Walt Disney World formally introduced Lightning Lane Premier Go, the latest and most costly line skipping service to switch free FastPass. This put up covers the launch date & value ranges for the upcharge possibility at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Plus, our commentary how this compares to Common’s Categorical Go, potential reputation, and extra.
There’s plenty of floor to cowl right here, so we’ll in a short time recap what has occurred in the previous couple of months with Lightning Lanes. As you would possibly recall, Walt Disney World Lightning Lane lately retired and changed the Genie+ service with Lightning Lane Multi-Go (LLMP). Together with that, a la carte or Particular person Lightning Lanes turned Lightning Lane Single Go (LLSP).
The massive change with the change from Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi Go and Single Go is that visitors can now make trip reservations as much as 21 days upfront relying upon their standing, and have means to make 3 alternatives upfront. With this comes the lack of stacking, a drawback for off-site visitors, and probability that you just’ll be scoring fewer Lightning Lanes per day. Amongst different issues, there’s additionally the fact that you just’re committing to purchasing (or not) earlier than beginning your journey and seeing/feeling crowd ranges.
There’s much more to the brand new Lightning Lane Multi-Go and Single Go, all of which is past the scope of this put up. We’d encourage you to learn our Information to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World for all the foundational need-to-know information of each LLMP and LLSP. This entire system is complicated and convoluted, so that you may need a query or two-dozen. That solutions all the most typical ones we’ve been receiving from readers.
The necessary factor to know is that Lightning Lane Multi-Go and Single Go will live on. Lightning Lane Premier Go (LLPP) is distinct from each, and might be an alternate line-skipping product providing for visitors who don’t wish to problem with LLMP or LLSP. Whereas Lightning Lane Premier Go will characteristic the identical trip rosters as the opposite Lightning Lane companies, it’ll operate essentially in another way.
Right here’s what Walt Disney World has formally introduced about Lightning Lane Premier Go…
Within the coming weeks, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort will start piloting an alternative choice for attraction entry that might be provided in very restricted portions: Lightning Lane Premier Go.
Lightning Lane Premier Go is just like line-skipping companies which have been out there for buy at different theme parks for many years, and a service like this affords a stage of comfort that many Walt Disney World visitors have requested.
Lightning Lane Premier Go will embody one entry to every Lightning Lane entrance within the theme park they’re visiting that day, which visitors can use anytime all through the day at their comfort – while not having to e book an arrival time upfront.
A few of the added perks of Lightning Lane Premier Go embody:
- All sights from Lightning Lane Multi Go and Single Go.
- Friends can trip the sights that they need–when they need.
- Lightning Lane Premier Go will embody PhotoPass picture and video downloads.
Walt Disney World will start piloting Lightning Lane Premier Go on October 30, 2024.
At launch, Lightning Lane Premier Go might be out there to buy solely by visitors staying at Deluxe Resorts or Deluxe Villa Resorts (Disney Trip Membership Resorts). Lightning Lane Premier Go could also be bought as much as seven days upfront of their keep.
Lightning Lane Premier Go offers Walt Disney World visitors one-time entry to every out there Lightning Lane entrance in a single theme park for the day. In different phrases, there isn’t any Park Hopper possibility for LLPP at Walt Disney World.
Costs for Lightning Lane Premier Passes range by date and theme park. Launch costs will vary from $129 to $449 per particular person, plus tax, with the very best costs falling on a restricted variety of days over peak journey durations. Listed here are the ranges for every park:
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $129 to $199 per particular person, plus tax
- EPCOT: $169 to $249 per particular person, plus tax
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $269 to $349 per particular person, plus tax
- Magic Kingdom: $329 to $449 per particular person, plus tax
That’s an extremely big selection–$129 on the low finish for Animal Kingdom versus $449 on the excessive finish for Magic Kingdom. For the height season value at Magic Kingdom, you could possibly buy Lightning Lane Premier Go 3.5 instances on the most affordable day at Animal Kingdom!
Nonetheless, the remainder of the yr will see curler coaster crowds at Walt Disney World, with low lows and excessive highs. There’s a purpose that a number of weeks from October by way of December make each lists on our rankings of the 10 Finest and 10 Worst Weeks to Go to Walt Disney World in 2024 to 2026
Anyway, anticipate to see the $129 pricing at Animal Kingdom in early November or December, and the $449 pricing at Magic Kingdom the week between Christmas and New Yr’s Eve. For additional commentary about pricing–and the massive hole between base prices for Walt Disney World and Disneyland, see our put up about Lightning Lane Premier Go at Disneyland.
Walt Disney World’s official web site emphasizes that they may start piloting the rollout of Lightning Lane Premier Go with “very restricted portions.” Our largest query is: simply how restricted could be very restricted?
Will Lightning Lane Premier Go be so restricted that it simply sells out each single day? Is that the explanation for proscribing it to solely Deluxe Resort and DVC Villas? Is that this going to significant affect Lightning Lane availability for individuals who wish to buy Multi-Go or Single Go? Will this imply extra capability is allotted away from standby traces and to Lightning Lanes?
As beforehand talked about, it’s been our understanding that there’s an inside need inside Disney to strike extra of a steadiness between standby visitors and Lightning Lane customers. Insurance policies and programs that really feel fairer to the vast majority of visitors and don’t benefit or drawback anybody an excessive amount of. Disney has been making an attempt to string the needle with all the queueing and capability adjustments over the previous couple of months.
Our sturdy suspicion is that Walt Disney World doesn’t wish to disturb that ‘delicate steadiness’ in queue capability allocation with Lightning Lane Premier Go. However however, the corporate does love cash, so if LLPP is promoting out day by day throughout its ‘pilot program,’ we may see its availability being upped nearer to Christmas. So the underside line is that these are all open questions for us, and ones we’ll search to reply throughout Lightning Lane Multi-Go area testing later this yr. (We gained’t be testing LLPP–there’s no level and it’s past our funds.)
Turning to commentary, Lightning Lane Premier Go is basically Disney’s model of Common’s Categorical Go.
For these unfamiliar with it, Common’s Categorical Go is accessible as a ticket add-on or with choose lodge stays. You should buy two types of Categorical Go, common or limitless. The common model means that you can skip the road as soon as per eligible attraction in both park. Common Categorical Limitless affords line-skipping privileges, because the identify suggests, a vast variety of instances per attraction.
In contrast to Lightning Lanes, visitors utilizing Categorical Go at Common will not be required to make trip reservations–which means there aren’t any set return instances. You merely go as much as the attraction, scan your move, and use your Categorical Go entitlement. There’s nothing to order or problem with in an app. It’s a very “dumb” system–and I imply that in the easiest way attainable. Categorical Go includes zero know-how and display screen time. It’s utterly hassle-free.
Common’s Categorical Go can also be rather more costly when not included with a lodge keep. The out-of-pocket price of normal Categorical Go begins at $89.99 per particular person plus tax and may high out at $290, with the common being properly north of $100. Limitless Common Categorical Go ranges from $120 to $320, with the common close to $200.
With that stated, there are some vital distinctions between Common’s Categorical Go and Lightning Lane Premier Go.
The primary is that there is not going to be a vast possibility with Lightning Lane Premier Go. It’s one entry per attraction, making this equal to the common Categorical Go. I suppose in idea you would possibly have the ability to buy a number of Lightning Lane Premier Passes and vogue a DIY limitless possibility, however that’d be dear and I’m not even positive it’d work.
I believe Walt Disney World doesn’t wish to disturb the ‘delicate steadiness’ in queue capability allocation by providing Lightning Lane Premier Go at a vast stage. Maybe extra importantly, they don’t wish to cannibalize VIP tour gross sales or Membership 33 memberships. If you would like the limitless possibility, there exist already methods to acquire that.
In the event that they’re too costly…the limitless possibility really is not aimed toward you, I suppose? The objective is to be slot this in between current product choices, not compete with them. (Limitless Lightning Lane Premier Go would seemingly price $1,000 to $2,000 on the excessive finish given these value factors.)
The following distinction between Common’s Categorical Go and Lightning Lane Premier Go is that there’s no “free” model of LLPP for on-site lodge visitors as there may be at Common Orlando.
Limitless Categorical Go is included with stays on the Premier Inns, that are Common’s highest-tier resorts. Friends who keep at Royal Pacific, Arduous Rock Lodge, and Portofino Bay all obtain Limitless Categorical Go included with their keep at no further cost (together with check-in and checkout days).
We’ve heard from quite a few readers in the previous couple of years who’ve wished Walt Disney World to undertake Common’s Categorical Go system. My response has been: watch out what you would like for. That’s largely as a result of the sense I’ve gotten is that the majority Disney followers solely need the “free with on-site stays” half, and never the “$100+ for bypassing know-how” half.
We’ve beforehand the mentioned the ‘why’ of this at nice size, however there are quite a few the explanation why Walt Disney World wouldn’t (and actually, shouldn’t be) providing “free” limitless (and even restricted) Lightning Lane Premier Go with on-site resort stays.
For one factor, there’s the disparity within the variety of on-site resort rooms. In whole, there are just below 7,000 lodge rooms at Common Orlando Resort (pre-Epic Universe). Against this, there are roughly 40,000 rooms at Walt Disney World. Even narrowing it right down to Deluxe Resorts and adjusting on a per-park foundation, Walt Disney World nonetheless has almost triple the variety of eligible rooms. It’s a easy numbers recreation–free limitless line-skipping for Deluxe Resorts would actually “break” the visitor expertise for everybody else.
However that’s not likely what’s final result determinative. Fairly merely, Walt Disney World doesn’t supply free line-skipping as a result of they don’t want to take action. The previous few years ought to make this plain as day. Walt Disney World retains growing costs on Lightning Lanes, and visitors preserve shopping for.
There are methods that the present Multi-Go system is arguably inferior to free FastPass, however I’m nonetheless utterly assured it’ll promote out at document excessive costs the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Yr’s Eve. Disney has completely no incentive to offer away free of charge what visitors will spend cash–and plenty of it!–to buy.
Frankly, neither does Common Orlando! We’ve brazenly speculated for years that the one purpose Common nonetheless affords Limitless Categorical Go is because of a contractual settlement with Loews, which was essential to get the hotelier on board.
I’ve lastly acquired affirmation that that is, in truth, true. Common isn’t together with Categorical Go with lodge stays as a result of it makes any enterprise sense or they’re beneficiant–it’s because of Loews getting a sweetheart deal again within the Nineteen Nineties when the theme park panorama was radically totally different.
That is additionally why Helios Grand Lodge–Common’s new flagship resort overlooking Epic Universe–gained’t supply Limitless Categorical Go in any respect to lodge visitors. It’s additionally why the present inns gained’t add Limitless Categorical Go for Epic Universe. The Loews contract is frozen in time, and subsequent inns and parks will not be topic to it.
The following distinction is price. Common Categorical Go at Common Orlando has a beginning value that’s decrease than the Animal Kingdom beginning value, and a ceiling that’s over $150 lower than the height Magic Kingdom value.
That is another excuse we’ve warned to ‘watch out what you would like for’ with this Categorical Go competitor–as a result of it could nearly definitely price considerably greater than Common’s counterpart. As ought to be clear by now from the countless parade of value will increase, Walt Disney World has pricing energy. Its demographics are additionally totally different than Common.
Followers often blame each other for tolerating paying extra and getting much less at Walt Disney World, which is misplaced ire. That is really attributable to first-timers and rite-of-passage vacationers.
For essentially the most half, it’s not Annual Passholders or DVC members who’re “inflicting” value will increase or product choices like this. C’mon, you actually assume the individuals who will wait in line half-hour for a “free” magnet or soda are the issue?! As the corporate itself has made clear, we’re the “unfavorables” exactly as a result of we spend much less! These are Disney’s phrases, not mine!!!
Free-spending first-timers pull out all the stops for worry of lacking out. They’ve FOMO or FUD and wish to make sure that their youngsters’ milestone trip is as magical because the commercials. This demo nearly definitely visits Walt Disney World at disproportionate ranges as in comparison with Common. I might be prepared to guess that per visitor spending is significantly larger at Disney than Common.
The underside line is that neither of those companies set their value factors as a courtesy to visitors. They each cost what the market will bear. As we’ve additionally been saying for some time, take pleasure in this whereas it lasts, Common diehards–your on-site inns seemingly gained’t be this underpriced for for much longer! Common didn’t spend billions on Epic Universe for native Annual Passholders–they received a style of Disney’s demos with Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and need one other chunk of that with Nintendo!
The costs for Lightning Lane Premier Go additionally shouldn’t be a shock as a result of we’ve (form of) already been down this highway earlier than. Walt Disney World did one thing comparable underneath the outdated FastPass+ system, permitting Membership Stage visitors to buy a ‘theme park further’ bundle that primarily consisted of three further FastPass+ alternatives for $50 per particular person, per day. That began in 2018 and ran by way of the closure of the parks in 2020. I believed that was loopy on the time–an insane price for a system that would simply be ‘gamed’ with just a bit effort.
I used to be flawed. (Effectively, not completely–it was loopy to purchase one thing you could possibly get free of charge with a modicum of effort.) Membership Stage visitors cherished it–the bonus FastPass+ have been insanely well-liked. Simply ask a journey agent. Many had shoppers who in any other case wouldn’t have booked Membership Stage within the first place accomplish that simply to have entry to the bonus FastPass+ alternatives. That means that their precise price wasn’t $50 per particular person, per day–it was that plus the nightly improve to Membership Stage over cheaper lodging they’d’ve booked within the various!
If we’ve realized something since ~2018-2020, it’s that there’s an insatiable marketplace for unique Disney choices. If such a “perk” on high of a freebie was $50 then, it may simply be triple or extra that value now. No matter you assume is the “price it” value for such a line-skipping product, the precise price may nearly definitely be larger. In the event you’re even considering about value-for-money, you in all probability aren’t the demo for Lightning Lane Premier Go!
This evaluation of Lightning Lane Premier Go all would possibly sound overly blunt or chilly and calculated. And I suppose it’s.
However the actuality is that I’m not saying this condescendingly as I snicker maniacally on the unwashed plenty who can’t afford Lightning Lane Premier Go. I’m not the target market for LLPP, both! Heck, I’m not even the target market for Lightning Lane Single Go. (Enjoyable reality: to today, I’ve nonetheless by no means bought an Particular person Lightning Lane, Single Go, or equal. And never simply the Walt Disney World parks–any of them. It’s not that I can’t afford the $15-20 or no matter; it’s that I can’t justify it. I’d relatively beat the system than be a part of that individual “downside.”)
Look, I might love nothing greater than for Lightning Lane Premier Go to crash and burn. For Walt Disney World to lastly push costs too excessive, and hit the ceiling. For this to finish up being extra bother than it was price for the corporate, and to be taught a lesson consequently. Each time one thing pushes the envelope on costs, part of me is hoping it’ll fail and we’ll see a reversal in these developments. I may go on and on, however you already know what I imply–I’d like for Disney to be humbled with regards to pricing.
I utterly “get” why there’s a lot schadenfreude round Walt Disney World bulletins like this. Given the visitor unfriendly choices, value will increase and cost-cutting, it is sensible. However I additionally attempt to be level-headed and never faux that what I need to occur is what I believe really will occur.
On this case, I’ve little doubt that Lightning Lane Premier Go might be an enormous success. I believe it’s extra seemingly that the service sells out with regularity, has even larger costs in 2025, or is additional restricted (possibly to solely Membership Stage visitors?) than that it crashes and burns. I’d prefer to be flawed. Not as a result of this specific product bothers me that a lot, however as a result of I hate the final trajectory of issues, and the way in which Walt Disney World is leaning increasingly more into creating an in-park class system. Sadly, I don’t assume I’ll be flawed.
The underside line is that there’s an enormous marketplace for a ‘problem free’ Categorical Go-esque various to Lightning Lane Multi Go. The visitors prepared to buy it will in all probability pay greater than you assume it’s price as a result of they’re in all probability not approaching it from a value-for-money perspective.
That is exactly why I’m not doing that evaluation, both. I had two paragraphs about why this can be a full waste of cash at Animal Kingdom when it prices $129 (and it’s!) however determined to trash that since this put up is already a novella and the target market merely gained’t care. That isn’t their calculus. I suppose we will see, although. Even when it’s not for me and I’ll by no means purchase this, I’m curious to see the way it performs out, the fan response (backlash?), and so forth!
The one different unhealthy information–other than, you already know, this announcement as an entire–is that now I must redo all of my Lightning Lane Multi-Go area testing and technique guides to account for a way Lightning Lane Premier Go alters the line-skipping capability allocation. The excellent news is that few issues carry me larger pleasure than “beating the system,” so anticipate to see loads of that over the subsequent few months and all through 2025. Keep tuned!
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Study inns on our Walt Disney World Inns Opinions web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Opinions. To economize on tickets or decide which kind to purchase, learn our Ideas for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets put up. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys put up takes a singular take a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Journey Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the very best place to start out is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for every little thing you have to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you consider Lightning Lane Premier Go? Ideas on Walt Disney World’s “reply” to Common’s Categorical Go? Predictions as to how profitable this line-skipping service might be? Below what, if any, eventualities would you purchase Lightning Lane Premier Go? Agree or disagree with our evaluation? Different ideas or considerations? Any questions we may also help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
