To Hop or not to Hop, with Genie+?

[twodogs]

We are planning a trip on the weekend and early part of the week leading up to Christmas. I'm sure it is going to but absolutely nuts. I was very savvy with FP+ refreshing, and we also used the heck out of MP at DLR many times prior to the shut down. I have read the very long Usage thread, and I think I understand the strategy for both one park and park hopping. I'm trying to decide strategically if it will be better to stack on the second park or just do one park per day and focus on that? We will buy PH tickets either way, so we will have the option. But from a park reservations standpoint, I am trying to figure out which park to reserve for the starting park (as that would depend on if we plan to G+ the first park or the second park, if hopping). Any real world advice on this one? (Also there is limited availability of reservations at the parks already, so I won't have free choice each day).

 

[GBRforWDW]

Not real world experience yet, we go same week as you, but wonder if the 2 hour hack would work, say you get a G+LL for your first park and it happens to land across the 2hour park opening window, so it'd look like this:
7am first LL for starting park
2 hours after park opening, grab LL for hop to park
Check into first LL
Grab second LL for starting park
Check into that ride
Grab second LL for hop to park.
2 hours after this, grab another LL to hop to park.
I'm guessing you'll either be in the hop to park by this time or will be soon.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[kappyfamily]

We got here today and will be here for 6 days. We are only doing 1 park per day a
with a break in the middle of the day. Did Epcot today with early morning and genie+ plus was pretty much a waste. We could get on everything but frozen really quick. So for $47 for 3 of us we got test track, and walked on or waited 10-15 minutes for everything else. G+ wasn’t needed. There’s just not enough rides at Epcot for it. I know it will come in handy tomorrow at MK. Just an FYI!

 

[TB'sWidow]

We got here today and will be here for 6 days. We are only doing 1 park per day a
with a break in the middle of the day. Did Epcot today with early morning and genie+ plus was pretty much a waste. We could get on everything but frozen really quick. So for $47 for 3 of us we got test track, and walked on or waited 10-15 minutes for everything else. G+ wasn’t needed. There’s just not enough rides at Epcot for it. I know it will come in handy tomorrow at MK. Just an FYI!

could you please update your MK experience after you go . I’m heading down on Monday and really on the fence about Genie plus thanks

 

[wiggy500]

Combining Park Hopping and Genie Plus worked fantastic combined together. That is, aside from my struggles purchasing it the morning of and a weird hiccup that prevented me from stacking. Here's how it worked for me. In two days I did not wait in a line for a single attraction.

Nov 8

7:00 book Kilimanjaro 8:10
Early Entry ride Everest twice, once as the only person on the ride.
Ride Kilimanjaro and at 8:13 book 2:00 Big Thunder (2:00 being the earliest time you can book at your second park)
10:13 book Navi 12:05
12:13 book Dinosaur 12:20

Here's where things got goofy. Navi went down briefly at 12:28, giving me a multi-experience lightning lane and cancelling Navi as if it never existed. Had I noticed I could have booked a lightning lane and kept my stacking going.

Ride Dinosaur at 12:31 and book 3:25 Haunted. I had tried refreshing for an earlier time, which just caused it to slip later and eventually I just took the later time.
Ride Navi at 12:58 and much to my surprise I couldn't book the Pirates lightning lane that was available. Guest services informed me I could next book at 2:31.
As it turned out I got to Big Thunder at 2:27, so I waited until 2:31 to book 4:00 Splash. I tapped into Big Thunder and had great success refreshing, scoring 2:50 Pirates.

The rest of the day my plans didn't end up requiring lightning lane, so I didn't book anymore. I was trying for Test Track and did not have luck refreshing.

Nov 9

7:00 book Remy boarding group
7:02 book 3:50 Slinky
At 11 book 3:10 Tower of Terror. With HS opening at 9, I could book my second lightning lane two hours after that. I didn't have to wait until two hours after Epcot opened.
At 1:08 after no luck booking Test Track settle for 3:10 Rock n Roller
At 3:15 book 4:20 Star Tours
At 3:30 ride Tower of Terror and book 4:20 Muppets that I ultimately skipped instead

Again, I got to the point where I didn't need lightning lane after riding the rides I had lined up with my plans. The Remy BG was called around 3:30, so I waited until closing to ride it and showed up more than six hours late. That worked great to avoid waiting at all.

For refreshing it's important to know that there is an initial time you see displayed, but if you click on it then you may end up with a different time. This makes refreshing for rides booked for the day more tricky. First you have to refresh enough to get an initial time to show up. Then you have to click again and hope a time is still there. Test Track ended up being the only ride I wanted to do but couldn't. The second day it had a weird planned 7 p.m. closure for the ride, which did not help.

Starting at Animal Kingdom or Epcot and then hopping to Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios worked fantastic with Genie Plus.

 

[StarrySkye21]

I will say that I never understood why people park hop until this last trip we just returned from. We did one park per day and genie+ on our MK and HS day. We don’t do a lot of dining and only do a couple shows per day. But we hit the rides hard and we’re good with fp+.

We found with genie+, we were able to fly through all the rides we wanted and were left bored and underwhelmed towards the afternoon and evening, especially at Epcot.

We will probably try park hopping combined with genie+ next trip. I think that would fill our days better.

 

[kappyfamily]

could you please update your MK experience after you go . I’m heading down on Monday and really on the fence about Genie plus thanks

You bet, I’m happy too! We plan on taking a break after lunch so I will try and come back and update you then! Stay tuned!

 

[twodogs]

Thanks all for your replies! I have booked our short trip (3 days) and went ahead and just got G+ with the tickets so I don't have to stress about buying it each day. It looked like MK and DHS were sold out for reservations for the last two days of our trip based on the calendar, but when I went to book it (after buying tickets), it let me reserve those parks. Weird. I would have probably purchased a 4 day ticket, but our departure day showed only EPCOT for a starting park (opens at 11) and we have to leave for the airport at 11. So WDW missed out on our money for that day, as I would have bought a 4th park day if I could have for sure reserved a park that opened at 9am (any other park than EPCOT).

 

[Bullseye]

Seems like MK and HS are the only ones G+ is worthwhile to purchase at.

 

[wisblue]

I found that hopping TO Epcot works very well because, as the PP says, there aren’t that many attractions that get long lines.

We had good success using Genie+ to start the day at MK, making our first LL for JC at 11:10. We then used ETPE and standby to do 7DMT, HM, BTMRR, and POC before an early lunch at Casey’s. We could have done Spalsh too, but it was chilly and the ride was down anyway. We also had a little time to stroll around and take pictures of some of the 50th anniversary statues before lunch.

At 11 AM, I booked TT for an early evening time which I knew would be after our Epcot arrival. Then after riding JC I booked a second LL at MK (IASW) to use before we left the park for a midday break. So, I then had a two LL stack going which we could have used for some of the lesser attractions at MK or something at Epcot. I made one for Soarin once the times got out past our expected arrival.

We also had good success hopping to MK from DAK using a pattern much like the PP getting an early LL for the Safari and then Navi, and then starting to book things at MK for late afternoon into the evening.

Hopping to DHS can be less productive because the LL reservations for the most popular attractions there are generally gone by early afternoon. I think DHS works best if you start there and stay there all day or return after a midday break.

 

[221Newman]

Combining Park Hopping and Genie Plus worked fantastic combined together. That is, aside from my struggles purchasing it the morning of and a weird hiccup that prevented me from stacking. Here's how it worked for me. In two days I did not wait in a line for a single attraction.

Nov 8

7:00 book Kilimanjaro 8:10
Early Entry ride Everest twice, once as the only person on the ride.
Ride Kilimanjaro and at 8:13 book 2:00 Big Thunder (2:00 being the earliest time you can book at your second park)
10:13 book Navi 12:05
12:13 book Dinosaur 12:20

Here's where things got goofy. Navi went down briefly at 12:28, giving me a multi-experience lightning lane and cancelling Navi as if it never existed. Had I noticed I could have booked a lightning lane and kept my stacking going.

Ride Dinosaur at 12:31 and book 3:25 Haunted. I had tried refreshing for an earlier time, which just caused it to slip later and eventually I just took the later time.
Ride Navi at 12:58 and much to my surprise I couldn't book the Pirates lightning lane that was available. Guest services informed me I could next book at 2:31.
As it turned out I got to Big Thunder at 2:27, so I waited until 2:31 to book 4:00 Splash. I tapped into Big Thunder and had great success refreshing, scoring 2:50 Pirates.

The rest of the day my plans didn't end up requiring lightning lane, so I didn't book anymore. I was trying for Test Track and did not have luck refreshing.

Nov 9

7:00 book Remy boarding group
7:02 book 3:50 Slinky
At 11 book 3:10 Tower of Terror. With HS opening at 9, I could book my second lightning lane two hours after that. I didn't have to wait until two hours after Epcot opened.
At 1:08 after no luck booking Test Track settle for 3:10 Rock n Roller
At 3:15 book 4:20 Star Tours
At 3:30 ride Tower of Terror and book 4:20 Muppets that I ultimately skipped instead

Again, I got to the point where I didn't need lightning lane after riding the rides I had lined up with my plans. The Remy BG was called around 3:30, so I waited until closing to ride it and showed up more than six hours late. That worked great to avoid waiting at all.

For refreshing it's important to know that there is an initial time you see displayed, but if you click on it then you may end up with a different time. This makes refreshing for rides booked for the day more tricky. First you have to refresh enough to get an initial time to show up. Then you have to click again and hope a time is still there. Test Track ended up being the only ride I wanted to do but couldn't. The second day it had a weird planned 7 p.m. closure for the ride, which did not help.

Starting at Animal Kingdom or Epcot and then hopping to Magic Kingdom or Hollywood Studios worked fantastic with Genie Plus.

Sounds like you are a pro at Genie+. You referred to “stacking.” What does that mean. Also, can you pick another Genie+ ride before you went on your first one? Looks like you picked rides in another park before you got there. Didn’t know you could do that? My husband and I are going the last week of January and have park hopper tickets. It’s been about 4 years since we were there last so want to tour as smart as we can (like you did).

 

[wisblue]

Not real world experience yet, we go same week as you, but wonder if the 2 hour hack would work, say you get a G+LL for your first park and it happens to land across the 2hour park opening window, so it'd look like this:
7am first LL for starting park
2 hours after park opening, grab LL for hop to park
Check into first LL
Grab second LL for starting park
Check into that ride
Grab second LL for hop to park.
2 hours after this, grab another LL to hop to park.
I'm guessing you'll either be in the hop to park by this time or will be soon.

Enjoy your trip!

This is the general approach we used last week, and it works very well.

Exactly how to best use G+ depends on what two parks are involved because Epcot and DAK don’t have many attractions that get long standby lines, and return times for the most popular attractions at DHS get into the mid to late afternoon fairly quickly and run out by mid afternoon.

In general, though, I found that judicious use of ETPE, Genie+, and IALL allowed us to do all of our favorite attractions in all 4 parks in 3 days without much waiting in lines over 15 minutes. IALL was especially useful for avoiding the mass rushes for ROTR and FOP and getting our first ride on Remy even though we never had a park reservation for Epcot.

 

[wiggy500]

So were you in the first row all by yourself on the ride?

Yes! I rope dropped the Dinoland entrance and no one else was headed to Everest from that entrance. Those who rope dropped the Asia entrance beat me to the ride and were already riding it. My wife couldn't ride Everest so it was just me and I had the whole queue and the ride to myself. I picked the front row. I thought it was funny I was told to keep my mask on. It was such a weird sensation because there was no screaming.

I went back through a second time. This time there were maybe four or five people towards the front so I took the back row. After that I was done.

 

[wiggy500]

Sounds like you are a pro at Genie+. You referred to “stacking.” What does that mean. Also, can you pick another Genie+ ride before you went on your first one? Looks like you picked rides in another park before you got there. Didn’t know you could do that? My husband and I are going the last week of January and have park hopper tickets. It’s been about 4 years since we were there last so want to tour as smart as we can (like you did).

Thanks. I read about what other people were doing, which helped me become a "pro" the first time I tried it myself.

By stacking I mean having multiple Genie Plus lightning lanes at the same time.

You can book a second Genie Plus ride after you tap into the ride (some rides you have to tap into at two different points in the queue so it would be the last one) OR if you booked before park opening two hours after the park of the ride you booked opens OR if you booked when the park was open two hours after you most recently booked a ride.

You can book in a park you are hopping to. They let you book slots no earlier than 2 p.m.

So from my example, the first day I booked Kilimanjaro Safari for the beginning of the day. Once I tapped in I booked Big Thunder Mountain for 2 p.m. Then I let two hours go by and then I was able to book another attraction, Na'vi River Journey for 12:05 Then I let two hours go by and I booked Dinosaur. At this point I had three lightning lanes lined up. Once you have multiple lightning lanes you can keep having them if you book a new ride after every time you go on one.

On my second day, I started by booking the most popular lightning lane, Slinky Dog Dash in my second park. Hollywood Studios opened at 9 a.m. and Epcot 10 a.m. Even though I was starting my day in Epcot, I was eligible to book my second lightning lane at 11 a.m. because it was two hours after the opening of the park of my initial lightning lane.

I hope that helps!

 

[kappyfamily]

could you please update your MK experience after you go . I’m heading down on Monday and really on the fence about Genie plus thanks

So on a mid day break from MK right now and wanted to come on and tell you that I think genie+ for MK is worth it! Just remember even if it says only “6pm is available“ for a ride keep pulling the screen down and refreshing and something usually pops up. It may take a few minutes but something earlier does come up. Let me know if you have any other questions. Btw, we won’t buy it for our AK day but will for HS.

 

[221Newman]

Thanks. I read about what other people were doing, which helped me become a "pro" the first time I tried it myself.

By stacking I mean having multiple Genie Plus lightning lanes at the same time.

You can book a second Genie Plus ride after you tap into the ride (some rides you have to tap into at two different points in the queue so it would be the last one) OR if you booked before park opening two hours after the park of the ride you booked opens OR if you booked when the park was open two hours after you most recently booked a ride.

You can book in a park you are hopping to. They let you book slots no earlier than 2 p.m.

So from my example, the first day I booked Kilimanjaro Safari for the beginning of the day. Once I tapped in I booked Big Thunder Mountain for 2 p.m. Then I let two hours go by and then I was able to book another attraction, Na'vi River Journey for 12:05 Then I let two hours go by and I booked Dinosaur. At this point I had three lightning lanes lined up. Once you have multiple lightning lanes you can keep having them if you book a new ride after every time you go on one.

On my second day, I started by booking the most popular lightning lane, Slinky Dog Dash in my second park. Hollywood Studios opened at 9 a.m. and Epcot 10 a.m. Even though I was starting my day in Epcot, I was eligible to book my second lightning lane at 11 a.m. because it was two hours after the opening of the park of my initial lightning lane.

I hope that helps!

Yes it does. thanks so much for your help.

 

[CynBeth]

I am so glad we got park hoppers.
I scheduled 2 days at each park. Yesterday was our first at HS and could not get ROTR it kept asking me to log in and sent a code by e-mail and after that happened a few times said no more are available and the standby line was 3 hours all day. Today is our first AK day and made no dinner ADRs so decided to try for Rise. Someone I encountered on a bus told me to keep refreshing the tip board more might become available and sure enough I got it for tonight around 6 pm.

 

[Bullseye]

Yes! I rope dropped the Dinoland entrance and no one else was headed to Everest from that entrance. Those who rope dropped the Asia entrance beat me to the ride and were already riding it. My wife couldn't ride Everest so it was just me and I had the whole queue and the ride to myself. I picked the front row. I thought it was funny I was told to keep my mask on. It was such a weird sensation because there was no screaming.

I went back through a second time. This time there were maybe four or five people towards the front so I took the back row. After that I was done.

That had to be like an Indiana Jones moment for you!

 

[TB'sWidow]

So on a mid day break from MK right now and wanted to come on and tell you that I think genie+ for MK is worth it! Just remember even if it says only “6pm is available“ for a ride keep pulling the screen down and refreshing and something usually pops up. It may take a few minutes but something earlier does come up. Let me know if you have any other questions. Btw, we won’t buy it for our AK day but will for HS.

thank you so much for your input I really appreciate it !

 

[kappyfamily]

thank you so much for your input I really appreciate it !

I just wanted to add I swore I wouldn’t buy it for AK but I ended up buying yesterday when we went. I’m glad I did. We were able to use it for 4 rides so the cost was about $4 each to get to the front of each of those rides. AK was like something I had never seen yesterday. Pretty much every ride was an hour all day long. If it was a “normal” week I would say don’t buy for AK but words can’t express the crowds of people EVERYWHERE yesterday. Today is HS and tomorrow thanksgiving is MK. Again just trying to get 4 rides out of genie+ is our goal. No way to stack anything right now because times are gone so early. Still having fun though!