I haven’t been to WDW since January 2020 (except for a one day trip in June 2021) and I’m trying to learn all of the nuances of the new lightning lane as I like to game the system as best as allowed. My current trip is going to be 1/4 - 1/13 but I’ll be doing Universal on 1/6 - 1/8. If I have a Disney hotel for just one night on 1/4 and a 7 day Disney ticket, when can I get access to lightning lane for each day?
My understanding is that I get LL access on 12/28 for both 1/4 and 1/5 (7 days prior) due to the hotel room night. Then for the remaining days on my ticket I should get 3 days prior to the start of my 7 day ticket. So that would be 1/1 for all remaining days on my ticket through 1/13. Is that correct?
I’m trying to prepare for this trip but have realized that the whole system is completely different from my last big trip 6 years ago. So now I’m catching up and hoping to learn the ins and outs of the current system. Thanks!
Based just on the language of the Disneyworld website, you are correct. However, I’ve seen someone post on another website (Disboards) that that isn’t the way it actually works. You are correct about the onsite days; on December 28, you can book January 4 and 5. But for the offsite days, you can only book three days before the first day that you could not book using your onsite privileges. In other words, you can’t book for January 6 and later until January 3. I haven’t done it myself. I’m passing along what I read.
Whether you need a park reservation or not depends on what type of ticket you have. Those with date-based tickets don’t need park reservations and cannot make them. The AI is wrong.
I’ve got another question related to Lightning Lane pre-booking. If I have a Swan hotel reservation for 4 people but there are 6 in my group, do I get to make LL bookings 7 days out for all 6 of my tickets? If not, how do they determine which 4 can make the LL bookings.
I’ve also got some other ideas but I don’t know how comfortable people are here with gaming the system so I’ll leave that stuff out unless I’m told it’s ok.
What I was asking is if I lose my regular booking period for LL on my dated tickets if I have a one night WDW stay on my first night? It sounds like you’re saying yes.
My dated tickets are for 7 days from 1/4 - 1/13. If I didn’t have a WDW hotel on that first night of 1/4 then my LL booking period would open on 1/1 for all dates though 1/13, right? By adding a stay on 1/4 - 1/5 am I moving my LL booking period for 1/6 and beyond to 1/3 or does it stay at 1/1 the way it would be if I didn’t have a hotel booking.
I’m planning on doing Universal on 1/6 - 1/8 and then back to Disney on 1/9. But I don’t plan on staying at a WDW property for those later dates because the cost is insane for a family of 6 adults. We need 3 bedrooms so an Airbnb/VRBO is the only way to do that without paying an obscene amount.
For the second part of your visit, yes you move the booking date later.
But you get the 7 day booking window for the 4th & 5th.
Edit: I think this is where you should be able to book on the 1st for your offsite days, according to what they say. But I think the clock will reset after your check-out day.
It’s still worth trying on the 1st. And please come back to confirm either way.
So I’ve rearranged my trip and I’m now going to do Universal from 1/4 - 1/6 and then start Disney on 1/7. Now my question is if it makes sense to have my first ticket day be 1/4 and get 1/1 for my first LL booking day or go with 1/5 and have 1/2. Both days give me enough time to the end of my vacation and obviously 1/4 is better because of the earlier day for booking. The downside is that the 1/4 ticket start day is about $100 more for the six of us. So the question, is a 6 day pre-booking window worth $100 over a 5 day pre-booking window.
While I’m a normally super cheap guy, I’m much less cheap when it’s small amounts to improve the experience for an expensive trip. Meaning, I’m spending over $10k easy on this trip, I’ll spend a little more to make it meaningfully better. But if you guys don’t think it’s worth it then I’ll gladly save the $100. I wanted to check the thrill-data details but the 21 day LL data is down now and has been for a few days so I can’t see much.