Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[pdude81]

So is G+ essentially useless at DHS? Was on at 6:55am this morning, refreshed at 6:59am and was in at 7am, all ILL's for ROTR were already gone, along with SDD, and TOT was showing 4pm as the soonest reservation. Grabbed a RNRC reservation G+ for 11:15am, rode Star Tours (25min standby line) and saw Indy upon arriving at the park at 9am, before going to RNRC.

Literally in line for RNRC right now, tried to grab another G+ reservation at 11am (after 120min rule), however, all that's left are shows, Swirling Saucers (1:40pm), Star Tours (2:30pm), and that's it.

ROTR, TOT, MMRR, TSM, and SDD all have at minimum 90min waits right now. Can someone explain to me how this new system is good and whom its good for? We originally planned on hopping at 3pm to Epcot, but by that time we'll have made it onto Star Tours, Indy show, and rode RMRC before our 12:15 Brown Derby reservation. After lunch we'll have time to hit one more headliner before we go to Epcot.

So in 5hrs we'll have rode Star Tours, RMRC, saw Indy, ate lunch, and probably going to attempt MMRR. So for an additional $75, how did G+ help our group of 5? Also, Frozen, Remy, and Test Track are sold out of G+ already for the day.

Was this system created to ensure park hopping is now useless when it comes to rides? This sucks....

Some go fast right at 7 only to reappear minutes later. So you might have wanted to refresh a few minutes and see how it went there. Also if you entered at 9am, the rides would have been running for a full hour before you got into your first line. This is the most useful benefit of staying on site. I'm not knocking your experience as false, but you could do better with more strategic time management.

- You can only really go for ROTR or SDD at 7 or 7:01, so don't try to figure out what might have a better time.
- Ensure you are in the park a half hour before opening and get on line for the most important ride you didn't get a LL for. ROTR is a good pick here or SDD if you didn't get it. However if I pull off SDD LL then I'll over go to ToT or MFSR at this time. Those lines should move rather fast and then you get get on a line for another solid ride that is much shorter than average.
- Don't go to shows early, you can get easy LL passes for them later and you're wasting time when lines are shorter.
- Save star tours for a LL later (easy to get) or something to wait on in the middle of the day when other lines are unbearable.

This doesn't stop the system from being terrible for you, but can give you better outcomes. If still frustrated, start picking times at MK and hop over there.

 

[Gearbm95]

Some go fast right at 7 only to reappear minutes later. So you might have wanted to refresh a few minutes and see how it went there. Also if you entered at 9am, the rides would have been running for a full hour before you got into your first line. This is the most useful benefit of staying on site. I'm not knocking your experience as false, but you could do better with more strategic time management.

- You can only really go for ROTR or SDD at 7 or 7:01, so don't try to figure out what might have a better time.
- Ensure you are in the park a half hour before opening and get on line for the most important ride you didn't get a LL for. ROTR is a good pick here or SDD if you didn't get it. However if I pull off SDD LL then I'll over go to ToT or MFSR at this time. Those lines should move rather fast and then you get get on a line for another solid ride that is much shorter than average.
- Don't go to shows early, you can get easy LL passes for them later and you're wasting time when lines are shorter.
- Save star tours for a LL later (easy to get) or something to wait on in the middle of the day when other lines are unbearable.

This doesn't stop the system from being terrible for you, but can give you better outcomes. If still frustrated, start picking times at MK and hop over there.

Thanks for the tips. I think my annoyance now is that G+ seems to be built to discourage park hopping. If we want to do everything at a park using G+ we'll be there from open to close, ultimately doing some other stuff we didn't want to do to fill up time.

 

[danlb_2000]

I know this isn’t helpful now but when I was there a few months ago, I noticed the system refreshes each day around 7:15. I think the app can’t handle everyone on right at 7 and lots of things show up as sold out. But around 7:15, it would refresh and more times would pop back up.

Yeah, I was looking at RoR last Saturday morning, by 7:01 AM all the ILLs were gone, but when I checked again around 7:15 (I think 7:17 is actually he magic time) it had gone back to offering them for the early morning and there were ILLs available for at least an hour.

 

[pdude81]

Thanks for the tips. I think my annoyance now is that G+ seems to be built to discourage park hopping. If we want to do everything at a park using G+ we'll be there from open to close, ultimately doing some other stuff we didn't want to do to fill up time.

Honestly I find Genie+ rewards park hopping, at least in the way I do it. I am a rope dropper and spend a lot of time refreshing to see the movement of LL availability though, so I have sometimes cancelled my 7am selection to make something else at 7:20 if new things pop up. What I try to do is rope drop with early entry, and if at all possible get one of the headliners with my 7am selection before 1pm or so. For DHS it helps that I've done ROTR a bunch of times, so that frees me up to rope drop ToT (usually walk on) and try to burn through one more of the headliner rides before people start to use the LL selections. Then if possible I schedule ILL or more LL for a second park in the evening, especially if I'm willing to just hope to MK multiple days on my trip and 0/1 morning there. It's tough at DHS though, the park has too much demand for so little ride supply.

It might take 2 days of rope drop to get through most of the big rides at DHS, and if you can pick off a good LL then that helps too. After that even just wandering at DAK or Epcot can be fun and I deal with whatever lines seem acceptable. Keep in mind that the wait times are often (but not always) overinflated.

edit: forgot a few words, bolded above.

 

[Gearbm95]

Honestly I find Genie+ rewards park hopping, at least in the way I do it. I am a rope dropper and spend a lot of time refreshing to see the movement of LL availability though, so I have sometimes cancelled my 7am selection to make something else at 7:20 if new things pop up. What I try to do is rope drop with early entry, and if at all possible get one of the headliners with my 7am selection before 1pm or so. For DHS it helps that I've done ROTR a bunch of times, so that frees me up to rope drop ToT (usually walk on) and try to burn through the headliner rides before people start to use the LL selections. Then if possible I schedule ILL or more LL for a second park in the evening, especially if I'm willing to just hope to MK multiple days on my trip and 0/1 morning there. It's tough at DHS though, the park has too much demand for so little ride supply.

It might take 2 days of rope drop to get through most of the big rides at DHS, and if you can pick off a good LL then that helps too. After that even just wandering at DAK or Epcot can be fun and I deal with whatever lines seem acceptable. Keep in mind that the wait times are often (but not always) overinflated.

Also some good tips in here! It's just insane how much headache and refreshing G+ has had me doing. Staying at UO on the weekend and using Express Pass was a revolutionary compared to this. Granted, it required us spending one night in a UO resort to get Express, but it made for the most stress free park trip I've had this week.

 

[Jeff4272]

So is G+ essentially useless at DHS? Was on at 6:55am this morning, refreshed at 6:59am and was in at 7am, all ILL's for ROTR were already gone, along with SDD, and TOT was showing 4pm as the soonest reservation. Grabbed a RNRC reservation G+ for 11:15am, rode Star Tours (25min standby line) and saw Indy upon arriving at the park at 9am, before going to RNRC.

Literally in line for RNRC right now, tried to grab another G+ reservation at 11am (after 120min rule), however, all that's left are shows, Swirling Saucers (1:40pm), Star Tours (2:30pm), and that's it.

ROTR, TOT, MMRR, TSM, and SDD all have at minimum 90min waits right now. Can someone explain to me how this new system is good and whom its good for? We originally planned on hopping at 3pm to Epcot, but by that time we'll have made it onto Star Tours, Indy show, and rode RMRC before our 12:15 Brown Derby reservation. After lunch we'll have time to hit one more headliner before we go to Epcot.

So in 5hrs we'll have rode Star Tours, RMRC, saw Indy, ate lunch, and probably going to attempt MMRR. So for an additional $75, how did G+ help our group of 5? Also, Frozen, Remy, and Test Track are sold out of G+ already for the day.

Was this system created to ensure park hopping is now useless when it comes to rides? This sucks....

100%...This is one of the MANY problems with Genie+ and why it sucks bad

 

[Gearbm95]

Update…decided to stay at DHS and after 4:30pm today every single G+ reservation is gone besides Star Tours. Spent 2hr 40m in line for ROTR and just got off TOT (1hr 55m).

Looks like we’ll leave around 9, so like 6 rides in 12hrs lol. Either raise the price of G+ or get rid of it, this sucks.

 

[vikescaper]

Update…decided to stay at DHS and after 4:30pm today every single G+ reservation is gone besides Star Tours. Spent 2hr 40m in line for ROTR and just got off TOT (1hr 55m).

Looks like we’ll leave around 9, so like 6 rides in 12hrs lol. Either raise the price of G+ or get rid of it, this sucks.

Sounds almost like my experience this past Saturday. The only park it really kinda works at is MK.

 

[Disney Analyst]

 

[FeelsSoGoodToBeBad]

Well that's a CYA disclaimer if ever I saw one.

 

[danv3]

With that disclaimer, TWDC is admitting that the G+ system is broken.

 

[Disney4Lyfe]

Thanks for the tips. I think my annoyance now is that G+ seems to be built to discourage park hopping. If we want to do everything at a park using G+ we'll be there from open to close, ultimately doing some other stuff we didn't want to do to fill up time.

That seems to be a feature, not a bug. Aka, Disney wants this behavior.

 

[dreday3]

They must have been giving out too many refunds!

On the bright side, this may stop many people from buying Genie + since most would think not worth it, especially for larger families.
In turn, may make it beneficial again to those who do purchase.

 

[msha88]

Just venting another annoyance. I’m not huge on vloggers but I do watch Allears. Molly recently did a video on having the best day at MK by using a combination of standby and LL. From day one, her biggest tip has always been to refresh if a ride or time doesn’t come up that you’re looking for. She was trying to get a LL for I think HM at a certain time. She literally sat doing nothing but refreshing for 20 minutes until the time she wanted popped up. No parent in the history of parents has time to sit and do that and nothing else for 20 minutes. I really wish they would just stop advertising the refresh option as a normal way to use Genie+.

I watched the whole thing thinking ‘how is this much refreshing a “perfect day”?’ She spent so much time ‘fiddle-faddling‘ as she calls it throughout the video trying to get all the Genie+s.

My definition of a perfect day at Magic Kingdom doesn’t include being glued to my phone (even in lines) and missing out on what’s going on around me. Running the day like that turns it into a scavenger hunt or something, and a stressful one at that. No spontaneity or changing plans, no just taking in the sights.

I agree that she’s at the parks all the time so it’s not going to bother her, but for regular guests and especially those with young children, how is that fun?

 

[msha88]

Yeah, I was looking at RoR last Saturday morning, by 7:01 AM all the ILLs were gone, but when I checked again around 7:15 (I think 7:17 is actually he magic time) it had gone back to offering them for the early morning and there were ILLs available for at least an hour.

It‘s frustrating at 7.01 to see Slinky (and RotR gone) and have to decide whether to wait it out and hope you can get one 15 minutes later, or just book something else and change strategy. Over Christmas I booked something else at 7 when SDD wasn’t showing up for me, checked at 7.15 ish and saw it come up.

Obviously then, with the system the way it is, you have to hope that once you’ve gone through the cancellation process there’s still something available. My gamble paid off but I can imagine sometimes people are out of luck and then you’ve lost your original booking too which might have been at a good time for you.

 

[TikibirdLand]

It‘s frustrating at 7.01 to see Slinky (and RotR gone) and have to decide whether to wait it out and hope you can get one 15 minutes later, or just book something else and change strategy. Over Christmas I booked something else at 7 when SDD wasn’t showing up for me, checked at 7.15 ish and saw it come up.

Obviously then, with the system the way it is, you have to hope that once you’ve gone through the cancellation process there’s still something available. My gamble paid off but I can imagine sometimes people are out of luck and then you’ve lost your original booking too which might have been at a good time for you.

So, the strategy is to pick one (i.e. RotR) and go stand in that line while refreshing the Genie App? Seems akin to what we did with the paper passes. We'd stand in a standby line while getting a FP for something else. And, sometimes, that return time was a long time away. In this model, you may not be successful though.

 

[Jeff4272]

It‘s frustrating at 7.01 to see Slinky (and RotR gone) and have to decide whether to wait it out and hope you can get one 15 minutes later, or just book something else and change strategy. Over Christmas I booked something else at 7 when SDD wasn’t showing up for me, checked at 7.15 ish and saw it come up.

Obviously then, with the system the way it is, you have to hope that once you’ve gone through the cancellation process there’s still something available. My gamble paid off but I can imagine sometimes people are out of luck and then you’ve lost your original booking too which might have been at a good time for you.

There are so many flaws with this systems it's insane........

I understand Disney's desire to monetize line skipping..........The demand for it proves they can charge it and people are willing to pay for it

But please get a system that works.............They have changed the system in the past (from ticket books, to having nothing, to paper FP then to FP+) because it favored one group over others...........Well this system is terrible for almost all users and needs to be fixed

 

[Disney4Lyfe]

FWIW. I check the system every morning since I have a trip coming up. Today at 8. There seemed to be lots of availability. And according to TouringPlans. Crowds are predicted to be a 6. So maybe Genie+ has some utility on medium crowd days?

 

[Jeff4272]

FWIW. I check the system every morning since I have a trip coming up. Today at 8. There seemed to be lots of availability. And according to TouringPlans. Crowds are predicted to be a 6. So maybe Genie+ has some utility on medium crowd days?

Only thing is, when it's that slow, you really don't need it.....

Its not worth waking up at 6:45, being on ur phone all day, not being able to tour the park as you like, criss crossing based on the fact you get next available time, potential of overlapping with dining reservations, potential with overlapping with park hopping, etc

That's the problem with Genie+, when it's slow, you don't need it, when its busy, its not worth it

 

[mattpeto]

FWIW. I check the system every morning since I have a trip coming up. Today at 8. There seemed to be lots of availability. And according to TouringPlans. Crowds are predicted to be a 6. So maybe Genie+ has some utility on medium crowd days?

That's where I'm at.

Genie+ doesn't hold up well in high crowds.