Disney World’s pay-to-skip-the-line service just changed over the summer, and now a new service will soon be available for select visitors.
Lightning Lane
Genie+ is no longer, and the service was replaced with Lightning Lane Multi Pass. The new service is similar to Disney World’s old service, FastPass+. It unlike FastPass+, costs money though.With Multi Pass, you can now make your Lightning Lane selections in advance, and rides are split into a tier system. This change also makes it easier to start to budget for your vacation as prices are posted beforehand instead of the day of. With this change, Individual Lightning Lane transitioned into Lightning Lane Single Pass. Single Pass still works the same way as before, but just like Multi Pass, you can purchase and make your selections in advance. Well, now, a third Lightning Lane option will soon be introduced, and we have some not-so-great news about it.
Disney announced that Lightning Lane Premier Pass will start its pilot on October 30th. This new Lightning Lane option allows you to pay one fee for all Lightning Lanes included in one park, including Single Pass Lightning Lanes. You do not have to select a reservation time to get in line, allowing you to show up for a ride whenever it fits best into your schedule and giving you more flexibility! While this all sounds great, there are a lot of downsides to this new system.
©Disney
Everything You Need to Know about Lightning Lane Premier Pass in Disney World
It’s Mega Exclusive
First, Premier Pass can only be purchased by guests staying at a Deluxe Resort or Villa as well as other select hotels. So, this new perk will not be available to the general public or Value and Moderate Resort guests, at least during the pilot phase.
Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
It’s EXPENSIVE
While Deluxe Resort guests will have the option to add this perk to their vacation, it comes with a hefty price. The price for the Lightning Lane Premier Pass will range from $129 to $449. The park breakdown is as follows:
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- Magic Kingdom: $329-$449 plus tax
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $129-$199 plus tax
- EPCOT: $169-$249 plus tax
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $269-$349 plus tax
Prices will be highest during peak seasons like the upcoming holiday season.
Expect Premier Pass prices to be higher near the holiday season
So, in addition to paying for the most expensive hotels at Disney World, you will have to spend extra money per person to use Premier Pass. This means that vacation budgets will need to be expanded to factor in this new cost.
Magic Kingdom
Limited Passes Available
The Premier Pass will also only be available in limited quantities. This is just a testing phase and Disney wants to see how the system will work with the current Multi Pass and Single Pass and also most likely to take in guest feedback.
Lightning Lane
Since availability is limited, just because you book a stay at a Deluxe Resort does not guarantee that you can purchase Premier Pass. Just like Lightning Lane Multi and Single Pass, Disney World Deluxe Resort guests will be able to try and buy Premier Pass seven days before their arrival date.
Lightning Lane
Disney has not said the exact number of Premier Passes that will be available each day, but it is a good idea to have a backup plan in mind if you are not able to snag Premier Pass when your booking window opens.
Space Mountain Lightning Lane
Can Only Ride Each Attraction ONCE
While Premier Pass allows you access to any Lightning Lane attraction within your selected park, it is not an unlimited pass. You will only be able to ride each ride once. If you wish to ride the attraction again, you must do so by waiting in the standby line.
FULL LIST of Rides Included in NEW Lightning Lane Premier Pass at Disney World
Lightning Lane
No Park Hopping
Unlike Lightning Lane Multi Pass, you will not be able to use Premier Pass while park hopping. If you buy Premier Pass for Magic Kingdom, you can only use it within Magic Kingdom on your selected day. This is also different from Disneyland’s upcoming testing of the Premier Pass, which will include both Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure.
Lightning Lane at Haunted Mansion
If you want to have access to attractions in a similar way to Premier Pass but want to be able to park hop and ride attractions over and over again, a better option for you and your party may be a VIP Tour. While they are pricey, it may be a better bargain depending on your party size and what attractions you wish to experience.
Everything You NEED to Know About VIP Tours in Disney World
VIP Tours
We will have to wait and see how this new system plays out when it starts officially at Disney World on October 30th. Make sure to continue to follow along with Disney Food Blog to stay up to date on all the latest Disney news.
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If I lost my mind and went along with this, I would change from deluxe to moderate if the premier one was not available for me to purchase.
Multiple online reviews state VIP guests CANNOT ride attractions more than once. Although, a few older reviews say they were able to ride attractions two or three times. Not sure if policies have changed or if it varies depending on the guide. And VIP tours allow access ONLY to Lightning Lane attractions which is just downright lame considering the price point.
There must be a “secret” VIP tour option for celebrities because there’s no way Tom Cruise, for example, is going to wait in the Lightning Lane lines with his family and get blocked from any attraction without a Lightning Lane.
No way!! Way to expensive!!!This is just another example of Disney placing a price tag on everything beyond the park passes and hotel. Middle class families can’t afford to take this vacation. This perk is only for the wealthy.
How is this a perk! We are already paying exorbitant prices for the park pass .
These options just make the non lightning lane queues longer. So for guests who cannot afford even more of a payout it is not only unfair , not equitable but it means they will not be able to experience as many rides per day because they will
Instead be queueing for 2 hours per ride
What I don’t understand is, to steal a comment from another poster on another article about this, is not only is this for the more-money-than-sense crowd, it would have to also be for the more-money-than-time crowd. For these prices, you could get 1 to 4 additional regular ticket days in the parks, on top of the original ticket price for the one day you’re buying the premier pass for. With at least 2 more (3 total) and up to 4 MORE (5 total) days in any park, you should be able to do whatever you’d like at least once, which is all this pass offers. We don’t have more money than time necessarily, but we would opt for more park days rather than buying this pass, especially if we decided to spring for a Deluxe resort. I guess this is geared toward the international visitor, whose time and visit frequencies might be more limited, but I think that this will just anger even those international visitors with the money, because it seems like it might be an alternative to offering them the ability to booking the ‘regular’ LL pass attractions in advance.
I would love to know what Bruce Laval, inventor of FastPass, thinks about this change.
Hi Naturaldisastergirl.
International visitor here. I don’t think it’s aimed at us Brits. We don’t need it. We have much longer holidays than most Americans so it’s easy to do everything without paying extra. We had 18 nights there last month. If one park is busy with long lines we just park hop to a quieter park and then try again at the first park on another day. I can’t speak for visitors from other countries of course.
Otherwise, I agree with you.
This is a no for me!
Wow. Disney really starting to lose it in my view. This is another example of just trying to price groups of people out of attending and being able to get around the parks properly. I already think it’s hard to get around without LL.
I have visited for the last three summers for three weeks at a time (from the UK). I’ve always bought the LL Multi (or formerly the Genie + which was better for me given I cannot use the advance booking window so lose that benefit – thanks again Disney). I would not consider buying this new pass even for a second. The prices are utterly bonkers. This is crazy expensive even vs the Universal ultimate pass where you can ride as many times as you like.
I’m not sure what the end game is here to be honest. Another in a line of missteps as the company seems to be struggling to figure out what it wants to be and who they actually want in the parks.
Congratulations Disney, this may be the tipping point where massive numbers of people decide that going to DIsney is just not worth the cost. For me I reached that point, and I make over 150,000/ year. I cannot imagine how someone who makes under 100K a year can afford to pay the prices only to stand in line for hours to ride all the rides that usually are less than a 20 minute wait. Because the few new or fun rides take over 1.5+ hours to ride just one ride. Simply not worth the cost of admission, let alone the multi-pass and certainly not premier. In essence you are paying (in one form or another) $50.00 per person per ride in each park, on top of the cost to get into the park
For me I will be taking my vacation dollars and go anywhere else. I am forever done with Disney.