How to: FISH for Lightning Lane Experience Passes

[twodogs]

Last night, we had a LL booked for Splash, which I booked when it was already down (fishing here). I booked it at 9:58pm for a 10-11pm LL. The ride stayed down until 10:33pm. No MEP ever appeared. I was fishing for a late night ride on something else (didn’t want to ride Splash), so I was frustrated. I feel like if the ride is down over 50% of the LL window (especially late at night when you may need to ride and leave with tired folks in the party), they should issue a MEP. I’m sure they were thinking the ride would be up soon and they didn’t want to have even more MEPs out there since lines were super long for all of the LLs since many rides had been down that day already. But the inconsistency is maddening.

 

[disneylover102]

Last night, we had a LL booked for Splash, which I booked when it was already down (fishing here). I booked it at 9:58pm for a 10-11pm LL. The ride stayed down until 10:33pm. No MEP ever appeared. I was fishing for a late night ride on something else (didn’t want to ride Splash), so I was frustrated. I feel like if the ride is down over 50% of the LL window (especially late at night when you may need to ride and leave with tired folks in the party), they should issue a MEP. I’m sure they were thinking the ride would be up soon and they didn’t want to have even more MEPs out there since lines were super long for all of the LLs since many rides had been down that day already. But the inconsistency is maddening.

I had a sort of similar experience the other day where Monsters Inc was down and I booked an immediate return time but never got a MEP. I wonder if in order to get it you have to book a few minutes in advance? Whatever the case it’s very frustrating when that happens

 

[DLRExpert]

I had a sort of similar experience the other day where Monsters Inc was down and I booked an immediate return time but never got a MEP. I wonder if in order to get it you have to book a few minutes in advance? Whatever the case it’s very frustrating when that happens

It is up to the CM to determine how long an attraction is going to be down for and if a MEP should be given. Some times they fall asleep at the wheel.

My experience with MEP for Monsters Inc yesterday, I was able to get 4 sets MEPs and could have gotten more.

 

[disneylover102]

Now that WEB Slingers is part of genie+ and no longer an ILL I’m really curious on how that affects MEPs. Previously it was never included in any MEP and if you had an ILL for it and it broke down the pass you got was only valid on that ride (this is how it was at the beginning of the year when I bought it but I haven’t bought it since due to the single rider line). I wonder if now it’s in the higher tier of MEPs with Guardians, Space, etc

 

[Furkisser]

Now that WEB Slingers is part of genie+ and no longer an ILL I’m really curious on how that affects MEPs. Previously it was never included in any MEP and if you had an ILL for it and it broke down the pass you got was only valid on that ride (this is how it was at the beginning of the year when I bought it but I haven’t bought it since due to the single rider line). I wonder if now it’s in the higher tier of MEPs with Guardians, Space, etc

It is higher tier.

Thank you so much for posting about the MEP trick. It helped immensely on my trip!

I just wanted to add that when you are booking a LL, even if it is all gone, keep refreshing, eventually you will get one (although I was only a party of 2). Don’t give up. Just keep refreshing while in line. I’ve had nearly 100% success. Bring portable charger for your phone.

Also you shouldn’t settle for the first time you get if it’s too far off. Keep refreshing to get a closer time so you can get another one sooner (unless of course you have a MEP for the relevant tier).

 

[disneylover102]

It is higher tier.

Thank you so much for posting about the MEP trick. It helped immensely on my trip!

I just wanted to add that when you are booking a LL, even if it is all gone, keep refreshing, eventually you will get one (although I was only a party of 2). Don’t give up. Just keep refreshing while in line. I’ve had nearly 100% success. Bring portable charger for your phone.

Also you shouldn’t settle for the first time you get if it’s too far off. Keep refreshing to get a closer time so you can get another one sooner (unless of course you have a MEP for the relevant tier).

Yes, refreshing is essential on busy days. Last week I always got pretty much everything I wanted. Just make sure to prioritize what matters most

 

[katyringo]

Did some successful fishing on our trip. Lightning caused lots of storms and Disney kept issuing LL's while they were closed. We used them to ride the indoor rides.

One morning I noticed Matterhorn didn't look like it would open on time so I booked the 8am slot and got a Mep right away.

I had a couple of unsuccessful attempts at fishing where I booked when the ride was down, it never converted and the ride opens shortly after.

 

[pirate33]

Is there a similar fishing strategy for WDW? I Googled and couldn’t find this topic specifically.

 

[Mseplover]

Please delete

 

[DLRExpert]

Is there a similar fishing strategy for WDW? I Googled and couldn’t find this topic specifically.

There is, but it is not as easy as it is at Disneyland.

At WDW you basically have to choose one attraction at 7am and get an early enough LL return time with the hope that the attraction is down by the end of the first hour of park opening.
My recommendation is
MK - Splash Mountain
EP - Test Track
HS - Rockn Roller Coaster or Railway.
AK - Navi

 

[disneylover102]

Is there a similar fishing strategy for WDW? I Googled and couldn’t find this topic specifically.

Yes! It’s not nearly as good as at DL. As others have mentioned return times are later. And also MEPs are only valid in the same park. So a MEP at Epcot for example is pretty useless unless it comes from Test Track, Soarin’, Ratatouille, or Frozen and even if it does come from one of those it’s not valid on the other big rides (hopefully that makes sense lol) But the 2 biggest strategies I’ve found when a ride is down:
1. Keep refreshing to get a sooner return time (this isn’t nearly as reliable as the next one)
2. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE RAIN! It rains a LOT more at WDW. Basically if the ride is outdoor you’re in luck. There are a ton of outdoor rides at MK and the ones like Tomorrowland Speedway, Dumbo, Barnstormer, etc usually don’t have return times too far away. They’ll push them back about half an hour once they go down but if you know bad weather is almost there and you can get an immediate return time that’s great. I’ve gotten 4 or 5 in a row this way. So if there’s bad weather, don’t be sad, be happy lol

Also the strategy I posted about a couple weeks ago at Disneyland where if you have a MEP you can immediately go on any ride on that list if you have any separate time reserved for that ride works at WDW too. That’s where I first discovered that trick and then it worked at DL too. It’s especially useful at MK where almost every ride has LL.

The MEPs at WDW also differ from DL in that MEPs from higher tier rides are not typically valid on other higher tier rides. At MK MEPs are valid on anything except Space Mountain, 7DMT, Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, or some of the meet and greets. One time I got one from Peter Pan but it was not valid on any of those other high tier rides. Also I’ve gotten passes from Space but they’re only valid on Space. I think that’s because it used to be an ILL. I found as someone who loves thrill rides that it was very nice to be able to use any MEP at MK on Splash or Thunder.

At Epcot as I mentioned they’re not valid on Test Track, Soarin’, Frozen, Ratatouille, or obviously Guardians. I got one from Frozen once and from Ratatouille once. If I remember right the MEP included the ride that went down but not any of the other higher tier ones

Hollywood Studios is weird. Like a MEP is never valid on Tower of Terror unless it comes from it but like if I remember right the MEP from Slinky wasn’t valid on Mickey and Minnie’s while the one from Rock n Roller Coaster was… which makes no sense. I do know that no MEP can be used on Rise of the Resistance. That’s for sure. The most valuable one to me that they can be used on is Rock n Roller Coaster.

At AK I believe MEPs can’t be used on Everest or Flight of Passage but they can be used on everything else.

So it’s a bit more complicated than DL. A MEP will always be valid on the ride it came from though

 

[pirate33]

Very helpful info. I did book Splash this morning at Magic Kingdom and, sure enough, ended up with a MEP. I using entering Peter Pan at 1:00 when I had a 2:10 LL, but it didn’t work. The attendant loudly announced, “YOUR RESERVATION IS AT 2:10.” So at least for me I didn’t get a bonus entry to an attraction for which I held a later LL.

 

[disneylover102]

Very helpful info. I did book Splash this morning at Magic Kingdom and, sure enough, ended up with a MEP. I using entering Peter Pan at 1:00 when I had a 2:10 LL, but it didn’t work. The attendant loudly announced, “YOUR RESERVATION IS AT 2:10.” So at least for me I didn’t get a bonus entry to an attraction for which I held a later LL

Peter Pan is not part of a MEP so that’s why you weren’t able to enter early

 

[pirate33]

Peter Pan is not part of a MEP so that’s why you weren’t able to enter early

Right, but a poster above said (if I understand correctly) that if one had a LL reservation for a ride, the MEP would allow one to enter at a time other than the reservation. I.e., a glitch, but maybe I misunderstood.

 

[disneylover102]

Right, but a poster above said (if I understand correctly) that if one had a LL reservation for a ride, the MEP would allow one to enter at a time other than the reservation. I.e., a glitch, but maybe I misunderstood.

I’m the one that said that. The ride has to be on the list of rides on the MEP. So at MK this trick does not work on Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, or 7 Dwarfs

 

[pirate33]

I’m the one that said that. The ride has to be on the list of rides on the MEP. So at MK this trick does not work on Peter Pan, Jungle Cruise, Space Mountain, or 7 Dwarfs

Got it.

 

[Chrisfilm]

Wow I'm glad I saw this. I guess I just assumed that once the ride went down the ability to book a LL was blocked and that you only got the MEP if you already had a LL booked. And am I reading this right that you can book multiple times on a single down event??? I can't believe these loopholes exist.

Now to decide if it's worth the phone time to take advantage of this or if the rest of my party will get mad at me for sticking my face in a screen too much lol

 

[twodogs]

Wow I'm glad I saw this. I guess I just assumed that once the ride went down the ability to book a LL was blocked and that you only got the MEP if you already had a LL booked. And am I reading this right that you can book multiple times on a single down event??? I can't believe these loopholes exist.

Now to decide if it's worth the phone time to take advantage of this or if the rest of my party will get mad at me for sticking my face in a screen too much lol

Yes you can do this; you book and if that converts to MEP, you can try to book it again if the ride is still down and the return time is immediate/soon. But it takes time to keep rechecking and some luck, as the return time needs to be immediate or very soon so that the ride stays down long enough to generate a MEP. And, when we were there last month, as I said above, I booked a Splash LL while the ride was already down, with immediate return time. The ride stayed down for over 30 minutes of my LL, but never generated a MEP during that down time. Then the ride came back up during the last part of my LL window.... so no MEP for me! When it works, it is wonderful, but it is not completely consistent.

Also remember that if the ride comes back up (so no MEP is generated), you need to either use that LL or cancel it before the ride window expires. If you let the LL expire without being used, you won't be able to book that ride again with LL for the day (since it expired, Disney considers that your chance for that ride in LL for the day). So I set a phone alarm to remind myself to cancel the LL if it doesn't covert by the end of the LL window.

 

[afan]

If you have a MEP and you also have reserved a LL for a ride that happens to be on the list of rides on your MEP, no matter what time it’s reserved for, if you go scan into that ride it will automatically use the normal one you have reserved later

This still works, just did it.

 

[Disanonzzz]

If you have a MEP and you also have reserved a LL for a ride that happens to be on the list of rides on your MEP, no matter what time it’s reserved for, if you go scan into that ride it will automatically use the normal one you have reserved later.

I had multiple successes with this yesterday. In the morning I got a MEP from both Indiana Jones and Space Mountain and in the early afternoon I got one from Incredicoaster (note that I would’ve only needed one MEP for this to work). Because Guardians is on the list of MEPs from Indy and Space, when I had a return time for Guardians for 3:50-4:50 but I scanned in at 3:30, it did NOT use the MEP but it used the 3:50-4:50 one. Later I had a LL for Incredicoaster at 5:25-6:25. At 4:45 I scanned in and used it. Then after scanning in I reserved Soarin’ for 7:15-8:15 but then after getting off Incredicoaster I immediately went over to Soarin’ and used it 2 hours early.

This is extremely significant because it means that if you have a MEP, return times for any ride the MEP is valid on DO NOT MATTER as long as you have some time reserved. Keep in mind that Haunted Mansion Holiday, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, Matterhorn, Toy Story, and Guardians are not normally included in MEPs unless it comes from one of those rides, in which case it will be valid on all of the above

was wondering when someone else was going to discover this. We tried the OPs fishing tactics back in June and discovered you can time travel/accelerate your normal LL. Wasn’t going to post until our keys run out. As long as you get a gold tier MEP, the rest of the day is a free for all because you can just accelerate everything else. Ex. We were in DCA on Tuesday, booked Toy Story at 7:50 for 8:15ish, ride down at 8 when park opens, MEP was in the app before rope dropped, and new return time was 9, fished for a few more hrs (only hit Toy Story once more) then accelerated our LLs all day, (book, scan in early w/ MEP, repeat) was able to do every ride in park, most twice, parade, Carthay Circle, sip/savor, World of Color etc etc. (With family, no park hop)



We’ve done a fair amount of testing on the LL, MEP system and glitches, here are some of our discoveries and theories, and questions:



Terms:

-Entitlement: The right to skip the line (Granted 1 per ride when G+ purchased, bonus/extra entitlements earned with MEPs)



-Reservation window: Time period when an entitlement can be used (1 hr 20 min standard)



-Accelerating an LL: Using a LL entitlement before the reservation window



Discoveries:

-In June, we had so many MEPs from fishing we were bored around 6 waiting for Space Mtn LL at 7:30, used MEP to ride and discovered LL disappeared and MEP did not.



-Further testing that night revealed we did not even need a reservation, so long as we had not already used the initial LL entitlement



-Tried accelerating w/o reserving while holding a different LL and lost an MEP even though we were eligible to re-book (2 hrs since last reservation)



-I believe this is one explanation for certain people who experienced an “unlimited” MEP in the past since they just kept scanning at LL rides instead of reserving



-On recent visits, (September) this did NOT work, we DID need to book a reservation to accelerate and preserve MEP, we lost MEP if not reserved



-Using MEP on jungle cruise is rough if there are multiple scooters in line since they only load 1 per boat



-Water rides out of season/at night can hit BIG, got 5 MEPs between 4:30 and 5 from Grizzly while in DL



-Always peek down the line at Indy before scanning, half the time it says 30 min standby there is no line before the merge



-Using MEP on Luigi’s is my favorite way to use MEP or using it on something ridiculous like Storybook just to skip a 20 min line (did this yesterday)



-The barcode on every single one of your LL passes and MEPs are identical (per ticket) AND you can always scan your ticket instead of the redemption barcode…. Sooo if the barcodes are identical, or you can just scan your ticket, “choosing” which MEP or LL to redeem is completely irrelevant



-The fact that each LL is not assigned a unique code/ID is the reason that the LL/MEP Acceleration hack is possible



-The system MUST use logic to determine which LL, MEP, DAS, or other entitlement is consumed when you scan into the lightning lane when you have multiple on your ticket



-The system always takes the entitlement with the LATEST window away from all valid entitlements for that attraction



-There IS an unlimited MEP glitch that allows using an MEP multiple times without losing it



-We don’t know how to trigger it, but we believe it has something to do with MEPs on multiple tickets but only using some of them.



-Example from test: 3 people (A,B, & C) A and B are Key holders and C had a 2-day ticket. All had G+. In DCA, got MEP from Toy Story at rope drop then a 2nd one around 10 or so. (No other luck) Used MEPs together to accelerate LLs all day long on every single LL ride except grizzly and DLR obviously. We (A&B) used MEP on Toy Story. Passes not consumed. Then we (A&B) used our MEPs on Luigi’s. Then, our test, we used B&C on Guardians. One MEP for ticket B was consumed.



-Our theory was that maybe each glitched pass could be used 3 times



-Then we (A&B only) park hopped, accelerated onto space mountain, then we scanned A&B on Buzz Lightyear without a reservation and each lost an MEP. Then we rebooked Buzz with immediate return, then same on Star Tours.



-We were reasonably satisfied that the 3 time theory was disproven



-Then we went back to DCA to meet C. At this point A had 1 MEP and C had 2 MEPs left



-We scanned into Luigi’s 3X, in order C, A, C



-You CAN scan the same ticket/pass back to back (other tests confirm) if you have enough entitlements



-After scanning in to Luigi’s, we lost 1 pass for A and 1 for C and ended the night with 1 pass for C leftover



-Our theory is that our MEP entitlements could only be consumed if all others on that same MEP had been scanned at least once AND entitlements can only be consumed when scanned



-Hence when we initially used 2/3 on Toy Story and Luigi’s the 3rd pass was unbroken and kept the other 2 working. Then when we used B&C on guardians, C had not been used with B so it was preserved and A was not scanned on guardians so it also did not disappear



-We’re not sure what exactly caused the events after, but need to do more testing



-We tried a test the following day at DLR, had 4 MEPs from Matterhorn times same 3 people, accelerated all day, tried to scan A, B, then A again on Storybook, got green when scanned but lost all 3 MEPs and they continued to behave as expected throughout the night.



-So far we think that there are two things that happen when you scan in:

1. The system checks for a valid reservation window and flashes green if there is one
2. Then, the system consumes the latest entitlement

Questions for additional testing:



-Does scanning 1 pass twice in rapid succession only consume once?



-Do you even need an MEP to accelerate an LL? Could you book something to screenshot your barcode, or just try your ticket on a reserved LL before the reserved return time?



-Is the unlimited MEP a glitch or is there a reliable way to trigger it?



-Do any of these affect it?

Ticket type key vs day pass

Park hopping

Gold vs Basic tier MEP

Redeeming the MEP on the ride we earned it on after already using our original entitlement



What have others discovered/what are your experiences?