Help needed Genie+ with middle of the day break

[Mige]

Hi all, my apologies for my English, I’m not a native speaker. We are planning to visit WDW 6/5 for five days. We are a family with four children (10,8,4&2yrs) and need a break in the middle of the day. My plan was to book a popular ride at 7am, then rope drop, book the next at 9am and then try to go from there with less popular rides and less waiting times, maybe until 11/12h, then leaving for a break and come back at around 4pm. Now I read that, if I get a waiting time in the afternoon with my 7am booking, I can only book again at 11am. Then we would only have a very short time for rides before the break. Do you have any suggestions how using Genie+ would make most sense? We’re visiting the first time and would love to see also the “headliners”.
I would appreciate your help very much!
Sincerely, Michelle

 

[Weather_Lady]

The charts in the article linked below (and any updated ones that touringplans issues) might be helpful to you. They can give you an estimate, taking into account the park you choose to visit and the times you'll be making Genie+ reservations, about what kinds of attractions and return times you might expect to find in Genie+.

What Does Genie+ Lightning Lane Availability Look Like?

Effective use of Genie+ at Walt Disney World is a total moving target. Availability keeps changing, attractions get adde

touringplans.com

It's a bit of a gamble, though: you never know how other factors (an unexpected crowd level change, a weather or repair-related shutdown of an attraction) will affect Genie+ availability, and you'll probably need to change your plan a few times on the day of your visit to adjust. As long as you know which attractions are "must-dos" for your family (and which Genie+ selections will tend to save you the most time in line), and make those a priority, you can fill in the rest of your time, in between Genie+ return times, with lower-priority attractions in standby.

 

[Mige]

Thank you so much!

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

Here's my take, and a few questions...
1. Will you be park hopping? If so, we found it helpful to hop to MK for the later part of the day, assuming MK will be open fairly late.
2. You can now modify your G+ choices. When choosing your passes, the time of your passes jumps around, or can jump around.

Here's what I mean: At 7am, it may appear you are being offered a 9am pas, but then between the 1st screen and when you actually book the time will jump to a different time. Only the time on the last screen is correct. This is especially true at 7am. Later in the day there is less jumping, but it can still happen later in the day.

As soon as you book a G+ pass, you can go back in and 'modify' it. It is a little hard to find the modify option, but it is there. You might have to refresh a few times, but I was often able to get at least a little better time with just a few refreshes.

Use an app called "Atomic clock" to get your first pass at exactly 7am. I was surprised, to discover phone clock was off by a few seconds. Run Atomic clock on one phone, and ME on a different phone if possible.

By mid-day, HS and Epcot were out of useful passes, but MK still had just about all attractions available. So around 2pm, I started booking PM passes for MK. Otherwise, if I wasn't hopping, I would not buy G+ for Epcot. Hollywood Studios is a mess no matter what. The popular attraction lines get long early in the day.

Another long-standing way to beat crowds is to zig when others zag. (That means: try to avoid doing what everyone else is doing when they are doing it.) If you plan to eat a quick serve lunch, a simple way to zig is to eat lunch at 11:45am, instead of noon. If you try to eat 12-12:30pm, you will be in the crowd. If you arrive just a few minutes early, there is no wait. If you can't do that, then consider having dessert before lunch. There is no line for ice cream at 12:15pm, but a long line at 1pm.

All of WDW's attractions are fun. If you don't get the popular rides, don't sweat it too much. Just ride what you can ride, and see the shows you can see. There is SO much to do in WDW. It is just non-stop. Take time to look at water fountains, and flowers, and live entertainment. There are many things to see that have no wait, they just happen right in front of you and are fun to see.

 

[aliceismad]

I've been pondering the same issue. I've been debating stacking vs. the "get as many as possible" strategy. At DLR last spring break, we mostly chose LLs for whatever we could go on soonest (and had a long-ish line). We ended up making it onto every ride with short waits. WDW seems much trickier with park hopping and also the fact that things like Slinky, Rat, FEA, etc. seem to sell out very quickly or have late return times.

 

[Yellow Shoes]

Hi all, my apologies for my English, I’m not a native speaker. We are planning to visit WDW 6/5 for five days. We are a family with four children (10,8,4&2yrs) and need a break in the middle of the day. My plan was to book a popular ride at 7am, then rope drop, book the next at 9am and then try to go from there with less popular rides and less waiting times, maybe until 11/12h, then leaving for a break and come back at around 4pm. Now I read that, if I get a waiting time in the afternoon with my 7am booking, I can only book again at 11am. Then we would only have a very short time for rides before the break. Do you have any suggestions how using Genie+ would make most sense? We’re visiting the first time and would love to see also the “headliners”.
I would appreciate your help very much!
Sincerely, Michelle

(are you sure you're not a native speaker? your written English is excellent)