What Have We Learned About the New Lightning Lane?

FastPass is dead. Long live FastPass.

Disney Genie+ is dead. We’re all dancing on its grave.

Those two statements reflect the cavernous divide between how Disney fans felt about FastPass versus its replacement.

Now, after a few days, we’ve had time to examine the new system, which takes ideas from its two predecessors.

So, what have we learned about the new Lightning Lane? Let’s evaluate the updated system.

About the New Lightning Lane System

On July 24^th, Disney Genie+ died, thereby putting us all out of our misery. It died so that Lightning Lane Multi Pass (LLMP) could live.

How unpopular was Disney Genie+? I think Disney fans put on their noisiest shoes and tap-danced on its grave.

Disney hopes that the name change will take away some of the animus toward what is effectively a paid FastPass program.

As I’ve previously detailed, Disney was arguably the last major theme park to charge for line-skipping services.

Since Disney gets held to a higher standard (and rightfully so), fans still bristled at the change.

Now that paid line-skipping has proven popular, regularly selling out at Disney theme parks, a normalization has occurred.

So, Disney’s underlying goal here is to move away from the unpopular Disney Genie+ branding.

The old system lasted less than three years but provided more than enough data for management to create something better.

The new Multi Pass system empowers guests with the much-desired ability to book Lightning Lanes up to seven days ahead of time.

That aspect allows us to track which attractions book quickest versus which ones have availability on the current day.

In other words, we can identify the pecking order of popular attractions by which ones book the quickest.

Or can we? Remember that Disney controls the inventory. So, just because something is sold out doesn’t necessarily mean it’s popular.

These are the weird conversations we must have during the early days of the new system.

Don’t worry, though. We’ve been doing this for a while and can help you figure this out. 

Pricing Is Straightforward

Here’s the change that I like the best. Lightning Lane pricing is no longer a guessing game.

Before July 24^th, 2024, guests wouldn’t learn how much the service would cost until the morning of the visit.

Disney expected guests to pay whatever it asked on the morning of the park visit, which was suboptimal.

Now, we can load the My Disney Experience and view the pricing three weeks ahead of time.

To wit, I can tell you the following Lightning Lane prices for August 23^rd, 2024:

• Magic Kingdom — $25
• EPCOT — $18
• Disney’s Hollywood Studios — $22
• Disney’s Animal Kingdom — $16
• Seven Dwarfs Mine Train — $11
• Tron Lightcycle / Run — $20
• Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind — $15
• Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance — $22
• Avatar: Flight of Passage $14

So, Disney has completely removed the guesswork from the process. You can budget your vacation more accurately now.

As long as you check a few days before your visit, there should be no pricing surprises.

Please remember that the booking windows help greatly.

Guests staying at official Disney resorts can purchase Lightning Lanes a week in advance, while everyone else gets a 72-hour window.

You can use those extra four days to snag the Lightning Lanes you want. It’s a massive competitive advantage.

Overall, the prices are exactly the same as they had been for Disney Genie+ and the former version of Lightning Lane.

We call the latter line-skipping system Lightning Lane Multi Pass now, and I’d expected those prices to increase a bit. They’re static instead.

I’m in the middle of a Disney Genie+ postmortem now. So, I’m flipping between the data and am surprised by the similarities.

Please remember that Disney Genie+ started cheaper and then had hefty price increases, though.

Availability Is Good

From what I’ve tracked, the most popular rides are often selling out early, but it’s a bit of a mixed bag.

I don’t know whether Disney throttled inventory at the start or what, but there were some strange sellouts at first.

That’s part of the reason I didn’t write this last week. I didn’t trust the data during the first couple of days.

Since then, I think we’ve gotten a better picture of how LLMP will work.

Overall, there’s some surprising availability a few days before the arrival date.

For instance, I’ve seen Na’vi River Journey available at times. Don’t get me wrong. It’s not a lot, but it has happened.

Similarly, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure was recently available the day before arrival.

Just to clarify, I’m still hammering out the nomenclature here.

When I say “day before arrival,” I mean Monday’s availability for Tuesday, Tuesday’s availability for Wednesday, and so forth.

The overall point is that LLMP options DO book quickly. However, attentive fans can snag some of the most popular attractions.

Last week, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith had the second-longest wait time at Hollywood Studios.

So, booking a LLMP for it saves you at least an hour of standing in line. The same is true of Na’vi River Journey.

I hadn’t expected that opportunity, but it exists for now. Guests staying onsite should be able to book most of the attractions they want.

Why is that? Therein lies the debate. Disney may be allowing more inventory to entice guests to splurge for LLMP.

Then again, demand at Walt Disney World simply may be so low this summer that LLMP isn’t selling as high as it has in the past.

We’ll learn more during Disney’s quarter earnings report next week.

Arrival Date Availability

Here’s the one I’m tracking the most obsessively, but it’s proven challenging to evaluate.

On the date of a park visit, Disney replenishes LLMP inventory throughout the day.

So, even when you fail to book something in advance, you have a chance while you’re at the park.

The catch is that it’s incredibly random so far. In video games, RNG will go a long way in determining your fate.

On some occasions, rides like Peter Pan’s Flight and Slinky Dog Dash have shown inventory multiple times in a day.

That’s similar to FastPass and Disney Genie+, both of which would release new inventory and also have availability due to cancellations.

Still, the one thing I’ve noticed is that you refresh frequently, you will occasionally find something good.

By “good,” I’m not referring to quality, as virtually all Disney attractions are high-quality.

Instead, I mean that they’ll save you plenty of time standing in line, which is the ultimate goal when you purchase LLMP.

Overall, the inventory has seemed a bit worse compared to the final days of Disney Genie+, but I’d expected that.

When you introduce a new system, you should always hold back a bit as a precautionary measure.

Then, you can tweak the system once you grow confident in its operations. Speaking of which…

We’re Already Noticing Changes

One of the things to understand about the new Multi Pass system is that it’s a work in progress.

Disney has introduced something akin to the previous two models, but the parks keep changing and evolving.

So, the digital queuing system must change and evolve as well. To wit, Disney removed character greetings as an option.

I’m fairly confident that won’t last forever, as Disney Genie+ did the same thing in its early days.

The system gradually restored character greetings over time. I believe LLMP will employ a more accelerated timeline.

However, some tweaks have already occurred. For example, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith switched tiers.

We’re noticing other changes as well, some of which are subtle.

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