier to plan around vs standby.

 

[Westerner]

I thought that canceling a LL prevented you from trying for that same attraction that day?

No, I believe that only happens if you let the return window expire without using it. That happened to me.

 

[sheilafri]

The point isn't that G+ is "easier" but that G+ doesn't require actions 60 days ago. G+ offers the opportunity to learn the system for day 2. Still complicated, but possible. FP+ would require learning the system and implementing what you learned in the past. Still complicated, and impossible.

I respectfully disagree. We never planned very far in advance as we could drive in on short notice. We could always choose three fast passes to give us a basic plan and monitor the day of, or day before, and modify to better fit our preferences. Currently, there is no way that I know of to modify plans possibly leading to abandoned G+ plans and no way for another group to use those slots.

PS I hope I’m wrong and have just missed how to modify.

 

[pens4821]

My experience is about the same as yours but a little different. Since I had some time I decided to refresh. I started at 228 and stopped at 237. Constant refresh. I was looking at RNRC, SDD, and TOT. Nothing available until 232. SDD and TOT. SDD I refreshed them again and it was gone. TOT lasted about 5 refreshes. RNRC didn’t pop up until 2:33 (may have been 2:34) and it only lasted that refresh and one more. Then after that I didn’t see any when I quit a little after 2:37 (close to 2:38).

I’m off wednesdays so here is my experiment from today as compared to last week. I started refreshing at 218 and stopped at 239. Only looking at TOT RNRC. RNRC popped up once about 220 and never again. Not even for the around 232 drop. A little after 232 TOT came up and lasted about 15 refreshes. All between 4-5, then didn’t see any more. I was only looking at those two as those are my 2/3 picks for my trip.

I have no idea which to choose second. Seems like two weeks in a row there were more TOT around 230 so maybe RNRC as my second choice would be better.

 

[abtahime]

The requirement to be out by 1-ish for midday break and not come back later makes it very hard to get and use 2 G+ LL's for the rides you mentioned. Based on what I see on thrilldata your best chance would be:

7:00:00AM book MFSR or MMRR whichever has earliest return time. Hopefully 10AM or so.
10AM tap in and book TSM for hopefully noonish.

Over the holidays I got an MFSR return time of 9:55AM having booked at 7:00:00AM.

The problem with booking SDD at 7AM is you might not get a return time before 1-ish and then don't get any desired LL's at all. By 11AM all return times prior to 1-ish may be gone for your rides.

the unpredictability of SDD is what makes me the most nervous with our needs, as you mentioned, get on right at 7am and you still may be into the afternoon with your return. If we RD SDD, do you think it’s possible to still do either MFSR or MMRR (whichever we didn’t get a LL for) before the crowds take over?

 

[abtahime]

I’m off wednesdays so here is my experiment from today as compared to last week. I started refreshing at 218 and stopped at 239. Only looking at TOT RNRC. RNRC popped up once about 220 and never again. Not even for the around 232 drop. A little after 232 TOT came up and lasted about 15 refreshes. All between 4-5, then didn’t see any more. I was only looking at those two as those are my 2/3 picks for my trip.

I have no idea which to choose second. Seems like two weeks in a row there were more TOT around 230 so maybe RNRC as my second choice would be better.

Does Disney typically do a 2:30 drop? Are there other times they do this as well?

 

[Disturbia]

Great video on actual wait times vs posted

 

[Disturbia]

3:57

 

[Disturbia]

4:01

 

[pens4821]

Does Disney typically do a 2:30 drop? Are there other times they do this as well?

Supposedly and the three times I’ve tried it since I heard about it last Wednesday morning they have. I had time last Wednesday, Thursday, and today to look starting around 230. And there was some availability but not much. But like I said no RNRC today and I wasn’t looking at anything other than that and TOT.

I forget what other times they may do the same thing. A couple in the morning. I’ve really only been focused on the 230 at HS. For some reason I’m thinking around 430 I read too but not sure.

 

[Disturbia]

I’m pretty sure my phone will freeze in the parks and the app will log me out before I can grab any of these.

 

[pens4821]

Anyone get in line for RNRC about an hour to hour and a half before closing lately? Curious what the actual wait time is like. If I don’t get ILL for rise maybe I can do RNRC around 8 then get to rise by a little before 9.

 

[jwolfpack]

Okay I’m wondering if one of these is a better strategy for navigating HS with 3 kids who will need a midday break by 1ish (we will then hop to Epcot in the evening for an ADR and hopefully a ride or two there). Our goals are ROR, MMRR, TSMM, MFSM, and SDD. Anything else we will consider an unlikely bonus.

We plan on purchasing ROR and genie+ for the day as well as doing RD for on sight guests.

the most common strategy seems to be to get SDD right at 7 for whatever time we get and then hitting up hopefully 2 of the other 3 during early hours and maybe waiting in one long line for the third. Unless we hit the SDD lottery it seems unlikely to get a return time that will allow us to make another genie+ earlier than the two hours after park opening which seems like all of the other return times for rides we want to hit will be pushed for out and/or gone. This is the strategy I have been considering most.

however, would there be value in RD SDD instead, and trying to get an earlier return window on a MMRR or MFSR in order to activate your second genie+ selection sooner? We will be there over what appears to be a very busy 3 week of March, a lot of parks already sold out.

I am intrigued by this strategy! I will also be traveling with 3 kids who will need a mid-day break, and our ride priorities are exactly the same. I was leaning toward trying my luck for SDD at 7 AM, but I think you're on to something by rope dropping SDD instead and going for a 1st pick that will give us a higher probability of making a 2nd pick ahead of everyone else. Now to pick between MMRR and MFSR...