Walt Disney World has introduced the growth of Lightning Lane Premier Move, eradicating resort restrictions on the most recent and most costly line skipping service to interchange free FastPass. This put up covers the brand new eligibility modifications for the upcharge possibility at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Plus, our commentary about how this can influence reputation, wait instances, and so forth.
For starters, we need to reiterate as soon as once more that Lightning Lane Premier Move just isn’t Walt Disney World’s core line-skipping product providing. That’s not altering in the present day–or most likely ever. Moderately, Lightning Lane Premier Move (LLPP) is a 3rd tier of line-skipping along with Lightning Lane Multi-Move (LLMP) and Lightning Lane Single Move (LLSP).
There’s much more to the Lightning Lane Multi-Move and Single Move, all of which is past the scope of this put up. However should you don’t already learn about these line-skipping companies, we’d encourage you to learn our Information to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World as a substitute of this put up. There’s a couple of 95% or greater likelihood that’s extra related on your planning functions than this one. Suffice to say, the entire Lightning Lane suite of companies is complicated and convoluted, so that you might need a query or two-dozen. That solutions all the commonest ones we’ve been receiving from readers.
The essential factor to know is that Lightning Lane Multi-Move and Single Move will live on. Lightning Lane Premier Move (LLPP) is distinct from each, gives an alternate line-skipping product providing for visitors who don’t need to problem with LLMP or LLSP. Whereas Lightning Lane Premier Move will characteristic the identical experience rosters as the opposite Lightning Lane companies, it’ll operate basically otherwise.
I’m (over)emphasizing this as a result of we’ve already seen a number of fears from frequent Walt Disney World followers that the pilot program of Lightning Lane Premier Move is barely step one. They’re involved that the tip result’s Lightning Lane Multi-Move being eradicated fully, and visitors being “compelled” to buy LLPP.
Truthfully, I’d love for that to occur. Not as a result of I’m a high-roller who has cash to burn–I’ve by no means purchased LLPP and by no means will–however due to the cascading results on standby traces. That’s additionally exactly why Walt Disney World won’t ever do it–as a result of it could imply a income stream drying up. You can not drive somebody with a $30 price range to spend $300. If that had been potential, Walt Disney World would additionally remove Worth and Average Resorts and change them completely with Deluxe Resorts. However I digress.
Right here’s what Walt Disney World has formally introduced concerning the growth to Lightning Lane Premier Move…
Eligible Visitors can buy Lightning Lane Premier Passes as much as 7 days earlier than the primary day of their Resort keep—for his or her whole size of keep (as much as 14 days)—beginning at 7:00 AM Jap Time.
Walt Disney World is now piloting the rollout of Lightning Lane Premier Move to Visitors staying at all Disney-owned resort motels and different choose third social gathering motels (see under lists), for park visits throughout their keep.
That is the massive replace that takes impact beginning November 22, 2024. Beforehand, the one eligible visitors had been these staying at Deluxe Resorts and Deluxe Villas/Disney Trip Membership properties.
Right here’s a full listing of the expanded resort roster for Lightning Lane Premier Move buy eligibility:
- Disney’s All-Star Films Resort
- Disney’s All-Star Music Resort
- Disney’s All-Star Sports activities Resort
- Disney’s Artwork of Animation Resort
- Disney’s Pop Century Resort
- Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
- Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
- Disney’s Caribbean Seaside Resort
- Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort & Gran Destino Tower
- Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter
- Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
- Disney’s Seaside Membership Resort
- Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
- Disney’s Modern Resort
- Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
- Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
- Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Yacht Membership Resort
- Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Modern Resort
- Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort – A Disney Trip Membership Resort
- Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Island Tower at Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo Home
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
- Disney’s Seaside Membership Villas
- Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
- Disney’s Outdated Key West Resort
- Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
- Disney’s Riviera Resort
- Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
- Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Lightning Lane Premier Move Eligible Third Get together Resorts
- Walt Disney World Dolphin Resort
- Walt Disney World Swan Resort
- Walt Disney World Swan Reserve
- Shades of Inexperienced at Walt Disney World Resort
The one attention-grabbing wrinkle with regard to resort eligibility is the listing of third social gathering motels. Notably, that is the far more restricted roster for Prolonged Night Hours versus Early Entry. Which means the Disney Springs Space and Bonnet Creek Resorts are usually not eligible.
It additionally means the 4 Seasons Orlando Resort isn’t eligible. That is the on-site luxurious resort (no relation to the landscaping firm) at Walt Disney World, positioned close to Fort Wilderness. It’s amusing, at the very least to me, that visitors staying on AP reductions at All Star Sports activities for like $79 per evening can purchase Lightning Lane Premier Move, however these spending $7,999 on some fancy suite there can’t.
A part of me wonders whether or not the following growth of the Lightning Lane Premier Move pilot program is to these third social gathering resorts, particularly the fancier ones. The opposite a part of me wonders whether or not Walt Disney World really doesn’t need 4 Seasons visitors to be eligible for LLPP, even when 4 Seasons paid for entry to the perk, as a result of that will cannibalize VIP tour gross sales.
Earlier than we get too deep into commentary, let’s contact on some extra fundamentals of Lightning Lane Premier Move–all of that are unchanged with this replace. Lightning Lane Premier Move 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’s (nonetheless) no 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 individual, plus tax, with the 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 individual, plus tax
- EPCOT: $169 to $249 per individual, plus tax
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $269 to $349 per individual, plus tax
- Magic Kingdom: $329 to $449 per individual, 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 worth at Magic Kingdom, you could possibly buy Lightning Lane Premier Move 3.5 instances on the most cost effective day at Animal Kingdom!
Nevertheless, the remainder of the 12 months will see curler coaster crowds at Walt Disney World, with low lows and excessive highs. There’s a cause that a number of weeks in the course of the vacation season make each lists on our rankings of the 10 Greatest and 10 Worst Weeks to Go to Walt Disney World in 2024 to 2026.
We’ve already seen the height pricing throughout Thanksgiving week, with Lightning Lane Premier Move promoting out on choose days at each Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios. As mentioned in that put up, these price ceilings are prone to be hit as soon as once more from the week main as much as Christmas by way of New Yr’s Eve, and presumably bleeding into early January as crowds stay elevated for that first week in 2025.
Even after the late November 2024 growth of Lightning Lane Premier Move, Walt Disney World’s official web site nonetheless emphasizes that they’re piloting the rollout of Lightning Lane Premier Move with “very restricted portions.” When the brand new tier of line-skipping first went reside, our greatest query was: simply how restricted may be very restricted?
Would Lightning Lane Premier Move be so restricted that it simply sells out each single day? Is that the explanation Walt Disney World began by limiting it to solely Deluxe Resort and DVC Villas? Is that this going to significant influence Lightning Lane availability for individuals who need to buy Multi-Move or Single Move? Will this imply extra capability is allotted away from standby traces and to Lightning Lanes?
These questions will as soon as once more be front-of-mind for a lot of Walt Disney World followers seeing this large growth of Lightning Lane Premier Move. Whereas they’re truthful to ask, I wouldn’t be anxious. The caps and demand for LLPP are fairly low–and that’s a good factor for everybody else!
As talked about beforehand, the audience for LLPP is exceedingly restricted. It’s my understanding that fewer than 1% of visitors have been buying Lightning Lane Premier Move on the overwhelming majority of days. That may change nearer to Thanksgiving and Christmas when crowds are greater, particularly at Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but it surely’s nonetheless unlikely to eclipse 2% of all visitors.
Given the timing of this announcement by Walt Disney World coinciding with LLPP promoting out for a number of days over Thanksgiving, there’s sure to be fan frustration that the corporate is getting (getting?!) grasping and easily needs to promote extra Premier Move. That isn’t the case. As we’ve mentioned in latest updates, the top-tier of paid FastPass is underperforming expectations at Walt Disney World. One week just isn’t consultant of the larger image.
Not solely that, but when demand had been robust and Walt Disney World wished to promote extra Lightning Lane Premier Move, they might merely…promote extra? In spite of everything, they’re those who set the caps, so if it had been really a provide scarcity, they might create extra out of skinny air. This can be a demand shortfall, therefore an try at remedying it by increasing the pilot program to all visitors staying on-site at Disney-owned motels.
For our half, we’ve noticed completely no influence in any way on Lightning Lane utilization on account of Premier Move. I did in depth testing of Multi-Move and standby traces round Veterans Day and Jersey Week, which was the busiest stretch at Walt Disney World since LLMP and LLPP launched.
My greatest statement is that Lightning Lanes are much less busy than on the identical level one 12 months in the past, and standby traces are transferring far more effectively. Clearly, this isn’t as a consequence of Lightning Lane Premier Move–and possibly additionally has nothing to do with the swap from Genie+ to Multi-Move. However it’s what we discovered to be the case fairly persistently over the course of the final a number of months.
It’ll be attention-grabbing to see whether or not that modifications round Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Yr’s. That is all a standalone story for one more put up, however the backside line is that Lightning Lanes and standby traces are usually transferring effectively, or at the very least far more so than the final couple of years. (Disneyland is a distinct matter–we’re nonetheless observing loads of issues and logjams there.)
As for the influence of the growth of Lightning Lane Premier Move on traces, my finest guess is that it’ll be nonexistent.
To no matter extent demand for LLPP exists, it’s seemingly disproportionately amongst visitors staying at Deluxe Resorts. There are little question some Walt Disney World followers who will “hack” their trip to downgrade on lodging and improve on line-skipping, however these individuals are unicorns. They’re additionally literate unicorns who learn and touch upon blogs like this one, maybe creating the notion that there’s an enormous viewers for commando All Star Sports activities stays paired with Lightning Lane Premier Move.
Among the many visitor inhabitants at massive, it’s onerous to think about a statistically vital variety of individuals doing this. Similar to visitors eating at Victoria & Albert’s are dramatically extra prone to be these staying on the Grand Floridian or different monorail loop motels than the All Stars, so too will these buying Lightning Lane Premier Move be these at Deluxe Resorts.
The one “huge” exception to this may very well be Gran Destino, with high-rolling convention-goers buying LLPP for his or her household whereas staying on the tower on enterprise. Even that’s not going to be a significant pool of visitors, although. It’s simply an attention-grabbing use-case. One other could be prosperous households who select the Artwork of Animation Household Suites over similarly-priced rooms at Animal Kingdom Lodge.
Even with out any caps, my guess is that Lightning Lane Premier Move wouldn’t actually transfer the needle on Lightning Lane utilization or wait instances for everybody else. For one factor, it’s protected to imagine that almost all of LLPP visitors are already utilizing some type of line-skipping–that means that they’re both upgrading from Multi-Move or downgrading from VIP excursions. So this actually solely incrementally modifications their frequency.
For one more factor, natural demand is definitely restricted by the excessive worth of Lightning Lane Premier Move. This is kind of what we mentioned on the prime of the put up. Excluding a handful of the busiest days of the 12 months, Premier Move has not been promoting out as-is even when out there in “very restricted portions” to the visitors most inclined to buy it just because the value is simply too excessive.
There are potential “fixes” to this that contain making the product providing extra engaging, comparable to having a limiteless model, providing a sure variety of floating re-rides, introducing a Park Hopper possibility, and so forth. Nevertheless, all of them include downsides which have unintended penalties that would damage Disney’s backside line, comparable to cannibalizing VIP tour gross sales, making the service sophisticated and complicated, or lowering common length-of-stay for high-rolling visitors.
In the end, if Lightning Lane Premier Move is generally not promoting out when made out there in “very restricted portions” then it clearly additionally received’t promote out in very excessive portions. There isn’t some enormous untapped pool of visitors who need to purchase this product providing however can’t. Which can also be exactly why it’ll by no means change Lightning Lane Multi-Move. Though it could not appear to be it at instances, most visitors are cost-sensitive. That is exactly why the decrease tier resorts are extra standard than the upper tier ones, Cosmic Ray’s is busier than Be Our Visitor, and so forth.
All the complaints about Disney solely wanting wealthy visitors–whereas feeling legitimate–ignore this. Walt Disney World can’t cater solely to the rich, as a result of there merely are usually not sufficient such visitors to even come near sustaining the parks and resorts. The recognition, or lack thereof, of Lightning Lane Premier Move (once more, even when bought in “very restricted portions”) ought to reinforce this conclusion.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Find out about motels on our Walt Disney World Resorts Critiques web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Critiques. To save cash on tickets or decide which kind to purchase, learn our Suggestions 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 gadgets to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Journey Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, one of the best place to start out is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for the whole lot it is advisable to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you concentrate on Lightning Lane Premier Move? Ideas on Walt Disney World increasing the highest tier of paid FastPass to all on-site visitors of Disney-owned motels? Predictions as to how profitable this line-skipping service can be? Beneath what, if any, situations would you purchase Lightning Lane Premier Move? Agree or disagree with our evaluation? Different ideas or considerations? Any questions we can assist you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
