This
We started out ride centric when WDW = MK
And MK didn’t have many rides.
Once Epcot opened we did get less ride-ish tho still focused on doing the things. Parks and resorts.
And this is kind of where we are now. With a 7 day trip we might do 3 park days. In May of 2024 we happily hung out in our resort reading and hydrating until time to go to supper.
Plus, as youngest grandson has said for decades, it’s Disney World , not Disney rides. 
When traveling solo, I would never by LL. But, when I traveled with my mom last time, I found myself buying LLSP and LLMP just to make the day go more smoothly. Making sure she got on the rides she wanted to do and giving us less time standing in line so she wouldn’t tire out quite so quickly. Once I bought it once on the trip, it was just so easy to convince myself to buy it every day.
I would never buy LLPP because in my mind a premier version should allow re-rides…giving me one time access to all the rides is not a value for me. If it were to give me a specified number of rides (even if it was tiered)…and I could choose how to spend them, that would be worth it.
This is key
All the rides isn’t better
All you want of your favs is
I’ve been twice in the last couple of years. The first time I used LLMP every day, without fail. For a first trip, and as someone with disabilities, it just made sense to use it. I watched a million videos beforehand, and I felt like it went pretty well. I was able to ride everything I wanted to ride at least once on the trip, and I never felt like I was stuck in a line longer than I could handle.
During my second trip, I was more strategic and used LLMP a lot less. I stayed at a deluxe for part of my trip, so I spent the daytime in EPCOT exploring the World Showcase (which I didn’t feel like I really got a chance to do on the previous trip) and used EEH to ride the rides. I hit MK on a party day, and the ride lines were great, no LL necessary. I hopped around with LLMP on my last day, and was able to snag my favorites with minimal difficulty.
I’ve used LLPP exactly once, on that second trip, and it was fantastic. I was in HS with my brother for just one day (and a short day at that, because he flew in that morning and out again that evening), and it let us do everything we wanted to do without me stressing about grabbing the next LL and running back and forth across the park. In that particular situation, where you’re trying to orchestrate a really special day and working with a time crunch, it was absolutely worth the money.
That said, I wouldn’t spend that kind of money on a regular park day. I might consider it as a splurge, especially if they changed it to allow re-rides and/or park hopping. Not for every day of the trip, but maybe as the final blowout day of a more leisurely trip.
Yup I am also successful at using drop times and arriving at rope drop and literally getting every single ride and then some with LLMP and LLSP. But…….with LLPP I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn ever, nor deal with rope drop crowds on the public transport system or the entrances to the parks, nor run across the park like a chicken with its head cut off, nor feel rushed to get to anything at a certain time, nor ever and I mean not a once have to look at my effin phone. And that to me is all priceless. Every single park we walked in a giant circle casually, doing what we wanted as we approached it while spending time with each other instead of our screens after having a full nights rest and not dealing with massive entry lines to the park before I’ve even had coffee or had to chug it. In addition, I bought LLSP for Tron, GotG and Avatar and there was an opportunity to ride all of the best rides twice.
I had one trip to Universal and Disney where we stayed at Portofino so had unlimited express and we did that first. We did a scavenger hunt boys against girls. I spent all day chatting with my mom. Had some deep convos with her and enjoyed the ambience of the small details because I wasn’t on my phone seeing if I could get a better return time all day. Then we went to Disney and I was on my phone all day and it was not enjoyable for me as the person responsible but also affected my mom and the boys who couldn’t go off on their own because they didn’t want to deal with all the work that goes into securing LLs We rode everything but it was a lot of work and very noticeable after universal
So yes it’s expensive Very very expensive and yes it’s not necessary if you’re willing to put in work and wake up early etc But it is a better experience and if I have the funds I’d choose it every time (but I may not always have the funds!) Lol
We definitely made use of the 119 min with our LLSP that we purchased on top of LLPP and it worked. It’s a nice change that doesn’t make you feel quite as stressed about making it back in time (though I’ve never not had a CM let me in if I’ve screenshot the LL/FP and explained why I was late like a sleeping toddler and switch off).
Wrt to bullet two. On a longer trip where I’m breaking up the park into multiple days as I like to do I would then very much consider LLMP and just doing the 3 or 4 rides and just doing another day in the park to get the ones I missed. In general, I really enjoy not being on my phone. Even in life. This forum and solitaire and texting/calling is the only thing besides a camera I’m using my new phone for. I’ve left off email even and all social media apps. It’s heaven. Life is better when you live present in the moment your in for most of it. So I’d vote for this option of less LLs and just riding what you can pre book for a longer trip I wouldn’t need LLPP for.
I did not know this for bullet three and that’s awful!
yes, that’s true. We’d usually rope drop Peter Pan or Space or some such that we couldn’t get as a LL during early entry back when LLMP or whatever they called it at the time was the only option. Btw back pre covid if you stayed in a club level room you could get three extra fastpasses (called that at that time) for a fee. And tiers didn’t count so you could get all tier 1s for these extra three, you could do it way ahead of time like two months or something. We did do this moving into the club room at Boardwalk over our original planned stay in a Fort Wilderness Cabin when I read this was an option. It was nice for DHS in particular.
Can you imagine what WDW would charge for PP with re-rides?!?
I’m in between buying LLs and going on the trip, so I went ahead and voted.
I voted “other” on the LLPP question because I purchased it for one park, but there was no option between “multiple times” and “none.”
It was Epcot, by the way, which isn’t usually the first (or second) park you think of for LLPP, but my goal there is to not have to criss-cross such a spread-out park in order to use LLs. We plan to be enjoying a lot of FARTS, which has lots of booths and stuff in World Showcase, whereas most of the rides are in the Section Formerly Known as Future World, so LLPP will let us not have to worry about scheduling LLs to avoid long treks between Germany and Test Track, or whatever. I haven’t come across anyone else saying they got LLPP for precisely that reason (at least not as their primary reason), so I’m happy to share if it works out the way I hope.
So our last trip in November I bought LLMP for every park and LLSP for every ride that had it. It was my first trip since 2004, so most everything was new to me. Between my husband and I we ended up dropping several hundred on LLs. I’m glad we did that one time, but I won’t do that again.
When we go again in August I’ll probably buy LLSP for Tron and Guardians, use single rider for Test Track, and the rest I can take or leave it. I’m a fan of big coasters, and Disney isn’t really a big coaster place. I’d rather put that money towards our season passes at the amusement park near my house.
Also I didn’t really care for Frozen or Tiana’s (especially Tiana’s), compared to their predecessors, but that’s a different conversation.
Edit: LLPP is out of the question because it doesn’t allow re-rides.
I have gone on trips and not used LLs at all. I have just rope dropped and used deluxe evening hours instead.
On my last trip I took two 1st timers. We were in the parks 3 days. It was over $500 for LLMP and LLSP for those three days. I will never go that again.
Last trip we tried to go without any lightning lanes but, after a couple of hours it became obvious that, to ride everything we wanted to we were going to have to spend the money so we did for every park day after and I will continue to for every park day that it’s still available. Not a big fan of Disney’s caste system but that’s the game and I’ll continue to play it.
Not sure “stealing” is the right word. Disney is engaging in price discrimination to sell “time in line savings” to those guests who are willing to pay extra for the time savings. And guests that choose not to pay for the “save time in line” option know (or should know) that their wait time will be longer because of the availability of the fastpass option to others.
I get that fastpass price discrimination is different than other types (eg paying extra to sit in the front section of a concert) because the benefit to one guest has a direct negative effect on value to other guests.
I absolutely consider it stealing. If you, say, pay for LLMP, Disney takes the money. But the time is taken from ME the guest who isn’t paying for it. Since I have zero control as a guest over how many people may or may not pay for LLMP, nor have any say in the matter, it is stealing time from me.
This is quite different from the old FP system, because you essentially were trading a shorter wait for one ride for a longer wait in another.
ETA: I should clarify that I don’t see it as the GUEST who pays for the LLMP doing the stealing. They are paying for a product. But it is DISNEY who is stealing, because they are profiting while taking the time away from the guests themselves.
I think you would be right if Disney wasn’t up front about their scheme when guests bought their ticket. For example, I think when Genie+ first debuted, it was unfair to guests who already had tickets that were bought assuming that there would be standby only.
But now, there are patterns established so someone who buys a ticket knows generally what they are subjecting themselves to if they choose not to buy LLMP. It’s a fair trade off - less money for a longer wait.
I agree right up to the point where Standby wait times are manipulated and then … not so much.
I will always buy LLMP for every day I got to DHS and at least one day at MK. If I’ve flown in for a weekend and I’m doing a one day hopper ticket, I’ll buy LLMP in that situation as well.
I can usually rope drop Epcot from IG and take advantage of single rider to ride what I want at Epcot. This past December, DD22 and I were focused only on festival of the holidays related stuff so we weren’t even interested in rides except for Guardians and I will always pay for the LLSP for it. We did end up riding Remy and TT as single riders but didn’t get on any other rides. AK can be accomplished with rope drop as well. I have purchased FOP LLSP but not every time.
I’d never purchase LLPP because it only covers one park and I can get LLs for the rides I want on my own as I take advantage of 119 and all the other liner tricks. I don’t obsessively look for the perfect times, so I book the next LL and move on. I don’t spend a ton of time on my phone like some people complain about and use as the reason to buy LLPP.
But in Disneyland it’s both! I agree it’s a better deal over there. We bought it one day of our three days and that day we focused on all LL rides arriving about 10am in DCA, did all available rides by lunchtime and then did lunch in Disneyland and did all rides over there plus pirates which sometimes has LL and sometimes doesn’t but didn’t when we were there, except TL, had dinner over there (both sit down meals) and came back in late evening to DCA for GotG monsters version (bonus you get two rides on this if you go during Halloween time b/c it considers the two versions two sep rides!) and then saw WoC and went back to DL and knocked out TL. We had time for Autopia but bailed at 11:30pm. It’s over 20 attractions and I felt very much worth it in DL where park hopping is so easy. If you didn’t do sit down meals or a nighttime show you could also spend that last hour knocking out all the dark rides in Fantasyland which we did another day and I’m not kidding when I say b/w 11pm and 12am leaving Pan for last you can do them all with 5-10 min waits except Pan which will be like 20. Best way to do those imho. Pan will have longer than 20 min wait if you RD it. Every time I goto to DLR it’s gonna be in the budget there cuz it’s also cheaper in the sense you just need it one day for both parks.
If they are manipulating Standby wait times to drive LL sales, I agree that would be wrong.
So far I haven’t seen any evidence that they do. Yes, they overreport standby wait times, but they have always done this to lessen the psychological effect of waiting in line – underpromise, overdeliver. But as long as they do so relatively consistently over time, people can bake that in.
I don’t think I fully appreciated that fact! Definitely increases the perceived value in my eyes.
Yes it was a no brainer over there. But in WDW I had to think long and hard about dropping $7k on it for five people for one day in each park. And you’ve got six! 7k is another trip! A smaller one but nonetheless. Or def a Disneyland trip and you could add LLPP in that DLR trip in that 7k