Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[amandatrentu]

Couple of questions. If in a week when someone can book up to a 14 day stay, will that not mean that they get all the lightning lanes and no one else will get a chance? For example, they can book dates up until August 14 starting now. We are there the week of August 12-16 but can’t start booking until August 5. So there’s every chance that all of the lightning lanes for our entire trip would be gone before we even get a chance to access the bookings?

Also, not sure if anyone would know but we are Canadians who used the summer deal for Canadian visitors. However, before accessing the parks, you need to take your passports to guest services to verify them. Does this mean we wouldn’t be able to access the early passes anyways because we can’t verify our tickets until we are in Florida?

 

[DCLcruiser]

@wdwmagic , can I suggest moving all the posts from start of booking to a new thread?

It would probably be more useful for people searching for info.

It would be even better if we could cut the “I wish they’d done it this way” posts, which are of no use to people looking for info. But that’s wishful thinking!

Time for a LLMP/LLSP thread, not Genie+.

 

[wdwmagic]

It's being reported that if you purchase LLMP for a less-expensive park and then book a "park hop" LL for a more expensive park, you need to pay the difference in daily cost. Considering that one of the objectives of these changes seems to be less "nickel and diming" transactions, this seems like a miss. Would be much easier to just have included park hopping/multiple parks as an option upon original purchase so that people don't need to get out their wallets mid-day when preparing to park hop.

Disney tells me the above is inaccurate. The guest does not need to make a payment to make their next selection at a different theme park.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

It's being reported that if you purchase LLMP for a less-expensive park and then book a "park hop" LL for a more expensive park, you need to pay the difference in daily cost. Considering that one of the objectives of these changes seems to be less "nickel and diming" transactions, this seems like a miss. Would be much easier to just have included park hopping/multiple parks as an option upon original purchase so that people don't need to get out their wallets mid-day when preparing to park hop.

If that's true then they should have just kept the Multiple Parks option available. This just encourages anyone park-hopping to start at MK or DHS and then move over to the less-expensive parks since the "value" is better that way unless you have a Tier 1 at another park that is on your must-do list (and DAK has no tiers).

Edit: Thanks @wdwmagic for clarifying above me.

 

[Kamikaze]

The only thing better than pre-booking rides is no-booking at all.

On the fly booking is the worst option imo. Sure it gives more spontaneity than pre-book, but not as much as no-book, and at an enormous in-park phone fidget cost.

As always with this complaint, you're doing it wrong. You only need to look at your phone when you get in line after using a LL, or at 2 hours since your last booked one. You don't need to 'fidget' or constantly be in the app otherwise. Its literally a minute every attraction or every 2 hours.

 

[LSLS]

Disney tells me the above is inaccurate. The guest does not need to make a payment to make their next selection at a different theme park.

Yeah, that would make no sense. I would bet it's if you cancel all your selections and make 3 new selections at the higher priced park. But, it gets back to my hatred of the different prices per day/per park stuff.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

As always with this complaint, you're doing it wrong. You only need to look at your phone when you get in line after using a LL, or at 2 hours since your last booked one. You don't need to 'fidget' or constantly be in the app otherwise. Its literally a minute every attraction or every 2 hours.

Or if you want to modify a return time because the app didn't let you pick from available times. That was a big issue for many people.

 

[willf]

Actually, for those chasing the most LLs, the last iteration of G+ was the most restrictive and captivating. It required constant moderation to get the most out of it.

New system is a lot better... theoretically.

I’m not entirely sure what “moderation” means here.

But I suppose the whole question is subjective. I personally felt much freer with everyone having a choice of what was available next in the moment, rather than locking in tiered choices days in advance. Same-day availability is likely to be extremely limited moving forward, and that matters to me as someone who seldom books a trip more than a day or two in advance.

 

[TheMaxRebo]

If that's true then they should have just kept the Multiple Parks option available. This just encourages anyone park-hopping to start at MK or DHS and then move over to the less-expensive parks since the "value" is better that way unless you have a Tier 1 at another park that is on your must-do list (and DAK has no tiers).

Edit: Thanks @wdwmagic for clarifying above me.

Yeah, or just not charge extra but obviously you are left with what is available "day of"

You benefit to paying for the more expensive park is you get to prebook there when there is more inventory

 

[TheMaxRebo]

As always with this complaint, you're doing it wrong. You only need to look at your phone when you get in line after using a LL, or at 2 hours since your last booked one. You don't need to 'fidget' or constantly be in the app otherwise. Its literally a minute every attraction or every 2 hours.

You only *need* to do in them but I found I was checking my phone a lot to track return times for various rides so I could strategize about which ride I wanted to target for when I was eligible for my next one. Felt like a lot more "day of project management" ... Now I didn't *need* to do that but my brain felt it was what I had to do to maximize the tool

 

[JD80]

As always with this complaint, you're doing it wrong. You only need to look at your phone when you get in line after using a LL, or at 2 hours since your last booked one. You don't need to 'fidget' or constantly be in the app otherwise. Its literally a minute every attraction or every 2 hours.

Everyone used it differently but this is not how a lot of power users used it. Because if you are trying to get the most out of the day your using your phone to refresh times to get better earlier times or different attractions.

You're also keeping an eye on your next attraction and seeing how fast or slow it's filling up.

If you were stacking you were constantly moving up stacked LLs for later times.

Obviously don't have to do that if you don't want to, but that's what power users were doing.

 

[JD80]

I’m not entirely sure what “moderation” means here.

But I suppose the whole question is subjective. I personally felt much freer with everyone having a choice of what was available next in the moment, rather than locking in tiered choices days in advance. Same-day availability is likely to be extremely limited moving forward, and that matters to me as someone who seldom books a trip more than a day or two in advance.

I meant type out monitoring. Oops.

But yeah, everyone is different.

 

[DCLcruiser]

Everyone used it differently but this is not how a lot of power users used it. Because if you are trying to get the most out of the day your using your phone to refresh times to get better earlier times or different attractions.

You're also keeping an eye on your next attraction and seeing how fast or slow it's filling up.

If you were stacking you were constantly moving up stacked LLs for later times.

Obviously don't have to do that if you don't want to, but that's what power users were doing.

Yes, but you are doing that on your downtime. In line, exhausted at lunch, etc. I never found it to get in the way of my trip and we only go to each park for 1 day, and ride everything we can.

 

[Kamikaze]

You only *need* to do in them but I found I was checking my phone a lot to track return times for various rides so I could strategize about which ride I wanted to target for when I was eligible for my next one. Felt like a lot more "day of project management" ... Now I didn't *need* to do that but my brain felt it was what I had to do to maximize the tool

Everyone used it differently but this is not how a lot of power users used it. Because if you are trying to get the most out of the day your using your phone to refresh times to get better earlier times or different attractions.

You're also keeping an eye on your next attraction and seeing how fast or slow it's filling up.

If you were stacking you were constantly moving up stacked LLs for later times.

Obviously don't have to do that if you don't want to, but that's what power users were doing.

And this is why the focus on 'maximizing' is such an insane WDW thing. None of this is necessary.

And none of this is fixed by the new system.

 

[lentesta]

Apparently you can completely overlap two LLMP return times day-of:

I think this has to be a bug, folks. Let's all see what happens when release 1.0.1 goes in tomorrow.

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

And this is why the focus on 'maximizing' is such an insane WDW thing. None of this is necessary.

And none of this is fixed by the new system.

At $15-40 (is that the max?) per person per day, I don’t think it’s insane at all to feel the need to maximize the value gotten out of the purchase.

 

[Chip Chipperson]

And this is why the focus on 'maximizing' is such an insane WDW thing. None of this is necessary.

And none of this is fixed by the new system.

For the people who don't get to visit often, it makes sense to want to maximize their park days because they may not be back for 3 years, if ever. Many people on this forum are frequent visitors, but not all - and many of us sometimes travel with people whi are in that "once every 3 years at best" group who loon to us for help getting the most out of their limited time in the parks.

Also, SOME of this is fixed by the new system. You have the ability to pre-book 3 rides before your trip AND can select the return times, so that means 3 rides without having to fiddle with the app to pick your next ride or try to improve your return time. No keeping track of "what time did I book X so I know when I can book something else?" or setting alarms on your phone and hoping you hear it in a crowded park or feel it vibrating in your pocket while walking. Just tap in for 1 ride and know you can now book another.

 

[JIMMYEDDIE]

How is that any different than the old Genie+? You always had to use VQ and ILL’s for the top rides. Depending on who you believe somewhere between 1/3 and 1/2 of guests were buying old Genie+. I doubt the percent goes down for MLL.

Well with Genie+ I could get every Tier 1 ride......Wit this I dont think I will be able to

 

[TheMaxRebo]

Well with Genie+ I could get every Tier 1 ride......Wit this I dont think I will be able to

Probably not - based on today unless there are new drops of availability coming or you get lucky with a drop as currently the only tier 1 left at MK is Space Mtn

 

[Kamikaze]

For the people who don't get to visit often, it makes sense to want to maximize their park days because they may not be back for 3 years, if ever. Many people on this forum are frequent visitors, but not all - and many of us sometimes travel with people whi are in that "once every 3 years at best" group who loon to us for help getting the most out of their limited time in the parks.

Also, SOME of this is fixed by the new system. You have the ability to pre-book 3 rides before your trip AND can select the return times, so that means 3 rides without having to fiddle with the app to pick your next ride or try to improve your return time. No keeping track of "what time did I book X so I know when I can book something else?" or setting alarms on your phone and hoping you hear it in a crowded park or feel it vibrating in your pocket while walking. Just tap in for 1 ride and know you can now book another.

The crossover of the bolded - people that only go 'once every 3 years', will buy LL MP, and 'need' to maximize every second to the point of being obsessive about it - is very small.

And the 'ability' to pre-book the attractions depends solely on the availability of those attractions - which might be gone before you get the opportunity to book them. Pre-booking with the chance they might be gone vs booking the day of but having to look at your phone, its very clear the pre-booking is the worse option.