Thoughts on my EE with LL rope drop plans?

[Wilcojoe]

Staying at DLH (7/20-7/23) and we have EE at DCA on Sunday and Monday and Tuesday at DL. Here are my initial thoughts, let me know what you think.

Sunday 7/20 (EE at DCA)
7:30am- Enter park and get LL for Soarin
-Ride Guardians and Webslinger and then get as close to RSR as possible for rope drop.
8:00am-Ride RSR followed by Incredicoaster which we will probably ride back to back
9:00- Grizzly followed by other rides based on current wait times
*will try and modify Grizzly to get a late morning time.

Monday 7/21 (EE at DCA)
-Same plan as yesterday?

Tuesday 7/22 (EE at DL)
7:30 Enter park and get LL for Indiana while heading to Peter Pan. After pan, ride Alice and then head to lineup for rope drop for RoR.
8:00am-RoR
8:30-10:00 Mickey’s Toontown rides


Thoughts on this for each morning? How long do you expect our wait would be for RSR and RoR with a bit of a head start on the general public? I want to try and avoid buying the LLSP if possible.

 

[Brandonius]

DCA Side
You won't finish Guardians and Web slingers before the rope drops. Guardians is running at reduced capacity right now, so frankly you'll be lucky to just get out of Guardians before the normal rope drops.

If you're willing to buy ILL for RSR, that's so much nicer (faster AND hassle free) than rope drop lol. Rope drop is absolute madness... u can for sure try, but plan on 30-40 minutes if you aren't good at pushing thru the crowd.

We always just do single rider (I hate buying ILL lol) and almost never wait longer than 20 minutes. The heuristic for if you should hop in line is this: is the single rider line past both bridges? If so, under a 30 min wait 99% of the time. It's 4-7 minutes when you get to the single rider ramp up to the platform.

Bring a change of shoes or clothes for grizzly . That ride is no joke if you get hit... (I like it a lot, but I always stuff flip flops + extra socks/undies in my bag for that and Tiana lol)

DL Side
If you rope drop well, you'll have time for another ride on top of Pan and Alice, still arriving to the rope before Rise. Be ready to jump on Pinnochio before you line up. Your call tho.

If you're near the front of the pack, I'm guessing you get to the ready room by 8:10-ish. It takes a bit to follow the herd back and get walked through the queue in the morning. If you don't push to be near the front, plan on 8:20 in the ready room, off the attraction by 8:35.

If Rise is down then I'd recommend walking right past and doing Tiana via standby.

You won't need 90 minutes for toon town. 60 tops. Start with Roger, then Gadget's, then end with the Railway (which will still have a minimal line)

Alternate DL Morning
As a suggested modification to your plan, book your Lightning Lane for Space Mountain. I would use the modify feature and push it out to early or mid afternoon.

Consider doing your same Pan/Alice morning, but keep going in Fantasyland until about 8:15. (You'll be able to do 4 dark rides in that time, all 5 if you crush it) Then, if Indiana Jones is open, start walking over at 8:15 and do it via Standby. You will be off no later than 8:45. (Even if they are posting 45 and the outdoor queue is full, nobody will be using lightning lanes at this time of day - it will move very fast)

Then, at 8:40-45, if it's open, go do Rise via Standby. The longest you'll wait is 30 minutes to the first pre-show room. We've generally waited 10-15 at this time, with my fastest experience being 6 minutes. The rope drop rush has died down between 8:45 and 9, but Lightning Lanes and late morning crowds haven't hit yet. Never ever ever believe the posted wait time on this ride in the morning

I believe there are 3 advantages to this strategy:
1. You accomplish more Fantasyland rides, which have no Lightning Lane
2. You never bet your entire strategy on walking across the park to an open ride (Rise...)
3. You get your first LL for Space Mountain and accomplish Indy, freeing your Lightning Lanes up for all the other rides with sooner return times.

Have fun!!

 

[Wilcojoe]

This is fantastic, thank you! Sounds like a large portion of the EE folks at DCA head straight towards RSR and don’t even ride during that half hour period? If we did decide to line up for RSR during EE, where is the best place to be.

 

[Brandonius]

That's correct... This video from a week ago shows the walk and line up well. The skip to 6:30 in the video to se it. Several hundred guests will wait for RSR before the normal rope drops at all.

Frankly, I think RSR is a total distraction for rope drop. Soarin, Web Slingers, Toy Story, Incredicoaster, ALL the big hitters will be sub-15 minutes. You could get through several other rides in the time you'd spend waiting for and getting on cars. AND, if it's a particularly wet morning, the radiator springs racers ride system just hates water. Any sort of heavy mist/fog or rain = instant shutdown.

The thing is, now that I'm researching it, sometimes the ride opens 10 minutes before official rope drop. You won the lottery in that case, and you're off to the rest of the park at 8:05 or so. But I would plan for the worst, hope for the best.

 

[Wilcojoe]

That's correct... This video from a week ago shows the walk and line up well. The skip to 6:30 in the video to se it. Several hundred guests will wait for RSR before the normal rope drops at all.

Frankly, I think RSR is a total distraction for rope drop. Soarin, Web Slingers, Toy Story, Incredicoaster, ALL the big hitters will be sub-15 minutes. You could get through several other rides in the time you'd spend waiting for and getting on cars. AND, if it's a particularly wet morning, the radiator springs racers ride system just hates water. Any sort of heavy mist/fog or rain = instant shutdown.

The thing is, now that I'm researching it, sometimes the ride opens 10 minutes before official rope drop. You won the lottery in that case, and you're off to the rest of the park at 8:05 or so. But I would plan for the worst, hope for the best.

 

[Wilcojoe]

You are awesome. This is giving me a lot to think about. Last time we were at DL was in 2023 and I don’t recall that we could modify reservation times on LL. One of my goals is to be able to take the monorail back to the DLH before it shuts down due to heat. And then not return until the early evening. So I am a bit at the mercy of the weather each day.

Any tips for stacking LL for the evening, so that if we leave the parks at say 1pm and return at say 6pm, we could have multiple LL’s to ride? Is it possible to push out my first LL purchased at park entry to an evening time? My goal is to be able to purchase LL at 7:30, 9:30 and 11:30 and have them to ride in the evenings. Also want to take advantage of breakdowns to accrue MEP’s.

 

[Brandonius]

Yeah, now there's a button in the app on your reservation to "modify". It gives you the option to update your LL to the currently available time slot, but that doesn't reset your 2-hr cooldown clock between bookings. So yes, it's totally possible to book Space Mountain at 8 AM, then using the modify button, keep "modifying" it to a later time until you have a 8 PM reservation! (That's my preferred way to use lightning lanes anyway)

The "clock" doesn't start until 8 AM tho, even if you scan into the park before 8 AM. So your 7:30, 9:30, and 11:30 scenario would actually be 7:30 (clock starts @8), 10:00, and 12:00.

What I like to do is stack Space Mountain as soon as I scan in for a 1-park day, or Guardians if I'm park hopping, then just every 20 or 30 minutes check my app and modify the lightning lane back to a later time. You can do it as many times as you want per day.

I'd suggest booking space mountain on entry in DL and Soarin on entry in DCA. Modify both throughout the day to some time late afternoon or evening - whenever you're coming back into the park.

Use the time from 10 AM -> 1 PM to book lightning lanes with close return times and use them immediately - Incredicoaster/Toy Story/Monsters on DCA side, Thunder Mtn/Haunted Mansion/Tomorrow Land B-Tier rides on DL side.

Historically nothing sells out before noon except guardians and Soarin', which you're riding in the morning or already booking, so using your morning time to book lightning lanes you won't use until nighttime isn't very productive! You can do that from outside the park during your afternoon break.

As you scan into your last ride before the afternoon break, book something - ideally the lightning lane with the latest return time (it is most likely to run out). Then set a timer on ur phone for 2 hours. When that buzzes, book another LL, repeat for a third. (1 PM, 3 PM, 5 PM) While you're chilling at the hotel or looking around downtown Disney, just open up your app every so often and make sure you're hitting the "modify" button to push your lightning lanes back to the evening and they're at times that you can actually make.

If your goal is to fish for some sort of MEP, I'd book Indy as soon as you scan in and hold it for about 30 minutes after opening - DON'T use it when you walk up to the ride even if there's a short line outside. If the ride is still running after 30 mins, just book Space mountain and carry on with your day. Enough people use Lightning Lane now that you can't BOTH fish AND stack for evenings. Early on in the system's existence you could totally do that.

Glad to help. I love this stuff haha... all my friends and family ask me for the nerdy trip itinerary details whenever they go, and I 1000% think up new itineraries every few months and jot them down in my notes app on breaks at work or something.

 

[Wilcojoe]

Yeah, now there's a button in the app on your reservation to "modify". It gives you the option to update your LL to the currently available time slot, but that doesn't reset your 2-hr cooldown clock between bookings. So yes, it's totally possible to book Space Mountain at 8 AM, then using the modify button, keep "modifying" it to a later time until you have a 8 PM reservation! (That's my preferred way to use lightning lanes anyway)

The "clock" doesn't start until 8 AM tho, even if you scan into the park before 8 AM. So your 7:30, 9:30, and 11:30 scenario would actually be 7:30 (clock starts @8), 10:00, and 12:00.

What I like to do is stack Space Mountain as soon as I scan in for a 1-park day, or Guardians if I'm park hopping, then just every 20 or 30 minutes check my app and modify the lightning lane back to a later time. You can do it as many times as you want per day.

I'd suggest booking space mountain on entry in DL and Soarin on entry in DCA. Modify both throughout the day to some time late afternoon or evening - whenever you're coming back into the park.

Use the time from 10 AM -> 1 PM to book lightning lanes with close return times and use them immediately - Incredicoaster/Toy Story/Monsters on DCA side, Thunder Mtn/Haunted Mansion/Tomorrow Land B-Tier rides on DL side.

Historically nothing sells out before noon except guardians and Soarin', which you're riding in the morning or already booking, so using your morning time to book lightning lanes you won't use until nighttime isn't very productive! You can do that from outside the park during your afternoon break.

As you scan into your last ride before the afternoon break, book something - ideally the lightning lane with the latest return time (it is most likely to run out). Then set a timer on ur phone for 2 hours. When that buzzes, book another LL, repeat for a third. (1 PM, 3 PM, 5 PM) While you're chilling at the hotel or looking around downtown Disney, just open up your app every so often and make sure you're hitting the "modify" button to push your lightning lanes back to the evening and they're at times that you can actually make.

If your goal is to fish for some sort of MEP, I'd book Indy as soon as you scan in and hold it for about 30 minutes after opening - DON'T use it when you walk up to the ride even if there's a short line outside. If the ride is still running after 30 mins, just book Space mountain and carry on with your day. Enough people use Lightning Lane now that you can't BOTH fish AND stack for evenings. Early on in the system's existence you could totally do that.

Glad to help. I love this stuff haha... all my friends and family ask me for the nerdy trip itinerary details whenever they go, and I 1000% think up new itineraries every few months and jot them down in my notes app on breaks at work or something.

Fantastic stuff! Thank you again!!

 

[Wilcojoe]

Another question that came to mind? Can I modify a LL time during my window? For example if my return time for IJ is 9-10am, do I need to modify prior to 9am or can I still modify it at say 9:55am?

 

[Brandonius]

Yes. I believe you just can’t modify after it expires.

The window is actually 75 minutes - 5 before, 10 after. So if your window is 11-12, you can actually scan in at 10:55, end at 12:10.

 

[twodogs]

We love to max out LL and how we use it! Booking for early break downs and MEP, modifying (both the time and the ride (within the same park only)), stacking. All good!! But, a few cautions:

-Never CANCEL a LL. This resets the 2 hour block out clock. If you modify a LL, the 2 hour clock does not reset, even if you modify your return time to much later in the day.
-Never let a LL EXPIRE unused. If you do this, the system counts it as “used” for the day, and you can only use a LL once per ride per day. So again, always modify (time and/or ride) before a LL expires. You will likely need to use phone alarms often if you are planning to modify most of the LLs you book in the morning to later times, as their expiration times will be all over the map and too difficult to remember off the top of your head.

I do think that when I have booked a LL during EE (booked at 7:30am), that my next booking window was at 9:30a, Can anyone else confirm, since my memory of this differs from the post above?

 

[DLRExpert]

Staying at DLH (7/20-7/23) and we have EE at DCA on Sunday and Monday and Tuesday at DL. Here are my initial thoughts, let me know what you think.

Sunday 7/20 (EE at DCA)
7:30am- Enter park and get LL for Soarin
-Ride Guardians and Webslinger and then get as close to RSR as possible for rope drop.
8:00am-Ride RSR followed by Incredicoaster which we will probably ride back to back
9:00- Grizzly followed by other rides based on current wait times
*will try and modify Grizzly to get a late morning time.

Monday 7/21 (EE at DCA)
-Same plan as yesterday?

Tuesday 7/22 (EE at DL)
7:30 Enter park and get LL for Indiana while heading to Peter Pan. After pan, ride Alice and then head to lineup for rope drop for RoR.
8:00am-RoR
8:30-10:00 Mickey’s Toontown rides


Thoughts on this for each morning? How long do you expect our wait would be for RSR and RoR with a bit of a head start on the general public? I want to try and avoid buying the LLSP if possible.

Quick thoughts, you can search for my other posts for more details and other recommendations.
DCA
- zero need to get a LL for Soarin that early, better to get it for TSMM and fish for the MEP LL.
- Arrive at the park entrance by 715am.
- Choose between riding Guardians or Web Slingers. Choose the one you may want to ride twice.
- Goal if to be in line for Racers by 750am.
- 8am-840am Racers first, then Luigi's, finally Mater's. Goal is to be at Pixar Pier by 845am.
- PP start with TSMM, then Icredicoaster, end with Pixar Pal Around by 945am
- Goofy is actually the first LL you should book then the Guardians LL. After Pal Around can be EW, Goofy, JJ, Swings, Mermaid. Should be able to finish by 1045am.

DL
- Avoid Rise at park opening. You can probably find a shorter wait and working ride around 1130am-1pm and 6-9pm
- Arrive at the Disneyland entrance by 715am.
- Indiana Jones LL to fish for the MEP LL. Will not actually use
- Fantasyland order... Pan, Alice, Dumbo, Toad, Snow White, Pinocchio, Casey Jr. Goal is to be in Toontown by 9am
- Once in Toontown first Chip and Dale coaster, then Roger, end with Railway
- Goal is to be in Adventureland by 945am.
- Jungle Cruise first, then Pirates, after that it is based on what LLs you book and the return times.

 

[MonocularVision]

DCA
- zero need to get a LL for Soarin that early, better to get it for TSMM and fish for the MEP LL.

This would have been bad advice when we went a few weeks ago. With Soarin’ at half capacity, it was going fast. You needed to get it before noon otherwise it would run out and the wait time was like 90 minutes. TSMM had availability way later then what I was used to. Feels like perhaps the popularity of the ride is waning a bit?

 

[DLRExpert]

This would have been bad advice when we went a few weeks ago. With Soarin’ at half capacity, it was going fast. You needed to get it before noon otherwise it would run out and the wait time was like 90 minutes. TSMM had availability way later then what I was used to. Feels like perhaps the popularity of the ride is waning a bit?

not booking LL for TSMM for the LL
For Soarin pay attention to drops around 1030-1050, 1120-1130, 12-1215, 115-145

 

[Wilcojoe]

Great stuff DLRexpert! So should I get a LL for TSMM at 7:30 and hope for a MEP but then pivot and modify it to Soarin if it doesn’t breakdown within my return window?

 

[DLRExpert]

Great stuff DLRexpert! So should I get a LL for TSMM at 7:30 and hope for a MEP but then pivot and modify it to Soarin if it doesn’t breakdown within my return window?

You can do that.

Personally, I would do my best to enter the park by 740am. Book LL for TSMM immediately upon entering However when the park opens see if TSMM is down, but also other LL attractions. Especially Web Slingers (you can see this in advance of park opening during EE), Incredicoaster, Grizzly River, and Goofy Sky School.

I would try to book the LL for Soarin before 10am, and look to modify to an earlier time. Really FOCUS on LL drops happening around 1030-1050, 1120-1130, 12-1215, 115-145

 

[Wilcojoe]

You can do that.

Personally, I would do my best to enter the park by 740am. Book LL for TSMM immediately upon entering However when the park opens see if TSMM is down, but also other LL attractions. Especially Web Slingers (you can see this in advance of park opening during EE), Incredicoaster, Grizzly River, and Goofy Sky School.

I would try to book the LL for Soarin before 10am, and look to modify to an earlier time. Really FOCUS on LL drops happening around 1030-1050, 1120-1130, 12-1215, 115-145

Just to confirm, I would only receive an MEP if the ride is closed at any point during my return window correct?

Also are the times listed for LL on the tip board of the app the same as what I would see if I “modified”?

 

[DLRExpert]

Just to confirm, I would only receive an MEP if the ride is closed at any point during my return window correct?

Also are the times listed for LL on the tip board of the app the same as what I would see if I “modified”?

1) Correct, but in some cases you are not give then MEP immediately. Usually because they expect the attraction to be operating in a short while.
2) the times listed in the app can change quickly.