Disney Debate: Is Lightning Lane Better Than Ever?
I know that some people reading this saw the title, shook their heads no, and probably said as much in the comments.
I’m here to tell you why these people are wrong. In this Disney Debate, I will argue that Lightning Lane is better than ever.


Disney
So, grab your torches and pitchforks and read on so that you can tell me all the ways I’m wrong…but I’m not.
Heard It All Before


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As someone who has followed Disney theme park arguments for a quarter-century now, I cannot help but notice the cyclical nature of it all.
You can find any Disney online discussion from this century, and someone will inevitably say a few things.


Image Allan Grant / The LIFE Picture Collection via Getty
One is that Disney is getting worse based on some comparison to an era that never existed anywhere but anyone’s imagination.
The reality is that Disneyland’s opening day was a disaster, and critics have capitalized on every single slip-up the company has ever had.


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The engagement culture didn’t start with social media, and Disney has remained a premier topic of conversation since the 1930s.
But anyone who argues that Disney isn’t getting better simply isn’t paying attention.


Disney Skyliner
I’m writing a companion article that provides examples of all the ways the parks have improved dramatically in just a few years.
Quick examples are Mobile Ordering, the Disney Skyliner system, and Merchandise Mobile Checkout.


Disney Skyliner
None of these existed before 2017, yet we take all of them for granted today. They’ve fundamentally enhanced a park visit.
The Same Ol’ Criticisms


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Then, we have the people who swear that Universal Studios is about to leave Disney in the dust.
Universal Epic Universe is ostensibly the next big threat, yet Disney executives are already counting their 2025 money.


Photo: Universal
Finally, we have the folks who are obsessed with the fact that you could travel to Europe for the same price as Disney.
I’ve watched this topic recirculate every few years, and it’s always an example of the strong American dollar rather than anything Disney-related.


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In truth, you could book an exceptional visit to Tokyo Disney Resort right now for a shockingly low price due to the weakness of the Japanese Yen.
You could also go on a European vacation that includes several countries. Nobody’s stopping you. But you’d miss Disney.
Ultimately, Walt Disney World is the top paid tourist destination in the world for a reason. It’s the best.
The Reasons People Hate Lightning Lane
Still, critics latch on to any instance of Disney becoming more expensive, stubbornly ignoring that’s true of the entirety of society.
For example, the price of a loaf of white bread was $1.33 in 2019. It was $2.02 at the end of 2023.


Photo: vecteezy.com
That’s a 52 percent increase in four years or twelve percent yearly.
Prices go up over time. That’s how capitalism works, and the global pandemic supercharged inflation.
I swear to you that Americans are actually quite lucky in this regard compared to some other countries.
But that brings us to the reality about Lightning Lane. People have hated it from the beginning due to what it represents.


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For over 20 years, Disney guests used FastPass, a free service that evolved repeatedly.
Fans today swear that Disney ruined FastPass by charging for it. And there’s absolutely truth to that argument.
Few fans realize that EVERY TIME Disney changed FastPass, fans complained that the new system was worse.
So, this particular change stands out because longtime fans remember that they used to get this service for free.
To them, Lightning Lane represents the evils of Disney price increases and repeated changes to a beloved service.
Basically, Lightning Lane faces the double whammy of costing more and triggering people’s innate fear of change.


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Let’s just say that Lightning Lane isn’t the most popular service Disney ever offered, although it still may be an improvement over Disney Genie+.
That system was saddled with an unforgivably complex name, one too close to the Disney Genie virtual assistant.


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Even worse, Disney Genie+ had the stink of Bob Chapek on it, and many fans never forgave that negative association.
The Hidden Way Lightning Lane Helps


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The recent name change at least gives Disney some much-needed distance from Chapek.
For this reason, I think of Lightning Lane as getting something of a fresh start.


Photo: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg
Sure, fans still think of it as Paid FastPass, a negative connotation that Disney won’t escape for at least a decade. But the PR move has mostly worked.
What really works, however, is Lightning Lane itself. I used this service on five different days during a recent Disney visit.


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Each time, I found myself in awe of how clean and efficient the system is now compared to just a few years ago.
I previously reviewed Lightning Lane Premier Pass, which I grudgingly admitted to enjoying more than I’d expected.


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That’s also part of the crux of this debate. Disney has quietly accomplished something with Lightning Lane, something non-monetary.
Park officials face an eternal struggle, one without an ideal solution.


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Disney needs the parks to be crowded to turn a profit.
When the parks grow too crowded, guests aren’t as happy. And Disney takes such criticisms seriously.


Magic Kingdom
Disney surveys recent park guests to determine their satisfaction with their park visit.
A low theme park survey is pretty much DEFCON 1 at Disney headquarters.
So, park officials deem overcrowding an existential threat. But unprofitable theme parks are just as bad.
Disney expends massive resources to find the perfect balance and thereby maximize profit without lowering guest satisfaction.


Hollywood Studios crowds
Lightning Lane helps dramatically with this. Disney has found a way to persuade some guests to pay more during a visit.
To Disney, Lightning Lane is the equivalent of First Class seats. Some fans are paying more for the privilege.
Meanwhile, average attraction wait times have decreased over the past two years. It’s not a coincidence.
Why Lightning Lane Is Better Than Ever


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Even if you don’t believe that – and I accept that some of you will never agree with anything positive about Lightning Lane – it’s all part of Disney’s plan.
There’s hidden math taking place behind the scenes at all times, and it has just two goals: maintaining crowd control while maximizing profits.
Inspiration sometimes occurs due to such economic constraints, which is definitely true of Lightning Lane.
Simply stated, Disney had reached a point where it had too many FastPass users, which was spiking wait times for everyone else.
In simplest terms, any time someone didn’t use a FastPass, they were going to wait an exorbitant amount of time.
As proof, please consider that the four Walt Disney World theme parks claimed attendance of just under 40 million in 2000, the first full year of FastPass.


FastPass
In 2019, the last full year of FastPass, those four parks reached 58.7 million in attendance.
That’s 18.7 million or 47 percent more people needing daily FastPasses. Something had to give.
So, Disney made the call to eliminate FastPass as a free service, a decision none of us like.
However, there’s a benefit to it that few guests fully appreciate.


Credit: Disney
With only a small portion of guests using the Lightning Lane system, wait times have decreased.
Disney has suggested that only half of tourists purchase Lightning Lane, and there’s a hard cap on sales to boot.
Therefore, the regular lines don’t suffer the same level of overcrowding as when FastPass was free.
Why Lightning Lane Is Better Than Ever II


Lightning Lane
That’s the benefit for everyone, even people who don’t use Lightning Lane. Disney has lowered their time spent standing in line.
As for Lightning Lane users, the service is legitimately the best it’s ever been.


Little Mermaid Lightning Lane
Since so few guests utilize the service, possessing a Lightning Lane matters.
In our experiences with the service, using a Lightning Lane got us on the ride in less than ten minutes virtually every time.


Lightning Lane
I wasn’t sure whether this was just an instance of good luck for us. So, I researched the matter a bit.
Theme park analysts evaluate crowds on a ten-point scale with 5 being average.


Lightning Lane
On our dates, the average crowd size was a 6, and we had a 7 on a runDisney date. So, these were relatively crowded dates.
Despite that fact, we repeatedly experience near-walk-on attraction access.
That’s a sure sign that Disney has balanced the equation perfectly.
Overall, theme park wait times were lower than they had been on that date in recent years, yet Lightning Lane access proved immediate.
Effectively, Disney maximized the value of Lightning Lane, monetized the FastPass concept, and done so while reducing average wait times.
That’s why I’m confident when I state that Lightning Lane is better than ever.
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