Plan Ahead with Lightning Lane Entry at Walt Disney World Starting July 24

[gottalovepluto]

I feel reasonably confident that next week is not going to be summer break high season at WDW . I know some schools don't go back until after Labor Day, but I think most are back or will be back imminently. I have been talked into this same week for the last 3 years, and it has always been low crowds (ish, you know what I mean ).

...but that isn't the point here. I am just grousing and don't expect anyone to solve it. I was not a fan of FP+ either, to be fair, and I don't mind throwing $ at Disney, but I am dubious about this. I fully intend to modify, as always.

I get up at 5 am every day anyways, but I really enjoy that last hour of Zzzzzs....

I’ll be treating myself to a Venti Starbucks on booking day. Does it math out to spend even more money after throwing all that money at The Mouse? No. But will it help me be a decent human being after the absurdly early wake up call? Yes.

 

[Disturbia]

Late to the party (saw this info was posted on the previous page):

I just watched a great video by Ear Scouts and he started in AK to test when you can book in another park.

1. Cancelling a LLMP doesn’t ‘unlock’ the system to book in park 2

2. Letting a LLMP expire doesn’t ‘unlock’ park 2 LLMP (others reported they could)

3. Grace period of 20? mins after LL time in tact

4. Scanning into one of the LLMP prebooked rides ‘unlocks’ the ability to book at park 2

 

[DLRExpert]

Grace period of 20? mins after LL time in tact

Grace period is 15 miniutes if you need to see the green light and not leave it in the hands of the CM. The blue light and leaving up to CM, can be much later than 20 minutes.

 

[Threehearts]

Last week when I was at WDW, you could tap in 5 min before a ride(I failed at 6 minutes) and then had a grace period of 15 minutes after your time slot to return, not 20. I did see one group turned away at 20 minutes. I'd just be careful but also keep in mind that my one observation of latecomers being rejected may have been an outlier.

 

[Disturbia]

Grace period is 15 miniutes if you need to see the green light and not leave it in the hands of the CM. The blue light and leaving up to CM, can be much later than 20 minutes.

He scanned at 18 mins and it turned green. I always thought it was 15, but this could be just because of it being a new system?

I would err on the side of caution and say 15 mins. With Genie+, our band turned blue at 16 mins at Remy but one person scanned in at 15 mins so the CM let the rest of the party in.

 

[elvispursley]

Same, tomorrow is my booking day, and I have an alarm set for 3:45. Bleah.

When we lived in Seattle I despised the early alarm set for ADRs. Now it’s even worse…we live in Jawaii and it’s a 6hr time difference. My booking window opens on 8/19, the day I’m flying back to Seattle. I’ll have to be up at 1:00am and then be at the airport by 5:00. I will not be getting any sleep and pray my brain functions enough to make our selections

 

[Goldelpack]

When you say 10 day mark…what do you mean? You have a 10-day stay and are 7 days out from your first day?

Apologies! Yes, I hit my 7 days before my 10 day stay. I totally mis-stated that.

 

[StarCruzer]

Apologies! Yes, I hit my 7 days before my 10 day stay. I totally mis-stated that.

Folks out here panicking, thinking you've found some incredible loophole that you're not sharing

 

[2vets]

Here it is, 3:30 am PST. My sister and niece are included in my resort res starting 8/20, but the app is saying they are not eligible until 8/16. I can't even with this.

At least they picked up the phone fast and fixed it before 7. I need coffee now.

 

[DJFan88]

Here it is, 3:30 am PST. My sister and niece are included in my resort res starting 8/20, but the app is saying they are not eligible until 8/16. I can't even with this.

Did you purchase the tickets with the stay as a package for all? Or are you under separate tickets and perhaps theirs arent all linked or dated properly?

 

[2vets]

OK, after my grouse session yesterday, I was able to get everything I wanted and at some really good times.. On our last day, since we knew we had people departing at noon, I reserved Tiana alone at first to be sure I got it early, and then I booked my second tier rides after I had already gone through the remainder of the booking.

 

[2vets]

Did you purchase the tickets with the stay as a package for all? Or are you under separate tickets and perhaps theirs arent all linked or dated properly?

Everyone's an AP. We're all set. Something about the plans weren't fully shared..? No clue, we book together all the time. Took 2 phone calls, they were able to do some patch that showed we were on a "family vacation" - I can see that detail in my plans, now.

 

[2vets]

It’s the weather, not the school calendar. The crowd shift away from summer to Fall Break Season was under way even pre-Covid. There isn’t going to be some magical surge of right before school trips this year that didn’t happen in the previous 2 years.

This, and also, seems like many people don’t go on vaca the week before school starts.

 

[2vets]

Folks out here panicking, thinking you've found some incredible loophole that you're not sharing

I was like, HOW DO I GET 10 DAYS???

 

[FLCA026]

Couldn’t get Tiana this morning. Oh well.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

True! But I'm actually not worried about it because there are way more people who don't believe that, even when you show them facts, and also people who just legitimately want to be able to see fireworks etc. But the clueless outnumber us by a significant margin!

Some of us find rope drop to be way too crowded and stressful and would rather be in the parks later in the evening when the lines are much shorter than advertised.

Probably not as clueless as you would prefer to believe.

 

[FallsChurchDad]

Some of us find rope drop to be way too crowded and stressful and would rather be in the parks later in the evening when the lines are much shorter than advertised.

Probably not as clueless as you would prefer to believe.

We are long-time rope drop people, but after last week, I am now on your team... 4 of our 5 rope drops were a bust.

Wednesday at MK was the worst. We were at the very front of the rope for Mine Train, but it was down. So were Pooh AND Space Mountain. They did not announce Mine Train would be down until they walked us to the front of the ride, and there were empty cars running on the track, so we stayed in line until 8:45 am before we gave up. Then we went to Astro Orbitor, waited 15 minutes. By then of course, the left side of the park already had full lines, Space was posted at 60 with a line outside the ride, and Mine Train stayed down until around 11:30 am.

For that, I had the kids out the door at 6:50 am at Beach Club to take a bus and hustle through crowds.

Other days - Remy was down at rope drop on Monday after we waited in the pouring rain. At HS, Slinky Dog was a few minutes late but at least we did stay in line and rode it early. But ToT was down, so by the time we finished SDD, the posted wait for RNRC was already 35 minutes (and I figured it would build while we walked down there), so we scrapped our original plans. And hilariously, Crush n Gusher didn't have enough water running on the slides at rope drop in TL, which they only told us at the top of the ride - that was an operational mistake; of course we didn't get anything as compensation.

Overall, we still had fun and did a lot of rides, but we would have been better off arriving late and just staying through the middle of the day and evening. Our boys' mood started LOW each day.

 

[kylenne]

Some of us find rope drop to be way too crowded and stressful and would rather be in the parks later in the evening when the lines are much shorter than advertised.

Probably not as clueless as you would prefer to believe.

10:30am has never been rope drop time in the history of MK, and I basically walked on to Mine Train at that time. No elbows thrown, no getting flat tired by strollers or run over by ECVs.

You do not have to rope drop to enjoy low wait times on a party day. Rope dropping just means you can get the entire park done by noon. But those low waits last all day long, almost right up until 4pm when the first party goers are allowed in. You can roll up basically at noon and enjoy sub 30 minute waits at pretty much any of the headliners.

I pulled up the app just now and right this minute, at 10am on a party day--hardly the crack of dawn--Jungle Cruise is showing it's sold out of LLs, but has a posted 30 minute wait. The longest posted wait atm is Mine Train at 45, and I guarantee you the actual wait will not be that long. The soonest LL return time for Mansion is 2:15pm and it's showing a posted 13 (aka a walk on). Most are showing 10-20. At 10am. And none of these attractions will really start spiking until 4. They never do. And many of these rides with short posted standby waits are showing LLs more than an hour out, if they even have any.

So yeah, it is pretty darn clueless to argue with years worth of data and spend money you don't need to on a system that's totally unnecessary for a given day, refreshing for LLs you don't need because I guess showing up at 2pm instead of 4pm was a burden.

 

[DaviVascaino]

I am booking my passes tomorrow for Aug 20-25 (I added a day to specifically bump up our chances of getting a morning Tiana on our last day), and looking at the times that are available currently on Thrill Data for next week, I am irritated all around.

There are no morning times listed for Tiana or Slinky until the 4th day of our visit. How is that availability reasonable for midweek days during a week that almost every kid in the USA has gone back to school? Forget staying off site - obviously, that is disadvantaged to a ridiculous degree. But apparently, you have to be on site and for more than 4 days if you want to dictate your times without constant tinkering and modifying and praying to the Disney gods. I almost never do trips that are longer than 4 nights/3 days. And for sure, forget busier times of year.

I made my first WDW spreadsheet so I have in front of me what to book and in what order - and let me tell you, I have been going to Disney since the year after it opened and have never done anything like this. My alarm is set for 3:45 am (I live in the PST time zone). but I am beyond annoyed, which is never a good way to preface an alarm at that ungodly hour.

man, Disney replaced Genie plus which was not that great with something that is overall WORSE for most people. Amazing LOL

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We are long-time rope drop people, but after last week, I am now on your team... 4 of our 5 rope drops were a bust.

Wednesday at MK was the worst. We were at the very front of the rope for Mine Train, but it was down. So were Pooh AND Space Mountain. They did not announce Mine Train would be down until they walked us to the front of the ride, and there were empty cars running on the track, so we stayed in line until 8:45 am before we gave up. Then we went to Astro Orbitor, waited 15 minutes. By then of course, the left side of the park already had full lines, Space was posted at 60 with a line outside the ride, and Mine Train stayed down until around 11:30 am.

For that, I had the kids out the door at 6:50 am at Beach Club to take a bus and hustle through crowds.

Other days - Remy was down at rope drop on Monday after we waited in the pouring rain. At HS, Slinky Dog was a few minutes late but at least we did stay in line and rode it early. But ToT was down, so by the time we finished SDD, the posted wait for RNRC was already 35 minutes (and I figured it would build while we walked down there), so we scrapped our original plans. And hilariously, Crush n Gusher didn't have enough water running on the slides at rope drop in TL, which they only told us at the top of the ride - that was an operational mistake; of course we didn't get anything as compensation.

Overall, we still had fun and did a lot of rides, but we would have been better off arriving late and just staying through the middle of the day and evening. Our boys' mood started LOW each day.

Those attractions are much more likely to not fire up in the morning than they are to go down during the day.

7DMT is a good example. We like to save that one for a couple of quick rerides after the fireworks. The longest we've ever waited was 20 minutes, but that was during opening week in 2014. Since then it's averaged about a 10 minute wait, but the posted time is generally 40-60+.