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

[princesswahooey]

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!!

If I had 7 days, that would be great! But I'll be logging in with my 3 "expert" immediate family members (teen/adult kids & hubby) on July 24, 2 days before our first park day, with a billion other people to secure reservations on the day the system switches over. It will be a challenge, but I'm up for it. Having 3 pre-booked LLs each day will definitely be in our favor as a large group. (Mostly tweens & adults who want to see it all and they know I will help them do it, so we'll likely stay together.)

 

[Dave006]

If I had 7 days, that would be great! But I'll be logging in with my 3 "expert" immediate family members (teen/adult kids & hubby) on July 24, 2 days before our first park day, with a billion other people to secure reservations on the day the system switches over.

I think you have one more complexity. It sure looks like the LLMP system will be setup so that you have to select the same attraction(s) for your entire group, pick the time and then pay for it. And then modify any sub-groups of your family member for their alternative attraction selection if any.

Are you planning to have your 3 "experts" actually purchasing for separate groups and different attraction selections? Since they are only holding your initial selections for 5 minutes it is going to be a major challenge for everyone.

ETA: still leaning to spell real words...

Dave

 

[Disturbia]

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?

I was the only person who thought that might be the case just because they are switching from the more recent Genie+ (you pre booked your first LL, second was first available).

We are all hoping that’s not the case and we can see all available times like old FP+ days. Genie+ was not free so the fact that it’s a paid system won’t matter.

 

[Disturbia]

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....

As we all know when FP+ was 60 days for resort guests, offsite guests had slim pickings by day 30. Same is true for ADR bookings. The first 4-5 days of the trip the top ADRs are gone and some of them require a deposit or full payment (thinking CRT, dessert parties etc).

Since third party companies charge to find ADRs, Disney should include a similar service to find a LL (limit to say one LL search). This feature would cut down on time spent looking at your phone and refreshing.

 

[DisneyFive]

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?

My guess is that it will show a few available timeslots. This new system seems to be far more like FP+ with a few tweaks. That’s how FP+ used to work.

 

[tseitel]

Sorry if I missed it, but it looks like the new 7 day booking window doesn’t include the “good neighbor” hotels like the previous Genie? (Just Swolfin)
If so,sorry, but that’s a plus. There were way too many hotels getting on site benefits previously

 

[ML_LovesDisney]

I guess I was not using Genie+ correctly. This is a serious question. How are people walking in with 7 G+ LL stacked?
DHS opens at 9
1st LL at 7 -Slinky
2nd LL at 11 (2 hours after park opens) - RNRC
3rd at 1 - Smugglers Run
4th at 3 - TOT
5th at 5 - TSM
6th at 7 - Star Tours
7th at 9 Alien

How are people walking in with 7 G+ LL stacked -- if you walked in at 9pm, the park would either be closed or you'd have at best an hour to finish all 7 of those rides that you somehow managed to stack in the same hour timeframe.

I am with you here. I was never able to, things were not available and the times were hours after my first few. I’m amazed at people who could figure it out tho!

 

[princesswahooey]

I think you have one more complexity. It sure looks like the LLMP system will be setup so that you have to select the same attraction(s) for your entire group, pick the time and then pay for it. And then modify any sub-groups of your family member for their alternative attraction selection if any.

Are you planning to have your 3 "experts" actually purchasing for separate groups and different attraction selections? Since they are only holding your initial selections for 5 minutes it is going to be a major challenge for everyone.

ETA: still leaning to spell real words...

Dave

We're definitely planning to book together and then modify any we need to, although for the most part we'll be sticking together. You can only book 12 people max in a group, so we will have 2 of us booking for one day/park (11 & 11 for the same attractions) and the other two simultaneously doing the same for a different day/park. Probably DHS and MK first, (for SDD and TBA which are the fastest to sell out.) Then each tag-team will move to AK and EP. At least that's my plan. Since it's a free-for-all for pre-booking on the 24th, rather than focus a strategy like booking your farthest day out first, I'm just going for hardest to get first. I hate having no data for how this is going to go. LOL. Let's just hope we don't get Stitch eating the page errors all morning when the whole world logs in at once.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

I'll give one of our typical MK days with G+ as an example (for a park open of 9am):

7am: Book Jungle Cruise (sometimes with a return time around 10 or 11 am, sometimes with a later afternoon one depending on our plans)
11am (or possibly a bit earlier): Book SM (return time modified to be later in the afternoon/evening)
1pm: Book BTM (mod'd as above)
3pm: Book Splash
5pm: Book Pirates
7pm or sooner depending on when I've modified the stacked rides: Book Buzz or whatever is left

That's booking 6 rides (4 of which are now all included in the top FP+ tier) without having to get to the park by any particular time. Some days we'd get to the park as late as 2pm and still do all the major rides we wanted. Sometimes we swap out Jungle Cruise for Haunted Mansion instead or we swap BTM and Splash depending on the weather, but we've never had a day at MK where we missed out on getting G+ LLs for all 3 mountains. My kids have kinda aged out of 7DMT but otherwise I'd have purchased an ILL for it as we did a couple years ago and maintained a similar slate.

But now with the new system (which is closer to the old FP+ system), getting a LL for all 3 mountains will almost certainly require getting to the park within an hour after it opens and tapping into rides at least twice before our typical afternoon hotel break.

We had 5 when we walked in at 5 pm. All booked at 7 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm, 5 pm. Add in the ILL for RotR and you have 6.

We were also only a party of 2 so it made it easier.

 

[Dave006]

Sorry if I missed it, but it looks like the new 7 day booking window doesn’t include the “good neighbor” hotels like the previous Genie? (Just Swolfin)

Also Shades of Green is part of the list of on-site.

Dave

 

[Dave006]

Let's just hope we don't get Stitch eating the page errors all morning when the whole world logs in at once.

Sounds like you have a plan at least until Stitch tries to bring things to a stop. Hopefully it will be solid by your first day of parks on July 27th.

Dave

 

[princesswahooey]

Sounds like you have a plan at least until Stitch tries to bring things to a stop. Hopefully it will be solid by your first day of parks on July 27th.

Dave

I will be reporting back to let everyone know so at least there is some data for those with upcoming trips!

I so appreciate everyone on this board who has shared tips and expertise over the years. I first found the site about 15 years ago when planning our first family WDW trip. My kids were 4 & 9! Could never have done it--or any of our subsequent trips--(successfully) without this community. The Intel here is always top notch, especially on changes to existing systems.

 

[Tom_E_D]

Sorry if I missed it, but it looks like the new 7 day booking window doesn’t include the “good neighbor” hotels like the previous Genie? (Just Swolfin)
If so,sorry, but that’s a plus. There were way too many hotels getting on site benefits previously

Under the previous system, Fastpass+, the "Good Neighbor" hotels did not get to book at 60 days out. That was only the Disney resorts, Swan, Dolphin and Shades of Green. Under the current system, Genie+/ILL, everyone gets to book at 7:00 AM for Genie+, regardless of whether staying in any hotel (Good Neighbor or not), while only the Disney resorts, Swan, Dolphin, Swan Reserve, and Shades of Green can book ILLs at 7:00 AM with everyone else waiting until park opening. The "Good Neighbor" hotels got/get no early booking perks under any of the systems.

EDIT: I overlooked some hotels that had early booking for Fastpass+. See posts 1216 and 1217.

 

[Takket]

so this is a major bummer... Princess Fairytale hall is not on the new attractions list. Does anyone know why this was taken off? This almost always has long lines and was a great use of the passes for my family

 

[Tom_E_D]

so this is a major bummer... Princess Fairytale hall is not on the new attractions list. Does anyone know why this was taken off? This almost always has long lines and was a great use of the passes for my family

None of the meet-and-greets are on the LLMP list. There was no reason given by Disney.

 

[abbyandangel]

Under the previous system, Fastpass+, the "Good Neighbor" hotels did not get to book at 60 days out. That was only the Disney resorts, Swan, Dolphin and Shades of Green. Under the current system, Genie+/ILL, everyone gets to book at 7:00 AM for Genie+, regardless of whether staying in any hotel (Good Neighbor or not), while only the Disney resorts, Swan, Dolphin, Swan Reserve, and Shades of Green can book ILLs at 7:00 AM with everyone else waiting until park opening. The "Good Neighbor" hotels got/get no early booking perks under any of the systems.

We booked FP+ at 60 days one year with a stay at the Double Tree. I think all the Disney Springs hotels were eligible. We had early entry and extra magic hours as well.

 

[Tom_E_D]

We booked FP+ at 60 days one year with a stay at the Double Tree. I think all the Disney Springs hotels were eligible. We had early entry and extra magic hours as well.

My mistake. I guess I missed several non-Disney hotels, including the Disney Springs ones and a few others. (I assume you stayed at the Disney Springs Doubletree and not another Doubletree.) Still, it wasn't the "Good Neighbor" hotels, which is another category of non-Disney but Disney-affiliated hotels.

 

[greeneyedchick]

Yes, the naming system is ridiculous, but it's my understanding that you will select your ride choices BEFORE paying for the LLMP, so people will be aware during the booking process of what rides they're able to get. This should eliminate that and was probably implemented this way because of complaints over the exact experience your friends suffered.

That's a good point about seeing the selections before buying. My friends hadn't been there since the paper fast passes and didn't know anything about the app or anything

 

[andrewilley]

We had 5 when we walked in at 5 pm. All booked at 7 am, 11 am, 1 pm, 3 pm, 5 pm. Add in the ILL for RotR and you have 6.

I guess that's one of the reasons why Disney has modified the system. While it is technically possible to do what you did with a bit of patience and "creatively" using the 2-hour loophole in Genie+ , clearly it was never their intention for guests to be walking into a park with six stacked pre-bookings.

Andre

 

[buzzrelly]

I'm sorry if this has been answered but I couldn't find it...

Did they say how this will work for APs staying onsite? Will we be able to book 7 days in advance and be able to "hop" if we do purchase it?

Seems like this should be a yes but I'm not sure since they still make us make park reservations even though we are onsite.