One of the big questions ahead of trips will be, do I need to purchase G+ and/or ILL. Touring Plans has us covered with crunching the data and providing tips and advice. Probably one of many articles to come.
Sadly without the costs of LL$, this is working with half of the info.
For instance, the author says during Medium Crowd Levels: “So, my personal choice would be to hit Na’vi River Journey in the morning when it has lower waits, and then utilize a touring plan to hit everything else at decent times.”
Except that skips over she could be riding FOP instead of Na’vi in order to avoid spending $$X on the FOP LL$, utilizing Genie+ to make Na’vi practicable later in the day.
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I think I saw somewhere that FOP was NOT on the list of rides open during early morning time.
Speculation is that the popular rides that won’t be on Genie+ but only the pay-to-ride will also not be open during early entry. (Thereby forcing people to pay up)
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Happy to be wrong.
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It seems like the rides that will use BGs won’t be open during the morning or evening hours.
Initially of course that will be RotR and Rat, but inevitably joined by Tron and GotG.
So for those it will be pay up unless you get a BG.
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That makes sense since the current plan only allows riding with either a boarding group …or eventually a purchased LT+ pass.
(Note: I typed “sense since” in my original post then reread it quickly and thought I repeated “since” so I deleted one which subsequently didn’t make sense. …sigh. It is corrected now.)
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I thought you gave great explanations for the data and advice you shared, thanks @rgandillon !
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If the popular rides (the ones for LL+) aren’t open for early entry, that massively devalues the onsite perk of early entry. Almost to no value, given you’ll be able to do all those rides which are open in early entry via Genie+, which you’ll almost have to buy (as noted by @ryan1 in his other post).
I get you can’t do it for BGs, but I don’t see why not for 7DMT, FoP etc.
As a DVC owner I am hoping this is wrong / gets changed!!
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So I guess the takeaway here is buy G+ only if the crowds are high, especially HS and MK.
Of course non-liners may want to use it on moderate crowd days.
Will be interesting to see if this FP research is similar to G+ SB waits.
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It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out when it launches.
While FOMO will be the largest driver of G+ sales, I’d think that one of the major factors will be the anticipation of a large number of guests purchasing G+ based on public perception of a given park.
In other words, purchasing G+ for EPCOT will always be questionable even on heavy crowd days because its reputation for being a park with few rides will reduce the perceived need for G+ regardless of ride capacity, down time or numbers being crunched.
Similarly, I suspect G+ will be a popular upgrade for any day in MK because of the primacy of that park in the popular imagination and people’s familiarity with its rides.
But time will tell…
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I think even if I didn’t have an upcoming trip, I’d be interested in how the Genie+ impacted crowds, touring, etc.
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These are good reads and I really appreciate the early analysis. Something tells me that genie+ will be better than this though - not sure how or maybe i am just too optimistic, but without knowing the whole mechanics of return times, tapping in vs. selecting the next one, etc. I am going to stay curious and hopeful. The reality though is that 1) a good touring plan makes the day go well, and investing the 15 bucks can only make a good day better, and 2) the key to a good touring plan at MK always has been and continues to be Peter freaking Pan.
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and I say that with affection. PPF has been my favorite ride since the early days…and i am the same age as WDW.
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I hope you are right. It all depends on how available these Lightning Passes are throughout the day and if there is a possibility to repeat them.
Yep, first things first! May still be more important than the optional G+.
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So what I am curious about is exactly how many LLs one can expect to get out of our $15.
I was looking at an old FP+ availability article from July 2019. On low-mid crowd level days, there were still a lot of day-of-visit FPs still available in the mid afternoon, but only for C-ticket and lower attractions.
For instance: Lets say that I manage to get a coveted LL at 7DMT for 11:00 a.m. I would then RD another major attraction (say, Space Mountain), then Buzz Lightyear before my 11:00 LL. As soon as I tap in, I can make another LL reservation (in theory). According to this article, on a CL5 day, the only rides available day-of-visit would be kid rides, shows, and a few C-tickets. Once I get a C-ticket for later in the afternoon, by the time I use that, all LL reservations will be gone for the day.
So I may have just paid an additional $7.50 per ride to skip two lines.
If you go by MaxPass, you’ll be able to get more. Two big differences between G+ and FPP is one, it isn’t free, so not everyone is using it, and you don’t get to select your time. Because people might not like the time being offered for the ride they want, they’ll get another ride.
Also, it seems that there is a max amount of time between making ride reservations, either 90 minutes or 2 hours. So, you’d probably be able to get a second G+ reservation before you rode your first.
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