I’m hearing it’s possible there could be some additional options and changes coming, just as people begin to get to grips with this.
Why does it feel this was rushed out, unfinished and not thought through or even properly tested?
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Fixed it.
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Was your father-in-law by any chance at AK yesterday? There was an older man on my bus calling the scooter company (it stopped working while he was waiting for the bus) on a flip phone and I was amazed.
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Haha. No.
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I met a woman in line rope dropping Mine Train who casually mentioned that she wasn’t impressed with Genie Plus based on everything she’d read, but that she’d bought it for her whole trip. I said that we were having a pretty good experience with it and she said “oh, ok, can you show me how to set it up?” I had a minor panic attack that she hasn’t booked anything at 7 and she said no rush, didn’t I know you were only allowed to book two in one day? 
I walked her through setting it up, showing her the tip board, suggested she book something right then and she just said no need, she’d take a look later.
I don’t know the point of this story, but this woman really stressed me out.
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Reminds me of a story I think I’ve recounted here before from the FP+ days.
A close friend of mine, who is pretty knowledgeable about Disney, was talking to his brother-in-law who told him he was going to WDW in two weeks. My friend asked him what FPs he had gotten - to which his Brother in law looked a little confused, and said “the blue one?”.
After a lengthy 
, my friend went on to get him set up on MDE and helped him book his FPs.
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LOL I can see this becoming an in-joke for navigating Genie+
“When in doubt, pick the blue one”
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What was he talking about??
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My only caution to you (in planning for EE hours) is this… we had a lot of rain last week while we were there. On Monday night with EE hours @ Epcot, it was a long-lasting deluge and the parks were flooded. I was glad we were back at the resort at that time, and not at Epcot for EE hours. Sadly, as you know from expereience, you always have to allow for crappy weather! 
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I wasn’t sure where to post this, so I will just post it here…
If you are planning on a late arrival in a park, but you are not hopping to that park (it is the park where you actually have your APR), it might take a lot of time refreshing to get to the time you want for a particular attraction.
We planned a 12:30 PM arrival at MK on Thursday (3/10), where we had our APR. At 7AM, we tried to get a G+LL for BTMR for around 1:30PM. We kept refreshing and refreshing, but the times were all early. We gave up for a while and came back to it later. It was a little nerve-racking though, wondering if we would miss our opportunity to book it, and have to get it on a drop.
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His magic band.
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So what time did your afternoon times become available? We are going down in May and our first park is HS. I don’t know whether to first try to grab ILL for ROTR or stack other stuff in the afternoon. It could make for an interesting plane ride. I guess we have to practice(which we have yet to attempt)
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Hi! It sort of depends on the popularity of the ride. I think BTMR ended up being available for 1PM around mid-morning for our late MK day (probably after the 10:14 drop).
I would definitely try for the ROTR ILL at 7:17:30 (if that is still accurate @mikejs78 ?) That time consistently worked for me for getting ILL’s and you get to select a time, so no need to delay trying. (ETA - Thank you to @m1eab01 for discovering this!)
Here were my results for our HS Day:
TOT Standby
MFSR @ 9AM (@7AM)
ROTR @ 10AM (@7:17:30)
B&B Standby
RnR Standby (78 min wait )
SDD @ 2PM (12:02 Drop)
MMRR @ 3PM (@MFSR Tap)
TSMM @ 4PM (@ 2:32 Drop)
The LL return times were usually about 2 hours after the drop times. (See SDD and TSMM above.)
I know you are trying to stack for later in the day, but I just wanted to give you a glimpse of what my HS Day looked like. In planning for my LL picks, I used the return times charts in these two Blog articles linked below, which were very helpful (Thank you @bebe80 !) I used the High Crowd charts for all of my days, because I am a worst-case scenario kind of person. I timed my LL Return times for my TP’s based on these charts.
https://touringplans.com/blog/what-can-i-expect-genie-availability-to-look-like-part-one/
https://touringplans.com/blog/what-can-i-expect-genie-availability-to-look-like-part-two/
I hope this helps. I have yet to catch up with the forum since the end of my trip, so I’m not sure if anything has changed! If I get better info, I will let you know. Good luck!
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Won’t you have to have your phone on Airplane mode? Is there someone who could do this for you?
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Yep, still accurate. Although it occasionally will slip by a minute or two, so if times don’t pop up at the above time, I’d keep refreshing for up to 5 min.
But usually it’s 7:17:30.
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This actually happened to me on our 2nd MK Day (Th, 3/10). We were arriving at MK after lunch and I was hoping for a late afternoon ILL for 7DMT. When I tried to purchase it at 7:17:30, there were only 2 evening arrival times listed. I refreshed for a few minutes, and no change. At that point, I panicked and purchased the 7:30 PM time slot. Afterward, I realized that timing was going to mess us up for either Enchantment or hopping to Epcot. Too late… once you buy it, you bought it with ILLs! Then suddenly, at 7:20 AM, ALL of the return times came back! I could have kicked myself.
(Later, when we arrived at MK, after much pleading and explaining, a very nice CM at Guest Services helped us out by converting our ILLs to Anytime ILLs 
, but he warned me that they would only do this one time.)
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I’m still trying to wrap my head around this, particularly when LL return times overlap 120 minute times. We leave a week from tomorrow and as our party includes ages 7 to 77, we’re going to EE RD and midday break, which is why this is relevant.
Hypothetical MK Day 9am opening: Let’s say at 7am I book LL#1 and get an early return window for PP starting at 10:15am. At 11:00am, per the 120 minute rule, I book LL#2. If I tap into PP at 11:05 (after I’ve booked LL#2), can I book LL#3 or do I need to wait another 120 minutes until 1:00pm?
There was a blog post (Disney Tourist Blog, I think) that made me think I wouldn’t need to wait, but I really only trust the advice I get lurking around this forum. 
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My understanding is that the last LL that you BOOK is the actionable one. So, in your scenario, you would have to wait until either 120mins after you book LL#2, or you tap in to LL#2. Someone correct or confirm please!
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@poohfanclub is correct - your most recently booked LL is the one that determines your 2-hour rule and tap eligibility. So you would have to wait until 1pm or wait until you tap into LL#2.
Another way to think of it is that each LL only yields one new one, either by the 2-hour rule or the tap rule. Peter Pan has already yielded you one via the 2-hour rule, so when you tap in, nothing happens. Your second LL now is the relevant one.
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