Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

Touchdown

Well-Known Member
Back in the original FP days I could rope drop Epcot, ride Soarin' and TT twice each. Grab breakfast at Sunshine Seasons after Soarin #2, ride SSE and leave by 11:30. I don't know if that's possible with the current LL system. If it is, now it costs extra while I used to do it for free.

To hit that rate you've got to be in very short queues. For some rides like RotR, I've ridden 3x back to back during slow times (not using LL) but it takes almost 2 hours due to the queue length just to walk through, the few minutes waiting to get sent to the pre show followed by the 3 part pre-show with another queue before part 3.
With EE I can do Frozen, SRL Test Track, Soarin and Rat by 10:30ish on a good day. I can walk fast though, and that’s without breakfast.
 

nickys

Premium Member
So.... I was watching An All Ears Video on LL and their 15th Tip/Hack was very interesting. Apparently now you have a 5 min grace period on the front, and a 2 hour grace period on the back. Couple this with the fact that you can book a new LL once your window expires, you can actually kind of stack if you leave the parks in the middle of the day and come back.

I don't think they mention this in video, but I believe you still must use at least 1LL earlier in the day before this loophole works.
That has always been the case.

I suspect that loophole will now be closed.
 
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Animaniac93-98

Well-Known Member
Another thing this chart clearly indicates, IMO, is that Jungle Cruise is not long for this new Disney World. I assumed it had more mid tier capacity, but people are so inefficient in getting themselves into the boats, if that's in the ballpark... wow. Not even Peter Pan level. And the labor costs. No wonder there are these inklings that could lead to Moana going in there.

All the reasons given for scrapping 20,000 Leagues... apply to Jungle Cruise too. That it's lasted this long is remarkable.

But part of me still thinks they don't have it in them to remove it completely.
 

Tha Realest

Well-Known Member
All the reasons given for scrapping 20,000 Leagues... apply to Jungle Cruise too. That it's lasted this long is remarkable.

But part of me still thinks they don't have it in them to remove it completely.
It’ll stay in DL likely for historical reasons (same with their rivers)

I can see it becoming Moana land in WDW.
 

nickys

Premium Member
I thought it was always a 15 min grace period. Anything after that was up to the CM. The claim in the video is anything within 2 hours of the end time, the light just lights up green like you were on time.
Officially it’s a 15 minute grace period.

In practice though, the 2 hr grace period after the end time was in effect for G+ and is still in effect for LLs. And yes, the light turns green.
 

Purduevian

Well-Known Member
That’s what CMs will tell you. Or what Plan Disney might say. 😁
Gottcha, I did a quick google search and lots of planning sites give the 15 mins, but I couldn't see anything on it from Disney.
So:
Officially official: Be on time
Unofficially official: 15 min grace period
In practice: 2 hour grace period
Reality: Unlimited grace period at CM discretion
 
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co10064

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Used the new system today at DHS and have surprisingly been able to redeem all the multi-pass rides by now (1:45pm local time). I definitely prefer this to system to Genie+, but I may have had a different experience if I was staying off-property.
 

MisterPenguin

President of Animal Kingdom
Premium Member
FP and Genie+ has always been 5 minutes early and 15 minutes late.

The same for VQs and ILL.

EXCEPT... GotG:CR stopped caring how late you were for ILL or VQ. 2 hours. 5 hours. They didn't care. Even if other VQ rides did care. Especially TRON, which was super strict. Unless you started to cry in front of the CM.

Now?!... who knows. It's cats and dogs living together.
 

MickeyLuv'r

Well-Known Member
I suspect that loophole will now be closed.
I don't really see how they can close the loophole of allowing late LL use, at least not while:
1. they are still using BG
2. rides are unreliable
3. TS meal lengths are variable in a way that is unpredictable
4. we don't control our LL times.

When booking the 3 initial passes, users don't get to choose return times, they are assigned. users are allowed to shuffle the times, and you can make them a bit later if you want, but as soon as you try to change them MDE shuffles the return times in a way that is somewhat random, and gives you later/worse return times with every shuffle.

Once you are in the parks, you have no control over return times. Again, users can refresh, but the times assigned are random.

The earliest time I could get for Tiana's was 3:30pm, and that was booking LL's exactly at 7am at 7days out. I would have much preferred an earlier time. I really wanted to be out of MK. After agreeing, I attempted (7days out at 7:01am) to refresh for an earlier pass, and all I got was much worse times, like 7:45pm, and even late PM options dried up within a few minutes.
 

MickeyLuv'r

Well-Known Member
FP and Genie+ has always been 5 minutes early and 15 minutes late.

The same for VQs and ILL.

EXCEPT... GotG:CR stopped caring how late you were for ILL or VQ. 2 hours. 5 hours. They didn't care. Even if other VQ rides did care. Especially TRON, which was super strict. Unless you started to cry in front of the CM.

Now?!... who knows. It's cats and dogs living together.
Right, and since we don't know when our BG will be called, and we have so little control over our LL return times, WDW has to allow a significant amount of grace.

The day I was there Tiana's had some down time, so when it reopened we got in line, but we also had LL passes for 3 other rides. When we got in line for Tiana, according to the posted wait, we should have been okay to use our next LL, but then Tiana's took so stinking long, that we missed our next LL window entirely (SpaceMtn.?)

By the time we got off Tiana's, we were well into the time window of our NEXT LL, which I think was Pirates, so we used Pirates first.

It was afternoon in August, so plenty hot outside, and we had planned to take an afternoon break. Crossing the park twice wasn't going to happen.

This is just one example when something beyond our control caused us to miss a LL window entirely. Early on, I tried to change some of the LL times, but it isn't feasible because there's a dearth of availability.
 

wdisney9000

Truindenashendubapreser
Premium Member
Back in the original FP days I could rope drop Epcot, ride Soarin' and TT twice each. Grab breakfast at Sunshine Seasons after Soarin #2, ride SSE and leave by 11:30. I don't know if that's possible with the current LL system. If it is, now it costs extra while I used to do it for free.

To hit that rate you've got to be in very short queues. For some rides like RotR, I've ridden 3x back to back during slow times (not using LL) but it takes almost 2 hours due to the queue length just to walk through, the few minutes waiting to get sent to the pre show followed by the 3 part pre-show with another queue before part 3.
In Legacy FP days my brother and I did the same at Epcot rope drop (sans breakfast at Sunshine Seasons). We'd average 2 or 3 rides on TT and Soarin, SSE and usually 1 or 2 rides on El Rio Del Tiempo (now Gran Fiesta Tour) and head out of the park after getting lunch.

And we loved getting an extra FP each before getting lunch (usually at Electric Umbrella) and handing them to a random couple on our way out.
 

osian

Well-Known Member
Quick question - we know you can have three rolling LLs with MP, but you can only book a new one when you've used one up. So can you only get three rolling LLs if you've booked your three in advance? For example, if you've only booked one in advance then on the day when you're in the park can you book another two before you've used the first one?
 

nickys

Premium Member
Quick question - we know you can have three rolling LLs with MP, but you can only book a new one when you've used one up. So can you only get three rolling LLs if you've booked your three in advance? For example, if you've only booked one in advance then on the day when you're in the park can you book another two before you've used the first one?
You can but you will have the same restrictions as if you’d pre-booked them. Same park, little overlapping etc.

A strategy for just booking one would be a very early return time so that once you tapped in you could then book any tiers in any park.
 

DisneyCane

Well-Known Member
In Legacy FP days my brother and I did the same at Epcot rope drop (sans breakfast at Sunshine Seasons). We'd average 2 or 3 rides on TT and Soarin, SSE and usually 1 or 2 rides on El Rio Del Tiempo (now Gran Fiesta Tour) and head out of the park after getting lunch.

And we loved getting an extra FP each before getting lunch (usually at Electric Umbrella) and handing them to a random couple on our way out.
My favorite thing to do with legacy FP, was to start the day in Epcot and, right before we left around 11:30, grabbed another TT FP with something like a 6:25 to 7:25 return time. Then go to another park and return to Epcot in the evening and get a "bonus" ride of TT with barely any wait.

Those were the good ole days! With FP strategy we once took my sister-in-law to WDW for a single day and were able to ride all of the headliners at all 4 parks on a moderately crowded day.
 

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