Do I Need Lightning Lane?
Lightning Lane Multi Pass is an amazing upgrade for families who want to minimize their wait times in standby queues, but there are a couple of things you should pay attention to if you plan to utilize Lightning Lane during your upcoming visit.
DO YOU HAVE ACCESS TO ALL AVAILABLE LIGHTNING LANE RIDES?
For the best LLMP value, get access to both parks.
The value of LLMP is greatly diminished if you don’t have access to both parks. (Either via Magic Keys or Park Hoppers). This is because you pay $32+ dollars to purchase LLMP, which gives you access to all the Lightning Lane offerings in both parks, but if you can’t enter the opposite park, then you are only getting access to a total of eight LLMP rides in California Adventure OR twelve LLMP rides in Disneyland. If you have park hoppers you now have access to all 20 LLMP ride offers on any given day that you choose to purchase it.
WILL YOUR PARTY EVEN BENEFIT?
If you have multiple children under the 40” height requirement in your party, Lightning Lane Multi Pass will not serve you very well.
Because most of the rides offered on the Lightning Lane upgrade have height restrictions, paying for LLMP upgrades for children under 40” means they still aren’t getting access to very many attractions. If they are just one small child in a party of older kids and adults, then paying for their LLMP upgrade is still worth it for the convenience of being able to take them on the rides they CAN go on (Small World, Haunted Mansion, Monsters, Inc., Toy Story Midway Mania, Webslingers, etc), but if your party is mostly toddlers and young children, you’ll be paying an awful lot to only be able to ride that small handful of attractions.
If you don’t know when/how to schedule (or cancel) Lightning Lanes, you will not make the most of your Lighting Lane Multi Pass.
When you enter the park on the day you’d like to buy Lightning Lane, go ahead and head to the app and make the purchase. Link yourself together with anyone else you’d like to be able to schedule Lightning Lanes with during that day in the parks (head to the “Tickets and Passes” section of the app and click on the (+) sign in the top right corner to link yourself to other tickets or parties.)
Once everyone in your group has purchased, take a look at the Tip Board in your app and start keeping an eye on wait times. Depending on what time it is and how busy the park seems, you can immediately start booking your first Lightning Lane. HOWEVER, if it’s still early and all the wait times for rides are under 10-15 minutes, HOLD OFF. Go hit your must-do rides (especially things you might like to do more than once throughout the day or things that don’t have a LLMP offering like the kiddie rides), and then strategically start scheduling your first Lightning Lane once you see wait times in the park start to pick up.
DO YOU KNOW HOW TO USE IT?
WHAT TIME OF DAY IS IT?
If you enter the parks late, or only plan to be there for a half day, you will not get the full benefit of your Lightning Lane Multi Pass purchase.
If you enter the park first thing in the morning, you'll be able to benefit from LLMP selections all day. (Remember, if you take a midday break, you can still stack return times from your hotel room for once you are ready to re-enter the park, so don't miss out on grabbing those slots whenever your new time to book becomes available.)
ie: If you are taking a rest from 2-5PM, book a ride at 2pm that has a scheduled return slot of 5:30PM, then set an alarm to book a second ride at 4PM for a return slot of 6PM. That way when you reenter the park, you already have two rides on the docket!
If you don't plan to enter the park until late morning or early afternoon, you'll find that return times are starting to be pushed further out and will need to be more strategic about securing return times for certain rides.
The attractions that are most likely to have return time slots disappear in Disneyland are: Indiana Jones, Space Mountain, and Haunted Mansion Holiday.
If you enter the park and return time slots are already several hours out, it might be a good idea to secure one of them, and then plan to stack rides with more immediate return times later in the evening when wait times die down. Rides in Disneyland that you can pretty much always expect immediate return windows for are: Roger Rabbit, it's a small world, Buzz Lightyear Astroblasters, Star Tours, Millennium Falcon, and Autopia. So don't prioritize those over the "headliners."
The attractions that are most likely to have return time slots disappear in California Adventure are Guardians of the Galaxy, Toy Story Midway Mania, and Webslingers
Rides where you can pretty much always expect immediate return times in California Adventure are: Goofy's Sky School, Monster's Inc, and occasionally Soarin'.
If you have questions about whether or not purchasing Lightning Lane is a smart move for your upcoming trip, we are happy to advise you the best we can. Send us a message on Instagram and we will be quickest to respond there.
One last tip: If you have a scheduled Lightning Lane and you get there and the standby line is minimal, it may be a good idea to CANCEL YOUR LIGHTNING LANE and opt to enter the ride via the standby queue, and then you can utilize that Lightning Lane later in the day when things are busier. No reason to waste it on passing just a handful of people in a standby queue.