LLMP booking questions for our 4-day trip

[PSM]

Our trip is in less than two weeks and I just found out my parents are willing to purchase LLMP for all four days. This trip is me and my six year old staying in one room (he turns six right before the trip) and my parents in a connected room at All-Star Sports. We will visit each park for one day with no park hoppers, in this order: Animal Kingdom (Tues), Hollywood Studios (Wed), Magic Kingdom (Thurs), Epcot (Fri).

We are all planning to do every ride possible together with the exception of my six year old not being tall enough for the Muppets coaster or TRON. If I get to go on those at some point that's great, but I'm not sweating it if I don't. This entire trip will be focused on fun and enjoyment for him, hopefully as stress-free as possible for a Disney trip. That said, it's his first time being tall enough for some of the big rides, so he's excited to go on many of them (Everest, Space Mountain, etc.).

Sooo...how does this process work come the morning of purchasing and booking LLMP at 7am on the 16th? Can I purchase them for everyone in the group since we're all friends on the app? It's showing all of us eligible for LLMP on that morning, so I'm guessing that won't be a problem and I just select people. The more important questions are:

Do I have to purchase them for each park one at a time? Do I purchase one park, then book all of my reservations for that park, then move on to purchasing and booking for the next park, and so on? If so, which order would you recommend for the parks and which rides tend to disappear quickest? We don't have many dining reservations or solid plans other than which park on which day, so we don't have to be too strict other than trying to make sure he gets on most of the good rides with minimal waits.

Thanks in advance! I am so excited for this trip!

 

[nickys]

The easy answers:

Yes, you can book for everyone.

You can see what’s available before you pay.

You book one day and pay, and then do the next day etc. You can book the days in any order.

You can either book one tier 1 ride and two tier 2 rides , or three tier 2 rides.

For each day you can book single passes too, but those will be a different transaction. You can book up to 2 of those each day, but the only park that has more than one is MK (Tron and 7 dwarves).

You have about 5 minutes after initial selection to shuffle or change the rides etc.

 

[nickys]

More nuanced stuff!

As soon as you tap into one LL lane, you can book another of any tier. So you can tap into Dumbo and book Tiana - if there’s availability.

Plus you can change the others if you want. In theory you could tap into Dumbo and book Tiana, and also change Small World to Big Thunder and change Pooh to Space Mountain.

Both Thrill Data and Touring Plans have free info on how quickly LLs fill up.

Your strategy on what to book will depend on factors like if you will use the early entry or rope drop ; whether you want to book absolute favourites / must-dos even if it means they’re later in the day, or book a very early one to try for more of the tier 1 rides etc.

I suggest having a list of rides you’d really like to do and see what’s available.

But also to think about structuring the day, whether you want some down time or maybe a couple of shows by way of a lull.

 

[nickys]

Touring Plans LL info home page:

Lightning Lane at Disney World

Lightning Lane at Disney World - TouringPlans.com

touringplans.com

As for the order to book parks, AK can be left until last. DHS or MK first probably.

You might also want to think about not buying it for AK anc using the money for some of the single pass rides. Flight of Passage, Rise of the Resistance and Guardians (plus Tron & 7 dwarves). There are limited rides at AK, but the MultiPass will save you some time.

 

[magic_carpet]

Normally you want to book in order of the days because the closer the day, the more competition there is. But you could make an exception here and book your Animal Kingdom day last since it is generally less competitive than the other parks.

Each day you can select your 3 multipass and your singlepass LL(s) at the same time and do it as one purchase.

Do you know already which lightning lanes you will be going for?

 

[PSM]

This is great info from you both, thank you! I will check out Touring Plans.

I plan to go through each park's ride list with my son today and order them in terms of priority for him, then create my own version based on his priorities but adjusted for which will probably sell out quickest or be readily available the day of. For example, if he puts an easy to get LL ride at the top of his list, I'll bump it down below the top three on mine so I'm not looking for it when I book in a few days.

 

[PSM]

Wow, that Touring Plans chart of all the rides organized by park with their current LLMP availability is pretty incredible. Definitely helps with the priorities, as it's easy to see which are the most desirable and likely to sell out!

It seems to me that a good strategy would be to go for one Tier 1 ride that looks like it will sell out quickly, such as Slinky Dog, even if it's a time later in the day, then grab at least one ride that's as early in the morning as possible so that you can scan into it quickly and immediately start going for other LLs the day you're at that park.

QUESTION: Let's say you have one LL booked in the afternoon (Slinky) but the other two are booked first thing in the morning (Star Tours then Millennium Falcon). You get to the park and scan into the first LL (Star Tours), then immediately start searching for another one and book it for a time later that day (Tower of Terror). With the SECOND one you had pre-booked (Millennium Falcon), can you immediately book another one once you scan into that, as well, or do you only get one at a time after your initial three that you pre-booked? Basically, are you allowed to hold three at all times or do you only get those three initially and then only book one at a time after that?

 

[nickys]

Wow, that Touring Plans chart of all the rides organized by park with their current LLMP availability is pretty incredible. Definitely helps with the priorities, as it's easy to see which are the most desirable and likely to sell out!

It seems to me that a good strategy would be to go for one Tier 1 ride that looks like it will sell out quickly, such as Slinky Dog, even if it's a time later in the day, then grab at least one ride that's as early in the morning as possible so that you can scan into it quickly and immediately start going for other LLs the day you're at that park.

QUESTION: Let's say you have one LL booked in the afternoon (Slinky) but the other two are booked first thing in the morning (Star Tours then Millennium Falcon). You get to the park and scan into the first LL (Star Tours), then immediately start searching for another one and book it for a time later that day (Tower of Terror). With the SECOND one you had pre-booked (Millennium Falcon), can you immediately book another one once you scan into that, as well, or do you only get one at a time after your initial three that you pre-booked? Basically, are you allowed to hold three at all times or do you only get those three initially and then only book one at a time after that?

Sounds like you’ve learned fast from Touring Plans!

You can always hold three LLs. Use one, book another.

It’s possible to hold more, although there is a slight risk involved.

One your LL window opens, you have 119 minutes to tap in without issue. But because the window is officially an hour, you can book another LL after an hour ie: it’s “expired”.

This has been tested repeatedly, by Touring Plans and others, and used successfully. BUT it’s always possible it doesn’t work. So you lose that expired LL and have to wait in standby. (You cannot rebook an LL even if you didn’t use it).

Personally I wouldn’t plan to use that extra window to stack LLs. I’d just worry it wouldn’t work for me. YMMV.

 

[PSM]

Sounds like you’ve learned fast from Touring Plans!

You can always hold three LLs. Use one, book another.

It’s possible to hold more, although there is a slight risk involved.

One your LL window opens, you have 119 minutes to tap in without issue. But because the window is officially an hour, you can book another LL after an hour ie: it’s “expired”.

This has been tested repeatedly, by Touring Plans and others, and used successfully. BUT it’s always possible it doesn’t work. So you lose that expired LL and have to wait in standby. (You cannot rebook an LL even if you didn’t use it).

Personally I wouldn’t plan to use that extra window to stack LLs. I’d just worry it wouldn’t work for me. YMMV.

Good to know. This is a "stress-free" trip (at least after the planning part), so I won't do anything risky with the LLs. It's great to know I can always hold three, though. That could change the strategy a bit. I still think one high-demand and "likely to sell out" LL takes one spot of the three regardless of when it is for, then the next one should be as early as possible to ensure we can start using them and booking more without having to wait. The question is what to do with the last one.

If it weren't possible to hold three, I'd say use it for another high-demand ride regardless of the time. But since you can hold three, it might make sense to go with a more "in-between" option, maybe a medium-demand ride that might not be super early but isn't too late, either (or high-demand if it's in the first half of the day). I don't want to sit on two 8pm LLs all days even if I have one first thing that I can use and keep rebooking. But I don't want to waste two of the three slots on rides that don't necessarily save us a lot of time versus the standby queue.

I think the strategy will be one "highest demand" ride regardless of the time (such as Slinky Dog). One first thing in the morning ride (as "high-demand" as possible based on what's available but has to be something with a very early time). Then one as high-demand as possible but with a time anywhere before lunch or so.

The only possible disaster I see with my plan is if I book one that's way too late in the day (or night) and we decide not to stay that late due to the heat and exhaustion. But that's the risk, I suppose.

 

[magic_carpet]

Wow, that Touring Plans chart of all the rides organized by park with their current LLMP availability is pretty incredible. Definitely helps with the priorities, as it's easy to see which are the most desirable and likely to sell out!

It seems to me that a good strategy would be to go for one Tier 1 ride that looks like it will sell out quickly, such as Slinky Dog, even if it's a time later in the day, then grab at least one ride that's as early in the morning as possible so that you can scan into it quickly and immediately start going for other LLs the day you're at that park.

QUESTION: Let's say you have one LL booked in the afternoon (Slinky) but the other two are booked first thing in the morning (Star Tours then Millennium Falcon). You get to the park and scan into the first LL (Star Tours), then immediately start searching for another one and book it for a time later that day (Tower of Terror). With the SECOND one you had pre-booked (Millennium Falcon), can you immediately book another one once you scan into that, as well, or do you only get one at a time after your initial three that you pre-booked? Basically, are you allowed to hold three at all times or do you only get those three initially and then only book one at a time after that?

You won't be able to pre-book both Slinky and Millenium Falcon because they are both Tier 1. Every time you scan into a lightning lane you can book another. Once you've scanned into any lightning lane (tier 1 or tier 2) you are no longer restricted to a single tier 1. You could in theory modify existing tier 2s into tier 1s and hold 3 tier 1 lightning lanes.

Booking an early lightning lane is usually advantageous, but not always. It depends on exactly what attractions you plan to go to. For example, if your priorities are Slinky, Toy Story, and Tower of Terror, and you don't really care about any of the other lightning lanes, then it's better to book those for whatever time you can get rather than booking something you don't really want just because it's early.

If you send me your list of must-dos, other priorities, and nice-to-haves I'm happy to run some simulations for you and generate some recommended strategies.

 

[PSM]

We haven't gotten through all of the parks yet, but his top five in order for each park are:

HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS
1. Tower of Terror
2. Slinky Dog (I will make this the top priority regardless because LLs disappear)
3. Smugglers Run
4. Toy Story Mania
5. Star Tours
(Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway is likely as high on the list as any of these and he just doesn't remember it)

ANIMAL KINGDOM
1. Everest (he's obsessed with finally getting on this ride, easily number one for the entire trip)
2. Kali River Rapids
3. Safari
4. Flight of Passage (I'm aware not a LLMP)
5. Better Zoogether (technically Jungle Trek fifth but no LL needed)

We'll be working on ordering the rides at MK and Epcot later or tomorrow, but you can guess, as it's all of the fast/thrill rides first.

 

[PSM]

Just saying thank you to everyone who responded. I booked our LLMPs this morning for all four days and parks. We got all three rides I was aiming for at each park and good times for three of the parks. The only one that the times weren't great was Hollywood Studios where all three rides were in the afternoon. I'll keep checking every day to see if anything earlier pops up (they did for other parks on a few rides that I was able to modify but not for any of my HS rides). Not a big deal if they don't, though, and I'll continue checking that day for better options while we're at the park.

 

[PSM]

Oh and I forgot to ask, am I able to purchase and book Lightning Lanes for my wife and kids when they are at Disney if I am not on the trip but we’re all linked as friends on the app? This is for a future trip they are taking when I can’t go.