Walt Disney World Lightning Lane Prices Go Up Again with Second Hike in October

Sep 30, 2024 in "Disney Genie"

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Posted: Monday September 30, 2024 7:10am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Just days after the last price adjustment, Walt Disney World has announced another increase in pricing for Lightning Lane Single attractions, effective October 21, 2024.

The following attractions will see their highest prices yet:

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: $14 (currently $11, $12 on October 18)
TRON Lightcycle / Run: $22 (currently $20, $21 on October 18)
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind: $19 (currently $16, $17 on October 18)
Avatar Flight of Passage: $18 (currently $14, $17 on October 18))

This second wave of price hikes in October comes amid continued high demand for these popular attractions, especially during peak times. The new prices reflect Walt Disney World's continued use of dynamic pricing, where Lightning Lane costs fluctuate based on expected crowd levels, holidays, and other high-demand periods.

Cosmic Rewind Lightning Lane will reach a nice high price of $19 on October 21, 2024

In new pricing made available over the weekend, October 18 will see the first round of price rises. On that date, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train rose to $13 (from $12), TRON Lightcycle / Run increased to $21 (from $20), and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind went up to $18 (from $17).

Notably, Disney appears to be more willing to adjust pricing on the new Lightning Lane Single service than it did on its predecessor. TRON Lightcycle Run remained at a fixed price of $20 for its entire period on the original Lightning Lane service.

Star Wars Rise of the Resistance has not seen any price increase, which remains at $25.

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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.

RSoxNo12 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.