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

[Justrose]

Shoot - one more question for @Dave006 or anyone else If I want to buy LLSP as well as LLMP, and I am going to WDW during the busiest week of the year, what should I buy first to ensure I can get what we want?

 

[Dave006]

If I want to buy LLSP as well as LLMP, and I am going to WDW during the busiest week of the year, what should I buy first to ensure I can get what we want?

What week do you think is the busiest of the year? How many days are you planning LLMP and/LLSP for and will you be on-site guests and able to book 7 days in advance?

The answers will help you and us determine some strategies.

Dave

 

[Justrose]

What week do you think is the busiest of the year? How many days are you planning LLMP and/LLSP for and will you be on-site guests and able to book 7 days in advance?

The answers will help you and us determine some strategies.

Dave

December 29 - January 3
Onsite, one day at each park, no hoppers. We do have DAS but I want to make sure we are good especially on 12/31 at Epcot since it's my daughter's birthday.
Here's what our itinerary is:
12/30 - HS (probably getting LLMP)
12/31 - Epcot (LLMP and LLSP for GoG). My general idea for this day is to do the front of the park in the AM. We have a ressie for Le Cellier at 3:30, then do the countries after dinner into the evening.
1/1 - AK (not planning to get LLMP)
1/2 - MK (up in the air about LLMP)

 

[Dave006]

Here's what our itinerary is:
12/30 - HS (probably getting LLMP)
12/31 - Epcot (LLMP and LLSP for GoG). My general idea for this day is to do the front of the park in the AM. We have a ressie for Le Cellier at 3:30, then do the countries after dinner into the evening.

From a technical standpoint it is not the busiest week of the year since your visit spans 2 years. Now to the serous stuff.

What are you must do attractions knowing that you can only get 1 Tier 1 and 2 Tier 2 attraction pre-selections?

HS - often harder than Epcot but you might want to focus on Epcot first due to your daughter's birthday.
Epcot - LLSP should be easy at this point but keep checking until Sunday.
AK - I would agree that no LLMP and/or LLSP should be required.
MK - still pending...

Dave

 

[Thoreauaway]

Hello! hoping for some advice with our Animal Kingdom & Epcot LLMP bookings

Our plan for AK is to rope drop Flight of Passage. We then have the following:
8:20 Na'vi River Journey
9:20 Kilimanjaro Safaris
11:20 DINOSAUR

I'm a bit worried the first two are potentially too tightly booked, given that I'm not confident how long it will take us to get on and off FOP. (We do have Early Entry but with my family I don't expect us to be near the front of the line ). In the same vein, because I already worry we might be tapping on late to Na'vi/Safari, and since Safari is such a long ride, I didn't want to book DINOSAUR too close - do y'all think there's time to move it slightly earlier though?

For Epcot, we have:
(rope drop Frozen)
Spaceship Earth 9:25
Remy 1pm
LWTL 5:10pm

There are still earlier times for Remy, but I wasn't sure if zipping from Norway back to the front of park, then to France, was a little too much for first thing in the morning, or if I should just live things as is and take more of a leisurely approach after we get off Spaceship Earth?

 

[elvispursley]

Hello! hoping for some advice with our Animal Kingdom & Epcot LLMP bookings

Our plan for AK is to rope drop Flight of Passage. We then have the following:
8:20 Na'vi River Journey
9:20 Kilimanjaro Safaris
11:20 DINOSAUR

I'm a bit worried the first two are potentially too tightly booked, given that I'm not confident how long it will take us to get on and off FOP. (We do have Early Entry but with my family I don't expect us to be near the front of the line ). In the same vein, because I already worry we might be tapping on late to Na'vi/Safari, and since Safari is such a long ride, I didn't want to book DINOSAUR too close - do y'all think there's time to move it slightly earlier though?

For Epcot, we have:
(rope drop Frozen)
Spaceship Earth 9:25
Remy 1pm
LWTL 5:10pm

There are still earlier times for Remy, but I wasn't sure if zipping from Norway back to the front of park, then to France, was a little too much for first thing in the morning, or if I should just live things as is and take more of a leisurely approach after we get off Spaceship Earth?

You should be fine at AK since each of your selections has an hour return window.

 

[Thoreauaway]

You should be fine at AK since each of your selections has an hour return window.

Thanks! would you leave DINOSAUR at 11:20 then?
I was thinking just in case we don't tap onto each of the previous rides until the end of the hour window (e.g. Na'vi closer to 9, Safari closer to 10 and then takes 30-40 minutes), so might be almost 11 anyways by the time we're able to head to DInoland.

 

[elvispursley]

Thanks! would you leave DINOSAUR at 11:20 then?
I was thinking just in case we don't tap onto each of the previous rides until the end of the hour window (e.g. Na'vi closer to 9, Safari closer to 10 and then takes 30-40 minutes), so might be almost 11 anyways by the time we're able to head to DInoland.

I’d leave Dino because you’ve got til 12:20 to ride plus the 15 minute grace period where you’ll still be “green” when you tap in. I think you’re just fine.

 

[denman007]

Does the LLMP work up until park close?

Do you think the crowds will thin out tomorrow at MK from 9pm to 11pm? That was when I was hoping to ride Tron and a few others since I missed getting the LLSP.

 

[Dave006]

Does the LLMP work up until park close?

Yes your LLMP selections work until park close. It normally is quite busy at MK on Saturday when it is the last park open but tomorrow it is going to be quite cool. Between 9 - 11:30 it will be in the mid to low 50s. HS has a ticketed event so everyone else may be in MK.

Dave

 

[nherbert]

Hello! hoping for some advice with our Animal Kingdom & Epcot LLMP bookings

Our plan for AK is to rope drop Flight of Passage. We then have the following:
8:20 Na'vi River Journey
9:20 Kilimanjaro Safaris
11:20 DINOSAUR

I'm a bit worried the first two are potentially too tightly booked, given that I'm not confident how long it will take us to get on and off FOP. (We do have Early Entry but with my family I don't expect us to be near the front of the line ). In the same vein, because I already worry we might be tapping on late to Na'vi/Safari, and since Safari is such a long ride, I didn't want to book DINOSAUR too close - do y'all think there's time to move it slightly earlier though?

For Epcot, we have:
(rope drop Frozen)
Spaceship Earth 9:25
Remy 1pm
LWTL 5:10pm

There are still earlier times for Remy, but I wasn't sure if zipping from Norway back to the front of park, then to France, was a little too much for first thing in the morning, or if I should just live things as is and take more of a leisurely approach after we get off Spaceship Earth?

I thought I would reply with our AK experience yesterday. Firstly we have been here for a week or two, we have learnt you don’t need LL access at AK - my first advice save your money transfer it to a different day, different park. The worst wait is 30 minutes, except for FoP which you should rope drop or LLSP or do at very end of day (ignore advertised wait time).
Anyway, to your specific question, we rope dropped FoP yesterday, we were at the front, probably in the second round of people loaded on the ride. We were off at 8am, it is a very long ride queue walk even with no wait. So even at the very front it will consume at least 30 minutes, when we got off the wait time was 75 minutes! If you are not at the front at rope drop you have a long wait. Assuming you are mid-pack, you should make your Navi before it expires (9:30ish) this will mean you make your safari. As soon as you are on Navi you can make another LL booking, suggest Everest for around 10am, so after safari you can do Everest on way towards Dinosaur. I do think you will be waiting sometime for Dinosaur, so a bit earlier 11am might work better. But this assumes you are just riding, if you are walking slow, experiencing or stopping at triceratops spin or the fun games then 11:20 will be fine. There is so much to do at AK that doesn’t use/need LL. You also need to factor in that you want to see the shows don’t miss Lion King, but the birds and Nemo are also terrific. So as soon as you are off safari, grab a LL for the next available show you want to see. Be aware on the day, you can continually adjust your LL.

 

[Thoreauaway]

I thought I would reply with our AK experience yesterday. Firstly we have been here for a week or two, we have learnt you don’t need LL access at AK - my first advice save your money transfer it to a different day, different park. The worst wait is 30 minutes, except for FoP which you should rope drop or LLSP or do at very end of day (ignore advertised wait time).
Anyway, to your specific question, we rope dropped FoP yesterday, we were at the front, probably in the second round of people loaded on the ride. We were off at 8am, it is a very long ride queue walk even with no wait. So even at the very front it will consume at least 30 minutes, when we got off the wait time was 75 minutes! If you are not at the front at rope drop you have a long wait. Assuming you are mid-pack, you should make your Navi before it expires (9:30ish) this will mean you make your safari. As soon as you are on Navi you can make another LL booking, suggest Everest for around 10am, so after safari you can do Everest on way towards Dinosaur. I do think you will be waiting sometime for Dinosaur, so a bit earlier 11am might work better. But this assumes you are just riding, if you are walking slow, experiencing or stopping at triceratops spin or the fun games then 11:20 will be fine. There is so much to do at AK that doesn’t use/need LL. You also need to factor in that you want to see the shows don’t miss Lion King, but the birds and Nemo are also terrific. So as soon as you are off safari, grab a LL for the next available show you want to see. Be aware on the day, you can continually adjust your LL.

Thank you so much, having your personal experience is SO helpful!
Sadly I think we're locked in to LLMP for AK, as I'd wanted to save the money but got outvoted.... (We bought LLMP for the other parks as well so can't transfer it or take advantage of it to park hop either, alas.)

I definitely don't think we'll be front of pack, I think we'll be lucky to be in the middle (I assume by rope drop you mean Early Entry rope drop, not regular park rope drop) so will budget at least an hour so we might juuuuust make our Na'vi time-- glad we didn't end up moving Na'vi and Safaris closer together

 

[ExcitedForWDW]

That is a lot of $. I’d just line up with the family. Lots to see in the line too.

Wow for 12/28, I’m allowed to overlap ROTR significantly more than the LLMP. Family is not huge Star Wars fans (I just tried to book; family is still on the fence abut spending $125 for our party of 5):

 

[nherbert]

(I assume by rope drop you mean Early Entry rope drop, not regular park rope drop

Yes I meant early entry rope drop, it’s was hard getting the family up for a 6:30am bus but I promised we could leave early and have arvo naps which we all enjoy
What we learnt about AK Early entry is, they open security at 7am - so no need to get there before 7am, security moves very fast. You then race (fast walk) to get into position for park entry, they have a lot of scanners in open, so join short queue, get as far left as you can (but shorter queue higher priority) as you have to then get your resort check once inside and that is on the left. Park scanners open at 7:15. Once past resort check, you quick March to the bridge in Pandora, where they hold you until 7:30. Get right on the bridge for FoP, people on left head to Navi. You are then quick marched to FoP, this is where it is more crucial to be towards the front.

 

[KCanuck]

I just wanted to thank everyone who contributes to this thread. I did our selections this morning and it went smoothly. Phew. I was very comfortable with the old FPP and Genieplus systems but felt nervous about having to select LLMPs and LLSPs and make payments one day at a time. I had notes ready and it was fine. I found looking at thrilldata a bit before 7am to be helpful. I could see what times were already full for certain rides.

 

[irene6118]

Just to make sure I am understanding all of this... If we are are staying onsite, and will be going to the parks 1/3-1/6, I can make my LLMP's and LLSP's 7 days ahead (starting at 7am) which I believe is 12/26. Is that correct? Does this also mean that I can make my LL's for all 4 days on 12/26?
And does this apply to VQ's too or do those have to be made the morning of? Thanks.

 

[Dave006]

Just to make sure I am understanding all of this... If we are are staying onsite, and will be going to the parks 1/3-1/6, I can make my LLMP's and LLSP's 7 days ahead (starting at 7am) which I believe is 12/26. Is that correct?

Only if your arrival date is 1/2, then yes your LLPM and/or LLSP date would be 12/26. If you check-in in 1/3 then your date would be 12/27.

Does this also mean that I can make my LL's for all 4 days on 12/26?

Again only if you actually check-in on 1/2.

And does this apply to VQ's too or do those have to be made the morning of? Thanks.

No, VQ is day of at 7 AM or 1 PM if you have entered the park before 1 PM. And 6 PM for Deluxe Guests staying for Extra Evening Hours (EEH).

Dave

 

[irene6118]

Thank you Dave. We are checking in to our resort on 1/2, so I guess that works.

 

[traveler9]

Yes, your first LLMP reservation tap opens up access to additional tier 1s as well as park hopping. (Note that this does NOT apply the multi experience passes. Using an MEP does not open hopping and additional tier 1s. When an LLMP converts to MEP, it's like it never existed. You can book an additional LLMP subject to the park and tier rules you are currently under but having or using and MEP does not change open the day.)

This system definitely incentivizes earlier entry as you can start pulling more high demand passes earlier in the day.

One morning my Tiana window started right at MK park opening and the ride had a delayed opening so it became an MEP. What I noticed while looking around in the app was that I could have still modified my LLMP to another day in the app.

I didn’t do it but I wonder if my Tier 1 MEP would have stayed on my account if I did. If so I could have effectively gotten a free tier 1 MEP pass for that day and have been able to use the LLMP purchase on another day.