Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Rides- Ranking & Strategy 2025

Lightning Lane Multi Pass is a skip the line service at Hollywood Studios that allows guests to access the shorter Lightning Lanes for rides at an additional cost. Hollywood Studios 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. Disney has introduced different tiers of Lightning Lanes for rides at Hollywood Studios to pick from for your three advance Lightning Lane selections. These tiers influence which rides you can select in advance and give us insight into the most popular rides at Hollywood Studios.

Let's get into my best strategy for picking your preselection Lightning Lanes for rides at Hollywood Studios 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. We utilize this system frequently, and you can see our top Disney World Lightning Lane tips to consider in your planning.

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 vacation, see our guides to EPCOT Lightning Lane rides, Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane rides, and Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane rides for a list of the rides that offer this at each park and our recommended strategy for picking your advance Lightning Lane rides.

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

When Can You Book Hollywood Studios 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. This is a helpful tip to keep in mind if Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane ride selections start running out. You may want to ensure Hollywood Studios is your last park day to have a better chance of ride selection availability.

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

Hollywood Studios 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.

Hollywood Studios has split the most popular Lightning Lane rides into one top tier with the other selections available at a section tier.

Choose up to one experience from this group:

• Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
• Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
• Rock ‘n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
• Slinky Dog Dash

These are the Hollywood Studios rides with the highest demand for Lightning Lanes. These rides will run out of available Lightning Lane selections quickly both in advance and inside the park on the day you arrive.

Choose your other 2 experiences—or all 3—from this group:

• Alien Swirling Saucers
• Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
• Disney Junior Play & Dance!
• For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
• Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
• Muppet*Vision 3D
• Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
• The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
• Toy Story Mania!

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

Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Rides Strategy

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

Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Top Tier Rides Ranking

Let's take a look at the first tier of Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane rides which are all the most popular. You can only pick one option from this list for one out of your three advance reservations so I am going to rank them in order of most popular to least to help you plan your day.

1. Slinky Dog Dash

Slinky Dog Dash is easily the most popular ride in the park, aside from Rise of the Resistance, and this is the Lightning Lane selection that will run out first. In the days of FastPass+ when guests booked advance ride selections, this ride often was gone within minutes. If you plan on riding Slinky Dog Dash, securing a Lightning Lane selection is the best way to do it.

2. Rock ‘n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith

Rock ‘n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith is another popular ride in Hollywood Studios. As one of the best thrill rides in Walt Disney World, this is a popular choice for many guests as a Lightning Lane selection.

3. Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway

Mickey & Minnie's Runaway Railway is another popular Lighnting Lane selection at Hollywood Studios. This ride is more family friendly as opposed to the other thrill rides on this list so this one can run out just as easily as the others. This is why Hollywood Studios is one of the trickier parks to navigate, there's so many popular rides!

4. Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run

Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run is the least in demand on this list but that doesn't mean the ride isn't popular. It's just less popular than the others ranked above it! Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run will also likely have an easier time securing Lightning Lane passes for in the park than the other rides ranked higher on this list.

Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Second Tier Ride Ranking

Let's take a look at the second tier of Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane rides. You can pick all three of your options from this list but I recommend just picking two and selecting at least one advance reservation from tier one. I ranked these in order of popularity from top to last.

1. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
2. Toy Story Mania!
3. Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
4. Alien Swirling Saucers
5. Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
6. For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
7. Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
8. Muppet*Vision 3D
9. Disney Junior Play & Dance!

The first two rides on this list are going to be the most popular on this tiered ranking list. The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Toy Story Mania! are both popular rides, some might say as popular as those in the top ranking, so these are also advance selections that might be tricky to get too.

Hollywood Studios is filled with e-ticket, popular attractions and this is one park you absolutely need to book Lightning Lane Multi Pass selections for. This is also a park you should plan on booking your reservations as soon as they are available.

What Time to Pick Your Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Rides?

When booking your three advance Lightning Lane ride selections for Hollywood Studios 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.

Lightning Lane Single Pass Hollywood Studios

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: Rise of the Resistance. This is one of the most popular rides in the park and the best ride in Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. 

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 Hollywood Studios 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 Hollywood Studios 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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