Walt Disney World officially announced Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass, the new line skipping services that can be booked pre-arrival. This post covers shares the launch date & details for the new advance ride reservation options at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Plus, our commentary on winners & losers, comparisons to the formerly free FastPass+ system, and more.
There’s a ton of ground to cover here, so we will very quickly recap what has happened in the last year with advance booking of Lightning Lanes. As you might recall, Walt Disney World first teased pre-planning capabilities coming to the Genie+ service and Lightning Lanes with the announcement of 2024 vacation packages.
That was on May 8 of last year and also included the return of the Disney Dining Plan and removal of park reservations for most guests. Subsequent to that, Disney announced a return of all-day Park Hopping. All of those aforementioned changes took effect earlier this year–except Lightning Lane pre-booking. Yet crickets on pre-arrival Lightning Lanes…until now.
Unsurprisingly, many Walt Disney World fans have been confused and assumed that advance-booking of Lightning Lanes was also debuting in early 2024. After all, the original announcements occurred simultaneously and there was ambiguity about when the pre-arrival ride reservations would roll out.
Since pre-arrival Lightning Lanes have yet to arrive–and there haven’t even been any official updates since, we’ve started getting a lot of questions. Speaking of which, here’s a quick rundown of all the changes Walt Disney World has made in service of improving the guest experience since the start of last year:
Up until today’s bombshell news, Walt Disney World had only made the one announcement about pre-arrival ride reservations: “We have heard from guests that they would like ways to plan with Disney Genie+ service and individual Lightning Lane selections before the day of their park visit, and we want you to know we are working on ways guests may do this for visits in 2024. Our goal is to give you the opportunity to spend less time planning in the park and more time enjoying your visit with friends and family. While we are not yet able to share specific details, we look forward to sharing more information at a later date.”
Six months later, we finally have answers. Let’s start with details via the official announcement about Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass from Walt Disney World…
Walt Disney World indicated that they enjoy hearing from guests about all the things they love, as well as how the company can make their experience even better the next time. And Walt Disney World guests have told the company that they would prefer to have the option to do more of their planning before their theme park day.
With that in mind, Walt Disney World is making changes to the Genie+ service and Individual Lightning Lane entry, including new ways to plan ahead.
Walt Disney World will introduce new, simpler names to provide more clarity for everyone. Disney Genie+ service will become Lightning Lane Multi Pass, while Individual Lightning Lane will be known as Lightning Lane Single Pass starting July 24, 2024.
Lightning Lane selections will also be updated to help guests:
- Make Lightning Lane plans before you arrive at Walt Disney World, for added confidence.
- Choose your experiences and return times prior to purchasing, so you know what you’re getting.
- Book Lightning Lane attraction selections for multiple vacation days, all in a single day.
Here’s How Lightning Lanes Work Starting July 24, 2024
Lightning Lane Multi Pass – When you purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass, you may make up to 3 Lightning Lane selections in a theme park, in advance of your visit. You’ll also be able to choose available times as you make your selections.
On the day of your visit, once you use a selection, check the My Disney Experience app for availability to make an additional selection.
Lightning Lane Single Pass - Lightning Lane Single Pass will work much like it does today, where you can secure a time to ride one of our most highly demanded attractions, but you’ll now be able to make your purchase and plan in advance.
How to Plan Ahead with Lightning Lanes
Guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel will be able to plan Lightning Lane passes up to 7 days in advance, for their entire stay (up to 14 days). All other guests can plan up to 3 days in advance.
These advance purchase windows will let guests secure some of their must-do rides and experiences after they’ve had some time to decide which Advance Dining Reservations they want to book and any other plans they may need to consider at Walt Disney World.
Guests may purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass, a Lightning Lane Single Pass–or both. The My Disney Experience app will also be updated to make it quicker and easier to purchase and plan, with fewer steps and a new option to purchase Lightning Lane Single Pass and Lightning Lane Multi Pass in a single transaction.
Lightning Lane passes will blend features from the current Genie suite of services and the previously offered FastPass+ service, giving guests the choice to plan ahead and removing the hassle of planning during their Walt Disney World vacation.
If you still have questions about the changes, please consult our NEW FAQ to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Walt Disney World.
With that out of the way, here’s how we feel about the new Lightning Lane Multi-Pass…
Our Commentary
Turning to commentary, the switch from same-day Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass should be well-received by many Walt Disney World diehards. One of the biggest changes is that there’s now a significant on-site advantage via Lightning Lane Multi-Pass thanks to the earlier booking window (7+duration of stay, up to 14 days) for on-site guests as compared to 3 days for off-site guests.
This is similar to FastPass+ (albeit with different timelines–that was 60 vs. 30), but a huge departure from the Genie+ service. That leveled the playing field completely, allowing everyone to make same-day ride reservations starting at 7 am. The only advantage came via Individual Lightning Lanes, and that only really mattered when a ride was still brand-new or during the busiest times of the year.
If FastPass+ is any indication, and it almost certainly is, the headstart given to on-site guests will be hugely advantageous. There’s a decent possibility that attractions like Slinky Dog Dash, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and other tier 1 headliners won’t even be available 3 days in advance. Meaning that off-site guests will have to bank on same-day ride reservation refills. (More on this in a bit.)
With bookings slowing down and resort occupancy decreasing, giving on-site guests a headstart is a really savvy move. We’re unabashedly all for increasing on-site perks. Part of this is admittedly out of selfishness, since we almost always stay on-site. But it’s also objective. Walt Disney World should be rewarding the guests who stay on-site; it’s in the company’s own self-interest to reward guests who book vacation packages or stays in Disney-owned or select other on-site hotels. Perhaps most importantly, it’ll be advantageous in 2025 when Epic Universe opens and Universal is presenting compelling reasons to stay on-site there instead.
A bit beyond the scope of this post, but we’ve also pointed out in recent discount posts that there’s no longer much of a financial incentive to stay off-site if you’re doing Walt Disney World on a tighter budget. You’re going to be hard-pressed to find anything off-site that can beat the nightly rates Walt Disney World is offering on the Value Resorts–especially once you account for Early Entry, transportation, and free parking. All of that plus new rooms, being part of the “Disney Bubble,” and the on-site advantages offered via booking windows for ADRs and, going forward, Lightning Lanes.
(If you want to be able to book Lightning Lane Multi-Passes with the on-site advantage, but aren’t sure which resort to book, check out our new Rankings of ALL Resort Hotels at Walt Disney World from Worst to Best. Spoiler: our #1 resort is one that won’t break the bank!)
The other big complaint advance booking of Lightning Lanes addresses is the dreaded 7 a.m. wake-up call. Aside from switching from costing money, this is the most common criticism we heard of Genie+ from Walt Disney World–the stress of having to wake up early to book ride reservations, doing planning on the fly while on vacation.
For the most part, this eliminates that. Guests will still likely want to get up early to make Lightning Lane selections, but the time for doing so will shift forward to while they’re at homes and, presumably, not trying to have a relaxing experience with their families. Instead of failures or technical difficulties setting a negative tone to start the day on vacation, that’ll happen in the comfort of your own home. And that’s a big win.
Of course, this 7 a.m. wake up call is only mostly eliminated. There’s still rope drop or Early Entry, which we recommend doing at 3 of the 4 parks, even to guests using Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. There’s also the issue of virtual queues, which are separate from Lightning Lanes but interconnected. After all, you might not want to buy an Individual Lightning Lane until finding out whether you’ve won the VQ lottery. Or you might feel the need to modify Lightning Lane selections based upon your success or failure with boarding groups.
So even with pre-arrival Lightning Lanes, there could be the “need” to wake up early on Magic Kingdom and EPCOT days. But this is nevertheless a huge step in the right direction. And it’ll be an even bigger one if/when Walt Disney World finally realizes that virtual queues are guest unfriendly and stress-inducing. Once the VQs are dropped, we will flat-out endorse Lightning Lane Multi-Pass purchasers use Magic Kingdom as their sleep-in day!
The second biggest complaint that the switch to Lightning Lane MultiPass addresses is that Genie+ requires guests to spend all day with their faces buried in their phones. By virtue of allowing you to book before your trip, Lightning Lane MultiPass and Single Pass will allow you to not spend time on your phone making 3-4 ride reservations.
Honestly, I think the complaints about screen-time with Genie+ are a bit overblown. Sure, you can spend all day on your phone playing the refresh game, rebooking, and modifying. But none of that is necessary to use the Genie+ system to most of its potential.
The same was true with FastPass+ before and will be true with Lightning Lane MultiPass. It does mean less screen time, but it doesn’t mean no screen time. You’ll still have the “option” of playing the refresh game for subsequent selections trying to time a drop or modifying to improve your return time.
Nevertheless, we’d count this as another improvement. Frankly, I’d rather have a bit of screen time for subsequent selections than returning to the “good ole days” when I was the FastPass runner. I can play the refresh game while comfortably seated on the TTA PeopleMover or while enjoying the songs of Sonny Eclipse in crisp air-conditioning. No need to power walk around in triple-digit feels like temperatures.
As a general matter, the new Lightning Lane Multi-Pass should be a lot easier for longtime Walt Disney World fans to understand since this is basically FastPass+ with a few new wrinkles. In a surprising move, even Walt Disney World acknowledged this in its official announcement. (I can’t even recall the last time they used the word “FastPass” prior to this.)
Obviously, the biggest difference is that this is paid and that was free. Another is that the biggest and best (debatably) rides are excluded from Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, whereas they were included under the free FastPass+ system. Given that, this is arguably a worse product despite being a paid one!
Finally, there are once again tiers under Lightning Lane MultiPass–this time for Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Hollywood Studios. These existed with FastPass+ and are, essentially, necessary to ensure that on-site ‘power users’ don’t scoop up all of the “good” attractions before Lightning Lane reservations open to everyone else. I’m somewhat surprised that Animal Kingdom doesn’t have tiers given the popularity discrepancy between the top and bottom of the Lightning Lane roster…but it also has a lot less demand, so there’s that.
However, there’s one change that–in our view–could be a potential game-changer when comparing FastPass+ and Lightning Lane MultiPass. Whereas FastPass+ required you to use all of your ride reservations before booking more, Lightning Lane Multi-Pass allows you to make more reservations on a rolling basis. Meaning that you can always hold 3 Lightning Lanes via Multi-Pass.
It also allows you to make reservations for subsequent parks as soon as you’ve redeemed the first on your day of visit. While the reintroduction of ride reservation tiers will be a negative for power users, holding 3 simultaneous selections at all times via Lightning Lane Multi-Pass–coupled with pre-arrival bookings–will be a huge advantage for on-site power users.
In practice, this means that you could make pre-arrival reservations for Slinky Dog Dash, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. After tapping into the first of those, you could then book Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. In theory.
This is just one possibility–there are many others. This rolling 3 will open up a whole new can of worms from a strategic perspective, which we’ll get to in the coming weeks and months. For now, I’m more concerned with the “in theory” part of that.
As anyone who has used Genie+ is likely aware, booking Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure as a fourth Lightning Lane is a pretty far-fetched hypothetical for the average guest on an average day. And although the ride wasn’t open back in the halcyon days of FastPass, it would’ve been a tough proposition under that, too. And that was without the simultaneous holding of 3 ride reservations, which is what Lightning Lane Multi-Pass is offering. (In theory.)
While I love Walt Disney World’s move to a rolling 3 selections under Lightning Lane Multi-Pass as a clear way to differentiate it from the free FastPass+ service and offer an improvement (especially given the removal of the top rides), I’m also slightly nervous. I wonder if the capacity will exist for this and, if so, how that’s accomplished.
On possibility is simply that nothing worthwhile will be left same-day for those subsequent selections. That it’ll be all MuppetVision 3D, Feathered Friends in Flight, the Seas with Nemo & Friends, and other “consolation prize” Lightning Lanes.
I’m highly skeptical of this. For one thing, that wasn’t the case even with the FastPass+ service, which had ride reservation refill drops. That was largely done for the sake of lower-knowledge guests who didn’t pre-plan, so they still could conceivably get “good” FastPass selections.
The critical difference between FastPass and Lightning Lane Multi-Pass is that the former was free and the latter is paid. Walt Disney World cannot simply have no worthwhile same-day selections. It’ll kill demand and lead to complaints from first-timers and others who don’t pre-plan. Not only does there need to be day-of Lightning Lane inventory, but it needs to be better than what was offered under FastPass+.
If anything, there should be more ride reservation refills with Lightning Lane Multi-Day than FastPass+ or Genie+ since the stakes are higher. This practical reality is also what opens the door to the new system being very good for power users.
As we’ve said repeatedly, queueing is ultimately a zero-sum game that creates winners and losers in equal parts. Attraction capacity is finite–if someone receives an advantage, that means someone else is disadvantaged. There is no magical system where everyone gets to wait in shorter lines.
This means that the capacity for Lightning Lane Multi-Pass to offer a rolling 3 selections has to come from somewhere. One likelihood that has been discussed here at length in the past is that the recent banning of some third party tour guides and DAS changes were aimed at freeing up Lightning Lane capacity. (We’ve also been expecting Disney to crackdown on unauthorized apps that automate the Lightning Lane selection process–maybe that’ll also finally happen.)
Another possibility is that capacity will come from standby lines. That the ratio of guests pulled from Lightning Lanes to standby lines will be skewed even further in favor of the former. I’m highly skeptical that this will be Walt Disney World’s solution, as it’s at odds with what they’ve otherwise been doing.
From what I’ve heard over the course of the last year or so, Walt Disney World’s aim with its suite of queueing changes is better balance. Policies and systems that feel fairer to the majority of guests and don’t advantage or disadvantage anyone too much. From what we’ve heard, they’ve been trying to thread the needle with all of these changes. It’s an unenviable task and no-win proposition, but that’s the intent.
Other options have less to do with the allocation of capacity and more with supply and demand. A simple one would be lowering the threshold for selling out Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. If it’s easier for the Multi-Pass to sell out, that better preserves capacity.
Of course, if Walt Disney World is going to lower the threshold for selling out, what else would very obviously happen? Price increases! If Disney sets a lower limit on the number of Lightning Lane Multi-Passes that can be sold–and sell outs start occurring more regularly–they’re obviously going to raise prices as an offset. Or rather, to make demand self-regulating to avoid an increased number of sell outs.
In fact, price increases with the launch of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass seems like an inevitability. Walt Disney World might be careful to maintain the same range as before for now (which makes sense given that summer is slower), but I’d still expect a higher average as well as a higher peak by Christmas (maybe even Thanksgiving). There’s no high-demand date between now and October were more expensive dates would stand out, so Walt Disney World could launch with current rates and raise them around the start of the new fiscal year or holiday season.
However, as we’ve also pointed out before, there’s a certain amount of price inelasticity when it comes to paid line-skipping. Most guests who don’t balk at the $35 price point also are unlikely to be dissuaded from buying the service when it’s priced at $45 or $50.
The incremental increase to the cost of a several-thousand dollar vacation in order to “guarantee” a good trip with shorter lines won’t be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for most guests. This isn’t trying to minimize the burden of higher prices–just the consumer psychology that goes into the decision to buy or not buy.
Realistically, I think this means one of two things. Either that Walt Disney World has dramatically freed up Lightning Lane capacity or pricing on the Multi-Pass is going to be much higher by year’s end–enough that enough guests balk at the price. It’s my understanding that Walt Disney World wants higher satisfaction among guests paying for Lightning Lanes and those using standby lines. I don’t see how they achieve both outcomes without some combination of those two scenarios.
Long-term, the solution to all of this is building more attractions. As noted above, queueing is a zero-sum game. No approach to lines changes the underlying capacity. It doesn’t matter if it’s all standby, paper FastPass, FastPass+ vs. Genie vs. Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. The only meaningful way to actually alter the equation is by actually increasing capacity.
That’s done by adding entertainment, attractions, or extending operating hours. Everything else is a matter of rearranging the deck chairs, and having different guests or demographics come out ahead or behind. In this case, the winners will be those willing to buy the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass.
Given all of the above and everything else, it’ll be really interesting to see how Walt Disney World fans react to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. Back when Walt Disney World killed off free FastPass for good and announced Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, we made the not-so-bold prediction that it would be among the most controversial news of all-time, right up there with the demise of Disney’s Magical Express and when they started charging for overnight parking. It was hardly a bold prognostication–but the backlash was even worse than we anticipated.
So I’ll make another not-so-bold prediction: the fan community’s reaction to this news won’t be nearly as negative as the launch of Lightning Lanes, Genie+ and retirement of FastPass. Of course, the circumstances are also very different–instead of going from free to paid, we’re going from one paid system to another.
I’m honestly not sure what the prevailing opinion will be among Walt Disney World fans. I don’t expect any consensus–fans usually unite around lost perks or price increases, but not much else. Reactions will run the gamut and be much more mixed. There will be some still upset about free FastPass being gone (and holding out hope for its return) and others who are excited about a return of pre-booking. Along with a lot of reactions in between.
Our expectation is that a majority of planners are going to be pleased about the return of pre-booking ride reservations. This perspective is probably going to be disproportionately reflected from readers in the comments versus all Walt Disney World guests. As we’ve pointed out many times in the past, Walt Disney World fans reading blogs like this one skew towards being ardent planners. These diehard Walt Disney World fans are not representative of the general park-going public, many of whom don’t know much about Walt Disney World until arrival.
Under the prior FastPass+ system, casual visitors previously did not know you could make ride reservations at all, let alone a month or two in advance. They would first learn about FastPass, ADRs, virtual queues, and so many other things upon arrival at Walt Disney World. Unsurprisingly, this led to frequent complaints among first-time visitors about the FastPass+ system.
All of that was and is true about first-timers and infrequent guests. That’s one of the major reasons why Walt Disney World moved from FastPass to Genie. The other, obviously, was money. But that explanation is hardly a secret to anyone. Fewer fans realize there were a ton of complaints about FastPass+ from casual visitors, because they themselves are not casual visitors and don’t encounter that perspective. Understandably so, as it’s called the fan community–and not the first-timer’s community–for a reason.
With that in mind, I would say the decision to switch from 30 or 60 days in advance under FastPass+ to 3 or 7 days is actually a very positive one for infrequent visitors. I’m sure some planners will grouse about this–they do with the shorter ADR window–but it’s one of those moves that should be good for a majority, balancing the preferences of planners and casual guests.
Even among Walt Disney World vacation planners, we’re not expecting reactions to be universally positive to Lightning Lane MultiPass and Single Pass. That would’ve been the case had these changes rolled out in December 2021 or even early 2022. However, a lot of time has passed since then and frequent visitors have become more familiar with Genie+ and learned how to leverage it.
More importantly and to Walt Disney World’s credit, plenty of positive changes have been made to Genie+ and Lightning Lanes in the last 18 months or so. A big part of this is rolling out features that should’ve been present from launch, which is also part of why Genie+ was so poorly received (and why the ‘brand’ is so irrevocably tainted that Disney is changing its name).
Regardless, complaints from Walt Disney World regulars about Genie+ have decreased in frequency and volume. There’s still the obligatory grousing about it being a cash grab or lamenting the loss of free FastPass. But in terms of problems with the app or making Lightning Lane ride reservations, there’s next to nothing.
Most fans have become familiar with the service and it has far fewer problems than it did at launch. This isn’t to say it’s perfect (nothing is–Lightning Lane Multi-Pass won’t be either!), but it’s no longer fundamentally flawed. As a result of all this, I would say that Genie+ “favorability” among fans has improved pretty considerably.
So much so that I almost wonder if Walt Disney World is late to the game with the rollout of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and basing this decision on stale guest satisfaction stats or complaints from 2022. (Probably not. It seems Walt Disney World is really working to thread the needle here and make this solution workable for both planners and casual guests. While there are still unknowns, almost every aspect of the announcement strikes us as smart.)
Ultimately, I do think the immediate response to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass will be mixed to mostly positive on its own, and certainly more favorable than the initial announcement of the Genie+ service and Individual Lightning Lanes. That was an unprecedented cocktail of emotions worthy of Inside Out 3: anger, frustration, confusion, and more. One of the most bungled rollouts in Walt Disney World history.
It seems like much more thought and time have gone into crafting Lightning Lane MultiPass and Single Day, laying the proper foundations for a smooth rollout, and getting things just right. If I had to use one word to describe the announcement of Genie, it would be “chaos.” The one word I’d use for Lightning Lane MultiPass is “balance.” It may not seem like it, but that’s pretty high praise.
As with Genie+ before it, my expectation is also that opinions on Lightning Lane Multi-Pass will grow more positive over time. Walt Disney World planners are notoriously change-averse and there’s undoubtedly familiarity bias at play with some…but those same fans will become familiar with this system, learn its ins and outs, and how to strategically exploit the system–just as they have with FastPass+ and Genie+ before it. The power users will always find out a way to come out ahead, same as they ever have.
We’re more concerned with how Lightning Lane Multi-Pass works for Walt Disney World first-timers and the impact to guests using standby lines. Our hope is that this does a better job of leveling the playing field, and balancing the often-competing interests and preferences of all guests. That means that diehard Walt Disney World fans who are disproportionately the readers of this blog may not be completely happy with the new Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, but that’s sort of the point. A good compromise leaves everybody mad.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the switch from Genie+ to Lightning Lane MultiPass? Better, worse, or about the same as you expected? Are you pleased with the prospect of advance ride reservations and no more 7 a.m. wake-up calls? Or did you prefer the same-day system? Interested in how Walt Disney World will implement the new system? Agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
