Is Disney Lightning Lane value it?

Want to save time and ride all the attractions at Walt Disney World and Disneyland while limiting how much time you spend in line? Assuming you’re not planning to splurge on a private VIP guide, Disney’s Lightning Lanes are the way to go, to get out of the regular lines.

Lightning Lane is Disney’s version of the line-skipping service available at most theme parks. With Disney Lightning Lane, you skip the standby line and utilize a much quicker Lightning Lane for most attractions. This could save you hours of waiting in line and ensure you get on more of Disney’s most popular rides during your trip.

But, of course, it isn’t a one-size-fits-all option. You can pick Lightning Lane Multi Pass, Lightning Lane Single Pass or a combination of both.

Before your next visit to Disney World or Disneyland, use this guide to familiarize yourself with the current Disney Lightning Lane pass options, including how much they cost and how they work. (Spoiler alert: They work differently on each coast.)

Here’s everything you need to know to decide if Disney’s Lightning Lane service is worth it for you and how to maximize the passes if you buy them.

What is Disney Lightning Lane?

Disney Lightning Lane is a paid service that grants you access to Lightning Lane entrances at select attractions. This service was formerly known as Disney Genie+ but received a rebrand this year with some exciting new features. Lightning Lanes allow you to skip the standby line and free up your time so you can get to more attractions with less waiting throughout the day.

Most attractions are included in the Lightning Lane Multi Pass service, but one or two attractions at each park require a separate Lightning Lane Single Pass purchase to skip the line. It’s not necessary to purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass to buy a Lightning Lane Single Pass and vice versa, though by combining the two, you are almost guaranteed to get on all your favorite Disney rides during your visit.

Disney may also employ a virtual queue for new or popular attractions, and those may or may not also utilize a Lightning Lane entrance.

Joining a virtual queue is complimentary for all guests, and you can use it with or without Lightning Lanes. You can access all of these services through the My Disney Experience app at Disney World or the Disneyland app at Disneyland.

Daily Newsletter

Reward your inbox with the TPG Daily newsletter

Join over 700,000 readers for breaking news, in-depth guides and exclusive deals from TPG’s experts

How much does Disney Lightning Lane cost?

The Lightning Lane Multi Pass and the Lightning Lane Single Pass are separate services and must be purchased separately. The process and pricing are a bit different at Disney World and Disneyland, so let’s look at each.

Walt Disney World Lightning Lane pricing

Lightning Lane Multi Pass pricing varies by date and park. The service starts at $15 per person, per day but can reach $39 per person, per day during the busiest seasons, like around Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring break. Of course, it’s always possible that those prices will increase in the future.

It’s also possible for the Lightning Lane Multi Pass and the Lightning Lane Single Pass to sell out. With the park-specific pricing structure, it’s possible for the Lightning Lane Multi Pass to sell out at one park and still be available at another, so you don’t totally lose out on the option to skip the line as long as your park touring plan is flexible.

Related: Nearly half of parents take on debt to visit Disney; here’s how to avoid going bibbidi-bobbidi-broke

Some parks, like Disney’s Animal Kingdom and Epcot, have fewer Lightning Lane-eligible attractions (and generally shorter standby waits) than the Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. As a result, the Lightning Lane Multi Pass tends to be less expensive at Animal Kingdom and Epcot.

Lightning Lane Single Pass attraction pricing varies by attraction but typically ranges between $7 and $25 per person, per attraction. Each guest can make up to two Lightning Lane Single Pass purchases per day, and they don’t have to be for the same park.

Although they are separate services, you can purchase one or both in a single transaction.

Disneyland Lightning Lane pricing

Disneyland’s Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass pricing vary by day, based on crowd levels and demand.

Like at Disney World, you can purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass in advance as an add-on to your Disneyland ticket, but unlike Disney World, you cannot make any prearrival ride selections. Still, prepurchasing a Lightning Lane Multi Pass locks in a price of $30 per person, per day. If you purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass on the date of your visit, the starting price is $30, but it can fluctuate on busier days. The highest price on record so far is $35.

As is the case with Disney World, you can expect higher prices for Lightning Lane passes at Disneyland when the parks are busier around the holidays and spring break. It’s best to purchase the Lightning Lane Multi Pass ahead of time to take advantage of the $30 base price.

The Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Disneyland includes unlimited PhotoPass digital downloads, which is why the starting price is a bit higher than the equivalent service at Disney World.

Though you can purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass ahead of time, you can only purchase a Lightning Lane Single Pass at Disneyland once you are inside the park on the day of your visit. Pricing varies per day and attraction, with prices increasing during busier times. Each guest can make up to two Lightning Lane Single Pass purchases per day.

How do Lightning Lanes work at Disney World?

One of the best things about Lightning Lane passes at Disney World is that you now have the ability to purchase them and plan ahead of time.

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).

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.

Guests with annual passes or special ticket types who don’t have a Disney hotel stay can plan one day at a time, up to three days before their visit.

If you are only visiting one park per day, you will want to purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass for whichever park you plan to visit each day and make your prearrival ride selections for that park.

If you plan to park hop, you will want to purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass and make your initial ride selections for the first park you plan to visit. On the day of your visit, the system will recognize that you have Park Hopper tickets and will allow you to make subsequent ride selections for any park (subject to availability).

Related: The best Disney World hotels

To make your purchase, open the My Disney Experience app. You should see a prompt to purchase a Lighting Lane pass on the home screen, but you can also click the hamburger menu in the bottom right corner to see a button that says “Lightning Lane Passes.”

From there, you will choose the date of your visit. The next screen will show you availability and pricing for Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass at each park. Select the park where you’d like to purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass. At this time, you can also make up to two Lightning Lane Single Pass selections for any park. You are able to view attraction availability and pricing without actually making a purchase.

You will then be prompted to choose your party. If you or someone in your party isn’t eligible, you’ll see a message explaining why. If you have your tickets and are within your booking window, this shouldn’t be an issue.

After selecting your party, you will choose your rides. The Magic Kingdom, Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios allow you to choose one Tier 1 attraction and two Tier 2 attractions. For example, rides like Space Mountain, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad are Tier 1 attractions, while rides such as Dumbo the Flying Elephant and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh are Tier 2 attractions. At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, there is no tier system.

Even though you get to choose your return window, the system will automatically assign you a return time. You will have up to five minutes on this screen to modify your return times if you want to switch things around.

You will then be taken to a payment screen, where you can enter your card information and complete your purchase.

If you are purchasing for multiple days, just wash, rinse and repeat the above steps. If you are purchasing for multiple days at once, your best bet is to purchase your Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios days first so you can make those selections sooner, as they tend to run out the quickest. You’re likely to have the best attraction availability for the last day of your trip, so you might want to start there when you make selections to have the best odds of locking in the hottest rides.

You can continue to modify your ride selections and return times in the My Disney Experience app leading up to and during your visit. Lightning Lanes are nonrefundable, but you can modify the date and park for Lightning Lane Multi Pass or the attraction for Lightning Lane Single Pass if your plans change. If the cost is higher than what you originally paid, you will be responsible for the difference. If it is less, you will not receive any type of refund.

On the day of your visit, you can book additional attractions throughout the day each time you tap into an attraction using one of your Lightning Lane Multi Pass selections.

Another great feature of this system is that once you begin making day-of selections, the ride tier system no longer applies. You can make new ride selections or modify existing ones for any ride and return time at any park if you are park hopping (subject to availability). This means that after you use your first Lightning Lane of the day, you could modify your second or third attractions to Tier 1 attractions, even if they were initially Tier 2 attractions.

How do Lightning Lanes work at Disneyland?

At Disneyland, you can purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass ahead of time as a vacation add-on or after you enter the park each day.

You must purchase the service for each member of your party who plans to use it (except for children 2 and under), and each person must have a valid ticket and theme park reservation. Regardless of when you make your purchase, you can make your first Lightning Lane ride selection upon entering the park.

When you make a Lightning Lane reservation, you are given an hourlong arrival window when you can experience your selected attraction. When the window opens, signaling it’s time to ride, you can skip the standby queue and access the attraction via the Lightning Lane.

You can make subsequent selections after you redeem one or when two hours have passed from your last selection, whichever comes first. You can modify Lightning Lane selections if you want to change the attraction or number of people in your party who will accompany you to the attraction.

It’s possible to move through several attractions very quickly as long as the return times are available fairly soon after you book them. You can keep doing this grab-it-and-use-it strategy as long as Lightning Lane windows show immediate or near-term availability.

The other strategy you can employ is to stack your Lightning Lanes for later in the day. If the app is only displaying return windows that are many hours later, you can start stacking reservations for later and add new reservations every two hours. You will have to use standby lines or separately purchased individual Lightning Lanes early in the day to apply this strategy.

Many rides at Walt Disney World and Disneyland are included with the Lightning Lane Multi Pass. This list may change over time, especially when a new attraction opens. Still, you can always see the latest ride list — including which rides require a separate individual Lightning Lane purchase — on the official Lightning Lane pages for Disney World and Disneyland.

Lightning Lane rides at Disney World

Magic Kingdom

Choose up to one experience:

• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Jungle Cruise
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Space Mountain
• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

Choose two additional experiences (or three, if one from the previous group is not selected):

• 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

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Tron Lightcycle / Run require individual Lightning Lane purchases.

Epcot

Choose up to one experience:

• Frozen Ever After
• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
• Soarin’ Around the World

Choose two additional experiences (or three, if one from the previous group is not selected):

• Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
• Journey Into Imagination with Figment
• Living with the Land
• Mission: Space
• The Seas with Nemo & Friends
• Spaceship Earth
• Turtle Talk with Crush

Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind requires an individual Lightning Lane purchase.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Choose up to one experience:

• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
• Slinky Dog Dash

Choose two additional experiences (or three, if one from the previous group is not selected):

• Alien Swirling Saucers
• Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
• Disney Junior Play & Dance
• For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
• Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
• MuppetVision 3D
• Star Tours — The Adventures Continue
• The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Toy Story Mania

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance requires an individual Lightning Lane purchase.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Choose from the following experiences:

• Dinosaur
• Expedition Everest — Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
• Feathered Friends in Flight
• Festival of the Lion King
• Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond
• It’s Tough to be a Bug!
• Kali River Rapids
• Kilimanjaro Safaris
• Na’vi River Journey

Avatar Flight of Passage requires an individual Lightning Lane purchase.

Lightning Lane rides at Disneyland

Disneyland Park

Choose from the following experiences:

• Autopia
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
• Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
• Haunted Mansion
• Indiana Jones Adventure
• “it’s a small world”
• Matterhorn Bobsleds
• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin
• Space Mountain
• Star Tours — The Adventures Continue

Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance requires an individual Lightning Lane purchase.

Disney California Adventure Park

Choose from the following experiences:

• Goofy’s Sky School
• Grizzly River Run
• Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: Breakout
• Incredicoaster
• Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue
• Soarin’ Over California
• Toy Story Midway Mania
• Web Slingers: A Spider-Man Adventure

Radiator Springs Racers requires an individual Lightning Lane purchase.

Can you have fun at Disney without Lightning Lane passes?

There are situations where purchasing Lightning Lane passes may not be necessary for your day.

Are you planning a day of eating and drinking around the world at Epcot? Do you prefer to stroll around the parks while you take photos and watch passersby? Do you hate being on your phone or tied to a schedule and prefer to let the day take you wherever it may? Lightning Lanes won’t help you with any of that, though you can use the free Disney Genie service in the app to mobile order a cocktail or find the rides with the shortest lines.

Disney Genie helps optimize your day by suggesting what to do in which order, displaying current and predicted future wait times, placing mobile food orders, helping you navigate the parks with an interactive map and more. You can access the free Disney Genie service through the “My Day” link on the app’s homepage or by clicking “Today’s Plans” from the hamburger menu.

If budget is a concern, consider only purchasing a Lightning Lane Single Pass for the rides you just can’t miss and utilizing other strategies like early entry for shorter waits on other rides. In our experience, wait times grow as the day wears on, so the earlier you get started, the better. Sometimes, especially on days the park is open later, the same can be true toward the end of the evening.

You can also utilize virtual queues for Disney’s newest rides, which are free for all guests to use. This can help you get on top-tier attractions without paying extra money. You need to be ready to grab those virtual queues right at 7 a.m. on the dot — we recommend using the world clock and starting to hit refresh as fast as you can as the seconds draw close to 7 a.m. The same is true again at 1 p.m. if you want to try to grab a virtual queue for whatever park you are in at that time.

Is Disney Lightning Lane worth it?

In short, yes, Disney’s Lightning Lanes can absolutely be worth it if you want to ride as many rides as possible in a day with as little time in line as possible. But there are a few things you need to know if you want to maximize the money you spend on Lightning Lanes.

You need to purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass and make your ride selections as soon as you can for the best availability. This ensures you have access to the most Lightning Lanes possible. If you purchase the service later in the day, it won’t be as valuable. Even if you are booking seven days in advance, some of the top attractions, such as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, may already be unavailable.

You also want to maximize other expert-level Disney strategies to ensure you get on as many rides as possible. As the saying goes, the early bird gets the worm. If you arrive before the gates open for the day, you can be near the front of the group and knock out some high-demand attractions before the lines get long without using Lightning Lanes. Standby lines tend to be shorter during the first hour after the park opens.

It’s also worth mentioning that certain attractions may run out of Lightning Lane availability before the park closes for the day. The earlier you can make your Lightning Lane reservations, the better (even if they are for later in the day).

Additionally, if you don’t see what you want when it comes time to grab your next Lightning Lane, the best advice is to refresh, refresh and refresh some more within the app. This is true for making new selections and modifying current ones. New Lightning Lane reservations become available either when other groups cancel or as Disney periodically loads more throughout the day. So, the more persistent you are with refreshing the options in the app, the more options you will eventually have.