It sounds like as a party of 2 who doesn't do thrill rides, and always hits rope drop and stays until they kick us out G+ might actually work for us.
This. For some people it works quite well. I was really nervous for our March break trip because I had mastered FP+, it was our first trip back in 2yrs (Cdn - border/COVID testing issues), and all the negative feedback. While it definitely needs improvement, I actually found it worked pretty well for us (don’t hate me!)
To add context:
1. We don’t rope drop (we’d done EMM when my girls were young but now I’d rather not hustle my kids out the door on vacation…I do that enough in real life)
2. We are not park “warriors”. We’ve been multiple times so my girls would rather skip a ride then wait a long time (we just enjoy being at Disney…and somewhere warm
)
3. Since we need to fly, pay for COVID tests, pay for lodging, etc, my rationale was the extra money is a drop in the bucket (As much as I don’t like it, I’m sure Disney is banking on this). We are fortunate enough to be able to afford it.
4. Since travel costs for us are significant, we go on longer trips so have multiple days in each park (whatever we miss one day we can catch up on the 2nd time)
Here are the pros/cons from my perspective:
Pros:
1. You can overlap times. This is huge!
2. You can adjust plans day of based on weather, mood, illness, etc (park reservations negatively affect this benefit)
3. Based on our style (arrive early afternoon), we had 4/5 rides lined up vs 3 with FP+
4. I actually spent less time on my phone. Because I stacked, I just set an alarm for 5 minutes before and then booked our next ride (I did spend time refreshing but not as much as with FP+)
Cons:
1. The time change after you pay is ludicrous! Full-stop. I felt sorry for the CMs. They gladly fixed it but honestly?
2. Waking up and doing the “fast finger race” at 7am on vacation is stressful (but I haven’t figured out a better way for day of flexibility). Thankfully I had been paying attention here and knew there was another “drop” of times when Disney IT “glitched”
3. Not being able to choose your time
4. Not being able to modify if a better time became available (SO frustrating!)
5. Not being able to book the same ride twice.
6. Didn’t impact us, but since everyone was already up at 7am the rope drop crowds were definitely larger
7. A lot more people were walking around with their nose in their phone
8. Lines at blue umbrellas could get LONG
7. The obvious…making you pay for something that was included!
The same:
1. Disney IT glitches: I had lots with FP+ and I had lots with Genie+/$ILL
2. It works better for people who research (disboard people
)
3. The popular rides are gone early
4. If you refresh you often are rewarded. I did it during downtime (transportation, in line, while kids were eating a snack)
Sorry for the novel. I just wanted to give some perspective to people (like me) who are apprehensive about their first trip back after the change. While my negative list is longer, the few pros I listed actually made it work well for us.
