Lightning Lanes at Disney World: Prices, Sell Outs & How to Buy
Individual Lightning Lanes are pay-per-ride line-skipping access to the most popular rides at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Hollywood, and Animal Kingdom. This guide covers pricing, when reservations sell out, how to book ILLs, and differences from the Genie+ service. Plus, the best ones to buy–and why we don’t recommend others. (Updated May 7, 2023.)
The first thing you probably need to know is that Individual Lightning Lane attractions are not included in the Genie+ service. That line-skipping service costs $16 per person per day for Lightning Lane access, but excludes the most popular ride per park. Instead, those are Individual Lightning Lanes, or ILL. (That’s an unfortunate acronym, but perhaps it’s meant to evoke how you’ll feel after dropping ~$90 for your family to not wait for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, only to have the ride breakdown while you’re in the Lightning Lane.)
If you’re not a seasoned Walt Disney World veteran, that could be confusing. In a nutshell, all Lightning Lanes are the physical infrastructure in the parks–a literal line you walk through in the queue that bypasses standby. However, there are two different ways to access this “fast lane.” For the majority of rides, you make selections via the Genie+ service, which gives you a return time for Lightning Lane access. For the most popular attractions in each park, you purchase separate (Individual) Lightning Lane access.
For those who are still unsure of the differences (it’s an admittedly confusing system!), we’ve address the differences between Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lanes in numerous posts, including our Guide to Genie+ at Walt Disney World & Lightning Lane FAQ. We’re not going to rehash those foundational differences here, so please refer to that. Instead, we’ll focus on how to buy the pay-per-ride Individual Lightning Lanes, pricing, and how quickly ILLs sell out.
Before that, a quick housekeeping note. Walt Disney World has used several terms to refer to this same line-skipping option: a la carte Lightning Lanes, Individual Attraction Selections (IAS), and individual Lightning Lanes–all interchangeably–when referring to this.
These all mean the same thing. Typically, Disney now refers to this pay-per-ride option as Individual Lightning Lanes, but you might seem other terms used here and there. Essentially, these are the Lightning Lanes that are not part of Genie+. They’re the ones available for the most popular attraction with the longest wait time in each park. (It still can be confusing, but hopefully that helps.)
If that wasn’t complicated enough already, Walt Disney World moved Individual Lightning Lane attractions to Genie+. Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom, Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at Hollywood Studios, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Frozen Ever After at Epcot, and Space Mountain at Magic Kingdom are now included in the flat-rate Disney Genie+ service and will not be sold a la carte as Individual Lightning Lanes.
This was originally a temporary change, but Walt Disney World made it permanent last fall. This is great news for anyone wanting to buy the Genie+ service, but potentially bad news for anyone who only cared about those particular rides. (For the vast majority of guests, this change is a positive.)
Next, let’s take a look at Individual Lightning Lane pricing. Walt Disney World previously announced that prices will vary depending on the attraction and day of visit. Think of it like Express Lanes on highways—dynamic pricing that increases with demand.
Last fall, Walt Disney World rolled out date-based pricing for the Genie+ service. That’s code for a price increase, as the old everyday price is the new lowest possible price. Under the date-based pricing, the average price of Genie+ has been $20 to $25 through May 2023. The highest price Genie+ has reached thus far has been $35, with the lowest price being $15. (All numbers are pre-tax prices; after tax the range is ~$16 to ~$37.)
Along with this, prices have also increased for certain Individual Lightning Lane attractions. Here’s a look at new/current weekday pricing:
Here’s a look at high and low price points we’ve seen so far post-price increase:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: high $12, low $10
- TRON Lightcycle Run: $20
- Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind: high $17, low $14
- Star Wars Rise of the Resistance: high $25, low $20
- Avatar Flight of Passage: high $16, low $13
Prices hit these highs last year during the week of Thanksgiving and again in 2023 during the week of Mardi Gras, Presidents’ Day, Spring Break and Easter. It’s hard to say whether ILL prices will hit new highs during Summer 2023. Although that’s a tourist season, it doesn’t have any weeks of concentrated crowds like Spring Break, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc.
With date-based pricing, Walt Disney World is more willing to adjust prices with regularity, especially around the aforementioned holidays when demand is much higher. As we’ve seen over the course of the last year, Individual Lightning Lanes sell out faster–even at higher prices–when crowds and wait times are worse.
Which makes complete sense: even if it costs more, there’s more value in skipping a longer line. In other words, current demand already suggests that the prices could likely go up significantly. In other words, don’t be surprised if prices reach new records in November 2023 during the peak week of Thanksgiving. However, with pent-up demand exhausting itself, prices may now start to trend downward instead of up for the rest of this year.
That brings us to our next topic: Individual Lightning Lane availability or lack thereof–what’s selling out and what’s readily available. Note that this is based on our experiences from thus far in 2023. Individual Lightning Lanes sold out faster during Spring Break, but demand and prices have dropped since.
We’d expect this trend to remain true through the start of summer. We’ll be monitoring availability and will report back as to how daily availability is looking as of mid-June 2023, when the peak tourist season starts.
For now, let’s start with demand for the newest Individual Lightning Lane attraction: TRON Lightcycle Run. Since opening, the Individual Lightning Lane for TRON Lightcycle Run has been priced at $20 per person.
This puts it higher than Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, but behind Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance on average. It is also higher than its counterpart in Magic Kingdom, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. That family-friendly coaster is retaining its ILL status and currently costs between $10 and $12.
Its first several weeks after launching, TRON Lightcycle Run regularly sold out before or shortly after Magic Kingdom officially opened for the day. Since the start of the shoulder season, Individual Lightning Lane availability has improved considerably and demand has dropped. Currently, it’s common for TRON Lightcycle Run to still have ILL times until 1 pm or later.
This is noteworthy because the ride also has free boarding group availability for minutes or even hours after 1 pm. See our Guide to the TRON Lightcycle Run Virtual Queue for everything you need to know about that. This dynamic will likely change once summer arrives–the faster the virtual queue fills up, the faster Individual Lightning Lane access for TRON Lightcycle Run will sell out.
As noted above, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train was not ‘downgraded’ to Genie+ when TRON Lightcycle Run opened. Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is the oldest attraction with ILL status, and Magic Kingdom is the only park with two ILL rides.
However, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is still incredibly popular and with an entirely different demographic than TRON Lightcycle Run. On top of that, Magic Kingdom already has 23 Genie+ Lightning Lane attractions, which is more than any other park. Consequently, Disney is maintaining its ILL status in order to capture more revenue since more Genie+ capacity is not needed.
With that said, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train tends to be the least popular Individual Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World. It still does sell out many days at Magic Kingdom, but usually lasts for at least a few hours after park opening. On slower days, there’s availability well into the afternoon.
Over at Epcot, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind has improved Individual Lightning Lane availability. On peak days, it often sells out by 9 am or 10 am–about an hour after park opening. On moderately crowded or slower days, however, ILL for Cosmic Rewind often lasts until after 2 or 3 pm. There have been some 1/10 or 2/10 crowd level days in May 2023 when it hasn’t sold out at all. (Those are definitely the exception, not the rule.)
With it now easier to enter the virtual queue for Cosmic Rewind, the Lightning Lane usually does not sell out until after boarding groups fill up. (See our How to Ride Guardians of Galaxy Cosmic Rewind & Virtual Queue Speed Strategy for improving your odds of success at the free virtual queue; no need to read that if you’ve already consulted the more comprehensive TRON virtual queue guide.)
We do not recommend purchasing Individual Lightning Lane access to either TRON Lightcycle Run or Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind if you’re visiting on low or moderately crowded days. This comes down to the aforementioned virtual queues, which are easy to access so long as crowd levels are below 8/10. (See our 2023 Walt Disney World Crowd Calendars for insight as to how busy it’ll be when you’re visiting.)
The only exception is if you want to experience these rides multiple times. Both do have re-rideability thanks to Cosmic Rewind’s six different songs and how different TRON looks and feels at night. Of the two, we’d be more inclined to pay extra for multiple rides on Cosmic Rewind, as it’s a longer and more satisfying attraction with bigger differences thanks to the soundtrack changes, but to each their own.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios is home to the best-seller: Star Wars Rise of the Resistance. This Individual Lightning Lane attraction sometimes sells out before DHS even opens, which is when off-site guests are eligible to purchase.
On less busy days, it can have availability through mid-morning or even beyond if crowd levels are really low. The lower the standby wait time for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, the longer its Individual Lightning Lane availability lasts. When the posted wait time doesn’t crack triple digits, Rise of the Resistance can have ILL inventory into the early afternoon.
To compound matters on busier days, DHS is also home to the unequivocally most popular Genie+ Lightning Lane attraction: Slinky Dog Dash. This presents a practical problem–how do you book both? There is no good way for one person to accomplish both beyond trying to do things quickly and hoping for the best. Realistically, you’ll want to have two adults awake at 7 am, with one booking Slinky Dog Dash and the other booking Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. For the best outcome, follow our Speed Strategy for Genie+ Selections.
With all of that said, if you’re only going to buy one Individual Lightning Lane, make it Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. This is the one big exception to our recommendation that you strategize around ILLs, and is for a few reasons. First, we think it’s the best attraction of all at Walt Disney World. Second, it typically is the longest wait time in all 4 parks.
Finally, and most importantly, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance is the most unreliable attraction, with breakdowns occurring daily. If you jump into a multi-hour standby line, there’s moderate probability of downtime while you’re waiting. That not only means you’ll potentially be stuck in the same spot for an hour or so, but also that when Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance returns from downtime, it’ll have a backlog of Individual Lightning Lane guests–who are prioritized–to process before the standby line.
Speaking from experience, it is incredibly frustrating and a huge waste of time if this happens while you’re in the standby line. While we hate Individual Lightning Lanes as a matter of principle, we are also realists and recognize that vacation time is finite and has a per hour value. There’s also the reality that enduring a ride breakdown of Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance while in the standby line could really put a damper on your day, and vacation as a whole.
For this reason alone, we recommend Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance during Early Entry, at the end of the night, or via the Individual Lightning Lane. The risk and potential for wasted time via standby during the middle of the day is simply too high. It’s not an overstatement or exaggeration to say that a negative standby experience with Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance could ruin your day.
Another alternative is waiting for a refill of the Individual Lightning Lane for Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. See Ride Reservation Refill Rules at Walt Disney World for timing on when these typically occur.
Animal Kingdom is where you’ll find one of Walt Disney World’s most popular attractions: Avatar Flight of Passage. This has sold pretty well, often being gone before afternoon while posting hour-plus or even triple digit standby wait times.
However, it’s also relatively easy to experience Avatar Flight of Passage without a lengthy wait. Either arrive for Early Entry and do it first, or show up late and do it during the last hour of the evening. We’ve done both approaches many times, and often have an actual wait time of under 30 minutes, regardless of the posted wait time.
Next, here’s how to book Individual Lightning Lanes…
There are a few different ways to make an initial purchase of Individual Lightning Lanes.
It’s entirely possible you’ll be prompted while browsing My Disney Experience or setting up the free Genie service, in which case you’d see something like the above.
You can also navigate to the Tip Board via the + button at the middle bottom of My Disney Experience or the hamburger button on the bottom right.
From there, you’ll see something similar to the above screen. Click the Individual Lightning Lane box for the attraction to which you’d like to buy line-skipping access.
From there, you’ll either see the screen above or one to select your party. This is pretty self-explanatory; you select the start time of available one-hour return windows.
Be sure to check your existing plans (tap the arrow next to “Plans During This Time” for a dropdown) to avoid significant overlap between Advance Dining Reservations, Genie+ selections, and other plans. My Disney Experience will not prevent you from booking conflicting plans–it’s up to you to make sure you’re not double-booked.
It’s also possible you’ll first be directed to this screen, where you can select which members of your party for whom you’d like to purchase Individual Lightning Lane access. This means that you do not need to purchase ILL for anyone who the ride might make physically ill, kids who are too short to ride, etc.
If you don’t see the above screen first, you can get to this point by tapping the “Edit” button to the right of your party on the time slot selection screen.
After confirming your party and selecting a time, you’re sent to a screen to review the details before completing the purchase.
If anything is inaccurate or you’d like to change it, tap the back arrow on the top left corner of the screen.
Otherwise, it’s on to enter or confirm your contact details, payment info, and agree to Disney’s terms & conditions before tapping purchase. Notably, Individual Lightning Lane prices do not include tax–just like the Genie+ service–which feels like nickel & diming on top of nickel & diming.
On a more humorous note, there’s a caveat above the terms & conditions that this Individual Lightning Lane can only be redeemed at Walt Disney World–near Orlando, Florida. If someone can’t distinguish between Disneyland in Anaheim, California and Walt Disney World, they are seriously going to be lost when it comes to the convoluted Genie system!
From there, you’ll receive a receipt with a lengthy confirmation number and order details that should look similar to the above. I say “should” because I’ve never actually bought Individual Lightning Lane access and have no intentions of doing so.
No offense to those who plan on buying these–to each their own–but it’s simply a line we’re not willing to cross, so to speak. While we are already fans of Genie+, that’s bundled access for multiple attractions that makes the whole day easier. This is different, as it means putting a price on a single attraction–all of which we have done many, many times over the years.
Beyond that, us buying Individual Lightning Lane access is not necessary “for the sake of research,” whereas testing and using Genie+ very much is. Since there’s currently only one ILL ride per park, it’s pretty easy to rope drop one and do the other right before park closing and bypass the lines that way.
If anything, thinking up, trying, and testing other savvy strategy to bypass long waits at Individual Lightning Lane attractions will be a “fun” challenge. That’s more important to us than getting to skip the lines ourselves! We recommend a similar approach to most vacation planners who are on a tighter budget, with the one potential exception being Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. For the reasons outlined above, it can be a good use of money that minimizes headaches and saves a ton of time–but even then, doing it during Early Entry or at the end of the night is a viable alternative.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the pay-per-ride Individual Lightning Lane ride reservations? Planning on using this to skip standby lines, or do you prefer not to pay even more for an already expensive Walt Disney World vacation? Are you more likely to purchase Genie+ or Individual Lightning Lanes–or neither? Do you agree or disagree with our advice and assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Doesn’t anyone from Disney read these comments, which all say the same thing? I DO NOT WANT TO USE TECHNOLOGY TO GET 0N RIDES AND have to pay additional money to do so. Have my nose in my phone and my eyes on my watch for 5 days? Disgusting, after paying over $4000 for this trip. If I didn’t promise this trip for my daughter, I would cancel it. THIS IS MY LAST DISNEY. I will never return with these policies. Disney, SHAME ON YOU!
The comments do not all say the same thing.
The topic is Individual Lightning Lane, and you buy those once at the start of the day – completely untrue you need to have your nose in the phone all day.
I get that you hate tech but its use is accelerating everywhere, not just Disney. Maybe delegate to someone more tech savvy in your party.
We’d love to go back again, having been fortunate to visit a number of times from the UK, but to be honest it all sounds like hard work now, having to rely on technology and bottomless pockets! I thought it was supposed to be an enjoyable, fun filled holiday…… I really long for the good old days
I will admit to having purchased ILL on my last trip to WDW, and I admit I will do it on my next one. To me, it was worth $10 to have a five minute wait for mine train or remy, when the standby line is 2 hours. Do I like paying for it (on top of genie+)? Of course not. Am I going to do it because it’s a massive time saver and when I am paying so much for a trip $10 feels minor? Yes. And I expect that’s what they are counting on. Still, I went on three or four attractions during the time I would have spent on a two hour line for mine train at MK. So to me it was worth it.
That said, I totally understand how to some people it’s not. To each their own!
Hey Tom,
I can’t help but feel bad for those vacationing who are on a tight budget and cannot afford these high priced options. They are already pricing families out all together from enjoying the parks because lines are ridiculously long and they cannot foot more money out on Genie+ & ILL.
Also, seriously I noticed you were charged tax on your ILL purchase???? There’s no need for that. It’s a ride not food or merchandise. That’s absurd! Just saying….
My third trip to Disneyland in 1978 still used tickets for rides (A-E) Adult book of 15 tickets cost $8. There were 56 “experiences” then. (but I was only 9, and thrilled with my Goofy hat, and my brother’s Donald cap with a duck call in the ‘bill’)
Now I’m booking and researching my first trip to WDW. I loved the passport freedom of my last 2 visits to Anaheim (1991 and 2006), but wonder if the Lightning Lane isn’t a return to the ticketed days? I don’t remember what the lines were like in the 70’s, but I do remember being conscious of the scarcity of those tickets. Wonder if this way of business thinking is returning?
We are here low and tomorrow will be trying for an ILL for Guardians. I am worried because each morning I have to buy my genie+ while the others in my party I purchased in advance. I thought I could buy genie + before 7 am but I only ever get the option when trying to book a LL which obviously slows me down on getting the value rides. I am an annual pass holder, any advice ? Not sure what I might be doing wrong.
You can buy genie + any time after midnight so buy it before 7 am. Then you are ready to get the 7 am LL
Given that, for every attraction, there is a price at which ILLs would not sell out within minutes of release, it is very odd that Disney does not simply price accordingly.
I can only think they don’t want the PR hit of charging $30 (or whatever the number would be!), but in that case, they should formalise a lottery system. An “unofficial” lottery involving a glitchy app and server timeouts is (surely) even worse in terms of PR / word of mouth.
Totally agree.
Also very odd that this, of all things, is where they draw the line with negative PR.
We stayed off property for our last trip (which we really enjoyed!) We were not able to get a single individually purchased Lightning Lane the whole week. They were always sold out by 9am by resort guests. We did ok, though and rode everything we wanted to. Our strategy for parks did not depend on LL, thank goodness! Off property guests need to have a plan B for that high demand ride! 🙂
All ticket holders, even those staying off site, can currently make their first selection at 7:00AM. We went back in October 2021 and stayed offsite. I made all of our first selections at 7am without any issues. Hopefully this remains the case for our upcoming trip.
That is true for regular lightening lane but NOT the case for paid individual lightening lane. Regular genie + is available at 7am for all. But the paid lightening lanes, which is Rise of the Resistance, it’s 9am for offsite.
We arrive and are checking into our resort next Friday in the afternoon. Can we purchase individual lightning lanes at 7 am or do we have to wait until the park opens (because we haven’t officially checked in yet). Thanks for any help !
You should be able to buy them the morning of check in.
Thank you Jennifer. What was the noise like from the hotel building work? Did it spoil your stay x
Not at all! I didn’t even notice the construction, not even when we were out at the pool. Never woke us up or anything.
Side note- the Hilton shuttle to the parks is pretty good. It’s on time per their schedule. The only issue we had was that one bus went to all 4 parks so depending on the order and where you are headed, it could be up to 45 mins to an hour so account for that when looking at which shuttle time to take. We supplemented with taxis when needed, which were really easy to get and use.
Thanks again Jennifer, much appreciated
Hello,
Are you able to book ILL’s at 7:00am on the day of your check in? Our Park pass and check in day’s are the same, but check in time wouldn’t be until later in the day. Are you considered a ‘Resort Guest’ before technically checking into your resort?
Thanks
We did ILLs for Rise of the Resistance and ended up doing one for Mine Train on our last MK day, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to do it since we weren’t staying until close. I used your strategies and order for MK and everything was great. HS worked like a charm with Genie+ as well. For the other two parks we didn’t do Genie+ and ended up being in quite a bit of lines. So we ended up doing Genie+ the next two misc days just to make sure that we got to do the things that we wanted, worked and was worth it. It was all about expectations and how you’re doing Disney. We were an early morning family every day and had a lot of success. But we only stayed till close on our first day and every other one went back to the resort early because my kids (10 & 13) were done. ILLs were completely worth it because of how busy and what the demand was for those rides on those particular days. It’s all about how busy it actually is on the given day, your tolerance, and needs. We pivoted a couple of times and ended up having a great trip. If we hadn’t done Genie+ we would have only done a fraction and had a would have missed out on a lot. The pay per ride rankles my accountant heart, however, the opportunity cost of missing out on something entirely was worth it because we likely won’t be back for a long time again. These are not casual walk and discover parks in order to maximize your experience. Universal is that, and we had a great time there too, they’re just VERY different.
REMY BREAKDOWN. NO REIMBURSEMENT. We were just at Epcot on Saturday, February 12. I purchased the Genie+ and the ILL for RRA. It probably wasn’t worth the $15 per person for the Genie+ but my boyfriend really hates lines, so I got it just to avoid as many as possible. I got on at 7am to get RRA which had a glitch and I couldn’t get my boyfriend a ticket even though he is in my party. I got a 5:15 reservation and it was only 7:02. Then I got a LL for Test Track and it was 12:25. I left a text message with a CM to try to fix the RRA, which did get fixed and we both then had reservations for around the same time. We rope dropped Frozen with Early Entry. Then we left the park to go to Beach Club to grab breakfast because there is NOTHING to eat at Epcot for breakfast (boy are they missing out on an opportunity there!). Came back into the park and rode Soarin’ as stand-by as I couldn’t book a LL until 11am (2 hours after park opening, even though I already had a LL res for TT at 12:15). At 11, I booked a LL for Living with the Land which was not a great time saver, but still we got to walk on. We made it to our RRA at 5:30, stood in a LL for about 15 minutes, got on the ride and made it into the pantry section then BAM! the ride broke down. They evacuated us and offered us another LL to use later in the day. Unfortunately, this was our last thing we were planning on doing that day and so we never went back. It’s unfortunate that they do not offer a refund if the ride breaks down to those who purchased an ILL. I guess that it’s only $22 and not more if I had a large group with me. But, come on Disney!!! Who can we complain to about all of these issues? I’m a DVC member since 2003. This is insane!
Yes, the refund policy is a little insane. During our last visit back in April, ROR broke down at least 4 times throughout the day. Luckily, most of us still got to ride (and we were refunded for those who couldn’t, since it didn’t reopen after the last breakdown), but I could definitely see some prefer they be given the option to be refunded instead of coming back at a later time. There’s no ETA when a ride will come back up, and with multiple breakdowns the ILL lane basically turns into a standby line. If it comes back and you’ve made other plans and decide not ride, you’re out the money which is crazy.
On a different note, and something I don’t see mentioned a lot in ILL articles is there’s a 10 party limit, unlike LL. For those traveling with large parties, you’ll definitely want to group yourselves into 10 or less and have a different person responsible for making selections for each group to increase the likelihood of everyone getting an ILL and around the same arrival time window.
When an issue occurs, write Disney and ask about refunds for ILL . You might be surprised by the outcome. Just be friendly and factual. We had a problem with misinformation at our Disney hotel and Disney gave us courtesy one day passes to return in the future.
Having cancelled our 2020 trip due to the pandemic I am hoping against hope to get back this year. I consider myself pretty Disney Savvy having gone a number of times. I am a planner so our park schedule had always been determined by where we got the best fastpasses 60 days out. I hate the thought of trying to navigate genie+ but my biggest fear is if you have to book the park you plan to attend and can only pick your genie + picks that morning you may not even have the chance to get on the rides you were hoping for. This will definitely be our last Disney trip and I am hoping we don’t come home with a suitcase full of disappointing memories.
Booking at 7:00 a.m. every day is so miserable. Disney, please, just move this a week ahead at a reasonable hour. So people can get the rat race for Lightning Lanes out of the way before going on vacation.
This is the best suggestion ever!
I was so excited about our upcoming trip, but am now dreading it. It sounds like I am going to spend 95% of my time on my phone booking rides/attractions. How am I supposed to watch my children while on my phone constantly. I am truly contemplating daily whether or not to switch our trip to Universal.
Brilliant idea.
I’m dreading the planning by the day.
I bought genie + and only managed to get on 2 rides with it at MK so total. waste of money. As for Star wars Rise of resistsnce not worth the money for me been on twice with friends desperate to ride it and still don’t get it! Themed great yes, different yes but ride experience – no thrills, no feeling greart must do it again. In fact once having done it for curiosity reasons I have no desire to ride it again. Unlike Avator which I could ride all day!! That said, although I like the movies I am not a cult fan, so maybe that is why I feel disappointed!
Disney is greedy. They are out pricing themselves to the average family with kids in addition to taking away the magic. They have increased prices of EVERYTHING and took away a lot. Minimal characters, no interaction with characters. No free mugs for unlimited refills you must buy them, no free magical express, no dining plan, difficult to get reservations, reservations for parks, NO park hopping until late in the day. This is a very stressful vacation!!! I understand we have pandemic BUT enough is enough Universal is a much better deal! And they are doing a much better job. Disney Magic is gone!
I totally agree with you. I only wish we could email a complaints department at Disney! I’ve been looking forward to my trip for so long, but now because of the greedy changes and booking stresses I’m seriously thinking of cancelling. I just don’t understand anyone who thinks all these changes are acceptable. Where is the magic in standing in a queue for hours per ride in excess of 100 degrees and charge you thousands of pounds and then extra to save 10 minutes! Absolutely GREEDY x
I really grudge paying Disney more than we’re already paying for a 14 day tickets however with 2 children who love Star Wars it seems the only way to guarantee getting on the new ride. It’s a lot of money to add to a family of 4s day.
Our holiday is already looking like costing 50% more than in 2017 traveling from the UK
We are annual passholders (Florida Residents) and recently went to MK, HS, Epcot. We didn’t purchase Genie+ or any ILL access. We were able to go on all the rides with no issues. Granted this is early Feb 2022 but it was still pretty packed. We actually did Rise of the Resistance with only a 20 minute wait. I think the longest we waited for a ride was Rattatouie (ride broke down) 90 minutes on line. We avoided AK this trip.
We spoke with a family from Oregon that paid $75.00 for ROR, ILL. I find it offensive to pay additional money to ride what has already been paid for on admission and creating classes of guests who can or can’t afford to skip the lines.
What we really wanted to do was visit restaurants in the parks. This was the most difficult and frustrating thing we encountered. It’s almost impossible to book a time. The only way we were able to get Prime Time Cafe was sitting on the app waiting for an open spot to come up. We got lucky.
When you use 2 devices at 7:00am to get SDD Genie+and SW:RotR ILL, can they both be logged into the same MDE account? Or do they need to be logged into different accounts? We only have one MDE account, but two phones with the app. Will this work for the 7:00am dash?
I have the same exact question. Has this been answered?
Hi, I was wondering If you could help me? We planned our Disney holiday pre pandemic at the Hilton Bonnet Creek which had full Disney Benefits. However, it doesn’t seem to qualify for genie plus booking from 7am which is causing me a lot of stress. We planned our holiday especially to do Star Wars ROTR but I’m very concerned we’re going to spend tens of thousands of pounds and NOT get on this ride! We also now have to go in July/Aug which I’m guessing will be very busy as well as uncomfortable. What can we do to ensure we get on this ride? Thank you x
Similar situation here and what I’m finding is; rope drop or get in line near park close. We can’t use the 7am resort booking hour for ILL so we’ll be doing one of the above for ROTR.
We just got back from a week at Hilton Bonnet Creek and ran into this issue. It’s a problem. I wish we had stayed at an actual Disney resort. We had two days at DHS and never were able to purchase the individual lightening lanes for Rise. It was sold out before we got opportunity at 9am. Same for Seven Dwarfs Mine at MK. This was during Spring Break and all 4 parks were sold out all week so it was extremely busy. Hollywood Studios was the biggest mess. Even all the Genie+ LL were booked by 10am for ALL rides so nothing left to do what wait for hours in standby lines. I’d get one LL at 7am for 3 or 4pm for most rides. Then 2 hrs after parks open, you can book a second. This is when all the LL disappeared for the entire day. Rise standby was 205 mins wait, Tower of Terror was 120 mins. Mickey and Minnie was around 95 mins. We did not have this issue at Epcot or MK. The LL would eventually fill for the more popular rides by not until much later in the afternoon and we were able to manage it much better. We rode everything we wanted at MK and Epcot with exception of the 2 paid rides that our group wasn’t willing to stand in line for at that time. I’d make a plan for those rides to rope drop them or hit at close if they are important to you.