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

[BamaGuy44]

I hate it. Like I said earlier it's great for those that like to plan their days out or those that stroll in at the crack of noon. For my family who rope drop and like to be spontaneous this is a major step in the wrong direction. We don't go to the parks to relax or do 3 rides and leave. When we go to parks we like to go with the flow and not be tied down to a schedule. We have enough of a schedule at home in our day to day lives.

I don't thin anything is stopping you from not pre-booking anything and just grabbing whatever LL's are available when the park opens. Or just prebook the tier 1 ride and go with the flow for everything else. That doesn't seem too restrictive.

 

[Lillian Gracey]

Curious, How does it work in the reverse with US travelers to Disney Paris/Toyko/Shanghai? If it's the same where US travelers have to be in the area to book, it does make sense they are now holding the line on this.

You can't pre-book fastpasses for TDR from the US. DH and I were there last year and we had to purchase in the park. The app will tell you to "please use this feature at the park." We didn't have any issues getting what we wanted though we regretted getting it for Soarin'. lol But we also don't travel during peak times so that helped. I can access everything in the app right now, but can't use any of the pass features.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Curious, How does it work in the reverse with US travelers to Disney Paris/Toyko/Shanghai? If it's the same where US travelers have to be in the area to book, it does make sense they are now holding the line on this.

You have to be physically scanned into the park to buy Premier Access passes in Tokyo Disneyland.

 

[Smugpugmug]

Not to mention that Disney’s version would probably need to be $500 to manage capacity.

Yup. If and I do mean if Disney ever charged $500 for a skip the line pass, I would simply vacation elsewhere. You can get a lot more value in other vacation destinations for that $500 a day.

 

[Gentry2004]

Stacking definitely emphasized tier 1 rides.

Yep. I am glad that us non-stackers will have more of an equal shot at a 2nd tier 1 selection.

 

[georgina]

We don't do 7am virtual queues - the return time might be too early for us. We only do 1pm VQs.

The Guardians return time has never been enforced. (Unlike Tron, which has been). You can ride hours after your return time. I think that's why the VQ line gets so long later in the day.

Yup. If and I do mean if Disney ever charged $500 for a skip the line pass, I would simply vacation elsewhere. You can get a lot more value in other vacation destinations for that $500 a day.

People do the VIP tours, so there might be some market. I'm too cheap, I often can't find value in staying at a Disney resort. Maybe every 4th stay I will get a DVC rental.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Fully anticipating that while this thread is a hot thread with lots of discussion, I'm preparing myself to never purchasing a LLMP as I'm fully anticipating it being $$$. Fully prepared for it to be $200/person/day....but likely more.

Sadly Disney doesn't seem to give something to us in one hand these days without taking something away with the other.

Fully prepared to make friends with standby lines as I cannot justify what many parks charge for these types of passes and fully anticipating Disney is joining the $$$ game.

 

[georgina]

As a fan of afternoon arrivals and stacking, I am not a fan of the end of the 120 minute rule. Since the rule to book a new LL in any tier is to use one or after the LL window expires, I could see the use of "throwaway" LLs becoming popular for afternoon arrivers. In other words, book Remy for 3pm and book two tier 2 rides for as early as possible that you don't plan on riding or don't really need a LL (i.e. Figment & Nemo). Then from the comfort of the hotel pool or water park, etc at 10-10:30, book Frozen and Soarin when these 2 "throwaways" expire. Then you can enter EPCOT at 3pm with 3 tier one LLs stacked. Same for MK or HS.

Interesting. Maybe. that language 'or once the arrival window has passed'

Unlock More Magic
On the day of your park visit, once you redeem a Lightning Lane Multi Pass selection (or once the arrival window has passed), you can use the My Disney Experience app to check availability for another Lightning Lane Multi Pass experience—and add to your plans.

 

[Cabius]

Fully anticipating that while this thread is a hot thread with lots of discussion, I'm preparing myself to never purchasing a LLMP as I'm fully anticipating it being $$$. Fully prepared for it to be $200/person/day....but likely more.

Sadly Disney doesn't seem to give something to us in one hand these days without taking something away with the other.

Fully prepared to make friends with standby lines as I cannot justify what many parks charge for these types of passes and fully anticipating Disney is joining the $$$ game.

I would be shocked if they charged anything close to that much, and expect prices to be roughly in line with Genie+ as it's a superficially similar product.

If they did charge $200+/day, demand would be low enough that (a) they could make it available on a truly unlimited/walk-up basis, as there wouldn't be enough purchasers to cause problems, and (b) the impact on standby wait times would be minimal. If only 2% of park guests purchased a skip-the-line pass, they wouldn't impact park operations too much.

I think one of the main reasons that they won't do this is that many of the physical queues are not built to accommodate standby-only. After the parks re-opened, but before the debut of Genie+, the lack of any skip-the-line option meant that standby lines were quite a bit shorter across the board.

Let's say an attraction can load 1,000 guests per hour. If there's only one queue, then a one-hour wait means that about 1000 guests are in the queue in front of. But if the same ride is allocating 75% of its capacity to a lightning lane, the same one-hour wait means only 250 people in that queue, and 750 churning through the other lane.

But they have a lot of attractions that can command one-hour waits, and don't have the physical queue space to accommodate them in a single lane. Kilimanjaro Safaris was the worst for this, with queues snaking throughout Africa and even into ugly backstage areas, until they introduced Genie+ and split up capacity again.

I really think park operations in general would be better if they toward more standby, and lightning lane access was a rare but tangible benefit. But they built so much of their physical infrastructure with something like FastPass+ in mind.

 

[disney-inspired]

Fully anticipating that while this thread is a hot thread with lots of discussion, I'm preparing myself to never purchasing a LLMP as I'm fully anticipating it being $$$. Fully prepared for it to be $200/person/day....but likely more.

Sadly Disney doesn't seem to give something to us in one hand these days without taking something away with the other.

Fully prepared to make friends with standby lines as I cannot justify what many parks charge for these types of passes and fully anticipating Disney is joining the $$$ game.

that's ridiculously priced - but I wouldn't put it past Disney but I'm of the same mind - if it's that expensive, I will not buy it.
That's what USO can charge for an express pass but that has no need to make reservations. I'm interested to see if USO's thinking changes after EU opens in 2025.

 

[123SA]

Fully anticipating that while this thread is a hot thread with lots of discussion, I'm preparing myself to never purchasing a LLMP as I'm fully anticipating it being $$$. Fully prepared for it to be $200/person/day....but likely more.

Sadly Disney doesn't seem to give something to us in one hand these days without taking something away with the other.

Fully prepared to make friends with standby lines as I cannot justify what many parks charge for these types of passes and fully anticipating Disney is joining the $$$ game.

You expect this new version of LLMP to be $200 per person starting on July 24? For 1 tier one and 2 tier two prebooks.


I've read so much info in the past few days. I'm not sure where I read it, but I am sure I read somewhere that there will not be a significant price difference in the short term. I read it in a USA today article and elsewhere. Plus they put out that photo listing MK at $27 and although there was language stating sample pricing only on the photo, I can't beleive they would use that photo and then price it at $200 per person per day.

 

[BamaGuy44]

Fully anticipating that while this thread is a hot thread with lots of discussion, I'm preparing myself to never purchasing a LLMP as I'm fully anticipating it being $$$. Fully prepared for it to be $200/person/day....but likely more.

Sadly Disney doesn't seem to give something to us in one hand these days without taking something away with the other.

Fully prepared to make friends with standby lines as I cannot justify what many parks charge for these types of passes and fully anticipating Disney is joining the $$$ game.

I've been wrong before, but I don't see how they would even entertain charging anything close to that. Why would it be not just more, but multiples of the G+ price?

They can't charge the same price that UO does for a pass that let's you skip every line, as many times as you want, all day long, with no return times. As low as Disney's opinion of us is, they don't think we're THAT dumb

 

[jeneric997]

I hate it. Like I said earlier it's great for those that like to plan their days out or those that stroll in at the crack of noon. For my family who rope drop and like to be spontaneous this is a major step in the wrong direction. We don't go to the parks to relax or do 3 rides and leave. When we go to parks we like to go with the flow and not be tied down to a schedule. We have enough of a schedule at home in our day to day lives.

I think any system is an advantage to rope drop people. Rope drop people always get the most rides in, and can ride a lot of rides more than once, which no FP+, G+, LLMP ever lets people do. Let the others sleep in. More availability for you in the early hours to schedule more LLs, if you want to buy it. Hopefully, now that people are sleeping in, you won't need to purchase anything! I always thought G+ made the parks more crowded in the morning because people had to be up at 7am anyway.

 

[tx911]

You expect this new version of LLMP to be $200 per person starting on July 24? For 1 tier one and 2 tier two prebooks.


I've read so much info in the past few days. I'm not sure where I read it, but I am sure I read somewhere that there will not be a significant price difference in the short term. I read it in a USA today article and elsewhere. Plus they put out that photo listing MK at $27 and although there was language stating sample pricing only on the photo, I can't beleive they would use that photo and then price it at $200 per person per day.

They say there's one born every minute, but you'd have to be totally off your rocker to pay $800 for a party of 4 to have what is basically a variant of Genie+

 

[SleeplessInTO]

Biggest difference from the previous FP+ I see is that you can’t do re-rides.

But happy to see as of today that Canadians are able to book under same rules as US residents. Hopefully they’ll update the app for UK, Australia, and other countries too.

 

[Tom_E_D]

Interesting. Maybe. that language 'or once the arrival window has passed'

Unlock More Magic
On the day of your park visit, once you redeem a Lightning Lane Multi Pass selection (or once the arrival window has passed), you can use the My Disney Experience app to check availability for another Lightning Lane Multi Pass experience—and add to your plans.

Good catch. I think there are at least three places on the website that refer to booking another one "once you redeem," but I believe yours is the only one with the "once the arrival window has passed" language.

 

[Mouse Tracker]

I really think park operations in general would be better if they toward more standby, and lightning lane access was a rare but tangible benefit.

After reading your entire post - Are you saying that 'smaller participation numbers in FP/LL queues will actually benefit the standby line because of the reduction of interrupts to that line'?

Kinda makes sense that reducing constant blocks of people (DAS, LL's) will increase the standby flow.

 

[neverlandsky]

When Disney+ first came out it was $6.99 a month for no ads. It's now $13.99 a month no ads. More than double. With LLMP I can see them charging ballpark $60-$100 per person depending on the park & day more than double G+.

 

[carlyannek]

Biggest difference from the previous FP+ I see is that you can’t do re-rides.

But happy to see as of today that Canadians are able to book under same rules as US residents. Hopefully they’ll update the app for UK, Australia, and other countries too.

Source?

 

[kmc]

Fully anticipating that while this thread is a hot thread with lots of discussion, I'm preparing myself to never purchasing a LLMP as I'm fully anticipating it being $$$. Fully prepared for it to be $200/person/day....but likely more.

Sadly Disney doesn't seem to give something to us in one hand these days without taking something away with the other.

Fully prepared to make friends with standby lines as I cannot justify what many parks charge for these types of passes and fully anticipating Disney is joining the $$$ game.

There is no way this would be $200 per person per day . The value just isn’t there for 3 rides in advance I did enjoy stacking rides as I prefer the parks at night but I do see the advantage of going in with 3 rides, just will have to adjust and go to the parks early like in the old fast pass days. The only thing I hate is the tiers….just don’t like them! Didn’t like them with the old system either but I do appreciate only having to use one ride and being able to get another instead of having to use all 3 so it definitely is an improvement on the old “paid’ fast pass. I love Disney and always have but this September will be my last trip til at least 2027 unless they open up something new of course as I won’t be renewing my annual pass for the first time in years. Instead I will be be doing other trips and also trying out Epic Universe which I’m pretty dang excited about