Disney Lightning Lane: Multi pass, Single Pass, and Premiere Pass
What is Lightning Lane?
Starting with the basics, what is Lightning Lane? Lightning Lane Multi pass/Single Pass is the newest skip the line system that replaced Genie+. Using Lightning Lane Multi Pass (LLMP) you can book return times for *most* rides and should have a fairly short wait. Certain rides in each park require an additional payment per person to skip the line, those are the Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP). Disney has also started offering the Lightning Lane Premiere Pass (LLPP). This is another skip the line system that comes at a much higher price, however you don’t need to schedule rides but rather ride when you want to during the day.
Multi Pass vs Single Pass vs Premiere Pass:
Lightning Lane Multi Pass, Single Pass and Premiere Pass are the latest paid services to skip the standby line. With LLMP you can select from most rides, however the most popular ride in each park is not included with LLMP. For those rides, you can purchase a LLSP, which is a paid per person per ride system. Prices vary by ride, park, and day. The following rides are currently LLSP rides:
Magic Kingdom: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Tron
Epcot: Guardians of the Galaxy
Hollywood Studios: Rise of the Resistance
Animal Kingdom: Flight of Passage
With both LLMP and LLSP it may only be used once per attraction each day.
LLPP is a much higher cost option than LLMP and LLSP, however it comes with the benefit of not having to book ride return times. Instead, you can show up and ride when it is convenient for you. Another benefit to LLPP is that it includes all of the LLMP and the LLSP rides in the park you select for the day. One thing to note however is that LLPP only gives you the ability to use the LL for each ride in the park you select a single time similar to the LLMP and LLSP. It is also currently only for a single park per day, and the price will depend on which park you select and the day you want to use it. You can purchase LLPP along with LLMP and LLSP if desired to be able to get on rides more than once using the LL, or if you want to park hop.
How to Purchase LLMP, LLSP, and LLPP:
The timing of purchase for LLMP and LLSP is going to depend on if you are staying at a Disney resort or if you are staying offsite. If you are staying at a Disney resort, starting at 7:00AM at 7 days prior to your check-in day, you can purchase and book your rides for your trip for length of trip (up to 14 days). When you purchase the LLMP you will only be able to select from a single park, however if you have park hopper tickets or an Annual Pass you can still use the service in more than one park, but you will need to use your first LLMP of the day though before you can start booking rides in a second park.
If you are staying offsite, you can purchase and prebook your rides starting 3 days before the start of your trip.
Currently, purchases and ride selections can only be done on the My Disney Experience app.
Similar to Genie+, you do not need to purchase a LLMP to purchase a LLSP. So if you want to only ride Flight of Passage on your Animal Kingdom day, then you would only need to purchase the Flight of Passage LLSP and would not need to buy LLMP.
Currently only guests staying at Disney resorts, the Swan and Dolphin, or Shades of Green are able to book the LLPP. Similar to the LLMP and LLSP, the LLPP may be purchased starting 7 days prior to the start of your trip at 7AM and you can book it for the length of stay up to 14 days.
How to use LLMP, LLSP and LLPP:
LLMP, LLSP, and LLPP are the latest skip the line system at Disney World. The price varies depending on the day and the park you wish to visit. You can start booking rides at 7:00AM 7 days prior to check-in if you are a Disney resort guest, others may book LLMP and LLSP 3 days prior to their trip. Unlike Genie+, with LLMP you can select the return time to help better plan your day. Some rides can “sell out” early, especially popular tier 1 attractions, so for those it is helpful to schedule later in your trip for a better chance of getting them.
Speaking of tiers, currently Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot have tiered attractions. When you initially book at these parks, you may only select a single tier 1 attraction and then two tier 2 attractions. Animal Kingdom is the only park without tiers. The tier 1 rides for each park are below:
Magic Kingdom:
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Big Thunder Mountain
Jungle Cruise
Peter Pan’s Flight
Space Mountain
Epcot:
Frozen Ever After
Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
Soarin’ Around the World
Test Track (currently down for reimagining)
Hollywood Studios:
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
Slinky Dog Dash
When using LLMP you may select from an available return time. The window is an hour long, however general rule of thumb is you can scan in up to 5 minutes early and up to 15 minutes late. Many rides will sell out prior to the day of use, you may have luck refreshing to get a sold out ride, but experiences vary.
As mentioned earlier, popular rides sell out days in advance. For instance, often times Tiana’s Bayou Adventure isn’t available until 3-4 days out, so if there is a popular ride you would like to get with LLMP it is best to plan to ride it later in your vacation to have a better selection of times and availability.
Once you are in the park and scan into your first LLMP ride, you will be able to book your next ride in either Tier 1 or Tier 2. It does not matter if the ride you scanned into is a Tier 2, once that first ride is scanned into, you can book any available ride regardless of tier. You may also at that point book a ride in a different park if you have park hopper tickets or APs.
As you continue through the day, every time you scan into another LLMP ride you can immediately book your next one if there is availability. So basically you can have three booked at all times.
Disney’s newest addition to the skip the line services is LLPP. This allows guests to ride what they want when they want. There is no prebooking rides with this pass and no scheduled return times. You basically have an anytime LL for all of the rides which have LL in the park you select for that day. The LLPP is only valid for each ride once per day and currently may only be used in a single park. This is the easiest of the three options to use since all you need to do is scan into the LL at the ride of your choosing and you’re set. No need to worry about booking a new ride after scanning in. While this option gives the most flexibility, it does come with a much higher cost than LLMP and LLSP.
Example of LLMP and LLSP Booking:
Here is an example of one of our recent experiences with booking LLSP and LLMP. Since we were staying at a Disney resort, we were able to book our LLMP and LLSP 7 days before our trip at 7am. We were doing a split stay for this trip, so moving to a new Disney resort partway through our trip, and the good news is that we could book the entire trip length for the Lightning Lanes even though we were changing resorts mid trip. We decided to use LLMP at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.
At the day of booking I booked our Magic Kingdom days first since they were the earliest days in the trip we’d be using this service. Both days we opted to do Tiana’s as our tier one ride, and got lucky that even though it was only day 3 and 4 of our trip, we managed to snag morning return times, 9:50 and 9:10 respectively. The tier two rides we selected were Haunted Mansion and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin for the first day, and then Pirates of the Caribbean and Buzz again for the second day. The app does initially assign times for you, however you can go through and modify them into times that work better if needed. The times the app assigned times for us worked great, they were all in the morning when we planned on being in the park, but I did modify them slightly to have them overlap a bit, about 10 minutes. I did want to try to get an earlier LLMP on the first Magic Kingdom day since the 9:50 return time for Tiana’s was almost an hour after park opening so put us behind others with earlier return times in booking our next LLMP, however the app would not let me modify one of the tier two rides to be earlier since it would overlap with Tiana’s too much and at that point if I modified Tiana’s the times were all in the late afternoon which would not work for us so I left it as is.
We then booked our Hollywood Studios day of rides. Here I selected Slinky Dog Dash as our tier one then Toy Story Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers for our tier two rides. Here I did have to modify the times since we weren’t planning to be at Hollywood Studios until later in the afternoon and the assigned return times were mostly in the morning. I changed the times to be a 4:30 for Slinky, a 5:20 for Toy Story Mania, and a 6:10 for Alien Swirling Saucers. Since this day was later in our trip I had my pick of times to change to, especially in the afternoon.
Lastly I booked our LLMP for Animal Kingdom. This was the easiest since there are no tiers, so I selected the Safari, Dinosaur, and Expedition Everest. Again since this day was later in the trip I had my pick of times to modify to.
After booking the LLMP I went back to book the LLSP. For this I ended up booking Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind in Epcot for four of the days of our trip. There was plenty of availability for this even early in the trip. The only other LLSP I booked for us was Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios and booked it to be after our planned dinner there that evening.