How to: FISH for Lightning Lane Experience Passes

[DLRExpert]

The Lightning Lane Experience Pass (LLEP aka MEP) is a pass given to the guest holding a LL return time, and the attraction breaks down during that return time.
Note: You must be scanned into the park to do this.
This feature is more important than ever, since G+ and LL remove the option to experience an attraction with LL more than once. Having the LLEP opens this option up + more.
LLEP is a LL that can be used at anytime on the same day based on the LL attraction it comes from.
Note: Doing this will take a lot of mobile use. Expect to drain your battery faster than usual.

LLEP Tiers:
The golden tier are the Indiana Jones Adventure, Space Mountain, and the Matterhorn.
At California Adventure the golden tier attraction is Toy Story Midway Mania, Guardians of the Galaxy: Mission Breakout, and Web Slingers.

When a golden tier attraction breaks down, you will now have a LLEP for any attraction in Disneyland or Disney California Adventure, minus the Individual Lightning Lane (ILL) attractions and Peter Pan (based on CM discretion). This includes non-LL attractions.

The basic tier attractions, like Autopia, Star Tours, Haunted Mansion (Holiday version is gold tier), Buzz, do not allow you to use the LLEP on the top attractions, Indy, Space, and the Matterhorn.

Top Attractions that Breakdown
Disneyland
1) Indiana Jones (more than any other Disneyland attraction) (watch for this to be closed at opening)
2) Matterhorn (watch for this to be closed at opening)
3) Space Mountain and Big Thunder
4) Splash Mountain
Disney California Adventure
1) Incredicoaster (park opening)
2) Toy Story Midway Mania (park opening)
3) Goofy's Sky School (throughout the day)
4) Monsters Inc (throughout the day)
5) Grizzly River Run (park opening)

How To:
Disneyland
- Before Rope Drop, choose LL for Indiana Jones. The hope is that Indiana Jones will be down at park opening or soon after. DO NOT actually use the LL, you are only fishing for the LLEP.
- Once the park is open, view the map on the app and see which LL attractions are down. You want to ensure it has an early return time from when you are booking. For example, this past Sunday, I noticed Haunted Mansion was down. I cancelled Indiana Jones LL, and reserved Haunted Mansion LL. Soon after booking, I got my first LLEP, and re-booked Haunted Mansion again. Another LLEP came through 15 minutes later. Kept rebooking, and ended up with 4 LLEPs from the Haunted Mansion. I could have gotten more, but then I noticed Indiana Jones went down, so I cancelled my HM LL and got a LL for Indy. 30 minutes later, Indy was still down, and I got a golden tier LLEP from Indy.
- For the first 4 or so hours of the day, I am only fishing for LLEPs. I save my actual LL use until the afternoon.
Disney California Adventure
- Before Rope Drop, review the attractions to see if the LL return time is later is oddly later than it should be. However, I always choose TSMM. The hope is that TSMM will be down at park opening. DO NOT actually use the LL, you are only fishing for the LLEP.
- When the park opens, view the park map on the app to see which attractions are down. You want to ensure it has an early return time from when you are booking.

Twitter Account to Follow
Found this Twitter account called DL Stats, pretty accurate in telling you when an attraction goes down. Could help in getting the special LL pass.

https://twitter.com/DlStats
That is all for now. I will add to this thread as I gather more information.

 

[Version 6]

Thanks. This is very helpful.

Let's say I want to use a LLEP on Alice... where do I physically go to use it, since Alice does not have a LL?

 

[DLRExpert]

Thanks. This is very helpful.

Let's say I want to use a LLEP on Alice... where do I physically go to use it, since Alice does not have a LL?

Kind of depends where the Cast Member is stationed outside. They are usually near the entrance or exit of the attraction. They will tell you where to go.

 

[ComeToSocialize]

I used to do this with Maxpass too. My wife didn’t understand why I always had to be booking something, even if it was a ride we didn’t want to do. I explained that it could always break down!

booking the stuff that’s already broken down is really the key strategy here and usually does work.

 

[disneylover102]

When I was there 3 weeks ago these passes weren’t good on Space, Indy, Matterhorn, or Toy Story unless any of those were the ones that broke down. Has that changed recently? Or am I misunderstanding what you mean by golden tier?

 

[DLRExpert]

When I was there 3 weeks ago these passes weren’t good on Space, Indy, Matterhorn, or Toy Story unless any of those were the ones that broke down. Has that changed recently? Or am I misunderstanding what you mean by golden tier?

Golden tier are top tier attractions. Basically the popular Eticket attractions. Those are the LLEPs you really want since they open the pass to mostly all of the attractions.

 

[gelatoni fan]

Couple of questions:

• You can book a LL for a ride that is currently down and immediately get a LLEP?
• If a LLEP is issued, do you automatically get to book your next LL? Even if you booked your last LL less than 30 minutes ago? As in, the Maxpass 30 minute rule is now gone?
• If you wait till the end of your LL window to cancel, can you still book LL for that attraction later that day? This is in case a certain attraction doesn't go down in morning.
• Can LLEPs be used in both parks or just the one that they were issued in?
• What non-LL attractions did you test LLEPs on? In the Maxpass era, we would sometimes get ME passes that claimed they could be used at certain attractions in the app but in practice, the CM would not accept it.

 

[disneylover102]

Couple of questions:

• You can book a LL for a ride that is currently down and immediately get a LLEP?
• If a LLEP is issued, do you automatically get to book your next LL? Even if you booked your last LL less than 30 minutes ago? As in, the Maxpass 30 minute rule is now gone?
• If you wait till the end of your LL window to cancel, can you still book LL for that attraction later that day? This is in case a certain attraction doesn't go down in morning.
• Can LLEPs be used in both parks or just the one that they were issued in?
• What non-LL attractions did you test LLEPs on? In the Maxpass era, we would sometimes get ME passes that claimed they could be used at certain attractions in the app but in practice, the CM would not accept it.

Here’s my experience with these questions:

• You can book a LL for a ride that is currently down and immediately get a LLEP? It depends. The return time is typically at least a half hour away and if it’s still down by then it might take a while to get a LLEP. I had it range from 20 minutes before it started to not even getting one a couple times. Usually it’s earlier rather than later in the window. But it’s different every time
• If a LLEP is issued, do you automatically get to book your next LL? Even if you booked your last LL less than 30 minutes ago? As in, the Maxpass 30 minute rule is now gone? Yes the 30 minute rule is gone
• If you wait till the end of your LL window to cancel, can you still book LL for that attraction later that day? This is in case a certain attraction doesn't go down in morning. Yes but make sure to cancel it before it disappears. If you don’t I heard the system will say you’ve already done that ride and you have to go to guest relations to clear it. I heard that in a WDW vlog so maybe it’s different at DL
• Can LLEPs be used in both parks or just the one that they were issued in? Both parks. LLEPs are never valid on any ILL rides or Peter Pan and are not valid on Space, Indy, Matterhorn, or Toy Story unless it’s one of those that broke down. Someone also reported the other day a LLEP from Buzz being valid on those higher tier rides (Space, Matterhorn, etc).
• What non-LL attractions did you test LLEPs on? In the Maxpass era, we would sometimes get ME passes that claimed they could be used at certain attractions in the app but in practice, the CM would not accept it. I never personally used any on non-LL rides but Molly from All Ears did a vlog where she used one on the Ferris wheel of death (aka Pixar Pal-A-Round). No idea why she did that but she did and they accepted it. I think she also might’ve mentioned doing that at Pirates once as well.

 

[Jaina]

This is a very interesting strategy. So, I should book a LL for Indy (for instance) but I need to cancel it before my return window is up to not lose it if I don't use it? Do you just have to constantly check to see if it was down, and know if it was down at any point during the return window, that you should get a multi experience pass? I'm going with 5 people this weekend - do I need to have all their tickets scanned into my app, so I can do everything as a set, or should it work if everyone is doing the same thing at the same time?

 

[disneylover102]

This is a very interesting strategy. So, I should book a LL for Indy (for instance) but I need to cancel it before my return window is up to not lose it if I don't use it? Do you just have to constantly check to see if it was down, and know if it was down at any point during the return window, that you should get a multi experience pass? I'm going with 5 people this weekend - do I need to have all their tickets scanned into my app, so I can do everything as a set, or should it work if everyone is doing the same thing at the same time?

So personally I don’t love the strategy of booking a ride because you think it might go down if you’re park hopping. My experience has been that each ride is actually running MOST of the time but with how many rides there are it’s always likely that SOMETHING will be down, especially those that are more common like Matterhorn or Indy. But it’s never guaranteed that something is gonna be down at park opening. I figured out on my last trip that you shouldn’t let trying for LLEPs get in the way too much of the regular LLs that you for sure want to get. What I found was that a good strategy for me was to start at Disneyland every day (I’m obsessed with Rise and I am very good at rope dropping so I was always very first on the ride) and right when I scanned into the park around 8:15 (when the park opened at 9) I would book Soarin’ and the time would change to 1 PM due to park hopping because Soarin’ LLs are typically hours ahead. Then the park would open at 9 and I would do short morning standby lines until 10:15 (2 hours after 8:15) when I could book a new LL. This would allow me to lock in that difficult Soarin’ LL, do a lot of short lines, and still not wait too long to start really booking LLs. At 10:15 I would see what was for sure broken down and book those rides. If nothing of interest was broken down I would just book the rides I wanted to for sure go on with LL.

Your LLEP is given at a different point every time. Usually it’s earlier rather than later but I had it where I got one from Falcon being down 20 minutes before my window even started to getting one from Goofy’s 45 minutes after my window started. One time Small World was down almost my entire window and opened 5 minutes before my LL expired. If the ride reopens and you have not gotten a LLEP you’re not going to get one that time around unless it breaks down again. You really just have to always be checking to see when rides break down and come back up.

Using this fishing strategy you’re going to have times where you have to wait a while. In that time you need to use up LLEPs you got earlier, ILL rides, do non-LL rides, standby for repeater LL rides, etc. But especially if park hours are short (like today DL closes at 7 for Sweethearts Nite and DCA closes at 8) you want to make sure you’re able to book every ride you want at some point, earlier rather than later. In my case I always wanted to for sure get a LL for Space, Buzz, Star Tours, Thunder, Indy, Guardians, Soarin’, Incredicoaster, and Toy Story (for Matterhorn and Falcon I would do single rider and save those for LLEPs). This is too many rides to wait hours and hours to start booking. So fishing for LLEPs is great but my point is don’t wait forever to start booking the rides you for sure want to do.

It’s a lot easier if one person has the tickets scanned into their account and makes all the LLs for everyone.

 

[DLRExpert]

• You can book a LL for a ride that is currently down and immediately get a LLEP? It depends. The return time is typically at least a half hour away and if it’s still down by then it might take a while to get a LLEP. I had it range from 20 minutes before it started to not even getting one a couple times. Usually it’s earlier rather than later in the window. But it’s different every time

If the system is working like it should, when a ride goes down, the return time should go up, Sometimes it is an hour sometimes it is two hours. Once the ride is back open then the return time goes back down.
For example, Matterhorn was down this morning, I was able to get one LLEP at park opening, but the return time for LL went up an hour soon after park opening.
However, if you are on it, and the system is not, you can get quite a few LLEPs rather quickly.

• If a LLEP is issued, do you automatically get to book your next LL? Even if you booked your last LL less than 30 minutes ago? As in, the Maxpass 30 minute rule is now gone? Yes the 30 minute rule is gone

I don't remember that 30 minute rule for MaxPass.

• If you wait till the end of your LL window to cancel, can you still book LL for that attraction later that day? This is in case a certain attraction doesn't go down in morning. Yes but make sure to cancel it before it disappears. If you don’t I heard the system will say you’ve already done that ride and you have to go to guest relations to clear it. I heard that in a WDW vlog so maybe it’s different at DL

Just make sure you cancel your LL, before your return time expires. You have up to 15 minutes after the posted time.

• Can LLEPs be used in both parks or just the one that they were issued in? Both parks. LLEPs are never valid on any ILL rides or Peter Pan and are not valid on Space, Indy, Matterhorn, or Toy Story unless it’s one of those that broke down. Someone also reported the other day a LLEP from Buzz being valid on those higher tier rides (Space, Matterhorn, etc).

LLEP can be valid on ILL and Peter Pan IF the ILL or Peter Pan attraction is the one that went down. ALSO, depending on the Cast Member, they may let you onto Peter Pan. However, it is random and rare if they allow it.

I have not tried to use my Disneyland LLEP at Disney California Adventure. I could see how they would allow it, but when you go into the details of the LLEP on the app, it tells you what attractions are valid and which are not. I go by that.

• What non-LL attractions did you test LLEPs on? In the Maxpass era, we would sometimes get ME passes that claimed they could be used at certain attractions in the app but in practice, the CM would not accept it. I never personally used any on non-LL rides but Molly from All Ears did a vlog where she used one on the Ferris wheel of death (aka Pixar Pal-A-Round). No idea why she did that but she did and they accepted it. I think she also might’ve mentioned doing that at Pirates once as well.

This depends on the knowledge of the Cast Member. Some Cast Members only know they are not a LL attraction and will deny you. However, you can show them the LLEP details inside of the app and they learn something new. Worse case scenario you can go to the podium plaid Cast Members and let them know what happened, sometimes they will just scan a skip the line pass for the attraction that you want, similar to what they do for the DAS.

 

[DLRExpert]

This is a very interesting strategy. So, I should book a LL for Indy (for instance) but I need to cancel it before my return window is up to not lose it if I don't use it? Do you just have to constantly check to see if it was down, and know if it was down at any point during the return window, that you should get a multi experience pass? I'm going with 5 people this weekend - do I need to have all their tickets scanned into my app, so I can do everything as a set, or should it work if everyone is doing the same thing at the same time?

Yes have everyone's ticket on your app, makes things a lot easier.

You have up to 15 minutes past the return time to cancel your LL.

MOST of the time if the attraction is down and return time is up you will get the LLEP immediately, SOMETIMES even earlier than your return time. In some cases you will also get a notification that the attraction is down and your LL became a LLEP. I don't wait for that message and keep an eye on the app myself.
What you are trying to do is as soon as you get the LLEP, you can try and book the same down attraction again. In some instances you can get a LL return time rather early, and keep repeating method if the attraction remains down.

 

[gelatoni fan]

• You can book a LL for a ride that is currently down and immediately get a LLEP? It depends. The return time is typically at least a half hour away and if it’s still down by then it might take a while to get a LLEP. I had it range from 20 minutes before it started to not even getting one a couple times. Usually it’s earlier rather than later in the window. But it’s different every time

If the system is working like it should, when a ride goes down, the return time should go up, Sometimes it is an hour sometimes it is two hours. Once the ride is back open then the return time goes back down.
For example, Matterhorn was down this morning, I was able to get one LLEP at park opening, but the return time for LL went up an hour soon after park opening.
However, if you are on it, and the system is not, you can get quite a few LLEPs rather quickly.

• If a LLEP is issued, do you automatically get to book your next LL? Even if you booked your last LL less than 30 minutes ago? As in, the Maxpass 30 minute rule is now gone? Yes the 30 minute rule is gone

I don't remember that 30 minute rule for MaxPass.

At the end of the Maxpass era, when a ride went down, it wouldn't issue any Fastpasses at all. If it only pushes back a little bit, that makes it easier to get LLEPs.

This 30 minute rule was introduced about a year after Maxpass. So if at 8AM, you got a Space Mountain Maxpass with a window from 8:05 to 9:05, you originally could get your second Maxpass at 8:05. After the 30 minute rule was implemented, you couldn't get your 2nd Maxpass until 8:30. It was to prevent people getting over a hundred Maxpasses in a day.

Thanks for the info.

 

[Winston Wolf]

This is the evil genius kind of stuff I'm here for!

 

[disneylover102]

This is the evil genius kind of stuff I'm here for!

Yup when Disney makes it so you can only do each ride once you’ve gotta find those loopholes lol

 

[Jaina]

This is the evil genius kind of stuff I'm here for!

Same, same. I'm going to give it a try this weekend! Thanks!

 

[DLRExpert]

The best strat for most people is not to start using LLs until the afternoon, so if you are there early enough, why not try to get some extra LLs.

 

[Belia]

Oh man I really want to be able to use the system this well and take full advantage of G+ and LL but having never been to DLR and never used MaxPass my eyes are as big as saucers reading (and trying to understand) this. I am so afraid I would book a bunch of LL for the wrong rides at the wrong times and not end up using them (or using them at the totally wrong times) and wasting the day.

Stupid "one-ride-per-day" rule. I hate it.

 

[disneylover102]

Oh man I really want to be able to use the system this well and take full advantage of G+ and LL but having never been to DLR and never used MaxPass my eyes are as big as saucers reading (and trying to understand) this. I am so afraid I would book a bunch of LL for the wrong rides at the wrong times and not end up using them (or using them at the totally wrong times) and wasting the day.

Stupid "one-ride-per-day" rule. I hate it.

To be honest there’s not a “right” order to book the rides. Mostly just go in the order you want to go in when you are in the area. Almost everything is usually immediate with a few exceptions: based on what I’ve observed it seems like Indy, Space, Matterhorn, and Toy Story are usually within a couple hours, Mansion, Thunder, and Guardians are usually within an hour, and Soarin’ is usually at least 2 hours away. Soarin’ is the main one to worry about. If you don’t like the time you can always refresh the tip board and if someone cancels their LL you can grab it. Maybe plan when you’re gonna grab the big ones like Soarin’ (I prefer to start in Disneyland and immediately grab Soarin’ for 1-2 PM) but mainly just go with the flow

 

[GoldeneyezCA]

Can’t wait to try this! We weren’t aware of the tiering, and were blocked from riding Space Mountain over the weekend with a multi-experience pass from Big Thunder. The cast member told me to click on the white space next to the words on the pass, or else on the “where can I go?” link, to access a list of attractions.

The following images are screenshots of the available and unavailable rides for the tier BTMRR occupies. (These images don’t include the entire list.) We’d never run into this before, presumably because the Maxpass we had in the past was always Indy, and we could go anywhere. Now we know!

Also, I agree with afternoon LL bookings. We arrived on Sat after 3 pm, had lunch at Cafe Orleans, then rode 8 rides and stopped to eat beignets and shoot in Frontierland before the fireworks. In other words, we weren’t rushing anywhere, and we had a great time! If it’s crowded, Genie+ is a (expensive) timesaver.