This entire series is absolutely necessary and so informative in an easy to understand way. Major cudos to you, Becky. And thanks for the guest appearance, made me laugh.
Please do not take this the wrong way as you and your videos are extremely good, but the excitement we felt when we saw Brian cannot be expressed. He’s a celebrity in this house and should be celebrated each and every day
Thanks for this video--- keep them coming! Last September my son and I were in HS late while others had given up. We decided to go to Galaxy's Edge to experience Batuu After Dark. My son quipped "I have a BAD feeling about this..."
Thanks for all the info....we are going (party of 6 - ages 6-66) in October! Super nervous and don't want to waste a bunch of time, so this was massively helpful.
It is amazing how much I enjoy these. Both the information and testing what I think vs. what your data shows are great resources. One request is if you can do something dealing with Genie+ and park hopping strategies. We are planning a trip but have never park hopped before so that would be very interesting (like should you do an easy place like Epcot but essentially use Genie+ just to book for Hollywood Studios later in the day). I know the rules shifted on this not so long ago as well.
Hi Becky, love the content! I'm going to WDW this winter and am nervous about genie plus and all the changes. I will be re-watching your videos before then! Not gonna lie, also SO EXCITED about Brian coming back to the channel?! Love the teaser. 😊
Let’s call this Becky’s Slinky or Die Strategy. I prefer to book anything (good) at 7a with return time from 9a and ride at 10a. This let’s you rope drop attractions from 8:00-9:45, then ride 1st G+ before 10a and then obtain the 2nd G+ after checking into that attraction (before the masses book their 2nd at 11a). If anything is available from 10-11a, then you can get 2 G+s before the masses book the 2nd at 11a. At 11a, 1p, 3p then you book your favorites for after 5:00. This gives you 6-7 G+ visits versus 4 on moderate plus park day. Leave the park after lunch from 1p to 4p and go swimming. Ha!
really nice videos. I am worried Rise might be down though at early rope drop so i am thinking of rope dropping tower of terror and rockn coaster, then runaway railway. I will buy Rise ILL, and then i can use genie LL to ride the first three that we rope dropped for a second time later if it is possible so it is like i am paying for the ILL for Rise to be able to hit the other rides twice.
Quick Q: I’m confused, why wait until 11am when you should be able to make res #2 at 9am? This is amazing though, have been following Touring Plans since forever. We used to read the book every year then print out our own plans, until we memorized them, but that was for DL back in the day, so much has changed! And we’re still planning our first ever WDW trip… Anyway, yours is always the best advice. You’ve saved us so much time over the years, and while we LOVE Disney, we HATE LINES! So so happy you’re all still on top of things! Looking forward to more park-specific vids. Would be lovely to see you enjoying the parks Becky, you’d be great at vlogging I bet 😉
I’m old enough to remember when people called Hollywood Studios a “half-day park.” Now you can’t count on being able do it in a normal full day. Crazy.
Hey Becky! We’re LOVING all of this content and look forward to it every week. Our family is staying at Wilderness Lodge the second week of December and renting a car. We want to be as early as possible to Hollywood studios, so our question is, should we ride the bus or drive the car to Early entry? Which mode of transportation tends to get you in earlier?
I'll admit that I'm always inclined to do things without the paying extra instead of the paying extra. Ha! But I might try a pay-your-way-around-the-lines strategy eventually.
I would rope drop Mickey and Minnie's train then hustle to Tower of Terror and try to get that done before park opening then do Rockin Roller Coaster. Tower of Terror (depending on how many elevators are running) can sell out of Genie+ very quickly so that may not be an option later in the day. Now you will be fighting for subsequent Genie + for Smuggler's run nad Swirling Saucers Toy Story Mania . The rest of the rides and attractions are low demand Genie pluses (Fill in time with Muppets, and other shows (Indiana Jones, Beauty and the Beast and Frozen Sing a-long. Last year Mickey and Minnie were ILL so we rope dropped Tower of Terror and Rockin Roller Coaster.
I’ve noticed that recently the Genie+ availability is much better… have you seen this as well? On a day like yesterday where there were medium crowds (TouringPlans says it ended up being a crowd level of 6), the LL return times were consistently earlier than usual. Slinky was still available at 1:15pm, Smugglers Run and Runaway Railway had 1:00-2:00 availability at 11am, etc. I’ve noticed this trend in Magic Kingdom too.. surprising LL availability despite long standby lines and larger crowds. I’m wondering if you have any idea why this is happening, if you think it will continue (hope so!) and if you will be updating the LL return time graphs if you think this is a fall trend. Thank you!
I'm updating return time graphs next week. That being said ... demand is pretty low right now thanks to the "September Slump". I wouldn't put too much weight on results from this month holding out later into the fall.
Can you talk a little bit about how the HS touring strategy changes when it’s a high crowd time such as Thanksgiving and Christmas? How would you alter this advice? Genie + still viable but less actual rides? Anything change with early entry? Thanks - appreciate the videos.
I'll be doing some high crowd level strategies to show the different. Genie+ still viable, but fewer selections because they'll sell out quickly. General rules still stand though. Do as much early and late as possible; avoid anything with a line in the afternoon.
Another great video! I know many of the Disney vloggers suggest repeatedly refreshing in Genie+ to get better LL return times. Do the times you estimate include any of that? Thank you!
The times in the charts are the average earliest available return time during that hour. I generally don't suggest constantly refreshing Genie+, since that means more staring at your phone and less enjoying your vacation. Gotta find the balance :)
Thanks for the video! My question is... when I set up our touring plan, does it take these tips and times in to the optimization of them? We're going in Feb 2023 for the Princess races, so levels are only estimated this far out but still thinking they'll be on the medium to high side. Thanks!
These strategies are high-level and based on general trends. When you create and optimize a touring plan, it will use up-to-date information on the day you visit to take into account things like downtime, unexpectedly high or low wait times, etc. It's more powerful than just these strategies alone :)
Another outstanding video, Becky! Do you, or will you, have anything for someone not using Genie+? I have several people who refuse to spend the money, and I'd like to point them somewhere to help. Thank you for your hard work!
Oh absolutely. I _prefer_ not using Genie+. Will make sure some of those get sprinkled in. The episode from last week (why you should visit MK on a party day) shows a low crowd day without Genie+ as a start.
This is a GREAT example for using Genie+. I read something about how they have changed it a bit as far as reserving rides for your hopping park after 2:00? Any changes or can I still book say a 3:00 first thing in the morning?
It has changed. It used to automatically boot your park hopping reservation times out past 2 pm. Now you have to wait until the return times get past 2 pm on their own. This generally isn't a problem if you're hopping to Hollywood Studios because Slinky gets past 2 pm basically immediately.
Do you know if they capped the Genie+ availability when they changed it to day-of purchase only? In other words, if you don't get Genie+ early each day of your trip, is there a chance they'll hit their limit, and you won't be able get it at all?
