It's been a few years since we've visited and just curious how our normal pattern might work today. We mastered the previous FP (paper/digital) pretty well but this new system has me wondering if we're going to not enjoy ourselves as much.
2 adults, no kids... here is our usual strategy:
Rope Drop
Get out of the park when the masses start arriving by around lunch or a little later (kind of just by feel)
Hang out at the resort/pool or do some resort touring... rest.
Park Hop to another park in the evening... sometimes for rides, sometimes for dinner/walking around with drinks (Epcot)... etc.
I don't mind paying for G+ or LL at all if it provides a benefit. Basically I'm just looking for something that kind of fills in for old school FP or FP+ with the pattern above. We rarely waited in line using the old system and this includes instances where I remember being in Epcot on Christmas night and getting FP+ for main rides on the fly. I think the 2 adult part really used to help with this since getting 2 is obviously easier than 2+. Not sure if this is still the case with G+ or LL.
How do you think our experience might be compared to say 2019 given the pattern above? Would we really notice much of a difference assuming no technical issues?
I would say that you would be able to get at least 2-3 good G+ headliners the the park you rope drop before your afternoon break, and then another 2-3 for the park you intend to hop to.
Quick G+ rundown:
You can book another G+ once you have 1) Tapped into your
most recently booked G+ 2) Let 2 hours expire since
your most recently booked G+,
whichever is earlier
One caveat is the first 7am G+. If you book a G+ for later in the day, or late morning, you can't book another until 2 hours after the park officially opens. Example: MK with an official 9am opening... Let's say at 7am you book a G+ for Jungle Cruise at 11:30 am, you can't book another G+ until 11am (2 hours after park open). However, if at 7am you book something like BTMRR for 9:30am, you can book another immediately after you've been through the second touch point. (BTMRR has 2). This is why we tended to book our first G+ as early as we could and roll from there. It gives you a head start.
Here's a possible scenario:
At 7am book your first headliner for as early as possible for your rope dropped park
Once you tap into that first headliner book another for as early as possible again (hopefully before lunch)
After tapping into the second headliner, look to see if there is a third that you could yet squeeze in before your afternoon break
If yes, book a third and once done with with that book a G+ for your evening park
If no G+ work before you want to head back for your afternoon break, start looking for G+ for your evening park
Two hours later book another G+ for your evening park
Two hours after that, book another G+ for the evening park
By this point you'll probably be in the evening park and can go from there
Dan