Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[DisneyDreamer08]

I thought I would share our LL experience with everyone. My 13 year old daughter and I were in Disney from August 17-24. In AK, we used single pass for FoP and waited standby for everything else. In Epcot, we used single pass for Guardians and standby for everything else. We used multi pass for MK & DHS.

For MK, I pre booked Buzz, Tiana’s and HM. Buzz was essentially a throw away to book Jungle Cruise for as early as possible. Here is a rundown of our day:

Early entry at 7:30am

Rope Drop Space Mountain
Astro Orbiter standby
8:05 LL Buzz (booked Jungle Cruise, initially was give 1:30pm but refreshed a few times and got 9am)
People Mover standby
8:45 LL Tron
LL Jungle Cruise
Pirates standby
LL Tiana
Country Bears standby
LL Big Thunder
LL Haunted Mansion
Hall of Presidents standby
LL Small world
Meet Mirabel standby
LL Under the Sea
LL Peter Pan
Philharmagic standby
Tea Cups standby
Carousel standby
LL Pooh
Train standby
Mine Train standby- this was a party night so we got in line around 5:20 and waited 35 minutes.

In total we did 21 attractions, saw two cavalcades (adventure friends and rainy day) and met one character.
I really only modified the Jungle Cruise LL. All others were at times I could work with.

I’ll do DHS in a separate post

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

At DHS, my 3 prebooked were for Slinky, Toy Story Mania and Tower of Terror. Mania had a short standby line when we arrived so I cancelled it to book something else. Here was our day:

Early entry at 8:30am
Rope drop Rise of the Resistance
Toy Story Mania standby
Alien Swirling Saucers standby
LL Slinky
Muppets standby
Frozen Sing a Long standby
LL Tower of Terror
LL Runaway Railway
LL Indiana Jones
Vacation Fun standby
Meet Ariel standby
Explore Walt Disney Presents
LL Smugglers Run
LL RnRC
LL Beauty and the Beast
MMRR standby (posted 50, waited 37)
Fantasmic

Overall we did 9 rides, 5 shows and met 1 character.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I'll repeat what I said earlier in this thread that relying on Thrill Data info is likely to give someone a false impression of availability. I saw LOTS of phantom LL's when looking at availability, but was unable to book them (w/no schedule conflicts due to existing bookings). Similar to G+, what you see before the final booking screen is only semi-accurate.

In the parks, BE careful to make sure the time you ACTUALLY booked is the time you saw!

In my experience, there was very little availability to modify pre-booked passes under the new system. I had very little luck moving any of them to earlier times once I was in the parks.

That may change over time. When FP+ and G+ were also new, there was very little ability to modify, but that improved over time. A sad aspect of the current system is that even when wait times are short (under 15), there is often no availability to book passes. Before the changeover, G+ was often available for rides with short waits.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

Oh, I forgot to mention, I pre-purchased Tron for my daughter and I at the 7 day mark. When we were in the park, ready to ride, my daughter was scared and decided not to ride. After the fact, I went to a guest services/ blue umbrella location and explained the situation. They refunded me for my daughter’s lightning lane without hesitation. They were very kind and understanding.

 

[Purduevian]

I know we haven't hit any super busy seasons yet. However, LLMP seems better or at least comparable to G+ for people that are going into the park on the earlier side. The ability to have 3 and pick times seems to be a big advantage.

 

[gerarar]

Haven't been keeping up much with this thread, but is there a chance that Tiana availability/spots opening up leading up to the day of our visit to MK?

My party and I will be at the MK this coming Sunday, 9/1. I tried to check 7 days in advance (hotel reservation), but TBA was already all booked up seems like.

I've been checking everyday since then, multiple times per day, to see if any availability opens up, but nothing. Now I'm just wondering/hoping if availability will open up in the coming days or we might just need to wait the day of.

Should I buy LLMP now and book some other rides, then modify my Tier 1 if it does open up? Or just buy it day of. I'm assuming the former so we can get better return times for the Tier 2 rides.

Also, being the VQ tracker guy on this forum, I wouldn't normally be this adamant about it. But my party really wants to get on TBA for one of theirs birthday, and with the VQ being all sorts of crazy recently, I want to be "safe". Some days Disney ditches the VQ (as in stop calling BGs) to prioritize the LL line and guests. So having a LL is sort of a guarantee ride now.

 

[GoofGoof]

Haven't been keeping up much with this thread, but is there a chance that Tiana availability/spots opening up leading up to the day of our visit to MK?

My party and I will be at the MK this coming Sunday, 9/1. I tried to check 7 days in advance (hotel reservation), but TBA was already all booked up seems like.

I've been checking everyday since then, multiple times per day, to see if any availability opens up, but nothing. Now I'm just wondering/hoping if availability will open up in the coming days or we might just need to wait the day of.

Should I buy LLMP now and book some other rides, then modify my Tier 1 if it does open up? Or just buy it day of. I'm assuming the former so we can get better return times for the Tier 2 rides.
View attachment 811937

Also, being the VQ tracker guy on this forum, I wouldn't normally be this adamant about it. But my party really wants to get on TBA for one of theirs birthday, and with the VQ being all sorts of crazy recently, I want to be "safe". Some days Disney ditches the VQ (as in stop calling BGs) to prioritize the LL line and guests. So having a LL is sort of a guarantee ride now.

I’ve been to MK several times this past week and they are definitely dropping Tiana every hour between 47 and 48 after the hour. Usually the slots are for within the next hour or so but it’s pretty consistent. The one time I could not get one was after the ride re-opened from a few hours down. I think it closed for a thunder storm so when it re-opened they did not drop LLs the next few hours. I assume that was to catch up on virtual queue backups due to down time. It’s also down right now as a thunderstorm passed through this afternoon.

So my advice would be get to MK early and make sure you have a LL for an early slot like 9-10. Once you swipe in you should be able to get Tiana at the 9:47 drop. Don’t wait until too late in the day in case of storms or operational down time.

Edit: no drop at 3:48 today either so it seems like most likely if the ride is temporarily closed they won’t drop any during that hour.

 

[gerarar]

I’ve been to MK several times this past week and they are definitely dropping Tiana every hour between 47 and 48 after the hour. Usually the slots are for within the next hour or so but it’s pretty consistent. The one time I could not get one was after the ride re-opened from a few hours down. I think it closed for a thunder storm so when it re-opened they did not drop LLs the next few hours. I assume that was to catch up on virtual queue backups due to down time. It’s also down right now as a thunderstorm passed through this afternoon.

So my advice would be get to MK early and make sure you have a LL for an early slot like 9-10. Once you swipe in you should be able to get Tiana at the 9:47 drop. Don’t wait until too late in the day in case of storms or operational down time.

Edit: no drop at 3:48 today either so it seems like most likely if the ride is temporarily closed they won’t drop any during that hour.

This is super helpful thank you! I just didn't want to get LLMP if that meant no TBA, but since there's drops during the day of, that means there's a good chance at least.

And I assume that means get LLMP now and book some (early) reservations. Will do then lol

 

[GoofGoof]

This is super helpful thank you! I just didn't want to get LLMP if that meant no TBA, but since there's drops during the day of, that means there's a good chance at least.

And I assume that means get LLMP now and book some (early) reservations. Will do then lol

Yes. That is what I did. We wanted to “go left” to start the day so booked JC, Pirates and Magic Carpets. We got Magic Carpets from 9-10 and swiped in right away. There was no actual standby wait but I just wanted to swipe in and that eliminated the tier restrictions. We ended up getting BTMR and Tiana from the tier 1s as well as JC that day.

 

[arich35]

Anybody find a good guide to multi pass? Can book in a couple weeks but would like to find a guide that gives you info for day of as well

 

[JD80]

Anybody find a good guide to multi pass? Can book in a couple weeks but would like to find a guide that gives you info for day of as well

Mammoth Club has a good long video of all the basics and a demo of using it. She also has a few videos done at each park. Probably the best if you have time to watch all of it.

 

[ToTBellHop]

We were very happy with LLMP at MK and DHS. Averaged 8 LLs per day and this is no longer me at 6:58 every morning of vacation:

 

[GoofGoof]

We were very happy with LLMP at MK and DHS. Averaged 8 LLs per day and this is no longer me at 6:58 every morning of vacation:
View attachment 812588

Agreed on this. Had a very similar experience overall at those 2 parks.

LLMP is probably not necessary at AK at all if you are willing to get there around rope drop and go straight to Pandora. They pushed AK opening to 8am most of the time I was there so 7:30am rope drop meant leaving the hotel room waaaay before I had any interest being awake so we pivoted to LLs. An individual LL for FoP and 3 LLMPs for Navi, Kali and EE allowed us to arrive closer to 10am and still get everything in with almost no wait time. Dinosaur, Safari and the others were available most of the day to book into after using 1. So if you don’t want to spend the money it’s easy to do most of the rides with lower wait times if you get there early. If you don’t want to get there so early its still easy to get everything in with little wait if you pay up.

For EPCOT I’d say the jury is still out on true value of LLMP. With TT closed there’s a major hole in where people go. Soarin was rarely over 30 mins and we rode more than once with less than 10 min wait. Frozen and Rat are swamped even at a lower crowd time. There’s not a great way to ride either without waiting unless you pay up. Even at rope drop at the back entrance Rat went immediately to 30-40 mins. We didn’t wait for it then, but I suspect the wait may have been shorter. Who knows. The rest of the EPCOT rides don’t need fast pass on an average crowd day. So in reality if you buy in it’s probably to beat the lines at Rat and Frozen. Rat sells out in advance and we had no luck with day of drops. Frozen was available until after 10am so if you are going to buy and want to ride both I would probably recommend booking Rat as your tier 1 and fill in 2 others and make sure at least 1 of them is early (9-10 if possible) then swipe in and immediately book Frozen. If you do that you should avoid almost any lines. Soarin was available most of the day so after using #2 (even if it’s later in the day) you should still be able to book Soarin and have all 3 tier 1s done. It’s up to you if paying the daily price is worth not waiting in 2 lines that may hit an hour.

 

[ToTBellHop]

Agreed on this. Had a very similar experience overall at those 2 parks.

LLMP is probably not necessary at AK at all if you are willing to get there around rope drop and go straight to Pandora. They pushed AK opening to 8am most of the time I was there so 7:30am rope drop meant leaving the hotel room waaaay before I had any interest being awake so we pivoted to LLs. An individual LL for FoP and 3 LLMPs for Navi, Kali and EE allowed us to arrive closer to 10am and still get everything in with almost no wait time. Dinosaur, Safari and the others were available most of the day to book into after using 1. So if you don’t want to spend the money it’s easy to do most of the rides with lower wait times if you get there early. If you don’t want to get there so early its still easy to get everything in with little wait if you pay up.

For EPCOT I’d say the jury is still out on true value of LLMP. With TT closed there’s a major hole in where people go. Soarin was rarely over 30 mins and we rode more than once with less than 10 min wait. Frozen and Rat are swamped even at a lower crowd time. There’s not a great way to ride either without waiting unless you pay up. Even at rope drop at the back entrance Rat went immediately to 30-40 mins. We didn’t wait for it then, but I suspect the wait may have been shorter. Who knows. The rest of the EPCOT rides don’t need fast pass on an average crowd day. So in reality if you buy in it’s probably to beat the lines at Rat and Frozen. Rat sells out in advance and we had no luck with day of drops. Frozen was available until after 10am so if you are going to buy and want to ride both I would probably recommend booking Rat as your tier 1 and fill in 2 others and make sure at least 1 of them is early (9-10 if possible) then swipe in and immediately book Frozen. If you do that you should avoid almost any lines. Soarin was available most of the day so after using #2 (even if it’s later in the day) you should still be able to book Soarin and have all 3 tier 1s done. It’s up to you if paying the daily price is worth not waiting in 2 lines that may hit an hour.

At DAK, we just get the LLSP for FoP and then binge ride EE during Early Entry before heading to Kilimanjaro at 8. The other rides aren’t hard to get on with minimal wait and we will pick a show. We leave by 2 pm to avoid melting.

Epcot is unique because you can park hop there and find manageable waits. We love evenings there. You never know what you’ll get heading to MK or (especially) DHS for the evening.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I know we haven't hit any super busy seasons yet. However, LLMP seems better or at least comparable to G+ for people that are going into the park on the earlier side. The ability to have 3 and pick times seems to be a big advantage.

Hard disagree. I did better with (later) G+, and I saw much better availability under G+ just before the changeover.

Though again, that could change over time. When G+ was new/before modify feature was added- G+ was worse.

Under (later) G+ I was able to modify times more freely. if hopping to MK, I was also able to stack 4 good evening MK passes. With the new system, I was only able to stack 3 evening MK passes, and they were similar, but slightly lesser passes or slightly later times.

And VERY IMPORTANT- this is during a SLOW time of year. Unless they do a better job of releasing passes, I have strong feeling the new system will be quite a bit worse in busier months.

The biggest upside of the new system is not having to book everything at 7am. I dislike having strong constraints on my time in general, but having to scramble to book 3 G+ at 7am while trying to get ready/get to the parks was an unpleasant way to start the day.

Mind, the new system still has the 7am scramble for VQ's. If you are not hopping, then you can skip it some days. For us, with hopping, we ended up trying to book a VQ most days, and sometimes two VQ's.

Oh, and MDE still glitches/freezes- a LOT! We often had to close/reopen it.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

Haven't been keeping up much with this thread, but is there a chance that Tiana availability/spots opening up leading up to the day of our visit to MK?

My party and I will be at the MK this coming Sunday, 9/1. I tried to check 7 days in advance (hotel reservation), but TBA was already all booked up seems like.

I've been checking everyday since then, multiple times per day, to see if any availability opens up, but nothing. Now I'm just wondering/hoping if availability will open up in the coming days or we might just need to wait the day of.

Should I buy LLMP now and book some other rides, then modify my Tier 1 if it does open up? Or just buy it day of. I'm assuming the former so we can get better return times for the Tier 2 rides.
View attachment 811937

Also, being the VQ tracker guy on this forum, I wouldn't normally be this adamant about it. But my party really wants to get on TBA for one of theirs birthday, and with the VQ being all sorts of crazy recently, I want to be "safe". Some days Disney ditches the VQ (as in stop calling BGs) to prioritize the LL line and guests. So having a LL is sort of a guarantee ride now.

I also saw drops for Tiana throughout the day, at least while it was operating.

One of my MK days, we walked over that way to ride it in the late PM, but saw it was down. We only had a VQ. We rode BTMRR instead, and thus happened to be in the area when Tiana's reopened. We scrambled to get in line, and since we were so quick, the wait was only about 15minutes. Mind, at first the line moved very slowly because EVERY LL-holder got to go ahead of the standby queue.

About 10minutes into my wait though, I noticed 4 CM's coming through the queue. Sure enough, they had closed the queue again.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

We were very happy with LLMP at MK and DHS.

That's kind of funny, because we think HS really bites under both G+ and now LLMP. It is by far our least favorite park. IMO, if you don't have a LL, then the queues of all the desired rides are a frustrating mess.

A big factor is that we usually skip Rise. If the ride was reliable, and had a short wait, I'd do it, but I do not feel it is worth $25, nor do I feel it is worth more than a 20min wait. I know others feel differently, and that's okay. It is just an important aspect of my park touring to mention here.

So we had LL's for TSM (9:20am), Slinky (noon), and ToT (12:55pm).
1. Getting in the front gate of HS is always chronically slow going back at 5+ years.
2. Used TSM right away, then had a big gap until our 2nd pass. It was only 9:20, on a relatively slow day, and Aliens already had a 30minute wait at around 9:30am.
3. With some refreshing, I was able to book MMRR for 11:30 and move ToT to 12:10. We rode RNRC standby while waiting.
4. Rode MMRR at 11:30-11:56. Arrived ToT 12:16.
5. By noon, there was not much available to book in HS, especially since we'd already booked most of the important rides. I booked ST.
6. By the time we got off ToT, there was a downpour that turned into a thunderstorm. We waited part of that in the gift shops.
7. LL for Slinky was changed to an anytime pass. At 1pm, it looked like the storm was nearly over, so we walked to Slinky.
9. Slinky reopened at 1:19pm. Even though we had a LL, we waited 19min for ride to re-open, plus 12min in the queue.
10. We got lunch about 1:45pm, did Muppets standby, and ST w/LL. Last year, ST was walk-on. this year it had (what looked like) a solid 20min standby/posted as 30min.
11. We left the park with 3 passes booked for Epcot, but Nemo and Imagination were both walk-on when we used them about 3:45-4pm.

That was also true the other day we went to Epcot. Much of the park was walk-on or near walk-on for much of the day, so the LL were somewhat useless. AND even with the rides nearly walk-on, I still wasn't able to move the LL's to earlier times. Under G+, I was.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

We could have done AK without LL. We also booked FoP, and that was worthwhile.

The passes were useful for Na'vi and Kali, as they did save us some time. For the Safari, I had 8:45am booked, but the standby was only 15minutes. After we scanned, we got LL for EE and Dino.

The passes were useful for both, but that's because it was mid-day by that point. Dino had a short wait before 11am. Kali at around 1pm had a posted wait near an hour. I don't know it was quite that long, but the pass did save us time. DIno was posted at 30, but it was probably a bit less.

By the time we scanned into Kali about 1pm, I already had 3 MK passes booked. I could have had afternoon return times in MK, but we didn't plan to get there until about 7:40pm. When we got to MK, we had LL for Pooh, SpaceMtn, and BTMRR.

I also noticed a small shift due to the tiers. BTMRR is now easier to get. HM is available in the afternoon (for evening), but it is popular as a pre-book. With G+, it was often available most of the day.

We rode ITtbaB standby before leaving AK.

In MK, we were also able to book Buzz LL that night, so we got a total of 9LL that day, plus FoP with a long afternoon break. Though Buzz was walk-on when we rode it once using our pass, and the other walk-on/standby.

 

[ToTBellHop]

That's kind of funny, because we think HS really bites under both G+ and now LLMP. It is by far our least favorite park. IMO, if you don't have a LL, then the queues of all the desired rides are a frustrating mess.

A big factor is that we usually skip Rise. If the ride was reliable, and had a short wait, I'd do it, but I do not feel it is worth $25, nor do I feel it is worth more than a 20min wait. I know others feel differently, and that's okay. It is just an important aspect of my park touring to mention here.

So we had LL's for TSM (9:20am), Slinky (noon), and ToT (12:55pm).
1. Getting in the front gate of HS is always chronically slow going back at 5+ years.
2. Used TSM right away, then had a big gap until our 2nd pass. It was only 9:20, on a relatively slow day, and Aliens already had a 30minute wait at around 9:30am.
3. With some refreshing, I was able to book MMRR for 11:30 and move ToT to 12:10. We rode RNRC standby while waiting.
4. Rode MMRR at 11:30-11:56. Arrived ToT 12:16.
5. By noon, there was not much available to book in HS, especially since we'd already booked most of the important rides. I booked ST.
6. By the time we got off ToT, there was a downpour that turned into a thunderstorm. We waited part of that in the gift shops.
7. LL for Slinky was changed to an anytime pass. At 1pm, it looked like the storm was nearly over, so we walked to Slinky.
9. Slinky reopened at 1:19pm. Even though we had a LL, we waited 19min for ride to re-open, plus 12min in the queue.
10. We got lunch about 1:45pm, did Muppets standby, and ST w/LL. Last year, ST was walk-on. this year it had (what looked like) a solid 20min standby/posted as 30min.
11. We left the park with 3 passes booked for Epcot, but Nemo and Imagination were both walk-on when we used them about 3:45-4pm.

That was also true the other day we went to Epcot. Much of the park was walk-on or near walk-on for much of the day, so the LL were somewhat useless. AND even with the rides nearly walk-on, I still wasn't able to move the LL's to earlier times. Under G+, I was.

Because DHS is all headliners and shows, having 3 of them pre-booked allowed us to go to the others starting at park open. It was easier than just showing up and trying to decide whether to go to SWGE, TSL, or RnRC first (often finding the first choice is down…).

 

[GoofGoof]

Because DHS is all headliners and shows, having 3 of them pre-booked allowed us to go to the others starting at park open. It was easier than just showing up and trying to decide whether to go to SWGE, TSL, or RnRC first (often finding the first choice is down…).

Yeah, for DHS getting there early is the way to go if you want to get most or all headliners in. SDD is the hardest to get but the other tier 1s were all bookable after using our first. RnRC was probably second hardest to get. Smugglers was possible to get still in the morning and Mickey Train as well. ToT was probably harder to get mid-day since it’s the best of the tier 2 rides so got pre-booked heavily.