Disneyland Early Entry w/ Lightning Lane Multi Pass Strategy

[Huskyfan860]

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.

 

[Girimama33]

IMO if you want to do the FL rides, I would knock out as many non LL FL rides as you can with EE since you have the option to do LL for all the TL attractions. If Peter Pan or Alice are must do's...I would try and tackle them during those 30 minutes.

 

[Huskyfan860]

IMO if you want to do the FL rides, I would knock out as many non LL FL rides as you can with EE since you have the option to do LL for all the TL attractions. If Peter Pan or Alice are must do's...I would try and tackle them during those 30 minutes.

Makes sense and goes along with a lot of what I see online. Any tips on what a post-EE strategy should look like?

 

[JerrodDragon89]

If you can get on Pan, quickly then hit it and Alice and go from there.

 

[Girimama33]

Makes sense and goes along with a lot of what I see online. Any tips on what a post-EE strategy should look like?

If you are pre-booking LL a few days before you arrive, I would try and ensure one of those is around park opening so you can begin selecting more LL. I would also want to go to a land that was not open during EE like Frontierland/Adventureland or SWGE... my family are Big Thunder Fans so that is typically our first...sometimes with multiple rides. If I was pre-booking the 3 LLs, and wanted to start in that area, I would try to get an early LL for BTMRR or Indy. If you want to start at SWGE, I would book Smugglers Run. Once that first LL is scanned in, you can start booking others.
Also, one of the best tips I have received from these boards is the modify button... if it's say 12:45 and you want to book a LL for SM, but the return time is 4:30 and you prefer not to wait that long, book it, and keep refreshing with the modify button. In my experience a much earlier time almost always shows up.

 

[irlandaise]

If you are pre-booking LL a few days before you arrive, I would try and ensure one of those is around park opening so you can begin selecting more LL.

You can't book LL Multi Pass or Single Pass attractions until you're in your starting park.

 

[Porsche4]

If you are pre-booking LL a few days before you arrive, I would try and ensure one of those is around park opening so you can begin selecting more LL. I would also want to go to a land that was not open during EE like Frontierland/Adventureland or SWGE... my family are Big Thunder Fans so that is typically our first...sometimes with multiple rides. If I was pre-booking the 3 LLs, and wanted to start in that area, I would try to get an early LL for BTMRR or Indy. If you want to start at SWGE, I would book Smugglers Run. Once that first LL is scanned in, you can start booking others.
Also, one of the best tips I have received from these boards is the modify button... if it's say 12:45 and you want to book a LL for SM, but the return time is 4:30 and you prefer not to wait that long, book it, and keep refreshing with the modify button. In my experience a much earlier time almost always shows up.

You can't pre book LL's at Disneyland only at WDW. Personally I would do what others have suggested and hit the non LL rides first in Fantasyland. We do that then head to either Space Mountain or Big Thunder and ride them standby while the lines are still short and then get LL's for later to ride them again. Honestly between 7:30 (EE) and about 10:00am the standby lines are really manageable so we try to ride things we want to ride twice during that time then hit those rides again with LL later in the day after we have had an afternoon break back at our hotel. Enjoy your trip.

 

[Girimama33]

You can't book LL Multi Pass or Single Pass attractions until you're in your starting park.

My mistake...I thought they both got that ability. That makes me feel better because I prefer not having the ability to pre-book.

 

[Porsche4]

My mistake...I thought they both got that ability. That makes me feel better because I prefer not having the ability to pre-book.

From what I understand you can actually make your first LL booking at Disneyland at 7:00am for whatever park you have a reserved entry for that day. You don't have to have entered the park to book your first one but you do have to have a reservation. So if you have prepurchased tickets and made a park reservation for say Disneyland you can book your first LL for that park at 7:00 even though you won't actually be in the park as it won't have opened yet. If you have a Park Hopper attached to your ticket then you can't book an LL for the park you intend to hop to until after 11:00.

 

[irlandaise]

From what I understand you can actually make your first LL booking at Disneyland at 7:00am for whatever park you have a reserved entry for that day. You don't have to have entered the park to book your first one but you do have to have a reservation.

Thanks for the correction.

 

[Ryan120420]

From what I understand you can actually make your first LL booking at Disneyland at 7:00am for whatever park you have a reserved entry for that day. You don't have to have entered the park to book your first one but you do have to have a reservation. So if you have prepurchased tickets and made a park reservation for say Disneyland you can book your first LL for that park at 7:00 even though you won't actually be in the park as it won't have opened yet. If you have a Park Hopper attached to your ticket then you can't book an LL for the park you intend to hop to until after 11:00.

You can start booking LL only after you have scanned into the park.

7am rule is for Disney World only.

 

[disneychrista]

If you can get on Pan, quickly then hit it and Alice and go from there.

This is my advice as well.

Peter Pan, Alice, Toad, Snow White, Pinocchio, etc

 

[Porsche4]

You can start booking LL only after you have scanned into the park.

7am rule is for Disney World only.

I think thats the way it used to be but since the upgrade it has changed, thats what I am reading and seeing from vloggers but I could be wrong.

 

[Porsche4]

This is so confusing. When the new system launched the other day it clearly stated that at DL you could book your first LL at 7:00am as long as you had a park reservation for the park that you were trying to get an LL for. Now I go to the DL website and it says there that you can only book your LL once you have entered the park. I wish they'd get their act together and get their information right at launch for these new systems. No wonder people are so confused.

 

[Huskyfan860]

I'm almost tempted to rope drop Galaxy's Edge right after EE in Fantasyland but I see that the path between RotR and what will become TBA is closed right now (which makes that strategy less appealing because I'd have to backtrack a decent amount after Galaxy's Edge.

Is it safe to assume we have no date for when that path will open back up, correct?

 

[Girimama33]

I'm almost tempted to rope drop Galaxy's Edge right after EE in Fantasyland but I see that the path between RotR and what will become TBA is closed right now (which makes that strategy less appealing because I'd have to backtrack a decent amount after Galaxy's Edge.

Is it safe to assume we have no date for when that path will open back up, correct?

The path from Frontierland to SWGE should be open and closer to Fantasyland. The Critter Country route is the one that is closed, so you should be ok if that’s the plan.

 

[Girimama33]

This is so confusing. When the new system launched the other day it clearly stated that at DL you could book your first LL at 7:00am as long as you had a park reservation for the park that you were trying to get an LL for. Now I go to the DL website and it says there that you can only book your LL once you have entered the park. I wish they'd get their act together and get their information right at launch for these new systems. No wonder people are so confused.

Maybe you are thinking about the HMH VQ

 

[laugard]

This is so confusing. When the new system launched the other day it clearly stated that at DL you could book your first LL at 7:00am as long as you had a park reservation for the park that you were trying to get an LL for. Now I go to the DL website and it says there that you can only book your LL once you have entered the park. I wish they'd get their act together and get their information right at launch for these new systems. No wonder people are so confused.

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.

 

[disneychrista]

This is so confusing. When the new system launched the other day it clearly stated that at DL you could book your first LL at 7:00am as long as you had a park reservation for the park that you were trying to get an LL for. Now I go to the DL website and it says there that you can only book your LL once you have entered the park. I wish they'd get their act together and get their information right at launch for these new systems. No wonder people are so confused.

I think you may be confusing the VQ for HMH. For this you CAN book at 7am if you have DL start.

 

[Ryan120420]

I think thats the way it used to be but since the upgrade it has changed, thats what I am reading and seeing from vloggers but I could be wrong.

Its never been the case here at Disneyland, going all the way back to MaxPass. You've always had to scan into one park before you could start booking FP/LL/ or Single Pass LLs.