How To Maximize Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World
At Walt Disney World in Orlando, the use of Lightning Lane and MultiPass has become a major enhancement to the enjoyment of your vacation. This, along with Advanced Dining Reservations, has made families have to plan their trips a week before they will even arrive on vacation. If you are able to maximize these Lightning Lanes, along with the other tips found here, you will not be spending your entire vacation waiting in line! Disney’s information around Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass can be found here.
When to schedule?
The best time to put your Lightning Lanes is as early in the day as you can in order to maximize opportunities to book additional attractions. However, you can usually wait around an hour in the day before you start. The first hour of the park is usually fairly quiet, so you might be able to walk onto a ride or two without the use of FastPass+ if you show up early enough. Delaying it until around 10:00 am also gives you a buffer if you are slow moving in the morning, or have issues with the busses on property! This strategy will also allow you to book additional Lightning Lanes later on in the day! After you have scanned into your 1st Lightning Lane for the day, you are eligible to book a 4th as you are always able to have 3 Lightning Lanes booked. This can be at the park you are currently in, or if you have a park hopper, any of the other theme parks! You are not, however, able to book the same attraction more than once in a day.
You are able to start scheduling these Lightning Lane selections up to 7 days before your arrival, up until the day of your trip. Because of this, you are picking the parks you will be attending ahead of time, and aligning these with where you want to eat, and other items as a part of your trip. All this can be very confusing for first time visitors, so you might want to have a travel agent help out!
The order of your selections
Each Lightning Lane comes in a 1-hour window. These windows allow you to go to the ride at any point of time during it, so it can be right at the start, or sneaking in just as the window elapses. Most people try to fit in another attraction during this window of having a Lightning Lane, as the shorter line and attraction should not last that whole time. As you plan your day, and Lightning Lane selections, be sure to check out a map and make sure you are booking Lightning Lanes near each other. You don’t want to trek across the Magic Kingdom from Space Mountain to Big Thunder Mountain to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train back to back as the majority of your day will be spent walking. The better option is to go from Space Mountain to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train to Big Thunder Mountain, as it allows you not to backtrack! You might be able to do the Tomorrowland Speedway after Space Mountain and check out the Country Bear Jamboree or the Haunted Mansion on your way to Big Thunder Mountain!
Multi Pass vs Signle Pass
Each park has a few attractions that are not available for Multi Pass selection and require you to purchase a seperate pass to ride those attractions using Lightning Lane. The standby queue is still available for them, but can get long waits.
What’s a tier?
When you start booking your Lightning Lanes, you will notice that each park have tiers. This means there will be some rides you cant get Lightning Lane for during your day at the park. In order to make sure you can ride all of the attractions within a tier, try rope dropping these rides, or fitting them in at the end of the day with a Lightning Lane once you have finished you are able to add an additional attraction for that day. At the Magic Kingdom, you are able to choose any 3 attractions from the park, so there no tiers to worry about there!
The Selections and Tiering
How you choose to book Lightning Lane will depend on a ton of different things. Your favorite rides, who is in your party, what’s available, and the location of the attractions will all come into play. Below are each parks tiering strategy as of February 2025!
Magic Kingdom Multi Pass Experiences
Choose up to one experience from this group:
- Jungle Cruise
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Space Mountain
- Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Choose your other 2 experiences—or all 3—from this group:
-
- The Barnstormer
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Haunted Mansion
- “it’s a small world”
- Mad Tea Party
- The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- Tomorrowland Speedway
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid
Single Pass Attractions (Not Available with the Multi Pass)
A Lightning Lane Single Pass can be purchased for:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- TRON Lightcycle Run
EPCOT Multi Pass Experiences
Choose up to one experience from this group:
- Frozen Ever After
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
- Soarin’ Around the World
Choose your other 2 experiences—or all 3—from this group:
- Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival
- Journey into Imagination with Figment
- Living with the Land
- Mission: SPACE
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends
- Spaceship Earth
- Turtle Talk with Crush
Single Pass Attractions (Not Available with the Multi Pass)
A Lightning Lane Single Pass can be purchased for the following attraction:
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
Hollywood Studios Multi Pass Experiences
Choose up to one experience from this group:
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
- Slinky Dog Dash
Choose your other 2 experiences—or all 3—from this group:
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
- Disney Junior Play & Dance!
- For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration
- Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular
- Muppet*Vision 3D
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror™
- Toy Story Mania!
Single Pass Attractions (Not Available with the Multi Pass)
A Lightning Lane Single Pass can be purchased for the following attraction:
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Animal Kingdom Multi Pass Experiences
- DINOSAUR
- Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
- Feathered Friends in Flight!
- Festival of the Lion King
- Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond!
- It’s Tough to Be a Bug!*
- Kali River Rapids
- Kilimanjaro Safaris
- Naʻvi River Journey
Single Pass Attractions (Not Available with the Multi Pass)
A Lightning Lane Single Pass can be purchased for the following attraction:
- Avatar Flight of Passage
Other Tips
Before you select your Lightning Lane, be sure to review the requirements for rides, to ensure all people in your party can ride. If they cannot, you are able to get rider swaps or split up your group’s LL selection to make sure everyone can enjoy their favorite rides!
