Is it better to not book your first ride at 7am?

If you will be in the park during the first couple of hours, you can avoid having to wait two hours from park open by simply tapping in at your first ride. So let's say you book something with a return time right at park open - that would let you book again as soon as you tapped in to ride. In this way, you are better off booking at 7 so you can hopefully get a very early first return time.

Just remember you can modify times after you book - it totally depends on what you are wanting to ride - for Epcot I always try at 7 am to get Remy then if by some miracle it is too early I can modify it but at magic kingdom I can wait till park open because the rides I want don’t sell out as quick

You can book a 2nd Lightning Lane prior to 2 hours after park opening, as long as the Lightning Lane you booked at 7am is earlier than that. If you book Jungle Cruise at 7am with a return time of say 920 (900 park opening), you could book a 2nd LL as soon as 915 when you tap into Jungle Cruie. By park opening time the returns on those hard to get rides might be out pretty far.

One thing I would recommend is to check the MDE app before your trip to see how quickly some rides “sell out”. I do that to get an idea of how easy or difficult it would be to get those “Must Do” rides, bearing in mind what crowds are expected during my trip. If you are planning on stacking and hitting the parks later in the day, then sleeping in might be a better strategy for you. 😊

I think it’s more beneficial to sleep in. You can always play the slots to get a better return time. I’m on vacation right now, and I’m finding the whole Disney Genie system a bit annoying, even though with Rob’s help I’ve gone on everything I wanted with good return times :-)

I’ve also noticed that both Genie LL and Individual LL almost always come back even when they show as sold out. Just play those slots.