Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Purduevian]

Maybe it's just me but 25-40 minutes isn't that much of a wait.

Sitting at home, I would have to make some assumptions to see how much time is actually saved.

• Lets assume LL takes 8 mins to the ride vehicle (some will be walk on, some have been known to be as bad as 15 mins)
• Lets also assume the actual wait is 75% of the posted wait

So in my example we saved ~11 mins on Pooh, and ~22mins on Thunder and Mansion. The waits aren't bad, but I would have saved over an hour of park time already before 1pm and already have Buzz, Tiana, and SM booked.

The only issue so far is at some point you need to decide if you want to get it for the rest of your "trip" and try and prebook all those days to accurately imitate someone on site who just learned about it.

If you really want to make it fun, because this fictional family may have already had dinning plans, pick a few random days to have a couple of sit down meals at random restaurants before checking for LL selections and see how it turns out trying to work in those added restrictions on the fly.

Yeah, just playing the day of game. I personally never book sit down meals on park days as it just seems like such a waste of time. However, I know this isn't the case for everyone. As far as simulating pre-booking, based on how well I've done day of, I wouldn't spend more than 3-5mins on each day and would plan to modify later.

ADRs could definitely get in the way, but the hour return window does help quite a bit (plus the "secret" grace periods)

 

[Heelz2315]

What's the best way to refresh and get the better times?

 

[Purduevian]

What's the best way to refresh and get the better times?

I've just been pulling down on the tip board. However, I think there is a second way to do it if you are modifying a LL.

Welp, took lunch and am "using" my HM LL now and rebooking:

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 1:20pm Buzz
• 3:00pm Tiana
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

LL "used" with standby time at the time it was "used":

• Pooh (9:25am) 25 minutes
• Big Thunder (11:15am) 40 minutes
• HM (12:35pm) 40 minutes

Total posted standby time: 105 minutes

"Using" my Buzz LL now and rebooking:

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 2:45pm Pirates
• 3:00pm Tiana
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

LL "used" with standby time at the time it was "used":

• Pooh (9:25am) 25 minutes
• Big Thunder (11:15am) 40 minutes
• HM (12:35pm) 40 minutes
• Buzz (1:35pm) 40 minutes

Total posted standby time: 145 minutes

On a funny side note, philharmagic is currently closed and is showing a 5:15pm return time.

 

[GoofGoof]

G+ was Maxpass minus having to be in the park.

No WDW park has the ride capacity that DL has so it never could be restricted to the headliners so in turn never worked as well but functionality wise, the systems where pretty close.

Yeah pretty much. Maxpass was paper fast pass but on the app. You were paying for the luxury of not needing to be at the machine to reserve and anyone who didn’t care could just not purchase and still use paper fast pass. No pre-planning, no 7am wake up. It worked because of more ride capacity there but also because of the guest demographics. Lots of locals at DLR and many were not as focused on ride count. Many guests did not judge a “good day” based on how many rides you got in. Different vibe, more relaxed. It would have been nice if they just kept Maxpass for DLR and let WDW experiment.

 

[DisneyDreamer08]

I've just been pulling down on the tip board. However, I think there is a second way to do it if you are modifying a LL.


"Using" my Buzz LL now and rebooking:

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 2:45pm Pirates
• 3:00pm Tiana
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

LL "used" with standby time at the time it was "used":

• Pooh (9:25am) 25 minutes
• Big Thunder (11:15am) 40 minutes
• HM (12:35pm) 40 minutes
• Buzz (1:35pm) 40 minutes

Total posted standby time: 145 minutes

On a funny side note, philharmagic is currently closed and is showing a 5:15pm return time.

I saw earlier that Philharmagic was “down” but had a closer return time. That would be a good one to book and then get a multi experience lightning lane.

 

[Purduevian]

I've just been pulling down on the tip board. However, I think there is a second way to do it if you are modifying a LL.


"Using" my Buzz LL now and rebooking:

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 2:45pm Pirates
• 3:00pm Tiana
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

LL "used" with standby time at the time it was "used":

• Pooh (9:25am) 25 minutes
• Big Thunder (11:15am) 40 minutes
• HM (12:35pm) 40 minutes
• Buzz (1:35pm) 40 minutes

Total posted standby time: 145 minutes

On a funny side note, philharmagic is currently closed and is showing a 5:15pm return time.

"Using" my Pirates LL now and rebooking:

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:00pm Tiana
• 3:40 small world
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

Also Philharmagic must be really broken, LL times are now at 8:15pm

EDIT: Since Tiana was close, just editing this post at 3:15pm to include "using Tiana"

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:30pm Speedway
• 3:40pm small world
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

EDIT2: LLs are coming hot and heavy, and I don't want to spam the thread with multiple posts, so I'll just edit again "using" speedway at 3:45pm.

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:40pm small world
• 3:55pm JC!
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

Edit 3: Figured if I "used" speedway at 3:45, I should give it 20 mins before using small world so doing this at 4:05 before using JC at 4:25

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:55pm JC
• 4:50 Mermaid
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

Edit 4: JC is closed at 4:25 so I would have a MEP.
Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• MEP for JC
• 4:50 Mermaid
• 4:50pm Space Mountain
• 5:10pm Barnstomer

LL "used" with standby time at the time it was "used":

• Pooh (9:25am) 25 minutes
• Big Thunder (11:15am) 40 minutes
• HM (12:35pm) 40 minutes
• Buzz (1:35pm) 40 minutes
• Pirates (3:00pm) 20 minutes
• Tiana (3:15pm) VQ
• Speedway (3:45pm) 20 mins
• its a small world (4:05pm) 30 mins
• JC (4:25pm) closed [MEP] was ~35 mins most of the night after that
• Space (5:05pm) 40
• Mermaid (5:25pm) 10
• Barnstormer (5:45pm)[MEP] was 5-15 mins most of the night

Total posted standby time: 310(?) minutes + skipping Tiana VQ (45 mins?)+anything else is pretty much a walk on, but I could skip basically any 10 min wait.

And with that I am "ending" my search for the day. Everything else in MK is under a 10 min wait and has near instant LL availability... Might play again tomorrow at DHS and possibly MK

 

[Disstevefan1]

LL "used" with standby time at the time it was "used":

• Pooh (9:25am) 25 minutes
• Big Thunder (11:15am) 40 minutes
• HM (12:35pm) 40 minutes
• Buzz (1:35pm) 40 minutes
• Pirates (3:00pm) 20 minutes

Total posted standby time: 165 minutes

It would be interesting to know your actual wait times in the LL queue.

Posted standby wait time minus your actual wait time in LL = time saved.

Having said that, its valid to presume the posted standby wait times are inflated compared to the actual standby times, not because they are trying to sell LL, its because they simply cant calculate standby wait times with any accuracy.

BTW, all those wait times are within my personal tolerance and I would have jumped in line and its valid to presume the actual wait time would be shorter.

 

[Purduevian]

It would be interesting to know your actual wait times in the LL queue.

Posted standby wait time minus your actual wait time in LL = time saved.

Having said that, its valid to presume the posted standby wait times are inflated compared to the actual standby times, not because they are trying to sell LL, its because they simply cant calculate standby wait times with any accuracy.

BTW, all those wait times are within my personal tolerance and I would have jumped in line and its valid to presume the actual wait time would be shorter.

Again, not actually in the park today, just playing a game from home. Updated based on previous assumptions:

Sitting at home, I would have to make some assumptions to see how much time is actually saved.

• Lets assume LL takes 8 mins to the ride vehicle (some will be walk on, some have been known to be as bad as 15 mins)
• Lets also assume the actual wait is 75% of the posted wait

So in my example we saved ~11 mins on Pooh, and ~22mins on Thunder and Mansion. The waits aren't bad, but I would have saved over an hour of park time already before 1pm and already have Buzz, Tiana, and SM booked.


Yeah, just playing the day of game. I personally never book sit down meals on park days as it just seems like such a waste of time. However, I know this isn't the case for everyone. As far as simulating pre-booking, based on how well I've done day of, I wouldn't spend more than 3-5mins on each day and would plan to modify later.

ADRs could definitely get in the way, but the hour return window does help quite a bit (plus the "secret" grace periods)

• 11 mins saved on Pooh
• 22 mins saved on Thunder
• 22 mins saved on Mansion
• 22 mins saved on Buzz
• 7 mins saved on Pirates
• 37 mins saved on Tianas's? I'm assuming the VQ line would be ~45mins

Total time saved estimate= 121 mins for $27 = $0.22 per saved minute with 3 more LLs booked.

EDIT now that speedway and small world are used:

• 11 mins saved on speedway
• 15 mins saved on small world

Total time saved estimate= 147 mins for $27 = $0.18 per saved minute with 3 more LLs booked.

 

[C33Mom]

ADRs could definitely get in the way, but the hour return window does help quite a bit (plus the "secret" grace periods)

I’m not in the parks yet, but ADRs were a huge pain when booking 7-11 days in advance. I couldn’t find a consistent rhyme or buffer when actually racing to set things up at 7AM, but having breakfast/brunch res absolutely screwed up a lot of early times…and you couldn’t quickly cancel them from within LL reservations. Congrats Disney, my price-insensitive family will now be doing far fewer table service meals!

"Using" my Pirates LL now and rebooking:

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:00pm Tiana
• 3:40 small world
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

LL "used" with standby time at the time it was "used":

• Pooh (9:25am) 25 minutes
• Big Thunder (11:15am) 40 minutes
• HM (12:35pm) 40 minutes
• Buzz (1:35pm) 40 minutes
• Pirates (3:00pm) 20 minutes

Total posted standby time: 165 minutes

Also Philharmagic must be really broken, LL times are now at 8:15pm

EDIT: Since Tiana was close, just editing this post at 3:15pm to include "using Tiana"

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:30pm Speedway
• 3:40pm small world
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

LL "used" with standby time at the time it was "used":

• Pooh (9:25am) 25 minutes
• Big Thunder (11:15am) 40 minutes
• HM (12:35pm) 40 minutes
• Buzz (1:35pm) 40 minutes
• Pirates (3:00pm) 20 minutes
• Tiana (3:15pm) VQ

Total posted standby time: 165 minutes + skipping Tiana VQ (45 mins?)

I guess top priorities left are JC, Barnstormer, Mermaid. Everything else is a walk on and even some of the ones booked might be walk ons at this point.

Really appreciate you going through the day and mapping it out. Have you seen any Jungle Cruise drops? My kids want to do Tiana, JC, and BTMM, and I am guessing that we’re gonna need to do JC standby or during the party.

 

[Purduevian]

I’m not in the parks yet, but ADRs were a huge pain when booking 7-11 days in advance. I couldn’t find a consistent rhyme or buffer when actually racing to set things up at 7AM, but having breakfast/brunch res absolutely screwed up a lot of early times…and you couldn’t quickly cancel them from within LL reservations. Congrats Disney, my price-insensitive family will now be doing far fewer table service meals!

Really appreciate you going through the day and mapping it out. Have you seen any Jungle Cruise drops? My kids want to do Tiana, JC, and BTMM, and I am guessing that we’re gonna need to do JC standby or during the party.

I'm just editing the post above since I don't want to spam the thread... but surprise on the first refresh

 

[C33Mom]

Are we sure this is actually the case? If the bulk of the tier 1 reservations are booked in advance then the availability at 9:01 AM would be limited. As the day goes on more capacity is dropped. So for example if you are at DHS and RnRC is sold out from advance reservations but then has a drop at 10AM wouldn’t you have the same shot at getting one from the drop if you arrived just before 10AM and used your first as if you arrived at rope drop? The “day of“ drops are what drives availability and that’s not much different than Genie+. Obviously getting there at rope drop and taking advantage of the lower standby is always an option but if we are talking about getting better reservations day of I’m not sure it’s going to be a huge advantage.

I’m not entirely sure I’m following you. I think we agree you need to be IN a park and already tapped into at least one LL before those 10AM drops start, right? You’re locked out of all T1 rides (beyond your first) until you actually get in the park AND ride one. We are a West coast based family that does EEH and hard ticket events, so getting back after midnight, I’d rather let my kids sleep until at least 9:30, leave the room around 10, get on friendship boats/monorail and be at the park around 10:30 at the very earliest, even that isn’t actually making it to the LL entry. But I would much rather be stacking afternoon FPs, letting the kids sleep past 10 if they want, having a leisurely family breakfast, maybe going to the pool if it’s hot, and rolling to the park after lunch time—that schedule is not workable if you want more than 1-2 tier 1 LLs—unless they are going to be doing a lot of drops in the afternoons.

 

[Supertech65]

I saw earlier that Philharmagic was “down” but had a closer return time. That would be a good one to book and then get a multi experience lightning lane.

Did this a lot on my last trip (thanks to magic carpet ride being down for 2 solid hours) I kept booking it and it kept throwing out an any time redemption. Once I got one, I booked it again.

 

[Splash4eva]

I saw earlier that Philharmagic was “down” but had a closer return time. That would be a good one to book and then get a multi experience lightning lane.

How DIsney has not closed this loophole to me is completely baffling….
Simply take the ride offline to book when its down.

 

[bwr827]

"Using" my Pirates LL now and rebooking:

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:00pm Tiana
• 3:40 small world
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

Also Philharmagic must be really broken, LL times are now at 8:15pm

EDIT: Since Tiana was close, just editing this post at 3:15pm to include "using Tiana"

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:30pm Speedway
• 3:40pm small world
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

EDIT2: LLs are coming hot and heavy, and I don't want to spam the thread with multiple posts, so I'll just edit again "using" speedway at 3:45pm.

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:40pm small world
• 3:55pm JC!
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

Edit 3: Figured if I "used" speedway at 3:45, I should give it 20 mins before using small world so doing this at 4:05 before using JC at 4:25

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:55pm JC
• 4:50 Mermaid
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

Edit 4: JC is closed at 4:25 so I would have a MEP.
Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• MEP for JC
• 4:50 Mermaid
• 4:50pm Space Mountain
• 5:10pm Barnstomer

LL "used" with standby time at the time it was "used":

• Pooh (9:25am) 25 minutes
• Big Thunder (11:15am) 40 minutes
• HM (12:35pm) 40 minutes
• Buzz (1:35pm) 40 minutes
• Pirates (3:00pm) 20 minutes
• Tiana (3:15pm) VQ
• Speedway (3:45pm) 20 mins
• its a small world (4:05pm) 30 mins
• JC (4:25pm) closed MEP
• Space (5:05pm) ??
• Mermaid (5:25pm) ??
• Barnstormer (5:45pm)??

Total posted standby time: 215 minutes + skipping Tiana VQ (45 mins?)+ JC MEP sometime in the evening+ Space at 5:05pm+ Mermaid at 5:25pm + Barnstomer 5:45pm+ anything else is pretty much a walk on, but I could skip basically any 10 min wait.

And with that I am "ending" my search for the day. Everything else in MK is under a 10 min wait and has near instant LL availability... Might play again tomorrow at DHS and possibly MK

A very good day. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

"Using" my Pirates LL now and rebooking:

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:00pm Tiana
• 3:40 small world
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

Also Philharmagic must be really broken, LL times are now at 8:15pm

EDIT: Since Tiana was close, just editing this post at 3:15pm to include "using Tiana"

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:30pm Speedway
• 3:40pm small world
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

EDIT2: LLs are coming hot and heavy, and I don't want to spam the thread with multiple posts, so I'll just edit again "using" speedway at 3:45pm.

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:40pm small world
• 3:55pm JC!
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

Edit 3: Figured if I "used" speedway at 3:45, I should give it 20 mins before using small world so doing this at 4:05 before using JC at 4:25

Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• 3:55pm JC
• 4:50 Mermaid
• 4:50pm Space Mountain

Edit 4: JC is closed at 4:25 so I would have a MEP.
Currently "Booked" (5 refreshes allowed):

• MEP for JC
• 4:50 Mermaid
• 4:50pm Space Mountain
• 5:10pm Barnstomer

LL "used" with standby time at the time it was "used":

• Pooh (9:25am) 25 minutes
• Big Thunder (11:15am) 40 minutes
• HM (12:35pm) 40 minutes
• Buzz (1:35pm) 40 minutes
• Pirates (3:00pm) 20 minutes
• Tiana (3:15pm) VQ
• Speedway (3:45pm) 20 mins
• its a small world (4:05pm) 30 mins
• JC (4:25pm) closed MEP
• Space (5:05pm) ??
• Mermaid (5:25pm) ??
• Barnstormer (5:45pm)??

Total posted standby time: 215 minutes + skipping Tiana VQ (45 mins?)+ JC MEP sometime in the evening+ Space at 5:05pm+ Mermaid at 5:25pm + Barnstomer 5:45pm+ anything else is pretty much a walk on, but I could skip basically any 10 min wait.

And with that I am "ending" my search for the day. Everything else in MK is under a 10 min wait and has near instant LL availability... Might play again tomorrow at DHS and possibly MK

Playing LLMP from home is such a fun idea! Not to mention, you found a way to get rid of the stress and cost

 

[GoofGoof]

I’m not entirely sure I’m following you. I think we agree you need to be IN a park and already tapped into at least one LL before those 10AM drops start, right? You’re locked out of all T1 rides (beyond your first) until you actually get in the park AND ride one. We are a West coast based family that does EEH and hard ticket events, so getting back after midnight, I’d rather let my kids sleep until at least 9:30, leave the room around 10, get on friendship boats/monorail and be at the park around 10:30 at the very earliest, even that isn’t actually making it to the LL entry. But I would much rather be stacking afternoon FPs, letting the kids sleep past 10 if they want, having a leisurely family breakfast, maybe going to the pool if it’s hot, and rolling to the park after lunch time—that schedule is not workable if you want more than 1-2 tier 1 LLs—unless they are going to be doing a lot of drops in the afternoons.

Yeah, in park and one used. My comment was around having to be at the park at rope drop. I was asking if there is really any benefit to users getting there at 8:30 or 9:00 and using the first reservation right at 9:00. You can Book #4 immediately but if you want a tier 1 that is ”sold out” from pre-reservations you will end up modifying after the first drop.

For Genie+ I think the MK and DHS drops were mostly 10:45, 1:15 and 3:45 with EPCOT skewed a little later in the day. I’m not sure about AK. Not sure if this system will have the same drop times but it’s likely to be similar. I was just using 10 as an example, but the drops happen multiple times a day based on operational performance of the ride. It’s possible there are no drops if the ride has extended down time but that was the same with Genie+.

One thing I’m not sure about is what happens if you have a reservation expire unused. So for example if you book a tier 2 with a return from 9-10 at 10 can you replace that with reservation #4 without tier restrictions?

 

[Jrb1979]

Yeah, in park and one used. My comment was around having to be at the park at rope drop. I was asking if there is really any benefit to users getting there at 8:30 or 9:00 and using the first reservation right at 9:00. You can Book #4 immediately but if you want a tier 1 that is ”sold out” from pre-reservations you will end up modifying after the first drop.

For Genie+ I think the MK and DHS drops were mostly 10:45, 1:15 and 3:45 with EPCOT skewed a little later in the day. I’m not sure about AK. Not sure if this system will have the same drop times but it’s likely to be similar. I was just using 10 as an example, but the drops happen multiple times a day based on operational performance of the ride. It’s possible there are no drops if the ride has extended down time but that was the same with Genie+.

One thing I’m not sure about is what happens if you have a reservation expire unused. So for example if you book a tier 2 with a return from 9-10 at 10 can you replace that with reservation #4 without tier restrictions?

From what some one else posted it sounds like you can't grab another LL til you tap into your first one.

 

[GoofGoof]

From what some one else posted it sounds like you can't grab another LL til you tap into your first one.

If you have one that goes unused will it just remain in your inventory even though it’s expired? I guess it doesn’t matter most of the time since you could just modify it and book a new one that’s not expired. I was wondering if it would be a back door way to get the tiers to drop if you were not in the park yet by letting one expire.

 

[C33Mom]

If you have one that goes unused will it just remain in your inventory even though it’s expired? I guess it doesn’t matter most of the time since you could just modify it and book a new one that’s not expired. I was wondering if it would be a back door way to get the tiers to drop if you were not in the park yet by letting one expire.

Several bloggers (and some randos!) have reported the tier 1s don’t unlock until you scan in, even after a first return expires. If that changes, the system would work much better for late risers/arrivers— basically sacrificing a FP for the ability to unlock better ones from outside the park— I haven’t paid attention as to whether you can’t book a 3rd one at all or if it just has to be a tier 2. Frankly, I don’t fault Disney from wanting discourage us from burning FPs for ITTBAB that some (less informed) guests would actually be thrilled to get at 8:30AM.

 

[GhostHost1000]

I'm just editing the post above since I don't want to spam the thread... but surprise on the first refresh
View attachment 805919

There were some storms and rain in the area late afternoon/evening yesterday that may have impacted availability