Disney’s new Lightning Lane Premier Pass gives guests one-time access to every Lightning Lane ride in the park whenever they want. This allows them to skip the lines on popular rides without the hassle of booking specific ride times. This is the easiest method for skipping lines on popular rides because you don’t need to choose a return time, navigate ride tiers or plan your rides ahead of time.
It’s proven quite popular despite its hefty price tag, which ranges between $129 and $449 per day, depending on the date and park you choose.
This pricey skip-the-line alternative to the standard Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass has sold out several times recently, including during the busy holiday season. During the program’s initial rollout at Disney World, availability was limited to guests staying at Deluxe Disney World hotels and villas. In November, Disney expanded the program to all on-site hotel guests. (At Disneyland in California, any guest can purchase a Lightning Lane Premier Pass.)
Beginning tomorrow (Jan. 21), Disney is opening Lightning Lane Premier Pass to all Disney World visitors. The Disney Lightning Lane Single Pass and Multi Pass plans remain available. Now, guests have several skip-the-line options to choose from and the ability to mix-and-match these options during their vacation.
The purchase window will mirror that of Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass.
Guests staying at Disney Resort hotels, the Walt Disney World Swan, Dolphin or Swan Reserve or Shades of Green can purchase Lightning Lane passes up to seven days in advance of their vacation at 7 a.m. Eastern time for the entire length of their stay (up to 14 days).
Related: The best Disney World hotels
Guests with date-based tickets who are not staying in an official Disney Resort hotel can plan up to three days in advance for the length of their ticket, beginning at 7 a.m. Eastern time.
Cost for Disney’s new Lightning Lane Premier Pass
Just as with the Lightning Lane Multi Pass and tickets themselves, the price for Disney’s new Lightning Lane Premier Pass varies by day and by park. It will only work in one park per day at Disney World, while it will work in both parks at Disneyland.
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Here are the per-person prices for Disney World and Disneyland:
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Theme Park: $129 to $199 per day (plus tax)
- Epcot: $169 to $249 per day (plus tax)
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $269 to $349 per day (plus tax)
- Magic Kingdom Park: $329 to $449 per day (plus tax)
- Disneyland Resort: $400 (not taxable) through Dec 31, 2024. In 2025, the price will range from $300 to $400 per day.
Note that these prices do not include your theme park admission tickets, which also start at over $100 per day for single-day tickets.
How Disney’s new Premier Pass stacks up to other passes
Disney’s new Premier Pass is significantly more expensive than a Lightning Lane Multi Pass, which often costs between $30 and $35 per day for a park like the Magic Kingdom. That said, it is common for premium skip-the-line passes to cost over the $100 mark per day, including at parks like Disneyland Paris, where the Premier Access Pass often exceeds $100 per day.
The Universal Orlando Express Pass, which allows you to skip certain lines once per ride, costs between $90 and $260 per day.
However, a big difference with the Universal Orlando Express Pass is that it is included for free for every registered hotel guest when you stay at Universal’s highest tier of resort hotels, such as Loews Portofino Bay and Hard Rock Hotel at Universal Orlando.
Disney’s VIP tour, which provides essentially “walk-on” access to rides across the park on a per-hour basis (along with the guides themselves), costs between $450 and $900 per hour for up to 10 guests. Probably not coincidentally, even at the lower end of that scale and with the maximum number of people allowed per tour, the Lighting Lane Premier Pass will still typically be less expensive than the Disney VIP tour, though do the math as pricing could be competitive on certain days with larger groups, especially at the Magic Kingdom.
Bottom line
Will Disney’s new Lightning Lane Premier Pass be worth it? Well, that’s obviously going to depend on a variety of factors, mainly including how many “Disney dollars” are in your wallet. Even at the lowest price of $329 per person for Magic Kingdom, that’s an additional $1,316 for a day of magic for a family of four with this new premium pass.
Is that worth it to just hop on rides when you want, compared to the $250 or so it would likely cost that family to purchase Lightning Lane Single and Multi passes to try and replicate a similar experience? If that additional thousand dollars or so won’t put a dent in your bank account, then maybe. If you were already considering a VIP tour, then maybe.
Also keep in mind that you can use Premier Pass for some parks, and stick to Multi Pass or waiting in standby lines for other parks. You can customize your skip-the-line options to match your budget.
But for most Disney visitors, this new premium pass — at least at these prices — won’t be a regular purchase. And, of course, that’s by design.
Lightning Lane Premier Pass opens up an additional level of skip-the-line access, but at this price point, it’s not for everybody. That said, the list of ways that a Disney vacation experience can vary by budget is only growing, and this new Lightning Lane Premier Pass is just one more way Disney will allow some guests who pay more to get more.
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