Afternoons / evening in the parks without Lighting Lane

[AussieAngel]

I would love to hear people's experiences about visiting a park in the afternoon / evening without using Lightning Lanes.

What are wait times like for rides? Is it even worth it?

(We're heading to WDW in January and planning to do some full park days with Lightning Lanes, but for our shorter days / evenings at the parks, it doesn't seem worthwhile to buy the Multipass for just a few hours... Just wondering how that will look though, in regards to wait times.)

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

This list is a couple of years old, but is just an example of what can be accomplished in about 4 hours in a summer evening without any line assistance:

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
Mine Train
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.

 

[AussieAngel]

Thank you, sounds like a great night!

I was really just wondering with the new LL system, and how it affects the wait times and lines for rides.

 

[scrappinginontario]

This list is a couple of years old, but is just an example of what can be accomplished in about 4 hours in a summer evening without any line assistance:

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
Mine Train
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.

Wow!! That’s an impressive list! Glad you were able to accomplish so much in 4 hours but our experience has never been anything nearly as successful as this. Our experience is less than half of those attractions on a summer evening.

@AussieAngel, please note that what @Babe the Blue Ox was able to accomplish is NOT representative of what the average group can accomplish in 4 hours.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Wow!! That’s an impressive list! Glad you were able to accomplish so much in 4 hours but our experience has never been anything nearly as successful as this. Our experience is less than half of those attractions on a summer evening.

I would like to say that this is just a typical night in the park, but this one did stand out as being a little more efficient than normal. The key is knowing what order to visit the attractions while using those inflated wait times to your advantage.

On this day, like many others, we found bumper to bumper traffic leaving the park as we were hopping in. Guests seem to be arriving earlier and earlier which then leads to early departures. Fortunately this fits our touring plan perfectly.

 

[HopperFan]

Thank you, sounds like a great night!

I was really just wondering with the new LL system, and how it affects the wait times and lines for rides.

Sounds like quite an anomaly and I wouldn't expect the same to happen.

I have been here this week using the LL and not hopping. The LL has been surprisingly light and efficient earlier in the day. By mid to late afternoon the parks have filled up with folks and I assume many are hopping with LL because the LL were now full. When they are full they slow the SB lines down. Wait times went up.

Planning with your priorities and knowledge of which lines are more efficient will help. EX: Tron line was short during fireworks (I watched them from there then rode). Immediately after getting off the line went to Space Mountain. Knowing it is more popular in the dark means it will stay busy throughout the night, except for maybe during fireworks.

Just remember that now that LL is a pricier pay service, it has priority over SB and they will work to keep that line as short as possible while holding up SB.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Sounds like quite an anomaly and I wouldn't expect the same to happen.

That night was more efficient than most but not really what you would call an outlier or anomaly. It’s pretty much just an average night in the park.

Most would be surprised by how much can be accomplished in an evening if you have a good plan and understand the crowd patterns along with the closing procedures.

 

[HeiHei2018]

We did an afternoon at AK in August in a very low crowd week. It started raining as we entered, so we scurried into the bug show, then met Mickey and Minnie. From there, stumbled into Doug and then Moana with a 15 minute wait. Triceratops was walk on. Plenty of seats at the Nemo show. Safari was 5 minute wait. With a 6:00 close, we had to choose between river rapids and Avatar. We hopped in the Navi line right before closing and waited 35-45 minutes. I think we would have accomplished even less if there hadn’t been a deluge. If you have multiple days, two afternoons might work without LLMP.