On the other hand, it is possible to go too early. Our last time the giraffes weren’t out yet. We usually go around lunchtime and see all the animals. I won’t go early again.
5 Likes
We went early (FOP/Na’vi/Safari) and then again later in the afternoon during our October trip and saw a lot of animals both times. I really think it is just luck and up to the animals.
1 Like
I think we will buy G+ for a single day that we plan to rope drop DHS and hop to Epcot. I want to be as efficient as possible at DHS (I know, don’t we all) so that we can be leaving at 1:15 to hop to Epcot at the earliest possible time. We then plan to come back to DHS around 6.
I know I should try at 7am for the earliest SDD possible. But what do I do about MFSR? Looks like by 11am the next slot would be in the 7pm timeframe which would be fine for when we come back but that screws me for the rest of the morning at DHS, right? I wouldn’t be able to book anything else until 1? Do I try for TSMM before I try for MFSR and hope for a quick return time on that? We don’t care about RnRC or ToT for this trip. I was hoping to get Star Tours though. Thanks!
1 Like
You could either go for the MFSR at 11am and try to do everything else standby, or I would RD MFSR and get a LL for TSM. At Epcot, the only thing you’ll really need G+ for is TT, maybe Soarin’ and MS.
Another option would be to get SDD at 7am, then get TT at 11am (assuming 9am official opening at HS), and then start accumulating LLs for your evening at HS starting at 1pm.
3 Likes
Hmm, I think we were planning to rope drop MMRR. My DH is against the ILL concept but maybe I can convince him. I agree that I don’t really need anything at Epcot, especially since our goal in that short time is really just eating. But the TT option might not be a bad idea. And then at 1pm I should be able to get TSMM for 6ish.
We have Oga’s at 9:25pm. So working backwards, I think we were going to try and get in line for RotR at 8:30pm. It looks like we should be ok to do MFSR standby at 8pm if we are too late for a 7/8ish G+.
1 Like
Sorry I didn’t realize you were going to do MMRR as well. In that case I’d get a LL for MFSR at 11am. If you’re not trying to do ToT and RnRC, I think you should be able to get everything else done pretty easily in the amount of time you’ve alloted, even without LL, so LL will just help you knock out a few more quickly.
ETA: You could also plan to hit either MMRR or MFSR in the evening using standby (or a lucky strike LL) and go with the 11am TT LL reservation. Evening lines tend to be more manageable.
1 Like
Emily, we are also off-site at a hotel that can do ETPE but can’t do 7am ILLs.
Something that just occurred to me yesterday, so I wanted to mention… They aren’t opening the parking booths until am hour before park open, which for you and I will actually be just 30 minutes before we will be allowed to enter the park. That is problematic ESPECIALLY at MK. I’m not sure how my family is going to handle that yet but wanted to let you know. 
1 Like
Based on some of the posts of people worrying about upcoming trips, I decided to test something that worked just fine for me last week during Crowd Level 10 days, so that people don’t worry too much… I just went on Genie starting at 5:18, no more JC available. I refreshed…refreshed…refreshed…for about 4-5 minutes constantly, and at 5:23 pm a G+ came up…for 5:30. My experience last week was the same, enabling me to get every single normally big line ride no problem. G+ LLs ran out early but then popped up every few minutes throughout the entire morning and afternoon. So, while it is annoying to be refreshing your phone over and over while trying to enjoy yourself, don’t freak out if, say, you grab Ride 1 for later in the day and then Ride 2 says it is out of G+ when you can book again. As Dory might say, “just keep refreshing, just keep refreshing…”
12 Likes
Thanks for sharing! The data from Thrill Data paints the same picture. Random availability pops up throughout the day as guests cancel or additional capacity is added. Just keep refreshing, indeed!
3 Likes
Now if they would only add a “modify” option… 
6 Likes
They will open the parking booths at least an hour before official opening. You will have plenty of time. You will be able to park and I believe you will be able to enter at some point before official opening and allowed to line up at least at MK?
2 Likes
I was thinking about the conversations on G+ and “Is it worth it?” There was discussion over on Disboards that it wasn’t worth it for super crowded days because they only got a couple of reservations out of it. My thought is that many of the people coming over the holidays probably have tickets and highly priced tickets at that. So, I went to undercovertourist, picked Dec 21st and the 5 day park hopper tickets cost $661 after tax. So, assuming they spend 8 hours every day in the park that is $16.52 per hour. So, they really don’t have to save much time in line to make it worthwhile.
5 Likes
Unfortunately I’ve seen some people say the booths didn’t open for them until a little after an hour before park opening, but hopefully they’ll do it before. I like to be towards the front of the pack when they start letting people in the park (especially this year since we’ll have to “run with the bulls” to ROTR since we likely won’t be able to get a ILL for it.) Since we can’t even pay for parking until 30 minutes before we’ll be let in for ETPE we definitely won’t be at the front of the pack, and I’m not even sure we can get to the MK gate before ETPE starts since we’ll have to do TTC first, but we’ll make it work!
1 Like
Really good blog post today. I am going to buy G+ on my upcoming holiday trip to check it out, but after seeing those heat maps and all the other data so far the only answer is that it almost never makes sense to buy it, except for like a very narrow window of some CL 5-7 days and only at MK and rarely HS. Essentially - on busy days you aren’t going to get more than one or two max of the really popular rides you want before they sell out and on low crowd days you won’t need it. They need to move to 1 ILL per park and put the other lesser ILL attractions into the G+ lineup - certainly FEA and EE and swap SDD and MMRR with SDD as the ILL and MMRR as the G+.
3 Likes
Here’s the blog post for those interested in reading.
2 Likes
You will have 30 minutes to get to the hub and line up in the designated area (depending if you are heading to TL or FL) for the extra half hour. You will be fine.
1 Like
New blog post here about the latest rules for when guests are eligible for a new LL reservation:
4 Likes
This at the end is scary “The current behavior of adding additional Lightning Lane reservations seems to be working as initially intended. Sleuths on the internet noticed that current rules are vague and no longer specifically mention 120 minutes.”
2 Likes
Maybe I’m dense, but are you thinking he’s suggesting that they might make the time between LLs longer than 120 minutes?
2 Likes