Walt Disney World formally introduced Lightning Lane Premier Move, the latest and most costly line skipping service to exchange free FastPass. This submit covers the launch date & worth ranges for the upcharge choice at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Plus, our commentary how this compares to Common’s Specific Move, potential recognition, and extra.
There’s loads 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 may recall, Walt Disney World Lightning Lane not too long ago retired and changed the Genie+ service with Lightning Lane Multi-Move (LLMP). Together with that, a la carte or Particular person Lightning Lanes turned Lightning Lane Single Move (LLSP).
The massive change with the change from Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi Move and Single Move is that friends can now make trip reservations as much as 21 days prematurely relying upon their standing, and have potential to make 3 alternatives prematurely. With this comes the lack of stacking, a drawback for off-site friends, and probability that you simply’ll be scoring fewer Lightning Lanes per day. Amongst different issues, there’s additionally the truth that you simply’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-Move and Single Move, all of which is past the scope of this submit. We’d encourage you to learn our Information to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World for the entire 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 the entire most typical ones we’ve been receiving from readers.
The vital factor to know is that Lightning Lane Multi-Move and Single Move will live on. Lightning Lane Premier Move (LLPP) is distinct from each, and can be an alternate line-skipping product providing for friends who don’t wish to problem with LLMP or LLSP. Whereas Lightning Lane Premier Move will characteristic the identical trip rosters as the opposite Lightning Lane providers, it’ll operate essentially in a different way.
Right here’s what Walt Disney World has formally introduced about Lightning Lane Premier Move…
Within the coming weeks, Walt Disney World and Disneyland Resort will start piloting an alternative choice for attraction entry that can be provided in very restricted portions: Lightning Lane Premier Move.
Lightning Lane Premier Move is much like line-skipping providers which have been obtainable for buy at different theme parks for many years, and a service like this affords a stage of comfort that many Walt Disney World friends have requested.
Lightning Lane Premier Move will embrace one entry to every Lightning Lane entrance within the theme park they’re visiting that day, which friends can use anytime all through the day at their comfort – with no need to e book an arrival time prematurely.
Among the added perks of Lightning Lane Premier Move embrace:
- All sights from Lightning Lane Multi Move and Single Move.
- Friends can trip the sights that they need–when they need.
- Lightning Lane Premier Move will embrace PhotoPass photograph and video downloads.
Walt Disney World will start piloting Lightning Lane Premier Move on October 30, 2024.
At launch, Lightning Lane Premier Move can be obtainable to buy solely by friends staying at Deluxe Resorts or Deluxe Villa Resorts (Disney Trip Membership Resorts). Lightning Lane Premier Move could also be bought as much as seven days prematurely of their keep.
Lightning Lane Premier Move provides Walt Disney World friends one-time entry to every obtainable Lightning Lane entrance in a single theme park for the day. In different phrases, there is no such thing as a Park Hopper choice for LLPP at Walt Disney World.
Costs for Lightning Lane Premier Passes fluctuate by date and theme park. Launch costs will vary from $129 to $449 per individual, plus tax, with the very best costs falling on a restricted variety of days over peak journey intervals. 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 wide 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 occasions on the most cost effective day at Animal Kingdom!
Nonetheless, the remainder of the 12 months 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 large hole between base prices for Walt Disney World and Disneyland, see our submit about Lightning Lane Premier Move at Disneyland.
Walt Disney World’s official web site emphasizes that they are going to start piloting the rollout of Lightning Lane Premier Move with “very restricted portions.” Our greatest query is: simply how restricted could be very restricted?
Will Lightning Lane Premier Move be so restricted that it simply sells out each single day? Is that the explanation for limiting it to solely Deluxe Resort and DVC Villas? Is that this going to significant influence Lightning Lane availability for individuals who wish to buy Multi-Move or Single Move? 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 inner need inside Disney to strike extra of a stability between standby friends and Lightning Lane customers. Insurance policies and programs that really feel fairer to the vast majority of friends and don’t benefit or drawback anybody an excessive amount of. Disney has been attempting to string the needle with the entire queueing and capability modifications over the previous couple of months.
Our sturdy suspicion is that Walt Disney World doesn’t wish to disturb that ‘delicate stability’ in queue capability allocation with Lightning Lane Premier Move. However however, the corporate does love cash, so if LLPP is promoting out every 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-Move subject testing later this 12 months. (We gained’t be testing LLPP–there’s no level and it’s past our price range.)
Turning to commentary, Lightning Lane Premier Move is basically Disney’s model of Common’s Specific Move.
For these unfamiliar with it, Common’s Specific Move is on the market as a ticket add-on or with choose lodge stays. You should buy two styles of Specific Move, common or limitless. The common model means that you can skip the road as soon as per eligible attraction in both park. Common Specific Limitless affords line-skipping privileges, because the title suggests, a limiteless variety of occasions per attraction.
Not like Lightning Lanes, friends utilizing Specific Move at Common should not required to make trip reservations–that means there are not any set return occasions. You merely go as much as the attraction, scan your move, and use your Specific Move 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 doable. Specific Move includes zero expertise and display screen time. It’s utterly hassle-free.
Common’s Specific Move can also be far more costly when not included with a lodge keep. The out-of-pocket value of standard Specific Move begins at $89.99 per individual plus tax and may high out at $290, with the typical being effectively north of $100. Limitless Common Specific Move ranges from $120 to $320, with the typical close to $200.
With that mentioned, there are some crucial distinctions between Common’s Specific Move and Lightning Lane Premier Move.
The primary is that there won’t be a limiteless choice with Lightning Lane Premier Move. It’s one entry per attraction, making this equal to the common Specific Move. I suppose in concept you may have the ability to buy a number of Lightning Lane Premier Passes and style a DIY limitless choice, however that’d be dear and I’m not even positive it’d work.
I think Walt Disney World doesn’t wish to disturb the ‘delicate stability’ in queue capability allocation by providing Lightning Lane Premier Move at a limiteless stage. Maybe extra importantly, they don’t wish to cannibalize VIP tour gross sales or Membership 33 memberships. If you would like the limitless choice, there exist already methods to acquire that.
In the event that they’re too costly…the limitless choice truly is not geared toward you, I suppose? The objective is to be slot this in between present product choices, not compete with them. (Limitless Lightning Lane Premier Move would seemingly value $1,000 to $2,000 on the excessive finish given these worth factors.)
The subsequent distinction between Common’s Specific Move and Lightning Lane Premier Move is that there’s no “free” model of LLPP for on-site lodge friends as there may be at Common Orlando.
Limitless Specific Move is included with stays on the Premier Resorts, that are Common’s highest-tier resorts. Friends who keep at Royal Pacific, Laborious Rock Lodge, and Portofino Bay all obtain Limitless Specific Move included with their keep at no extra cost (together with check-in and checkout days).
We’ve heard from plenty of readers in the previous couple of years who’ve needed Walt Disney World to undertake Common’s Specific Move 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 almost all Disney followers solely need the “free with on-site stays” half, and never the “$100+ for bypassing expertise” half.
We’ve beforehand the mentioned the ‘why’ of this at nice size, however there are quite a few explanation why Walt Disney World wouldn’t (and in reality, isn’t) providing “free” limitless (and even restricted) Lightning Lane Premier Move with on-site resort stays.
For one factor, there’s the disparity within the variety of on-site resort rooms. In whole, there are slightly 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 all the way 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 sport–free limitless line-skipping for Deluxe Resorts would actually “break” the visitor expertise for everybody else.
However that’s probably not what’s consequence 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 friends preserve shopping for.
There are methods that the present Multi-Move system is arguably inferior to free FastPass, however I’m however utterly assured it’ll promote out at report excessive costs the weeks of Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Yr’s Eve. Disney has completely no incentive to offer away without spending a dime what friends will spend cash–and loads of it!–to buy.
Frankly, neither does Common Orlando! We’ve brazenly speculated for years that the one purpose Common nonetheless affords Limitless Specific Move 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, actually, true. Common isn’t together with Specific Move with lodge stays as a result of it makes any enterprise sense or they’re beneficiant–it’s as a result of Loews getting a sweetheart deal again within the 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 Specific Move in any respect to lodge friends. It’s additionally why the present inns gained’t add Limitless Specific Move for Epic Universe. The Loews contract is frozen in time, and subsequent inns and parks should not topic to it.
The subsequent distinction is value. Common Specific Move at Common Orlando has a beginning worth that’s decrease than the Animal Kingdom beginning worth, and a ceiling that’s over $150 lower than the height Magic Kingdom worth.
That is another excuse we’ve warned to ‘watch out what you would like for’ with this Specific Move competitor–as a result of it will nearly actually value considerably greater than Common’s counterpart. As ought to be clear by now from the countless parade of worth will increase, Walt Disney World has pricing energy. Its demographics are additionally totally different than Common.
Followers continuously blame each other for tolerating paying extra and getting much less at Walt Disney World, which is misplaced ire. That is truly 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” worth will increase or product choices like this. C’mon, you actually suppose 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 the entire stops for worry of lacking out. They’ve FOMO or FUD and wish to ensure their youngsters’ milestone trip is as magical because the commercials. This demo nearly actually visits Walt Disney World at disproportionate ranges as in comparison with Common. I might be prepared to guess that per visitor spending is significantly increased at Disney than Common.
The underside line is that neither of those companies set their worth factors as a courtesy to friends. 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 bought a style of Disney’s demos with Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and wish one other chunk of that with Nintendo!
The costs for Lightning Lane Premier Move additionally shouldn’t be a shock as a result of we’ve (form of) already been down this street earlier than. Walt Disney World did one thing comparable below the previous FastPass+ system, permitting Membership Degree friends to buy a ‘theme park further’ package deal that primarily consisted of three further FastPass+ alternatives for $50 per individual, per day. That began in 2018 and ran by way of the closure of the parks in 2020. I assumed that was loopy on the time–an insane value for a system that would simply be ‘gamed’ with just a bit effort.
I used to be flawed. (Effectively, not solely–it was loopy to purchase one thing you could possibly get without spending a dime with a modicum of effort.) Membership Degree friends beloved it–the bonus FastPass+ have been insanely standard. Simply ask a journey agent. Many had shoppers who in any other case wouldn’t have booked Membership Degree within the first place accomplish that simply to have entry to the bonus FastPass+ alternatives. Which means that their precise value wasn’t $50 per individual, per day–it was that plus the nightly improve to Membership Degree over cheaper lodging they might’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 worth now. No matter you suppose is the “price it” worth for such a line-skipping product, the precise value may nearly actually be increased. In case you’re even considering about value-for-money, you in all probability aren’t the demo for Lightning Lane Premier Move!
This evaluation of Lightning Lane Premier Move all may 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 giggle maniacally on the unwashed lots who can’t afford Lightning Lane Premier Move. I’m not the audience for LLPP, both! Heck, I’m not even the audience for Lightning Lane Single Move. (Enjoyable truth: to today, I’ve nonetheless by no means bought an Particular person Lightning Lane, Single Move, 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 moderately beat the system than be a part of that individual “downside.”)
Look, I might love nothing greater than for Lightning Lane Premier Move 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 on the subject of pricing.
I utterly “get” why there’s a lot schadenfreude round Walt Disney World bulletins like this. Given the visitor unfriendly selections, worth will increase and cost-cutting, it is smart. However I additionally attempt to be level-headed and never faux that what I need to occur is what I feel truly will occur.
On this case, I’ve little doubt that Lightning Lane Premier Move can be an enormous success. I feel it’s extra seemingly that the service sells out with regularity, has even increased costs in 2025, or is additional restricted (possibly to solely Membership Degree friends?) than that it crashes and burns. I’d prefer to be flawed. Not as a result of this explicit product bothers me that a lot, however as a result of I hate the overall trajectory of issues, and the best way Walt Disney World is leaning increasingly into creating an in-park class system. Sadly, I don’t suppose I’ll be flawed.
The underside line is that there’s an enormous marketplace for a ‘problem free’ Specific Move-esque various to Lightning Lane Multi Move. The friends prepared to buy it will in all probability pay greater than you suppose 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 submit is already a novella and the audience 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 dangerous information–apart from, , this announcement as a complete–is that now I have to redo all of my Lightning Lane Multi-Move subject testing and technique guides to account for a way Lightning Lane Premier Move alters the line-skipping capability allocation. The excellent news is that few issues deliver me better pleasure than “beating the system,” so anticipate to see loads of that over the following few months and all through 2025. Keep tuned!
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Find out about inns on our Walt Disney World Resorts Evaluations web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Evaluations. To save cash on tickets or decide which kind to purchase, learn our Suggestions for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets submit. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys submit takes a singular have a look at intelligent gadgets to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Trip Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the most effective place to begin is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for all the things you must know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you concentrate on Lightning Lane Premier Move? Ideas on Walt Disney World’s “reply” to Common’s Specific Move? Predictions as to how profitable this line-skipping service can be? Beneath what, if any, eventualities would you purchase Lightning Lane Premier Move? Agree or disagree with our evaluation? Different ideas or considerations? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
