Hi all. I recently visited Disneyland and while I got a lot of great info on Disboards as usual for our trip, I got the impression that Lightning Lane wasn’t something that regulars use all that much or try to optimize like we do at WDW. The good news is you don’t probably don’t have to fuss too much to get value from Disneyland Multipass Lightning Lane. But for the WDW-type optimizers I have a few comments.
First, I have my disclaimer that I visited Disneyland Resort from 6 February to 10 February 2025. Disney changes; rules change. Check the state of LL rules before your trip. My trip included Thursday through Monday. Thursday and Friday days were kind of rainy so the crowds were low (I guess, I don’t really have anything to compare them to). Monday was kind of cold… maybe? I don’t know, I’m from the Northeast so it wasn’t cold for us, but it was jacket weather. Anyway, my point is on a busy day the advice might need to be modified or adjusted.
Second, our priorities are probably not the same as most people. We had no interest in Guardians of the Galaxy: Breakout. This is a high priority LL! I was shocked at how fast the return times climbed for this LL. At 10am everything was close to an immediate return time in DCA except Guardians of the Galaxy which was at 3PM. If you want this ride, get it and wait your two hours to book your next one. I don’t see how one can avoid it.
Third, I probably didn’t need Lightning Lane at all. I was there for 5 days, which would have been plenty with just a day or two of LLMP. But I bought the all inclusive hopper plus LLMP for my ticket so that’s what I had. I don’t regret this choice, but with the lowish (?) crowds, we could get a lot done and having LL kind of pressures you to use it which can end up being a lot of walking.
Strategy-wise DL is similar to WDW except crowds build far slower at DL than WDW. You might remember the days at WDW when ‘golden hour’ was actually an hour or more. Now it’s like 20 minutes before lines build. Not so at Disneyland. We were comfortable with Standby lines until noon-ish. Plus Disneyland opens at 8am, so that’s quite a bit more time for reasonable standby waits. So I felt using LL in the mornings was not an optimal use of LL. The same is true at WDW, but that morning window is a lot smaller at WDW.
LL savings during the days I was at Disneyland Resort were more of a volume thing than a few big savings. Each LL probably saved me 15 - 20 minutes of waiting (sometimes less, sometimes more), but it isn’t like WDW where you’ll save over an hour of wait on a few attractions. I was able to use 8+ LL each day, so the time savings added up.
The real point of this manifesto is to abuse the modify feature of the Disneyland app to maximize your LLMP potential. I would expect any WDW FP+, Genie+, or LLMP user to know about modifying to move up your return window so that you can use a LL faster (before the 2hour window) and get your next LL sooner. If you don’t know this tip, use the modify feature to look for return times that are sooner.
The other way we abused the modify feature was to push return times later, but in a strategic way. As I said before, I felt no reason to use an LL before noon. That meant I’m hitting the 2 hour timer regardless. But wait, you say, how am I hitting the 2 hour timer when so many LL have near immediate return times? I’m modifying my LL constantly (yes, we were looking at our phone a lot. We don’t mind because queues are a great time to manage our LL). And this is where mining for anytime passes a.k.a. MEP*[1] comes in. One of the main difficulties with LLMP (and to be fair its predecessors too) is the LL window locks you into a time and place. Also LLMP restricts you to one LL per attraction. Anytime passes alleviate both these constraints. Anytime passes are valid for multiple attractions for the rest of the day. This is extremely helpful for building a leisurely afternoon and evening. Instead of walking across the park to the next LL, you can target a visit to an area and use anytime passes as best fits your time and location and not-anytime-LL that you have. I think of LLMP + anytime mining to be a poor man’s Premier Pass, except with anytime passes you can LL the same attraction multiple times! In this respect LLMP + anytime mining is better than Premier Pass, because really, do you need a LL for Autopia? (I don’t know, maybe you do. We certainly didn’t and rode with a less than 5 minute wait without really trying). For example, we had an Indy LL(regular) so we did that, then Pirates and Haunted Mansion with anytime passes to minimize walking.
So that leads to how we mine for anytime passes. And this is more art than science, and ‘gut feeling’ and Vegas style gambling. We would pick a ride that we thought might go offline and hold that LL until near its expiration. This is very important, one must not allow a LL to expire due to time! Modify that LL before it expires.
Mining comes in two main forms.
Mining Type One: Choose a ride and hold the LL during its active window until close to the end of the window before modifying to something else. If the ride goes down during this time, it will automatically*[2] convert to an anytime pass.
Mining Type Two: Choose a LL for a ride that is already temporarily closed that isn’t very far into the future. The closer the better. If that ride does not open before your LL window*[3], you will get an anytime pass.
If you have notifications turned on for the Disneyland App, you will get a notification that states something along the lines of “we have made a modification to your Lightning Lane….” You will learn to cherish these messages. This message might*[4] also be a prompt for you to make a new LL selection. If the LL that converted to anytime is your most recently booked LL, you are immediately eligible to book another selection… INCLUDING the attraction that yielded the anytime pass in the first place.
Mining Type Two can be especially fruitful in the morning when LL return times are close to Now. We had booked Roger Rabbit since it was down, then it converted to anytime and we booked Roger Rabbit again, and again. We ended up with three anytime passes before Roger finally revived itself.
Some rides yield more powerful anytime passes than others.
Pirates yielded an anytime pass that was only valid for Pirates.
Roger Rabbit had a lot of restrictions
Space Mountain, Matterhorn and Indy had few restrictions.
Basically, the more popular rides have fewer restrictions and the less popular rides have more.
Advice: try not to hoard anytime passes. We had trouble using all of our passes! Later in the evening, while we *could* ride something like Soarin’, if we didn’t want the time commitment, we used our remaining anytime passes on Goofy Sky School (a gem!) to close out our night before exiting at the Pixar Exit. Quick LL line and a quick but delightful ride so close to the DLR hotels. Being able to ride a favorite multiple times in a row is a treat. We did the same for BTMRR in Disneyland.
This sword has two edges: At some point a ride will go down when you don’t want it to… while you are in line for it. Remember if you are getting anytime passes, rides are going down so be prepared for the other edge to balance your ride karma.
To close, the modify rules kind of surprised me. I don’t know why, but I originally assumed that once the pass window opened, one wouldn’t be able to modify it anymore. It does feel kind of icky to hold a LL for nearly an hour only to modify it to something else, but that seems to be the way the system works. I would not be surprised if Disney changed this rule, but for now, this is how it is.
*[1] - I call them anytime passes because they are truly anytime (before park close), where as MEP (multiple experience pass) while technically accurate, is misleading in that multiple means different things for different passes. All of them are anytime. You can check which rides are valid for your pass on the app.
*[2] - see post for caveat regarding “automatically”
*[3] - I found that rides that are already closed convert to anytime passes about 5-6 minutes before the stated LL window. I’m guessing that this is consistent with the early tap grace period.
*[4] - If one of your older LL converts, you will not be able to book a new LL selection, but you can modify your current selection to the old attraction that converted.
P.S. Modify never Cancel. The only reason I can think of for cancelling a LL is if you had a DL LL and decided you wanted a DCA LL (or vice versa). In any other instance you are better off Modifying.
P.P.S. Anytime passes are valid for attractions in both parks! It's a bit confusing the way the app is set up (at least as of Feb 2025). If you pull up the list of attractions that the pass is valid for, you will at first be presented with a list is is all one park. At the top of the screen is a DL icon and a DCA icon, click on the other park icon and the attractions for that park will be listed.
First, I have my disclaimer that I visited Disneyland Resort from 6 February to 10 February 2025. Disney changes; rules change. Check the state of LL rules before your trip. My trip included Thursday through Monday. Thursday and Friday days were kind of rainy so the crowds were low (I guess, I don’t really have anything to compare them to). Monday was kind of cold… maybe? I don’t know, I’m from the Northeast so it wasn’t cold for us, but it was jacket weather. Anyway, my point is on a busy day the advice might need to be modified or adjusted.
Second, our priorities are probably not the same as most people. We had no interest in Guardians of the Galaxy: Breakout. This is a high priority LL! I was shocked at how fast the return times climbed for this LL. At 10am everything was close to an immediate return time in DCA except Guardians of the Galaxy which was at 3PM. If you want this ride, get it and wait your two hours to book your next one. I don’t see how one can avoid it.
Third, I probably didn’t need Lightning Lane at all. I was there for 5 days, which would have been plenty with just a day or two of LLMP. But I bought the all inclusive hopper plus LLMP for my ticket so that’s what I had. I don’t regret this choice, but with the lowish (?) crowds, we could get a lot done and having LL kind of pressures you to use it which can end up being a lot of walking.
Strategy-wise DL is similar to WDW except crowds build far slower at DL than WDW. You might remember the days at WDW when ‘golden hour’ was actually an hour or more. Now it’s like 20 minutes before lines build. Not so at Disneyland. We were comfortable with Standby lines until noon-ish. Plus Disneyland opens at 8am, so that’s quite a bit more time for reasonable standby waits. So I felt using LL in the mornings was not an optimal use of LL. The same is true at WDW, but that morning window is a lot smaller at WDW.
LL savings during the days I was at Disneyland Resort were more of a volume thing than a few big savings. Each LL probably saved me 15 - 20 minutes of waiting (sometimes less, sometimes more), but it isn’t like WDW where you’ll save over an hour of wait on a few attractions. I was able to use 8+ LL each day, so the time savings added up.
The real point of this manifesto is to abuse the modify feature of the Disneyland app to maximize your LLMP potential. I would expect any WDW FP+, Genie+, or LLMP user to know about modifying to move up your return window so that you can use a LL faster (before the 2hour window) and get your next LL sooner. If you don’t know this tip, use the modify feature to look for return times that are sooner.
The other way we abused the modify feature was to push return times later, but in a strategic way. As I said before, I felt no reason to use an LL before noon. That meant I’m hitting the 2 hour timer regardless. But wait, you say, how am I hitting the 2 hour timer when so many LL have near immediate return times? I’m modifying my LL constantly (yes, we were looking at our phone a lot. We don’t mind because queues are a great time to manage our LL). And this is where mining for anytime passes a.k.a. MEP*[1] comes in. One of the main difficulties with LLMP (and to be fair its predecessors too) is the LL window locks you into a time and place. Also LLMP restricts you to one LL per attraction. Anytime passes alleviate both these constraints. Anytime passes are valid for multiple attractions for the rest of the day. This is extremely helpful for building a leisurely afternoon and evening. Instead of walking across the park to the next LL, you can target a visit to an area and use anytime passes as best fits your time and location and not-anytime-LL that you have. I think of LLMP + anytime mining to be a poor man’s Premier Pass, except with anytime passes you can LL the same attraction multiple times! In this respect LLMP + anytime mining is better than Premier Pass, because really, do you need a LL for Autopia? (I don’t know, maybe you do. We certainly didn’t and rode with a less than 5 minute wait without really trying). For example, we had an Indy LL(regular) so we did that, then Pirates and Haunted Mansion with anytime passes to minimize walking.
So that leads to how we mine for anytime passes. And this is more art than science, and ‘gut feeling’ and Vegas style gambling. We would pick a ride that we thought might go offline and hold that LL until near its expiration. This is very important, one must not allow a LL to expire due to time! Modify that LL before it expires.
Mining comes in two main forms.
Mining Type One: Choose a ride and hold the LL during its active window until close to the end of the window before modifying to something else. If the ride goes down during this time, it will automatically*[2] convert to an anytime pass.
Mining Type Two: Choose a LL for a ride that is already temporarily closed that isn’t very far into the future. The closer the better. If that ride does not open before your LL window*[3], you will get an anytime pass.
If you have notifications turned on for the Disneyland App, you will get a notification that states something along the lines of “we have made a modification to your Lightning Lane….” You will learn to cherish these messages. This message might*[4] also be a prompt for you to make a new LL selection. If the LL that converted to anytime is your most recently booked LL, you are immediately eligible to book another selection… INCLUDING the attraction that yielded the anytime pass in the first place.
Mining Type Two can be especially fruitful in the morning when LL return times are close to Now. We had booked Roger Rabbit since it was down, then it converted to anytime and we booked Roger Rabbit again, and again. We ended up with three anytime passes before Roger finally revived itself.
Some rides yield more powerful anytime passes than others.
Pirates yielded an anytime pass that was only valid for Pirates.
Roger Rabbit had a lot of restrictions
Space Mountain, Matterhorn and Indy had few restrictions.
Basically, the more popular rides have fewer restrictions and the less popular rides have more.
Advice: try not to hoard anytime passes. We had trouble using all of our passes! Later in the evening, while we *could* ride something like Soarin’, if we didn’t want the time commitment, we used our remaining anytime passes on Goofy Sky School (a gem!) to close out our night before exiting at the Pixar Exit. Quick LL line and a quick but delightful ride so close to the DLR hotels. Being able to ride a favorite multiple times in a row is a treat. We did the same for BTMRR in Disneyland.
This sword has two edges: At some point a ride will go down when you don’t want it to… while you are in line for it. Remember if you are getting anytime passes, rides are going down so be prepared for the other edge to balance your ride karma.
To close, the modify rules kind of surprised me. I don’t know why, but I originally assumed that once the pass window opened, one wouldn’t be able to modify it anymore. It does feel kind of icky to hold a LL for nearly an hour only to modify it to something else, but that seems to be the way the system works. I would not be surprised if Disney changed this rule, but for now, this is how it is.
*[1] - I call them anytime passes because they are truly anytime (before park close), where as MEP (multiple experience pass) while technically accurate, is misleading in that multiple means different things for different passes. All of them are anytime. You can check which rides are valid for your pass on the app.
*[2] - see post for caveat regarding “automatically”
*[3] - I found that rides that are already closed convert to anytime passes about 5-6 minutes before the stated LL window. I’m guessing that this is consistent with the early tap grace period.
*[4] - If one of your older LL converts, you will not be able to book a new LL selection, but you can modify your current selection to the old attraction that converted.
P.S. Modify never Cancel. The only reason I can think of for cancelling a LL is if you had a DL LL and decided you wanted a DCA LL (or vice versa). In any other instance you are better off Modifying.
P.P.S. Anytime passes are valid for attractions in both parks! It's a bit confusing the way the app is set up (at least as of Feb 2025). If you pull up the list of attractions that the pass is valid for, you will at first be presented with a list is is all one park. At the top of the screen is a DL icon and a DCA icon, click on the other park icon and the attractions for that park will be listed.
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