Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Rides- Ranking & Strategy 2025

Lightning Lane Multi Pass is a skip the line service at Animal Kingdom that allows guests to access the shorter Lightning Lanes for rides at an additional cost. Animal Kingdom Lightning Lanes are available for the most popular rides and experiences with these rides separated into tiers based on popularity.

Guests that purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass can pick from three different advance ride reservations per day for their trip. Animal Kingdom is the one park without tiers but since there are limited rides available, what advance selections you pick are very important to maximizing your time.

Let's get into my best strategy for picking your preselection Lightning Lanes for rides at Animal Kingdom including my ride rankings and best tips.

This article has been checked for accuracy for 2025 and updated with all currently available information.

What is Lightning Lane Multi Pass?

Lightning Lane Multi Pass went into effect at Walt Disney World and Disneyland on July 24. With these changes, the the name of Genie+ has changed to Lightning Lane Multi Pass and the Individual Lightning Lane service has been renamed Lightning Lane Single Pass.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass is the replacement for Genie+ that allows guests to pay for access to the shorter Lightning Lanes for popular rides. You can see the most useful Disney World Lightning Lane tips for making the most of the service.

The main difference between Genie+ and Lightning Lane Multi Pass is that guests can purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass prior to their visit and book up to 3 Lightning Lane selections in advance for each day.

These three Lightning Lane selections are limited to the list provided for each theme park with some ride selections divided into two separate tiers. The most popular rides are put into the first tier with all other rides into the second tier. This means for parks that have these separate tiers, you will only be able to pick one of the most popular ride selections for each park for each day you purchase Lightning Lane.

Once you enter the theme parks and redeem at least one of your advance Lightning Lane selections then you will be able to reserve more. Each time you redeem your Lightning Lane selection you can then book your next one. This means you will likely always have at least one or more Lightning Lane selections to utilize throughout your park day.

There is a bit of strategy that should go into how you're picking your advance Lightning Lane rides for park to ensure you maximize your use of the service and ride the best rides with minimal waits.

As you are planning your Disney World visit, you can also see the list of EPCOT Lightning Lane rides, Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane rides, and Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane rides to learn about the best strategy for preselecting your Lightning Lane experiences at each park.

🌟Click HERE for the full guide to the NEW Lightning Lane Multi Pass!

When Can You Book Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Rides?

When you can book a Lightning Lane reservation will depend on if you are staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel or not! Guests staying on-site get an advantage of booking in advance compared to those staying off-site.

Walt Disney World hotel guests can book their Lightning Lane passes up to seven days in advance for their entire stay of up to 14 days. This benefit is offered to guests at all Disney Resort hotels, Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel, Walt Disney World Swan Hotel, Walt Disney World Swan Reserve, and Shades of Green Resort.

All other guests can book their Lightning Lane passes up to three days in advance. This is for guests with date-based theme park tickets, other ticket types, and annual passholders.

All guests can purchase Lightning Lane passes for days they have valid theme park admission starting at 7:00 AM Eastern Time on their first day of eligibility.

Pick Your Park Days Strategically for Lightning Lanes

If you are staying at a Walt Disney World resort hotel, you get the biggest advantage of being able to book up to 14 days in advance of your check in date.

Similar to the way dining reservations work, the more availability for rides will be at the furthest day out from your arrival day.

So if you plan on spending seven days at Walt Disney World, your seventh day in the parks will have the most ride availability as the furthest day out. Animal Kingdom is one of the easiest parks to navigate so I don't recommend saving Animal Kingdom for that last park day, consider using that advantage for Hollywood Studios or Magic Kingdom instead.

💰Read more about the cost of Lightning Lane Multi Pass to plan which days you use it at Walt Disney World!

Animal Kingdom Ride Lightning Lanes 

After you purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass, you’ll be prompted to choose up to 3 multi pass experiences and arrival windows.

• DINOSAUR
• Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
• Feathered Friends in Flight!
• Festival of the Lion King
• Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond!
• It’s Tough to Be a Bug!
• Kali River Rapids
• Kilimanjaro Safaris
• Naʻvi River Journey

Once you redeem a selection on the day of your park visit, you can choose another available multi pass experience from either group.

Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Rides Strategy

For the best Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane rides strategy, you should consider in advance what rides you want to preselect before you arrive at the theme parks.

Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Rides Ranking

Animal Kingdom is the only park at Walt Disney World that doesn't have different tiers for their attractions, everyone picks just three from the list below. I am going to rank them in order of most popular to least to help you plan your day.

1. Naʻvi River Journey
2. Kilimanjaro Safaris
3. Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
4. DINOSAUR
5. Festival of the Lion King
6. Kali River Rapids
7. Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond!
8. It’s Tough to Be a Bug!
9. Feathered Friends in Flight!

On this list the most popular is easily the top two: Naʻvi River Journey and Kilimanjaro Safaris. I would prioritize these above all us. As for the third most popular, thrill seekers would enjoy Expedition Everest while riders looking for a tamer experience would enjoy DINOSAUR.

Everything else on this list is easier to access during your day in the parks. Animal Kingdom is one of the easiest parks to navigate since there are fewer in demand rides here than other parks.

What Time to Pick Your Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Rides?

When booking your three advance Lightning Lane ride selections for Animal Kingdom you should at least book one for in the morning and then stagger the other two for the afternoon.

This way you can follow an effective rope drop strategy in the morning when lines are more reasonable and utilize most of your Lightning Lane passes in the afternoon and evening when wait times begin to climb.

Book at least one of your Lightning Lane passes for the morning so you can be free to begin booking more as soon as possible. Remember you get to begin booking other Lightning Lane reservations as soon as you redeem at least one of your existing ones! So don't book all your Lightning Lane passes for too late in the day, at least book one early.

Many guests like to rope drop Animal Kingdom and then park hop to another Walt Disney World park since it often closes earlier than other parks. If that is your plan then you should plan on booking your advance Lightning Lane selections for as early in the day as possible.

Lightning Lane Single Pass Animal Kingdom

There are two different types of Lightning Lanes. The Lightning Lanes that are included with a Lightning Lanes Multi Pass purchase and the ones that are purchased separately called Lightning Lanes Single Pass. Lightning Lanes Single Pass is separate from the Lightning Lanes that are included with your Walt Disney World Multi Pass purchase.

Lightning Lane Single Pass is available for one attraction: Pandora Flight of Passage. We have had success accessing this ride by either rope dropping or staying until park close. But this is one ride where waits stay consistent if you are not amongst the first to ride in the morning so many guests prefer to purchase Lightning Lane Single Pass for this experience.

You can reserve up to two Lightning Lane Single Passes per day but you cannot repeat the same attraction in one day.

This Lightning Lane passes for Animal Kingdom are also able to be booked in advance along with your Multi Pass bookings. I recommend booking it in advance if you are interested as there is no guarantee how many will be available the day of.

Overall, knowing the most popular Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane rides can help you maximize your use of this skip the line service. We will keep this strategy and ranking updated as park trends change.

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