First visit to Disney World: Lightning Lanes explained

Of all the planning that goes into a trip to Disney World, Lightning Lanes are probably the most contentious and the most confusing for the first time visitor. What even are Lightning Lanes? Do you need it? Why are there so many options? Excuse me, *how* expensive did you say they were? …Per person??? Add in terms like “virtual queue”, and “rope drop”, and you’re just about ready to throw in the towel.

“Lightning Lanes” are special passes that let you bypass the regular standby line for many of Disney’s rides and attractions.

Anybody who has ever waited in line at any amusement park – especially *with kids* – know that long lines are a killer. It seems like a no brainer if you have the option to skip them. Less grumpy kids. Less tired kids. A way smoother day. The caveats with Disney Lightning Lanes is 1) they are expensive, and 2) there is quite a bit of planning and strategy involved in using them.

If you are visiting Disney World for the first time, this article takes you through everything you need to know about Lightning Lanes, and make the most of your magical first trip to Disney World.

When do Lightning Lanes come into play when planning your Disney trip?

You should begin thinking about Lightning Lanes after you have purchased your Disney Park tickets. (And booked your hotels and transportation.) You need to come up with a plan for which Lightning Lane passes to buy, and for what parks, if any.

Make sure you have downloaded and signed up for the Disney My Experience App. Be sure to link your park tickets to the app for everyone in your party. You will be using the Disney My Experience App to buy your Lightning Lane passes.

You can’t actually buy the Lightning Lane passes until 7:00am, 7 days before your first Park day (if staying at a Disney resort), or 3 days before your first Park day (if not staying at a Disney resort). Lightning Lane passes are limited per day and per time slot. They *do* sell out. You need to make sure you are ready with a plan so you can purchase everything you want to purchase when your window opens up.

During your park day, you “use” your Lightning Lane pass by scanning in to each ride (with your Disney Magic Band or your Key to the World card.) You do need to show up for your ride at your designated time slot. Staff will let you scan in up to 5 minutes early (or slightly more, if they’re feeling generous), and 10-15 minutes past your window.

The 3 types of Lightning Lane passes

There are 3 kinds of Lightning Lane options. We are mostly going to be focusing on the first 2, because the last is super expensive and exclusive and if you can afford this, you really don’t need to worry about the rest of this post.

1. Lighting Lane Single Pass

This is the most straightforward. You purchase the Lightning Lane, per person, per ride, for a specific time slot.

Your Lightning Lane will look something like this: Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind – 11:30 am – 12:30 pm.

Disney World offers Lightning Lane Single Passes for their most popular ride/s in each park. The cost can range a little bit depending on when you visit, some more than others. There are only 1-2 Single Pass experiences per park. As of 2025, these were:

Magic Kingdom: TRON (roller coaster) – $20 USD pp, and Seven Dwarves Mine Train (roller coaster) – $10-13 USD pp

Hollywood Studios: Star Wars Rise of the Resistance (immersive ride-through experience) – $25 USD pp

EPCOT: Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind (roller coaster) – $14-17 USD pp

Animal Kingdom: Avatar Flight of Passage (3D flying simulator) – $11-18 USD pp

2. Lightning Lane Multi Pass

This is the LEAST straightforward. It doesn’t help that there have been multiple predecessors of this pass (Genie+, Fast Pass) with completely different rules.

Essentially, what the Multi Pass lets you do is select *3* experiences ahead of time, for specific time-slots. These are either rides or shows, though most are rides. These experiences are still very popular, but typically see lower wait times than the Single Pass rides. Shows almost never have a long wait time.

However, once you have used up 1 experience, you can then select another one. (You can only do each experience once.) As you’re going about your park day, you will continuously select new experiences as you use up your previous ones. In this way, you can potentially use the Multi Pass to bypass over a dozen rides throughout the day. BUT, because Lightning Lane spots are limited, you can only select a new experience *if it is still available*.

As you can imagine, this takes quite a bit of planning both ahead of time and during the day. If you don’t go into this with a good strategy, you could potentially “waste” this pass (not getting all the bang for your buck), or you could be running back and forth across the park all day long. Much of the rest of this post will be about how to maximize your Lightning Lane Multi Pass experience.

Like the Single Pass, the cost of the Multi Pass varies per park, per time of the year. Generally, the prices are as follows:

Magic Kingdom: $20 – $39 USD pp (in our experience, it tends to be at the higher range)

Hollywood Studies: $20 – $35 USD pp (again, expect the higher range)

EPCOT: $15 – $32 USD pp (would plan for middle of the range, most times)

Animal Kingdom: $15 – $29 USD pp (fingers crossed most weeks for lower end of the range!)

Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studies are more expensive as they have more rides included in their Lightning Lane Multi Pass.

3. Lightning Lane Premier Pass

This pass was launched October 2024, and this is Disney World’s most VIP experience. It lets you experience each ride or attraction included in the Lightning Lane Single and Multi Passes once, whenever you want. With the Premier Pass, you are paying for the convenience of showing up whenever you’d like, and the peace of mind that all the rides are guaranteed.

The cost of this pass varies quite dramatically per park, per time of year:

Magic Kingdom: $329 – $449 USD pp (almost an extra $2000 USD for a family of 4!)

Hollywood Studies: $269 – $349 USD pp

EPCOT: $169 – $249 USD pp

Animal Kingdom: $129 – $199 USD pp

** Keep in mind the parks are constantly undergoing renovation and expansion, so these rates and rides will change. As of 2025, there are major changes coming to Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. It is very possible Animal Kingdom will become much more popular and the Lightning Lanes more expensive in the next few years!**

What Lightning Lanes are NOT:

It doesn’t matter which level of pass you purchase, Lightning Lanes do not:

• let you bypass any lines to meet any characters (important mention, because some of the previous iterations did have this option)
• have anything to do with dining. You still need to make sit-down reservations or place your mobile order for pick up while in the parks.
• let you bypass SOME shows and experiences. For some park experiences, such as Magic Kingdom’s Happily Ever After fireworks, you will have to line up or brave the crowds all the same.

Are Lightning Lanes worth it?

The million dollar question.

Sure, if you’re mostly visiting Disney to soak up the vibes, meet characters, having a sit-down meal, and catch some shows, you won’t need Lightning Lanes. But if you want the full experience, Lightning Lanes are worth considering. Disney rides are not just for thrills, they are immersive, incredibly-themed experiences, many which are suitable for most ages.

Lightning Lane Single Pass

In our opinion, Lightning Lane Single Passes are 100% worth it. These were our favourite rides, arguably the best ones, and the rides with the longest wait times. I’m pretty sure if we had only ridden Cosmic Rewind or Flight of Passage in those respective parks, the kids would have been satisfied.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass

Ah, I have a love-hate relationship with the Multi Pass. Our overall recommendation is if you can afford it, splurging on the Multi Pass is worth it, especially for your first Disney World visit.

It is still the best way to make the most of your park time by 1) decreasing waiting-in-line time, and 2) decreasing how much walking you have to do (if you plan your Multi Pass “right”). The Multi Pass decreases the amount of mental gymnastics you have to do overall. If you want to maximize rides without a Multi Pass, you have to worry about Early Entry, Rope Drop, Virtual Queues (more on all that below), *and* keep an eye on wait times for all the rides. You will also need to be prepared for potential 1-2 hour waits. That is a LOT of extra stress for your first Disney World visit.

*Lightning Lane Multi Pass perk*

Something we didn’t really factor in to our decision but ended up really sweetening the deal are the photo perks you get with Multi Pass. Purchasing a Multi Pass gives you access to:

1) All your in-ride photos where you used the Multi Pass. This is actually a huge deal, because each digital photo you buy (if you don’t purchase Disney’s photo package called the Memory Maker) costs around $16. The in-ride photos are so fun and some of our favourites – the kids’ expressions are priceless!

2) PhotoPass Lens. The kids LOVED this. The PhotoPass Lens is a super fun little extra where the app adds fun interactive Disney effects to your selfies. You can find your inner villain, or snap yourself indulging in a Mickey ice cream bar. Some effects are only available when you are in that park (such as turning yourself into an Avatar when in Animal Kingdom). We only discovered the PhotoPass Lens halfway through our trip and were disappointed to miss out on some of these.

Lightning Lane Single Pass does NOT include these perks (though we were surprised to have access to our photos from the Seven Dwarves Mine Train).

Lightning Lane alternatives to bypassing lines

As we mentioned, there are a few other terms you’ll hear floated around when planning your park day: Early Entry. Rope Drop. Virtual Queue. If you DON’T plan on purchasing Lightning Lanes, you will want to take advantage of some/all of these to mitigate those long lines. Even if you purchase Lightning Lanes, you may want to at least consider Early Entry/rope rope. This depends on how committed you are to riding all the rides. 😉

Early Entry

Early Entry is a perk that is offered to guests staying in Disney hotels or Disney affiliated hotels. The park (or at least the rides) opens 30 minutes earlier for these guests.

If you plan to take advantage of Early Entry, you have the chance to tackle one of your park’s most popular rides, AND maybe a few less popular ones. Do not expect you’ll be able to get on multiple popular rides during this time, because most guests doing Early Entry will also have the same idea.

The downsides of Early Entry (besides having to stay in a Disney hotel), is 1) exceptionally early wake up time for vacation, and 2) possibly more walking.

If a park opens at 9am (this depends on park and date), Early Entry officially starts at 8:30am. However, you can get *in* to the parks earlier, and some rides even start operating before official opening. So plan to be at the park around 1 hour in advance. That’s not bad when it’s 8am. But if your park opens at 8am, and you’re going to get there for 7am, you are waking up at some unspeakable hour. This makes for a VERY long park day, especially for children.

Secondly, you might end up somewhere where you’re going to have to backtrack afterward. For example, if you want to do Remy’s Ratatouille Adventures in EPCOT, you will have to go to the France pavilion in the World Showcase area. There are no other rides there and most of the World Showcase isn’t even active before 11am. So you have to boot it somewhere else immediately after the ride, and return to the World Showcase later. (Phew.)

Rope Drop

This is the term used for when the staff let the guests into the park at opening time (sometimes there’s an actual rope, sometimes there’s not). Technically there is rope drop for Early Entry guests as well.

But for everyone else, you still want to get to the park before opening time to take advantage of the lower crowds. Sometimes, you can walk into the park early. The areas open to Early Entry guests will be closed off until park opening. Sometimes, you can’t enter the park before official opening time.

Your goal for rope drop is the same as Early Entry – to get in line for a popular ride that hopefully isn’t as busy as it will be later in the day. However, this is not as effective, because there will already be lines from the Early Entry guests.

*One good use of rope drop at opening time is Magic Kingdom. At Magic Kingdom, only part of the park is open for Early Entry guests – Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. If you get to the park before official park opening time, you have time to admire Main Street and Cinderella’s Castle, and can still be one of the first to tackle Adventureland. We knocked out 4 rides that way! (We did have Multi Pass, but we didn’t even need it for this part of the day.)

Virtual Queue

Virtual queue is for booking rides, but it is not necessarily designed to help you save time. It is a way for Disney to manage crowd control at its most popular/newest rides.

As of 2025, Disney World has virtual queues for 2 rides: Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind (EPCOT), and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (Magic Kingdom). For these rides, there is *no* in person standby line. To ride them, you either need a Lightning Lane, or a spot in the virtual queue.

Virtual queues open at 7am and 1pm every park day. You can access the queue through your Disney app. The 7am spots are fleeting – sometimes all taken within milliseconds! The 1pm spots are a little more forgiving (you must be in the park to book these). If you manage to snag a virtual queue spot, you will be given a boarding group. During your park day, you need to show up during your assigned boarding time. (And to be clear, there *is* still a line, albeit shorter.)

If you are able to buy a Lightning Lane for these rides, it is worth avoiding the stress of trying to snag a virtual queue. (Unless you want to ride Cosmic Rewind more than once…) Cosmic Rewind is a Lightning Lane Single Pass. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is a part of Magic Kingdom’s Multi Pass.

A deeper dive into Lightning Lane Multi Pass

Multi Pass experiences and their respective tiers

As if life wasn’t complicated enough, Multi Pass rides come in 2 tiers. When you are pre-selecting your rides, you can only select one tier 1 ride (the most popular rides). The other 2 experiences have to be from tier 2.

However, once you have used an experience (either tier 1 OR 2), the new experience you select can be from either tier 1 OR 2 (if available, of course).

Multi Pass holders who want to park hop

If you have a Park Hopper pass (where you can go from one park to another in the same day), you CAN use your Lightning Lane Multi Pass. In general, we do not recommend park hopping for the first time visitor – there is too much to see in one park alone, never mind two!

But one of the advantages of park hopping is you can buy a Multi Pass at a cheaper park, and still use it when you park hop to a more expensive park (eg. from Animal Kingdom to Magic Kingdom). Your 3 pre-selections have to be at the park you start with. But once you have used your first experience, you can start booking at the second park (both tier 1 and 2).

Multi Pass holders who don’t want to ride the same rides as their family/group

You need to pre-select 3 rides when purchasing your Lightning Lane Multi Pass. You need to pre-select the *same* 3 rides for all members of your group if you are the one managing their park ticket.

However, after you have purchased your Multi Pass, you can then go back in and “modify” your selections individually. That way, you could have some of your party using a Multi Pass on one ride, and the others doing something else.

When you are selecting rides during your park day, you do *not* need to do so for everyone. However, this can become very confusing if everyone is on a different agenda. You want to have your group at least using their passes at parallel times. If someone does *not* want to go on a certain ride (eg. a rollercoaster), you can always cancel their selection ahead of time.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass “roulette”

Multi Pass roulette is the term we affectionately give to the process of attempting to book Lightning Lanes throughout the day. But we should really call it slots, because sometimes, it feels like playing the slots on your phone. 😛

If you want to effectively use your Multi Pass during your park day, you will have to play the slots.

Once you have used a Lightning Lane Multi Pass, you should immediately be picking up another ride. However, if the ride you want isn’t available, you will have to continuously refresh your screen and hope it becomes available.

Similarly, if you have snagged a Multi Pass, but you want to ride at a specific time slot not currently available, you will have to keep refreshing again until you can modify the time slot. Why would you want to do this? 1) If you know you’re going to be in a particular area of the park at a given time, you want to ride that ride while you are there. 2) You want an earlier time slot so you can access new Multi Passes.

Animal Kingdom deep dive

Animal Kingdom Multi Pass experiences

NO TIERS. Animal Kingdom is the only park where all the Multi Pass experiences are the same tier.

Rides:

• Avatar’s Navi River Journey (most popular)
• Expedition Everest (also very popular)
• Kali River Rapids (very popular, unless weather is poor as you get wet)
• Kilimanjaro Safari (frequent long lines)
• DINOSAUR (this ride will eventually be phased out as Animal Kingdom’s Dinoland is replaced by a South Americas land)

Shows (all shows have low wait times and excellent Lightning Lane availability):

• Festival of the Lion King (occasionally has lines of the previous show is full)
• Feathered Friends in Flight (rarely has lines, and a kid favourite!)
• It’s Tough to be a Bug (eventually to be replaced with a 3D Zootopia show, which will bump up the popularity)
• Finding Nemo: The Big Blue and Beyond (rarely has lines)

Is Lightning Lane Multi Pass worth it for Animal Kingdom?

We feel it is! First of all, Animal Kingdom is the cheapest Multi Pass. Secondly, because there are no tiers, and not too many rides, it is a very easy place to use Multi Pass. You won’t have to “babysit” your app all day long as you try to get the next available ride.

Finally, it’s worth saving time at Animal Kingdom. Animal Kingdom has a number of fascinating animal exhibits and exotic trails, and great shows as well! You want to take you time with these, instead of spending your day waiting in line. We saved over 2 hours with the Multi Pass, and it was totally worth it!

General strategy for Animal Kingdom Multi Pass

• You definitely want to have Navi River Journey as one of your pre-selections (ideally late at night so you can visit Pandora after dark. [We recommend purchasing the Single Pass Flight of Passage for around the same time if you can.]
• Also pre-select Expedition Everest and/or Kali River Rapids – ideally earlier in the morning.
• Pick another experience close to the entrance as early in the morning as possible: as of 2025, DINOSAUR was a good choice, but you can choose It’s Tough to Be a Bug as well – once you finish this ride, you can move down your list of other rides.
• We recommend Kilimanjaro Safari later in the afternoon, to avoid the morning rush.
• You do NOT really need Lightning Lanes for any of the shows, but you do need to time them between your rides.
• *You will almost certainly have to pre-select any of the new rides/shows in Animal Kingdom once they open, as they are guaranteed to be popular in the first 1-2 years.

EPCOT deep dive

EPCOT Multi Pass experiences

Tier 1:

• Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure (the MOST popular)
• Frozen Ever After (also SUPER popular)
• Soarin’ Around the World (decently popular, but unlikely to remain a Tier 1 ride once Test Track is open)
• *Test Track (this ride has been closed, but is very popular)

Tier 2:

• Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival (rarely has lines)
• Journey into Imagination with Figment (short lines, if any)
• Living with the Land (potential for lines but overall short)
• The Sea with Nemo and Friends (expect ~ 30 min lines)
• Turtle Talk with Crush (expect ~ 30 min lines)
• Spaceship Earth (expect ~ 30 min lines)
• Mission: Space (short lines)

Is Lightning Lane Multi Pass worth it for EPCOT?

This is tricky. Of all the parks, we feel Multi Pass is LEAST worth it for EPCOT.

There aren’t that many rides, but all the popular rides are Tier 1 experiences! This means you will only be able to pre-book ONE of the 3 above. Then you have to hope one of the others is still available during the day. Otherwise, you will have to be prepared to wait in line, or take advantage of Early Entry or rope drop. Both Frozen and Remy are also far from the other rides. Depending on the time-slot you snag, you may have to trek back and forth.

However, if you DON’T purchase a Multi Pass, and don’t really want to wait in line for hours (at least 1-2 hours for Frozen and Remy), you need to be prepared to forgo either Remy, Frozen, or both. This may be okay, especially when you have the delicious food and snacks across World Showcase to sooth your soul. 😛

General strategy for EPCOT Multi Pass

• Try to pre-select Remy as your tier 1 ride. This is hands-down the most difficult ride to get the day of.
• Pre-select your other 2 experiences as early in the morning as possible. Spaceship Earth or The Sea with Nemo and Friends are good options. –> This opens up the opportunity to try and get your other tier 1 rides: Frozen Ever After (and Test Track, after it opens again).
• You want to aim to do Frozen when you’re already going to be at the World Showcase (and aim for Test Track when you’re near the front of the park – so may be toward the end of the day)
• Soarin’ should not be your tier 1 selection. While it can see decent lines, you can easily ride this with little lineup early in the morning.

Magic Kingdom deep dive

Magic Kingdom Multi Pass experiences

Tier 1:

• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (super popular because it’s new, also no standby line as of 2025)
• Jungle Cruise (very popular)
• Space Mountain (very popular)
• Peter Pan’s Flight (very popular)
• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (closed for extended refurbishment in 2025)

Tier 2:

• Pirates of the Caribbean (popular)
• The Magic Carpets of Aladdin (expect ~ 30 min lines)
• Haunted Mansion (very popular)
• Under the Sea: Journey of the Little Mermaid (expect ~ 30 min lines)
• It’s a Small World (expect ~ 30 min lines)
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh (popular)
• Mad Tea Party (short lines)
• Mickey’s Philharmonic (rarely has lines)
• The Barnstormer (popular)
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant (expect ~ 30 min lines)
• Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin (very popular)
• Monster Inc Laugh Floor (potential for lines)
• Tomorrowland Speedway (expect ~ 30 min lines)

*New Cars land development coming, projected new rides!

Is Lightning Lane Multi Pass worth it for Magic Kingdom?

Short answer: YES. You have so much to fit in every few minutes you save can help.

Long answer. Magic Kingdom Multi Pass is *chaotic*. It is the most expensive, because there are the most rides, which means you will need to do the most planning. You will be doing a significant amount of Lightning Lane roulette on your phone. Between all of this, you also have to fit in things like the Festival of Fantasy Parade and character meets (because there are a ton here).

We were lucky that we visited on a quiet day. Even though we had the Lightning Lanes, we did not have to use it for a fair number of rides. We had no trouble snagging our next rides in the area we were already in, so we did not have to do too much backtracking.

General strategy for Magic Kingdom Multi Pass (if no Early Entry)

• ** Magic Kingdom is THE most popular park. My number 1 tip here is visit Magic Kingdom as one of your *last* parks. Even if you are staying off-resort, you will still have a good advanced window to snag many of these rides at your desired time-slot.**
• Pre-select Tiana’s Bayou Adventures (Tier 1).
• Consider pre-selecting: Haunted Mansion (especially if you can get this earlier in the morning).
• Pre-select either Jungle Cruise or Pirates of the Caribbean as early as you can. Start your day in Adventureland. (You should be able to knock out many/all of the rides here in Adventureland WITHOUT a Multi Pass, but using one opens you to another Tier 1 ride. Consider Peter Pan’s Flight, if this is important to you (this was NOT on our kids’ radar), or Big Thunder Mountain Run (when it re-opens).
• Your goal is to have 1-2 Multi Pass spots consistently in use throughout the day. You don’t want to be tying up all 3 slots with rides late in the day.
• Try to hit up Fantasyland after Adventureland, as it may still be early enough to ride some of these rides without tying up a Multi Pass (such as Mad Tea Party, It’s a Small World, and Under the Sea).
• Save Tomorrowland for your last stop. Try to get Multi Passes for Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear for the evening.

** If you do have Early Entry, our advice would be to hit up Fantasyland first in the morning. There are the most rides here, and you have the best chance of hitting up many of them without using Multi Pass. Then employ the same Multi Pass strategy as above, but you won’t have to worry as much about the Fantasyland rides.

** Do not go in with the expectation you will ride everything. Even with the Multi Pass, rides may open up that don’t fit into your schedule. Don’t worry if you just can’t snag something. There is enough to fill your day at Magic Kingdom without experiencing everything.

Hollywood Studios deep dive

Hollywood Studios Multi Pass experiences

Tier 1:

• Slinky Dog Dash (the MOST popular – in all of Disney World!)
• Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (very popular)
• Millenium Falcon: Smuggler’s Run (very popular)
• Rock and Roller Coster Starring Aerosmith (very popular, soon to undergo changes to Muppet theme)

Tier 2:

• The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror (very popular)
• Toy Story Mania (very popular)
• Alien Swirling Saucers (popular)
• Star Tours: The Adventure Continues (short lines)
• Muppet Vision 3D (soon to be removed, muppets moved to roller coaster above)
• Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage (rarely a line)
• For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along (rarely a line)
• Disney Junior Play and Dance (rarely a line)
• Indiana Jones Epic Stun Spectacular (rarely a line)

*New Monsters Inc Land in development as of 2025, projected new roller coster!

Is Lightning Lane Multi Pass worth it for Hollywood Studios?

YES. No question about this one. Hollywood Studios has *a lot* of popular rides that garner long wait times, and is also a very busy park, like Magic Kingdom.

General strategy for Hollywood Studios Multi Pass

• ** Like Magic Kingdom, you want to visit this park later in your ticket’s date range. This should be your last or second last park (along with Magic Kingdom). Arguably, THIS should be your last park, because it has some of Disney World’s MOST popular rides.**
• Pre-select Slinky Dog Dash.
• Pre-select Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Try to pre-select Toy Story Mania as your 3rd option, but ONLY if early in the day.
• Similarly to Magic Kingdom, you want to keep at least 1 Multi Pass slot open and in use continuously throughout the day.
• Once you use your first Multi Pass, you should try to get Rock and Roll Rollercoaster, and *fingers crossed* Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Train.

For detailed strategies on how to use Lightning Lanes at every Disney Park, and to see how the Disney My Experience App works for booking Lightning Lanes in real time, we recommend checking out AllEars Lightning Lane Multi Pass guides.

General tips for using Lightning Lanes

Most of these we have already alluded to above, but here our are most valuable Lightning Lanes tips, to help you make the most of your Lightning Lane passes.

1. Save the busiest parks for later in your visit

If you can visit Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios toward the end of your Disney trip, you will be able to snag highly popular Lightning Lanes at more desirable time slots.

For example, a Lightning Lane Single Pass for TRON may already be sold out 3 days before your park visit (when your Lightning Lane window opens). TRON passes may be only be available 5 days in advance, or maybe even 7! However, Avatar’s Flight of Passage in Animal Kingdom is likely to still be available 3 days prior. Therefore, things work out if you visit Animal Kingdom first during your stay, and Magic Kingdom last.

2. Buy the Lightning Lane Single Passes

There isn’t much about Multi Pass that is guaranteed, but Single Passes are! For peace of mind, if you have to splurge on anything, we recommend you splurge on the Single Passes. As we mentioned above, these are really Disney’s best rides, and see the longest wait times. You don’t want to miss out on these on your first Disney World trip.

3. Make sure you are familiar with the rides and attractions

You need to know what everything is in order to know what to pre-select, and what rides appeal most to your and your family. You can read our posts, of course, but the best way to see what you want is to watch a few videos. Our favourite Disney rides and attractions videos are by The Frugal Brit. The channel has the most comprehensive and clear overview of the rides and attractions for each Disney park, and updates them every year.

4. Make sure you have studied a map of your park

The best – and arguably only – way to make effective use of your Lightning Lane passes is to know generally where everything is in the Disney park you are visiting.

This lets you make a game plan for when you want to book each ride (ie. when you are in that particular area of the park!) If you are going to be walking 20 minutes to your ride and then walking back again to where you were, you might as well be waiting in line!

The big exception to this is Magic Kingdom, where a train connects the entrance of the Park to Frontierland and Fantasyland/Tomorrowland. You can take the train from one side of the park to the other. However, you don’t want to be doing this all day – while it minimizes the walking, you are still spending time on the train!

5. Multi Pass: make sure you pre-select the most popular ride (regardless of the time slot)

When your Lightning Lane booking window opens up, you get to see which rides and time-slots are available before you commit to purchasing it. If you need to and have the luxury to, move your park days around so you get the best access to the Lightning Lanes.

If the most popular rides of each park are available, consider yourself lucky and select them, even if they don’t quite fit into your schedule. You still have a chance to modify your time to something more desirable.

6. Multi Pass: be sure to book 1-2 rides as early in the day as you can

The Disney lingo for this is “burner rides”. They may not be the most desirable or popular rides, but using your Lightning Lane Multi Passes early will open up more Multi Passes for either Tier 1 rides, or just more rides in general. If all 3 of your Multi Passes are tied up for late in the day, this is not an effective use of your Lightning Lane.

*Tip: You can continue trying to modify your time-slots (playing the Disney slots) throughout the day to get something that fits best with your schedule.

7. Multi Pass: use the Genie feature on the Disney My Experience App

Not to be confused with the now defunct Genie+, the Genie feature on the app helps you plan your park day.

This feature comes in very handy when booking Lightning Lane passes throughout the day.

Typically, you have to scroll through all the rides at your park when selecting Lightning Lanes. Genie allows you to select your favourite rides. When you select a favourite ride – eg. Space Mountain – Space Mountain will show up at the top of the rides list when booking your next Lightning Lane. You can see immediately if and when it is available without having to scroll.

*You only want to pick 1-2, or max 3 rides on Genie. Otherwise, you are basically scrolling down a curated list anyway!

8. Multi Pass: select a random ride if your preferred ride is not available

This might sound counter-intuitive, but Disney slots is all about timing. When you select a ride during the day, there are several steps before that ride is confirmed, such as checking off who in your party you want to book the ride for. By the time you are ready to confirm, someone else may have already snagged the ride!

If the ride you want is not available, you can either book something else you DO want to ride, or book a completely random ride/show. Once you have booked it, you can then go into that Lightning Lane and modify it. If your desired ride does become available, you can then confirm it immediately (without those extra steps).

More questions about using Lightning Lanes? Drop us a line!