New Lightning Lane System Launches Today at Walt Disney World: What You Need to Know

Jul 24, 2024 in "Disney Genie"

Posted: Wednesday July 24, 2024 6:45am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Starting today, Walt Disney World's updated Lightning Lane system is officially live, bringing significant changes to the way guests can plan and experience high-demand attractions.


Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass

The rebranded services, Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass replace the old Genie+ and individual Lightning Lane services. This new system integrates elements from the former FastPass+ service, offering more flexibility and advance planning options.

Key Features of the New Lightning Lane Passes

Advance Planning: Resort guests can now make their Lightning Lane selections up to 7 days in advance, while non-resort guests can plan 3 days ahead. This change allows guests to secure their preferred experiences without the stress of last-minute decisions.

Multiple-Day Booking: Guests have the convenience of booking Lightning Lane passes for multiple days in one go, making vacation planning more streamlined.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass

With the Lightning Lane Multi Pass, guests can make up to three selections per day in advance from groups of attractions. These selections can be scheduled at specific times, adding a layer of predictability to the park visit. On the day of the visit, once a pass is used, guests can check the My Disney Experience app for additional availability.

Attractions by Tier

Lightning Lane Multi Pass will have 2 tiers of attractions at Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and EPCOT. There are no tiers at Disney's Animal Kingdom. You can choose one selection from the first tier, and two selections from the second tier.

Magic Kingdom:

  • Tier 1: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan's Flight, Space Mountain, Tiana's Bayou Adventure
  • Tier 2: Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin, Haunted Mansion, Pirates of the Caribbean, "it's a small world", Dumbo the Flying Elephant, Mad Tea Party, Mickey's Philharmagic, Monster's Inc. Laugh Floor Comedy Club, The Barnstormer, Magic Carpets of Aladdin, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Tomorrowland Speedway, Journey of the Little Mermaid

EPCOT:

  • Tier 1: Remy's Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After, Soarin' Around the World
  • Tier 2: Journey Into Imagination with Figment, Living with the Land, Mission: SPACE, Spaceship Earth, The Seas with Nemo & Friends, Turtle Talk with Crush, Disney-Pixar Short Film Festival

Hollywood Studios:

  • Tier 1: Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Rock' n' Roller Coaster, Slinky Dog Dash
  • Tier 2: The Twilight Zone: Tower of Terror, Toy Story Mania!, Alien Swirling Saucers, Star Tours: The Adventure Continues, Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage, Disney Junior Play and Dance!, Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, Muppet*Vision 3D

Disney's Animal Kingdom

At Disney's Animal Kingdom, all attractions are available under a single tier.

Lightning Lane Single Pass

Like the former Individual Attraction Purchase, this pass continues to offer access to the most sought-after rides, with the added benefit of advance booking. Attractions include TRON Lightcycle Run and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at Magic Kingdom, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance at Hollywood Studios, AVATAR Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT.

Planning Ahead

Disney Resort hotel guests and select hotel guests can plan Lightning Lane passes for their entire stay, up to 14 days, starting 7 days in advance. Other guests can plan up to 3 days in advance.

The My Disney Experience app has also been updated to facilitate quicker and easier planning, including a new option to purchase both Lightning Lane Single Pass and Lightning Lane Multi Pass in a single transaction.

Using Lightning Lane Passes

To use the Lightning Lane Multi Pass, guests can choose up to three attractions in advance for a particular park. Once they enter the park and use their pre-booked passes, they can check for additional availability on the app. This feature adds flexibility, allowing spontaneous plans based on real-time attraction availability.

For the Lightning Lane Single Pass, guests can book a time for high-demand attractions well before their visit, ensuring they don't miss out on must-see experiences. This advance booking option helps in better planning and managing park time.

The complimentary features of the Disney Genie service continue to be available in the My Disney Experience app. This includes personalized itineraries and real-time tips to optimize park visits.

For more details on how to make the most of the new Lightning Lane system, be sure to check out the latest Disney Genie news and our Lightning Lane Pass Guide and FAQ.

Discuss on the Forums

Get Walt Disney World News Delivered to Your Inbox

    View all comments →

    peter114352 days ago

    There are automated ways to record exactly how long guests waited for attractions. This can’t be used to post estimated wait times but is used to verify their accuracy.

    Purduevian2 days ago

    AI seems like overkill to actually make the wait time 1) number of people that have entered the line 2) number of people that have left the line 3) average throughput of the line over the past X minutes 4) add in whatever fluff calculations to artificially inflate based on time of day 5) add hysteresis so the number isn't constantly jumping However, I could see face tracking/ person recognition cameras being trained with AI to make the actual counts for 1,2, and 3

    Disstevefan12 days ago

    Well it could be old and no longer used and they just didn't remove it, or only used when the automation is down. When will they use AI to calculate wait times?

    lentesta2 days ago

    I think it's reasonable to do this. My meds haven't kicked in yet this morning, so I'm wondering if this guide means there's not an automated way to estimate waits yet.

    Disstevefan12 days ago

    If they made accurate measurements to populate the numbers in the chart, besides when there are breakdowns, this seems to be a reasonable way to estimate wait times to me. When we as guests consider getting into standby what’s the first thing we do? Look at the queue.

    lentesta2 days ago

    That's my understanding.

    Purduevian2 days ago

    Can you explain the top matrix? I'm assume there are markers in the line that cast members use to see how long the wait is from a certain point and based on LL usage? For instance if standby reaches point 4 on a light LL usage day then the wait is approximately 15 mins However if standby reaches point 6 on a heavy day the wait is approximately 35 mins?

    lentesta2 days ago

    1) Take a look at the doc below, from IASW. The lower left seems to indicate the percent of ride capacity allocated to LL under different crowd levels. 2) AFAIK no - just the return ratios. 3) I definitely think this gave them room to do that.

    RSoxNo13 days ago

    Was there any confirmation about the actual distribution percentages of Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Premier Pass? Were those numbers dropped? Is this an effect of the reduced DAS usage?

    MisterPenguin3 days ago

    You wouldn't see Disney saying "80% of LLs were DAS users and a majority of them didn't need it or were just scamming the system. And now that we changed how DAS was distributed, we have a lot more room for LLs to sell while at the same time, tinkering with how much people can pay to skip the line." But, from our sources... that seems to be the case.

    Chi843 days ago

    How much would the change in DAS affect it though? It’s likely most of the former DAS people are now paying to access the LLs. I believe the issue was that on some of the more popular rides, 3 out of 4 people in the LLs weren’t paying for them. It wasn’t necessarily too many people, but Disney didn’t have control over who was accessing them and when.

    MickeyLuv'r3 days ago

    I didn't see anything in the information that mentioned the change in DAS, and how that factored into the old FP/LL and newest LL ratios. We were previously told that DAS was a big % of LL usage, so if DAS usage went down, that would be part of any change between LL usage then and LL now.

    JMcMahonEsq3 days ago

    I think regular folks use social media, i just don't think the type of lightening rumors that people here are exposed to, because they are following 10+ Disney related pages or bloggers, is going to get out there to your average guest. Just from quick looks at the "official" WDW Instagram and x pages they don't seem to do those types of posts (admittedly this as a quick scan only.) You might get some travel agents who would give you a generic "they could sell out" but in general, and i think this is a problem way beyond just WDW, people have a tendency to over estimate how wide spread niche information is disseminated, because our news/information/web based content now is so curated/user interest generated. People who like WDW are in these types of forums, follow bloggers who talk about WDW, follow their twitter feeds ect. We get bombarded with multiple sources from multiple parties and think that the information is widespread, since we are seeing it coming from every source we follow. But to the general public, its just not out there. Its the reason people on boards like this complain about WDW specials on ABC that talk about "new" rides or upcoming additions to parks, and say, come on we have been hearing about this for months. Sure the niche market has, but its really not until you start getting true mainstream advertising/announcements, that the majority of the market gets the news.

    Disstevefan13 days ago

    Fair point. The regular folks working through travel agents, I presume the agent will tell them. Regular folks use social media too, if/when LL are selling out, the word will get out quick especially if regular folks have a bad experience at the parks because LL are sold out. After thinking about it, I think Disney would not purposely lower the inventory to force demand, I think they just want to sell as many LLs as they can right now.