With Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Walt Disney World, you can pre-book up to three attractions. Which ones should you select at Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Disney’s Animal Kingdom?
Walt Disney World contains four theme parks. They are:
- Magic Kingdom
- Epcot
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Each of those theme parks offers unique attractions, dining, and entertainment. Managing your way around to enjoy all four theme parks can be challenging during your Disney vacation. Sometimes, you must choose the best one for your group to visit since there are not enough days in your vacation to enjoy all four Walt Disney World theme parks fully.
Like most theme or regional amusement parks, Walt Disney World offers a paid “skip the line” upgrade known as “Lightning Lane.” We covered the basics of that system in a previous resource. In fairness, guests do not skip the line. They enter a shorter queue known as the Lightning Lane. This article will guide you in pre-booking your Lightning Lane Multi Pass attractions reservations.
Magic Kingdom is the most attended theme park in the world. Also, this Walt Disney World theme park has the most attractions, including roller coasters, to enjoy among the Florida Disney theme park choices. So, we dedicated an entire blog to just Magic Kingdom regarding Lightning Lane Multi Pass. In that blog, we mentioned some basic strategies that might also help you pre-book Lightning Lane Multi Pass attractions at Epcot, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Our focus for this resource primarily revolves around the three Walt Disney World theme parks that are not Magic Kingdom.
Lightning Lane Multi Pass Essentials
Photo Credit: Walt Disney World
Lightning Lane Multi Pass allows guests, for a fee, to book three attraction reservations for their day at a Walt Disney World theme park. This newer system replaced the Genie+ system, which functioned as the progression of the former Fastpass+ system. Depending on whether they are staying at a Walt Disney World-owned or partner hotel, these reservations can be made seven or three days in advance. Each theme park has different attractions that guests can pre-book timeslot to experience. These are divided into tiers at each park except Disney’s Animal Kingdom.
Most Walt Disney World theme park attractions have two different entrance queues: a standby (sometimes these function as a virtual queue before you can enter it) and a Lightning Lane queue.
Guests can book additional Lightning Lane selections once they redeem at least one of the selections booked in advance. Each time they scan in for one of their attraction reservations, they can book another one. Guests who purchase a Lightning Lane Multi Pass can always hold up to three attraction reservation times. We suggest booking an additional one each time you use up a Lightning Lane Multi Pass attraction reservation.
Many factors go into deciding which Lightning Lane Multi Pass attractions to pre-book. Your Pixie Vacations travel advisor can help you through the specifics of your group’s Walt Disney World vacation. Some factors relate to age demographics, willingness to pay for Lightning Lane Single Pass, and whether you have park hopping ability with your ticket media. We will cover some of those concepts later in this resource. However, at this point, we will cover the suggested Lightning Lane Multi Pass priorities when pre-booking.
Epcot Lightning Lane Multi Pass: Which Ones Should We Select?
The entrance of Frozen Ever After.
Epcot has three attractions currently in the Tier One list, and guests can pre-book one in that category. Test Track is down for refurbishment, with an anticipated reopening in the summer of 2025. Test Track will most likely become a Tier One Lightning Lane Multi Pass option when that happens. This might cause Soarin’ Around the World to become a Tier Two attraction. However, that is currently a Tier One attraction, along with Frozen Ever After, and Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. We recommend booking your Tier One attraction at one of the movie-themed attractions over Soarin’s Around the World since the queue for it becomes shorter in the evening.
The more popular attractions that are part of Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Epcot are all in Tier One. Guests can only pre-book one of them when buying Lightning Lane Multi Pass. The rest of the attractions at Epcot do not develop long queues all day. Based on that, the priority should be to pre-book at least one (if not two) of your Lightning Lane attraction reservations in the first hour of the theme park day.
We suggest this because you can book your next Lightning Lane attraction timeslot after you scan in for your first Lightning Lane selection. The earlier you do it, the more likely a spot will be available for another Tier One attraction.
The Tier Two attractions at Epcot are:
- Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
- Journey into Imagination with Figment
- Living with the Land
- Mission: Space
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends
- Spaceship Earth
- Turtle Talk with Crush
Since you can only use Lightning Lane Multi Pass for each attraction once, the other Tier Two attractions to prioritize are Spaceship Earth, Living with the Lane, and Mission: Space. However, if you stay at Epcot all day, those attractions have very short wait times late in the day.
Unlike Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and the other two Walt Disney World theme parks are more straightforward to plan for. Thus, guests interested in visiting more than one of the theme parks in a day can consider using the Lightning Lane Multi Pass at both parks.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Multi Pass: Which Ones Should We Select?
Photo Credit: Joshua Sudock/Disney Parks
Disney’s Hollywood Studios contains many of the most exciting rides at Walt Disney World. That means the demand for those attractions by those who purchased Lightning Lane Multi Pass prioritizes the proper choices. Also, your choice may not be available or at times that do not work for you. You need a “Plan B” and maybe even a “Plan C.”
Four attractions qualify as Tier One attractions. Guests can pick only one, so choose wisely. They are:
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
One of the most formidable attraction Lightning Lane to acquire has been Slinky Dog Dash. This family roller coaster loads slowly and continues to be popular. This leads to longer queues. If you can get this attraction when pre-booking Lightning Lane attraction, do it! You can always try to modify the time as you get closer to the day of your visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
If you cannot pre-book Slinky Dog Dash, we suggest Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway or Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith as your next option.
Tier Two Disney’s Hollywood Studios
The Tier Two options contain two popular rides that should be given priority. However, just like at Epcot, guests should consider getting at least one Lighting Lane attraction reservation time early in the park day. This aids in booking another potential Tier One attraction.
Guests can pre-book two from the Tier Two category. Those attractions are:
- 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!
The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror and Toy Story Mania! make the best choices to save you time waiting in queues. Alien Swirling Saucers stands up as the best choice after that. Of course, at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, selecting an early timeslot for at least one of your Lightning Lane Multi Pass reservations makes the most sense to increase your chances of getting another Tier One attraction.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Multi Pass: Which Ones Should We Select?
Unlike the other three Walt Disney World theme parks, Disney’s Animal Kingdom does not have tiers with its Lightning Lane Multi Pass selections. With Avatar Flight of Passage being the best and most popular ride at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, the Lightning Lane for that attraction can only be entered by purchasing a Lightning Lane Single Pass.
This leaves the other rides and attractions as a part of Lightning Lane Multi Pass. Guests should select attractions based on the most extended anticipated wait times for the day they plan to start at Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Those attractions are ranked below from longest anticipated wait times to shortest:
- Na?vi River Journey
- Kilimanjaro Safaris
- Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
- Dinosaur (which is closing sometime in the near future to be replaced)
- Festival of the Lion King
- Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond!
- Kali River Rapids (This attraction will have far longer wait times during warm weather, so we suggest booking this before the shows on those days)
- Feathered Friends in Flight!
Can I Park Hop with Lightning Lane Multi Pass?
Disney Skyliner
Those with a park hopper ticket or an annual pass to Walt Disney World can visit more than one theme park in a day. So, how does Lighting Lane Multi Pass work if you park hop?
When guests purchase their Lighting Lane Multi Pass in advance, they must decide which Disney theme park they will start their day at. At that theme park, they will make three advance attraction reservations. This is true for each day guests purchase the Lightning Lane Multi Pass.
However, guests can make an additional one once they check in using their first Lightning Lane reservation. This new Lightning Lane reservation can be at any of the four Walt Disney World theme parks. Thus, guests can start making Lightning Lane reservations at the second park they plan to visit before they leave the first one. This allows guests to have attractions reserved via Lightning Lane Multi Pass for the park they plan to hop to. This flexibility enables guests to plan more efficiently for when they plan to visit a second (or third) theme park in a day. This works very well for guests starting at Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which has an earlier start time, and those finishing their day elsewhere.
Should I Buy a Lightning Lane Single Pass?
The three Walt Disney World theme parks covered in this article have one Lightning Lane Single Pass attraction. In other words, you cannot enter the Lightning Lane for those attractions via the Lighting Lane Multi Pass service. These attractions require guests to purchase individual access, thus the Lighting Lane Single Pass title.
The attractions that utilize this system are:
- Tron Lightcycle / Run – Magic Kingdom
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train – Magic Kingdom
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – Epcot
- Avatar Flight of Passage – Disney’s Animal Kingdom
There is a regular standby line for most attractions offering Lightning Lane Single Pass, except for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at Epcot, which has a virtual queue option. If you do not want to pay to enter the shorter queue, you can wait longer, at no charge, for most of the Lightning Lane Single Pass attractions.
Guests may purchase (pre-book) Lightning Lane Single Pass attraction reservations in the same fashion as they booked other Lightning Lane reservations. Also, guests may purchase two Lightning Lane Single Pass attraction reservations per day. However, you cannot buy the same attraction twice in a day.
Whether you should buy this depends on your group’s preference. You could attempt to “rope-drop” these attractions. However, if your group wishes to focus on other attractions when the park opens or sleep in, then buying the “Single Pass” makes more sense.
Ready to Try Using Lightning Lane System During Your Next Walt Disney World Vacation?
A Walt Disney World vacation creates magical memories. Yet, it also demands planning to maximize the experience. The experts at Pixie Vacations can help you at no cost to you. Having a travel advisor by your side will make your vacation less stressful. Feel free to check the Pixie Vacation website for a free, no-obligation quote for your Walt Disney World vacation. Also, enjoy the vacation planning process since that is part of the vacation fun.
