How to: FISH for Lightning Lane Experience Passes

[DLRExpert]

Definitely looks interesting. Do they post based on reports of a ride being down? Because it might be faster just to keep looking on the tip board and/or map to find ride breakdowns

They tell you exactly when an attractions go down and reply when it comes back up.
For MK holders it also tells you when dates become available, which becomes annoying if you only want to know about the attraction breakdowns.

FYI... WDW Data is the WDW version.

 

[disneylover102]

They tell you exactly when an attractions go down and reply when it comes back up.
For MK holders it also tells you when dates become available, which becomes annoying if you only want to know about the attraction breakdowns.

FYI... WDW Data is the WDW version.

But how do they find out they’re down? If they get them from the app it might be good to still constantly look on the app for breakdowns

 

[DLRExpert]

But how do they find out they’re down? If they get them from the app it might be good to still constantly look on the app for breakdowns

unsure

 

[poptart90]

So, take this with a grain of salt, but I think Disney is starting to change how quickly after a breakdown they "officially" take a ride offline. Twice last weekend, we were in lines fir rides that were "experiencing a momentary shutdown" but they took FOREVER to actually switch the ride over to "temporarily closed" status. This happened on Toy Story and Goofy's Sky School. We tried to wait out Goofy's and stood there for 15 minutes before bailing (we were in the LL with a DAS). The ride didn't come offline in the app until 10 minutes later, and it was then brought back online within 5 minutes. I found that really odd.

A similar thing happened with Toy Story. We showed up to scan in and the app showed the ride open, but the CM wouldn't let us enter the line, saying the ride was down. We went on the Pal A Round and afterwards, they were STILL not letting people get in line but they had NOT taken the ride offline.

I feel like they are doing this on purpose to avoid giving out all these freebie LL passes.

Any other updates or experiences with this LLEP phenomenon from your recent visits?

Trying to strategize for our Day 1 coming this Monday. I was wondering if the best bet for fishing is the park opening shut-downs (meaning things that actually start the day offline) because it seems likely that if they can't open within the first 20 minutes or so, the whole day might get backed up and issuing LLEPs might help guests to choose something else while the park is relatively manageable.

That said, I noticed that TSMM was down at opening (or shortly thereafter) today and the next possible LL booking window was set to 11:30am...three hours from the time I was checking. So perhaps they've figured out this loophole and are now not allowing LLs to be scheduled until they have an estimated online time? Would love to hear from any boots on the ground...could the LLs for TSMM really bump out three hours by 8:30am based on the crowds there Thursday morning? Or does it seem more likely the elusive LLEP now sleeps with the fishes?

 

[Dug720]

I just want to thank you for this thread!! I really appreciate all this information!! It has helped me so much this week!! I think I've ended up with at least 8, maybe 9 of these gifts (one of which blipped and let me get 3 rides out of it!!).

The biggest thing I found was to be ready to pivot immediately once the rope dropped. Yes, Goofy's Sky School worked on Tuesday, but on Wednesday it was up. IncrediCoaster was down, so I immediately dropped GSS and grabbed IncrediCoaster - and that one actually converted before the window opened! Roger Rabbit got me a couple on Monday, which was nice - but today they didn't even start the LLs for that until 9 (I was on as soon as I got scanned in which was about 7:31), so they may be onto people booking it for the conversion. So yeah, it seems like if they KNOW a ride is opening late they won't even offer the LL for it until they anticipate it opening.

 

[disneylover102]

Sometimes they push them way back when they know it’s gonna be a while. One day there Goofy’s was having some MAJOR issues and the first available LL was for 5 PM. But normally they start LLs like normal and don’t push them back until the park is open and it’s officially down

 

[pokee99]

Sometimes they push them way back when they know it’s gonna be a while. One day there Goofy’s was having some MAJOR issues and the first available LL was for 5 PM. But normally they start LLs like normal and don’t push them back until the park is open and it’s officially down

How often does it that happen - where LL is pushed far into the afternoon for a ride?

That's a little concerning if it's a ride that's at the top of your list. Do you suggest still booking it, if that's the case? Perhaps waiting the two hours until you can book another LL is worth it to get on a ride you really want that may have limited availability for the day?

 

[disneylover102]

How often does it that happen - where LL is pushed far into the afternoon for a ride?

That's a little concerning if it's a ride that's at the top of your list. Do you suggest still booking it, if that's the case? Perhaps waiting the two hours until you can book another LL is worth it to get on a ride you really want that may have limited availability for the day?

That doesn’t happen very often right at the beginning of the day. Typically when a ride goes down LL is pushed back around an hour, maybe two from what was already available. And then if it comes back up they replenish the LLs. The 5 PM thing with Goofy’s Sky School is pretty unheard of and I was surprised lol. If this does happen to a ride you really really care about I think whether or not you should book it depends on the popularity of that ride. For example if this happened with Space Mountain I would absolutely book it and wait the 2 hours because I would honestly be devastated if I had a day without that LL lol… but also because it’s an extremely popular ride and if the only LLs were available the last few hours of the day it would definitely run out. But in the case of Goofy’s Sky School most people aren’t gonna be that devastated if they don’t ride. I mean at least I hope so cause I hate that ride lol

Anyway so obviously that day Goofy’s was an absolute 0 priority as far as actually riding, I just wanted bonus LLs from it lol. What ended up happening is around 5 or 6 it came back up and then for the rest of the night (DCA closed at 10) it kept briefly coming back up and going down again so it was down most of the day. But once it got to 5 PM the LLs would be pushed back maybe an hour. I ended up getting like 3 bonuses that night and didn’t even have time to use them because I was getting a lot of bonuses from other things and waited an hour for Rise

 

[DLRExpert]

btw this strategy is almost impossible at WDW. I would try for the best known attraction to breakdown, but you be lucky to even get an early return time for it.

 

[disneylover102]

Yeah, it seems like at WDW you’re lucky enough to even get a high quality ride reserved once every two hours the whole day so you shouldn’t waste your time (especially earlier in the day) trying to get those bonus LLs

 

[tankgirl!]

Thanks for this invaluable advice! Has anyone used one of these LL Experience Passes on Dumbo? It's my daughter's favorite ride but it takes so long to load and I'd love to try and use one of these passes to ride in the afternoon/evening when the wait times can be awful. Thanks again!

 

[Federalist45]

Thanks for this invaluable advice! Has anyone used one of these LL Experience Passes on Dumbo? It's my daughter's favorite ride but it takes so long to load and I'd love to try and use one of these passes to ride in the afternoon/evening when the wait times can be awful. Thanks again!

It should be available for Dumbo. If the CM is inexperienced, they may not realize that you can use the pass for Dumbo. If this happens, try checking in at the info booth near the TeaCups or going to City Hall to ask for a paper pass that clearly shows Dumbo.

 

[Happy1971]

Any comments about whether this still works? Headed there next week and looks to be crowded so I am nervous to defer using LL and taking a chance.

 

[disneylover102]

Any comments about whether this still works? Headed there next week and looks to be crowded so I am nervous to defer using LL and taking a chance.

I haven’t been since early February but there’s no reason it shouldn’t still work. But you just have to keep in mind that it’s not going to work every time. If something important is running out it’s better to guarantee that you’ll be able to do that one than take a chance on a bonus LL

 

[sddc]

I haven’t been since early February but there’s no reason it shouldn’t still work. But you just have to keep in mind that it’s not going to work every time. If something important is running out it’s better to guarantee that you’ll be able to do that one than take a chance on a bonus LL

We just did this earlier this week and it worked like a dream-we got two or three LLEPs each day without too much effort.

They really added a lot of flexibility to our afternoons and evenings: If we decided we wanted to ride, say, Space on our way out of the park, we didn't have to wait in a standby line or book a regular G+LL with a long return time. Instead, we just walked up, scanned in an LLEP, and were on our way. Thanks for providing the info on this!

 

[AZMermaid]

We just did this earlier this week and it worked like a dream-we got two or three LLEPs each day without too much effort.

They really added a lot of flexibility to our afternoons and evenings: If we decided we wanted to ride, say, Space on our way out of the park, we didn't have to wait in a standby line or book a regular G+LL with a long return time. Instead, we just walked up, scanned in an LLEP, and were on our way. Thanks for providing the info on this!

Did you book something more likely to be broken down early in the morning? Or book things broken down with a short return window? I did see splash mt down this weekend twice with a return time 10-15 min in the future and thought that would be a good one to book.

 

[Happy1971]

We just did this earlier this week and it worked like a dream-we got two or three LLEPs each day without too much effort.

They really added a lot of flexibility to our afternoons and evenings: If we decided we wanted to ride, say, Space on our way out of the park, we didn't have to wait in a standby line or book a regular G+LL with a long return time. Instead, we just walked up, scanned in an LLEP, and were on our way. Thanks for providing the info on this!

Thanks sddc! That’s fantastic. Would love to know if you just got lucky with LL that you had already chosen (Matterhorn or IJ?) or if you did not sign up for a LL at the beginning of the day so you could fish. Looks like Disney delays the return times pretty quickly too once the attraction breaks down so I am a little nervous about this strategy. We go on Tuesday and it’s likely to be busy. Any further tips welcome!

 

[sddc]

I was nervous, too, but all went well! I didn't choose any rides ahead of time, but looked for targets of opportunity.

We'd already planned to spend the mornings on rope drop/standby lines, so most of the morning I didn't book any LLs for us to actually ride and I just watched the app for breakdowns. I think one day Matterhorn and one day Indy were closed sometime in the morning, and I got an EP from each one, and then I got a few from random second-tier attractions that closed for a while. Mornings were best, though.

A couple of times a ride went back online before I was able to get an EP from it, but I was always lucky enough to notice and cancel it before the return time. Truth be told, I never did figure out exactly when during the breakdown time I could expect to get an EP, I'd just check the app and see that I'd gotten one and it was time to try to book another LL on a breakdown.

If you don't mind spending your morning checking the app every few minutes, I recommend it! It didn't interfere with our good time as I'd just refresh the app while we were chatting in the standby line for Haunted or what have you.

 

[confectioneer]

This worked really well for us today!

Splash Mountain was down at opening, and kept being down all throughout the morning while LL return times were only modestly pushed back.

We ended up with six (!) LLEP when all was done.

 

[DLRExpert]

This worked really well for us today!

Splash Mountain was down at opening, and kept being down all throughout the morning while LL return times were only modestly pushed back.

We ended up with six (!) LLEP when all was done.

Did Splash Mountain allow for you to use the LLEP on Space, Matterhorn, or Indy?