Disney World Launches New Lightning Lane Premier Pass: Pricing Trends and Best Days to Buy

15 days ago in "Disney Genie"

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Posted: Wednesday October 30, 2024 8:09am ET by WDWMAGIC Staff

Starting today, October 30, 2024, Walt Disney World is introducing a new service called the Lightning Lane Premier Pass, designed exclusively for guests staying at Disney Deluxe Resorts, Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts, and select partner hotels.

This premium offering provides access to Lightning Lanes at popular attractions across Disney parks, allowing guests to bypass standby lines without scheduling specific times.

With the Premier Pass launching today, here's a look at pricing trends over the next three weeks across the four Disney parks, highlighting the minimum, maximum, and average prices you can expect.

Lightning Lane Premier Pass Pricing Trend for First 3 Weeks

Disney's Animal Kingdom

Current Price: $129
Range: $129 - $159
Number of Lightning Lane Attractions Included: 10

Trend Observations: Animal Kingdom's Lightning Lane Premier Pass pricing stays relatively stable, fluctuating between $129 and $159. The peaks occur primarily over weekends, with Fridays through Sundays typically priced higher than mid-week days.

Disney's Hollywood Studios

Current Price: $269
Range: $269 - $329
Number of Lightning Lane Attractions Included: 14

Trend Observations: Hollywood Studios shows significant price variation of up to $60, with weekends and Mondays reaching $309 to $329. Prices drop on select midweek days to $269, reflecting a pricing approach that aligns with demand, especially for popular attractions like Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance.

EPCOT

Current Price: $169
Range: $169 - $209
Number of Lightning Lane Attractions Included: 11

Trend Observations: EPCOT's pricing tends to rise to $209 on weekends, while weekdays are more moderately priced at $169 to $189. The trend reflects an expectation of increased demand on weekends when EPCOT hosts popular seasonal festivals, such as the International Food & Wine Festival.

Magic Kingdom

Current Price: $329
Range: $329 - $399
Number of Lightning Lane Attractions Included: 20

Trend Observations: Magic Kingdom is the highest-priced pass across all parks, peaking at $399 on a Saturday and also shows the highest variation between low and high pricing. Prices stabilize at $369 or $379 midweek, suggesting Disney anticipates high demand for Magic Kingdom's premier attractions like TRON Lightcycle / Run and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, particularly on weekends.

Key Takeaways

Weekend Premiums: Most parks and weeks show higher prices on weekends, indicating Disney expects increased guest flow on Saturdays and Sundays.

Demand-Based Adjustments: Parks with more major attractions, such as Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom, exhibit higher maximum prices, likely driven by demand for limited-capacity experiences.

Consistent Midweek Rates: Midweek days, particularly Tuesdays, usually offers slightly lower prices across most parks, which could present a value opportunity for guests with flexible schedules.

As this new system launches, it will be interesting to monitor if these prices remain consistent or adjust further based on demand patterns. For those planning trips, checking the Lightning Lane pricing calendar ahead of time may help in budgeting for these premium access options.

Everything You Need to Know About Disney's New Lightning Lane Premier Pass at Walt Disney World

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arich351 day ago

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

C33Mom1 day 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.

Raineman1 day 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.

JD801 day ago

You can select who you are buying for.

arich351 day 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?

MisterPenguin1 day ago

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

MickeyLuv'r1 day 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.