Discussing our personal experience with the Standby Skipper Service. This is not an endorsement and we are not being paid to write this review. We paid full price to use the app and are offering our honest feedback.
First of all- if you are reading this review and have no idea what Standby Skipper is, let us explain. Standby Skipper is a third party app (not affiliated with Disney) that will secure your Genie+ Lightning Lanes for you during your Disney World vacation. If you are familiar with Genie+ then you are aware the service has a daily cost to use and requires you to make continuous ride reservations through out your park day. Standby Skipper was created to simplify this process for guests and we decided to give it a try!
How does it work?
Standby Skipper will link with you in your 'Family and Friends' list. Linking will give the app the ability to book your Genie+ Lightning Lanes for you. Inside the Standby Skipper app, you will select your desired rides and the time of day you wish to experience them. The app will send you a push notification when a return time has been secured. Standby Skipper adheres to Disney's timing rules and will only be able to grab return times as you are eligible. In other words, there's NO cheating occurring here.
You can let Standby Skipper book everything for you through out the day, or you can work in combination with the app. For instance- you can always cancel a lightning lane booked by Standby Skipper, modify the time, and/or book lightning lanes yourself. You still have all the control.
How much does it cost?
You have two price options. You can pay for a day pass for $25 or a 7-day pass for $45 (days do not have to be consecutive). Standby Skipper will also allow you to give the app a trial for free with a limited selection of Genie+ attractions.
Important! Standby Skipper can book Genie+ lightning lanes for a group of up to 12 people. Whether you have a group of 12 or are a family of 4- the price is the same. If you have a group larger than 12 you will need to split your group and purchase two passes. The service CANNOT book Individual Lightning Lanes or Virtual Queues, only Genie+ lightning lanes.
What is the advantage?
Several advantages we encountered during our week with Standby Skipper-
Genie+ begins operating each morning at 7am. This also happens to be the same time Virtual Queues for Guardians and TRON open, AND when Disney Resort guests can book Individual Lightning Lanes. Standby Skipper can grab your Genie+ lightning lane while you focus on one or both of the others thus giving you a better chance at securing more of the rides and return times you want.
Managing Genie+ can feel like a full time job. In order to maximize your use of Genie+ you need to keep track of time windows, refresh the app, and essentially spend a significant amount of time on your phone. Standby Skipper allows you to plug in your desired attractions and leave the rest to the app without needing to be on your phone all day.
As frequent Disney travelers and planners, we know just because a ride is showing 'sold out' and 'no available return times' this isn't always the case. People cancel their ride reservations all day and return times become available again... it takes fast fingers and consistent refreshing to score these dropped lightning lanes. In other words, it takes TIME. Often if we added a ride search to Standby Skipper for a 'sold out' ride, the app would do all of that refreshing for us and successfully score a dropped lightning lane return time.
Not tech savvy? No desire to figure out Genie+? Standby Skipper is user friendly and can save you from needing to spend valuable time learning Disney's Genie+ system.
What is the downside?
It was painful for us to spend MORE money after already paying for Genie+ each day. It feels ridiculous that there is even a market for a tool to simplify a system Disney is already charging us to use. That being said, I would not do Disney World without Genie+ and while I could do Disney World without Standby Skipper- I'm not sure I want to ever again.
Something to remember is the Standby Skipper app is not perfect and will not always get you exactly what you want. For instance- we had an early morning flight and planned to visit Hollywood Studios on the afternoon of our arrival day. I asked Standby Skipper to grab an afternoon return time for Slinky Dog while I was in the air, but unfortunately the app was unsuccessful. My lesson here- Standby Skipper is going to have a harder time (just like a person would) trying to time it right to get a high demand ride at a specific time in the future. A few days later when I asked the app to get Slinky Dog for us as soon as possible there were no issues and we received the earliest return time.
Should we get Standby Skipper?
This is a personal decision! We liked our experience with the app and will likely purchase again on future trips, but have also had many a successful trip without using Standby Skipper. If you find the advantages we listed above to be worth the additional cost then we suggest giving it a try!
You can learn more about Standby Skipper by visiting their website.
At Castle Coaches Travel, we create magical moments and cherished memories by crafting personalized and flawless vacations to; Disney and Universal theme park vacations, Disney Cruise Line, Aulani, A Disney Resort & Spa, Adventures by Disney, Cruises, All-Inclusive Resorts, European Travel, Luxury Travel, Beach Destinations and more! We provide our clients with individualized, attentive, concierge service.
