Walt Disney World at Xmas/New Year's and Lightning Lane

This is a pretty broad question, but my personal opinion is that LL/ILL is a waste of money. It really comes down to what your priorities are and your tolerance for waiting in lines and what attractions/parks you want to experience each day. While WDW can be extremely busy during the holidays, MK tends to be more crowded than the other parks (but also has a lot more attractions though one of the biggest, BTMRR is closed right now), so that would probably be the one park where LL might give you some value in terms of saving time for the cost. Other than that, you can purchase ILLs when you're in the park if lines are really bad for the top attractions. To maximize LL - MP, I would probably make sure to reserve times for the lowest capacity attractions in advance (if available), which include 7DMT, Peter Pan, Tomorrowland Speedway, Pooh, and Jungle Cruise. Once you've run through your preserved LLs, I would then just grab the next best attraction that pops up in the menu as you scroll. It will be a lot of staring at your phone (highly recommend having a backup battery if you're going to do this), but that's the best way to go. Also, you can also refresh the LL list when you're in the park to replace attractions you have already reserved if better ones pop up.

I don't think there's enough data on Epic to determine whether Express is really worth it yet. Obviously if you think this might be the ONLY time you ever visit, it might be worth the expense to make sure you get to see everything. However, given that there aren't an overwhelming number of attractions in the park, you can probably get to almost everything without Express if you are willing to spend the entire day in the park (30 minutes before rope drop to getting into an attraction line shortly before closing time). There are differing opinions to whether you should do BotM at rope drop or wait until the end of the day, but that seems to be the one thing that can really swing how much time you have to explore the new park.

The new Beak and Barrell at MK has been getting rave reviews, so that might be worth checking out if you can score a reservation. Space 220 is the other "new" restaurant since 2019, but aside from the "elevator" experience, the actual restaurant has been getting more and more negative reviews while increasing prices. Similarly, Rodeo Roundup at DHS seems like it is more style over substance, and has been getting mostly mediocre reviews in a park that already had a mediocre collection of restaurants, so that should tell you something about the park's newest restaurant.

I had an Orlando Trip earlier this month, and here is what I can tell you:

* Individual Lightning Lane Passes will almost certainly NOT be available the day of your visit. You need to look for the them the moment they go on sale for your day, and still no guarantee you get one. Just keep looking though as they do occasionally pop up momentarily due to cancellations.

* Tier 1 attractions on the Multi-Lightning Lane are pretty much in the same boat as the Individual Passes. You need to get them the moment they become available, and prepare yourself for disappointment. You may not get one, or maybe you get one and the ride goes down for the rest of the day (Test Track is notorious for that). The only ones that are available to grab during the day of your visit are the Tier 2 attractions that you probably didn’t even need. All that said, I think the Multi-Passes are a huge waste of money, that are most likely going to leave you frustrated and feeling ripped off. You’re much better off focusing on the Individual Passes.

* Do NOT try to get on Harry Potter BoM at the end of the night, as they now close that line several hours before park closing (you’ll probably notice a sandwich sign stating so within the Harry Potter land). Rope dropping isn’t a great strategy either, because sometimes it doesn’t open on time. Best bet is to hit the single rider line, but know that line moves in spurts. You can and probably will go 20+ minutes without moving and then all of sudden 50+ people get let in at once. So don’t abandon it because of non-movement, and expect to wait close to an hour.

* You won’t get everything done at Epic Universe without Express Passes, but do you really need to do everything ? You’ll have no issue getting on the 2 best rides there (Monsters Unchained & Stardust Racers) and you can get in to both shows if you want to. Potter is going to take up an hour+ of your day regardless. It’s really the other attractions (Werewolf, Isle of Berk rides, and Mine Cart Madness) that you need to make a decision on how important they are to do. I personally wouldn’t blow the money on Express passes for those.

* With Epic Universe, how productive your first hour is, will set the stage for the rest of the day. I knocked out Stardust Racers, Werewolf and Monsters Unchained all in Hour 1 during my day. The rest of the day, you just gotta deal with whatever the lines are and consider using single rider lines if you care more about the ride than the queue/pre-show. Eat at off-peak times, and don’t forget about the shows both are very high quality. Have a strategy !

Went to Epic Universe solo for a single day while I was down in Orlando for Infocomm. Unfortunately, Express is something you have to do to enjoy all the attractions in a single day. It was $300 when I was there.

Ministry of Magic is hit or miss. Sometimes down all day. Makes zero sense the one ride everyone wants to go on literally out of commission for entire days. A lot of people demand refunds (and rightfully so).

If you're not staying at a Universal hotel, then the general consensus of opinion is you need an express pass to do everything, for a single day visit.
The queue line of BoM is OK, but not worth 2hrs+ of waiting. I thought the ride itself was very good, but not as good as Monsters Unchained.
Stardust is good, but not great. Nighttime rides are the way to go
I ate at the Atlantic and thought it was very good. The Mac and cheese bread cone in Isle of Berk failed to impress though.
My favorite thing was the Toothless photo op. The wait times can be horrendous, so be warned.
The 2 shows are also v good.

Just be prepared for the parks being really busy, and you'll be ok

How did this trip go ?

Yes Please come back for an update...

Might not be back yet though.

Just got back today.

We primarily did a WDW trip and it was great. We got there 12/28 and left this morning, 1/4.

Crowds were for the most part manageable during the early morning and late and night. Lightning Lane helped a lot. Lines were worse than usual, but not by that much; things might have gotten semi-crowded by 10A instead of noon, for example, but they didn't seem particularly worse most of the time. Christmas music and decorations helped make the first part of the trip extra-special.

Only negatives at WDW: Cold weather on December 30 and 31, especially at night (though that may have helped with lines a bit) and just insane long lines on the morning of December 31. All other weather and lines seemed reasonable.

Staying onsite in WDW after 6 years away was really great. Cast members were friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful (both in and outside the parks). We stayed at Coronado Springs and they had not only the great pool area but also a lot of little touches that just made it great. We have been to Disneyland maybe 3-4 times since we were last at WDW, and for sure some of the attractions are better there. However for our family at least, staying in WDW makes it feel like a long-term resort vacation vs. Disneyland which feels more like an incredible day or quick weekend.

As for Lightning Lane: We got the Multi-pass, and were able to book 7 days in advance. We pretty much got everything we wanted. We did not pay for any of the Single-Pass lines, mostly just hitting those rides first thing or last thing. During the days we were not able to get many additional great passes like we could on less-crowded days, but we did get a few...and were able to get a lot of "not bad" additional passes to help with wait times later in the day.

On New Year's Eve we pre-booked passes for nighttime. It was a mixed bag as the lines in the morning were especially bad that day, but it did allow us to get on a ton of attractions from 7P on. And after 9 or 10P a lot of the families left (due to cold and/or lateness) and lines went way down the final two hours. We were able to do Tower of Terror, Rock n Roller Coaster, Toy Story Mania, and a few more during the last few hours with maybe one lightning lane pass total.

My kids and wife love thrill rides and roller coasters. Of the newer rides they thought Guardians of the Galaxy was great and Tron very good but a little short. We liked the Villains Show (especially Malificent's entrance music) and it gave us hope that the new Villains land will be real good. The new version of Test Track also felt like a nice upgrade. We thought Remy's was OK, but not as good as Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway. It was too cold to do Tiana's, especially at night.

Our family has 4 people with 2 picky eaters (one vegetarian and one non-dairy). All food was between pretty good and great. Highlights were Eet at Disney Springs, Maya Grill at Coronado Springs, and Via Napoli at Epcot. Non-Dairy dessert highlights if anyone is interested were anything at McKenna's at Disney Springs, the cookie bar (both regular and vegan) at Summer House at Disney Springs, and the Mickey Mint Whoopie Pie in Liberty Square which is somehow plant-based (and likely temporary for the holidays, but I'm not sure).

Fireworks in Magic Kingdom were amazing. We happened to be there three nights. Christmas ones were real good. The new ones for this year (saw last night) were exceptional. However the New Year's Eve ones (which we saw on 12/30, since they did it two nights) were probably the best fireworks I've ever seen. Just all action and long and incredible throughout. They also had a great DJ and atmosphere, even though it was only the night of 12/30. When we left at 12:30A, all cast members were dancing and waving glow sticks around the crowd as they were leaving, it felt like walking down a red carpet, super fun.

That said, the Epcot Luminous show seemed OK at best (like a worse version of World of Color from Disneyland), and then the actual New Year's Eve at Hollywood Studios was kind-of a dud. The DJ and atmosphere was not nearly as good as at Magic Kingdom the night before, and the fireworks were limited to a few flares. It was still fun, but we felt like "that was it?", especially after the previous night.

We went to Epic Universe on 1/2, and unfortunately it was an absolute disaster. Park opened at 10AM to the general public and we were in by 10:15A. Should have been in earlier but long lines both to get in to parking lot and also to get through security. With that in mind, crowds were absolutely insane and my family did a grand total of 3 rides by about 5:30PM -- Stardust Racers, Monsters Unchained, and Harry Potter MOM. They were able to do single rider for Monsters Unchained in 10 minutes, so the remainder of the day was waiting for the other 2 rides. They loved Stardust Racers, thought it was at least as good as Guardians, but the others were only OK and definitely not worth significant waits.

Note that when I bought the tickets (over $200pp), I considered getting Express Passes but they were around $379 pp and I don't even do most of the rides there so I passed. A few days later I was reconsidering despite the expense, and by then they were sold out. So I think they basically let in too many people and/or sold too many Express passes for the day, and it killed the day as a whole for pretty much everyone in the park -- I heard lots of complaints, including from people who had the Express Passes.

While the others were in the endless lines, I saw the Harry Potter Cirque Arcanus show and thought it was pretty good (I actually really liked the pre-show but then thought the main show was just OK), but had to wait almost an hour to see it after not getting in twice. Further, after waiting an hour for the Dragon Show, it was cancelled.

Also: The waits at Epic were long and thankless, often without line moving, and without options. Most of the day the shortest waits for any adult rides were 150+ and the biggest rides were 250+. Even Yoshi was 75+ throughout the day. And single rider lanes were generally closed for capacity. Unlike Disney there were very few other distractions or options to make it feel like you could find an alternative if you didn't want to wait for the biggest attractions.

That said -- the theming of the various lands was incredible, and the feeling of going through the portals into the lands was very cool. Nintendo in particular had fantastic theming.

Anyway - when they got in the Harry Potter line it said Expected Wait: 160 minutes. It ended up being around 250 minutes, much of it with the line stopped, and when they came off the ride they pretty much didn't want to wait for anything further (even though we love Nintendo as a family).

So: I would definitely recommend WDW during the holidays as long as you do thorough planning, and would only recommend Epic Universe during less-crowded periods. And I would for sure recommend Lightning Lane during busy periods, not as sure about Express Pass especially at exorbitant pricing.

Thanks for the advice above!!

Sounds like it was a fun Trip....

Thanks for Posting......

I was watching Epic wait times during the holidays and they were soooooo busy.

I want to go in October this year but it really needs to slow down a bit.

Brian ... if you think the wait times were bad, just wait until the passholders get chance to invade :)
Nothings been said yet, though