There is a lot going on in the world today. It is just too easy to become distracted. The vortex beckons and it is easy to get sucked down. I’m not saying that is not important to be involved as much as you can be. We all need/should be active in our beliefs. What I am saying is that everyone needs some down time. Otherwise, people will burn out or give up. I will not spout anything political here. If you want a political discussion join me on Blue Sky at @disneygrandpa.bsky.social. So instead, let’s look at how to get the most out of our favorite pastime and enjoy all things Disney.

Disneyland Bound

Grandma and I are heading to where it all started. Disneyland! Our Crushing It strategy will be in play or course. However, we will be trying out some very minor changes. We are tuning Crushing It to fit the uniqueness of the Disneyland resort. Everyone who is a Disney fan must experience the Disneyland Resort. This was Walt’s original baby. He walked these streets and it was his vision incarnate. Although many things have changed, it is easy to see Walt’s vision from way back in 1955.

Back to the Past

My first trip to Disney was in the mid 1960s. We stayed at a hotel across the parking lot from Disneyland. We watched the fireworks from the balcony. It was very magical. I don’t remember the crowds or the heat. I do remember how easy it was to suspend belief and live in an alternate reality for a time. The park was still fairly new and it still had that new park smell. Magical does not begin to describe it. I became a Disney fan for life.

Fast forward a few decades. Grandma and I took our kids on their own Disneyland adventure. California Adventure was still in the future. The parking lot and the hotel was still there from my youth. I was amazed at just how new and shiny the park looked. While growing up I had spent many summer days and nights at Six Flags Over Texas . It was only a 15 min drive from the house. It was a great escape from reality. It was a good park, but was kinda shabby around the edges. Disneyland still looked and felt new. There was no comparison.

Ok enough nostalgia! Why do I need to tweak Crushing It for Disneyland? Fair question. There are small, but significant differences between Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Especially when it comes to Lightning Lane passes. As you know, our strategy is all about how to get the most from riding standby. For us Seniors, saving money is also very important. To fully get your moneys worth with Lightning Lane, you must be a virtuoso on your smart phone. Let’s face it, we did not grow up with smart phones. Fiddling with our phone all day is just not fun. I would much rather take in the vibe, then stare at a small screen all day.

Lightning Lane Pass Differences

All things Lightning Lane are not created equal between Florida and California resorts. If you are a LL expert in Walt Disney World, you may feel a bit lost in Disneyland. I suppose this is because of scale. WDW is much much bigger both in size and crowds. There is just more. More of everything. What works on a small scale does not necessarily work large scale. Still I wish things were a little bit more aligned.

Lightning Lane passes really negatively impact the standby lines and riders. Lightning Lane riders get to skip ahead to a given place in the attraction’s queue. This means that standby riders have to wait, until the LL queue is empty or nearly so. LL queue is emptied at a much faster rate than standby. Sometimes this rate is 100 times faster. That means for every standby rider, 100 LL riders are admitted. This rate varies throughout the day but it is always much higher than standby. So any changes to LL will impact Standby and in turn Crushing It. The differences that impact Crushing It! are:

• When you can Purchase
• When you can make reservations
• Queue merge point
• Rides that offer Lightning Lane

When you can Purchase – When you can Reserve

At Disneyland Resort, you can purchase LL passes as an add on to your park ticket. However, you can only start making reservations when you enter the park. This means that there is a lot of competition for return times at park opening. At WDW, if you are staying at a WDW resort hotel, you can buy LL up to seven days before your first park visit and start making reservations. This takes a lot more planing to ensure a spot on a given attraction.

Rides that offer Lightning Lane

At Walt Disney World, almost all rides offer Lightning Lane. In Disneyland, only about half of the rides offer lightning lane. Granted, most of the newer E-ticket rides offer lightning lane, but there are many great attractions that do not. This means that some rides wait times are pretty constant throughout the day. While LL rides have a real surge in wait times in the middle of the day.

Queue Merge Point

Walt Disney World and Disneyland have a lot of the same attractions. However there are subtle and not so subtle differences between them. This includes the queues and the LL merge point. Take Pirates of the Caribbean. The queues are vastly different. In Disneyland, the merge point is near the back of the queue. In Disney World, it is much further up. After the merge point LL offers no advantage. So a merge point further from the ride load point is a real advantage to standby.

Tweaking Crushing It!

Ok so what does all this mean? If you remember the steps to Crushing It! are:

• Make a tentative attraction plan.
• Take advantage of Early Entry and Rope Drop
• Ride your first attraction.
• Look at wait time for your next attraction.
• Look at the queue on your next attraction
• Ride or pick another attraction
• Repeat

The main tweak we are making is in picking our first attraction. We will be picking an attraction that offers Lightning Lane and is open for early entry. When rope dropping, there will be very few people able to make reservations for attractions. This means the impact of LL is minimal first thing in the morning. We will take advantage of this and ride LL attractions first. We will also avoid the obvious rope drop destinations such as Space Mountain, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and Radiator Springs Racers. These attractions tend to get long lines at rope drop. We instead pick a “second tier” attraction such as Matterhorn. This will allow the initial surge for the “premium” attractions to die down.

When checking for the next attraction to ride, we will be looking for LL merge points. Posted wait times are often inflated. Often as much as 50%. There has been a lot written on this and I agree with the analysis. The best thing is to look at the queue. See where the back of the line is and if anyone is in the LL queue. Favor the attractions where LL merges to the main line early. This means the folks in the LL queue will have a smaller impact on standby.

Starting around 11:00 AM or so, LL starts having a bigger impact on standby wait times. We plan on taking lunch around this time and revisit our plans. Remember Crushing It! is all about going with the flow, enjoying the vibe, and being flexible. There are no losers when at Disney resorts! Don’t feel like one.

Heading Out

I am very interested in how people plan their Disney Vacations. What strategies do you use? What tools, if any do you use? I also want to know what your experience is like. Please let me know in the comments.

Heading Out to DLR so until next time: