Disney World Pilots New Lightning Lane Premier Pass for Deluxe Resort Guests Starting October 30, 2024

29 days ago in "Disney Genie"

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Posted: Wednesday October 16, 2024 8:06am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Beginning October 30, 2024, Walt Disney World will pilot a new service called the Lightning Lane Premier Pass, offering an exclusive option for guests staying at Disney Deluxe Resorts, Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts, and select partner hotels. This pass provides an opportunity for eligible visitors to gain quicker access to attractions, but with limited availability and specific purchasing guidelines.

Lightning Lane Premier launches at Walt Disney World on October 30, 2024

Priced between $129 to $449 (per pass, plus tax), the Premier Pass grants one-time entry to each available Lightning Lane experience in a single park for one day. This includes attractions available with both the Multi Pass and Single Pass. Unlike the existing Multi and Single passes, the Premier Pass doesn’t require you to select arrival windows for each attraction. You can enter Lightning Lane entrances whenever you choose.

How to Purchase the Lightning Lane Premier Pass

To purchase the Lightning Lane Premier Pass, guests must open the My Disney Experience app, where it will be available for eligible guests to buy up to seven days before their stay. Prices will vary depending on the date and theme park, and availability is expected to be limited. It’s important to note that the pass can only be purchased by guests staying at eligible resorts during their stay at Walt Disney World.

Once purchased, the pass provides one-time access to each available Lightning Lane entrance at one park per day. Guests can skip standby lines for attractions and enjoy a shorter wait time. After tapping into an attraction with a linked MagicBand, MagicBand+, Disney MagicMobile pass, or another admission method, they can continue to use the pass throughout the day.

Pricing and Availability

Pricing for the Lightning Lane Premier Pass will fluctuate based on demand, date, and the park selected. Guests can view the cost for their selected date in the My Disney Experience app, but availability is expected to be highly limited due to the pilot nature of the program.

Disney's Animal Kingdom: $129 - $199 + tax per person
EPCOT: $169 - $249 + tax per person
Disney's Hollywood Studios: $269 - $349 + tax per person
Magic Kingdom: $329 - $449 + tax per person

Eligible guests will be able to purchase the pass for their entire length of stay, up to 14 days, starting at 7:00 AM Eastern Time up to seven days before their first day at the resort. It’s essential to have valid theme park admission, and in some cases, park reservations may also be required.

Eligibility and Resorts Participating in the Pilot Program

The Lightning Lane Premier Pass will be available exclusively to guests staying at Disney Deluxe Resorts, Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts, and select hotels, including the Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel, Swan Hotel, and Shades of Green Resort.

Here is the full list of eligible resorts:

Disney Deluxe Resort Hotels: Animal Kingdom Lodge, Beach Club Resort, BoardWalk Inn, Contemporary Resort, Grand Floridian Resort & Spa, Polynesian Village Resort, Wilderness Lodge, Yacht Club Resort
Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts: Bay Lake Tower, Boulder Ridge Villas, Copper Creek Villas, Animal Kingdom Villas (Jambo House & Kidani Village), Beach Club Villas, BoardWalk Villas, Old Key West Resort, Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa, Riviera Resort, The Villas at the Grand Floridian
Select Other Hotels: Walt Disney World Dolphin, Swan, Swan Reserve, and Shades of Green

Guests staying at these resorts will have the opportunity to enhance their park experience with this new pass, though it remains to be seen how Disney will refine the program based on guest feedback during the pilot phase.

Using the Lightning Lane Premier Pass

Once the pass is purchased, it can be activated by simply heading to the Lightning Lane entrance of any participating attraction and tapping in with a linked admission method. The app also allows guests to track their Lightning Lane experiences through the “My Day” feature, helping visitors manage which attractions they’ve already redeemed and what’s still available.

How does Lightning Lane Premier Pass differ from Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass?

All 3 Lightning Lane passes enable you to skip the standby line and use the Lightning Lane entrance to join a shorter line for select theme park attractions and experiences.

However, Lightning Lane Premier Pass differs from Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass in the following ways:

Provides More Flexibility: With Lightning Lane Premier Pass, you don’t have to choose arrival windows for Lightning Lane attractions and experiences—so you can enter Lightning Lane entrances for the experiences you want, when you want (subject to availability). With other Lightning Lane passes, you must choose an arrival window for each Lightning Lane experience.
Includes Each Available Lightning Lane Experience in One Park: Lightning Lane Premier Pass gives you one-time entry to each available Lightning Lane experience in one park for one day. This includes Lightning Lane Multi Pass experiences and Lightning Lane Single Pass experiences in that park.
Lightning Lane Premier Pass and Lightning Lane Multi Pass both include photo perks—so you’ll receive digital downloads of select attraction photos and videos from your day, captured with Disney PhotoPass Service. Plus, access Disney PhotoPass Lenses. Disney PhotoPass Terms and Conditions apply. These photo perks are not included with Lightning Lane Single Pass.

Eligibility

In order to purchase any Lightning Lane pass, you must have valid park admission. Park reservations may also be required, depending on the date of your visit. Please see theme park reservation requirements.
Lightning Lane Premier Pass will be available in very limited quantities for Guests staying at Disney Deluxe Resorts, Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts and other select hotels.

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arich351 day ago

This was supposed to be in the other lightning lane thread but thank you for answering!

C33Mom2 days ago

Not sure about WDW, but the DL system has a pretty sophisticated set up where it always knows to pull the least valuable passes first, so a timed return is always pulled first, then a multi-experience pass for low tiers, then a multi experience pass that’s unrestricted, etc. When we’ve had multi experience passes at WDW, it’s always known to take specific LL returns first, and I’d bet $100 that if you have a specific LLSP at a designated time, it will pull that before a LLPP. I would expect it would burn a LLPP before a multi experience pass as well, but less sure about that.

Raineman2 days ago

I was thinking more along the lines of additional experiences, like Keys To The Kingdom, Behind The Seeds, Wild Africa Trek, things like that, and not necessarily any kind of "front of the line" paid perks.

JD802 days ago

You can select who you are buying for.

arich352 days ago

We have 1 guest who won't need a LL Single Pass, when booking everything for the trip does it allow me to select who needs LL for each day/attraction so it can all be done at once or do I have to do the transaction separately from the multi pass picks where all 4 of us are going to buy?

MisterPenguin2 days ago

Plus they recently purged a good chunk of those using LLs. And maybe discouraging others with increased pricing.

MickeyLuv'r2 days ago

How would the average park-goer know that standby was increased because of upper tier perks? I don't think they really would know, or knew at the time.

mysto2 days ago

Does anyone know how LLPP decides what to "debit" when you also have another LL reservation for that ride? For example we have an LLSP for the current time and haven't used our one LLPP yet. Which one will it take when we tap in? Do we have to talk to the CM to request one or the other?

Disstevefan12 days ago

Just my opinion, I don't see LLPP having an impact on wait times as LLPPs are a small fraction of the folks in the queues.

Purduevian2 days ago

Look from July 24th (first day of LLMP) to Today. MK Daily Average wait time via Thrill data. I think it's just too early to see any changes:

Raineman2 days ago

Seeing those numbers, it's very obvious who Disney is targeting with this, and it is definitely not your average park guest. There's no obligation for anyone to pay this. However, I would be interested in seeing if the average wait times for guests who do not purchase this option has increased since this was available. If the overall park experience for the guests who do not have the means to purchase this is negatively affected because of people purchasing this, then that is a problem. For years, there have been upper-tier offerings that were an extra charge, but the existence of them did not have any effect on the average park experience.

lewisc5 days ago

Can't sell out due to demnd? Can't sell out because Disney won't really cap the number of LLPP sold. The product should be priced high enough so it doesn't sell out, or sells out morning of.