Pros and Cons of Disney’s Three Line-Skipping Options
When you visit Walt Disney World, long lines are just the cost of doing business.
You’re a tourist at the most popular tourist destination on the planet. Not coincidentally, lots of other people are there, too.


Lightning Lane
So, you must follow the herd and stand behind them until it’s your turn to experience Disney’s best attractions.
However, Disney provides you with three options to beat the system.


Lightning Lane
Let’s talk about the pros and cons of Disney’s three line-skipping options.
What Is Early Theme Park Entry


Early entry
I wrote extensively about Early Theme Park Entry in this article.
The gist is that you should always stay at an official Disney resort.


Long lines
By doing so, you gain a marvelous amenity called Early Theme Park Entry.
This benefit allows you to enter a Disney theme park 30 minutes before it opens to regular guests.


Crowds
Effectively, you have a half-hour head start on the competition.
There’s a different form of this same premise called Extended Evening Hours.
That amenity is an after-hours event held once (or twice) a week and solely available to guests staying at Deluxe Disney Resorts.
So, the two benefits aren’t quite the same, but you’ll often hear them mentioned together.
Pros:


Peter Pan’s Flight
The pro here is self-evident. You can enter a Walt Disney World theme park ahead of guests possessing standard admission tickets.
Early Theme Park Entry gives you quick access to the front of the line on some attractions and a much shorter wait on others.


Toy Story Mania!
At a park like Disney’s Hollywood Studios, you can be among the first to experience Toy Story Mania! or Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.
You can also follow the crowd to Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance or Slinky Dog Dash.
While these lines fill up almost immediately, you can often cut your wait time in half (or more) from what it’ll be later in the day.
Cons:


Toy Story Mania
The cons to this one are twofold. And the bigger one is obvious to those who have used the amenity.
You must start your park day substantially earlier. I don’t necessarily mean 30 minutes earlier, either.


Toy Story Mania!
Many guests show up 30-45 minutes BEFORE Early Theme Park Entry begins. They do this to enter the park first.
Ergo, you should arrive an hour before the park officially opens to get a good spot in line.


Lines
When you don’t, you’ll waste some of the advantage of that 30-minute window for Early Theme Park Entry.
You won’t be inside the park right at the start of the half-hour exclusive access.


Wait times
Getting that early isn’t ideal on vacation, especially not for a park like Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which typically opens the earliest.
You’ll need coffee. Lots of coffee.


Pistachio Latte
The other con is overblown, in my opinion, but it matters to some.
That’s the cost of staying at an official Disney resort.


Photo: Disney
Guests who don’t use MickeyTravels may not know about the various discounts available.
In that scenario, someone without a working knowledge of Disney hotel discounts would probably pay more.


Image Credit: Disney
If so, you may find this option a bit pricey. Again, as long as you use MickeyTravels, you know that someone is finding you the best deals, though.
So, you’re staying at one of Disney’s exemplary resorts while receiving this amenity. It’s win/win!
What Is Disney Genie+?


Credit: Disney
Disney Genie+, not to be confused with Disney Genie, is a paid service akin to the former FastPass.
I often describe this digital queue system like imaginary runners from childhood baseball games.


Genie Service
You’re not standing in line for an attraction, but when you book a Disney Genie+ reservation, you’re asking Disney to do it for you.
Think of this scenario as similar to when a friend stands in line for you at an event, and you can join them later.
Past a certain point, Disney Genie+ will allow you to enter the physical wait queue for an attraction.
However, since you booked via Disney Genie+, this line will be shorter and require less time waiting.
Pros:
On some days, Disney Genie+ is the difference between a fun park visit and your regretting everything.
For example, let’s say that you’re at Hollywood Studios and want to experience Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run.


Attractions!
You don’t want to miss Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway or Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, either.
All three of these attractions frequently require a wait of 60+ minutes.
In a perfect world, you don’t want to spend so much of your day standing in line.
While that’s honestly inevitable if you want to do everything at Hollywood Studios, Disney Genie+ makes the experience more manageable.


Winnie the Pooh Lightning Lane
When you book three or four of these attractions via Disney Genie+, you’ll maximize your park visit.
You’ll see and do much more because you’re not standing in line all the time, a process that makes you tired and cranky.
Cons:
Surprisingly, there are several cons to Disney Genie+, even though it sounds terrific, and I typically buy it.
The first con is the price, which fluctuates based on Disney’s anticipated park attendance that day.


Genie+
You’ll pay more on the most popular days such as national holidays. Also, you pay per person.
Larger traveling parties may feel like they’re spending too much money relative to what they gain from Disney Genie+.


Genie+
Then, we have the availability issue. Technically, buying Disney Genie+ guarantees you nothing.
Sure, you may want that reservation for Slinky Dog Dash, but it’s far from guaranteed.


Lightning Lane
Many attractions sell their entire allotment of Disney Genie+ reservations within hours of the park’s opening.
Even when they don’t, the system will sometimes offer you return times that fit poorly with your schedule for the day.


Lightning Lane
Given how much you’re spending on the service, it feels wrong that Disney doesn’t provide more flexibility.
Then again, the parks have no need to do so. Disney Genie+ sells out more frequently than anybody, including Disney, had expected.


Photo: Disney
So, I could include other cons, but you get the point. Disney Genie+ is far from perfect. It’s usually worth getting, though.
What Is Lightning Lane?


Lightning Lane
For reasons passing understanding, a Disney Genie+ reservation allows you to enter the Lightning Lane for an attraction.
That’s the shorter line or the imaginary runner scenario or your friend holding a place in line for you.


Lightning Lane Scanners
However, Disney, in its infinite wisdom, has added another service known as Lightning Lane.
This digital queue is available only at one or two attractions per park, and it exists for a simple reason.


Lightning Lane Scanners
Disney’s newest and most popular rides have long lines. For a fee, Disney will allow you to skip the long lines.
So, Lightning Lane is a “pay as you go” service wherein you can skip the line at one or two of Disney’s most popular rides.


Lightning Lane
To minimize confusion, the options available on Disney Genie+ aren’t also choices for Lightning Lane. It’s an either/or.
What happens is that a wildly popular new ride starts as a Lightning Lane but then switches to Disney Genie+ a year or two later.
Pros:


Photo: Disney
For an attraction like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, you’re saving yourself an hour or more.
At Magic Kingdom, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is turning ten years old this month, yet it remains THE most popular ride.
Once again, a Lightning Lane allows you to pay $10-$12 a person — an estimate since prices fluctuate – to save yourself the aggravation.
Conversely, Tron Lightcycle / Run is Magic Kingdom’s new, hottest ride.


Lightning Lane switchbacks empty at Space Mountain
You’re not even guaranteed to experience it unless you schedule a virtual queue, something you can try twice a day.
When you buy a Lightning Lane, you ensure that you’ll see what all the fuss is about with Tron.
So, the Lightning Lane shortens all your waits. Perhaps more importantly, it gives you a chance to ride stuff that you otherwise couldn’t.
Cons:
Tron has consistently charged $20 per person since it debuted.
For a family of four, you’re paying $80 for a ride that lasts this long:
Folks, that video is four minutes long, and half of it covers the attraction queue rather than the ride experience.


Jungle Cruise
I’m not joking when I say that a single person pays $10 per minute for a Tron Lightning Lane.
When you think about the situation in those terms, well, it’s ridiculous.


Lightning Lane
I view Lightning Lane as making sense in very specific instances like Rise of the Resistance, a 20-minute experience.
Unless your wallet’s too small for your 50s, I wouldn’t recommend buying all the Lightning Lanes during a park visit.


Credit: Disney
In fact, I’m overdue on updating you on where you should/should not buy Lighting Lane these days. So, expect that article soon.
In the interim, what I’ll say is that Early Theme Park Entry comes with your Disney hotel booking. Ergo, it makes the most sense.
Speak with a MickeyTravels agent to get set up with a vacation wherein you enjoy Disney without needing Disney Genie+ and Lightning Lane.
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