Using G+ in 3 Parks in 1 Day

[DisneyStarWisher]

We are planning a day with G+ in two weeks. We want to RD MK on a party day and hope to get a lot of rides knocked out. At 2:00, we will hop to Epcot where we will enjoy the F&W Festival and ride Remy. Later that evening, we want to hop to DHS. Our only must-do there is TSM, but we might want to do MMRR and SDD in order of preference. Genie+ is so confusing to me! It's one of the reasons we won't be going back for a long time. It's just too stressful to plan, and that's not what a vacation should be. Anyway, I'm trying to wrap my brain around how to use G+ this day. Should I try to book SDD first? Then two hours after Epcot opens, try to book Remy? Or will that be too late to get an afternoon Remy time? What about booking Jungle Cruise? I just really don't know where to even start!!! If anyone can help, I would greatly appreciate it.

 

[coasternut22]

I hate to say this, but the scenario you present is a very difficult scenario to plan with G+. You want to ride the top 3 attractions in each park, the attractions whose G+ selections are the most unpredictable and sell out the fastest. Planning G+ is difficult for one park hop, and is almost impossible for a second park hop. You really have to go in prioritizing which ride you want to stand in line for and which you want to G+. Problem is, we can’t answer that for you. You would have this same problem with Fastpass+, so it’s not entirely a G+ issue.

With that said, I will explain the morning rule first because it plays an important factor. At 7am, you can make your first selection. However the screen that lists all the rides will not show return times between 7-7:30. Only when you get to the confirmation screen, will you see the actual return time. In the past, at 7am the refresh screen would show Slinky with a return time of 8:30, when you selected it, it would show 10:15, and the confirmation screen would show 1:45. This made thousands of people upset, so Disney hides those first two times and only provides the return time at the confirmation screen.

So if you are trying for a 2:00ish return time for Remy or a 6:00ish return time for Slinky, this makes it incredibly difficult to predict when those return times will appear in the first 30 minutes. We all know they book fast, but none can see how fast unless you book, get the confirmation screen, cancel, and repeat. If you want those return times for either of those two rides, this is what you will have to do between 7 and possibly 7:15ish.

What will also happen is that at 2 hours after park opening (either 10 for HS or 10:30 for Epcot, you make your next selection. As we all know, Remy and Slinky will be fully booked, therefore it is unlikely you will get the other unless you refresh. Again, you would have had this same problem with Fastpass+ had you prebooked Remy or Slinky, so this is not a G+ issue.

I see a couple of scenarios. If you don’t care about Slinky, then try for an after 2pm Remy (if all you care about is world showcase, take a bus from MK to Beach Club and enter through IG rather than taking monorail to the front of Epcot). At 10:30, try to get a quick return for a MK ride or two. In the mid afternoon, try for MMRR. TSMM will be easy to get in the late afternoon.

If you have to ride Slinky, get it first but it will take you about 5-10 minutes of booking and cancelling to get an after 5pm or so return time. Standby Remy, and do the same as I suggested above with MK and HS.

Adding Jungle Cruse to the mix makes it even more difficult. In theory, if you book JC first and get an early return time like 10am, you could do the same scenario as above, book another MK ride afterwards, standy Remy, and try for MMRR and TSMM later in the afternoon.

I consider myself an expert at Disney planning, but even this scenario you provide makes my head hurt.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

I hate to say this, but the scenario you present is a very difficult scenario to plan with G+. You want to ride the top 3 attractions in each park, the attractions whose G+ selections are the most unpredictable and sell out the fastest. Planning G+ is difficult for one park hop, and is almost impossible for a second park hop. You really have to go in prioritizing which ride you want to stand in line for and which you want to G+. Problem is, we can’t answer that for you. You would have this same problem with Fastpass+, so it’s not entirely a G+ issue.

With that said, I will explain the morning rule first because it plays an important factor. At 7am, you can make your first selection. However the screen that lists all the rides will not show return times between 7-7:30. Only when you get to the confirmation screen, will you see the actual return time. In the past, at 7am the refresh screen would show Slinky with a return time of 8:30, when you selected it, it would show 10:15, and the confirmation screen would show 1:45. This made thousands of people upset, so Disney hides those first two times and only provides the return time at the confirmation screen.

So if you are trying for a 2:00ish return time for Remy or a 6:00ish return time for Slinky, this makes it incredibly difficult to predict when those return times will appear in the first 30 minutes. We all know they book fast, but none can see how fast unless you book, get the confirmation screen, cancel, and repeat. If you want those return times for either of those two rides, this is what you will have to do between 7 and possibly 7:15ish.

What will also happen is that at 2 hours after park opening (either 10 for HS or 10:30 for Epcot, you make your next selection. As we all know, Remy and Slinky will be fully booked, therefore it is unlikely you will get the other unless you refresh. Again, you would have had this same problem with Fastpass+ had you prebooked Remy or Slinky, so this is not a G+ issue.

I see a couple of scenarios. If you don’t care about Slinky, then try for an after 2pm Remy (if all you care about is world showcase, take a bus from MK to Beach Club and enter through IG rather than taking monorail to the front of Epcot). At 10:30, try to get a quick return for a MK ride or two. In the mid afternoon, try for MMRR. TSMM will be easy to get in the late afternoon.

If you have to ride Slinky, get it first but it will take you about 5-10 minutes of booking and cancelling to get an after 5pm or so return time. Standby Remy, and do the same as I suggested above with MK and HS.

Adding Jungle Cruse to the mix makes it even more difficult. In theory, if you book JC first and get an early return time like 10am, you could do the same scenario as above, book another MK ride afterwards, standy Remy, and try for MMRR and TSMM later in the afternoon.

I consider myself an expert at Disney planning, but even this scenario you provide makes my head hurt.

Thank you for all the insight! It's definitely a lot to think about. It ALL makes my head hurt! I think the best thing to do will be to forget booking SDD and just focus on Remy. That's a must-do. The thing I want to understand comes from the paragraph I bolded in your quote. Could I book JC at 7:00 for an early return time, and instead of booking another MK ride, book Remy at 10:30 (or as soon as we ride JC, if I understand any of this correctly) for an afternoon time? Then at 12:30, book TSM or MMRR for the evening?

 

[kandlsutton]

We did something similar on the Saturday 5/28, Memorial Day weekend. We rope dropped Epcot and got Guardians virtual queue. We did DS Toy Story Land the day before, but missed out on ToT and RnRC. I think I got ToT first around 2:30 then got RnRC for 3:00 at 10:30, 2 hours after DS opened. Every 2 hours after that, I booked LL for MK. We got SM, Buzz, BTMRR and probably could have gotten Splash if I had fiddle faddled more. Also had ILL for SDMT.

Your scenario will be harder to pull off as PP mentioned, but I think its possible. if Remy was still an ILL, it would be easier since you could book it at 7am and get a Genie+ LL for JC, but it would cost more $$$.

For our trip we had 3 phones manned at 7am on 5/27. We got ILL for GoTG in Epcot and RoTR at Studios and a 5:30 LL for SDD. Depending on your priority, Remy or JC should be booked first. TSMM will likely be available later in the morning. SDD should be booked first if its a priority.

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

We did something similar on the Saturday 5/28, Memorial Day weekend. We rope dropped Epcot and got Guardians virtual queue. We did DS Toy Story Land the day before, but missed out on ToT and RnRC. I think I got ToT first around 2:30 then got RnRC for 3:00 at 10:30, 2 hours after DS opened. Every 2 hours after that, I booked LL for MK. We got SM, Buzz, BTMRR and probably could have gotten Splash if I had fiddle faddled more. Also had ILL for SDMT.

Your scenario will be harder to pull off as PP mentioned, but I think its possible. if Remy was still an ILL, it would be easier since you could book it at 7am and get a Genie+ LL for JC, but it would cost more $$$.

For our trip we had 3 phones manned at 7am on 5/27. We got ILL for GoTG in Epcot and RoTR at Studios and a 5:30 LL for SDD. Depending on your priority, Remy or JC should be booked first. TSMM will likely be available later in the morning. SDD should be booked first if its a priority.

Good information! Just some more information:

JC is a must, but we are also doing RD at MK on a party day. There are only 8 rides we want to do at MK: 7DMT, PP, IaSW, JC, PoC, Splash, BTMRR, and HM, and we will be back another day if we miss anything the first day. I'm really thinking we should RD 7DMT, then head to PP and then JC. With the extra 30 minutes before park opening, would that put us ahead of the pack for JC? Should we even mess with G+ at MK?

Remy is our only must at Epcot beside F&W, and we will be there beginning at 2:00.

The only must at DHS is TSM, but we would like to do MMRR. It is okay if we miss SDD since it seems it will be hard to get. Or if we aren't too tired, we might be willing to stay until close and get in line for it right at closing. This strategy has worked well for us in the past.

 

[kandlsutton]

I believe Tomorrowland and Fantasyland are the only areas open at MK for early entry. By the time you ride SDMT, the park will likely be open to all guests and JC standby queue will build quickly.

Since you are going back to.MK again, I would get Remy at 7am and see what’s available at MK 2 hours after park opening. Rope drop SDMT and use regular genie/standby times to work and work your way through your too rides. Keep an eye n TSMM and grab a LL whenever the return time is after you expect to get in HS. We found Skyliner to be fastest transportation to Studios, especially if boat isn't loading when you exit Epcot at International Gateway.

Good Luck!

 

[DisneyStarWisher]

I believe Tomorrowland and Fantasyland are the only areas open at MK for early entry. By the time you ride SDMT, the park will likely be open to all guests and JC standby queue will build quickly.

Since you are going back to.MK again, I would get Remy at 7am and see what’s available at MK 2 hours after park opening. Rope drop SDMT and use regular genie/standby times to work and work your way through your too rides. Keep an eye n TSMM and grab a LL whenever the return time is after you expect to get in HS. We found Skyliner to be fastest transportation to Studios, especially if boat isn't loading when you exit Epcot at International Gateway.

Good Luck!

Watching wait times right now since it's Thursday and there's a party tonight. (We will be going two weeks from today.) Jungle Cruise is only 25 minutes 30 minutes after park opening. I'm hoping we can be at the front of the pack when the park opens for early hours at 7:30 and go straight to 7DMT. If we can get off it quickly, we should be able to knock PP out pretty quickly, too. So even if we get to JC by 8:30, we are hopefully looking at a wait under 30 minutes. Not too bad. Seeing these wait times makes me feel SO much better! I now agree with everyone who suggested I RD MK on a party day!

With this information I think your advice is right on. Remy at 7:00, then either an MK ride (depending on wait times and what still needs to be done) or a DHS ride once 10:30 rolls around. Thanks so much for the help!

ETA: And if we really want to do SDD, we might try it right at closing.