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

[mby]

Yes a split stay will impact your ability to book all your LLMP and/or LLSPs for your entire stay at one time. It is not ticket based the advance window is related to each of your resort stays.

It will be exactly like ADR selection windows you have experience using today. You have split stays and each will have it's own booking window for pre-scheduled LLMP and LLSP bookings.

Dave

Do you have a source for this? The only person I've seen say anything firmly so far has been your comment.

 

[Disturbia]

You just made me think of another question. So obviously, we're able to schedule our LL picks ahead of time and CHOOSE a specific (available) return time (like the old FP+) and I had assumed that on the day of, we'd also then pick from specific (available) return times on subsequent selections. But is there a chance that on the day of, they'd revert to feeding you the "next available" return time like they do with G+ ? It doesn't seem likely, but the wording is pretty vague on the subsequent selections. (Just "subject to availability.")

In that scenario, any sort of off-site stacking for later would be even harder.

I would think the LLMP will work like Genie+ and will give you the next available pass with ability to modify.

 

[Disturbia]

I think if you rope drop, it's a great, value-maximizing strategy. You can use three LLs early and replace them with three more later in the day, or else just keep churning through next-available passes throughout the day.

But I think that when people say "stacking" they mean "booking a bunch of attractions from the resort so they don't have to rope drop".

The new system impedes your ability to stack multiple LL passes for the afternoon/evening, relative to Genie+. At a minimum, you can only have three at a time. And even then, you're at a disadvantage to those actually in the park. (Presumably, a person outside the park with a 9:05-10:05 throwaway reservation has to wait until it expires to book a new T1 attraction, whereas if I'm in the park I can scan in at 9:05 and immediately book my next attraction, giving me a head-start on availability.)

Yes. I can see how that can be a negative.

We did exclusively stack at HS as there was very little for our 4 year old to do while waiting. We would book a late Topolinos breakfast and then just chill at our resort. The most we could ‘stack’ would be 4 rides before we had to ride our first one and had to be at the park and then watch the later Fantasmic show.

 

[Disturbia]

Do you have a source for this? The only person I've seen say anything firmly so far has been your comment.

I also saw that if you have a split stay you are at a disadvantage and have to wait 7 days before the second stay to book those days. Ear scouts will be testing this theory soon enough.

 

[spewey]

I have never considered something like that cheating, especially now that we are paying to use the system. It is just using the system most effectively for how you want to tour.

That’s kind of like when people wanted to say “refreshing” with the old FP+ was cheating. Nonsense. It was just looking for times slots that others had dropped and picking them up for your use instead.

Did people say refreshing was cheating? Huh. As you say, that's just looking for slots others have given up.

To be clear, I am NOT saying booking a throwaway LL is cheating, but it is certainly very different than refreshing. In this case someone is scheduling and holding onto a LL spot without any intention of letting it go, waiting in their room or pool or whatever for it to expire so they can move on to the next. That potentially takes spots from someone who actually wants to use it for that ride. I don't know that I love that.

 

[godfather927]

Now, this may be a reflection of when we went - last week of August - back in 2022, but this was not at all our experience. When we stacked for afternoon HS, we arrived (around 2) with three Genie+s, and just rolled through the evening with IIRC available slots for every attraction except (of course) SDD. We didn't wait in a single standby line, and snagged at least another eight or nine spots - with the caveat some were re-rides, especially TSMM, which we rode three times in under 30 minutes.

Theoretically, there will be MORE availability with this new system, unless they reduce capacity, which with the changes to DAS I find unlikely. But ya never know.

On another topic - this may be treading on thin ice, but does anyone else worry that booking a "throwaway" LL, one for open that you know you won't use in the hope of when it expires you can swap it out for a later time Tier 1, might be perceived as "cheating"? It's at least gaming the system, which is a grey area, but isn't this (at least in theory) taking a possible spot away from someone else? Or is the thought if you book the right ride, that is a very unpopular one, right at open, there's no way it could sell out anyway?

For August that's probably true, but at peak times like Spring Break or the week between Christmas and NYE, we had a very different experience from yours. During busy times, HS can very much be a boom or bust park depending on whether any of the major rides go down early in the day.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

I would think the LLMP will work like Genie+ and will give you the next available pass with ability to modify.

I guess we won't know until it's working, but I don't see them handling LLMP any differently - whether we're booking 7 days out, 3 days out, or day of. I'm expecting the time options to still be there. I don't know that it makes sense from a technical standpoint to change it. Again, not knowing for sure, but it might make more sense to do away with modify - which I don't recall having as part of FP+. The only thing we really used modify for was to move the time later in the day to when we actually wanted it - which we should be able to select right away with LLMP. If we select the time, we better work around ADRs and other plans....

 

[LoveToDisney]

Hopefully we will be able to overlap reservations with Multi-Pass. One could not do that with Fastpass+.
We are not rope droppers so I hope this new system will still work pretty well with those who arrive with rides starting at 10:30, etc. Rope droppers definitely have the advantage.
In the free fastpass+ days, the park hours were extra long AND we had 3 free Extra Magic Hours after park close for hotel guests, as well. That helped the night owls to still be able to ride the popular rides after the Rope Droppers were done for the day.
Come on Disney!! Expand the park hours!!

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Did people say refreshing was cheating? Huh. As you say, that's just looking for slots others have given up.

To be clear, I am NOT saying booking a throwaway LL is cheating, but it is certainly very different than refreshing. In this case someone is scheduling and holding onto a LL spot without any intention of letting it go, waiting in their room or pool or whatever for it to expire so they can move on to the next. That potentially takes spots from someone who actually wants to use it for that ride. I don't know that I love that.

That does seem to be a possible consequence, however.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

Will LLMP be like G+ when it comes to booking the 4th one and so on? Will we have to book next available or will we be able to choose anytime we want?

 

[princesswahooey]

I guess we won't know until it's working, but I don't see them handling LLMP any differently - whether we're booking 7 days out, 3 days out, or day of. I'm expecting the time options to still be there. I don't know that it makes sense from a technical standpoint to change it. Again, not knowing for sure, but it might make more sense to do away with modify - which I don't recall having as part of FP+. The only thing we really used modify for was to move the time later in the day to when we actually wanted it - which we should be able to select right away with LLMP. If we select the time, we better work around ADRs and other plans....

FP+ definitely had the modify option. We used G+ in the first few weeks, before they added the modify option and it was horrible. I don't think they'll take that option away. I'm interested that Disturbia assumed the LLMP would populate like G+ (next available only) on the day of. Am I alone in assuming it would be by specific (available) time slot on day of, like during booking?

 

[Disturbia]

Your tickets and resort package is linked, so if I have a 10 night stay and say 7 day tickets I would be allowed to book any of the initial 10 resort days up to 7 now that there are no park passes for packages. If I have another 5 night stay, I would have to wait until I’m already onsite and 3 days into my resort stay (7 nights before the next 5 day trip).

They rushed into the change and most likely will fix this later (given the issues they’ve had with any new change). If you can, I would err on the safe side and change my resort stay to one resort at least until we know for sure they’ve fixed the issue or CMs have the ability to override.

They released park hours only 60 days ahead of time (with ADR windows) and changed them 2 weeks prior to a trip and add more ADRs a week before. ADR release times varied as well. I’m thinking they will do this with the multi pass availability where they add park hours and then add more lightening lanes for offsite guests and day of bookings.

All speculation but hoping for some day of positive reports.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Your tickets and resort package is linked, so if I have a 10 night stay and say 7 day tickets I would be allowed to book any of the initial 10 resort days up to 7 now that there are no park passes for packages. If I have another 5 night stay, I would have to wait until I’m already onsite and 3 days into my resort stay (7 nights before the next 5 day trip).

They rushed into the change and most likely will fix this later (given the issues they’ve had with any new change). If you can, I would err on the safe side and change my resort stay to one resort at least until we know for sure they’ve fixed the issue or CMs have the ability to override.

They released park hours only 60 days ahead of time (with ADR windows) and changed them 2 weeks prior to a trip and add more ADRs a week before. ADR release times varied as well. I’m thinking they will do this with the multi pass availability where they add park hours and then add more lightening lanes for offsite guests and day of bookings.

Sorry - I don't understand your response! Was this meant for another post?

 

[Disturbia]

FP+ definitely had the modify option. We used G+ in the first few weeks, before they added the modify option and it was horrible. I don't think they'll take that option away. I'm interested that Disturbia assumed the LLMP would populate like G+ (next available only) on the day of. Am I alone in assuming it would be by specific (available) times lot on day of, like during booking?

Now that you say that maybe it would show remaining availability like the ILLA. I hope it does. They have system capabilities to do either.

 

[Disturbia]

Sorry - I don't understand your response! Was this meant for another post?

Yes. Editing

 

[Disturbia]

Hopefully we will be able to overlap reservations with Multi-Pass. One could not do that with Fastpass+.
We are not rope droppers so I hope this new system will still work pretty well with those who arrive with rides starting at 10:30, etc. Rope droppers definitely have the advantage.
In the free fastpass+ days, the park hours were extra long AND we had 3 free Extra Magic Hours after park close for hotel guests, as well. That helped the night owls to still be able to ride the popular rides after the Rope Droppers were done for the day.
Come on Disney!! Expand the park hours!!

They sell us back the extra magic hours by calling them after hours.

For the record I would gladly pay for them esp during Christmas and NYE week (hint hint Disney).

 

[Disturbia]

Hopefully we will be able to overlap reservations with Multi-Pass. One could not do that with Fastpass+.
We are not rope droppers so I hope this new system will still work pretty well with those who arrive with rides starting at 10:30, etc. Rope droppers definitely have the advantage.
In the free fastpass+ days, the park hours were extra long AND we had 3 free Extra Magic Hours after park close for hotel guests, as well. That helped the night owls to still be able to ride the popular rides after the Rope Droppers were done for the day.
Come on Disney!! Expand the park hours!!

I remember overlapping passes with FP+. It adds a lot of stress at Epcot due to how far away the rides are.

Initially the system doesn’t overlap them when it gives you the suggested passes
but there is the ‘modify’ feature and you get a warning. I would overlap nearby fast loading rides but not rides like Soarin and Test Track for instance.

 

[thanxfornoticin]

FP+ definitely had the modify option. We used G+ in the first few weeks, before they added the modify option and it was horrible. I don't think they'll take that option away. I'm interested that Disturbia assumed the LLMP would populate like G+ (next available only) on the day of. Am I alone in assuming it would be by specific (available) time slot on day of, like during booking?

Thanks. I didn't recall the modify with FP+ (and it really wasn't THAT long ago!!). I'm certainly hoping it's a time selection process on day-of. Seems to me, since people will have already selected time ranges all throughout the day with their selections prior to the day, having a 'next available' would be odd. But I've not read anything verifying either way, so we'll wait to hear from those lucky Guinea pigs on 7/24 to let us know what they're seeing!

I'm certainly not expecting the LLSP/ILL options to be 'next available', but will be select an available time - so hoping the LLMP are too.

 

[princesswahooey]

Thanks. I didn't recall the modify with FP+ (and it really wasn't THAT long ago!!). I'm certainly hoping it's a time selection process on day-of. Seems to me, since people will have already selected time ranges all throughout the day with their selections prior to the day, having a 'next available' would be odd. But I've not read anything verifying either way, so we'll wait to hear from those lucky Guinea pigs on 7/24 to let us know what they're seeing!

I'm certainly not expecting the LLSP/ILL options to be 'next available', but will be select an available time - so hoping the LLMP are too.

Yes, I'm just trying to think if every possible scenario, since I'll be there July 26-30 and I am taking my siblings & their kids who have never been before. Planning for 22 is crazy enough without having a new system to figure out in real time. I actually think for this scenario (large group) having the next available for day-of would be preferred, since it would be easier to get 2 groups of 11 people concurrent return times than if the available LL slots are piecemeal, as they are bound to be with choosing specific times. If it were just my immediate family of 4, I much prefer to choose a specific time. Guess we'll see!

 

[thanxfornoticin]

Yes, I'm just trying to think if every possible scenario, since I'll be there July 26-30 and I am taking my siblings & their kids who have never been before. Planning for 22 is crazy enough without having a new system to figure out in real time. I actually think for this scenario (large group) having the next available for day-of would be preferred, since it would be easier to get 2 groups of 11 people concurrent return times than if the available LL slots are piecemeal, as they are bound to be with choosing specific times. If it were just my immediate family of 4, I much prefer to choose a specific time. Guess we'll see!

Oh my, that's a lot!! And Disney's timing obviously couldn't be worse for you. Hope that all works out. But if you're able to book 7 days out for your stay (or 3 days out if you're off-site), maybe you'll be ok getting the times you want? Of course, 22 people will be like herding cats with a dog in the yard, so you might not be able to go out too far!!! Best of luck - hope you have a fun and memorable trip. We've done several large family trips, including 21, and they're hectic, fun, and some of the best memories we've had at Disney!!