Why Genie+ / Lightning Lane "Stacking" Method?

[Sundown]

Hey all. I've been reading-up here and in other areas about the best ways to use Genie+ Lightning Lanes. (Boy, what a headache...I'm really amazed at the time & difficulty it takes to make the best out of your Disney Park visit. So much for "Ease of Use").

The idea of "stacking" Genie+ Lightning Lanes seems like a pretty popular strategy. But with this technique you really have to pay attention to time & juggle the "No ability to book your next lightning lane ride for 2 hours from the time you made your previous Lightning Lane booking" rule. When I read about this I though "So much for relaxing on vacation, gotta set a reminder for every two hours now?"

Under FastPass+, after using the three free FP+...you could get one more FastPass+. I'd book a near time slot ride and walk right over to it and use the FP+ a soon as I could. After checking in at the ride, I could look to see what other ride is available soon and book that. Then continue on and on throughout the day that way.

I'm still trying to learn & understand Genie+...but wouldn't my above "old FastPass+ method" still work pretty darn well?

...or it is that the "good rides" are never really available to pop-up on the Genie+ Lightning Lane throughout the day? Just thinking out loud..

Well, thanks my friend for any insights. (My brain hurts! Haha.)

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Hey all. I've been reading-up here and in other areas about the best ways to use Genie+ Lightning Lanes. (Boy, what a headache...I'm really amazed at the time & difficulty it takes to make the best out of your Disney Park visit. So much for "Ease of Use").

The idea of "stacking" Genie+ Lightning Lanes seems like a pretty popular strategy. But with this technique you really have to pay attention to time & juggle the "No ability to book your next lightning lane ride for 2 hours from the time you made your previous Lightning Lane booking" rule. When I read about this I though "So much for relaxing on vacation, gotta set a reminder for every two hours now?"

Under FastPass+, after using the three free FP+...you could get one more FastPass+. I'd book a near time slot ride and walk right over to it and use the FP+ a soon as I could. After checking in at the ride, I could look to see what other ride is available soon and book that. Then continue on and on throughout the day that way.

I'm still trying to learn & understand Genie+...but wouldn't my above "old FastPass+ method" still work pretty darn well?

...or it is that the "good rides" are never really available to pop-up on the Genie+ Lightning Lane throughout the day? Just thinking out loud..

Well, thanks my friend for any insights. (My brain hurts! Haha.)

If you've contemplated stacking and concluded "wait, this doesn't make sense, it's really inefficient," then you understand it correctly.

Stacking is predicated on booking your initial return time late on purpose, and is thus only useful for people who want to sleep late. If you're waking up early and making your first LL at 7am, your old FP+ strategy is what you should be doing.

Now, if the ride you really must have isn't available until 5pm or something like that, go ahead and book it. Then forget about it until 5pm, book your second ride 2 hours after park open, and start your FP+ strategy on the third ride after you've clicked into that second ride. This is sort of stumbling into stacking on accident, but you'd be better off if you had been able to take that first ride ride at 9am in the first place.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Also, a recent Genie+ upgrade shows you right in the app when you're eligible to book your next Lightning Lane. You don't need to keep track anymore.

 

[nickys]

Your old FP+ method is how they envisaged G+ working, according to some. And many people have good experiences doing that.

However the reality is that there are some rides which “sell out” of G+ passes early on. Even booking at 7am or thereabouts will get you a return time of 4pm or later. For those rides then clearly if you want to ride it using G+ you need to try for it early.

Also if you are park hopping there are good reasons for stacking G+ passes for your second park. Disney just recently made that a little more cumbersome, but the strategy still works.

I believe you can now see when you are eligible to book your next G+, so all you need do is set a reminder for 5-10 minutes before that.

 

[Sundown]

CaptainAmerica, great info. Thank you for your helpful reply. So ideally, when I’m booking a Lightning Lane pass at 7AM…I’m trying to book one closest to the park opening time as possible. The reasoning being that it gets the LL clock running early & once I’ve clicked in to that ride…I can then select another ride. And so-on and so-on throughout the day.

But along with that, I should also be keeping in mind that if I can get one of the marquee rides that I really want to ride, I should book it (even if it isn’t until the afternoon/evening). Then I’d simply select my next LL two hours after I’ve “locked-in” that marquee ride and then start the previous FP+ strategy.

Now is it true that even if you make your first Lighting Lane booking at 7AM, that I can't book my next LL at 9AM...if for example the park itself actually opens at say 10AM?

Nickys, thanks for your reply & help as well! You mentioned rides can “sell out” of Lightning Lane passes early on. Given Genie+/LL has been in use for a while now, is there a general idea of the rides that sell-out? For example, do we now know “Yes, 7 Dwarves Mine Train” is a given to sell-out all their daily LL’s”. Or 7 Dwarves, Peter Pan, Space Mountain, etc.

Regarding park hopping, I usually do purchase this feature for each day. I realize that I’m unable to actually do the park-hop until 2PM. But am I able to book Lightning Lanes for that second park at a particular time?

Thanks you both again.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Even booking at 7am or thereabouts will get you a return time of 4pm or later.

I don't think that's typical.

 

[curry767]

Has anyone got any first hand experience with the recent change of not being able to get a return time until after 2pm on a park hop stacking strategy?

Maybe the parks haven’t been busy enough since the change, but on face value it looks like this change will reduce the amount of rides can you realistically book on a stacking park hop strategy.

 

[nickys]

1. Now is it true that even if you make your first Lighting Lane booking at 7AM, that I can't book my next LL at 9AM...if for example the park itself actually opens at say 10AM?

2. Nickys, thanks for your reply & help as well! You mentioned rides can “sell out” of Lightning Lane passes early on. Given Genie+/LL has been in use for a while now, is there a general idea of the rides that sell-out? For example, do we now know “Yes, 7 Dwarves Mine Train” is a given to sell-out all their daily LL’s”. Or 7 Dwarves, Peter Pan, Space Mountain, etc.

3. Regarding park hopping, I usually do purchase this feature for each day. I realize that I’m unable to actually do the park-hop until 2PM. But am I able to book Lightning Lanes for that second park at a particular time?

1. If you book the first at any time before park opening, and the return time is more than 2 hours after park opening, then your next booking window is 2 hours after normal park opening time.

So let’s say MK opens at 9am, with early entry at 8:30am.

You book 7 dwarves Peter Pan for a return time of noon, Whether you get up and book it at 7am or wait until 8:59am your next booking window is 11am.

Edited to replace 7dmt with a G+ ride - thanks @Swissmiss

2. Yes there is. Touring Plans have blog posts which rank the rides where return times get pushed out the quickest. For example, Jungle Cruise is the fastest booked G+ ride at MK, with return times quickly jumping to 4pm. Slinky at DHS is similar.

3. You can book for your second park starting at 7am. In other words you can book at any park, not just the one you have a reservation for.

However you need to wait until the return times are after 2pm. So if hopping to DHS, you could probably book Slinky at 7am and get a 3pm return time. But if you wanted to book ToT, you might need to wait until after park opening until the return time is late enough. So it still works but it requires more attention to return times.

 

[Swissmiss]

1. If you book the first at any time before park opening, and the return time is more than 2 hours after park opening, then your next booking window is 2 hours after normal park opening time.

So let’s say MK opens at 9am, with early entry at 8:30am.

You book 7 dwarves for a return time of noon, Whether you get up and book it at 7am or wait until 8:59am your next booking window is 11am.

2. Yes there is. Touring Plans have blog posts which rank the rides where return times get pushed out the quickest. For example, Jungle Cruise is the fastest booked G+ ride at MK, with return times quickly jumping to 4pm. Slinky at DHS is similar.

3. You can book for your second park starting at 7am. In other words you can book at any park, not just the one you have a reservation for.

However you need to wait until the return times are after 2pm. So if hopping to DHS, you could probably book Slinky at 7am and get a 3pm return time. But if you wanted to book ToT, you might need to wait until after park opening until the return time is late enough. So it still works but it requires more attention to return times.

@nickys - Mine Train is ILL (at least it was when we were there last month) so your return time for that ride does not have any bearing on booking times for other Genie+ rides .

OP: I used Genie+ on two days during my recent trip - one day I deliberately stacked as we wanted to ride a few things we hadn’t yet had a chance to ride and we only wanted to spend a few hours in the park and also wanted to get a late start. It worked well for us that day but I would also say that paying for just me and my teen is very different than having to pay for a larger group/family. On days I was by myself (or waiting for my teen to show up) I had no difficulty finding the patience to wait in a standby line

 

[CaptainAmerica]

Yes there is. Touring Plans have blog posts which rank the rides where return times get pushed out the quickest. For example, Jungle Cruise is the fastest booked G+ ride at MK, with return times quickly jumping to 4pm. Slinky at DHS is similar.

You have to read the fine print though. The TouringPlans schedules show the average over the whole 7am to 8am hour, not the time you should expect to get if you're on there with a good internet connection right at 7am.

 

[Sundown]

1. If you book the first at any time before park opening, and the return time is more than 2 hours after park opening, then your next booking window is 2 hours after normal park opening time.

So let’s say MK opens at 9am, with early entry at 8:30am.

You book 7 dwarves for a return time of noon, Whether you get up and book it at 7am or wait until 8:59am your next booking window is 11am.

2. Yes there is. Touring Plans have blog posts which rank the rides where return times get pushed out the quickest. For example, Jungle Cruise is the fastest booked G+ ride at MK, with return times quickly jumping to 4pm. Slinky at DHS is similar.

3. You can book for your second park starting at 7am. In other words you can book at any park, not just the one you have a reservation for.

However you need to wait until the return times are after 2pm. So if hopping to DHS, you could probably book Slinky at 7am and get a 3pm return time. But if you wanted to book ToT, you might need to wait until after park opening until the return time is late enough. So it still works but it requires more attention to return times.

nickys, wow thank you for this great information my friend. It's a lot to keep in mind when using the Genie+, but this is so helpful.

 

[TJK5]

We used G+ on our recent trip to WDW. I am a huge fan! We used the strategy of booking our 7 am reservation for an early return time and did not have to wait 2 hours to make the next one. We booked A.S.S. for 8:45 during EMH and after tapping in, made our next one.

 

[nickys]

@nickys - Mine Train is ILL (at least it was when we were there last month) so your return time for that ride does not have any bearing on booking times for other Genie+ rides .

Good catch!

 

[Swissmiss]

Good catch!

Substitute another ride and the example is perfect

 

[DisneyfanMA]

I'm still not sure I understand any of it. My plan having begrudgingly bought the genie+ is to book popular rides as soon as I can and only where they fit into our already scheduled meal (1 sit down per park) and shows we want to see. If we're able to ride 2 popular rides per park and avoid an hour plus line for each its a huge win for us. (3 kids)...anything beyond that is gravy. Off property guests, so I think we start behind the eight all in terms of initial booking time or something.

 

[nickys]

You have to read the fine print though. The TouringPlans schedules show the average over the whole 7am to 8am hour, not the time you should expect to get if you're on there with a good internet connection right at 7am.

That’s the actual plans.

The blogs provide advice, including which rides get late return times faster.

 

[nickys]

Off property guests, so I think we start behind the eight all in terms of initial booking time or something.

Not for Genie+ rides. Everyone can book their first one at 7am.

If you want to pay for the Individual Lightning Lane passes, then you have to wait until park opening. Those are 7dmt, Guardians, Rise and FoP currently.

 

[DisneyfanMA]

Not for Genie+ rides. Everyone can book their first one at 7am.

If you want to pay for the Individual Lightning Lane passes, then you have to wait until park opening. Those are 7dmt, Guardians, Rise and FoP currently.

That's right. Thank you. I may opt for 1 or 2 ILL on our visit. Not sure yet.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

That’s the actual plans.

The blogs provide advice, including which rides get late return times faster.

I'm not referring to the plans, I'm referring to the exact blog post you're referencing.

"One important note is that the time in the box is an average return time for that entire hour."

When they say the average return time at 7am is 4pm, they don't mean AT 7am, they mean over the course of 7am to 8am.

 

[nickys]

I'm not referring to the plans, I'm referring to the exact blog post you're referencing.

"One important note is that the time in the box is an average return time for that entire hour."

When they say the average return time at 7am is 4pm, they don't mean AT 7am, they mean over the course of 7am to 8am.

That’s true.

They’re still a very useful guide as to what to book first, depending on what your priorities are. And by using their optimiser.

For example if you know you want to do rides A, B, C and D then you can see that the best one to book first would be C followed by A whilst queuing for D. And B will be fine to go to anytime because the queue rarely goes above 25 minutes.

And used with Thrill Data’s stats you can get much more specific if you want to.