Disney has lost its mind with the new Lightning Lane Premium fees it announced this week. It now costs more to skip the line than to enter the parks.
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Disney’s New Lightning Lane Premier Pass Debuts
Big changes are coming to Disney’s U.S. theme parks as both the Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, California, and Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, prepare to roll out a premium skip-the-line service, Lightning Lane Premier Pass. Set to launch on October 23, 2024, at Disneyland and October 30, 2024, at Walt Disney World, this new offering will allow guests to bypass regular lines at every attraction offering Lightning Lane access for an entire day.
But before you grab your Mickey ears and credit card, there are a few key details to know. The service will be limited to a select number of guests each day, and the rules for purchasing and pricing differ between the two resorts.
Oh, and it’s priced at more than park entry, in some cases by as much as 220%.
Lightning Lane Premier Pass at Walt Disney World
Starting on October 30, 2024, Walt Disney World visitors staying at a Deluxe or Deluxe Villa resort will have exclusive access to the Lightning Lane Premier Pass. This means that unless you’re booked in one of Disney’s higher-tier resorts, you won’t be able to take advantage of the new service. If you’re eligible, you can purchase the pass up to seven days in advance of your visit, and it allows you to skip the line at every eligible ride once per day at one park of your choosing.
For those unfamiliar, Disney’s top tier resorts are often priced higher than the Good Neighbor hotel (with access to most but not all of the same features as a genuine Disney property) like the Four Seasons Orlando. Yes, that Four Seasons.
As with all things Disney, pricing is date-dependent, and it varies by park. Disney’s Animal Kingdom comes in at the lower end of the scale, with prices between $129 and $199 plus tax per person. If you’re heading to EPCOT, expect to pay between $169 and $249. Over at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, the cost jumps to $269 to $349. But the most expensive option is, unsurprisingly, Magic Kingdom, where the pass will set you back anywhere from $329 to $449 plus tax per person.
Unlike the regular Lightning Lane system, which requires you to select a return time, the Premier Pass offers flexibility. You can enter the Lightning Lane for any ride at any time throughout the day, making it a more convenient (and pricier) option for those looking to maximize their park experience.
Disney introduced new, higher, pricing limitations for its parks so families could budget properly. The highest was the Magic Kingdom in Orlando with a cap of $199/person/day for peak periods. The former skip-the-line pass, Disney’s Lightning Lane, offered a flat fee to choose any three rides outside of a few exclusions, and then a per ride surcharge based on the ride’s popularity. For example, entry into Animal Kingdom might cost $119 for the day but adding a Lightning Lane product for between $15-40/person/day but the park’s most famous attraction, Flight of Passage from Avatar might incur an additional cost of $35-50. Even on the high end, Lightning lane would run $95 for a total of four skip-the-line options, one of which was highly coveted. That price jumps to a minimum of $129 now but also requires staying at an over-priced Disney high end property.
Disneyland Resort’s Lightning Lane Premier Pass: Slightly Different Rules, Same Premium Perks
On the West Coast, Disneyland’s version of the Lightning Lane Premier Pass arrives a week earlier, on October 23, 2024, and is open to all guests with a park reservation, regardless of where they’re staying. If you’re planning a visit to Disneyland Resort, you’ll be able to book the Premier Pass just two days before your visit, giving you a little less lead time compared to Walt Disney World.
Pricing for Disneyland’s Premier Pass is also steeper but consistent between its two parks. For the remainder of 2024, it will cost $400 per day, per person. As we head into 2025, the price will fluctuate based on demand, ranging from $300 to $400. The pass gives you the same perk as Walt Disney World’s version—unlimited Lightning Lane access at any time for one ride at each eligible attraction per day.
Is This Replacing Lightning Lane Multi Pass?
The short answer: no. The Lightning Lane Premier Pass won’t replace the current Lightning Lane Multi Pass system, where guests can book a return time for select attractions. It’s simply an additional option for guests who want to skip the lines without worrying about scheduling ride times.
While Disney is somewhat late to the game in offering a full-day, skip-the-line pass for all attractions, it’s a move that makes sense given the broader theme park landscape. Gavin Doyle, creator of the popular Mickey Visit Disneyland crowd calendar, notes, “This offering is being released within the broader context of the theme park industry which already offers services like this. The pricing fits within the range of the existing offerings from other parks.”
For example, Universal Studios has long had its own premium line-skipping service. At Universal Studios Hollywood, the Universal Express pass costs between $199 and $319 and includes park admission. Over at Universal Orlando Resort, the Express Pass ranges from $90 to $290 for one ride per eligible attraction, with the unlimited option costing between $120 and $320—though neither includes park admission.
Yet Another Shameless Cash Grab Pricing Out Families
Disney has already become a perk for upper middle class families with half of households going into debt to take a family of four. But these ludicrous increases are yet another sign that Disney is choosing its customer and that customer needs to be very, very, well to do. With some casual numbers, if a family of four were to go to each of the Walt Disney World Resort properties, purchase entry, and Lightning Lane Premier, and stay in a high-end Disney resort the cost could reach $10,000 for a four-day visit – on the low end of the spectrum excluding flights, meals, or drinks.
Walt Disney would be rolling in his grave, if he wasn’t cryogenically frozen, of course.
What do you think?
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On the mainland , National Parks are a Superior way to spend time .
In Hawaii , local parks are a Superior way to spend time .
On the other hand , manufactured theme parks or cruises are an Inferior way to spend time and money .
There are so many fascinating alternatives to Disney for a truly wonderful family vacation. Many will deliver all the joy without the headache. Think about the gorgeous old garden amusement park in Copenhagen and the Matterhorn in Zermatt. Both were Walt Disney’s inspiration for what has now evolved into a less than positive experience. Give the family something of value.
Exactly. This slavish devotion to Disney by middle-class America is just bizarre.
There’s so much more to this story: If the Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Premier Pass are still not sufficient to place you at the pinnacle of humanity, Disney is also offering a “Don’t Get Hit By Lightning Pass.” For only $1,099 per person (plus tax) you can skip all of the Lightning lines by skipping going to Disney parks altogether. Instead, Disney will send you a complete memory book of your non-visit complete with AI-generated photos that not only show your family having the best time of your lives, but also show all of the other visitors bowing to you, whilst weeping and gnashing their teeth, as you pass them in their wretched, lowly lines of despair.
Past-prime, childless cat ladies will still gobble this up
Disney’s problem is that they seem (and are) wildly out of touch with reality between horrifically long lines and blatant price gouging on everything from parking to food to ticket prices. So their response to this is to make the awful wait times even worse by selling skip-the-line passes and charging vastly more for them? What’s their advertising slogan going to be: “ Instead of wasting two hours waiting in line for one of our good rides, pay lots and lots more on top of your overpriced ticket to skip the line! Isn’t it amazing what several hundred dollars a day will buy you? That’s only a few grand a day, each day, for the whole family!”
This is a great way to introduce young children to classism. Poor mommy and daddy will take on crippling debt to be stuck in the poor line while their children will see rich kids get to bypass them because to the rich parents, things like money don’t matter.
I next expect Minnie Mouse wearing the T-shirt that says ” Stop being Poor”
Taking on debt to go to Disneyland would be pretty irresponsible by the poor family.
Before this pass program, there were other ways to skip the lines at Disney that were probably more expensive, particularly if you were a family of 4 or 5. On the surface, this program looks like something that may actually be more convenient and less costly for me when taking a typical Disney trip for my family. We’ll see how it works out in reality.
It seems worth mentioning that folks staying at the Swan/Dolphin will be eligible to purchase these passes, and you can stay at the Swan/Dolphin with bonvoy points.
The middle class can afford to skip lines by bringing a few sets of crutches and walking with a limp. 🙂
(Sorry, bad joke).
Seriously though, the economics of Disney is that as the USA population grows and Disney doesn’t build any new theme parks, they can count on increasing demand and, therefore, price accordingly. Walt would have built another theme park elsewhere to satisfy demand but the current crop of execs aren’t going to bother doing that when it’s easier to go golfing and count all the bags of money they can carry onto their private jets.
This situation reminds me of why America is going to the dogs: They don’t do what Walt Disney did anymore: They don’t pick out a good location, buy up the land they can, and build an “anchor” that transformed swampy Orlando into the massive metropolis it is today.
Since Disney is increasingly catering to the elites, then this experience will suit them just fine such as movie stars and the like.
Don’t expect the massive profits from this to trickle down though.
There are few things more tedious than the whines of the lower middle class.