Hollywood Studios is the park with essentially the most headliners and highest common wait occasions at Walt Disney World, making line-skipping particularly precious. With the launch of the brand new Lightning Lane Multi Move system, I made pre-arrival journey reservations and headed to DHS to check the paid FastPass service on a moderately-crowded day.
This was really one of some subject checks I’ve now performed of Lightning Lane Multi-Move (LLMP) at Walt Disney World. “Sadly,” crowds had been even decrease than anticipated on a few these days, rendering them ineffective from the angle of a submit like this. I do know, I do know…low wait occasions is an efficient downside to have! However not when attempting to check technique and produce consultant outcomes for LLMP that’ll be remotely helpful for anybody visiting from October by means of December.
I shouldn’t be shocked, however it seems that Walt Disney World’s pre-arrival pricing will not be completely predictive of crowds. This isn’t the primary time their forecasts have missed the mark. For these questioning what I imply by this, principally what I’ve performed to date is goal the costliest days and do testing on these. In any case, I did have success at Disney’s Hollywood Studios and managed to hit the park on the busiest day of this month (to date).
Actually, even that isn’t saying a lot. The day of my go to had a median wait time of 34 minutes and a crowd stage of 4/10. I don’t wish to oversell it–this isn’t even remotely busy by Disney’s Hollywood Studios requirements. My private threshold for reasonable crowds at DHS is round 40 minutes, and 50 minutes for prime crowds. Nevertheless, the dimensions has shifted as crowds have slowed down throughout the board.
With that mentioned, don’t make the error of assuming Lightning Lane Multi Move was not crucial on this present day as a result of every thing was a walk-on or had low precise wait occasions. On the contrary, there have been rides with wait occasions exceeding an hour and a few fleeting cases of triple-digit waits.
On this 4/10 crowd stage day at DHS, right here’s a rundown of common wait occasions (all wait occasions knowledge is courtesy of thrill-data):
- Slinky Canine Sprint: 78 minutes
- Star Wars Rise of the Resistance: 60 minutes
- Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster: 59 minutes
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway: 49 minutes
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run: 46 minutes
- Tower of Terror: 43 minutes
- Toy Story Mania: 42 minutes
At varied factors, each single one in every of these rides had wait occasions that had been over an hour lengthy. Nevertheless, all of them additionally had way more manageable wait occasions over the course of the day, too. All of it relies upon upon whenever you hit every attraction.
However, it looks as if Walt Disney World followers have unrealistic expectations for what “low crowds” means at DHS within the present period. This wasn’t precisely a useless day–it simply wasn’t almost as unhealthy as DHS can get throughout the coronary heart of the vacation season.
In any case, this photograph report walks you thru my step-by-step day utilizing Lightning Lane Multi-Move, with advance & similar day alternatives, what I achieved utilizing LLMP throughout low to reasonable crowd ranges (by 2024 requirements), and ideas on the finish about whether or not Lightning Lane Multi-Move is well worth the cash at DHS.
Earlier than we get going, it’s necessary to notice that that is merely my day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios utilizing Lightning Lane Multi-Move. It’s not a really helpful itinerary, touring plan, or universally-applicable day that I’d counsel replicating. Merely what I did over the course of testing LLMP throughout a day at DHS. For precise recommendation, see the next:
If you happen to’re attempting to perform simply as a lot in a day with out Lightning Lanes, savvy technique is required at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. It’s the hardest park to tour at Walt Disney World. There’s no magical system for sleeping in, rolling as much as the park a pair hours after rope drop, not shopping for Lightning Lane Multi-Move, having fun with the park in a leisurely method, and engaging in every thing.
Anyway, let’s transfer alongside to my day utilizing Lightning Lane Multi Move at Disney’s Hollywood Studios…
I had an on-site cut up keep, which enabled me to buy Lightning Lane Multi Move seven days previous to the beginning of my whole journey. With cut up stays, there’s all the time the potential for issues, however these had been linked in My Disney Expertise and I had no points in anyway. However, I nonetheless waited till the 7-day mark as different items of my planning fell into place.
Consequently, I didn’t have each return time choice out there to me. Ideally, I’d’ve needed to knock out Slinky Canine Sprint first and had slight overlap on all of my return occasions. Slinky Canine Sprint first is each for the sake of comfort (I like doing Early Entry in Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge and Toy Story Land) and effectivity (Slinky Canine Sprint will get an extended line even early on).
Lightning Lane Multi Move is a little bit of a balancing act. So as to “run the desk” on headliner Lightning Lanes at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, it’s often crucial to stack your bookings within the 9 am, 10 am, and 11 am hour. That is because of the ‘rolling 3 rule,’ which lets you all the time have 3 Lightning Lanes booked–and in an effort to e book extra, you first have to redeem one thing. You’re thus incentivized to intention for earlier return occasions so you’ll be able to e book subsequent alternatives.
The issue with this strategy is that very first thing within the morning is commonly when standby strains are the shortest–so that you wish to return early, however not too early when you can be knocking out rides with brief strains by way of standby. That is why a number of followers cherished Genie+ and its stacking guidelines.
Quick-forward to the day of my go to to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. After tapping into my first Lightning Lane (Tower of Terror), I instantly booked my subsequent Lightning Lane. The best choice at this level was Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.
You’ll observe within the screenshot above that my return time for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is 10:45 am to 11:45 am. I’m not this fortunate. My preliminary return time was early afternoon, however I performed the refresh sport till I used to be happy with a greater return time.
This might additionally work effectively with my itinerary if I had been attempting to reduce backtracking. Disney’s Hollywood Studios has a extremely small footprint as in contrast the opposite parks, so I don’t thoughts some backtracking, however it’s however good to knock out two close by sights in fast succession.
Earlier than anybody bemoans having your face in a display screen with LLMP, my tough “rule” for taking part in the refresh sport is limiting it to my time within the Lightning Lane return line after tapping in. This implies I’ve anyplace from 2 minutes to 10 minutes–all of it depends upon whether or not there are two faucet factors, the place merge happens, and many others. Tower of Terror permits for extra time since there’s queue after the pre-show. In any case, it took possibly 90 seconds of refreshing earlier than I scored that Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run return.
After tapping into Toy Story Mania and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, I booked Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster and Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway.
These return occasions really would’ve labored effectively with my schedule. In idea, I might’ve performed stage exhibits or non-headliners at DHS to kill time throughout the center of the day. In truth, I used to be nonetheless doing Meals & Wine Pageant taste-testing, so I might Park Jump over to EPCOT to do this for lunch earlier than returning for afternoon and night at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
One factor value noting is that Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run didn’t have an extended line in any respect. The posted wait time was half-hour, however I’m guessing the precise was nearer to 10-Quarter-hour. On slower days, I’ve seen that journey reservation refills at Walt Disney World monitor with posted wait occasions.
That means that if wait occasions drop or spike, Lightning Lane stock adjusts accordingly, additionally going up or down, and pushing return occasions later or shifting them ahead. At the very least, that is my idea–corroborated by dozens of days of use (and plenty of extra of statement). That is nothing new–it’s how Fastpass+ and Genie+ additionally labored.
That’s actually one of many huge variations between slower and busier day at DHS. Whereas each are going to have hour-plus wait occasions for the headliners, the crowded day goes to have even worse wait occasions. No shock there.
Extra necessary from the Lightning Lane perspective is that almost all sights gained’t run out of journey reservations till very late on a sluggish day. There’s a ‘tipping level’ of kinds on less-busy days the place purchasers of LLMP falls beneath the general allotted capability for Lightning Lanes, and makes it very easy for many sights as long as you e book early and sometimes by way of the rolling 3 rule. This was a kind of days.
Tangentially associated, that is a part of the genius (for Disney) in shifting from Genie+ to the pre-arrival Lightning Lane Multi Move. Beneath the outdated same-day system, company visiting throughout slower seasons (like proper now!) would possibly use Genie+ in the future, notice it was pointless after seeing/experiencing some standby strains, and never purchase it throughout subsequent days of their journey.
Beneath Lightning Lane Multi-Move, many company will buy for each single day of their trip upfront, earlier than even experiencing the ‘looks like’ crowds or wait occasions. They’ll purchase as a hedge or resulting from concern, uncertainty and doubt…although they wouldn’t have bought Genie+ in the identical circumstances. (Simply one thing to think about if you happen to’re visiting on borderline dates and are on the fence about Lightning Lane Multi Move!)
After doing Slinky Canine Sprint, I used to be successfully performed with Lightning Lane Multi Move at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. I had already gotten each journey reservation I needed, and re-rides aren’t attainable. However I’m a completionist, so I booked Alien Swirling Saucers for some/no purpose. I had no intentions of using it, simply obtained it to show I might, I assume.
That’s in all probability the identical purpose I modified my Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Return time, shifting it ahead 15 entire minutes, from 3:30 pm to three:15 pm. Complete gamechanger. This does illustrate an necessary level: Lightning Lane Multi Move tries to keep away from overlapping plans (see the warning) and the auto outcomes it provides you when pre-booking will usually not have any overlap.
Nevertheless, you’ll be able to override this (to the extent attainable) by modifying upfront. The knowledge of doing that is debatable. Once more, you need to have the ability to do some rides by way of standby very first thing within the morning, so returning ASAP isn’t all the time the most effective technique. It’s a stability.
There’s zero draw back to overlapping within the afternoon when standby strains are at their longest. By default, the system will nonetheless attempt to stop this from taking place. I often modify and have vital overlap until there’s a unique purpose to not (rides on reverse sides of the park, starvation, sundown pictures, and many others).
As a reminder, it’s attainable to enter the Lightning Lane as much as 5 minutes early or Quarter-hour late. There isn’t a have to ask for a Solid Member’s permission to do that–it doesn’t require a pc override. If something, asking a CM would possibly lead to confusion, because it’s attainable they won’t learn about this Lightning Lane “rule.” (No knock at them–there’s method an excessive amount of to maintain monitor of with Genie!)
Once more, my unique plan was to go to EPCOT for lunch and return to DHS. Nevertheless, I noticed earlier availability for Rock ‘n’ Curler Coaster pop up, so I modified my time and grabbed that. I’m making some extent of watching MuppetVision 3D as typically as attainable (for apparent causes), so I did that whereas ready for my return time.
Whereas ready for MuppetVision, I opted to push again my Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway return time so I didn’t must get again to DHS from EPCOT fairly as early. (Once more, I had no intentions of using Alien Swirling Saucers. That’s only a trophy Lightning Lane.) Even when I deliberate on reserving Lightning Lane Multi Passes at EPCOT (and I did!), there was little draw back to doing this since I’d have open slots from each RnRc and ASS. There’s no method I used to be scoring three worthwhile LLMPs at EPCOT, so not having that vacant spot didn’t harm me in any respect.
That is pretty much as good of time as any to share my refresh technique, which goes to the modify display screen after which toggling the “shut” dropdown to refresh occasions. Evaluate the left and proper, the latter of which exhibits pop-up availability for 4:25 pm that wasn’t there 2 minutes earlier. In my expertise, toggling this “shut” dropdown is essentially the most environment friendly strategy to play the refresh sport. YMMV.
Quick-forward to afternoon and night, and wait occasions throughout Disney’s Hollywood Studios had been considerably decrease than after I left for EPCOT. My Lightning Lane for Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway was helpful, however barely. I’m betting it saved me 10 minutes, tops.
All waits had been minimal by 6 pm or so. Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, which I had additionally performed throughout Early Entry, had a posted wait time of 25 minutes and was really a walk-on. On slower evenings when downtime isn’t unhealthy, a posted wait time underneath an hour typically means close to walk-on standing. (On the finish of the night time, it was solely 10 minutes–that’s a uncommon posted wait time to see for RotR!)
It was an identical story with Slinky Canine Sprint. This had a posted wait time, however one take a look at the queues led me to imagine the wait time was about half of that. The standby line right here later within the night advantages from LLMP customers leaving, doing dinner, or choosing Fantasmic as an alternative of their Lightning Lane reservations.
Finally, I ended up utilizing Lightning Lane Multi Move to safe all 4 prime tier Lightning Lane alternatives and the one two worthwhile second tier sights throughout this 4/10 crowd day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. (I additionally booked three at EPCOT: Soarin, Residing with the Land, and Spaceship Earth.) I in all probability might’ve scored 10+ Lightning Lanes had I additionally performed the pointless ones for stage exhibits.
Going by posted wait occasions throughout my return home windows, I saved over 3 hours ready in line at Disney’s Hollywood Studios (plus one other hour or so at EPCOT). This was really down significantly from my final time testing Genie+ on an identical day at DHS, and that’s virtually totally as a result of I pre-booked a number of journey reservations earlier within the day after I in any other case would’ve most popular to be doing sights by way of standby. Against this, I typically discovered myself stacking by default at DHS and utilizing the 120 minute rule underneath the outdated system.
Three hours saved goes to be sufficient to make Lightning Lane Multi Move well worth the cash to the typical vacationer. After all, that period of time financial savings assumes posted wait occasions are correct (they aren’t) and that I’d’ve waited in standby strains at equivalent occasions as my LLMP returns (I’d not).
I might’ve gotten quite a bit performed by way of standby throughout Early Entry and at rope drop, and in addition been aggressive with standby strains on the finish of the night. With that mentioned, utilizing Lightning Lane Multi Move was the extra laid again choice for this present day at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Lightning Lane Multi-Move allowed me to not fear over wait occasions or stress about engaging in every thing in an environment friendly order. I didn’t do a lot backtracking or refreshing, and knocking out so many sights earlier within the day allowed me to have a leisurely night.
In brief, LLMP this was the best strategy to this specific day at DHS. That gained’t all the time be the case. On busier days, my desire is Early Entry and staying late and doing standby as soon as the crowds begin to subside. There are a number of “options” to beating crowds and no one-size-fits-all reply. Generally, it really will take multiple–that means Early Entry plus Lightning Lane Multi Move.
Fortunately, Lightning Lane Multi-Move doesn’t essentially have to contain extreme display screen time, frantic refreshing, or criss-crossing the park a number of occasions. Whereas there are downsides versus Genie+ (particularly with the best way I love to do issues at DHS), the flexibility to reach with 3 journey reservations in hand provides large peace of thoughts (and also will supply strategic benefit–particularly when it’s busier). Hopefully this present day illustrates that LLMP generally is a good software to have in your ‘park touring equipment’ to be used when crucial or applicable.
For more information and solutions to frequent questions, see our Information to Lightning Lane Multi Move Walt Disney World. We’ve already up to date that a number of occasions, and it’s an amazing leaping off level if you happen to’re confused, overwhelmed…or absolutely perceive the system, however need some next-level technique to raised leverage LLMP.
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Your Ideas
Ideas on my day in Disney’s Hollywood Studios utilizing Lightning Lane Multi Move? Would this be sufficient time financial savings so that you can be happy with LLMP? Are you planning on utilizing Lightning Lanes or sticking to free standby strains at DHS? Desire Early Entry, LLMP, or finish of day at DHS? Do you agree or disagree with my evaluation? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
