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

[japanese maple]

It may be tedious, but it seems to be the way the screenshot in my prior post says it will work.

I'm sure you are right, I just wish you weren't. I say this as the person who will have to do this for 4 people with different MDE accounts!

 

[DisneyFive]

Neither MaxPass nor Genie+ were structured so that you got a price break the more days you purchased; it was either all your parks days pre-purchased or purchased day of per day.

Our first trip to DL was when they were increasing the MP from $10 to $15 and for a short time you got the $10 per day price IF you bought your tickets through Disney but again it was purchased for all the park days at once (in our case 3 park days). The only thing that was similar enough was when they introduced a multi-park Genie+ day of pass which gave you a price break for those who had park hoppers but it was not about additional days.

If they did do a price break based on the number of days you buy for it would be a departure from previous systems. Not saying they won't do that because it would be nice. I also don't know that they would structure it so you could move around like jo-jo was asking where you get a price break by number of days but you're choosing when you're using the pre-purchased passes when you have more park days than what you're wanting to pre-purchase for. That "flexibility" is already accomplished by allowing the guest to purchase day of even with it's downsides as they can save money that way.

Yeah, sorry I should have been more clear. I wasn't responding re. a discount, but more so the flexibility of purchasing select days of our stay. In 2022 we pre purchased G+, but it had to be for the entire stay and was $15 per person per day plus tax.

By what @Tom_E_D it looks like we will be able to select days, which is great.

Now, as to the price... I'm a little worried.

 

[Tom_E_D]

I'm sure you are right, I just wish you weren't. I say this as the person who will have to do this for 4 people with different MDE accounts!

If they are all in your Family and Friends group, I believe you could buy all the LLMPs nd LLSPs from your account and then have them reimburse you. Actually, you should if you want to be assured of the same return times. On my last WDW trip, the group was 15 people (four generations, aged 4 to 74). When we go again, I'll probably be the one handling this. I understand what you're talking about. Under Fastpass+, I was the one up at 7:00 60 days before arrival getting all the FPs. You want it as simple as possible.

Edit: Corrected Genie+ to Fastpass+.

 

[japanese maple]

If they are all in your Family and Friends group, I believe you could buy all the LLMPs nd LLSPs from your account and then have them reimburse you. Actually, you should if you want to be assured of the same return times. On my last WDW trip, the group was 15 people (four generations, aged 4 to 74). When we go again, I'll probably be the one handling this. I understand what you're talking about. Under Genie+, I was the one up at 7:00 60 days before arrival getting all the FPs. You want it as simple as possible.

I think that is what I will do.

But they arrive day after we do. Which we won't be buying it for ourselves our first day (just relax, shop, eat first day) but - should I go ahead and make reservations anyways for the whole trip on my eligible day and then the next day when they are eligible buy their passes and try to modify my reservation to add them? Or snag a time with overlapping windows? That's how I used to do it with fast pass (minus purchasing anything). I would book out the whole trip and when their time to book rides came, I just modified our already booked rides to add them.

I would buy any extra rides like Tron, Guardians, etc. at the same time when we are all eligible.

 

[Tom_E_D]

I think that is what I will do.

But they arrive day after we do. Which we won't be buying it for ourselves our first day (just relax, shop, eat first day) but - should I go ahead and make reservations anyways for the whole trip on my eligible day and then the next day when they are eligible buy their passes and try to modify my reservation to add them? Or snag a time with overlapping windows? That's how I used to do it with fast pass (minus purchasing anything). I would book out the whole trip and when their time to book rides came, I just modified our already booked rides to add them.

I would buy any extra rides like Tron, Guardians, etc. at the same time when we are all eligible.

If you got the "buy today, modify tomorrow" strategy to work for you with Fastpass+, you could try it with LLMP. But personally, I'd wait the extra day if doing things together is a priority.

 

[japanese maple]

If you got the "buy today, modify tomorrow" strategy to work for you with Fastpass+, you could try it with LLMP. But personally, I'd wait the extra day if doing things together is a priority.

It's not a priority for me, but I can see my sister getting annoyed if they had to ride at a different time. I will probably do as you say, but read about other's experiences until it's time. We book on Thanksgiving.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

because you knew you were going to get a better experience with MP than doing standby only right?

I really struggle to see why folks refuse to use the systems that keep them from standing in lines.

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink."

We didn't get MP because we knew we were going to get a better experience the way you think. It was solely because that's how Disney created it. When you feel like the ONLY way you can really can anything out of a park is by purchasing their pass it's an issue. It's not about refusing to use systems (especially when there's a monetary cost to them). And to even think that way means you're coming from a point of price privilege. To not see an additional cost as a barrier, that may be how you approach it and that's fine but you shouldn't judge others making it like they are somehow just incompetent or unwilling. And back then the tickets were a lot less, DLR even had an early entry for those who purchased 3 days or more tickets (now gone). And DL still had free FP.

Here's my post from 2019 and you tell me how you think it was just merely about leading a horse to water but couldn't make them drink. We got MP the first trip (march 2019) mainly because our DISer friend was joining us and he would have it. In September 2019 we tried one day without it and big mistake.

Post from 9/21/2019:


Below also discussing it and for context Smuggler's Run was 100% standby no VQ (didn't exist then) at DLR when it opened.



And then this was my comment to my DISer friends from our May 2022 WDW trip with Navi and you tell me how you think it was merely just about leading a horse to water but couldn't make them drink:

"Disney is like 2 people go (standby) ok stop 2 people go okay stop."

You've missed how I spoke about Universal. If my overall experience and enjoyment out of Universal can be had without purchasing their system it's not the system it's how the park is using it. If I can be around so many unhappy people at WDW in lines but not experience the same at Universal it's not the system it's how the park is using it. If you're getting way too used to get ahead of the line ways of touring a park you are going to lose sight of how it is for those in Standby. I understand your perspective but disagree with the rhetoric used

 

[georgina]

I have two complimentary park hopper tickets. They are linked to my MDE account. I need to make park reservations for this type of ticket. My question is, for those of us who need park reservations, if our tickets have park hoppers do you think we will still be able to make Lightning Lane selections for later in the day at the second park I go to and not the one I have a park reservation for? If that makes sense!

i have a 10 day non-expiring hopper (park reservations required) that I will be using in March, so I have plenty of time to find out hopefully. If I was to use this, I would probably want to make a reservation to rope drop AK without any LLs and book them at another park to hop to.

The other question is if I instead make a reservation to my intended 2nd park and prebook the LL for there, can I then modify my park reservation for the morning?

 

[vinotinto]

i have a 10 day non-expiring hopper (park reservations required) that I will be using in March, so I have plenty of time to find out hopefully. If I was to use this, I would probably want to make a reservation to rope drop AK without any LLs and book them at another park to hop to.

The other question is if I instead make a reservation to my intended 2nd park and prebook the LL for there, can I then modify my park reservation for the morning?

We'll know more about how the tickets that require reservations work with this new system, but based on the fact that date-based tickets do not require park reservations, I don't think your park reservation will need to match your 3 LLMP selections. That is, in your case, you should be able to make a park reservation at AK and book your LLMP at one of the other parks.

 

[DisneyFive]

We didn't get MP because we knew we were going to get a better experience the way you think. It was solely because that's how Disney created it. When you feel like the ONLY way you can really can anything out of a park is by purchasing their pass it's an issue. It's not about refusing to use systems (especially when there's a monetary cost to them). And to even think that way means you're coming from a point of price privilege. To not see an additional cost as a barrier, that may be how you approach it and that's fine but you shouldn't judge others making it like they are somehow just incompetent or unwilling. And back then the tickets were a lot less, DLR even had an early entry for those who purchased 3 days or more tickets (now gone). And DL still had free FP.

Here's my post from 2019 and you tell me how you think it was just merely about leading a horse to water but couldn't make them drink. We got MP the first trip (march 2019) mainly because our DISer friend was joining us and he would have it. In September 2019 we tried one day without it and big mistake.

Post from 9/21/2019:
View attachment 872135

Below also discussing it and for context Smuggler's Run was 100% standby no VQ (didn't exist then) at DLR when it opened.

View attachment 872131

And then this was my comment to my DISer friends from our May 2022 WDW trip with Navi and you tell me how you think it was merely just about leading a horse to water but couldn't make them drink:

"Disney is like 2 people go (standby) ok stop 2 people go okay stop."

You've missed how I spoke about Universal. If my overall experience and enjoyment out of Universal can be had without purchasing their system it's not the system it's how the park is using it. If I can be around so many unhappy people at WDW in lines but not experience the same at Universal it's not the system it's how the park is using it. If you're getting way too used to get ahead of the line ways of touring a park you are going to lose sight of how it is for those in Standby. I understand your perspective but disagree with the rhetoric used

I am looking at this through my lens, so my comments come from that perspective. I don't mean to offend, just state my views.

Going on any Disney trip, in and of itself, is coming from a point of price privilege. We could never dream of it when I was a child. G+ or LLMP are now just part of the overall cost equation.

Believe me, I'm 100% not in favor of having to pay for a skip the line service. I would rather all guests have access for free. It worked before (my opinion and experience), and could work again. Disney just decided to monetize it instead. In fact I regularly argue against it, especially those that say "Charge $200 per person so that only a few purchase it and it's more effective". I loathe that we have to pay for it. It cut down our stay by two full days in 2022 because we purchased G+. It hurts. It sucks. At some price point (not much higher than current G+ prices) we just can't justify the cost per day and will not visit WDW at all, ever.

I struggle to understand how you can say you didn't purchase MP to get a better experience? Does it matter that you felt forced to do so? I feel the same way about WDW. It's just the reality now, unfortunately. Having the whole park "standby only" doesn't fix it either.

Univeral is apples and oranges. Their attendance is different, the number of attractions are different. Their Express pass is amazing, but would you pay those prices out of pocket for the same system at WDW? I wouldn't. Did you pay for Express pass or did you get it rolled into your Universal deluxe resort stay? WDW has never rolled a Fastpass into Deluxe resort stays like Universal so that's a moot point.

Our experience with MFSR was quite different. Our actual wait time at Smugglers Run was 90 minutes when the parks were standby only. That was only our third ride of the morning after being in the parks a full 1 hour early, then starting with TOT and RNRC 30 minutes before official park open. By the time we got back to Galaxies edge, only 25 minutes after park open, the line for Smugglers run the posted time was 60 minutes but ended up being 90 minutes actual. That sucked, but loved the ride. With G+ our wait was never more than 10 minutes and we rode it more times.

So maybe it's just that our touring styles differ, I don't know. I just hope we can continue to enjoy WDW without prices forcing us to stop completely. I think our trip next year in 2025 may be our last for quite some time. It's just getting too hard to justify the cost to tour the way do (using whatever skip-the-line system is in place)

 

[WannaGoDW]

So, I've looked through the Disney info page and glanced in this discussion, but I can't figure out -- do the Lightning Lanes (if available on the morning we can pick) still have to be spaced out two hours?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

We'll know more about how the tickets that require reservations work with this new system, but based on the fact that date-based tickets do not require park reservations, I don't think your park reservation will need to match your 3 LLMP selections. That is, in your case, you should be able to make a park reservation at AK and book your LLMP at one of the other parks.

I wonder how that would interact with each other. While park hopping isn't a restriction any longer (outside of APs without a park reservation when required), those with park reservations must still tap into the park they have the reservation for. If someone purchases Disney's new system for a park they don't hold any reservations for will there be a system interaction with the times available or will they work independent of each other? Disney has said if you cancel your resort reservation you'll lose your existing attraction reservations, would Disney's system see a modification of a park reservation as something akin?

***I'm not thinking you personally have the answers just wondering out loud.

 

[Tom_E_D]

So, I've looked through the Disney info page and glanced in this discussion, but I can't figure out -- do the Lightning Lanes (if available on the morning we can pick) still have to be spaced out two hours?

They don't have to be spaced out two hours now under Genie+. The Genie+ "2-hour rule" concerns when you can next book one, not how far apart the reservations have to be. And the "2-hour rule" only applies if you don't tap in, cancel, or have it expire earlier.

Under Fastpass+, FP reservations could not overlap, so effectively had to be spaced one hour apart. That may be 45 minutes under LLMP if the information in Post 858 (on page 43) of this thread is correct. BTW, kudos to Jellybean9 for finding that info. I just copied and pasted it to Post 858.

 

[vinotinto]

I wonder how that would interact with each other. While park hopping isn't a restriction any longer (outside of APs without a park reservation when required), those with park reservations must still tap into the park they have the reservation for. If someone purchases Disney's new system for a park they don't hold any reservations for will there be a system interaction with the times available or will they work independent of each other? Disney has said if you cancel your resort reservation you'll lose your existing attraction reservations, would Disney's system see a modification of a park reservation as something akin?

***I'm not thinking you personally have the answers just wondering out loud.

I’ve just been speculating in this thread because we don’t have any actual experiences to go on.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I’ve just been speculating in this thread because we don’t have any actual experiences to go on.

Haha totally get it! And there's so much to speculate on of course with such limited details from Disney as per usual

I'm interested as we have 5 day park hoppers that are from pre-dated time period that were not used for our 2022 trip so as of now they are still under park reservation rules, I don't think we'll be back to Disney until next year at the earliest but it has me thinking what rules could possibly be applying to us. And with the advanced lead for on-site that may make us stay on-site again.

 

[LoveToDisney]

I think dropping the Meet & Greets is strange...that creates a lot loss available selections.

I wonder if Meet & Greets will be added in on the list of options on SAME DAY but not able to reserve ahead of time. Just a thought…

 

[LoveToDisney]

I think modifying to another park is a bigger issue than the others. Remember that you pay a different price based on which park you buy LLMP for. Paying for AK and then modifying everything to MK? Disney could lose money if people start doing that. As it is now, with Genie+, you cannot modify from one park to another (although you can cancel and then book in another park, you can only do so if you paid for the multi-park option).

Do we know that the multi-pass will cost differently based on which park is chosen or is it just 1 price that changes PER DAY based on how busy the time of year?

 

[Cabius]

This is not a snarky question, but a real one. Did you ever visit when it was only standby and the parks had filled back up and before G+? If so, how did you like it? That is the nearest equivalent to a “Skip the line” system that would be uber expensive where most guests would be standby and only a few would have the “fast pass”

Here’s our experience with that. We visited when parks were filled back up, but there was no “skip the line” system back in place yet. It was by far the worst Disney trip we have ever experienced. The only option was the standby lines, both long physically and also long time-wise. Also, the word was out and guests knew that the only way to try and beat the system was to get to the parks super early. So now there was no fastpass and we had to show up at the parks 30 minutes to an hour before opening just to get one or two headliners in before the crush of the crowds and long lines for the rest of the day.

In that scenario, the vast majority of guests experienced long physical lines and long average wait times and there was no alternative. The entire experience became mediocre for everyone.

The fast pass systems at Disney work, and they work well enough for all of the guests, or the vast majority of guests, to significantly benefit from it.

I know everyone has different desires of how to tour Disney parks. Our reality ( and we’ve experienced every “skip the line” System that Disney has implemented) is that it can work even when 100% of the guests have it. Pushing it to a select few, who are willing to pay the high price, comes at a much higher negative experience for the majority than it does for the benefit of the few.

Fair question!

My family visited in summer 2021, and had a mostly great time. I honestly think we managed to avoid any waits longer than 20-30 minutes. (The one exception was probably Flight of Passage, which I think I rope dropped.)

The biggest problem we observed was that queues would often overflow their physical space and spill out into the parks. We did observe that posted wait times were often much longer than actual wait times, presumably to try and discourage guests and better manage crowd control, so a 40-minute posted wait for Pirates would typically only actually take 15-20 minutes.

With a 5-year-old and a 3-year-old at the time, we typically were up very early anyway, and only did a handful of grown-up rides. So it worked super well for us to rope drop and get through 2-3 'kiddie headliners' before crowds built up. Even at a park like DHS, we could to MMRR, TSMM, and (oops, I guess I have to spell this one out) Alien Swirling Saucers in the first hour of park operations.

It's possible that we would've had a very different experience if we were trying to get a different attraction mix, but we weren't trying to get on Rock 'n' Roller Coaster or ToT (which I think at the time was only using one drop shaft, but not quote me on that).

Summer of '21 was also a very unusual time. The parks were starting to get stuffed with pent-up 'revenge travel' demand, but they really weren't back at anywhere close to full capacity. A lot of shows and live entertainment were still shuttered -- Finding Nemo didn't reopen until 2022, and the Belle meet-and-greet didn't reopen until 2023! -- and a bunch of rides were not operating at full capacity. So there were more and more guests in attraction queues, and longer lines overall. While changes in queue policies may have the same directional impact at any time, I'm not sure that the magnitude there is representative of the parks running at full capacity.

I do get the appeal of FP/G+/LL. It allows guests with more money and/or savvy to spend less time in queues! My point is that it's zero-sum game, and that by definition not everybody can have an above-average experience.

 

[Tom_E_D]

Do we know that the multi-pass will cost differently based on which park is chosen or is it just 1 price that changes PER DAY based on how busy the time of year?

From the Disneyworld website: "Prices for Lightning Lane Multi Passes vary by date and theme park." (emphasis added)

 

[vinotinto]

I wonder if Meet & Greets will be added in on the list of options on SAME DAY but not able to reserve ahead of time. Just a thought…

I would imagine meet and greets would be a huge selling point for the new system and I would imagine that if Disney plans to include them as bookable only on the actual day that they’ll tell us to entice purchases.