Wondering if Buying LL passes were a mistake.......

[Krischaser]

I just discovered the "waiting times" in the My Disney Experience App and see many rides at 8:30 pm had short standby wait times. We are going next week and we have two day park hoppers and thought with Spring Break around this time it was a good buy but now I'm upset that maybe we should have just did standby. Especially with it being a "tighter budget" trip.

 

[WDW Traveler]

We honestly never buy LL. (One trip our friend purchased a LL to GofG for us, because she loves the ride that's the only time.) We go to the parks, see/ride what we can and that's that. I know I am not the norm, but I just can't get past paying for entrance and then paying more to ride the rides, see the shows. We do go often, so if we miss something, we know we will see it next trip.

If you don't go that often, getting it might make sense to ensure you get to do your favorite things. Hopefully you find that it was worth it.

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

Spring break can be weird because everyone’s breaks are at different times, so some weeks will be insanely crowded and others, not so much. Still, with 2 days I’d mentally call the cost of the LLs a savings vs a third park day, extra hotel costs, etc, while still allowing you to do as much as possible. And then don’t over-think it.

 

[CAPSLOCK]

There's only so much you can do in the last hour or 2. Even if all the waits are 10min, between moving from ride to ride and the actual experience itself, you can't do all that much before time just runs out.

Are your LLs set up for evening times? Moving them to earlier in the day during high wait times is the way to go.

 

[bnf0522]

Maybe purchasing LL's and using the lower wait times will allow you to ride some of your favorites twice...so it won't be a waste!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Looking at wait times at 8:30pm is like you are literally searching for a reason to beat yourself up for spending money. 8:30pm is when everyone is prepping for/at nighttime entertainment, obviously lines are going to be short! I can absolutely promise you that in no way reflects the reality of what you are going to see at 11am or 3pm during spring Break- you're gonna be real happy you got LL (as long as you got good stuff starting in the morning of course).

 

[Krischaser]

There's only so much you can do in the last hour or 2. Even if all the waits are 10min, between moving from ride to ride and the actual experience itself, you can't do all that much before time just runs out.

Are your LLs set up for evening times? Moving them to earlier in the day during high wait times is the way to go.

We have SLP for Tron at Night and Guardians in the afternoon but the MLP are all done before 11 am

 

[theMoreDisneytheBetter]

We have SLP for Tron at Night and Guardians in the afternoon but the MLP are all done before 11 am

You can also book afternoon LLs for MK once you tap into your Epcot LLs, assuming you bought a multi pass version (is that still a thing?). So it’s a good way to get a lot done at MK when it is more crowded.

 

[disneynicole325]

I think LL is the best! Hard to wait until 8:30 pm to get many rides accomplished.

 

[gottalovepluto]

We have SLP for Tron at Night and Guardians in the afternoon but the MLP are all done before 11 am

You’re solid then, tap into the first one asap to start book more and enjoy your trip!

 

[yeahdisney]

We decided not to buy LL for Epcot Saturday because of your thread. And the wait time was short this week and our experience with it last time. You can not get frozen and soaring. And by the time you get done with the ride. If you park hop or arrive late the time is too late or gone to get another good tier pick.

We were arriving late for Epcot. We bought guardians. Stand by Rode Nemo. Frozen. Filgment. Soaring. Living with the land.
2 snacks. And pizza right at 9 o’clock at the connections Café. Done for the day.

Sunday MK. We did buy lightning lane, Tron, and seven dwarf. Went in the rope drop for Peter Pan. We did 16 rides. Sit down lunch, quick meal. Joffee Coffee. Pretzels snack. And pin traded. Left right at 5pm.

 

[kathy884]

On my last three park days -- two days at Epcot Flower and Garden in March of 2022 (Spring Break) and one day at the Magic Kingdom in February of 2025 when I was an offsite visitor, I wasn't even able to buy any of the single ride LLs and with my purchase of the Multi Park LLs, all I got in each case was one tier one ride. So I spent about $30 pp to avoid one one hour line, not a wonderful value proposition (Soaring one day at Epcot, Frozen one day at Epcot, Space Mountain at the MK).

I looked at it though as a situation where I go so seldom now and really wanted to maximize my park experience. In each case, I would not have ridden the ride I did without the LL. If no one in my party cared about that fine (if I am going with people who really just want to enjoy the vibe of the parks and don't care about the most popular rides, I think I would have been better off not buying that). With going with people who want to get the most out of their day, one fewer 1 hour line was kind of nice on a favorite ride. But gosh I sure IMHO paid a small fortune for that. Would I have bought the LL again -- probably. It's probably the last time I will ever ride those rides.

I'm guessing with a relative down in Orlando that I might be back again sometime, but with how expensive the parks tickets are now, two Disney experiences in a row that were not as appealing to me as in the past as an offsite visitors not getting to do rope drop - 2022 and 2025, with me not willing to pay onsite hotel prices for the rope drop opportunity (too rich for my blood), with single line LLs not even available trying at the very earliest time I could (Some in our party waited for these rides. Me I skipped them - didn't want to wait in the long line), and with the multiline LLs typically only giving our party one ride we were interested in that saved us a significant enough time to use the LL, the offsite occasional day visit just isn't as fun as it used to be and I don't have any near term plans to repeat that (used to do a day or two at a Disney park every other year). You can see that I waited three years in between visits last time to give it another shot. Sure a Disney day for me is always a decent time, but the last time I really had an absolutely wonderful time at a Disney park and thought it was totally worth it now was my February of 2020 day at the Magic Kingdom when I could still do rope drop as an offsite visitor and do regular fastpasses (not all that great, but I wasn't paying extra).

I think for my every so often Orlando visits that the money I used to spend for a day at a Disney park will if I want to do something besides visiting relatives that's a little special might just be a special meal, a day at SeaWorld, or taking relatives down there to a good traveling Broadway show (would very much depend on what's playing. We get the same shows at home, so it's to do something special with the people in Orlando). Do note that we are all older now too, so demographics are part of that -- no little kiddos at the moment who would be enthralled with Disney (although we all grew up on Disney and do live Disney). Demographics I believe is probably part of it too. But that didn't stop us in the past.

Note too, as creative as the Harry Potter areas are at Universal, it's not my vibe and I don't plan to visit a Universal Park again. I don't like simulator rides and that's a big part of that to me. It would be much more likely for me to do another Disney day than a Universal day, but I might (would never say never) have done my last Disney day this past February 2025. It's been a good run, but I have to say that I was a little disappointed in my last two visits and don't see myself going in 2027 or 2028 (what would normally be my plan if I stuck to past patterns). My kid and his spouse though this May are going to do a mini relative visit / Universal vacation (staying in Universal value onsite - not a bad deal actually) to do the Universal Parks and a day at the new Epic Universe. This doesn't interest me, though and DH and I aren't going down for that.