Do we even need G+?

[Princesca]

I do intend to make use of ILLs in a couple of spots (FoP and RoR), but I'm wondering if we need G+. Here's the scenario:

My family (me, my wife, our 2.5 year old) have six park days. We're doing two days in MK, two in EP, one in HS, and one in AK. We are traveling with another family (husband, wife, Frozen-obsessed 5 year old, and a 4 year old). They are only going with us for the two MK days and one EP day.

With two days in MK, I'm questioning that we will need G+. We won't be doing Splash Mountain, Big Thunder, or Space Mountain. We should be there after Tron opens, so that MIGHT be something a couple of us want to do. We won't do any character meets as I think they will get their fill of that on the cruise they're doing first. We do intend to rope drop, but I don't see us closing the park down given the kids' ages, and we will probably need a midday break, though the jury is out whether it will be in the park or at the hotel. We recently got back from vacation and found that taking our son back to the hotel to nap was a fool's errand. He did much better stroller napping wherever we were. I do want to do all of Fantasyland as well as the 'classics' like Jungle Cruise.

For EP, on the one day we're with the other family, we'll be wanting to do Remy and FEA for sure, also probably the Mexico ride, Nemo/TTwC/aquarium. We are probably going to want to rider swap for Soarin' and GotG because I don't think the kids will be down for those. Probably will also want to do Spaceship Earth. The kids probably won't have more than a cursory interest in the countries. So my plan is to do the things listed the first day, and hit the rest on our second day when they're gone.

What do you think, planning gurus? Can we skip G+? I really don't want it... I feel like it's going to massively increase our crisscrossing the park.

 

[kanerf]

When I go I only get G+ after I have confirmed that there is space on a ride that I want to due that normally has very long lines. That is the open the app at 0700 thing that everyone complains about. If I see something, I might pay for the G+, if nothing is available until say late afternoon or early evening, I won't bother.

 

[loves to dive]

It depends on you tolerance for waiting in line. I go without it but I'm old and have been going since long before any skip the lines thing was there and don't really mind waiting in lines. With littles it's a crap shoot. We started going when my son was just shy of 3 and a 45 min. wait in a line was no big deal to him. He had an active imagination and we usually would make up stories about things we saw.

We were there in Sept. last year with his 5 month old daughter and surprisingly, she did pretty good in the lines. Since you have to park your stroller at some in the beginning, some during the line, she did better on the ones we parked at the beginning. She loved being held and being able to see everything going on. Grandma (me) would just talk to her, sing to her and do all the Grandma things. She was able to ride Figment, which she rode twice because she loved it, Living with the Land, SSE and Mexico at Epcot. She could have ridden Nemo but my son doesn't like the ride so we walked around looking at the fish instead. At HS, pickings were slim. She rode MMRR, which was rough for her since it's kind of bumpy but she did o.k. We did rider swap or I kept her for any of the other rides. At AK she rode Safari and Navi and loved both. At MK she rode HM, People Mover, Pirates and CoP. She loved CoP by the way. She could have ridden more but it was a really bad stormy day when we were there, didn't get there until later in the morning because of her sleep/eating schedule so she slept a lot while we were there.

I think unless you plan on doing rider swap, it might not be worth it. Littles are going to sleep, they are going to be in a mood sometimes where they don't want to ride a ride, you just can't predict the little darlings. You don't say what time of year you are going to be there but if it's any time outside of the few cooler months, trips back to the room might become necessary just to get the littles out of the heat and rain.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I would recommend reading the 'Here Now and Just Back' thread. @DisneyFive is posting daily posts showing their experiences using Genie+ and time saved. So far today they have saved 90 mins of line waiting for 2 rides in the MK.

 

[RoseGold]

If Tron is recently opened, it will either be ILL$$ or virtual queue, so G+ won't help. By then, I would expect GOTG to have a completely different system as well.

G+ would help for rides like Soarin' and Jungle Cruise, which actually sells out on G+. You have to decide whether it's worth the money to you to shorten the lines.

 

[CarolynFH]

With a 2.5 year old, the shorter the wait time in line, the better. I'd pay for G+.

 

[coasternut22]

Lower tier Fantasyland rides generally have immediate return times between 10am-12pm. If your first selection at 7am is for a mid-tier ride like Haunted Mansion for 9-10, and you rope drop Jungle Cruise and/or Pirates, or PP and IASW during early entry then Pirates, you can knock out 2-3 mid tier attractions and pretty much all of Fantasyland including perhaps Speedway and Buzz by noon without a single wait. The key is to only book rides between 10-12 with immediate return times. Otherwise you’d be waiting 10-15 minutes each which adds up. Then you are free to stack 3-4 LLs for your evening. I love recommending this plan for families with little kids.

 

[Nevada Jen]

Agree with the previous poster. You actually have the ideal G+ situation. Even if you get a later start, many of the tame rides are still less than a 20 minutes wait right now (3:40) for the G+ times and most are near walkon times for G+. Start watching the tip board. You could very well figure out a way to be able to sleep in and still hit all the rides you want with G+ and use your 7 am pull for an adult ride around lunch time (or pull at 8 am for Peter Pan or Jungle Cruise).

 

[DL1WDW2]

Did you say your visit will be after the Open of Tron?

 

[scrappinginontario]

Did you say your visit will be after the Open of Tron?

Yes. Per the OP's signature they're going in April 2023. We're all hoping it open by then!!