Lightning Lane Multi Pass: How to set it up in the app and the best strategy to make it work for your Walt Disney World trip.
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For video format watch the YouTube video for how it played out as we tested this at Magic Kingdom at https://youtu.be/RSK991T-UgY
Lightning Lane Multi Pass: Purchase in the App
Firstly, you’ll need to download the My Disney Experience App. If you already have it and an account, then when you open the app. you will click the box at the top that says Lightning Lane Multi Pass/ Single Pass.
You’ll next be guided to the calendar and able to book in advance.
If you are a Disney resort guest, you will have the ability to purchase and select Lightning Lane Multi Pass 7 days before the day of your visit.
If you are not staying on Disney property, you are allowed to book 3 days in advance.
How much is Lightning Lane Multi Pass?
After that, you will pick which park you’d like to purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass for
Each park will have a different price point, which varies daily.
PRO TIP: If you are park hopping, purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass for the cheapest park and start there, then park hop to a more expensive one! This can save you anywhere from $4-$10 per person in your party! (See the price difference between Epcot and Hollywood Studios below and Magic Kingdom in the next photo!)
Lightning Lane Single Pass
Additionally, you also have the option to purchase a Lightning Lane Single Pass which will also vary in price. Only a few attractions are included in this section and some of them are only virtual Queue or Lightning Lane Single Pass:
- Magic Kingdom: Seven Dwarves Mine Train – Standby and LL Single Pass
- Magic Kingdom: Tron – Virtual Queue and LL Single Pass
- Animal Kingdom: Flight of Passage – Standby and LL Single Pass
- Hollywood Studios: Rise of the Resistance – Standby and LL Single Pass
- Epcot: Cosmic Rewind – Virtual Queue and LL Single Pass
Once you select your park and Lightning Lane passes, you will add everyone in your party that you’d like included in your Lightning Lane purchases.
Following this, you will select your Lightning Lanes!
Lightning Lane Multi Pass: How Does Lightning Lane Work?
Subsequently. you choose 3 Lightning Lanes for your Lightning Lane Multi Pass. You can only choose 1 from the Tier 1 attractions and two from the Tier 2 attractions. These Lightning Lanes will get you through the quicker line. Here are some examples of the types of rides that are included in each tier.
Alternatively, this will look very different for the other 3 theme parks as they are not as saturated with attractions.
Important to Note: Consider selecting Lightning Lanes in the same area as one another so that you don’t have to run back and forth across the park and better maximize your time.
Once you select your Lightning Lanes and purchase your passes, you will be all set for your day! But before you do all that, read below my best tips and strategy to get the most out of Lightning Lane Multi Pass.
Lightning Lane Multi Pass Strategy
Granted that selecting your Lightning Lanes may seem cut and dry, there is a strategy to make it work to your advantage and get on as many attractions as possible.
First, the way to have the most Lightning Lanes available at their earliest times is to start booking at 7 am EST on the first day of your eligibility.
Guests of Disney Resort hotels and other select hotels can purchase passes up to 7 days in advance of their stay—and other Guests can purchase passes up to 3 days in advance of their park visit.
Selecting Lightning Lanes
You will first select one tier 1 attraction. Choose the most popular (or your most wanted) tier 1 attraction for the earliest time available. If an attraction isn’t available, I recommend going to your 2nd must-do. Plan to rope drop your first must-do attraction that wasn’t available.
Then choose two from your tier 2 attractions. Again, pick attractions with the earliest times available.
When booking your Lightning Lane times, the earlier the better!
How Many Lightning Lane Passes Do You Get?
As soon as you use a Lightning Lane, you can book ANOTHER Lightning Lane! This means you can always hold 3 Lightning Lanes at a time.
You’ll be excited to know that you can hold TWO tier 1 attractions at the same time once in the park. You only can’t book two tier 1 attractions before your day.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION: You can only use Lightning Lane 1x for each attraction! Therefore, if you used a Lightning Lane for Space Mountain you cannot get another Lightning Lane for that attraction. This is where rope dropping comes in handy again so let’s jump into that.
Rope Drop to get the most out of your day!
Rope dropping is when you head into the park BEFORE the park opens. If you are a hotel guest, you get Early Entry that allows you access to some of the attractions 30 min before the park opens.
If you are not a hotel guest, I suggest getting to the park an hour before the official park opening. Once they “drop the ropes”, Cast Members walk guests through the park to the main attractions.
Subsequently, you can get right into line for the attraction with little to no wait. Wait times in the morning typically tend to be low so you can get through 2-3 attractions before wait times start to look 45 min or longer.
This is a great strategy to knock out at least 2 of your must-do attractions. This leaves more room to play with your Lightning Lanes for other attractions or even use them on those rides done earlier to ride twice!
After Rope Drop, How to Best Use Your Lightning Lanes and the My Disney Experience App
Once you get through 2-3 attractions or close to your first Lightning Lane selection time, use your first Lightning Lane. As soon as you scan in, you can book another Lightning Lane in its place.
If you have attractions stacked in the morning and rope-drop, you will likely get through 4-6 attractions before it’s lunchtime!
As you have been using your Lightning Lanes, you should have been booking your next Lightning Lanes and hopefully using the same approach of “stacking” your times.
But let’s say you aren’t finding the times or attractions that you want. Let me teach you about MODIFYING.
Modify Times in the App
The new Lightning Lane Multi Pass allows the ability to look for different times to ride an attraction or to replace it with another attraction and time. This is so helpful!
When testing, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure wasn’t available as a choice in the tier 1 attraction list in my 3-day window, but it did become available during the day in the park! I was able to ride it using Lightning Lane Multi Pass!
The moral of this story is to keep checking and modifying! Attractions become available throughout the day.
You can modify an attraction at any point in the app but I have noticed that the best modifying window is available right after making a Lightning Lane. You will see that the windows look different.
Looking for Low Wait Times/ Going During Shows
If there are attractions that you couldn’t get a Lightning Lane for or a Single Pass that allows standby, then keep an eye on the wait times.
Example
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a Lightning Lane Single Pass attraction. This is where you can pay a separate fee to get a Lightning Lane for this attraction and go through the quicker line.
However, these passes can go very quickly and may not be available for you to purchase.
In this case, if you choose not to rope drop that attraction, I suggest keeping an eye on the wait times to see if the wait time gets lower due to guests prioritizing shows or leaving for other reasons.
Wait times drastically drop during nighttime shows/fireworks. If you stay late, that is a great time to ride with lower wait times. I also find it super fun to be on an outdoor coaster when fireworks are going off.
Stormy Days
Sometimes an attraction shuts down because of a storm or technical difficulties. In this case, it might be beneficial to wait by the attraction for when it does open for a lower wait time. This is like a second chance at rope-dropping an attraction.
Virtual Queues
Lastly, let’s talk quickly about virtual queues.
There are three attractions at Magic Kingdom and Epcot that use a virtual queue.
- Magic Kingdom: Tron – Virtual Queue and LL Single Pass
- Magic Kingdom: Tiana’s Bayou Adventure – Virtual Queue and Lightning Lane Multi Pass
- Epcot: Cosmic Rewind – Virtual Queue and LL Single Pass
What does this mean when you are using Lightning Lane Single Pass or Multi Pass? It means you have the opportunity to ride twice!
If you get Tiana’s Bayou Adventure using your Lightning Lane Multi Pass but then at 7 am you snagged a virtual queue for the same attraction, then you get to use both and ride 2x.
If you are lucky to get an early boarding group and use your virtual queue to ride an attraction before 1 pm then you can try to get the virtual queue for another attraction, let’s say Tron.
How to Get Virtual Queue
Getting a virtual queue can be tricky. My best tip is to be ready in the app with your confirmed party a few minutes before 7 am. As soon as you see it hit 7:00 on your phone, click that refresh button and immediately click again as it will change to a join virtual queue button.
The potential here is amazing as you can choose to purchase the single pass (if available) and ride regardless of getting a virtual queue or not, or get the ability to ride 2x by doing both!
Multiple Experience Pass
Let’s say it’s a stormy day or a storm passes through (because duh, it’s Florida!), and you had a Lightning Lane Multi Pass for the time a ride shuts down due to weather.
At this point, your pass will turn into a Multiple Experience Pass.
This means two things.
- You can go ahead and book another Lightning Lane because it no longer counts as one of your three.
- You can use this pass on any one of the approved attractions listed, even if you have already used a Lightning Lane on that attraction! (The list is linked in the pass and does include some tier 1 attractions)
If you used a Lightning Lane for Thunder Mountain (tier 1 attraction) but you get a Multiple Experience Pass for Barnstormer because it shut down due to weather, then when the weather clears, you could use the pass to ride Thunder Mountain again!
Recap
The fuss about losing Fast Pass was real and I agreed for the longest time. Why take away something that worked and give us something that didn’t (at the time called Genie+) and charge us?
But the truth is, since this change to Lightning Lane Multi Pass, my opinion has changed.
Yes, I still wish it was free because who likes to pay more for anything with this economy especially when you have an entire family you are paying for?
But now I don’t complain as much about paying for this new Lightning Lane Multi Pass because, at least at Magic Kingdom, it works!
My friend Megan (MissWizardingWorld – www.MissWizardingWorld.com) and I were able to ride between the two of us -22 attractions! I only missed 2 to 3 because I had to step away and pump (hello working mom!).
And the fact that now you get to hold 3 Lightning Lanes at a time is a game-changer!
Will Lightning Lane Multi Pass Always Work?
I 100% feel like the Lightning Lane Multi Pass is worth the money.
But I will say that I have only tested this at Magic Kingdom. Other parks have fewer attractions so the success rate will be different.
However, if you still apply my tips above, especially including rope dropping, then I firmly believe you can have a very successful day in the other parks as well.
Also, keep in mind the crowd levels at the time you are going. You may have a harder time finding available Lightning Lanes when we hit the busy Holiday season.
What do you think of the new Lightning Lane Multi Pass? Are you excited to try it?
Let me know if you have any questions that I haven’t answered. If you are curious about how our day went at Magic Kingdom when we tested this, then check out my YouTube video!
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