What if you like to sleep-in...?

[kanickie]

I'm going to WDW at Christmas with my partner and I'm trying to get my head around how Genie+ is going to work for us...

I'm still slightly confused and wondered if you could help!

Our speed on holiday is more having a leisurely breakfast and spending morning time at the pool (before the families and kids return from the parks) and then heading off to the parks midday.

I'm just wondering now how this is going to fit with being able to get on rides.. as Christmas is going to be busy, I'm assuming that I am going to have to buy Genie+ no matter what... can anyone advise if I will be able to spend my holiday how I'd like or am I going to have to follow the rules and set an alarm every morning at 6.50am and choose my rides?
Thanks in advance

 

[holden]

I guess it depends on what's more important to you - sleeping in and relaxing or hitting all of the attractions you want to do.

You should still be able to use Genie+ to ride attractions, but some of the popular ones might not be available if you don't select them early in the day (like Guardians of the Galaxy, for example) given that you are going at a popular time of year.

You can still head to the parks midday, but I would suggest monitoring Genie+ to book your LL. Say you want to head to the parks at noon. I'd get Genie+ early and keep checking until you see an attraction you want to do with a return time after noon. Then book it.

If I wanted some relaxation time during a holiday trip, I'd either build in a day or two without parks or relax later in the day, but that's just me.

Your vacation should be what you want. Honestly, if you miss some popular attractions you'll still have a great time.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Christmas week (or most any week), if you want LL for the top rides you need to be up and trying at 7AM. Even many who do are not successful so really it's personal choice. Do you want to try and see what you can get or, are you okay planning to sleep in and then allocate time for waiting in line? Nobody 'has' to get up at 7AM, it's a choice just as choosing to wait in line is a different choice.

If you're purchasing Genie+, plan to look when you wake up to see what's remaining and start planning from there.

We did some G+ days and some without (although not at Christmas) and both kinds of days were great.

 

[kanickie]

Maybe I will set an alarm for 6.50.. get some rides booked and then hit snooze...

As I understand it, you can't choose a specific LL - just get what you're given right? So do you need to keep refreshing as the times get later? The only ones you can choose a time for are ILL? And Guardians you don't get an option - just assigned a time to come back?

I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself as it's Christmas after all! Looking forward to just taking in the Christmas abience to be honest! We may well just spend a day at AKL (our resort) and swim (if it's warm enough!) and stroll around.

 

[AnnabelleTheTalkingTree]

Maybe I will set an alarm for 6.50.. get some rides booked and then hit snooze...

As I understand it, you can't choose a specific LL - just get what you're given right? So do you need to keep refreshing as the times get later? The only ones you can choose a time for are ILL? And Guardians you don't get an option - just assigned a time to come back?

I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself as it's Christmas after all! Looking forward to just taking in the Christmas abience to be honest! We may well just spend a day at AKL (our resort) and swim (if it's warm enough!) and stroll around.

With Genie+ LL, you'll be given the next available time for each attraction and you choose which to book.

I will say this, getting up early is NOT required as long as you are prepared to be flexible. My family paid for Genie+ most of our park days this past spring, and had a good experience. We are usually more on the early park - afternoon break - back to the park schedule, so I tended to stack LL attractions for the evening while we were away from the park in the afternoon. So if we left the park by 11, we'd be booking up LL every two hours for some time around or after dinner. By the time we went back, I'd have like 4 attractions stacked up. The ONLY problem I ran into with this is that sometimes at 11am, there's not much available for 5pm, particularly in MK. But sometimes Jungle Cruise or other popular rides would be at that point by then. So at 11am I might book a 6pm Jungle Cruise, and then at 1pm I'd book us for a 7pm Haunted Mansion and so on. In the evenings we got to just pop around from one thing to the other.

 

[set88]

Maybe I will set an alarm for 6.50.. get some rides booked and then hit snooze...

As I understand it, you can't choose a specific LL - just get what you're given right? So do you need to keep refreshing as the times get later? The only ones you can choose a time for are ILL? And Guardians you don't get an option - just assigned a time to come back?

I'm not going to put too much pressure on myself as it's Christmas after all! Looking forward to just taking in the Christmas abience to be honest! We may well just spend a day at AKL (our resort) and swim (if it's warm enough!) and stroll around.

You do have to wait for times to get later, but for the time of year you're going, that shouldn't be an issue at all. The times will get later pretty fast. Each park has a couple of pretty clear attractions that will be the ones jump to late in the day times first. I'd just make a note of those and plan to grab one of them at 7am (if you even want to do that, it's certainly not necessary if you'd rather sleep in.)

For Guardians, if you join the VQ, you can come back any time later once called, so you don't have to worry about getting assigned a time that's too early. If you don't want to try for the 7am VQ, you can always try for the 1pm VQ instead - but you will need to have arrived at EPCOT before 1pm to do that.

 

[kanickie]

That's a good idea re stacking.. I was hoping that the parks would be quiet before closing and I could walk on things but I can't really take that option with it being Christmas!

 

[RoseGold]

Especially at Christmas, someone is going to have to be up at 7AM to ride any headliners. Unless you want to wait in line for hours. It doesn't have to be you, and it doesn't even have to be a person in WDW, but someone is going to have to do it.

 

[kanickie]

You do have to wait for times to get later, but for the time of year you're going, that shouldn't be an issue at all. The times will get later pretty fast. Each park has a couple of pretty clear attractions that will be the ones jump to late in the day times first. I'd just make a note of those and plan to grab one of them at 7am (if you even want to do that, it's certainly not necessary if you'd rather sleep in.)

For Guardians, if you join the VQ, you can come back any time later once called, so you don't have to worry about getting assigned a time that's too early. If you don't want to try for the 7am VQ, you can always try for the 1pm VQ instead - but you will need to have arrived at EPCOT before 1pm to do that.

So can you do both allocations of Guardians for the day or are you only limited to one? I've seen trip reports where people have done it twice, is that because you can pay for it as an ILL too?

I used Max Pass in DL once and thought this was the same principle but it does feel a bit more confusing!

I'll have to start watching vlogs and find out which ones to try and aim for each day... I know in HS that people say at the same time someone is trying for the RotR ILL, the other should be trying for Slinky Dog as that goes quickly too.

 

[kanickie]

Especially at Christmas, someone is going to have to be up at 7AM to ride any headliners. Unless you want to wait in line for hours. It doesn't have to be you, and it doesn't even have to be a person in WDW, but someone is going to have to do it.

I think the more I'm reading about this... I'm just going to have to resign to the fact that we are going to have to get up early! haha! I've paid too much money to waste the experience in bed!

 

[RoseGold]

I think the more I'm reading about this... I'm just going to have to resign to the fact that we are going to have to get up early! haha! I've paid too much money to waste the experience in bed!

You have an early riser mom or auntie who might do it for you? I bet my mom would, and she'd be up already.

Just log them in as you on the app.

 

[set88]

So can you do both allocations of Guardians for the day or are you only limited to one? I've seen trip reports where people have done it twice, is that because you can pay for it as an ILL too?

I used Max Pass in DL once and thought this was the same principle but it does feel a bit more confusing!

I'll have to start watching vlogs and find out which ones to try and aim for each day... I know in HS that people say at the same time someone is trying for the RotR ILL, the other should be trying for Slinky Dog as that goes quickly too.

You can only do the VQ once, but you can also buy the ILL. I've never seen the ILL sell out that quickly even on the most crowded days. I would just plan to buy it before park opening if you are sure you want to.

If I were you, I'd look at what happens on Thanksgiving and use that to gauge what availability might be like for Christmas. I like checking here:

https://thrill-data.com/waits/park/wdw/hollywood-studios/2022/10/25

You can see exactly what time of day LLs run out. I would check out the stats for Thanksgiving (just change the date to be Thanksgiving after it happens) and plan on booking the ride that runs out first at 7am.

 

[kanickie]

You have an early riser mom or auntie who might do it for you? I bet my mom would, and she'd be up already.

Just log them in as you on the app.

Nope, just my partner and I. In our 30s and 40s but work in education so are early-risers who want a rest on holiday... ha ha!

 

[kanickie]

You can only do the VQ once, but you can also buy the ILL. I've never seen the ILL sell out that quickly even on the most crowded days. I would just plan to buy it before park opening if you are sure you want to.

If I were you, I'd look at what happens on Thanksgiving and use that to gauge what availability might be like for Christmas. I like checking here:

https://thrill-data.com/waits/park/wdw/hollywood-studios/2022/10/25

You can see exactly what time of day LLs run out. I would check out the stats for Thanksgiving (just change the date to be Thanksgiving after it happens) and plan on booking the ride that runs out first at 7am.

Oh this is fantastic! Thank you! I'm going to comb over this!

 

[2Lunds]

Just be up to book your first LL and/or get in the virtual queue at 6:50, then go back to bed as you mentioned. Your next one can't be booked until 2 hours after park open anyway - plenty of time to get some more sleep.

You can keep stacking LLs into the evening, and instead of being at rope-drop in the morning, plan to stay at the park right until close. You can always get in line for any headliner you missed just as the park is closing. Bonus: you get to leave through a mostly empty park (beautiful) and miss the huge crush for transportation (also beautiful).

To answer your GOTG question: yes, you can book VQ as well as LL. Also: a second wave of VQ is available at 1pm as long as you're in Epcot at the time - so if you miss it in the morning, you can try again in the afternoon. The capacity is nuts on that ride - you'll have a good chance of getting it during the second release.

 

[kanickie]

Just be up to book your first LL and/or get in the virtual queue at 6:50, then go back to bed as you mentioned. Your next one can't be booked until 2 hours after park open anyway - plenty of time to get some more sleep.

You can keep stacking LLs into the evening, and instead of being at rope-drop in the morning, plan to stay at the park right until close. You can always get in line for any headliner you missed just as the park is closing. Bonus: you get to leave through a mostly empty park (beautiful) and miss the huge crush for transportation (also beautiful).

To answer your GOTG question: yes, you can book VQ as well as LL. Also: a second wave of VQ is available at 1pm as long as you're in Epcot at the time - so if you miss it in the morning, you can try again in the afternoon. The capacity is nuts on that ride - you'll have a good chance of getting it during the second release.

thanks! this gives me hope that I can book Boma breakfast at 9am before going to the parks a bit later ha ha!

 

[RoseGold]

To answer your GOTG question: yes, you can book VQ as well as LL. Also: a second wave of VQ is available at 1pm as long as you're in Epcot at the time - so if you miss it in the morning, you can try again in the afternoon. The capacity is nuts on that ride - you'll have a good chance of getting it during the second release.

Yes, don't count out the 1PM VQ (and the 6PM for deluxe). You have to be physically in Epcot to do this. GOTG has been very stable and has crazy capacity, so the 1PM has gone well. Also, VQ (and ILL$) times don't expire. So, if you want to walk onto GOTG, just save it for later, at the end of the day.

 

[2Lunds]

Yes, don't count out the 1PM VQ (and the 6PM for deluxe). You have to be physically in Epcot to do this. GOTG has been very stable and has crazy capacity, so the 1PM has gone well. Also, VQ (and ILL$) times don't expire. So, if you want to walk onto GOTG, just save it for later, at the end of the day.

I wasn't aware that you could actually walk on to GOTG. When did the requirement to book VQ end?

 

[RoseGold]

I wasn't aware that you could actually walk on to GOTG. When did the requirement to book VQ end?

GOTG is only VQ right now. Even then, it can be a good 30 min+ wait. The solution to avoiding that wait is going late in the day. You don't have to show up in your window for VQ or ILL$.

 

[2Lunds]

thanks! this gives me hope that I can book Boma breakfast at 9am before going to the parks a bit later ha ha!

You should 100% have the vacation that makes you happy. If you get to sleep in and enjoy brunch/pools, then maybe miss out on a couple of rides, I don't think that's the end of the world. So much emphasis is placed on "getting everything done", but there's more than one way to enjoy WDW.

My first trip back as an adult was in 2015 during a conference, and I had NOTHING booked because we only had a pair of half-days in the parks. We strolled around, enjoyed the atmosphere and did a couple of easy attractions (Carousel of Progress, Tiki Room, Spaceship Earth for example), not a single headliner. We also couldn't walk up to any table service. We still had an amazing time. One of my fondest memories is eating a pretzel (late dinner) while watching Illuminations for the first time