No package delivery to room or to park gates
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Oh yeah that too.
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I think I might miss this the most 
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Yeah it was super convenient wasn’t it?
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Same I think we bought way less too!
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It would be so weird to go to WDW now for the first time since 2019! I have been a few times since then and each time was like a giant leap forward but also a step back toward the way things were in 2019. We’ve almost come full circle.
The biggest single difference besides Genie+ is the new rides - MMRR (open just a few weeks before Covid closures), Ratatouille, GotG, and Tron (plus RotR and MFSR depending on your dates pre-Covid). These attractions alone take up an outsized portion of your attention and planning in order to experience them (whether LL / ILL, VQ, RD, Standby, etc.).
Check out the first post in the Genie thread for the basics.
When you’re satisfied with your understanding, move on to the Advanced Genie thread:
https://forum.touringplans.com/t/the-genie-advanced-strategy-planning-thread/91288
Good luck!
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Thank you! Yes, first time since July ‘19!! Feel like i used to be an expert, lol. Now I’m starting over😲
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Thanks, so you mean for third and subsequent LLs i can make another either once I tap in to my previously made LL or two hours after making it? Or make another one once I tap into my next LL?
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SotMK?
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This is correct. Your eligibility always goes off your most recently booked LL and is reset after tapping in to that LL of 2 hours later (limited to 2 hours after park opening), whichever is first.
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What @Jeff_AZ said regarding ll booking.
SotMK is Sorcerers of the Magic Kingdom which was an interactive card game that’s no longer operational.
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So are any of these so busy that you have to do a virtual queue and/or HAVE to sign up for Genie+? I am going the week before Thanksgiving week, so it should be at least a little lower crowd. When we went in 2016 the week before Thanksgiving, it was fairly low crowds. We wouldn’t have gone back if it was Thanksgiving or Christmas weeks.
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The only ones that you HAVE to enter the virtual queue for (as of today - might change by November) are Tron and Guardians of the Galaxy. There is no standby line so if you don’t get in the VQ or don’t buy an ILL, you will not be able to ride.
You don’t HAVE to buy G+. Many people do not and still have a perfectly good time. It just depends on your tolerance for waiting in lines. Becky has this article which discusses the time you can save in lines: How Much Time Can I Save with Genie+ at WDW? | TouringPlans.com Blog
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When watching videos, make sure they’re fairly recent (6 mos or less old). G+ LL can be modified now, which was a big change. Some of the older videos won’t have that feature explained. They can still be helpful, but you want the most current info possible.
If you won’t be getting G+, I think your best bet is to plan on RD for the headliners, and consider getting an Individual Lightning Lane for the most popular ride in each park. It is a separate purchase from G+ and can be a better use of funds depending on your plan and which park you’re in.
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GotG and Tron are mandatory VQ and they most likely go in seconds. ILL ($) sells out pretty fast but give you a little more leeway than VQ, but at a cost.
As for whether you need G+, really depends on how much you are trying to accomplish. Generally speaking, crowds are higher than pre-covid all around and wait times can be longer. “low seasons” have become less low and CL predictions more unreliable or in certain ways misleading. It’s worth checking how your dates looked like in 2022 from TP data in terms of actual wait times to get an idea.
Personally, I’ve used G+ every time and found it helpful on both low and high crowd days. The main reason for using is that we’ve had just 2-3 park days and wanted to squeeze the most out of them. On high days I could stack the selections and get at least 3-5 G+ choices during the day for long queues. On low crowd days the benefit is obviously smaller but at MK I was able to get instant LL’s throughout the days to rides with shorter queues. This meant I could walk up to certain rides, see it has a 20 minute wait, get G+LL instantly and walk on (of course not possible on highticket rides). Utilizing it this way obviously varies by park and whether it’s worth it is up to you, but just saying this to point out that there are different ways of getting use out of G+.
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Excellent point!
…this in a nutshell is why we’re doing our first 100% Universal Orlando Vacation this year. …and there’s plenty more!
“Everything is more expensive, no more magical express, no more airline luggage checkin at the resort, $6 package charge for deliveries at resorts, no transferring refrigerated items between resorts, every restaurant has a more limited and more expensive menu, mobile ordering is available at most qs restaurants, no parking lot trams at Epcot or HS, Skyliner is fully operational between CBR, Pop/AoA, and HS and Epcot, no more SotMK… I definitely am probably missing quite a few things, but you didn’t ask a specific question so”
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Let me get this straight about Genie+ - if you get it, it’s $15-$22 per person per day and you only get 2 LL passes? Is that right? Or do you get unlimited?
You get one LL per ride that is included with G+. But you can get as many unique rides as you nab with the rules outlined in the G+ thread.
The limit of 2 is for a la carte/individual Lightning Lanes (ILL or sometimes abbreviated to $LL). These aren’t included in G+ but are available for an additional cost to anyone (don’t have to first purchase G+ to then buy up to 2 ILLs per day).
The current WDW ILLs are:
Tron
Seven Dwarves
Cosmic Rewind
Rise of the Resistance
Flight of Passage
Pretty much everything else that had a FPP on the old system is included in the G+
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Awesome. So it seems, you could theoretically go from ride to ride without having to wait in standby lines if the crowd was low, right?
For example, you could ride Haunted Mansion with LL pass, then get one to Thunder Mountain and ride it with a LL pass, then get on Pirates with a LL pass, etc. until you have ridden each ride with a regular LL once in the day, right?
I know it wouldn’t really work like that, but we are talking in theory.
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