Disneyland Early Entry w/ Lightning Lane Multi Pass Strategy

[YodaRulz]

When I do EE to Disneyland the below strategy is what I have used the past year or so. This is based on being thru security shortly after they open at 7am and in line at the main gate shortly after. This gets you to the front of the EE rope area by Tomorrowland. Doing it this way I can usually knock out all of the below (doing them in the order listed) between 7:30-8am. Since these rides only have standby lines this is what I prefer to use this time for.

1. Peter Pan
2. Alice
3. Snow White
4. Mr. Toads
5. Pinocchio

I personally then jump to Adventureland and do standby lines for the below with shorter waits from 8-10:30am.

1. Indiana Jones
2. Big Thunder
3. Haunted Mansion (wont be able to do this one except with VQ right now, so ensure you join at either 7am or 12pm to ride)
4. Pirates

On the way to Adventureland I book my first LL (now called LL Multi Pass) usually for Space Mountain and a paid LL (now LL Single Pass) for Rise - I wait until the return time for Rise is around 11am so I can mobile order lunch while in line.

You can book your LL earlier for Space, but I like a later return time so that I get the above rides done, get through Rise, and eat lunch. Note: I always loose cell signal about 1/2 way down the first part of the queue for Indian Jones, so ensure you have your first LL chosen before you are inside or you may have to wait until after the ride is over.

An alternative to Adventureland is at 8am go do Space Mountain and Matterhorn and use your first LL for Indiana Jones, really up to you. Sometimes I will also do a LL Single Pass for RSR once the return time is later in the day IF I have park hopper.

Hope you enjoy your trip! I will be there in September as well (the last week) to enjoy the fall/halloween decor

 

[Huskyfan860]

When I do EE to Disneyland the below strategy is what I have used the past year or so. This is based on being thru security shortly after they open at 7am and in line at the main gate shortly after. This gets you to the front of the EE rope area by Tomorrowland. Doing it this way I can usually knock out all of the below (doing them in the order listed) between 7:30-8am. Since these rides only have standby lines this is what I prefer to use this time for.

1. Peter Pan
2. Alice
3. Snow White
4. Mr. Toads
5. Pinocchio

I personally then jump to Adventureland and do standby lines for the below with shorter waits from 8-10:30am.

1. Indiana Jones
2. Big Thunder
3. Haunted Mansion (wont be able to do this one except with VQ right now, so ensure you join at either 7am or 12pm to ride)
4. Pirates

On the way to Adventureland I book my first LL (now called LL Multi Pass) usually for Space Mountain and a paid LL (now LL Single Pass) for Rise - I wait until the return time for Rise is around 11am so I can mobile order lunch while in line.

You can book your LL earlier for Space, but I like a later return time so that I get the above rides done, get through Rise, and eat lunch. Note: I always loose cell signal about 1/2 way down the first part of the queue for Indian Jones, so ensure you have your first LL chosen before you are inside or you may have to wait until after the ride is over.

An alternative to Adventureland is at 8am go do Space Mountain and Matterhorn and use your first LL for Indiana Jones, really up to you. Sometimes I will also do a LL Single Pass for RSR once the return time is later in the day IF I have park hopper.

Hope you enjoy your trip! I will be there in September as well (the last week) to enjoy the fall/halloween decor

This is great info, thanks!

One question about LLMP - the old rules under G+ were that you could "stack" rides every 2 hours, so my guiding principle used to be to book a ride ASAP just to start the clock, and then modify to push it forward. If the park opens at 8am and EE is at 7:30am, the clock starts at park open so you could theoretically book your next ride at 10am. This gives you a 2.5 hour time period to try to ride as much has you can before you start hitting up LL's you've booked.

Is that rule still in place under LLMP?

 

[OlliePop27]

Disneyland has always required being scanned in to book your first Lightning Lane. That hasn't changed.

What launched this week is the temporary Virtual Queue for Haunted Mansion. For that, you can try joining the VQ at 7 a.m. without being scanned in yet as long as you have a DL park reservation.

The confusion on this thread shows they should not have changed the name of the system at DL to be the same as the new system at WDW. They function very differently. It really made no sense to change the name at DL from Genie+ to LLMP when the underlying rules weren't changing at DL. It is inherently confusing. They should have gone back to something like, I don't know, MaxPass!

If people on these boards find it confusing (it is), I can't imagine how confusing it is to average visitors who aren't spending time on these boards.

 

[YodaRulz]

This is great info, thanks!

One question about LLMP - the old rules under G+ were that you could "stack" rides every 2 hours, so my guiding principle used to be to book a ride ASAP just to start the clock, and then modify to push it forward. If the park opens at 8am and EE is at 7:30am, the clock starts at park open so you could theoretically book your next ride at 10am. This gives you a 2.5 hour time period to try to ride as much has you can before you start hitting up LL's you've booked.

Is that rule still in place under LLMP?

My understanding is that the new LLMP is just a name change only at Disneyland and everything else stays the same including the 2-hour rule. So yes, book your first LL asap and then the 2 hours begin at park open and modify as needed.

Note: I haven't been to Disneyland since May and the change of Genie+ to LLMP so someone who has been there since the change can double confirm I am correct.

 

[Sakura1017]

Disneyland has always required being scanned in to book your first Lightning Lane. That hasn't changed.

What launched this week is the temporary Virtual Queue for Haunted Mansion. For that, you can try joining the VQ at 7 a.m. without being scanned in yet as long as you have a DL park reservation.

If you do VQ at 7 am for HM it won't affect booking lightening lane when you get into park?

 

[irlandaise]

If you do VQ at 7 am for HM it won't affect booking lightening lane when you get into park?

HM is not currently available as a LL selection, so no, getting a VQ time for it will not affect your LL selections.

 

[LKing]

The confusion on this thread shows they should not have changed the name of the system at DL to be the same as the new system at WDW. They function very differently. It really made no sense to change the name at DL from Genie+ to LLMP when the underlying rules weren't changing at DL. It is inherently confusing. They should have gone back to something like, I don't know, MaxPass!

If people on these boards find it confusing (it is), I can't imagine how confusing it is to average visitors who aren't spending time on these boards.

I agree that it is confusing for people who frequent both parks. However, I don't think the majority of guests do that.

MB+ works very differently at WDW compared to DLR and often cause confusion and frustration as well.

 

[Scott2tune]

We're staying onsite for the first time in September and we'll have one early entry day at DL. We'll also have LLMP and we have no issue buying single passes for RotR if need be - it's just two of us. When we went to DL last December, we did Fantasyland rides and then made our way to Matterhorn & Space Mountain, but that was just regular rope drop.

I've found lots of guides about what to do for Early Entry and also what to do for regular rope drop with LLMP aka G+, but not a ton of info about the best strategy for having all of the above. Does it make sense to knock out the Fantasyland rides, or should we dodge the crowds and instead do Space Mountain + one other Tomorrowland ride? Being in Fantasyland for Early Entry would give us a ton of options for next steps, but I'm wondering if there are "best practices" for how to structure your morning.

As far as info about me - It'll be just me & my wife, and we love thrill rides + good food. The Fantasyland dark rides are fine, they're quirky and fun, but they aren't why we go to DLR. My thinking about doing them during early entry is that since they aren't on LLMP, there's no better time to hit them up.

Question - I notice that this coming Friday DL is EE but normally it is DCA- any idea why? Thanks Disboard(ers)

 

[twodogs]

My understanding is that the new LLMP is just a name change only at Disneyland and everything else stays the same including the 2-hour rule. So yes, book your first LL asap and then the 2 hours begin at park open and modify as needed.

Note: I haven't been to Disneyland since May and the change of Genie+ to LLMP so someone who has been there since the change can double confirm I am correct.

Unless something changed since June, you can book your first LL upon scanning into the park, even if it is for EE. Then your next LL is able to be booked 2 hours later or after use of the first LL, whichever happens first. So if you scan into the park at 7:25am for EE, book right then, then your next LL will be able to be booked at 9:25am. You can always modify your LL booking time to a later time if you don’t want to burn a LL during the early park hours when SB waits are short, but if you cancel a LL to book a LL for something else, the 2 hour block out clock resets. If you modify an existing LL to a different time (earlier or later) or even to a different ride, the 2 hour block out clock does NOT reset from the time you originally booked that LL.

 

[rockpiece]

Thats a huge bummer about having to be scanned into the park in order to book your first LL , I am doing the 10k on Saturday and at this point we are probably just going to scan into DL on our way back to the hotel in our race clothes so we can book stuff and then go back,shower and come back.

 

[Bree]

Thats a huge bummer about having to be scanned into the park in order to book your first LL , I am doing the 10k on Saturday and at this point we are probably just going to scan into DL on our way back to the hotel in our race clothes so we can book stuff and then go back,shower and come back.

That’s what we did for the races in January. It worked out well

 

[fly girl]

We have used different strategies.

Sometimes we go to Peter Pan and other times Space Mountain. Hyperspace Mountain, we are going there! Regular Space, depends on our mood. We have gone to FL with the intention of riding Peter Pan, only to see the line be too long and bagged it. Went to Alice then Space Mountain.

If you are going to buy LLMP, then I would typically say head to Fantasy Land for EE since you can utilize LLMP and single rider as well for Space.

However, you are 2 adults with priorities of thrill rides and food. So another suggestion is to just play it by ear. See what you two feel like doing that morning. The good thing is neither one of you will be left broken hearted not riding FL rides if you chose to hit Tomorrow Land first.