Disney Expands Lightning Lane Premier Pass to All Walt Disney World Resort Hotel Guests

8 hours ago in "Disney Genie"

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Lightning Lane Premier Pass logo

Posted: Friday November 22, 2024 7:00am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Walt Disney World has expanded the availability of its Lightning Lane Premier Pass, previously offered exclusively to guests staying at Disney Deluxe Resorts, Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts, and select hotels. As of November 22, 2024, the pass is now available to guests staying at all Walt Disney World Resort hotels, including the Walt Disney World Dolphin, Swan, Swan Reserve, and Shades of Green Resort.

Lightning Lane Premier Pass logo

Expanded Access for More Guests

The Lightning Lane Premier Pass allows guests to skip standby lines and use Lightning Lane entrances for one-time access to each available Lightning Lane attraction in a single park on a given day. Previously limited to guests at Disney’s highest-tier resorts, this expansion now opens the option to all Disney Resort hotel guests, making the service more widely accessible.

Eligible guests include those staying at:

All Disney Resort Hotels
Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel
Walt Disney World Swan Hotel
Walt Disney World Swan Reserve
Shades of Green Resort

How the Lightning Lane Premier Pass Works

The Lightning Lane Premier Pass differs from other Lightning Lane options, such as the Multi Pass and Single Pass, in its flexibility and scope:

No Arrival Windows: Unlike other Lightning Lane passes, Premier Pass holders don’t need to select arrival times for attractions. Guests can enter Lightning Lane entrances whenever they choose, subject to availability.
One-Park Access: The pass includes one-time access to every available Lightning Lane experience in a single park for one day.
Photo Perks Included: Guests also receive digital downloads of select attraction photos and videos through Disney PhotoPass, adding extra value to the pass.

Eligibility and How to Purchase

Guests staying at eligible hotels can purchase the Lightning Lane Premier Pass up to seven days before their stay using the My Disney Experience app. Pricing varies by date and park and is displayed in the app at the time of purchase. As this remains a limited-quantity offering, early booking is recommended for those interested.

Magic Kingdom: $329–$449
Hollywood Studios: $249–$349
EPCOT: $149–$249
Animal Kingdom: $119–$199

View current and upcoming Lighting Lane Premier Pass pricing.

What’s Next for Lightning Lane Premier?

With this expansion, Disney is testing how the Lightning Lane Premier Pass can cater to a wider audience. While it remains to be seen how this affects availability and guest satisfaction, the move signals Disney’s interest in providing more premium service options to a broader range of visitors.

Future updates to the Lighting Lane Premier Pass may include an option allowing for Lighting Lane access across all four Walt Disney World theme parks, although Disney is yet to announce any new additions to the service.

Guests are willing to pay a high price to secure easy entry to E-Ticket rides like TRON Lightcycle Run

Discuss on the Forums

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Chi842 minutes ago

Fewer people will result in an easier, more comfortable trip for you. Enjoy.

Dranth9 minutes ago

What an obnoxious take. You can literally say that about anything.

HoustonHorn12 minutes ago

Disney's public statements that attendance is down. Reputable reports from travel professionals here and elsewhere that hotel bookings are soft. More reputable reports (and, anecdotally, my own observations) that TS dining is soft. But Disney is also saying that revenues are flat to up based on higher per-customer spending. Higher per-customer cost means fewer guests in your potential customer pool. Which means you have to raise prices to increase revenue, which further erodes your customer pool. And so on and so on. I'm not saying the world is ending. Just saying that this is not the same long-term strategy Mickey used to employ, and it doesn't seem like a great idea over a long horizon. I don't think Bob cares, because he'll cash out with higher revenue. *Sent from my gate at Hobby as my daughter and I head to Orlando for 6 days of pre-Thanksgiving fun, because I'm part of the problem!

UNCgolf20 minutes ago

I'm not sure why people keep saying it's shareable as though that justifies the price -- I mean yes, it is, but they don't seem significantly larger than slices of cake you get at other quality bakeries. A lot of places sell shareable cake slices. As @lentesta mentioned somewhere above, Maxie B's has incredible cake that's as good as Cake Bake at worst (likely better than Cake Bake), and their slices are about the same size as Cake Bake's slices but cost less than half as much. They may be a little smaller, but they're certainly not half the size of a Cake Bake slice.

DisneyHead12357 minutes ago

I'm pretty terrible about being an overly splurgey splurger McSplurgerton, and even I cannot totally get over the idea of a $30 piece of cake. I get that it's all relative. I'm sure there are $500 bottles of wine that aren't actually that much better than $30 bottles of wine, and people still happily buy them. I think it's just the fact that there's almost no precedent for cake being that expensive. Even the most froufrou cake slices and cupcakes at the bougiest bakery do not cost anywhere near $30. (I think Magnolia bakery sells half a dozen cupcakes, thematically decorated, for under $30). It's even a meme around here that when people want to accuse Disney of being cheap, they'll joke about them throwing in a free cupcake. It's a joke because cupcakes are presumed to be cheap, for the most part. Again, I get how it probably comes off as a crazy quibble in a world where people are paying $35 for a bubble wand. I think it's just that cake has a fairly specific price range and this goes waaaay beyond that.

monothingie2 hours ago

GhostHost10004 hours ago

Bob being told people are actually paying for this

DCBaker4 hours ago

Lightning Lane Premier Pass has now sold out at Magic Kingdom on November 23. Here's a look at the dates and park locations that are currently sold out: Magic Kingdom: 23, 25, 26, 27, 28 Hollywood Studios: 25, 28

Ayla5 hours ago

So, as suspected, not enough takers. 😂

HauntedPirate5 hours ago

With this new opportunity to spend an exorbitant amount of money on something, this is the only thing I feel right now...

JMcMahonEsq5 hours ago

Ah I get you, reading and typing on phone you can lose context. I still honestly don’t see the craziness on the cake here tbh. Is it expensive, sure, though I do agree the size is enough that you can split the dessert, so I don’t think 30 bucks for dessert for 2 people is all that crazy/dumb. I mean I took my son last night to 5 guys for dinner. A burger/fries/shake was over 20bucks. And that was to go, from a fast food chain restaurant, in the suburbs of Northern NJ. It’s not obviously an apples to apples comparison but if I am going to pay 20 bucks for a to go burger and fries, at a local fast food place, how much am I really complaining about spending an extra 10 bucks to split a desert while on vacation at the largest tourist destination in us?

JohnD5 hours ago

At the current price point for Premier, I'm not hoping for this at all. I'll stick with Single/Multipass, thank you. My costs came to around $300 over 5 days. MK is $339-$449 on one day only. It really isn't that difficult in multipass to pick another experience on the app after using one.

JohnD5 hours ago

My combined costs for Single/Multipass came to about $300 over 5 days. $329-$429 for MK on one day is WAY out of my price point. LLMP is going to stay around a while.

Fido Chuckwagon5 hours ago

I wasn't referring to Lightning Lane Premier Pass. I'm talking about $30 for a piece of previously frozen cake, which was in the post that I quoted. I can certainly afford that type of meal (and would certainly pay that type of price or more at an actual Michelin-starred restaurant). But paying that price for previously frozen cake in a faux-fancy establishment? Lol, no. That's for dumb people. Sorry, but it is.