When budgeting for the cost of your Disneyland vacation, there are multiple areas that can make up a substantial cost between hotels, tickets, dining, and more. While a Disneyland ticket will grant you admission, there are also add-ons that you may be debating whether or not to get.
Many worry that it’s not possible to do a Disneyland trip without having to purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass (the name of this service is changing and was formerly called Genie+ that officially switches over on July 24th), the line-skipping service that gives you access to Lightning Lane entry for select popular attractions. Purchasing this service quickly adds up, however, as it is a daily per-person cost.
With a solid strategy, it is possible to enjoy a Disneyland trip without Lightning Lane Multi Pass and still do and see all of the highlights. We will take you through our top 5 tips and considerations for doing Disneyland without Lightning Lanes!
1) Choose carefully when to visit. While it always pays to be deliberate about when you plan your visit, this is especially important when you’re planning a trip without Lightning Lanes as you want to target a time when crowds are lower and wait times are not as long for rides. Take a look at the Disneyland crowd calendar and the best days of the week to visit Disneyland to pinpoint the best time to plan your trip.
If you plan your trip during some of the best times of the year at Disneyland, you can enjoy shorter lines and some of the seasonal celebrations that occur throughout the year. You’ll want to target these less crowded times at Disneyland so that you can still experience all of the popular rides without having to spend a significant chunk of your day waiting in lines.
2) Decide how long to visit. You’ll also want to put some thought into deciding how long your visit will be, as your strategy will be different depending on whether you are spending 1 day at Disneyland or a multi-day trip without Lightning Lanes.
While it’s possible to do Disneyland without Lightning Lane Multi Pass one day, with so many popular rides and experiences at the parks, you may not get to everything you want to do and see. A multi-day trip gives you more flexibility to do and see everything that you want to, as we recommend getting a 1 park per day ticket for the first two days and then revisiting your favorite park or getting a park hopper for the last day.
3) Take advantage of the mornings and evenings. While we recommend taking advantage of the shorter lines in the mornings and later in the evenings regardless of whether or not you are using Lightning Lanes, this is especially important for a trip without it as these are the times of day you’ll be able to get on rides with the shortest standby waits. If you wait until the afternoon when crowds are higher to ride attractions, wait times will often have increased dramatically by then.
Make sure to arrive in time for rope drop for Disneyland or rope drop for Disney California Adventure, as you’ll be able to get all of the popular rides done in the morning and enjoy a more relaxed pace in the afternoon after lunch seeing the parade and finding attraction with shorter wait times. If you have the Early Entry perk as a Disneyland Resort hotel guest, you can take advantage of these 30 extra minutes to enjoy select attractions at the parks before they open.
If you have enough energy to stay after the fireworks until park closing, this is a good time to enjoy some of the most popular rides like Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway and Peter Pan’s Flight.
4) Arrive with a solid plan. When visiting Disneyland without Lightning Lanes, you’ll want to be deliberate about how to structure your day so that you can do and see as much as possible. Rather than arriving with a loose sense of what you want to accomplish, we recommend adding more structure to your day so that you can time your rides, entertainment, dining, etc. as effectively as possible. In our 1-Day Disneyland itinerary without Lightning Lanes and 1-Day Disney California Adventure itinerary without Lightning Lanes, we list out our recommended ride order to follow in the mornings before lines start growing and the best strategy for the remainder of the day.
5) Use Single Rider when it’s offered. Single Rider at Disneyland is one of the best ways to get on rides with shorter waits if you are planning a trip without Lightning Lanes. You’ll enter a separate line and be split up from others in your party to fill empty spots in the ride vehicles that aren’t occupied by parties in the standby queue. If you’re comfortable with experiencing these rides on your own, you can save a great deal of time by utilizing the Single Rider lines.
See the rides that Single Rider works best for and the couple of ones you may want to skip. This trick works wonders in saving time for rides with long standby waits like Radiator Springs Racers!
For more guidance on planning your trip to Disneyland without Lightning Lane Multi Pass, you can see our 1-Day itineraries above as well as our 3-Day Disneyland itinerary without Lightning Lanes for everything you need to know.
At Mickey Visit, we share the most important tips for planning your trips to Disneyland, Walt Disney World, Disney Cruise Line, Universal, and beyond. Each week, we’ll share some of our top tips here on Laughing Place.