11 Advanced Strategies & Tips to Maximize Lightning Lane on a Disneyland Trip

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Several years ago, the Disneyland Resort in California unveiled a replacement for FASTPASS and MaxPass for guests seeking ways to shortcut long attraction lines. Initially known as Disney Genie+, this service recently got a name (but not a rules) change in July 2024: Lightning Lane. Technically, there are actually two Lightning Lane products at Disneyland: Lightning Lane Multi Pass (LLMP) and Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP).

Confused yet? If you are still a beginner to Disneyland strategy, the system and nomenclature may still seem pretty complex. So you should start with my Guide to Lightning Lane at Disneyland for all the beginner tips and frequently asked questions. If you’ve mastered the basics and are ready to take your Lightning Lane usage to the next level at Disneyland, that’s what this advanced guide is for.

I first tested out Lightning Lanes at Disneyland nearly three years ago (back when Lightning Lane Multi Pass was called Disney Genie+). I successfully and easily maxed the system out on my first try, riding all 19 attractions on it at the time in a single day, plus many more. While that isn’t always possible on busy days or even desirable for many guests, what a lot of Disneyland visitors want to do is to make the most of their Disneyland day. And Lightning Lanes are great for that!

I picked up ton of tips and tricks from that challenge about how to get maximum value. And I’ve continued to test the limits of the system on many subsequent Disneyland visits, even as Disney has made subtle changes to the rules. The last time I went with my entire family at Disneyland, we rode over 40 attractions in less than two full park days!

Anyone who wants to prioritize riding attractions should keep reading for all these advanced tips, secrets, and hacks that go into making a great overall strategy. While this post mostly contains tips for maximizing Lightning Lane Multi Pass (formerly Disney Genie+), I’ve also included tips for the sold-separately Lightning Lane Single Pass attractions, since there is overlap between how those two systems operate.

And I won’t forget about all the attractions that don’t offer either type of Lightning Lane. There are quite a few of those any Disneyland guest will want to ride too. The key is in knowing when to best fit those into your plans.

So let’s dive in to the advanced Lightning Lane lesson for Disneyland.

Editor’s Note: Some of the images in this post still contain the Disney Genie+ branding instead of Lightning Lane Multi Pass. The systems are identical in terms of how they operate at Disneyland so the advice is all still good!

(Trips With Tykes uses affiliate links which means I may earn a small commission if you purchase through links in this post. See our full disclosure policy linked in the menu at the bottom of this site.)

Advanced Tips & Tricks for Disneyland’s Lightning Lane (formerly Disney Genie+)

1. Rope drop

While Lightning Lanes are a valuable tool, not every ride at Disneyland have them (unlike Walt Disney World’s version of Lightning Lane which includes nearly every attraction of note). To ride some of the beloved classics like Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, or Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland, you’ll still need to utilize standby lines. And I’m guessing you don’t want to stand in long standby lines!

The best option to hit some of these rides with shorter waits is to ride them first thing in the morning before the crowds arrive. And to do this, you need to be at the front of the “rope drop” crowd.

Most of the time, the park gates open exactly 40-45 minutes before official park opening time. So, for an 8:00 official park opening time, cast members start scanning tickets about 7:15am. You want to be queued up in the esplanade for the parks by that time. On busy days, you may want to be 15-30 minutes earlier than that! Be sure to leave plenty of time for bag check and security.

Early Entry Effect

If you have the early entry benefit given to on-property hotel guests and have made reservations for the park offering early entry that day of the week, you will be able to walk past the rope drop crew and ride a limited number of open attractions 30 minutes before everyone else. So use every minute to its full advantage!

If you aren’t eligible for early entry, never fear. Rope drop is still a smart strategy. So few guests are eligible for early entry that lines aren’t really made long by it (except for the one constant choke point at Peter Pan).

Sample Rope Drop Touring Plan

I employed a rope drop strategy the day I rode 19 Genie+ (and 26 overall) attractions in a single day, beginning my morning with rides that didn’t have Lightning Lanes. From 8-9am in Disneyland park, I hit these attractions in this order:

• Snow White’s Enchanted Wish
• Alice in Wonderland
• Dumbo
• Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
• Jungle Cruise

I then also rode Pirates of the Caribbean standby around 9:40 am after using a Lightning Lane Multi Pass (then Genie+) return time for Indiana Jones nearby.

Other Reasons to Rope Drop

An additional reason you really should rope drop (or at least arrive pretty early to the parks) is because you cannot start booking rides with either Lightning Lane product at Disneyland until you have entered a park for the day. Late risers can still find plenty of value in the system. But the later you arrive to the parks, the later you will find popular attractions offering return times. This means more dead time in your overall day waiting for your next reservation time to open up.

There’s one final reason to consider rope dropping even with Lightning Lanes. Disney limits you to one ride on each attraction per day via the Lightning Lane. If you have a favorite you want to repeat more than once in a day, the early morning hours are a great time to ride via a short standby line. Save your Lightning Lane booking opportunity for that ride until later in the day when standby lines are longer and ride for a second time in a single day.

2. Make a morning mad dash

After you’ve made the most of short early morning standby lines, the rest of the morning should be all about quickly progressing through several attractions available with Lightning Lane Multi Pass. The LLMP system is best and most flexible in the mornings because the return times offered for most rides are often fairly immediate. This means you can often walk from Lightning Lane to Lightning Lane earlier in the day. Later in the day, some rides will have return times pushed out farther in advance.

The strategy? Book, tap, book. And by that, I mean book an attraction with a return time that is hopefully close to immediate. Go to the ride, tap into the Lightning Lane, and immediately book your next attraction. Go to that attraction, tap in, and book again.

I know this may sound exhausting, but mornings are when most guests (especially eager kiddos!) are usually most excited about attractions anyway. You’ll get a lot done with minimal waits and can then take the afternoons and evenings at a more leisurely pace enjoying entertainment, food, and more.

3. Prioritize Lightning Lane attractions likely to “sell out” earlier

Not all attractions on Lightning Lane Multi Pass are created equal. Some are not that popular and will almost always offer you a return time that is just minutes later. Some are much more in demand. These will book up as the day goes on, initially offering delayed return times and eventually selling out for the day at some point (sometimes as early as the afternoon).

The key to efficiently maximizing LLMP is to prioritize the rides in the morning that most often will offer delayed return times later in the day. Booking an attraction that doesn’t have a return time until an hour or two later will mean lots of dead time when you can’t be booking other LLMP attractions (since you have to wait to book your next ride until you’ve either redeemed your LLMP booking or two hours have passed, whichever comes earlier). You don’t want to hit this wall until as late in the day as possible.

LLMP Ride Booking Priorities in Disneyland Park

In Disneyland park, the rides to prioritize booking in the morning before their return times get too late are (in this rough order):

• Indiana Jones Adventure
• Space Mountain
• Matterhorn
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• Big Thunder Mountain

During Halloween Time and the Disneyland Holidays, Haunted Mansion Holiday usually vaults close to the top of that list. I found last fall that it essentially was toss up between booking it or Indiana Jones first. (Note: Currently in 2024 while construction is happening, however, Haunted Mansion Holiday is not offering LLMP and is instead using a Virtual Queue.)

“it’s a small world” holiday also operates uniquely on LLMP during the Holidays period. It return times usually won’t move that fast in the morning. Instead, demand escalates quickly and the ride sells out speedily as soon as the after-dark return times start being offered. Everyone wants to see that ride’s holiday lighting at night!

LLMP Ride Booking Priorities in Disney California Adventure

In DCA, prioritize the following:

• Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT!
• Toy Story Midway Mania!
• WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure
• Soarin’

Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: BREAKOUT! has a special ride overlay in the evenings during the Halloween Time season that compresses its LLMP availability. But the hack is that you may be able to get return times for both versions of the attraction if you plan carefully!

Lightning Lane Single Pass Ride Booking Priorities

Lightning Lane Single Pass (formerly known as individual or paid Lightning Lane) attractions sell out as well, but things have evolved quite a bit in the last several years. It used to be the case that Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance was reliably the first ride to sell out most days long before any LLMP attraction. That is no longer the case, however, especially on mild to moderate crowd days. Check out my guide to riding Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance without the wait for all the updated strategies there.

The other paid Lightning Lane Single Pass attraction, Radiator Springs Racers, usually tends to have pretty instantaneous return times except on the very highest crowd days.

Of course, as time goes on, the popularity of attractions will change yet again. The changing of park hours can affect the demand curves as well. The site Thrill-Data is an amazing resource you can use to keep an eye on these trends. It offers a “Lightning Lane Availability Map” where you can see how quickly LLMP reservations run out for each ride each day. (I keep an eye on this regularly to inform many of the tips in this post when I’m not in the parks!)

4. Take advantage of grace periods.

When you make a reservation to return to an attraction via the Lightning Lane, you are given a 1-hour time window to return. But in reality, Disney’s computers give you an automatic grace period on either end of this window – 5 minutes early and 15 minutes late when the scanners will work and recognize your reservation. Use this full 1 hour and 20 minute time window to your advantage when needed!

When might this be most helpful? Some times, the return times you are booking might be a little bit later than the speed at which you are jumping from attraction to attraction (especially as the day goes on). Use the 5 minutes early grace period to your advantage to keep things rolling more speedily. As soon as you tap into the attraction 5 minutes before your window starts, you are eligible to book your next ride, further speeding things up.

The grace period that allows you to be 15 minutes late at the end of your window can be strategically helpful as well. For example, say you sit down to lunch at 12:45pm and book an attraction to park hop to next. LLMP might give you a return window for 1:00-2:00 pm. As you finish your meal and start walking to the other park, 2:00 rolls around and your Lightning Lane expires. Never fear!

The expiration time makes you eligible to book a next attraction as you are walking – do that. But then continue on to the attraction you had first booked. You have until 2:15 pm using the 15 minute grace period to return to that ride as well. Doing this gives you the advantage of booking that next attraction up 15 minutes earlier than you might otherwise have been able, likely securing an earlier return time so you can keep moving.

5. Plan strategically for lack of cell service.

Although things have certainly gotten better the last few years, cell data at Disneyland isn’t available everywhere. Disneyland’s WiFi can be very spotty in places. You may not always be able to get service to book your next Lightning Lane attraction if you are in an indoor queue. Plan accordingly.

I found that it’s best to “pull over” past the Lightning Lane scanners (not blocking other guests of course) as soon as you scan in to an attraction’s Lightning Lane. That’s where you should book your next ride before you enter a ride building where you may lose coverage.

You really need to plan for this challenge if you are trying strategically to time booking a paid Lightning Lane Single Pass for a specific time of day. Rise of the Resistance can run out of times quite quickly in the middle of the day. If you are deep in the queue of Soarin’ or Indiana Jones for a key 20-30 minutes where there is zero service, you might well miss the chance to book the time you want.

6. Park hop for maximum value.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass now includes up to 22 attractions across both parks at the Disneyland Resort. It might sound like a lot, but they are not split equally. Disneyland has up to 13, while California Adventure has just 9. Remember – guests cannot repeat riding an attraction with LLMP in a single day. That means ambitious ride-loving guests can actually pretty easily max out every LLMP attraction in a single day in a single park – particularly in DCA.

This is especially true if you don’t want to ride every attraction offered on the system. For example, not everyone loves riding the water rides in the winter. So Grizzly River Run may be off the table. Additionally, some families may have kids tall enough for some thrill rides but not all of them.

All of this means you’ll likely get a lot more value and likely ride a lot more if you have a Disneyland park hopper ticket in combination with Lightning Lane Multi Pass. This opens up 22 attractions to you each day – not just 13 or 9. (Note that Disneyland currently allows park hopping starting at 11:00am. LLMP only allows guests to book rides in the other park once the return time for a ride offered to all guests is 11:00am or later.)

Of course, park hopper tickets cost more than one park per day tickets – a flat fee of $65-75 extra per ticket depending on length. But if you are choosing between a 2 day vacation with park hopper tickets and Lightning Lane Multi Pass vs. a 3 day one park per day vacation without it, savvy guests can probably get more rides done in those two days with the park hopper option and LLMP in my opinion. And the costs are about the same.

7. Stay up late!

If you aren’t an early bird rope dropper, there is a lot you can accomplish in your overall strategy on a late Disneyland night. Disneyland park stays open until midnight many times of year and DCA is often open until 10pm. If you have older kids or are on an adults-only trip, this is a great time to ride as lines get shorter. Now that Magic Key (annual pass) capacity is more controlled with the current Disneyland reservations system, the evenings don’t get as crushed with locals as they did in the past.

While the most popular attractions will be out of LLMP return times at this late hour, that won’t matter – you will already have prioritized and completed those, right? This is the best time to repeat more popular attractions you already rode with LLMP using the standby lines. It’s also a smart time to fit in rides on attractions that don’t have Lightning Lanes. Just don’t plan on riding Rise of the Resistance at this hour – it closes early before the park does (currently at 10:00pm, but check this time before your trip because it changes).

8. On a Tight Budget or Longer Trip? Buy Lightning Lane Multi Pass for just one day.

If you are taking a multi-day vacation, you may not want to purchase LLMP every single day of it unless you are really all about the rides or repeating the same attractions multiple times. Paying $30+ per person per day is way beyond what the budgets of many Disneyland guests can handle!

LLMP is such an efficient system that I really think most non-locals should use it at least one day of a vacation. For that reason, if you are on a tight budget, I highly recommend designating just one day of your trip as a Lightning Lane Multi Pass day. This will be a day you prioritize rides and get a lot of value out of the system.

Make sure you schedule this day for one where you know you will be able to get an early start and be able spend a lot of time in the parks. Leave the character meals, food festivals, entertainment, etc. for other days when you aren’t paying for LLMP. If you have a park hopper ticket, it doesn’t matter if you have a reservation to start in Disneyland or in DCA for the morning. You’ll get a ton of value out of LLMP starting in either park and then hopping (see #6 above).

If you don’t have a park hopper ticket though, I recommend using LLMP for a Disneyland park day. With just 9 attractions in DCA on the system (5 of which have height minimums), most guests simply won’t get as much value out of a DCA day with LLMP. Disneyland has a wider variety of attractions that meet all interests on the system.

9. Do LLMP and LLSP on Different Days

The Disneyland systems have two different types of upcharges that many guests may be considering – Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass for 2 additional select attractions. If you are trying to get the most for your money, it’s probably smart to spread out all these upsell purchases over different days – assuming you even plan to buy all of them of course!

If you were to buy a couple of paid Lightning Lanes on a single day, you might run out of time to complete all the attractions you want on LLMP. This is particularly true if you have a park hopper ticket where up to 22 attractions are available to you. In that case, it might be a better use of money to designate one day as your LLMP day and then wait to pay for paid Lightning Lane Single Pass attractions on other days of a multi-day trip.

10. Mix & Match

If you are in a larger traveling party, Lightning Lane Multi Pass offers some flexibility in its ability to pool and share reservations. If someone in your party isn’t interested in (or tall enough for) a given attraction, another person in your party can use their reservation window for that ride.

This potentially allows some members of your group to double up on the same attraction in a single day. In the case of my family of 4, that means my husband and daughter could ride Matterhorn twice (my son and I don’t like it) by riding it the first time with their own LLMP booking. Then they can ride again with the LLMP bookings that my son and I can also make for that ride and don’t want. Simply scan the person’s tickets that correspond to the booking (either physical or the barcode in the Disneyland app or borrow their MagicBand+ if you’ve purchased those).

11. Maximize Multiple Experience Passes

Last but certainly not least is my favorite hack in the Lightning Lane system: Multiple Experience passes. I saved the best for last for those of you still hanging in and reading until the bitter end!

So how do you get a Multiple Experience pass? When a ride you’ve booked with LLMP breaks down during your reservation return window, the Disneyland app automatically converts the reservation into a Multiple Experiences pass.

These passes are incredibly flexible. First, the system (usually) lets guests make an additional LLMP booking immediately upon this pass being issued. The result is that this can speed up and reset the LLMP clock for you.

Second, these passes give you a lot more options for what you can ride. You could use these passes to ride the attraction you originally booked when it opens again – the most straightforward use. Or you can save the multiple experience passes and redeem them to ride something else you prefer more. You can even use these passes to double up and return to a ride you already experienced via Lightning Lane that day.

You can further redeem them any time until park closing. And they are valid in both Disneyland and DCA if you have a park hopper ticket.

The only limit? Ride blackouts. If the ride you originally booked is a less popular one (like Monsters, Inc. or Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters), the Multiple Experience pass you get won’t work for every ride. Some of the top level thrill rides will not be included as locations where you can redeem the pass.

But if the ride you had originally booked was a top tier attraction, however, you unlock many more choices in both parks. Paid Lightning Lane Single Pass attractions will be blacked out, but all other Lightning Lane attractions are usually available. The passes are also ordinarily valid at many attractions in DCA (but not Disneyland) that aren’t even part of LLMP. So they can be a way to get express entry onto a few rides that normally have no Lightning Lane option.

The bottom line? Scroll carefully when you see a Multiple Experiences pass in your Disneyland app to check where the pass is valid and where it can save you the most time in line.

While you’ll probably get one or two of these passes on a Disneyland vacation just due to regular breakdowns even if you aren’t trying, there is a way to try to get more of these passes. When a ride has broken down, it’s sometimes still possible to book a return time with LLMP on it for a near immediate return time. Minutes later if the ride remains down, the pass will convert to a Multiple Experience pass. Lather, rinse, repeat…. if you know what I mean.

Caveats about Ride Breakdowns

Just be aware that when rides break down (especially when more than one), the whole LLMP system can get a little out of whack.

A breakdown can lead to long Lightning Lane return times for that attraction when it comes back up as all guest with several hours worth of passes rush to use them. If your return time window isn’t ending imminently, don’t stand in these kinds of lines. Come back later if at all possible when things die down.

On very busy park days, watch for the butterfly effect. For example, if Indiana Jones goes down, a lot of guests in that line tend to flood the nearby Pirates line with their passes. This probably isn’t a good time to redeem yours at Pirates either. And it’s a really bad time to be in the Pirates standby line. Move away from the breakdowns! A lot of guests won’t take the extra steps to get physically away from the choke point. You should not make that mistake.

Final Thoughts

Lightning Lane Multi Pass (formerly known as Disney Genie+) at Disneyland has turned out to be a pretty solid successor to Fastpass and MaxPass for guests willing to pay (increasingly more) for the privilege. Return times are ample and available and there are easy hacks and tricks to get even more bang for your buck with careful planning.

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