Thoughts on 5 day 1 Park Per Day Tickets and No Genie+?

[ILovePixieDust]

Hello all,

What are people's thoughts on getting 5 day-1 Park Per day tickets with No Genie+ for end of June? Are we setting ourselves up for unsufferable waits? Would really like to be economical and don't mind rope dropping everyday. But is that not a good idea and we should suck it up and pay for hoppers and Genie+? Would it be worth the $600US difference?

 

[Bossy22]

We are going in July and have 5 day park hoppers without genie plus. We just can not justify the cost of genie plus for 7 of us for 5 days. May we order it for a day? Quite likely. For 2 days (slightly possible) but definitely not for every day. It's just WAY to expensive. Will we get frustrated? Sure, but we'll try and do shows, parades, character meets, etc and make the best of it!

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

Hello all,

What are people's thoughts on getting 5 day-1 Park Per day tickets with No Genie+ for end of June? Are we setting ourselves up for unsufferable waits? Would really like to be economical and don't mind rope dropping everyday. But is that not a good idea and we should suck it up and pay for hoppers and Genie+? Would it be worth the $600US difference?

How many people are in your traveling party? Adding the hopper option to your five/day ticket is $60/person ($12/day). I think a hopper would be well worth it for the flexibility alone.

I don’t recommend buying tickets with Genie+ included. Buy regular tickets and then you can decide to add them one or two of your days, or all of your days, or not use Genie+ at all. There is no cost savings to buy tickets with Genie+ included so it’s better to not have to commit.

 

[ILovePixieDust]

How many people are in your traveling party? Adding the hopper option to your five/day ticket is $60/person ($12/day). I think a hopper would be well worth it for the flexibility alone.

I don’t recommend buying tickets with Genie+ included. Buy regular tickets and then you can decide to add them one or two of your days, or all of your days, or not use Genie+ at all. There is no cost savings to buy tickets with Genie+ included so it’s better to not have to commit.

Thank you. That is helpful. We'll be party of 4 (2 adults and 2 teens). Does Genie+ ever sell out for the day?

 

[sheilafri]

Thank you. That is helpful. We'll be party of 4 (2 adults and 2 teens). Does Genie+ ever sell out for the day?

I don’t think Genie + sells out but the availability for desirable rides may be gone pretty early.

Just got back and IMHO you don’t need Genie + for Epcot. You do need it for MK. I’m undecided on HS as there are such long wait times, but rides sell out quickly so it seems to be of limited use.

 

[starlite_]

Hoppers or no hoppers, 5 days is more than enough time to do everything at least once and repeat all your favorites imo
That said, I do second the idea of getting hoppers for the flexibility of being able to have access to both parks for all your 5 days.

 

[sjmac42]

I haven’t visited since G+ started but I’d also agree that having the parkhoppers is a good idea at Disneyland because the 2 parks are so close to one another. If you rope drop you’ll get a lot done in that first 2-3 hours and if your starting park (get those park reservations) gets too busy, you can parkhop after 1pm. You can also check wait times in the app throughout the day and if you see lower wait times for a favourite in the other park, hop over there. Many are also saying with Rise to wait until late evening to join the standby line an hour or 2 before it closes. If that doesn’t work out the first couple of days, you can always rope drop it or get an ILL$ for it having rope dropped Tomorrowland and Fantasyland on each of your previous Disneyland days.
I also would not buy tickets including G+, just get it on the last day or 2 if you feel you need it. 5 days with parkhoppers should be plenty though to get everything you want done.

 

[Pluto468]

I agree with others about buying hoppers. But you could decide about Genie+ while you're there. We have hoppers but I will probably only use Genei+ if I feel like we really need it, and I'll buy lightning lane for at least radiator springs racers & Rise of the resistance.

 

[Kit Jackson]

I would say do Parkhoppers if you can afford it because it increases your flexibility. Genie+ is something you can wait to add. Spend a day without it and see what the standby lines/crowds are like. If it's intolerable or just something you wish you had, if you can afford it you can always purchase it for the next day. Also, a perk that may or may not appeal/factor into you decision is that Genie+ comes with PhotoPass included.

Just got back and IMHO you don’t need Genie + for Epcot. You do need it for MK. I’m undecided on HS as there are such long wait times, but rides sell out quickly so it seems to be of limited use.

I think you posted this in the wrong forum. That information is for WDW and this is the Disneyland forum. (Don't worry about it. People post in the wrong forum on a regular basis).

 

[By-Tor and Snow Pup]

The parks at Disneyland have been *-paaacked-* lately. I believe that they have opened up lots more reservations to Key holders after all the public complaining they did about reservations. Without Genie+ you could rope drop a ride or two, but you will be facing walls of people. I would definitely invest in Genie+ for a Disney vacation unless you just want to walk around the parks.

 

[SOCALMouseMommy]

The parks at Disneyland have been *-paaacked-* lately. I believe that they have opened up lots more reservations to Key holders after all the public complaining they did about reservations. Without Genie+ you could rope drop a ride or two, but you will be facing walls of people. I would definitely invest in Genie+ for a Disney vacation unless you just want to walk around the parks.

This is true but it may or may not be the case by the end of June.

 

[mouschievous]

We're doing 3 days in July. Our strategy is to get parkhoppers and then rope drop, take a break mid day, then close down the parks. We did not pre-purchase G+ because it can be done daily if we decide we need it. We might, and that's fine, but if we decide we don't need it then we will save ourselves the $20 per person per day.

Now, if Disney decided they wanted to offer a discount on G+ by pre-purchasing, we might change our minds.

 

[Rich M]

I agree with most. Park Hoppers are a big perk to have at DL. If a park is crowded it is so nice to have the ability to go next door. Too me 5 days at DL is a lot of time so hope your planning some pool time in there to split up your days. I would plan to do Genie Plus at least one day during the 5 days. Just wait and choose when your there. With 5 days you might not really need it because you have so many days. In 5 days I believe you could rope drop the big line rides. Space Mountain is good for rope drop if its working. There is some rides that the lines look really long and say they are long but they are inflated times. I find Guardians, Haunted Mansion, and Incredicoaster to be ones that usually move fairly quick. Genie Plus queues that are total worth it are Soarin, SM, MF, Splash, Monsters Inc, and Big Thunder. If you get Genie Plus though make sure you can use it for at least 5 rides. To me that is the get a head point. 4 is break even at $5 a ride. One thing I love to do with Genie Plus is to stack my LL for evening time while I am resting at the room. Remember if you get Genie Plus and you have park hopper you can book LL for the other park right away but it will give you times after 1 PM.

Have a great trip.

 

[PlutoIsHere]

When I go with my family and our best friends we come from out of state and always stay for 5 days. For us park hoppers are a must. By day 3 you've done most of the must dos on your list and are at the point where you are hitting up your favorite rides again and simply soaking up ambiance. Hoppers give you tremendous flexibility in this regards as favorites will generally be spread across most parks. Its lovely to have that flexibility to not be stuck in a single park all day on day 4 or 5.

 

[Guy in Fargo]

I think your plan is solid.

Our family didn't buy genie+ the first day and was fine (moderately busy day), then got it each of the last four.

It worked well enough for us that we'll be buying it in the future with our tickets. A bit of a splurge,but worth it to us.

 

[katyringo]

So my family is ditching the hoppers and buying the genie plus for 5 days here is why I feel that it going to work the best for our style:

1. The 1pm park hopping time. Our style is usually to rope drop and hit the parks hard until lunch. Eat and then take a midday break. We then usually come back for dinner and evening shows and more rides. With hopping limited to 1pm it just doesn't work great for us.

2. This will allow us to really focus on a park- including the small stuff we sometimes miss by hurrying to hop over for big rides. I know DLR is different than WDW.. but spending time in WDW made me appreciate focusing on one park. We plan to seek characters, shows, and food specific to the park we are in!

3. Number 3 is why I feel you could be okay without the genie + even though my family will be using it. The strategy I am workin on would be to hit rides in the morning without genie + and then using genie + in the late afternoon and evening for repeat rides.. I think with rope drop
You will be fine!

 

[twodogs]

We just returned from our Easter weekend trip. We did G+ and hoppers for 4 days. We did WDW the week of Christmas with PH and G+ also, for comparison. When crowds are high (and Disney is ensuring this is always the case with the way they price tickets, block/unblock MKs, manage park reservations, manage special events like Food and Wine, etc), lines will be very long by 10 am or so. With parks opening at 8am, there is not much time to get rides in before lines are all 60+ minutes. For the rest of the day…. Lines did go down in DCA between 9:30pm and park close (10pm) but how much can you feasibly do in that time? You could stay at DL until MN close and get some shorter waits, but then are you really getting up to RD the next day, for 5 days in a row? G+ is pricey, PH is pricey. Both worth it to me unless you want to be in many, many long lines. Even the Animation academy had waits of greater than one hour when we were just there (ie we arrived at 3:15pm, the 3:30pm and 4 pm shows were already “full” with guests waiting in the line; we would have had to line up at 3:15pm for a 4:30pm Animation Academy; I have never seen it like that…).

 

[twodogs]

I will also add what may be obvious: the value of G+ increases a lot when you also have a PH. If you have one park per day and G+, you can only get the number of LLs in one park. If you have a PH, you can use that same $20 G+ for all of the available rides in BOTH parks.