Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[Patcheslee]

That's if there are that many rides available........

On a somewhat busy day, my guess is 11am your best bet would be a TSMM or A$$ LL availability and thats it..........forget about 1pm, there will def be nothing then

SDD, MFSR, MMRR, ToT, RnR will all be gone before 11am


for eg, today is one of the slowest days of the year and ToT, SDD have been gone for a while and ROTR ILL' were gone before park opening

TP posted a blog in February about availability for each park VS time of day and crowds. High crowds had only SDD unavailable at 11am (out at 8am check), and most ride time slots being in the late afternoon or evening. I hope they are able to update it when more data is gathered.

 

[Thepuma]

If you’re park hopping the times automatically adjust to after 2pm. So booking at 8am, 11am and 1pm will automatically give you times after 2pm.
And by refreshing a few times different return times pop up. It does seem that they try to spread people out.

It wasn't regarding park hopping, just answering the poster who said about getting to the park late rather than first thing.

Of course, park hopping changes things altogether.

 

[jmp85]

You absolutely can stack more than 2 - I know of people who have stacked 4-5 at MK for the afternoon/evening.

You could theoretically stack at 7, 11, 1, 3, and 5 and have five evening rides at MK.

How? Is this G+ rides plus LL? I understand that you can book one and then if you wait two hours, you can stack on another.

 

[Thepuma]

How? Is this G+ rides plus LL? I understand that you can book one and then if you wait two hours, you can stack on another.

From my experience its impossible to stack 4 x G+ , but I've only used Genie+ on about 20 full days, so I'm no expert..(paid LL+ aside)

But, if it is possible then the biggest problem will be the 3rd and 4th G+...cos by the time 1pm comes around there will be nothing left of worth..same for the 3pm booking.

 

[nickys]

How? Is this G+ rides plus LL? I understand that you can book one and then if you wait two hours, you can stack on another.

G+ and LL are one and the same thing.

 

[nickys]

From my experience its impossible to stack 4 x G+ , but I've only used Genie+ on about 20 full days, so I'm no expert..(paid LL+ aside)

But, if it is possible then the biggest problem will be the 3rd and 4th G+...cos by the time 1pm comes around there will be nothing left of worth..same for the 3pm booking.

And yet others have pointed out it is possible.

The return times aren’t given out linearly from early to late. They fluctuate through the day for all rides except the few like Slinky and Jungle Cruise which do tend to sell out early on. But rides like Big Thunder, Splash, Space Mtn, Pirates, HM, ToT, RnR, TSMM and others can all be stacked for a nice afternoon / evening of 4-5 rides. I get envious reading their trip reports.

 

[Jeff4272]

And yet others have pointed out it is possible.

The return times aren’t given out linearly from early to late. They fluctuate through the day for all rides except the few like Slinky and Jungle Cruise which do tend to sell out early on. But rides like Big Thunder, Splash, Space Mtn, Pirates, HM, ToT, RnR, TSMM and others can all be stacked for a nice afternoon / evening of 4-5 rides. I get envious reading their trip reports.

it might work 10% of the time based on low crowd calendars, today being an example

 

[Ripken10]

And yet others have pointed out it is possible.

The return times aren’t given out linearly from early to late. They fluctuate through the day for all rides except the few like Slinky and Jungle Cruise which do tend to sell out early on. But rides like Big Thunder, Splash, Space Mtn, Pirates, HM, ToT, RnR, TSMM and others can all be stacked for a nice afternoon / evening of 4-5 rides. I get envious reading their trip reports.

Worked for us on our trip. We had several stacked, and it was not a low crowd day. I was not excited about genie+ going in, but it really worked out for us. Will be hard to convince my wife not to use it on future trips (except for at certain parks where it doesn't work as well).

 

[Jeff4272]

Worked for us on our trip. We had several stacked, and it was not a low crowd day. I was not excited about genie+ going in, but it really worked out for us. Will be hard to convince my wife not to use it on future trips (except for at certain parks where it doesn't work as well).

It just doesnt work on busy days, especially HS, Epcot and AK....there's just not enough attractions

 

[Ripken10]

It just doesnt work on busy days, especially HS, Epcot and AK....there's just not enough attractions

Not sure what you call a "busy day". We went with friends, the friends avoided the Saturday trip to Magic Kingdom because crowds were so "large" according to them. Genie+ worked awesome on that day. I mean it wasn't New Year's eve, but I think most days at Magic Kingdom tend to get pretty crowded to most people.

 

[Gran Fiesta]

1) last year we went for 2 weeks...end of nivember/start of December - it was very VERY busy. The busiest I've seen DW in any of my other 10 visits throughout the year.

2) The 5 rides I quoted you'd get without Genie+ were obviously the decent attractions....not including the silly ones that are almost walk on....lets say you do Holywood studios without G+ or LL+

Let's say for argument sake you rope drop RotR, as a non resort guest you will wait at least an hour, maybe 90 mins...you come off that and go on SR...again..another 90 minute wait, possibly shorter. By this time you're thinking about lunch..another hour taken away (if you're lucky to get a reservation or a table)...youre in early afternoon and go for MnMRR...another 90 minutes..then ToT - 2 hours (maybe less if they have finished the refurb and all 4 lifts are in use...so by this time it's late afternoon and you go for SDD...another 90 minute to 2 hour wait at the time of year youre going.

So that's your 5...which you'll do by around 7 or 8pm

I normally visit orlando from the UK every year January, May and September....we changed last years to late November and we could bot believe how busy the parks were...and we thought the same, get in before the Xmas holidays but no, it was manic.

We asked a few Americans why it was so busy even though the holiday season hadn't really started and kids would be at school...the answers we got were..".in America we wind down early for Xmas and the schools do too so we just take out kids out of school as there's not kuchen going on anyway."

Don't know how true that it but I got that from 3 families I spoke to.

But back to your point...I stand by my prediction that you may only get on 5 rides without any G+ or LL+....but you may get lucky and get 6 or 7.

But from my experience last November/December, without G+ and LL1+ I would not have bothered going as I worked out the queue saving times with G+ and would have only got on 5 rides on our Hollywood studios days

Thanks for the insight, I understand now what you were saying. That is my fault for the misunderstanding. However, we are staying onsite and so we will be able to hop on ROTR in your example instead of waiting the 90 minutes. I understand the rest of the day will probably be like you are saying so it might be worth it to get G+. Contrary to what you might think and I'm sorry if it came across this way, I am not against getting G+ at all. I would be willing to get it if I thought it was worth it, which it sounds like now we can go on our trip without it (kind of have to) and then see the crowd levels and then buy it the days we think we will need it that morning. So we will probably honestly just have a wait and see approach. If say our first day goes like your example then we will be buying Genie plus the next morning lol

 

[Jeff4272]

Not sure what you call a "busy day". We went with friends, the friends avoided the Saturday trip to Magic Kingdom because crowds were so "large" according to them. Genie+ worked awesome on that day. I mean it wasn't New Year's eve, but I think most days at Magic Kingdom tend to get pretty crowded to most people.

Its just not true....it doesnt work........the statistics dont lie...........

Crowd calendar 8 and up, theres not enough rides to support it in Epcot, HS and AK.....thats a fact


Ive used it plenty of times in crowded situations.......at 11am, there was nothing available in HS other than Alien SS, star tours or TSMM.............thats first hand experience prob 20-25 times


AK and Epcot were just as bad, if not worse

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

And yet others have pointed out it is possible.

The return times aren’t given out linearly from early to late. They fluctuate through the day for all rides except the few like Slinky and Jungle Cruise which do tend to sell out early on. But rides like Big Thunder, Splash, Space Mtn, Pirates, HM, ToT, RnR, TSMM and others can all be stacked for a nice afternoon / evening of 4-5 rides. I get envious reading their trip reports.

Not on the day I visited HS. For MK, yes, you can stack and get decent PM options.

In HS, Slinky was sold out in less than 5minutes. By 11am, there wasn't much left in HS. I could get a pass for Muppets, but I would not get in to see Muppets any faster than we did without a G+ for Muppets. That is the type of G+ pass that is available after 11am.

I also want to stress again- LOOKING at G+ options and BUYING (Selecting) G+ options are two very different things. Data collectors are mostly not BUYING passes when they collect availability data, because that costs $. (At least I don't think they are.) They would need a park ticket, a park reservation and $15/day on top of that, and even with all of that, they could only book 1 pass every two hours. I don't think they are spending that kind of $ to collect data.

Before my visit, I also watched G+ availability. When we actually selected our G+ the time we actually get was often different, especially in the morning, and especially if you choose a high demand G+. If you choose a low demand G+ pass, like teacups, then you will probably get the time you picked.

On one of our MK days, I wasn't going to book G+, but we changed our plans. I started book passes about 11am, and we still would up with -I think 5 G+ passes. I think we had Space Mtn, Buzz, Pooh, and Splash (during the fireworks). From Splash, we made it to HM, which had a short standby at that hour. I'm not 100% sure what #5 was, but I think it was either LM or Aladdin (not much of a time saver). Considering we started so late, that was still pretty decent. I recall doing the trio of Space-Buzz-Pooh, back-to-back with G+ passes.


Then again...the last time I went to MK pre-pandemic, we had a long string of FP in MK that was pretty crazy.

 

[Ayla]

OK I guess.......But you honestly sound more like an apologist............

Fact of the matter is, WDW has taken away a lot of free perks and now charge for them (ME, MBands, resort parking, FP+, etc.) while guest satisfaction numbers have plummeted

Anyone who has ever read any of my posts here knows I am absolutely not an apologist. However, I don't support lazy journalism, half-truths or outright lying. That article is hot garbage.

 

[G00fyDad]

Anyone who has ever read any of my posts here knows I am absolutely not an apologist. However, I don't support lazy journalism, half-truths or outright lying. That article is hot garbage.

He's still calling people names is he?

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

As our trip get's closer, I've been thinking about this. Right now, I've planned our first park and reservations, assuming we would resort at lunch time and then hop in the evening to a random park based on how we feel.

However, I'm wondering if it would be better to plan a more strict second park and do all LL reservations at the second park instead of the reserved one. Hit the reserved park as early as possible standby only, and then be on a more strict evening park plan. I suppose we could still pick the evening park the day before or at 7:00 AM day of, which is less planning than the reservation now. This way, all the choices presented are always after 2:00 PM.

We dislike the weeks/months out planning are much more of a day before group.

Or you could do a combo of the 2.

If this is your general strategy, hopping to MK (in PM) makes the most sense if you are looking at making the most of G+. By around 11am/1pm, MK still has some decent options available, but the other 3 park get sold out. Not that you necessarily want to go to MK every PM, but it makes a good PM park.

If you are staying at a deluxe hotel, the extra PM hours were the very best time to be in a park.

 

[Jeff4272]

He's still calling people names is he?

There's an ignore button for a reason, use it if you dont like what I post

 

[jmp85]

G+ and LL are one and the same thing.

Sorry, I was using G+ to represent the rides that are included with the $15 bucks -- LL costing the extra out of pocket.

 

[Thepuma]

Thanks for the insight, I understand now what you were saying. That is my fault for the misunderstanding. However, we are staying onsite and so we will be able to hop on ROTR in your example instead of waiting the 90 minutes. I understand the rest of the day will probably be like you are saying so it might be worth it to get G+. Contrary to what you might think and I'm sorry if it came across this way, I am not against getting G+ at all. I would be willing to get it if I thought it was worth it, which it sounds like now we can go on our trip without it (kind of have to) and then see the crowd levels and then buy it the days we think we will need it that morning. So we will probably honestly just have a wait and see approach. If say our first day goes like your example then we will be buying Genie plus the next morning lol

Actually to be fair, it WILL make a difference if you are a Disney Resort guest...quite a difference in fact.

Yes, you can rope drop RoTR and get on in 20 mins.....but this also has a knock on as you can get into the queue for MFSR before the park has opened to non resort guests (20 min wait)...and then you'd probably get on MnMRR in 30 mins or less....so by the time your first 90 minutes have gone you'll have done 3 rides already. After that yes, its back to the original schedule, but I reckon you'd get on 8 or 9 rides if you are a Disney guest at a busy time without G+ or LL

 

[brettf22]

You absolutely can stack more than 2 - I know of people who have stacked 4-5 at MK for the afternoon/evening.

You could theoretically stack at 7, 11, 1, 3, and 5 and have five evening rides at MK.

Yup. Did this several times two weeks ago. But as others have pointed out, this really only works well for MK. For example, one day I did AK in the morning. After using a couple of strategic LL passes early at AK, I started grabbing LL passes for MK. After a mid day break (and continuing to stack MK LL passes), I headed to MK around 5pm. Ended up stacking 4 (Space, Splash, Pirates, and HM), all between 5-7pm.

An unintended bonus of this method meant I avoided the TTC security mess in the am. Rope drop effectiveness has greatly diminished for offsite guests, especially at MK due to the TTC hassle. In my 49 years of visiting WDW, I believe this first time I did not rope drop MK once.