Confused about booking…

[Disneymommingit]

Someone please explain to me in layman’s terms the difference between the reservation systems.

What is fast pass? And is Genie plus something separate? We purchased Genie plus but I have no clue what it is. How far in advance are you allowed to book?

Thank you so much for the help! Haven’t been to Disney in 23 years and I know so much has changed.

 

[Miffy]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "reservation systems," but I'll give it a go here.

If you're booking your trip through Disney, you can book a package, which includes room and park tickets. I'm not sure if you can even do this anymore, but years ago you could also book your flights as part of this package. There are certainly other vendors through which you can purchase everything as a package--flights, car rental, room (wherever it may be--onsite or off-site), and tickets.

If you book through Disney, there are different up-front payments required as well as different cancellation policies for a package or a room-only (no tickets or anything else, just the room) reservations.

If you are talking about the park reservation system now in place, that's something else entirely. You have to have tickets in hand in order to book park reservations and you can reserve only one park per day and you can only reserve that park if it's available to be booked. Lately nothing is selling out, but park reservations have sold out in the past.

Once you book your park reservation, if you decide you want to book a different park for that day instead, you have to cancel the park you booked and then book the new park. Yes, you could end up being shut out of both parks. Not a great system, but it's the one we're stuck with right now.

If you have a hopper or AP, you can hop under these circumstances: (1) You must tap into your reserved park. You cannot hop to another park if you haven't tapped into your reserved park. No exceptions. (2) You cannot hop until 2 p.m. No exceptions.

Regarding Genie+: I'm guessing you purchased a package from Disney. This is the only way, I'm pretty sure, that you can buy Genie+ for your entire stay. FastPass does not exist anymore. It was "replaced" by Genie+. I have that in quotes since FastPass (and FP+) were free, but you have to pay for G+.

You cannot book G+ reservations in advance. At all. You can book your G+ reservations starting at 7 a.m. on the day you're making the reservations for. At 7 a.m. you can book one attraction only. Two hours after park opening time, you can book your 2nd attraction. There are dedicated threads delineating all the particulars about this stuff. No point in going into it all here.

Hope this helped you a little bit. Things have changed a lot in 23 years!

 

[Disneymommingit]

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "reservation systems," but I'll give it a go here.

If you're booking your trip through Disney, you can book a package, which includes room and park tickets. I'm not sure if you can even do this anymore, but years ago you could also book your flights as part of this package. There are certainly other vendors through which you can purchase everything as a package--flights, car rental, room (wherever it may be--onsite or off-site), and tickets.

If you book through Disney, there are different up-front payments required as well as different cancellation policies for a package or a room-only (no tickets or anything else, just the room) reservations.

If you are talking about the park reservation system now in place, that's something else entirely. You have to have tickets in hand in order to book park reservations and you can reserve only one park per day and you can only reserve that park if it's available to be booked. Lately nothing is selling out, but park reservations have sold out in the past.

Once you book your park reservation, if you decide you want to book a different park for that day instead, you have to cancel the park you booked and then book the new park. Yes, you could end up being shut out of both parks. Not a great system, but it's the one we're stuck with right now.

If you have a hopper or AP, you can hop under these circumstances: (1) You must tap into your reserved park. You cannot hop to another park if you haven't tapped into your reserved park. No exceptions. (2) You cannot hop until 2 p.m. No exceptions.

Regarding Genie+: I'm guessing you purchased a package from Disney. This is the only way, I'm pretty sure, that you can buy Genie+ for your entire stay. FastPass does not exist anymore. It was "replaced" by Genie+. I have that in quotes since FastPass (and FP+) were free, but you have to pay for G+.

You cannot book G+ reservations in advance. At all. You can book your G+ reservations starting at 7 a.m. on the day you're making the reservations for. At 7 a.m. you can book one attraction only. Two hours after park opening time, you can book your 2nd attraction. There are dedicated threads delineating all the particulars about this stuff. No point in going into it all here.

Hope this helped you a little bit. Things have changed a lot in 23 years!

Thanks so much! What I was wondering was more about ride/attraction bookings, which you answered for me. So basically can only reserve one a time now with genie plus and it has be done the day of.
I was confused because a cousin of mine was telling me he had booked his months in advance but that was also 3 years ago. Thanks again!

 

[Miffy]

Thanks so much! What I was wondering was more about ride/attraction bookings, which you answered for me. So basically can only reserve one a time now with genie plus and it has be done the day of.
I was confused because a cousin of mine was telling me he had booked his months in advance but that was also 3 years ago. Thanks again!

Ah yes. The wonderful days of 3 years ago. That was the now-defunct FastPass+. If only they'd just charged for that and left the rest alone. But no . . .

Anyway, you can have more than one G+ booked, because as soon as you tap into your G+ attraction, you can book another one. Please read the detailed thread on G+. There are a ton of ins and outs with it and lots of suggestions of how to get the most out of it. It works best, imho, if you stay in your chosen park from open until close, since as the morning progresses, only late-in-the-day times are available for popular attractions (i.e., the ones that haven't already sold out). You want to be booking your most-desired attraction right at 7 a.m., since it's probably the most-desired attraction of lots of other people too and those things do sell out. SDD, for example, and JC was a sell-out a lot last year. Not sure what's what now.

There are charts all over the place about what sells out, what to book when, etc.

And try to get your head around this: The 2 top-tier attractions in each park are NOT on Genie+. They are Individual Lightning Lane attractions and even though "Lightning Lane" is the same term that's used for the G+ attractions' entry points, Individual Lightning Lane attractions are NOT part of Genie+. They are a separate category altogether and a separate charge, which varies by attraction and time and desirability. Rise of the Resistance at DHS is one of the ILL$ and it sells out, sometimes in a couple of minutes after they go on sale at 7 a.m. Only Disney resort guests can reserve the ILL$ at 7 a.m., which gives you an advantage (assuming you're staying onsite and assuming you think spending more money is an advantage!). The two big ILL$ are Rise of the Resistance (RotR) at DHS and Avatar Flight of Passage (FoP) at DAK. Both are amazing rides and if you'd like to avoid the often 3- or 4-hour-long waits in standby, I suggest purchasing the ILL$ for these two. Just remember--ILL$ are NOT on G+. They are separate and a separate cost. You might not think this is worth the expense, but that's up to you.

Good luck on your trip. There's so much new at WDW, like Pandora in Animal Kingdom and Toy Story Land and Star Wars Galaxy's Edge in DHS, that you'll have a lot of fun!

 

[Disneymommingit]

Ah yes. The wonderful days of 3 years ago. That was the now-defunct FastPass+. If only they'd just charged for that and left the rest alone. But no . . .

Anyway, you can have more than one G+ booked, because as soon as you tap into your G+ attraction, you can book another one. Please read the detailed thread on G+. There are a ton of ins and outs with it and lots of suggestions of how to get the most out of it. It works best, imho, if you stay in your chosen park from open until close, since as the morning progresses, only late-in-the-day times are available for popular attractions (i.e., the ones that haven't already sold out). You want to be booking your most-desired attraction right at 7 a.m., since it's probably the most-desired attraction of lots of other people too and those things do sell out. SDD, for example, and JC was a sell-out a lot last year. Not sure what's what now.

There are charts all over the place about what sells out, what to book when, etc.

And try to get your head around this: The 2 top-tier attractions in each park are NOT on Genie+. They are Individual Lightning Lane attractions and even though "Lightning Lane" is the same term that's used for the G+ attractions' entry points, Individual Lightning Lane attractions are NOT part of Genie+. They are a separate category altogether and a separate charge, which varies by attraction and time and desirability. Rise of the Resistance at DHS is one of the ILL$ and it sells out, sometimes in a couple of minutes after they go on sale at 7 a.m. Only Disney resort guests can reserve the ILL$ at 7 a.m., which gives you an advantage (assuming you're staying onsite and assuming you think spending more money is an advantage!). The two big ILL$ are Rise of the Resistance (RotR) at DHS and Avatar Flight of Passage (FoP) at DAK. Both are amazing rides and if you'd like to avoid the often 3- or 4-hour-long waits in standby, I suggest purchasing the ILL$ for these two. Just remember--ILL$ are NOT on G+. They are separate and a separate cost. You might not think this is worth the expense, but that's up to you.

Good luck on your trip. There's so much new at WDW, like Pandora in Animal Kingdom and Toy Story Land and Star Wars Galaxy's Edge in DHS, that you'll have a lot of fun!

Appreciate you taking the time to respond. Thanks a bunch