Give me your feedback about my plans - and do I need to do anything else now?

[sjuncfan]

We are going to WDW next week. We have a room booked at the Swan and Dolphin, park reservations (Thursday 1/26 at Epcot, Friday 1/27 at AK, and Saturday 1/28 at DHS). We have a couple meals booked including Oga's Cantina. Is there anything else I need to do now? My understanding is I can't get Genie+ or ILL yet - is that correct?

Based on all of your collective expertise, do the days we're planning to be at each park make sense? I took a look at a couple crowd predictors and this seemed good. Seems like crowds SHOULD be low most days.

Leaning towards Genie+ for Hollywood Studios to use on Slinky Dog Dash, Runaway Railroad, and Smugglers Run. Thinking we'd do ILL for Rise of the Resistance. Not thinking we'll need them at Epcot or Animal Kingdom given low expected lower crowds, and we'll get there as early as possible to hit the popular stuff.

We chose those parks because - 1. DS (age 11) is loves Star Wars so I want to capture that magic while I can - 2. DH loves Epcot and it'll be fun to check out GotG - 3. DS loves roller coasters and is eager to do Expedition Everest... plus I want to see the Avatar stuff.

We've been to Disney a couple times but it's been years and while I am generally a GREAT planner, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the recent changes.

Thanks in advance.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

SOOOO many changes the past couple years! It's understandable. I'll answer the G+/ILL question. You can make the decision to purchase or not purchase day-off. G+ purchasing opens at 12:01AM the day you might want to buy it. But you can only use G+ to buy your first Lighting Lane at 7AM. You do not need to buy Genie+ if you decide to buy one of the Individual Lighting Lane attractions (based on your list, that would include Guardians, Flight of Passage, and Rise). Looking at those 3 specific attractions, remember they are not available through G+. GOP and Rise are either an ILL purchase or standby. GOTG is either ILL or you must go on at 7AM and get a spot in their Virtual Queue so you can go and essentially be in the standby line - there is no traditional standby option for GOTG. Since you are staying at a Disney resort, you can buy your ILL at 7AM, and can buy a max of 2 ILLs per person for the day.

If Slinky is a priority for you, you might want to make that your first G+/LL of the day. It's pretty popular. Just make sure you purchase the G+ on days you're using it, sometime between midnight and 6:50AM so you can use it at 7AM. Your MDE app will show you when you are eligible to schedule your next G+/LL attraction, usually 2 hours after the previous one or 2 hours after park opening. An important point that you might already know - when buying an ILL attraction, you can select a time range. When using Genie+ and grabbing a time for an attraction, you will get the 'next available' time - you can't specifically get a time you might want. If you want something later, you'll have to wait, keep checking, and grab it later.

I hope I've offered at least some info that could help. This only scratches the surface of Genie+ and Disney Planning 2023. Sorry! Have a great trip.

 

[Moliphino]

Oga's Cantina doesn't really have much in the way of food. I've seen a lot of people disappointed after because they thought it was an actual meal, so I wanted to point that out just in case. It's a bar with two snack options.

 

[midwestdee]

IMO, on your Epcot day, after snaring BG for GOTG, I would pony up for ILL for GOTG, at least for your most enthusiastic amusement park riders. It is totally awesome and if we could have purchased additional ILL’s the same day, I surely would have (senior citizen here for what its worth).

 

[sjuncfan]

Oga's Cantina doesn't really have much in the way of food. I've seen a lot of people disappointed after because they thought it was an actual meal, so I wanted to point that out just in case. It's a bar with two snack options.

Thanks - I noticed that. We have it booked more for a mid-afternoon break.