Lightning Lane Multi-Pass Launch Day Availability at Disney World
As of today, July 24, Walt Disney World has rolled out the new Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, effectively killing off the Genie+ service. This post takes an early look at ride reservation availability following the changes, with the goal of determining whether it’s now more or less difficult to score the best selections in Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom.
Before we get going, it is worth noting that Walt Disney World is not launching Lightning Lane Multi Pass in a vacuum. It’s been a slow summer throughout Orlando’s theme parks, as we discuss at length in  Summer (Still) Is NOT High Crowds Season at Walt Disney World.
This has actually been the busiest week of July 2024, with average wait times of 32 minutes for a crowd level of 3/10. That’s not particularly surprising, as this ‘twin peaks’ trend has become normal and we expected a last hurrah for summer travel at the end of July. Nevertheless, we’d expect a slowdown by the middle of next week, and significantly lower crowds starting around August 12, for the reasons discussed in our 2024-2025 Walt Disney World Crowd Calendars.
You might think that a conversation about crowds is beside the point, but it’s precisely the point. More people purchase Lightning Lanes when crowds are higher. This is something we’ve seen time and time again in the last two years. There’s a reason that demand for Lightning Lanes is higher when prices are higher–it’s because the date-based surcharge over the low or regular seasons is relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things.
Intuitively, this makes complete sense. Worse wait times creates a higher incentive for bypassing lines, meaning higher uptake of Lightning Lanes even when it costs more. The rationale is simple–people are willing to pay more to skip lines when they’re worse. Even at a higher price, Lightning Lane Multi Pass offers greater utility and value for money on a 9/10 crowd level day than it does a 3/10 day.
Moreover, those visiting during peak weeks are already paying more for their vacations. The difference between $27 (current pricing for Magic Kingdom) and $39 (peak pricing) is relatively insignificant in the grand scheme of things, and won’t cause many guests who are already choosing to book the most expensive days of the year to balk at pricing. Another few hundred dollars on top of a multi-thousand dollar trip will be “worth it” to a large percentage of guests if it offers a competitive advantage–and Lightning Lanes do!
More to the point, I mention all of this because we’ve been around the block with the launch of new line-skipping services during the off-season. Genie+ launched back on October 19, 2021 at Walt Disney World at a time that was shockingly uncrowded for a variety of reasons beyond the scope of this post.
Before the end of October, we had extensively tested Genie+ in every single park at Walt Disney World and aside from some bellyaching about paying $16 (ah, the good ole days) per park for what used to be free and the buggy nature of the app feature, our conclusion was that Genie+ was glorious. We were able to book every single Lightning Lane in every park with ease (well, minus the app glitches). Availability was plentiful, demand was low.
Crowd levels were also in the 1/10 to 2/10 range. Fast-forward about a month, and the paid FastPass replacement absolutely melted down in Thanksgiving crowds. So we tested and retested. Then Walt Disney World made a bunch of changes to fix problems and help with the supply vs. demand imbalance. More testing and retesting. Frankly, I feel like Bob Chapek should’ve given me a shoutout on the earnings calls for buying Genie+ so many times and helping pump up their numbers.
The moral of the story is that I easily tested Genie+ over a dozen times in 3 of the 4 parks (it quickly became clear that Animal Kingdom was a waste of time–even as the system changed, DAK demand dynamics did not) during its first year of existence. Field testing results from one month were often obsolete by the next.
By my count, there were 16 official changes to Genie+ that we reported on during its existence, and many more unofficial tweaks. I’d expect a very similar story here with Lightning Lane Multi-Pass as Walt Disney World figures out the demand dynamic and listens to guest feedback.
At the very least, we’re not going to be able to glean the advance booking dynamic from launch, as it’s happening in a condensed timeframe. Accordingly, this should all be viewed as a just for fun or exercise in futility, whichever is your preference.
In any case, I’ll be checking Lightning Lane availability regularly and sharing the results here for those who care. Commentary follows in case you can’t make sense of the screenshots, or just want an interpretation…
7:00 am Lightning Lane Multi-Pass Availability
Admittedly, this is a bit of a firehose of information–screenshots captured in a sleep-deprived and uncaffeinated state.
You’ll notice that the same few attractions–Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Slinky Dog Dash, and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure–appear throughout. That’s because these are the #1 priorities that are in the highest demand in their respective parks. So availability for these will be the most limited, and their available time slots the most instructive.
Since the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass system is smart, earlier hours are going to be gone first–meaning that what you see in most cases is the earliest possible return time. Even though guests have the option of modifying (as illustrated in some screenshots) and adjusting their time slots to occur later, there isn’t much incentive for doing so. I would hazard a guess that the majority of guests will stick with the default–or at least enough that earlier times are always gone first at the 7:00 am mark. (Ride reservation refills won’t follow this rule of thumb.)
If you’re going to be trying for any of these headliners, we’d reiterate that speed strategy still works! (although that post needs an update for the changeover to LLMP, the animating idea remains true). Moreover, from what we’re seeing, you should book parks in the following priority:
- Magic Kingdom (Tiana’s Bayou Adventure)
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Slinky Dog Dash)
- EPCOT (Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure)
- Animal Kingdom (Na’vi River Journey, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Kali River Rapids or Expedition Everest)
After having coffee, I decided it’d probably be worthwhile to make a full slate of selections by day. Here those are, from the 8 am hour:
These are my picks for dates outside of the 3-day window, made in reverse chronological order–which is exactly what you should do for, theoretically, the best availability. Meaning that for the best attraction and return time options, you’ll want to backload your bookings with Magic Kingdom furthest out, then DHS, EPCOT, and Animal Kingdom. This matters less if you have a longer trip and more for a shorter one–like mine here.
In actuality, I can’t really say my selections improved for dates further out. Most notably, the only day that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure was not available was July 31–the last day of my trip. I’d imagine that if I were willing to play the refresh game for ~20 minutes, I’d be able to find availability. Or had I, you know, done this at 7 am, I would’ve been just fine. It’s kind of a weird play to be up and doing pre-arrival planning a week in advance, but not doing it right at 7 am.
Another thing to note is the return times on the Group B attractions at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. In some of these scenarios, my earliest return time would not be until afternoon. This is a mistake. Do not let ride rankings take precedence over return times! I cannot emphasize this enough (hence the bolding.)
I would’ve been better off selecting my #3 attraction priority from the Group B options (so #4 overall) with an earlier return time as opposed to some of these options. A perfect example of this would be July 28 at Magic Kingdom. Under no circumstances should I be booking PotC and HM with mid-afternoon returns–I could’ve picked “it’s a small world” or Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin for 9:05 am returns and the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh for a 10:05 am return.
I am completely confident same-day ride reservation refills–or just later-day availability since there are no re-rides and PotC and HM have almost never run out of LLs–would’ve allowed me to ride the higher priority Group B attractions. That’s the tricky thing to remember with Lightning Lane Multi Pass and something you have to “unlearn” if you used Genie+ extensively.
Since the 120 minute rule is gone, it is imperative that you’re getting earlier return times in order to unlock the 4th and subsequent selections. Your highest Group A ride can be later in the day–that’s fine. All you really need is a rolling Group B ride that’s earlier. Personally, I think having both of them earlier is best practice for maximum flexibility, but if you just keep booking the earliest option and redeeming, you should be fine.
Ultimately, it’ll be interesting (to me, at least!) to follow the evolving dynamics of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Walt Disney World in the coming weeks and–more so–once fall break in October and the holiday season rolls around. I don’t think we’re going to learn any lessons in July or August 2024 that are relevant to those planning 2025 Walt Disney World vacations.
Between the lower crowds and likelihood of adjustments, how the next few weeks play out has little value to anyone visiting for the Christmas season or next year. But it’s still interesting (again, to me!)Â to watch this all play out in real-time. Thus far, it’s going much better than expected. One likely change is that Magic Kingdom won’t be the #1 park once November rolls around, as Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will hopefully be more reliable by then–or at the very least, the temperatures will be colder.
An even bigger ‘evolution’ that I suspect we’ve already seen is the expansion of ride reservation inventory under Lightning Lane Multi-Pass as compared to the Genie+ system. This is something that we’ve been discussing for a while–that there were necessary prerequisites prior to the launch of LLMP that would help free up inventory.
Those things happened, and the results should be evident in Lightning Lane Multi-Pass availability over time. That’s not going to be clear immediately, as Walt Disney World doesn’t release all ride reservations right at 7 am on the dot. But I’m fairly confident we’ll see it over time, especially during the upcoming holiday season. (Guests should get more rides, on average, than last year and sellouts should be less common.)
We’ll continue monitoring Lightning Lane availability and all other changes in the coming weeks. As for more on-the-ground testing of Lightning Lane Multi Pass, that’ll also be coming relatively soon, but I’m less inclined to make the same mistake as October 2021 when I spent several consecutive weeks in the parks…only to have all of those efforts be rendered totally pointless by Thanksgiving. Between a new baby, new wisdom and the weather, the bulk of my field testing this time won’t come until Christmas-time.
If you have questions about the basics of using–or not using–the paid FastPass service, see our Guide to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Walt Disney World for all of the foundational need-to-know info. This whole system is confusing and convoluted, so you might have a question or two-dozen. That answers all of the most common ones we’ve been receiving from readers.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
If you’ve been booking Lightning Lane Multi-Pass for your upcoming Walt Disney World vacation, what’s been your experience thus far with availability? (I’m particularly interested in dates starting July 28 and beyond.) Have you noticed any discernible differences versus the Genie+ service? Any success or failures making multiple high-priority Lightning Lane selections? Would you recommend LLMP to others, or just advise sticking to standby? Other problems or thoughts to share? Do you agree or disagree with my 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!
Hey Tom. Were you reserving at 7am East Coast time or West Coast time? 😉 Had’da ask! Enjoy the sweatiest!
Any insight on whether character meet and greets will be added to the new system? Being able to book characters was one of our favorite and frequent uses of Genie+ and I am hoping it gets added back in!
I booked for Aug 1 at HS right at 7:00am on the dot. I got…
Slinky Dog at 9am
Tower of Terror at 10am
Toy Story Mania at 10:55am
And I also purchased Rise of the Resistance for 9:10am.
No glitches at all, completely done with my bookings by 7:01am! I was so impressed!
Thank you for your posts – I find them extremely helpful 🙂
On the ground at MK today, and the lightning lane availability has definitely felt low, despite crowds not being that bad. All the headliners were gone early in the day. Interestingly, it also looked like lightning lane single pass rides across the parks were gone by around noon? Definitely not something I’m used to seeing, especially at Epcot and AK. Have to think WDW was EXTRA conservative with inventory today (small solace for those who paid $27 for multipass).
“the bulk of my field testing this time won’t come until Christmas-time.”
Don’t leave us hanging Tom! We have a trip planned for the first week in December. (This really amazing Disney blogger says its the best week to go.) We don’t go to Disney very often, so it puts the pressure on. If we miss a ride or show or character it’s not like we can catch it next year. I want to make sure I have all your tips and tricks up my sleeve for a successful trip!
We’ll absolutely have field reports and much more *before* December. My aim is to have one ‘my day at [insert park name]’ done for each park by sometime in August. Probably more in each month after that, but I’m saving the big tests for Nov/Dec when crowds are heavier, things have settled down, and the weather is nicer.
The mistake I made last time was doing a dozen-plus very thorough posts in the 3 weeks after launch of Genie–almost all of which were obsolete or required massive updates by Christmas-time. Granted, that happened as COVID was making a resurgence and there wasn’t much else to do, so I don’t really have any regrets. I’m just not doing it again with that same level of aggressiveness or immediacy. I couldn’t even if I wanted with a baby, D23 Expo, and other stuff fast approaching.
Thoughts on strategy for booking 7 days out? When that 7 am time hits, which day would you prioritize… start with the farthest out to guarantee maximum returns towards the end of the stay, or start with your first day in the park and work forward to try to take the best available on the days that have already been picked over? I know it’s a matter of minutes, but we all know those minutes count! 🙂
I believe Tom generally recommends a work backwards approach ie Start with the most in-demand/important attractions and try to book those for the end of your trip. Save the easier to book rides for the start of your trip, as those times will have already been “picked over” by those arriving earlier than you. So if you have a 5 day trip and are trying to get Slinky Dog Dash, book that first on the 4th or 5th day of your trip. Hope that helps.
It does help, thanks!
Strategy is sound… we’ve back loaded with our last 4 days of the (7 day) trip at MK-HS-MK-HS (hopping), so I think you’re right. We could start with the MK day, but I’d rather guarantee we have ideal times on the last park-hopping day and hope those few minutes don’t take us out of the running for a decent return time to Tiana’s Bayou Adventure on our first MK day.
Hi Mike, yeah it’s basically the same as booking ADR’s. Start with the last day first for the most difficult one.
Come for the analysis and the testing of Tom’s theories, stay for the *live data collection!*
Thanks, Tom! I really appreciate watching how the magic happens – yours as well as the parks’.
Come for the analysis and the testing of Tom’s theories, stay for the *live data collection!*
Thanks, Tom! I really appreciate watching how the magic happens – yours as well as the parks.
Apologies if this has been addressed, but I’ve not seen it anywhere. Can Lightning Lanes still overlap, or must they be at least 60 minutes apart as was the case with FastPass+?
No overlap. When I pre-selected my attractions at Magic Kingdom, it automatically gave me hour increments even though all rides were available at 9:00 am so my LL are booked for 9:00, 10:00, and 11:00. Additionally, I tried to modify a LL and picked at time that conflicted with another LL and it pushed out the time; i.e. tried to modify Toy Story Mania from 1:25 to 1:05 pm and when I got to the next screen it updated the time to 1:25 since I already had Slinky from 12:25-1:25. That is a big disadvantage from those of us that became power users of Genie+… sometimes we would have four rides stacked all over each other.
Apparently you can modify your LL after you make your initial picks but before you finalize payment to get overlapping times. But it doesn’t appear that you can after you pay.
@Amanda D Thanks! But now I’m more confused than ever, because I saw screenshots on another site that clearly showed Lightning Lanes with overlapping times (45 minutes of overlap, in fact). Maybe that happened with modifying post-purchase? I don’t know, but clearly I’m going to have to try to “break” the system next time I’m there. *L*
I don’t know if this even worked previously with Fastpass+, but with the new Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, is it possible to have two people logged into the same account on two separate devices making pre-arrival reservations for two different days?
As always, thanks for the amazing content, and the character and personality you show in your posts.
Thank you for this Tom! I agree – it’s exciting and new!
I wonder if this week, specifically 7/24-28, if not a very accurate representation of demand (summer or otherwise) because it seems that every Disney blogger on god’s earth is in the parks today (and presumably the next few days) to test the new system.
There are definitely a lot of vloggers/bloggers/influencers/Floridians who need to be “first,” but not THAT many. It may seem like a larger number because we’re all obnoxious and very visible, but we’re probably fewer than 1% of all park guests.
I think the more likely explanation is Walt Disney World throttling availability because it’s brand new and they themselves aren’t sure of what to expect. I’d imagine they’ll slowly open the valve, so to speak, after a few days and deeper into August.
So yeah, same thing you’re saying–but different reasoning.
Thank you for this great post! When are you planning to go around Christmas time? I will be there from Dec 24th onwards (but coming from Australia so reserving in advance is annoying even though I’m staying at a Disney resort). Just curious if you will be posting an update like this in late November/Early December so I have time to plan. Thank you!!!
Nothing is set in stone yet (planning around DCL), but most likely dates are mid-November and early to mid-December.
Anyone who is going after that should just wait for those posts. Planning ahead of that is probably going to be a waste of time. (Read my LLMP reports before that anyway…I’ll make them *fun* wastes of time, hopefully.)
Any thoughts on park hopping with the new system (especially Animal Kingdom)? Do you think it would be better to book one or two early return time rides at your morning park then after you check in for the first ride book all available for the afternoon park? Or just book in advance for your afternoon park? Especially curious about animal kingdom because with a 8am opening seems like multi pass is not necessary in most cases. Might still save time using one ride in animal kingdom though.
Thanks for any thoughts on this! I am going in early August and can’t wait to try the new system out.
I’m wondering the same thing, and I’m guessing time will tell about best approach. We are going next year and when I thought about our plans during the Genie+ era, I assumed morning at DAK, afternoon at HS and just using the 2 hr. rule to book all choices at HS. Now I wonder if the better play will be to book at DAK (with the added bonus of a cheaper price), and after the first tap in, switch everything to HS.
Your confidence on the availability of same-day LL for the 4th, 5th, 6th bookings and the existence of refills may be contradicted by today’s data. It seems like mostly only garbage or very late afternoon bookings are available shortly after park open. Maybe one can get a decent 4th booking. But anything more than that is low value. The exception to this may be Hollywood Studios, which has a little tier A flexibility for a 4th/5th booking…but even that is quite limited. Unless today is an anomaly or changes are made, this program may have leveled out the advantage power users had with genie+.
We have vacation planned for July 30th – August 8th. Here is what we booked:
Friday, August 2nd: Hollywood Studios (booked at 8:55am CST) – ToT 10:40-11:40, Slinky 12:25-1:25, Toy Story Mania 1:25 – 2:25.
Wednesday, August 7th: Magic Kingdom (booked at 9:00am CST)- Tiana’s 9:00 – 10:00; Pirates 10:00 – 11:00; Haunted Mansion 11:00 – 12:00.
I checked to modify my Tiana LL and availability for all rides is wide open – I could have picked any other ride at MK for 9:00 am.
I am on the fence about removing my Toy Story Mania LL and waiting until Aug 2nd but in the meantime I am going to try and refresh throughout the day and see if there are any ride refills. If there are any other things people want me to check on, let me know!
Bless you, Tom and Sarah, for all the sacrifices you make to report on endlessly evolving topic. I don’t know where you find the patience.
I mean, there are worse things in the world to have to do than visiting Walt Disney World and riding rides repeatedly in the name of research.
And if I’m being honest, I love the thrill of the chase and figuring out what works to beat the system. Really, I live for this stuff. So even as Genie+ came to work pretty well for my personal purposes, I’m very pleased with the change to LLMP if only because it gives me something new to do. (I also think it’s going to be better for the average guest–even if it isn’t for me.) Now I have something new to do other than continuing to revisit Early Entry strategy–that was starting to get stale.
I agree Tom, sometimes I think I enjoy the strategy more than the actual visit! Or maybe I just enjoy watching the family enjoy the fruits of the strategizing. 🙂
What is your best guess as to why Disney eliminated character meets from LL options? It doesn’t make logical sense to me. If the LL lines exist, isn’t it better to offer as many options as possible for guest satisfaction when purchasing the Multi-Pass? Using your crystal ball, do you see this changing in the near future?
I started writing a reply to this, but it was becoming a short novel and I’m only halfway through–so I’m going to flesh it out further and turn it into a post. Look for something in the next few days.
In the meantime, the short answer to your last question is maybe in 2025.
Thank you, Tom! As always, you are my #1 go-to for park information!
This is something I was upset about when I first saw the announcement. While my trip isn’t until Jan 2025, I looked at the app first thing this morning (just prior to 7am) and it showed the “eligible bookings” included the parade at MK and character meet and greets at multiple parks. I just looked again and they have vanished! I hope that’s something that returns.
looking forward to Tom’s article on this, but in the meantime, everyone should absolutely watch the Fastpass episode of Defunctland on YouTube – it answers this question (and a million more you never knew you had!)