The Lightning Lane Thread! All DLR Info Here

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TP’s Becky Gandillon has added 2 DLR videos to her “TP Teaches” Genie series.

Genie 102: Disneyland Differences
Genie 202: How and When to Save Time at Disneyland

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Learning the differences between DLR and WDW. Is this accurate? When you cancel you have the option to select a new time (like with Maxpass?) If that is accurate, is that true even if it isn’t your most recently booked LL?

Thanks!

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Also, what is this I hear about using anytimes on rides without LL? Because that sounds awesome.

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This was very briefly possible at WDW but I haven’t seen anyone report being able to do so in a while. It wasn’t possible at DLR last time I was there. I should delete that part.

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:+1: Thanks, will assume same rules apply.

I know the availability is completely different from WDW, but I am going the week before Easter, so will need all of my tools. I am curious if they black out Easter for all APs as well, have only seen the calendar through December.

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Yeah I don’t think they’ve even released the calendar for next year. I’m sure it will be similar to this year.

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All but the top tier of Magic Keys are blocked 4/1/23-4/9/23 per the renewal info put out yesterday.

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Does checking in to the monorail count as checking into the park so you can start booking LLs? It’s been a bit since I’ve been able to ride the monorail with covid but I seem to remember that’s where you scan in your park ticket and once you’re in Tomorrowland you just go about your business like getting off any ride. So that makes me think the moment you check in to the monorail you can start booking LLs and buy ILLs?

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Yes! You can book LLs the moment you scan into the monorail queue area. It can be very advantageous, cause even if you have to wait for the monorail (which you generally don’t, if it’s running), you can rest easy. The line is generally short to scan in there compared to the esplanade.

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Perfect! Thank you!

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Apologies if this has been covered before! We are planning to be at the parks until close next week and therefore don’t want to get there for rope drop so we don’t end up getting burned out. Planning to get there around maybe 10:30/11am. My question is how useful will Genie+ be to us if we don’t get to the parks until then? Will all/most of the popular rides already have all their return times taken? Do they add more selections throughout the day and if so when? Thank you!!

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First just to verify, you are in the Disneyland thread so I assume you are going to DL, not WDW. If not, it shouldn’t alter my answer too much, but just wanted to be clear.

I just checked the Crowd Calendar, and we are looking at 6-7 CL days next week, which is about what it has been lately. Weekdays are typically lower crowd days than weekends.

I was there this past weekend, and availability at DCA was still quite good at 10:30-11, but at DL some of the more popular rides were dispensing into the afternoon (Haunted Mansion, Space Mountain, Indiana Jones, and Millennium Falcon tend to run out fastest, as well as Splash if it is hot). Everything else was available in the near future (0-2 hours). But almost all rides had at least some availability until 5-6pm, when the most popular rides start running out.

There are apparently “drops”, but I don’t think anyone is watching for specific patterns. I would just grab what you want as soon as you are eligible and keep refreshing if you don’t see what you want - new times pop up when people cancel.

In short, Genie+ is still worth it even if you don’t enter the parks until 10:30/11am. You might not be able to churn through as many as if you arrived at 8/9am, but you will still get your money’s worth.

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Fantastic, tysm for the reply. Yes I was asking about Disneyland. Longtime WDW fans here making our first visit to DLR, couldn’t be more excited!

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Good luck! Disneyland should be a breeze for WDW fans. It’s such a more manageable size and layout.

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Is it advantageous to use the monorail if you want to rope drop AND have early entry??? Intrigued…

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I never used the monorail for rope drop because I didn’t want to be subject to the whims of the monorail operations. But when I walked by there in the morning, the line wasn’t too long and so I think rope dropping early entry from there would be doable.

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How easy is it to get to the monorail from VGC? I.e. what is the shortest walk? :grin:

I have always stayed on Harbor, so I’m moving on up!

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It’s shorter to walk to the main entrance through the esplanade. It’s maybe a 5 min walk to the monorail, but in the wrong direction. GCH is quite close to both parks, so makes sense to walk.

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Here’s a map:

The red X is the monorail station with the red line showing the walking path from GCH. The blue X is the main DL entrance with the blue line showing the walking path from GCH. The orange X is the approximate location of the DCA entrance. All the walking distances are maybe 5 min.

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