?lightening lanes for large Party

[sndral]

Just to confirm, the multi pass that I paid for last year is gone & this year I pay for my morning park but can make reservations for my evening park once I’ve tapped into ride 1 at my morning park? In looking at the different costs it’s hard to believe I can pay so much less if I start at AK & hop to MK v. paying to start at MK.
We will be 9 for a total of 6 adults & 3 kids aged 4, & 9x2. Our lightening lanes reservation date opens in less than a week & we’ll be selecting for all 6 park days of our trip (on site) & I’m feeling…overwhelmed. We have park hoppers & plan to do a morning park, mid day break, then evening park.
Would you recommend having one person do all of the MPLL to get the same times & sorting out the $ afterwards. Or should we divide & conquer w/ one person grabbing days 1&2, second person grabbing days 3&4, third person grabbing days 5&6? Or, does it even matter that much? If we plan for each group to grab, say jungle cruise @ 10 am on day X, & one person tries to reserve for 7 people & the other for 2 people (which is how who pays for what breaks down) how far apart could the times be?
Since we are staying on site & get to reserve early I assume that our last several days should have the least competition for times for hard to get rides - would you recommend aiming to book the hardest to get rides for the days at the back end of our trip first & then working on the early days of the trip, or does it matter?
Finally, this will be my first trip in years w/ a child too short to ride some rides - how do people deal w/ that, I assume you don’t schedule the child for that ride - but do you schedule one of the adults & the child for a nearby ride & then the adult who didn’t reserve the LL can use rider swap to ride the other ride?
Anything else I should know? I only go once a year & the system is different every time I go - my last visit was Jan. 2026, 7 of the group haven’t been to WDW in years & some never, thus have no experience w/ WDW’s LL but are experienced w/ DL’s system - any thing else I should know?
Also, we’ll be buying some SPLLs - do the systems work independently in terms of scheduling times, how does rider swap work w/ those, if at all?

 

[Mle8308]

It is cheaper to start at AK, but if you are going at a busier time, be aware that by the time you tap into your first attraction, there may not be any LL times available for the headliners at the MK. You have to decide if it's worth the difference in price to take the chance that attractions you want at another park won't have availability. Or the times may not be so great. If you pick AK as your starting park, you can only book attractions there (in advance) until you are actually in the park and tap into the first LL there. Like you mentioned, after tapping into your first attraction, you can reserve at any park.

 

[Dave006]

Just to confirm, the multi pass that I paid for last year is gone & this year I pay for my morning park but can make reservations for my evening park once I’ve tapped into ride 1 at my morning park? In looking at the different costs it’s hard to believe I can pay so much less if I start at AK & hop to MK v. paying to start at MK.

Yes the Multi park version is gone but it was priced at the MK level anyway. The down side of making AK your first park is that you don't get an early chance to lock in you MK LL selections later in the day. Consider booking directly for MK LLMP later in the day to make sure you have 3 guaranteed attractions for later in your day / evening at MK. We don't really use LLMP for AK or Epcot but do for HS, and MK.

Would you recommend having one person do all of the MPLL to get the same times & sorting out the $ afterwards. Or should we divide & conquer w/ one person grabbing days 1&2, second person grabbing days 3&4, third person grabbing days 5&6? Or, does it even matter that much?

For that large of a group, you would want 2 people to split up the schedule and doing alternating day selections. Also consider booking your HS and MK days first but in reverse order (furthest out dates firsts) to improve your odds of getting a better selection of LLMP return times.

I assume you don’t schedule the child for that ride - but do you schedule one of the adults & the child for a nearby ride & then the adult who didn’t reserve the LL can use rider swap to ride the other ride?

This is a little trickier since your initial LLMP selections require that you select the same LLMP attractions for everyone in your booking group. So book for everyone that will use LLMP for that day, and then modify after the fact for the smaller subset to chose another LLMP attraction. It is often not easy to modify between your 7 day advanced purchase day but beginning at 12:01 AM on your park day it is much easier to modify to make adjustments in your LLMP attractions and/or return times.

Does this make sense?

Dave

 

[sndral]

Yes the Multi park version is gone but it was priced at the MK level anyway. The down side of making AK your first park is that you don't get an early chance to lock in you MK LL selections later in the day. Consider booking directly for MK LLMP later in the day to make sure you have 3 guaranteed attractions for later in your day / evening at MK. We don't really use LLMP for AK or Epcot but do for HS, and MK.


For that large of a group, you would want 2 people to split up the schedule and doing alternating day selections. Also consider booking your HS and MK days first but in reverse order (furthest out dates firsts) to improve your odds of getting a better selection of LLMP return times.


This is a little trickier since your initial LLMP selections require that you select the same LLMP attractions for everyone in your booking group. So book for everyone that will use LLMP for that day, and then modify after the fact for the smaller subset to chose another LLMP attraction. It is often not easy to modify between your 7 day advanced purchase day but beginning at 12:01 AM on your park day it is much easier to modify to make adjustments in your LLMP attractions and/or return times.

Does this make sense?

Dave

Thank you. I’m maybe even more confused . If half of the group want to ride Tower of Terror (for example) & the other half don’t (or at age 4 is too short) we can’t pre book half on Tower of Terror & the other half on a different ride/show for that time slot?

The plan is we will pay for MPLL for everyone for the scheduled morning park & not worry about the price difference:
Mon. - MK a.m., Epcot evening (+EMH)
Tue. - DHS a.m., springs p.m.
Wed. - AK a.m., DHS p.m. (+EMH)
Thur. - MK a.m., Epcot p.m.
Fri. - Epcot a.m., DHS p.m.
Sat. - AK a.m., MK p.m.

 

[Dave006]

If half of the group want to ride Tower of Terror (for example) & the other half don’t (or at age 4 is too short) we can’t pre book half on Tower of Terror & the other half on a different ride/show for that time slot?

That's correct for your initial up to 3 LLMP selections that are purchased in a single transaction. Using your example you would need to purchase LLMP for the different groups as 2 transactions if you wanted to split up your group in advance.

The process of purchasing your LLMP selections in MDE is what drives you to select up to 3 LLMP attractions is that you pick the travel group, then you pick the attraction(s), and then complete the purchase.

On your day of park visit replacement LLMP selections, you don't need an all or nothing approach. You can select a subgroup of your travel party for 1 attraction while your other half of the group selects another LLMP attraction.

Does this make sense?

Dave

 

[sndral]

Ok, I think I get it & thanks for clarifying, the whole planning a trip for 9 has been like herding cats , so no surprise that LLMPs are no different, sigh. I’m just trying to be as prepared & knowledgeable as I can for when I’m up at 4 a.m. my time in a couple of days to book them .