BREAKING! Disneyland and Disney World Introducing Line Skipping All-Access Service Priced Up to $449 Per Day

Disneyland and Walt Disney World are introducing a new offering to allow guests to pay more to have the ability to skip lines throughout the day without making a return time reservation in advance.

Over the past six years, the line-skipping options at the Disney theme parks have evolved dramatically from the previously free paper FastPass (Disneyland) and digital FastPass+ (Disney World) reservation systems. This news is just the next step in Disney's attempt to offer a full suite of ride-skipping options at all tiers of price points.

Today we have all the information on the new service offering at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland, plus comparisons of similar services offered at competing theme parks like Universal.

How does Disney's new Premier Pass line skipping pass work?

The new Lightning Lane Premier Pass allows guests at the theme parks that they are visiting to ride the attractions that they want when they want to. The below overview information and pricing was shared with us directly by a Disney representative.

The new offering will include all of the rides currently offered by the Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass experiences on both coasts. The new offering will also include video and photo downloads similar to the offerings included at Disneyland currently with the Lightning Lane Multi Pass.

The new pass will utilize the same lines currently used for Multi Pass and Single Pass, VIP Tours, and DAS disability pass return times. There will be a very limited quantity of these passes available for each theme park day and they will be sold in advance as noted below. Disney has already noted that this is a pilot program that will be adjusted based on how guests utilize the program.

Some other rival theme parks offer the skip the line pass for their guests as the only option to access the shorter queue. Disneyland and Walt Disney World will continue to maintain the Lightning Lane offerings to give guests a menu of options to pick from. Further in the article we dive into some of the competitor offerings from across the industry to see how Disney's new offering stacks up.

This news comes one week after Disneyland increased ticket prices and two weeks after a substantial spring child discount was released. All of these changes continue to emphasize that Disney wants to serve all guests at their various economic levels. For those looking for the cheapest trip possible, there are highly discounted rates and seasonal deals. For those looking for flexibility willing to pay for the absolute best experience, there are offerings like VIP tours and this new service announced today.

Though the pass will be offered at both resorts, the offering will be different at Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Let's dive into those separate sections.

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Walt Disney World Premier Pass

Walt Disney World will begin piloting Lightning Lane Premier Pass on October 30, 2024. At launch, the pass will only be available to guests staying at Disney Deluxe Resorts or Deluxe Villa Resorts. Guests may purchase the offering up to seven days in advance of their stay. October 30, 2024 is the first day for both purchases and use.

At Walt Disney World, Lightning Lane Premier Pass gives guests one-time entry to each available Lightning Lane entrance in one theme park for one day.

Prices for Lightning Lane Premier Passes vary by date and theme park. At launch, prices will range from $129 to $449 (per pass, plus tax), with the highest prices falling on a limited number of days over peak travel periods.

The individual prices will vary by theme park:

• Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $129 to $199 per person, plus tax
• EPCOT: $169 to $249 per person, plus tax
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $269 to $349 per person, plus tax
• Magic Kingdom: $329 to $449 per person, plus tax

There is no park hopper option available at Walt Disney World. Premier Pass is only offered on an individual park basis.

Not all of the parks at Walt Disney World will necessarily warrant the use of the Premier Pass. The two parks where guests would benefit the most from using the pass are Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios as these parks have both more popular attractions and a higher number of attractions than Animal Kingdom and EPCOT. This is our same recommendation for those purchasing Lightning Lane Multi Pass and may be one reason we are seeing such a big expansion coming to Animal Kingdom.

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Disneyland Premier Pass

Disneyland Resort will begin piloting the Lightning Lane Premier Pass on October 23, 2024. Guests may purchase the offering up to 2 days in advance, though the pass will not be available ahead of launch day so guests visiting on October 23, 2024, will purchase that day and guests visiting October 24, 2024 can purchase one day before.

Unlike Walt Disney World, the people purchasing the pass will not be limited. It is available to all guests with a valid theme park ticket or Magic Key Pass and reservation on a first-come, first-served basis.

At Disneyland, the pass will be a park hopper offering that will range in price from $300-$400 per person based on varying dates and demand. Through the end of 2024, the pass will cost $400 on all dates as the launch coincides with the Halloween and holiday seasons which are some of the most in-demand times of year at the resort, though we just reported surprisingly lower crowds for October at Disneyland.

The pass gives guests the ability to skip the line for 24 of 53 total attractions at the Disneyland Resort.

There is no single-park option for the service at Disneyland. Though you could purchase the service to use with a one park per day ticket, you would be limited to accessing only the attractions in the park you purchased the ticket for.

Competing Theme Parks Offer Skip-The-Line Offerings

Similar offerings have been available at competing theme parks for decades. We have commented many times, especially in recent years, how much we appreciate the Universal studios Hollywood Express Pass and Universal Orlando Express Pass because the passes don't require you to use your phone to book return times. It's a great relief from days at Disneyland where our top tips for getting the best Lightning Lane rides involve being on your phone more.

If you look at Disney's skip the line offerings, they are actually in the minority of being one of the few theme parks to not offer a service like this until now. All broadly available previous skip-the-line systems required guests to book return times for rides. The new Premier Pass for both Disneyland and Walt Disney World will work just like Universal's Express Pass. Guests will enter the Lightning Lane without needing to book a return time.

Below is the chart looking at the similar line-skipping offerings at other theme parks. There are some specific nuances to these other programs that make them more limited than Disney's new program. We dive into the specifics of these other offerings and how they compare in our report on how Disney’s New Line-Skipping Service Compares to Other Theme Parks Similar Offerings.

Park	Line Skipping Pass Price Range
Universal Studios Hollywood (Universal Express, includes 1 day general admission)	$199-$319
Universal Orlando (Universal Express)	$90-$290
Universal Orlando (Universal Express Unlimited)	$120-$320
Knott's Berry Farm (Fast Lane)	$74-$129
Six Flags Magic Mountain (Flash Pass Ultimate)	$170-$275
SeaWorld Orlando(Reserved Seating + Quick Queue Unlimited PLUS)	$39.99-$159.99
SeaWorld San Diego (Quick Queue Unlimited + Reserved Seating PLUS)	$39.99-$69.99
Legoland Florida (FasTrack Unlimited)	$69.99 - $124.99
Legoland San Diego (Reserve and Ride Ultimate)	$100-$135

If we look at pricing between other theme park skip the line offerings, the Disneyland Premier Pass is the most expensive with the closest comparable pricing being the Unlimited Express Pass option in Universal Orlando. The unlimited Express Pass option allows guests to repeatedly access the Express Lane for rides with the Premier Pass limiting you to one use per ride.

While it is still notably more expensive at Disneyland, it is still fairly close to this higher price point at Universal. Universal Express Pass is a service that many guests utilize often and love, aside from the price, there are rarely complaints about due to just how simple it is to use. Disney offering this Premier Pass logically makes sense when we see this is common for other theme parks. There is of course also a Disney premium on top of what Universal is charging. It's not even a fair comparison to look at how many more attractions you can enjoy at Disneyland vs Universal Studios Hollywood for the price.

How Will This New Pass Impact Disney Theme Park Experience?

When Walt Disney World and Disneyland reopened after the pandemic, the theme parks didn't offer any version of a line-skipping service. Amazingly there was very few complaints about the lines. This is due in large part to the attendance cap at the theme parks, but also because the lines that did exist moved so quickly because there was no second line cutting into the main line. Today, the Lightning Lanes offered at attractions clog up the standby lines and slow down that waiting experience as guests from the higher priority line are moved into the queue. There isn't much to be done about this other than to observe that there are some externalities to continuing to fill the faster line, but that's been the case since FastPass was introduced.

There may not be much noticeable change on the line if you were to look at the amount of people each day in a line last year vs this year. Earlier this year Disney cracked down on who was eligible for the Disney disability pass offering. That took a big group of people out of the Lightning Lane. This new offering will now add new people into the queue, but I would still guess that there will be fewer people in the Lightning Lane each day than there were a year ago. I hope that Disney has the foresight to “sell out” the Lightning Lane access by capping all of the different offerings that guests can purchase to access the new lines. The scarcity of these line-skipping offerings is the value of the service.

That's one reason we applaud whenever the offerings are sold out on both coasts. They are already demonstrating that they're going to limit this offering at Walt Disney World by just allowing certain hotel guests to purchase. At Disneyland, they aren't limiting in the same way as they are betting that the attendance mix which skews far more local than Walt Disney World will naturally limit the amount of people interested. We saw similar controls applied to Walt Disney World and not to Disneyland when the ability to pre-purchase the Genie Plus service was limited at Walt Disney World but still remained at Disneyland.

Why Purchase Premier Pass Instead of Lightning Lane Multi Pass?

The appeal to purchasing Premier Pass is simply in the convenience of the product when we compare it to Lightning Lane Multi Pass which requires you book advance reservations to access the Lightning Lane from the mobile app.

This is something we discussed when we previously reported that this service was rumored. There is a lot of time spent staring at your phone when you're using Lightning Lane Multi Pass and the most effective way to get your value out of it is to continue to refresh the app for more available times.

The appeal of Disney Premier Pass is that you can simply purchase this service and then enter the Lightning Lanes whenever you want. You can just put your phone away for the day if you want which for some guests would be a huge perk. One of the most common complaints I hear from guests is how often they need to be on their phone while at Disney which does take out of of the immersion and the experience. This is a strain that I have experienced often as the person in the group designated Lightning Lane collector.

This also gives guests an in between option between Lightning Lane Multi Pass and selecting the much more expensive VIP tour option. While you certainly aren't getting the same access that a VIP tour grants, the ease of accessing attractions is notably the same as VIP tour guides just walk guests through the Lightning Lanes in whatever order they like. A VIP Tour ranges anywhere from $450 to 900 per hour, with a minimum of seven hours. That puts that cost as high as $6300 on the maximum range. The Premier Pass gives guests looking to spend more for convenience to access rides a midrange option that is far more reasonable than a VIP Tour.

I can see this being the most appealing for guests planning their once in a lifetime Disney trip and not something we see repeat visitors take advantage of too often unless it was for a special occasion. One thing that Disney is always happy to do is to provide guests with more if they are willing to pay the money and while this rollout may generate some negative pushback, there are plenty of guests willing to pay to have a better theme park experience.

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