Workaround for the park hopping restriction/reservation system?

[DLgal]

Tell me if this makes sense.

Visiting in July/August. Staying at BC. Have a teen who is very heat sensitive, so we won't be in the parks until late afternoon/evening each day. Will have park hopper option.

Would it be crazy to make our park reservations for Epcot for every single day, just so we can quickly walk over and tap in, then head straight to our chosen afternoon/evening park later? I really dislike having to pre plan which park we want to go to. I keep thinking we will make reservations for a specific park, then change our minds, but HAVE to go to the original park to scan in. That would be really annoying.

I guess my question really revolves around Genie+. I know you can start making G+ reservations at 7am. I have no plans to do that. We will be sleeping in. Can I wake up at, like, 9 and make Genie+ reservations for later in the day (after 2pm) at ANY park if I have park hopping? Or would the app only let me make G+ reservations for the park I have reserved? I am used to G+ at Disneyland, but know it works differently at WDW.

 

[gottalovepluto]

Later afternoon can still be hot. If you’re only going to one park a day anyway a park hopper is a waste of money at WDW.

You can make G+ reservations for any park if you have PH tickets but only after the attraction return times hit 2pm. And then no more rides until 2 hours after booking.

Personally I would be pretty annoyed to have to walk over to EP from BC and tap in every night. That’s at minimum 20 mins of walking energy wasted every late afternoon in the sun and every person will have to do it because they have finger print scanners.

Are you certain these are the right hours of the day for your heat sensitive teen? I would be looking at rope drop + about 2 hours then back to the hotel. Like it’s spring now so the temp extremes are currently more dramatic but for instance: tomorrow the high is 84. At 10am it is due to hit 70 and then Orlando won’t see 70 again until around 11pm…

The park hopping thing is not nearly the issue it is at DL. At WDW you have to plan 30-60 mins to get any park you can’t walk to so deciding ahead of time is literally required anyway. It. Is. So. Spread. Out.

If you don’t wake up at 7am you will likely miss out on the headliners of each park so you may really want to reconsider that. Especially the VQ stuff like GOTG and Tron. I’m an DL vet and having ridden both, they are both absolute musts imho if you are hauling all the way out to the East Coast. SDD is also new and different and that goes in like the first 2 mins after 7am. It pretty much leaves you with being able to sleep in on AK day which would be a huge mistake because they open earliest usually (coolest temps) and have things that close early like Safari, Gorilla trail and Tiger trail.

 

[DavidNYC]

I really think you should just plan out your parks - you can always change your mind. Frankly - you should make them for MK or HS nearly everyday if you're really undecided because you're almost certainly going to be able to switch your reservation to Epcot the day prior if you need to. MK and HS will be the first to sell out if any do. The main problem with doing it your way is because of the next paragraph.

As for Genie+, you can get up at 7 and make your first reservation. The issue will be if you're not going to whatever park you have reserved that day, you're going to have an issue making early reservations because you won't be allowed to make a reservation until a ride has availability at 2pm or later. However, even if you want to sleep in and say, have reservations at MK, you can just make any reservation you want at 7am for MK. And then if it's too early, just modify it to later time in a little bit. This way - you start the clock going on your timer until your next LL and can make one at 11am (if the park opens at 9). If you don't have a reservation at MK and want to go there at 2pm, you won't be able to make your first reservation early most likely (although you could try for Peter Pan which will likely have afternoon times fairly quickly). It's just so much more convenient to try to work out your parks.

 

[nalabear]

Admittedly haven't used G+

But ?: back in the day of Maxpass, you can stack your rides; so folk would do something like this:

Radiator springs goes FAST. so wait until an evening RS (say 8pm) shows up and grab at 9am;
then next pass grab at 11am, and then 1pm and so forth.

So can OP do this with hopper:
Reserve Epcot just in case wants to VQ GOTG
Wait until Slinky Dog has a later than 2pm: say @ 800AM; grab SDD for 2pm slot
@1000AM; grab 3pm Mania;
@12noon: grab 7pm Everest
@2pm: grab 5pm Na'vi while tapping into HS.

so by 2pm could have 4 rides lined up for afternoon/evening run?

 

[subtchr]

I thought the same thing as @gottalovepluto.

It's still HOT late afternoon/early evening in July/August. Oppressively so. Early morning is much better than 4-6 pm. And walking to the Epcot gate just to scan in, then go somewhere else, would be extra walking in that heat.

Then what? Walk all the way through Epcot to get to the monorail for MK? Walk back to BC to get the bus to AK? Best would be boat or Skyliner to HS.

I'm not sure what the best plan is for your group, but I don't think this is it.

 

[Marthasor]

I agree with the PPs. I can't overemphasize how hot it remains into early evening in late summer and you will also be contending with possible thunderstorms every afternoon. Before covid hit, we used to go to WDW in late August every year (about 10 years in a row). We found, to beat the heat, our best best was to go at rope drop, leave after lunch to go back to the resort and go back out around 6:00/6:30 pm (even then it was SO hot - I recall watching Rivers of Light one night at AK with sweat just pouring down my back and this was after the sun went down). I would seriously consider making a reservation for your first park, going in the morning and then "winging" your evening plans. It sounds like you are very familiar with heat sensitivity - I just caution you to be really careful. We were there in June of 2021 and were hydrating, taking breaks, swimming, etc. and my DS still ended up overheated one evening - it was very scary. We no longer go there during the summer months.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I would Google temps in Orlando as you are planning to go to the parks in the prime heat of the day.

Rather than planning a lot of extra steps to tap in, why not attempt to move your park reservation to the park you choose to go to if you book all at Epcot (not my recommendation to book all at Epcot). Seems like you’re making more work for yourself.

Park reservations really are not that challenging to make or modify the majority of time.

 

[hoffse]

Just chiming in on the heat thing. I live in Alabama.

The hottest time of day is going to be late afternoon. If you have a heat sensitive person in your party you need to be indoors or, at minimum, sitting in a shady area from about 1-5 PM. The heat peaks later than you think - usually around 3:30 or 4 PM. It doesn’t drop off quickly in the summer either, and the nights are still hot and humid. It can still be very very hot at 6 or 7 PM, depending on sun coverage and whether it rained in the afternoon or not (you will read that it “rains every day” and while it’s very common in the summer it is not literally true - there are plenty of days with no rain in July and August). Afternoon showers help temperature somewhat, but it makes humidity much worse.

To manage heat your party needs to be hydrating all day. I also suggest wearing moisture wicking fabric. And this might sound counterintuitive, but everyone in my family wears those very lightweight LONG sleeve moisture wicking shirts in the summer in light colors. It gives you UPF protection without having to constantly reapply sunscreen, and the fabric is so thin it breaths and doesn’t really feel like you are wearing anything. Breathable/moisture wicking undergarments are also key to staying comfortable, plus hats that have a brim to cover the back of your neck. Hats should be ventilated though because you release a lot of heat from the top of your head and you don’t want to inhibit that. For shoes, I like hiking sandals so I have something robust I can walk for miles in but don’t have to wear socks in the summer.

I think your plan would technically work but it seems like a waste vs just deciding in advance where you want to go. I do think you should plan to be up early if you want to use Genie+ to stack rides at minimum and preferably to take advantage of the cooler hours in the morning if you can get everyone else up…. and take a long break in the middle of the day. If you don’t do that then just know you won’t be entering the parks until dinner time due to heat.

 

[bluezy]

I agree with the PPs -- if you're trying to avoid the worst heat of the day, you should be planning to do Early Entry, leave the park around lunch time, spend the afternoon at the resort, and then return to a park around dinner time. The hottest hours are 3-5 p.m. (or so I've read -- and from our expeerience, that seems accurate.). You can knock out a bunch of standby rides by being at the park for EE, then you could stack LL rides for the evening. We've traveled to Disney in late June 8 times and this plan has worked well for us to avoid the worst heat of the day. We do sleep in and get to the park late in the morning some days, but then we plan to do a lot of indoor rides/shows in the afternoon. That method is not as effective as the rope drop method at avoiding the heat, though. It's a huge time suck to have to go tap in to a park that you have no intention of spending time in just to hop to the park you want to be at. We had to do that on one day on our last trip. We had reservations at MK but decided we'd rather go to EP. There were no reservations left for EP, so we *had* to go to MK first. It wasn't a big deal for that one day because it was our last day at Disney and we weren't on any real time schedule. We also didn't plan to get to a park until lunchtime that day anyway. But it took an extra hour or so to do that whole process. I would not want to do that every day. I understand the whole not knowing what park you want to go to on any particular day. We didn't have any trouble deciding which parks we wanted to start at on the first 5 days of our trip -- we know our routine. But the last 2 or 3 days of our trip we always used to plan on the fly. Not so easy to do with the park reservation system, though. So we used our best judgement and reserved the parks we thought we'd want to go to those days knowing we had parkhoppers and could just hop to a different park if needed (like we did on our last day). I really think that your current plan will be very exhausting with everyone having to walk to EP every day and then on the days you want to go to AK & MK, you'll have to walk somewhere to get on a bus to get there....all during the hottest part of the day. While that plan would work, I know I wouldn't want to do it on a daily basis...it's a very inefficient use of time in my book. I hope you're able to figure out something that works for your family.

 

[Selket]

Tell me if this makes sense.

Visiting in July/August. Staying at BC. Have a teen who is very heat sensitive, so we won't be in the parks until late afternoon/evening each day. Will have park hopper option.

Would it be crazy to make our park reservations for Epcot for every single day, just so we can quickly walk over and tap in, then head straight to our chosen afternoon/evening park later? I really dislike having to pre plan which park we want to go to. I keep thinking we will make reservations for a specific park, then change our minds, but HAVE to go to the original park to scan in. That would be really annoying.

I guess my question really revolves around Genie+. I know you can start making G+ reservations at 7am. I have no plans to do that. We will be sleeping in. Can I wake up at, like, 9 and make Genie+ reservations for later in the day (after 2pm) at ANY park if I have park hopping? Or would the app only let me make G+ reservations for the park I have reserved? I am used to G+ at Disneyland, but know it works differently at WDW.

It's breathtakingly hot that time of year. What do you plan to do until late afternoon/evening? Even the pools are hot - I'm sun sensitive and it's too much for me to swim in the day usually. Later afternoons also can bring rain and storms that may not last long but will be something to deal with if you're outside just getting started. I think depending on your teen's issues - if they are very sensitive - going between November and February if you can will allow full days outside.

 

[SleeplessInTO]

I have done what you’re planning to do (kind of). There were days when DD changed her mind about what park to go to, and Epcot or Animal Kingdom were the only reservation we had/could switch to. Walking over from BC to tap in wasn’t bad but we used it as a back up measure. If you are able to switch the reservations online instead, that would save you some walking. After a couple days, I got tired of walking over, and started making my reservations for MK or HS instead. I picked based on what would be the hardest reservation to get, such that if my fickle child wanted to go somewhere else, 90% of the time we could just swap to a less popular park.

Just note that it stays hot in July/August. With sunset being later, it does cut down on the amount of time you’ll be able to spend at the parks, especially ones like AK that will close early and have a good number of outdoor attractions/lines. We tend to do AK in the afternoons and will skip the safari in favour of Lion King when the weather is unbearable.

Going in Christmas or March break might be a little more bearable for everyone.

 

[sponica]

Have a teen who is very heat sensitive, so we won't be in the parks until late afternoon/evening each day.

This part of the plan doesn't make sense to me. Heat sensitive people should be up early, and knock out the more palatable hours, then go back to the hotel/pool/etc. Then maybe go back out after 5?

I would not book Epcot every day. Epcot is the easiest one to get. I'd book MK or HS and then if you decide to go elsewhere, change it. Unless you're there the 4th of July or some other high volume time, it shouldn't be a problem to switch from those parks to Epcot or AK.

As to Genie+, getting times when you wake up for the afternoon will maybe work, depending on crowd levels.

 

[DLgal]

So, to address a few things:

Summer is not my ideal time to visit, but it's our only option this time. We will be visiting during cooler months after this trip, since my youngest will be graduated from HS in 2024. We need to go to Orlando for my kids to see their grandma, who is experiencing rapid mental and physical decline due to Parkinsons. This may be the last time they see her where she remembers them. I don't want to wait until the fall or winter.

We are not WDW newbies. We have been several times, most recently 2018 as a family over July 4 week. We tried the early morning thing. Was a disaster. It's not just the heat, but the sun. My son could NOT handle it. We had to leave MK by 10am because he was dying. Plus, my kids NEVER adjust to the jet lag, so they stay on CA time, and a 7am wakeup is NOT pretty at WDW. When we let them sleep on their natural schedule (1am to 10am FL time), we had a MUCH better time.

We will do the second daily drop for the VQ rides. I am not setting a 7am alarm on vacation.

We plan to spend the early part of the day in the hotel pool, Typhoon Lagoon, or having a nice sit down lunch or brunch somewhere. We will drive over to visit my parents and spend time at their house. My son is fine at the pools midday. As long as he is wet, he's good. He wears a quick dry hat even in the pool, to keep the sun out of his eyes.

We plan to hit the parks around 4-5pm and stay through closing. This worked well for us last time. We work around the afternoon storms.

We use a DAS, so pairing that with Genie+ will be good enough. We only ride a few things in each park. We skip most of the Disneyland duplicates where the WDW version is inferior. We also plan to do the Deluxe Resort evening extra magic hours, which will be perfect for our schedule. As an example, at HS, all we will do is Slinky Dog Dash, Tower of Terror, and Alien Swirling Saucers. At AK, all they want to do is Everest, Kali River Rapids, and maybe FOP.

We can do the walk from BC to International Gateway in 5 minutes. We are fast walkers. Running over there to tap in after breakfast, before we hit the pools or whatever, will NOT be a burden. It will then free us up to visit whatever park we decide on that day.

We will be spending most of our time at Epcot and MK. Even with only doing evenings, we like the park hopper when staying at BC for the ability to walk into Epcot anytime and grab a snack or drink. I will often do this during the day while the kids are hanging out in the room or at the pool.

We are using the military armed forces salute hoppers. They are CHEAP. There is no non hopper version. It's $366 for a 5 day hopper. Adding on water parks raises the price to $396. It's a no brainer.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We will do the second daily drop for the VQ rides. I am not setting a 7am alarm on vacation.


We plan to hit the parks around 4-5pm and stay through closing. This worked well for us last time. We work around the afternoon storms.

These 2 do not work together. In order to be eligible for the second daily drop of a VQ you must have tapped into that park.

By 4-5pm the VQ will be full for the day.

 

[DLgal]

These 2 do not work together. In order to be eligible for the second daily drop of a VQ you must have tapped into that park.

By 4-5pm the VQ will be full for the day.

We only need to do the VQ for Guardians at Epcot. Thus, I would tap in to Epcot mid morning to be able to do the second drop. And we will try at 6pm on the evening of extra magic hours as well. I can also just buy an ILL for Guardians, right?

As for Tron, we will plan to have breakfast at one of the MK resorts on our MK day and then monorail over to tap in there for the second drop. I will make MK reservations for one day and then we will go there for the evening extra magic hours on another day and try for the 6pm drop.

I do plan to wake up on our MK day at 7am to attempt to purchase an ILL for Tron, and will likely do so for Guradians as well. I'll go back to sleep after that.

If VQ at WDW is anything like it is at DL, the 7am drop is MUCH harder to get anyway. We always have luck with the second drop.

 

[DLgal]

I would not book Epcot every day. Epcot is the easiest one to get. I'd book MK or HS and then if you decide to go elsewhere, change it. Unless you're there the 4th of July or some other high volume time, it shouldn't be a problem to switch from those parks to Epcot or AK.

This is good to know. I do plan to make at least one MK reservation but I may make 2. We have 5 day tickets. I also keep forgetting that you can make same day changes to park reservations at WDW. You cannot do this at Disneyland.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We only need to do the VQ for Guardians at Epcot. Thus, I would tap in to Epcot mid morning to be able to do the second drop. And we will try at 6pm on the evening of extra magic hours as well. I can also just buy an ILL for Guardians, right?

As for Tron, we will plan to have breakfast at one of the MK resorts on our MK day and then monorail over to tap in there for the second drop. I will make MK reservations for one day and then we will go there for the evening extra magic hours on another day and try for the 6pm drop.

I do plan to wake up on our MK day at 7am to attempt to purchase an ILL for Tron, and will likely do so for Guradians as well. I'll go back to sleep after that.

If VQ at WDW is anything like it is at DL, the 7am drop is MUCH harder to get anyway. We always have luck with the second drop.

Waking up at 7am to buy your Tron and GOTG ILLs will work and will be necessary since they sell out fast in high demand times.

Only doing a couple rides a day I understand your plan better. Your plan is doable.

 

[DLgal]

Waking up at 7am to buy your Tron and GOTG ILLs will work and will be necessary since they sell out fast in high demand times.

Only doing a couple rides a day I understand your plan better. Your plan is doable.

The trick will be waking up at 7am and NOT waking the sleeping beasts.

Maybe I'll wear my smartwatch and let the alarm vibrate to wake me up.

 

[scrappinginontario]

We only need to do the VQ for Guardians at Epcot. Thus, I would tap in to Epcot mid morning to be able to do the second drop. And we will try at 6pm on the evening of extra magic hours as well. I can also just buy an ILL for Guardians, right?

Just a heads up that everyone who wishes to try for the 1PM drop must go to the park and tap in in order to be eligible for the 1PM drop

 

[DLgal]

Another question...with a 5 day ticket, are you limited to 5 reservations? We will be there 8 full days. Could I make park reservations for all 8 days and then adjust as needed? Or will it limit me to only making 5 reservations at a time?