How to use Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World
Want to skip the lines at Disney World? The old, free Fastpass system is gone, but Disney has replaced it with a system called Lightning Lane. Here is my updated advice on how to use this system at the Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. For advice about Disneyland in California, please see How to use Lightning Lane at Disneyland.
There is no free option for Lightning Lane. Disney sells three types of Lightning Lane access that guests can buy when they visit a Walt Disney World theme park. Based on my experience, and the experience of other Theme Park Insider readers, here are the best ways to get the most from Disney’s Lightning Lane system.
What is a Lightning Lane?
A Lightning Lane is just the old Fastpass queue, with a new name. It’s a way to bypass the regular standby queue on popular Walt Disney World attractions. There will be some wait, given the large number of people who buy Lightning Lane access each day. But attractions operators are trained to prefer the Lightning Lane queue to keep its wait time much shorter than the standby queue.
Sometimes people visiting Disney get confused because “Lightning Lane” can mean two things.
1) It’s the name of the physical queue that people use to access an attraction as well as
2) It’s the name of the upcharge pass that people have to buy to use that queue.
So which Lightning Lane package should you buy, if any? Let’s look at the options.
Lightning Lane Premier Pass
The most expensive version of Lightning Lane is Lightning Lane Premier Pass. But if you can afford it, this is the pass to buy. A Premier Pass gets you one-time access to the Lightning Lane at each of attractions that offer it, in one of the four Walt Disney World theme parks. You can use the Premier Pass whenever you want, so there’s no need to plan anything in advance.
A Premier Pass is good for one theme park on one day, and the price varies by date and park. Prices range from over $400 a day at the Magic Kingdom to as low as about $130 a day at Disney's Animal Kingdom.
You can use Premier Pass to access the attractions listed in the Single Pass and Multi Pass sections below.
If you have a Park Hopper ticket and want to use Premier Pass in multiple parks, you must buy a separate Premier Pass for each park. You can book all versions of Lightning Lane through Walt Disney World’s official My Disney Experience mobile app.
Lightning Lane Single Pass
The most popular attractions at each park offer Lightning Lane Single Pass. This is a one-time access to the Lightning Lane at a specific attraction. When you buy the pass, you will select an arrival window to use the pass and ride the ride. Prices will vary by date and by attraction.
Single Passes often sell out, so if you want one, book as early as you can. Guests at Walt Disney World Resort hotels can book starting at 7am Eastern Time seven days before their check-in day. Everyone else can book starting at 7am three days before the ticket date.
Here are the attractions that offer Lightning Lane Single Pass and their recent price ranges:
Star Wars Rise of the Resistance: $20-24
TRON Lightcycle Run: $19-21
Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind: $18-20
Avatar Flight of Passage: $15-17
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: $11-15
You can buy up to two Lighting Lane Single Passes per day of your visit, but only one for each eligible attraction.
Lightning Lane Multi Pass
A Multi Pass allows you one-time access to Disney’s other Lightning Lane attractions. Again, the price varies by park and by date.
Magic Kingdom: $29-40
EPCOT: $18-35
Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $24-37
Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $16-22
Using a Multi Pass well requires planning. Like with Single Pass, on-site hotel guests can book up to seven days in advance of check-in, while everyone else can book up to three days in advance of their ticket date. When you book, you can select arrival times for three attractions at the park for which you bought the Multi Pass.
Here the eligible attractions at each park. I’ll get to the difference between Tier 1 and Tier 2 in a minute.
Magic Kingdom
Tier 1
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Jungle Cruise
Peter Pan’s Flight
Space Mountain
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Tier 2
The Barnstormer
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Haunted Mansion
It’s a Small World
Mad Tea Party
The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Mickey’s PhilharMagic
Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
Pirates of the Caribbean
Tomorrowland Speedway
Under the Sea - Journey of The Little Mermaid
EPCOT
Tier 1
Frozen Ever After
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
Test Track
Tier 2
Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
Journey Into Imagination With Figment
Living with the Land
Mission: Space
The Seas with Nemo & Friends
Soarin' Across America
Spaceship Earth
Turtle Talk With Crush
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Tier 1
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring The Muppets
Slinky Dog Dash
Tier 2
Alien Swirling Saucers
Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
Disney Jr. Mickey Mouse Clubhouse Live
For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
The Little Mermaid – A Musical Adventure
Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
Toy Story Mania
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
Feathered Friends in Flight
Festival of the Lion King
Finding Nemo: The Big Blue... and Beyond
Kali River Rapids
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Na'vi River Journey
Zootopia: Better Zoogether
When making your first three Lightning Lane reservations, you can select one option from Tier 1 and the other two must be from Tier 2. The only exception is for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which has no tiers, so all listed attractions are fair game.
On the date of your visit, once you get to your first Lightning Lane arrival time, you can book any other available Lightning Lane arrival time for later in the day, regardless of Tier. To get the most value from a Multi Pass, you want to try to stack as many arrival times as possible during the day.
Stacking Lightning Lanes
That’s why picking your first three arrival times is so important. You want to book your first time as soon as possible after your planned arrival in the park. Even if you book your first three Lightning Lane times days in advance, you can modify them starting at 7am on the day of your park visit. Again, try to get at least one return time as early as possible in the day.
As soon as that first Lightning Lane arrival time hits, whether you have tapped into the ride or not, you want to get on the app and make another Lightning Lane reservation. If you have a Park Hopper ticket, you can make that reservation for a Lightning Lane attraction at another WDW theme park.
You can make another Lightning Lane reservation after that as soon as your next Lightning Lane arrival time hits, or two hours later, whichever comes first. That two-hour rule can be your trick to stacking more than three Lightning Lane reservations at a time. Whenever you make a Lightning Lane reservation in the park, set your phone’s time to 120 minutes if your next Lightning Lane arrival time is not within two hours. When the timer goes off, make another reservation.
Remember that you change Lightning Lane reservations after you make them, too. Keep checking throughout the day for rides that might not have been available before. New time slots can open up as people cancel reservations.
Lightning Lane Strategy
For Magic Kingdom, Space Mountain and Tiana’s are the toughest gets first thing in the morning. Go for one of those, then make Jungle Cruise your next selection once you enter the park. Beyond that, the Fantasyland attractions offer the biggest time savings using Lightning Lanes, so prioritize those if they are rides that interest your family.
For EPCOT, Remy and Frozen are the toughest gets in Tier 1, so go for one of those. Make the other two Tier 1 attractions that you do not get your top priorities when making additional reservations in the park.
At Hollywood Studios, go for Slinky Dog Dash and Toy Story Mania as soon as reservations open. In the park, prioritize whatever Tier 1 attractions you did not get on first drop.
At Animal Kingdom, book Na'vi River Journey, Everest and Kilimanjaro Safaris. You can save a few minutes on River Rapids, too, but beyond that, there’s not much value to Multi Pass here as the remaining attractions are show where you will get into the next showing pretty much whenever you arrive.
If all none of these options sounds appealing to you, remember that using the standby queues is free with park admission. Visit our “What to do” visitors’ guides for my advice on what to visit when to minimize your wait times without having to pay for Lightning Lane.
For assistance in planning a Walt Disney World vacation, please contact our travel agent for a free, no-obligation vacation quote.
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Replies (3)
I just don't see the value in any of the LL products at WDW unless you have extremely limited time to visit the parks and just want to experience the highlights. I think the biggest issue with LL at WDW is that so many attractions have LL, which leaves very few things without line skippers slowing the flow of the standby line. Also, LL is just so popular right now that you're lucky if you can use it on more than 4-5 attractions in a day, and that last one you get is probably for a ride that has a minimal line (<20 minutes). Disney has even indicated that most guests can expect to get 5 LLs in a day, and unless you're incredibly resourceful and plugged-in, that's probably the ceiling. I think you're better off saving your money for something else (LL can really add up quickly if you have a large party) unless you're just not confident in getting to the park early and staying late when standby lines are minimal. Think about it, if you're a 4-person family, you could easily buy a decent lunch or quick service dinner for your entire group for what it would likely cost for a day of LLMP. Plus the system can add increased stress to you day (and ahead as you trying to grab high demand attractions before you get to the parks) as your staring at your phone trying to optimize your LL use.
At least LL at Disneyland, which we've purchased for our 2 days at the parks next week, is more targeted towards just the top tier rides and there are plenty of other attractions that can only be experienced through standby. Also, LLMP at Disneyland includes PhotoPass, which is a nice perk and significantly cheaper than buying PhotoPass at WDW.
Given the cost of visiting Disneyworld from the UK I can't see us ever returning there sadly, unless we hit big on the lottery. But even if we could the thought of having to navigate all this stress is really off putting. I remember the days of Fast Pass which was a) egalitarian and b) worked. These days it seems you can buy access but kissing goodbye to potentially $1000 for a day for two of us makes a mockery of Walt's intention that his parks should be for everyone.
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Robert wrote: "If you have a Park Hopper ticket and want to use Premier Pass in multiple parks, you must buy a separate Premier Pass for each park."
This is not correct. Disney will only allow you to buy Premier Pass for one park per day.