re: Anybody been to Disney World recently?

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I went in May and this is true, we had to reserve where we wanted to “hop” to after 2pm

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Sorry but you are mistaken. As of today, all you need is a reservation at your first park. Now, you do have to tap into your first park but you do not need a reservation to hop to the second park.

This is the change I am referring to

Under the current system, guests may make one Park Pass per day. After visiting the park they have a reservation for, they may Park Hop to any other park — depending on capacity and with a Park Hopper ticket — after 2:00 p.m.

Yes, currently you can only hop starting at 2pm. Although, the talk is they will move that time up and require reservations to do so.

Universal > Disney.

By a lot.

We went at the end of May.

MK and Hollywood were completely sold out every day we were there (we were sure to book our park passes early on).

Even though MK and Hollywood were completely sold out (i.e. at "capacity"), it was nowhere near as crowded as it has been in the past.

I absolutely despise this new Genie+ system... but we did it in MK and in Hollywood because those parks were sold ou. Got to use it 5-6 times a day in each park. Also purchased the lighting lane for Rise of the Resistance as well as for the Remy ride.

With kids that age and the heat... key is to get in early, take a mid-day break, and stay late.

Where are you staying?

If you are staying on property, take full advantage of the extra 30 min in the morning, and if staying at a deluxe or DVC, the extra two hours the nights it is offered.

Example: Epcot opens at 9. Extra 30 starts at 830. But they will let you in the gates starting at 8 am and "hold" you at certain spots. We got to Epcot at 7:40. Was in the park at 8:02. Went to the hold spot. Was released from hold at 8:25 (5 min early). Went straight to Test Track. Was off Test Track by 8:50. Walked straight to Soarin. Had a 10 min wait for Soarin. Knocked out everything on that side of park by 11 am. Had Remy at 1230 so ate lunch between. Left park after Remy to go to hotel to relax and swim.

Back at 530 for 6 pm Guardians virtual queue. Did that, then did the rest of the countries, saw the new show at 9, went back to hotel.

On the extra 2 hours at MK... knocked out like 11 rides including just about all of Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.

At AK... got in the line for Flight of Passage 5 min before park closing time. As long as you are in line at park closing time, you will ride. Line was less than an hour at that point.

So stuff like that.

Dinosaur is terrible. I would not bring kids to eat at Disney Springs... most of the restaurants are more adult cuisine.

If you can get reservations, go to Hoop de Doo as it is now reopening. Kids will love that. Also if they are into the disney junior chracters they have a Disney Jr Play and Dine at Hollywood and Vine that is fun for little kids.

Done fireworks party several times. Dessert is... ok. Not terrific. Benefit is a place to sit and watch the fireworks without having to camp out beforehand.

Been at Disney for a week now, leaving tomorrow. We come a lot but this is our first trip with the new Genie+. We absolutely hate it. Such a giant money grab. FastPass worked perfectly and it was free. Just charge me for FastPass and keep it going. The fact that you can only do a ride once per day using the service THAT YOU PAID FOR is absurd. We tried it for a couple of days and never used it again. We also have been here too many times to count and don’t need to do anything so if it was our first trip we might have chosen differently.

As someone else mention, having to wake up every morning at 7 to get your choices is just a giant pain in the arse. Plus, if you want to pay ANOTHER ADDITIONAL $10-$15 for lightning lane you have to kind of pick what you do first. Either way, you get screwed out of good picks because you can’t do your Genie+ picks and lightning lane pick at the same time.

Oh, and biggest gripe of all. On Genie+ you will see choices of times to go to a ride and you will select it then it changes the time!!! This is because it doesn’t take into account your party size until after selecting the ride and time. Then it asks your party size and is like “oh wait, we don’t have a spot for 4 people until 3 hours later. Sorry.” It’s such an easy fix and causes a huge problem.

Guardians is AMAZING.

Why not just let your kids miss a couple of days of school and go in October or November? Less crowded and much more enjoyable. My wife is a teacher and that’s what we did.