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

[SmallWorld71]

Animal Kingdom today. We purchased both multipass and single pass for this day.
Arrived at AK a little before 7:00 for early entry at 7:30. Did the running of the bulls to Flight of Passage standby. Got off around 8:00 to a posted wait of 105 minutes.
Used multi pass for Navi. (Good use of pass) Booked Everest when we got off since we can’t get service in that ride.
Rode safari standby. Waited about 10 minutes. Good safari but took a while because ostriches wouldn’t get out of the road, lol.
Used multipass at LOTLK. (Not needed, but did get good seats). Booked dinosaur.
Went to Rafiki’s Planet Watch: met Timon. Drew Pumba at the Animation Academy.
Had a snack and then photos in front of tree of life.
Back to Pandora where we waited for our Satu’li Canteen mobile order to be ready.
Rode Flight of Passage with LL.
Met Donald, Chip and Dale (fabulous!) in Dinoland.
Rode Everest and then Kali, both with LL.
DH and I left the park at this point, about 4:30.
Kids stayed and did Tough to be Bug standby, Dinosaur LL, and Safari LL.
Generally speaking, I thought we got our $ worth today. AK was quite busy and the lines were regularly 50+ minutes. Even though there are not a lot of options, the price isn’t high here. Plus, most of the queues are outside in the heat and this is a great way to avoid that.

 

[Monk6552]

Apologies if this has been asked - couldn't find it in search. Is it possible if you have a park hopper ticket to buy LLMP and only book LL for your second park? I.e. I decide to start my day in Epcot, but book my 3 LLMP in MK for later that afternoon? I know that would mean I couldn't get any rides in Epcot - I'm just wondering if that would work.

 

[Dave006]

Is it possible if you have a park hopper ticket to buy LLMP and only book LL for your second park? I.e. I decide to start my day in Epcot, but book my 3 LLMP in MK for later that afternoon?

Yes no problem with making your LLMP for your second park. And if you change your mind about Epcot you can always change your Park selection and your LLMP selections...

Tap the Lightning Lane Passes section on the MDE home screen to find your plans. Then, you can:

• Change your selected park and/or date in advance (subject to availability)—up until the moment you redeem your first Lightning Lane selection of the day
• Change each selected experience and/or arrival window in advance (subject to availability)—up until the start of the arrival window

Dave

 

[Monk6552]

Yes no problem with making your LLMP for your second park. And if you change your mind about Epcot you can always change your Park selection and your LLMP selections...

Tap the Lightning Lane Passes section on the MDE home screen to find your plans. Then, you can:

• Change your selected park and/or date in advance (subject to availability)—up until the moment you redeem your first Lightning Lane selection of the day
• Change each selected experience and/or arrival window in advance (subject to availability)—up until the start of the arrival window

Dave

Thank you for the super quick response! I'm arriving on a Friday morning for MNSSHP and have heard Tiana's has a relatively long line all night - so we were thinking of going to Epcot during the day - then heading over to MK around 3 and doing a few LLMP so we don't have to wait in longer lines during the party and wasn't sure if that strategy would actually work/make sense!

 

[spewey]

Thank you for the super quick response! I'm arriving on a Friday morning for MNSSHP and have heard Tiana's has a relatively long line all night - so we were thinking of going to Epcot during the day - then heading over to MK around 3 and doing a few LLMP so we don't have to wait in longer lines during the party and wasn't sure if that strategy would actually work/make sense!

As answered above, yep, doesn't matter where you start your day when you book LLMPs. For our first park day this coming Sunday, we're rope dropping MK but our LLMPs are all for HS in the afternoon (did book an ILL for Tron that morning).

Important to note, in case you weren't aware - there aren't LLs during the actual MNSSHP. I assume the latest you could book one would be a while before 6PM.

 

[saraheliz]

Just got back from an 8 day trip- 7 days of regular parks/tickets and then MNSSHP the last afternoon/evening- with 5 people.

We were a family that was able to very easily and efficiently use Genie +. I don't love LLMP/LLSP. We made it work and had a great trip, because that's what we do, but using it effectively to find those drops for rides that run out of availability early is tough and it required quite a bit more time on my phone than Genie + with less success. Mostly I just gave up by the end of the trip unless something popped up right away. I was still up early most days to get VQ or to Rope Drop so that part is mostly irrelevant to us (and one day we did sleep in after 1am MK, I woke up, grabbed the VQ, and went back to sleep much like I had done with Genie +).

HS is by far the toughest park to use it in, especially if you're hopping to HS later in the day as availability is very low for SDD and since they're the top two tier two rides, ToT and TSMM are low as well (and my family LOVES ToT). Epcot has little value other than guaranteeing you can ride Ratatouille and Frozen in the same morning if you RD one and LLMP the other. The good news is Soarin was easy to get get as a 4th one redeeming your first one. For AK- really I'd use the money on LLSP for FoP and just rope drop and you'll be fine (but it's the cheapest park so there's that). MK was ok, but we had no issues getting any VQ at 7 and/or 1.

Standby lines are definitely inflated, especially for the more popular rides. We did Rise three times- first time standby said 50 and it was 24 minutes to the pre-show. Second time it said 55 and was 14 minutes to the pre-show! Both of these times were midday- around lunchtime/early afternoon. Last time I don't remember exactly but it was close to park closing and quite overinflated (which is the norm). We didn't wait in a ton of SB lines but the ones we did (ToT, TSMM, SM, FoP) were all quite a bit shorter than the posted time, FWIW.

Feel free to ask any questions if I can be of help with recent experiences!

 

[tsme]

I have lots of questions. We will have 4 park hoppers. The first day we arrive will be late, so we won’t be using a ticket that day.
When do we buy LLMP & LLSP? Is it 7 days before arrive or 7 days before first park day & when counting do I count the day before or day of? Like we arrive on 9-20, but our first park day will 9-21, so what day would I purchase it & book the rides, 13th, 14th? I’m a little confused.
And I read we can buy 2 LLSP a day ahead of time, is that right? If so, does it have to be at the same park? Can I purchase the 2 LLSP ahead of time and still try for a virtual que the day of?
Reading about LLMP, it seems now to be like the old FP system with tiers. Book 3 rides, after the first can book another & so on. Is that right?
Any other information anyone wants to share would be appreciated. TIA

 

[andrniki]

I just booked our LLs and everything went perfectly! The system gave me the exact times I was hoping for without any modifying.

I booked LLMP for MK - 7+2 days out:
Winnie 9:30-10:30
HM 10:30-11:30
Tiana 2:40-3:40

and then LLSP for Epcot - 7+1 days out:
GOTG 9:15-10:15

No glitches happened as others had reported. Hopefully things have been fixed. I only got an email confirmation for one of my bookings, but I can see all my reservations when I'm on the app and I see that my credit card was charged for both bookings, so I'm not worried.

Overall, this was a great experience! Thanks everyone for all your reports this past month!

 

[TeamSy]

We booked the other day and I meant to come back and update!

We like to get as much done as possible, so getting early times was important.

It was stressful, unless you want to book something just for the sake of scanning in. I wanted to try not to do.

For those that did not utilize G+ as "get as much done as you can," I can see this being a good option. Those who want to just have their 3 and maybe get a 4th/5th will like this a lot, knowing it's done and not caring as much about the times. We are not those people lol.

I found the booking process and the "rush" to try to get as many early rides as possible in so we could book more day of --- stressful. I much preferred doing it all day of, even if that meant waking up at 7am and then getting ready for the park or going back to sleep. It was worse for us this way -- having my husband leaving for work, me getting the kids ready and fed, and also having to manage to book this. Not fun. I feel really tied to these plans too, as I can imagine it being a PITA to modify day of, at least to something convenient. I liked knowing availability of G+ was chronological, so there was usually something always available to no matter what day of brings. I foresee myself having to choose between being tied to my phone looking for drops as things change day of, or choosing not to but then not getting my $$$ worth.

I did manage to get Tiana's (for whatever late time they had) at 9 days out. So 7+2.

I would say the biggest issue was the lack of overlapping times -- and forget it if you have a dining reservation!

For example, for HS - we aimed to knock out Toy Story Land in the morning. It does NOT take almost 3 hours to ride SDD, Alien Swirling Saucers, and TSMM with a LL. Yet it would not give me a smaller gap other than 9:05-10:05, 10-11, and 10:55-11:55, despite earlier times being available. I could alter any combo of the above, but that was the extent of the overlap it would give me. I managed MAYBE an additional 5 minutes overlap in MK when booking rides one by one instead of letting it generate the times for me.

They do NOT allow ANY overlapping with a previously booked dining reservation. We are big dinning people so I had a lot of issues with this. I would have to go in and move dining reservations, book the MPLL, and then move the dining reservation back. This made that dinning reservation day in which I once again had to spend my time making reservations almost pointless because they had to be moved. However, once moved, and thus allowing me to book a MPLL, I could move the dining reservation back and it would allow overlap this way. It ended up being okay, as they were for restaurants like Roundup, Akershus, etc, that did still had okay times should I have lost them, but for example last year we did CRT and I can imagine that being awful to book around. At least with G+, for most rides there was never any line, so it was just the extent of the ride itself and then walking to your reservation, which NEVER took an hour, and in some cases not even a half hour.

We got MPLL for every park, so we'll see how it goes day of!

 

[DaviVascaino]

We booked the other day and I meant to come back and update!

We like to get as much done as possible, so getting early times was important.

It was stressful, unless you want to book something just for the sake of scanning in. I wanted to try not to do.

For those that did not utilize G+ as "get as much done as you can," I can see this being a good option. Those who want to just have their 3 and maybe get a 4th/5th will like this a lot, knowing it's done and not caring as much about the times. We are not those people lol.

I found the booking process and the "rush" to try to get as many early rides as possible in so we could book more day of --- stressful. I much preferred doing it all day of, even if that meant waking up at 7am and then getting ready for the park or going back to sleep. It was worse for us this way -- having my husband leaving for work, me getting the kids ready and fed, and also having to manage to book this. Not fun. I feel really tied to these plans too, as I can imagine it being a PITA to modify day of, at least to something convenient. I liked knowing availability of G+ was chronological, so there was usually something always available to no matter what day of brings. I foresee myself having to choose between being tied to my phone looking for drops as things change day of, or choosing not to but then not getting my $$$ worth.

I did manage to get Tiana's (for whatever late time they had) at 9 days out. So 7+2.

I would say the biggest issue was the lack of overlapping times -- and forget it if you have a dining reservation!

For example, for HS - we aimed to knock out Toy Story Land in the morning. It does NOT take almost 3 hours to ride SDD, Alien Swirling Saucers, and TSMM with a LL. Yet it would not give me a smaller gap other than 9:05-10:05, 10-11, and 10:55-11:55, despite earlier times being available. I could alter any combo of the above, but that was the extent of the overlap it would give me. I managed MAYBE an additional 5 minutes overlap in MK when booking rides one by one instead of letting it generate the times for me.

They do NOT allow ANY overlapping with a previously booked dining reservation. We are big dinning people so I had a lot of issues with this. I would have to go in and move dining reservations, book the MPLL, and then move the dining reservation back. This made that dinning reservation day in which I once again had to spend my time making reservations almost pointless because they had to be moved. However, once moved, and thus allowing me to book a MPLL, I could move the dining reservation back and it would allow overlap this way. It ended up being okay, as they were for restaurants like Roundup, Akershus, etc, that did still had okay times should I have lost them, but for example last year we did CRT and I can imagine that being awful to book around. At least with G+, for most rides there was never any line, so it was just the extent of the ride itself and then walking to your reservation, which NEVER took an hour, and in some cases not even a half hour.

We got MPLL for every park, so we'll see how it goes day of!

see, I see way more people complaining about MPLL than praising. So far, the evidence at least here shows that Genie plus was a superior product FOR MOST families

 

[emmabelle]

They do NOT allow ANY overlapping with a previously booked dining reservation. We are big dining people so I had a lot of issues with this.

my booking day is Wednesday and my husband just said I don't see any dining reservations on our MDE? I know, that will just make getting MPLL's that much harder.

I know I'm not going to like this new system. I like to wake up on vacation and decide where I want to go that day and not be tied down.

 

[Tom_E_D]

I have lots of questions. We will have 4 park hoppers. The first day we arrive will be late, so we won’t be using a ticket that day.
When do we buy LLMP & LLSP? Is it 7 days before arrive or 7 days before first park day & when counting do I count the day before or day of? Like we arrive on 9-20, but our first park day will 9-21, so what day would I purchase it & book the rides, 13th, 14th? I’m a little confused.
And I read we can buy 2 LLSP a day ahead of time, is that right? If so, does it have to be at the same park? Can I purchase the 2 LLSP ahead of time and still try for a virtual que the day of?
Reading about LLMP, it seems now to be like the old FP system with tiers. Book 3 rides, after the first can book another & so on. Is that right?
Any other information anyone wants to share would be appreciated. TIA

You can purchase/book your LLMP/LLSPs seven days before your resort check-in date if staying onsite (includes Swan, Dolphin, Swan Reserve and Shades of Green). That will be the 13th (at 7:00 AM Eastern time) in your case. You can buy up to two LLSPs per day. They can be in different parks if you have a ticket/pass that allows park hopping. Buying LLMP/LLSPs doesn't affect VQs or vice versa. You can do both.

 

[gottalovepluto]

my booking day is Wednesday and my husband just said I don't see any dining reservations on our MDE? I know, that will just make getting MPLL's that much harder.

I know I'm not going to like this new system. I like to wake up on vacation and decide where I want to go that day and not be tied down.

I cleared out my lunches for this. I’m a weirdo who likes have my ADRs planned out but not at the cost of screwing up LL options. I’ll put back in what I can after booking.

 

[adizzle819]

We booked the other day and I meant to come back and update!

We like to get as much done as possible, so getting early times was important.

It was stressful, unless you want to book something just for the sake of scanning in. I wanted to try not to do.

For those that did not utilize G+ as "get as much done as you can," I can see this being a good option. Those who want to just have their 3 and maybe get a 4th/5th will like this a lot, knowing it's done and not caring as much about the times. We are not those people lol.

I found the booking process and the "rush" to try to get as many early rides as possible in so we could book more day of --- stressful. I much preferred doing it all day of, even if that meant waking up at 7am and then getting ready for the park or going back to sleep. It was worse for us this way -- having my husband leaving for work, me getting the kids ready and fed, and also having to manage to book this. Not fun. I feel really tied to these plans too, as I can imagine it being a PITA to modify day of, at least to something convenient. I liked knowing availability of G+ was chronological, so there was usually something always available to no matter what day of brings. I foresee myself having to choose between being tied to my phone looking for drops as things change day of, or choosing not to but then not getting my $$$ worth.

I did manage to get Tiana's (for whatever late time they had) at 9 days out. So 7+2.

I would say the biggest issue was the lack of overlapping times -- and forget it if you have a dining reservation!

For example, for HS - we aimed to knock out Toy Story Land in the morning. It does NOT take almost 3 hours to ride SDD, Alien Swirling Saucers, and TSMM with a LL. Yet it would not give me a smaller gap other than 9:05-10:05, 10-11, and 10:55-11:55, despite earlier times being available. I could alter any combo of the above, but that was the extent of the overlap it would give me. I managed MAYBE an additional 5 minutes overlap in MK when booking rides one by one instead of letting it generate the times for me.

They do NOT allow ANY overlapping with a previously booked dining reservation. We are big dinning people so I had a lot of issues with this. I would have to go in and move dining reservations, book the MPLL, and then move the dining reservation back. This made that dinning reservation day in which I once again had to spend my time making reservations almost pointless because they had to be moved. However, once moved, and thus allowing me to book a MPLL, I could move the dining reservation back and it would allow overlap this way. It ended up being okay, as they were for restaurants like Roundup, Akershus, etc, that did still had okay times should I have lost them, but for example last year we did CRT and I can imagine that being awful to book around. At least with G+, for most rides there was never any line, so it was just the extent of the ride itself and then walking to your reservation, which NEVER took an hour, and in some cases not even a half hour.

We got MPLL for every park, so we'll see how it goes day of!

When you say it won't allow any overlapping for ADRs, how soon after your reservation time will it allow you to book a MPLL? Is it accounting for an hour to eat? So if my ADR is at 12:00, it won't allow me to book a MPLL until 1:00-2:00? or is it even longer than that?

 

[thanxfornoticin]

see, I see way more people complaining about MPLL than praising. So far, the evidence at least here shows that Genie plus was a superior product FOR MOST families

Well, to be fair, there's a much higher percentage of complaint posts than praise posts on most of these threads, so I'm not sure it's really evidence. If you go back to G+ posts, the percentage of complaints regarding that product (and comparing it to FP+) were high, too. I'll wait to make my own assessment in a few months when we actually get to use the new system for the first time. I'm sure we'll find pros and cons with how we like to do the parks...... But for us, at least I won't need to be online at 6:59AM each day to get the booking started for that day, so that's a big plus.

 

[Belle1962]

modifying.

I booked LLMP for MK - 7+2 days out:
Winnie 9:30-10:30
HM 10:30-11:30
Tiana 2:40-3:40

What is 7+2? So you booked 9 days out? Or is it within your 7 days from first date of trip?

 

[DJFan88]

Well, to be fair, there's a much higher percentage of complaint posts than praise posts on most of these threads, so I'm not sure it's really evidence. If you go back to G+ posts, the percentage of complaints regarding that product (and comparing it to FP+) were high, too. I'll wait to make my own assessment in a few months when we actually get to use the new system for the first time. I'm sure we'll find pros and cons with how we like to do the parks...... But for us, at least I won't need to be online at 6:59AM each day to get the booking started for that day, so that's a big plus.

Yeah in general people seem more likely to complain about things than praise.

 

[DJFan88]

What is 7+2? So you booked 9 days out? Or is it within your 7 days from first date of trip?

Im guessing when people say that they booked 7 days out, but it was the 2nd day of their trip, that way you can see what order day you may need to book certain parks.

 

[Gentry2004]

I am not an expert at deciphering Thrill Data, but if I'm reading it correctly, it seems that 3 days out at 7am (for offsite guests), both Remy and Tiana are available if you do not care what time you get?

 

[andrniki]

What is 7+2? So you booked 9 days out? Or is it within your 7 days from first date of trip?

Today is 7 days from my check in. We're going to MK 9 days from today.