WDW Prep To Go - a Disney World planning podcast
July 2024 - day 2 (HS Lightning Lanes)
Hello at 9.52 a.m. from Galaxy's Edge. We are right outside Smundlers Run. So today's early entry was 8.30 official park opening 9 o'clock. We arrived around 8 o'clock on our resort bus and we decided to go and do the rock and roll coaster tariff tear as our early entry rope drop rides. We have three lightning lanes for all the Toy Story attractions as well as Rise the Resistance. We could have probably done rock and roll coaster tariff during early entry if rock and roll coaster had opened right away but it was about an 8 minute delay. So we ended up getting off of Tara Tara around 9.15 ish. That one was super easy. The line in rock and roll coaster grows very, very fast. So while I was at sort of towards the front of the line, the line grew and grew all the way down Hollywood Boulevard. So that grew very fast. Mickey and Minnie's running right away was unfortunately closed, which always changes the dynamic of the park when a ride is closed because those people have to disperse somewhere. But basically got those two done and then came over to Galaxy's Edge. We just rode Smundlers Run which had a 15 minute wait and so that's not bad at all. And now we have a single past lightning lane for Rise the Resistance so then we will basically be done with the Galaxy's Edge attractions. And then I told you we have those lightning lanes for moisture then. So that will be a little bit after that. So not bad at all. I will say the temperature says 80 degrees, which sounds great, but the humidity is so high that it feels like it's in the mid 90s already. It feels very, very, very hot. So don't let the temperature receive you. The humidity is making it feel a lot different than it appears. I will be back a little bit later. Hello at 1153 and from the queue of alien swirling saucers. After my last update we were excited to go to Rise the Resistance to use our single past lightning lane. And they said they were having technical issues right as down. So we looked at the app and it said the key minute is running right away was back up with the 15 minute wait. I thought this is a great time. We'll just head over there. We got there and it changed to 45 minutes. The word got out apparently. So we thought we don't really want to do that and the app said Rise the Resistance is back up. And we walked over there and they said actually it's still down. So this is very frustrating to us because we kept walking back and forth. So at this point we were extremely hot and headed into Method Vision, which was surprisingly busy maybe because Rise the Resistance and Mickey and these were where we keep going down. And that was a good chance to cool down. And then we headed to lunch at ABC Commissary. We actually went there around 10.30 which is early for most people for lunch. But we always get home early during our trip through whatever reason. So we just embraced the fact that we're going to eat early and it's not busy at that time. My new favorite in ABC Commissary is buffalo chicken grilled cheese. It's so delicious. And we love being able to just sit in the air conditioning. They have the refill machines right there so you just refill our thigh cook. And it was nice to be able to sit there and wait. We waited until our three back-to-back Toy Story land. The lightning lanes were in effect and walked over here to do this. In the meantime, Heather got in the chat in my Disney experience. And she asked for a refund for our Rise the Resistance single past lightning lane because we are not going to be staying here to use it later because we're heading out this afternoon. And they process the refund. This is the first time we've ever done that. But it's good to know and hopefully some of you can use that tip and not have to go to the blue umbrellas to process the refund if yours ends up being unusable for you. So now we're going to try our back-to-back lightning lanes. This is our first lightning lane of the day. So that means that we haven't been able to like turn or re-book any yet. And although I love that they're stacked close together and that we add that Rise the Resistance one, which would have worked out great, had it been open. The inability to tap and turn and get another one, we think is going to be an issue for us. Like we want to make our first lightning lanes of the day earlier than noon, which is what this one is. So that's kind of a takeaway for us is that if you want to try to book as many as possible, you need to start early. So I think starting around 10 a.m. an hour after the park opens would probably be ideal. But since we have these three back-to-back ones, we're going to take a minute and get some lights in. I'll be back later. Okay. It is 1.17 p.m. and we are at the front of Hollywood Studios. After my last update, we did all three of the Toy Story land attractions in an hour and we had lightning lanes for all of them. I love being able to do them all in an hour either at an after hours event or, you know, with lightning lanes stacked or whatever. So I liked that we could kind of knock them out because as you all know, or most of you all know, that land is very hot. So we were glad to just kind of get in and out. Speaking of hot, we are heading out of the park because it's over 100 degree heat index and we have tested out what we wanted to test out. The availability for lightning lanes right now is limited. If you do shows, it's a very quick return time, like immediate. But if you want to do rides, it's basically a few hours out or some rides are gone. There are no more lightning lanes for those. But although I like having the three lightning lanes together, I would do it earlier. So this is one of our takeaways is that we would definitely prefer to maybe spend the first hour doing rides by a standby line and then start churning lightning lanes. Because if you really want to maximize and get as many in a day as possible, you have to tap in, get your next one tapping, get your next one. If you wait like we did until midday to do your lightning lanes, then your availability is going to be more limited because the people that have been booking them in the morning are snagging the later spots, if that makes sense. So we are heading out. I think there's another storm coming today as often happens in the afternoon here and it's very hot. So I'll be back later to let you know what we do. Hello, it's 61 p.m. So I have to be in the rim this afternoon for heat reasons, for rain reasons, and doing a Q&A on Instagram. We called an Uber to go to Delmonica Steakhouse. It's our favorite offsite restaurant. We are obsessed with eating chicken riggies. And got the best bottle of wine ever. It was not very expensive. It's nice, but not very expensive. And always good service. We love them. And it's about 20 minute ride. It's in the sea world vicinity. So it was about 20 minute ride on a lift, went there and hunted her and just got back. And so now is right before seven o'clock, right before Olympic time. So we are putting on our PJs and going to do that. Tomorrow is Magic Kingdom Day, which is the most intense, as you all know. So I'm glad we had a couple days of lightning lane practice before we get into Magic Kingdom, which has approximately a million choices. So we will be there tomorrow. I'll be back then. [BLANK_AUDIO]