We Tested Disney World’s New Lightning Lane Across Three Parks

Walt Disney World's skip the line paid system was recently modified to move away from the Genie+ system and revert back to allowing guests to book ride reservations in advance of their visit.

The pay to skip the line system at Walt Disney World is now called Lightning Lane Multi Pass and allows guests to book up to three advance reservations for popular rides for each day of their visit.

I recently tested out this new system at Walt Disney World at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Hollywood Studios all in just one day to see how it compares to Genie!

What is Lightning Lane Multi Pass?

Lightning Lane Multi Pass recently replaced Genie+ at Walt Disney World and is remarkably similar to the prior FastPass system that existed before 2020. Most popular attractions at Walt Disney World have two separate lines: the regular standby line and the Lightning Lane. Everyone can access the regular standby line at no additional cost while guests utilizing the Lightning Lane need to pay for this access.

The average cost of Lightning Lane Multi Pass is around $25 per day but can go as high as $39 per person, per day. Guests staying on-site at a Walt Disney World hotel can purchase Lightning Lane a week before their check in date while all other guests can purchase three days before their visit.

Guests can book up to 3 Lightning Lane selections in advance for each day. Once you're in the park, you can begin booking additional Lightning Lane selections once you redeem at least one of the selections you booked in advance. Each time you redeem one selection, you can book another, and so on.

So now that we have the basics, let's get into how I put this new system to the test on a whirlwind park day with the ambitious goal of tackling three Walt Disney World theme parks in one day! See also our guide to Advance Lightning Lane booking for details on what you should reserve first at Disney World.

How Do You Park Hop with Lightning Lane?

If you purchase a Walt Disney World park hopping ticket, then you might be wondering how you park hop with Lightning Lane Multi Pass.

When you purchase your Lightning Lane Multi Pass in advance, you will need to commit to which park you will be beginning the day at and then you will book your three advance reservations for that park.

Once you're inside that park and redeem at least one of your ride reservations, you can begin booking reservations for the other park you plan on park hopping to. And as you can see from the screenshot above, you can book your Lightning Lane Single Pass reservations you may want to make for other parks at the same time you book the one for your starting park. The process is seamless and easy to navigate!

Book Early Lightning Lane Reservations

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Here is the step by step on how I booked advance Lightning Lane reservations for my ambitious Walt Disney World park day.

I decided to start the day at Magic Kingdom because there are so many popular rides there we could easily tackle without Lightning Lane in the morning. The hardest advance Lightning Lane time to get at the moment is Tiana's Bayou Adventure which runs out in seconds. Aside from that, I found the rest easy to get but the trick is you want to get the earliest possible time for your Lightning Lane reservations so you can begin booking more once you're in the park.

Even up until the day before my visit, there were times left for all rides except Tiana's Bayou Adventure but they were just with arrival times far later in the day. As you can see in the screenshot, the app walks you through the process and shows you how many rides you can select from each tier. The most popular rides will be limited to just one advance reservation.

Keep Modifying Your Lightning Lanes

Another hack I learned is that you can continue to keep modifying your Lightning Lane advance reservations right up until the day before you scan into the parks. I was able to modify some of my reservations to get much earlier times or just switch to new rides entirely.

This is also something you can do while in the parks which is a trick we use often at Disneyland. I did this again and again throughout the day in order to get earlier return times for all our Lightning Lane times for the park we were currently in and where we planned on rope dropping to.

How I Used Lightning Lane at Three Disney World Parks

Let's go through a run down of my day of using Lightning Lane at three Walt Disney World theme parks: Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and Hollywood Studios.

We started off the day with three advance ride reservations for Space Mountain, Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean. The earliest Lightning Lane reservation was 9:20AM for Space Mountain with the other two not until 1PM and 4PM in the afternoon.

Since we had Early Entry from staying at a Walt Disney World hotel, we arrived in time to line up for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train at least 20 minutes before Early Entry began. We stayed at Magic Kingdom from 8:30AM to 2PM and in that time we rode Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, Pirates of the Caribbean, Country Bear Jamboree, and Carousel of Progress all in the standby queue. Since our Lightning Lane times for both Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean were later in the day, we took advantage of the low morning waits to ride them.

Early Lightning Lane Time is Essential for Success

The best hack I used was ensuring we had the earliest Lightning Lane reservation time possible which was 9:20AM for Space Mountain. Once we redeemed this time, I was able to book any other Lightning Lane (tiers don't matter at that point) at either Magic Kingdom or the other parks we were hopping to. But not just that, I was then able to change my other two Lightning Lane reservations!

Since we had already ridden the other rides we had reserved, I swapped one for Frozen Ever After at EPCOT and one for Peter Pan's Flight in Magic Kingdom. For the third Lightning Lane time, I booked it for The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror. The biggest challenge was just making sure our return times matched when we would be in that park. Since Frozen Ever After is so popular, that was a priority to get booked asap right away at 9:20AM after I redeemed Space Mountain. At that point in the day the return times were already past 2PM in the afternoon.

This is why getting at least one Lightning Lane time as early as possible is so important, you can't change any of your reservations until you redeem at least one!

Park Hopping is Easy with Lightning Lane

I did not find park hopping to be challenging at all with Lightning Lane Multi Pass since I had such an early return time for my first Lightning Lane at Magic Kingdom.

I was able to quickly start booking Lightning Lanes for the other parks but I also was strategic in what order I picked for the parks. Starting the day at Magic Kingdom meant a larger variety of rides I could experience without needing Lightning Lane so I could start stacking return times for the park I was hopping to next.

Since EPCOT has plenty to do in the afternoon and more dining options, it made sense for that to be our middle park and it's just a quick monorail ride from Magic Kingdom. When we got to EPCOT, we redeemed our Frozen Ever After and also used our Lightning Lane Single Pass reservation for Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind. By this point, I now had three Lightning Lanes all stacked for Hollywood Studios including some of the most popular rides like The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith, and Toy Story Midway Mania.

After EPCOT, we used the Skyliner to hop over to Hollywood Studios and walked into the park by 6PM with three Lightning Lanes set to go. Overall, the entire experience was positive and we got so much done within just one day!

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