"Choose Your Dates Wisely" — The Important Advice Disney Fans Don't Want You To Forget

When you’re planning your Disney World vacation, there’s so much to take into account. Where do you want to stay? Do you want dining reservations? How many days do you want to stay?

The questions go on and on, but that’s why we’re here — to bring you all the latest news so you can prepare and plan the perfect trip! However, sometimes we know hearing us yap on and on gets a little tiring, so we asked our readers on Facebook what advice THEY would give to someone who’s planning to use Lightning Lanes for the first time, and we got a GOLDEN piece of advice!

Huge shoutout to our reader Monica for leaving this comment on our post — she offers some REALLY great advice that everyone’s trips will be better if they take it into account. It can be broken down into just a few simple words: “Choose your dates wisely!”

But aren’t Lightning Lanes available every day? Why should you watch what dates you go on? Well, more popular dates have lower amounts of availability for Lightning Lanes, so you’ll really want to use those crowd calendars! In Monica’s own words, they’re not always perfect, but they’re a very valuable tool to help you plan your trip around the largest crowds. If you book your trip (and therefore Lighting Lanes) during a less crowded time of year, you’ll have more flexibility for your choices and often can snag a few extra, since there won’t be as many people booking them up.

Monica continues her comment by saying it’s important to realize which rides are most important to prioritize. In her own words, she said,

“Next thing for success is knowing what to prioritize. Knowing which LLs to book in which order. Quality over quantity basically; which LLs will sell out first. Also knowing which LLs are a “waste.” As in which LLs will occupy one of your LLMP slots for far too long (looking at you, Peter Pan lol) and which rides have such high capacity they are easy to ride without a LL (like Pirates).”

This couldn’t be more true! Booking Lightning Lanes that are known to sell out first, like Jungle Cruise, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Slinky Dog Dash, or Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, are always going to be more valuable to you than using your Lightning Lanes on attractions with already low waits (such as Mad Tea Party or Barnstormer). Now, at super busy times of year, all wait times really shoot up, but again, if you’ve planned your trip around lower crowds, that hopefully won’t be as big of an issue.

Now, this is where our opinion differs from Monica’s, and that’s perfectly okay! We often talk about using a “burner” Lightning Lane, which basically means you make your first selection of the day as early as you can, and for a ride that usually doesn’t need one. This way, you can open up one slot ASAP, and already begin booking any ride (instead of having to be limited by the tiers like you are when you select your first three in advance) right after, while you wait for the other two to become available.

Now, Monica isn’t a big fan of this strategy; instead, using a strategy to book certain Lightning Lanes at specific times of day. We think either of these is a great way to go about your day, and it’s just a matter of what works best for you!

We know, Lightning Lanes can be SUPER confusing, but that’s why we’ve got tons of posts and videos on our YouTube channel to help you understand the whole system before you even step foot into the parks.