Genie+ Park Hopper Multiple Parks Afternoon Stack Strategy
The only park that I have attempted Stack Strategy is Hollywood Studios. I usually will attempt to book a ride that I know will for sure have a time past 2:00 such as Slinky Dog Dash and wait to book my second G+ at 11:00am.
I have also done the same thing with Epcot when trying to book either Ratatouille or Frozen Ever After, but never really do the stack strategy there because I am not stacking too many G+ together at the park like I would at DHS.
My ultimate question is stacking with Magic Kingdom in the afternoon. I will be at Hollywood Studios in the morning (with an AP park reservation). I will not enter Magic Kingdom until the 2:00pm park hop time. Most of the times for MK rides do not cross the 2:00pm time until later in the day, so I would not be able to utilize picking one first thing, 11:00am, maybe even 1:00pm. So ultimately, if my park hop is for MK and I want a G+ for a ride after 2:00pm, would I be able to pull one first thing in the morning or have to wait for when that certain attraction return time reaches past 2:00pm? Or, because MK is my park hop. Will the system select a 2:00pm return time automatically?
Example: Big Thunder Mountain. 7:00am (aka 9:00am) selection time. Return time is only at 9:15am (so the system won't let me select 'maybe?'. Will I have to wait until like 12:30pm when the Return time is at the 2:00pm window. Or, at 7:00am selection time will it generate a return time at 2:00pm. Then I can pull maybe another one at 11:00am for another ride with another 'forced' return time.
Is there some type of thing that must be done to potentially make the system think that MK is a park hop option for me like physically being in the park reservation park (DHS in this case) or needing the 'Multiple Parks' G+ or just the MK G+?
At the end of the day, my question is when can I pull park hopped return times?
We did what you're referring to this past weekend. Started at Epcot with G+ for Remy at 10:00. We had rope-dropped Epcot so we didn't need to pull any more G+ for that park, so I started to stack for the afternoon.
A G+ after 2:00 for MMRR wasn't available to book on the app until around 11:00 AM, although that obviously fluctuates day-to-day.
Note that you can't book a G+ with a return time that starts before 2:00, even if the return window will extend after 2:00 (e.g. booking a 1:55 for an attraction at a park you're hopping to is not possible).
We weren't trying to do a lot in HS, so once my booking window reopened again ~1 PM, I began stacking for MK (where we were going in the evening). Over the course of the afternoon/evening, I was able to stack Jingle Cruise, Peter Pan, Pirates, BTMRR, Haunted Mansion, and Buzz. We also watched HEA that night and we left around 10 (MK was open until 11) and there was a lot of immediate availability for G+ on lower-tier attractions (Dumbo, Little Mermaid, Autopia, etc.) at that point in the night.
Overall, I wouldn't do the parks without G+ (but I still miss FP+). I just hate being up at 7 AM to book, and the post-midnight purchase is so frustrating - we were just doing one park day and our
MDE was acting up, so I wasn't sure that I'd be able to book for everyone. Just unnecessarily stressful.