I’m hearing a lot from experienced guests who are there (in some of my FB groups) that they are running out of G+ options by late afternoon- they are getting only the 7A G+, and then another at 11A, and then there are no more (at MK anyway). Lots of frustrated people out there!!
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I imagine this is inevitable for a holiday week. The lines are longer so more people buy it so you can’t use it as much. But those few LL reservations probably save you more time in line than they would on a slower day.
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I would definitely be frustrated as well. Especially in MK I would expect to get more than 2 LLs for the $. We’ll find out soon enough, we leave on Friday with park days next Mon-Sat!
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Next week should be back to normal! You should be able to get at least 6 or so LL reservations per day.
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I think the frustration comes from the fact that with FP+, even during holiday weeks, you could get a FastPass in the afternoon/evening for something, especially at MK.
And if you’re paying extra for.a.service, you should be able to make use of it.
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I keep coming back to the defunctland documentary that pointed out how many other things (activities) had to be included in fastpass+ to make it work. To actually provide 3 FPS to all guests ahead of your arrival you had to include meet and greets and preferred viewing shows or fireworks. Many of those don’t exist right now so there are less LL’s to pull from. I wonder if that will eventually make a difference (though fixes nothing fundamentally).
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I could see it making some degree of difference in MK which has a number of popular meet and greets (Mickey, Tinkerbell, Rapunzel/Tiana, and Cinderella/Elena), but I can’t see it making a difference at the other parks.
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Agree. And this paid service comes with more stress, 7:00 am wake ups each day, less ability to plan in advance, and more time spent searching on one’s cell than free FP+. All of which would likely be tolerable to many guests IF they were getting on 6+ rides a day with short lines (but not 2-3).
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Yes this is exactly right. Meet and Greets, fireworks, spectaculars, plus shows (FotLK, Nemo, IJ) will make a huge difference.
But I get the frustration. Totally understandable. I just hope people seeing this who are planning to go during Christmas week are gearing themselves up for the same situation and have realistic expectations.
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Ok, news from the front. I didn’t put in my day four update yesterday because Epcot was a long day. But I got Genie + again, bought Frozen Ever After and got on the am Remy virtual queue. Keep in mind again for everything that I was not staying onsite so I couldn’t buy Frozen until 10:00 am park open.
Quick Epcot recap: 1) Frozen was sold out before park opening. There were no new tickets dropped at 10:00. But I kept refreshing and after a few minutes, it popped up for just after our dinner time and I grabbed it. 2) I didn’t try the 1 to 3 hack because it didn’t make sense for our schedule when I could use my early Soarin one, get an immediate one and have my next one available for the 11:30 TT, which was already sold out. 3) Except there was no 11:30 drop. I refreshed though for about 15 minutes while we walked to lunch and one popped up for 3:45 and I grabbed it. 4) Other than Frozen, which we rode after dinner, we had done every single ride in the park by 4:30, using Genie + on the vast majority of them.
Overall: We did four parks in four days and in all four parks, we did every single ride before dinner or had after dinner reservations with the sole exception being RotR - in part because it was down so much).
So, I can say from my own experience, yes, the Genie reservations sell out and they sell out early, but if you are persistent and refresh your phone, you can max out and have almost no lines whatsoever at Disney even on a CL 10 day!
Does that mean I think Genie + is a rousing success? No. It stinks. It is too stressful and who wants to spend that much time on vacation refreshing their phone. Which reminds me: here’s a tip! Bring a battery pack. No way could I have gone through the day without it.
Anyway, we still had a blast and loved that we avoided all the lines. Just wish it didn’t require constant care and feeding. Hope it goes well for everyone reading this.
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Is anyone hearing about a rumor that you cannot hold more than 1 Genie+ LL reservation at a time? Even if you have one made at 7A for about 3P or later, you cannot make another one until you tap in? This is from someone who’s at the parks today- that’s what they said is happening…
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I’ve heard people today still getting more than one via the standard 120 minute rule. The hack to get 2 or 3 with an expiring LL is gone.
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I need a new HS strategy for our CL9 day on 12/23. We will likely be there right at park open but not at the front of the RD crowd so no RD of SDD. We will pay for ILL$$ for RoTR and MMRR. Can’t get in line for a ride at park close because we have Oga’s at 9pm and Sa’vi’s at 10pm.
Which strategy makes sense for a busy week?
Option 1:
-Grab an early LL at 7.
-Use EE to RD Sunset Blvd or MFSR and TSMM based on that early LL.
-Book next available LL of interest as soon as we tap into LL1 and continue to book next available interesting LL as we use them or after 120 minutes. Hoping to book 2-3 early-ish LL before they are all late afternoon/evening times. I would try for a SDD drop or just cry myself to sleep after not getting to ride it.
-Book ILL$$ for mid afternoon when presumably LL availability will be dismal.
Option 2:
Same as option 1 but book ILL$$ in early evening and plan to take an afternoon break at hotel. Definitely risks ROTR going down and we won’t get to ride.
Option 3:
-Book hard to get LL like SDD or MFSR for whatever time is available at 7am
-RD some combo of MFSR, TSMM, and/or Sunset Blvd depending on 7am LL and how quickly lines build.
-Book ILL$$ for 10 and 11AM while waiting to book next LL at 11am.
-Book LL every 2 hours or whenever I can use one.
Prevents ILL$$ from potentially interfering with any LL times I can book in the afternoon/evening. But delays booking LL and many will sell out. Also buys me more time after my ROTR ILL in case the damned thing breaks down and I need to be able to return later.
Thank you for your expert Liner opinions!
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I would lean toward option 3. Book SDD at 7am and then in order of priority to try to get the hardest to get LL rides first. For ILL, I think you just take the earliest RotR you can get, which might be in the afternoon.
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I’ve been in the parks this week testing LL. I have not had a problem holding multiple LL reservations. Disney fix has only closed the loopholes.
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@SteveBloom, there is a report on chat that if you book a late day LL (like SDD) and then book a second one two hours after opening that you can’t book a 3rd one until those two are used. That would block you out until after the SDD is tapped in.
That seems wrong. Is this your experience?
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Yes, would love an answer to this question. Example on a 9am open at HS:
7am book SDD for 5pm (LL1)
11am book RNRC for 12pm (LL2)
When you tap into RNRC at 12 can you book LL3 or do you have to wait until 1pm (120 minutes after you booked LL2)?
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People on chat are saying you cannot book until you use that 5pm LL. I think that is wrong. I also don’t understand why an “120 minute rule” would apply after you scan in at 12.
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I agree. That’s why I’m hoping an expert like Steve can help us out. Does not make sense that the 120 rule applies when you use LL2. That’s even worse than paper FP. And doesn’t seem consistent with Disney just closing the loophole. It seems that would be a whole new rule set.
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I had no problem this week at the four parks Sun-Wed with doing what I think you are suggesting. As in… I booked something for later in the day. Then I booked something two hours later for a window before the first one was to come up. I was able to book again as soon as I did the window 2 ride.
Real-life actual example from Wednesday at Epcot:
I booked TT at 11:45 for 3:45-4:45 window.
At 1:45 I was able to book Nemo and ride it then book Spaceship Earth and ride it and book Mission:Space all before I rode TT.
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