Competitors for Lightning Lanes could be fierce in larger crowds on account of extra company shopping for Multi-Cross line-skipping. Regardless of surge pricing that may trigger the paid FastPass service to price round $40 on busy days, demand is highest when attendance and wait instances are at their worst. (Up to date February 23, 2025.)
Accordingly, you want superior technique to attain essentially the most journey reservations, particularly in the course of the busiest dates when Lightning Lane Multi-Cross is costliest and features are longest. Sadly for energy customers, many of the next-level hacks that have been exploited below Genie+ are all gone below LLMP. There’s no 120 minute rule, stacking is not a factor, and pace technique doesn’t matter as a lot.
Happily, there are new methods to squeeze essentially the most out of Multi-Cross, which we clarify in our Prime 10 Ideas & Tips for Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World in 2025. That’s a crash course in turning you right into a Lightning Lanes energy consumer, and we’d extremely suggest it for all of the ins and outs. Of these methods, there’s a cause why “Have a Robust Refresh Recreation” is way and away the #1 tip & trick for Lightning Lane Multi-Cross at Walt Disney World. This put up is meant to do a deeper dive, explaining why that issues and the way it works.
None of that is defined by Walt Disney World on its official websites, and possibly for good cause–the following tips could be complicated and overwhelming. Nonetheless, in case you take ~half-hour to study these ins and outs, you received’t simply be above common–you’ll be a prime 5% Lightning Lane Multi-Cross energy consumer.
Earlier than we dig into the main points, a few warnings are so as. First, that is complicated or intimidating at first. Whilst you can comprehend the contours by studying, you really want to study this one by doing. The beneath clarification will make an entire lot extra sense when you really begin utilizing Lightning Lane Multi Cross.
Even in case you depart this put up extra confused than whenever you began, that’ll shortly change when you begin really taking part in the refresh sport. The training curve is steep within the summary, however not in observe.
Second, this can completely improve your display time. I do know that’s a serious concern with lots of Walt Disney World trip planners, and a few of our different recommendation avoids being glued to your telephone. This doesn’t. Enjoying the refresh sport is addictive, and you might spend hours of your day attempting to commerce up your Lightning Lane choices and return instances.
Due to that, we extremely suggest setting some floor guidelines. Mine is that I solely play the refresh sport within the Lightning Lane return line after tapping in. This implies I’ve wherever from 2 minutes to 10 minutes–all of it will depend on whether or not there are two faucet factors, the place merge happens, and many others. I’ll additionally search for journey reservation refills any time I’m ready–to select up a Cell Order, the remainder of my celebration to get out of the restroom, and many others.
Whereas this does require extra display time, it doesn’t need to require hours of display time. On the contrary, I view taking part in the refresh sport as being addictive in a nasty method. Looking for 5-10 minutes per attraction is an efficient use of time, and can normally work out to your benefit. Something greater than that and also you shortly begin hitting the purpose of diminishing returns.
With these warnings out of the way in which, let’s get all the way down to brass tacks and focus on what the heck journey reservation refill guidelines even are. And for that, we rewind to March 2020, within the halcyon days of FastPass+ at Walt Disney World…
There’s a cause we’re calling this “journey reservation refill guidelines,” and it’s not simply because I’m a sucker for alliteration. It’s as a result of that is nothing new, and was one thing Walt Disney World had been fine-tuning within the last days of FastPass+. I don’t keep in mind exactly after they began, however it turned a extra pronounced observe in 2019. (Or so it appeared to me.)
Walt Disney World would add same-day FastPass+ journey reservations for headliner points of interest “at random” all through the day. Besides it wasn’t actually at random, it was based mostly on a set schedule. The entire goal of this was to throw a bone to company who didn’t understand journey reservations have been booked 30/60 days prematurely, and confirmed up on the parks with nothing in hand.
Basically, it was an try to treatment visitor complaints about FastPass+ from first-timers. Besides, like all issues, the predictable course of was reverse-engineered and it was higher exploited by the savviest planners than ill-prepared newbies.
Nearly equivalent journey reservation refill guidelines have been constructed into the Lightning Lanes for the very same causes. That features the now-defunct Genie+ system. In the event you already performed the refresh sport with that, you already know the way this works–the mechanics have modified barely, however the concept is identical.
Shifting ahead, right here’s every thing else you could learn about journey reservation refill guidelines below Lightning Lane Multi-Cross at Walt Disney World…
Refills vs. Cancellations
It ought to go with out saying, however these aren’t the identical. If one celebration cancels a journey reservation, that single reservation returns to the system together with its precise time slot. There are lots of company all utilizing Lightning Lane Multi-Cross on the similar time.
Let’s say that 9 totally different events all see and try to e book one reservation for Slinky Canine Sprint. Clearly, just one can–and that occurs in milliseconds, earlier than Disney’s programs can replicate that it’s gone to everybody else. Making issues worse, all can provoke the reserving course of and it’ll disappear out from below 8 of you.
Cancellations can change into simpler to determine over time as a result of they are going to be for some random time. As soon as that’s booked, the return time clock jumps again to wherever it was in its cycle earlier than (or goes unavailable, because the case could also be). In contrast, reservation refills restart the clock and advance incrementally over the course of some minutes (generally much less, generally extra) earlier than reserving up.
Celebration Measurement Does Not Matter
That is actually solely a tangential level, however it’s one thing that comes up lots, and pertains to the primary level of confusion. In the event you see a cancellation, however are one of many dissatisfied events that have been too sluggish to e book it, there may be the idea that it’s as a result of your celebration was too giant.
Honestly, I don’t know whether or not that’s the case with cancellations–if it exhibits for everybody regardless of not being a match. Nothing would shock me, however I do know that at the same time as a celebration of 1, I’m routinely have the cancelled reservation rug pulled out from below me.
What I additionally know is that celebration measurement doesn’t matter with journey reservation refills. Lightning Lanes aren’t like Advance Eating Reservations–Walt Disney World shouldn’t be attempting to match attraction automobile seating with hourly capability. That’s not even remotely doable. It’s a pure numbers sport: X variety of journey reservations are launched, and that quantity could be booked in any permutation doable.
Refilled Trip Roster
Listed here are the points of interest that we’ve seen get reservation refills at one level or one other:
- Magic Kingdom: Tiana’s Bayou Journey (far and away the commonest as of 2025), Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan’s Flight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Seven Dwarfs Mine Practice, House Mountain
- EPCOT: Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Journey, Soarin’ Across the World
- Hollywood Studios: Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Slinky Canine Sprint, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Toy Story Mania, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
- Animal Kingdom: Avatar Flight of Passage, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Na’vi River Journey
Observe that a few of these are Lightning Lane Single Cross points of interest.
Do These Trip Reservation Refills At all times Occur?
Nope. Some points of interest have their Lightning Lane availability replenished frequently, others occur on uncommon event, and most are someplace in between the 2 extremes. I may share a bunch of refill instances right here at the moment, and so they might be flawed tomorrow, subsequent week or month.
Essentially the most illustrative instance is Tiana’s Bayou Journey. It makes use of journey reservation refills far more regularly than different points of interest on account of its unreliability. If it’s having a “dangerous” day, refills might be sparse or nonexistent. If it’s having a “good” day, chances are you’ll commonly discover same-day Lightning Lane drops which are solely 10 to half-hour out.
Much less excessive examples happen with most different points of interest when attendance shouldn’t be as heavy as inner forecasts projected. If Walt Disney World anticipated 50,000 company, however there solely 40,000 company confirmed up, that’s a fairly large miss on the projection. This opens up the door for extra journey reservation refills, as Disney load balances between the Lightning Lanes and standby traces.
When Are Lightning Lane Trip Reservation Refill Occasions?
I wish to stress that there are not any ensures.
Furthermore, I don’t have the extent of firsthand testing expertise mandatory to identify patterns. There was a time after I was shopping for and utilizing Lightning Lanes at the very least as soon as per week at Walt Disney World, as we labored to place collectively our assets. Nonetheless, because the paid FastPass service has change into extra secure, the necessity for additional testing has decreased. And we’d relatively not waste cash, so we’ve slowed that all the way down to about as soon as per 30 days, or at any time when issues change. (For instance, Tiana’s Bayou Journey and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind switching to standby–that doesn’t pertain on to LLMP, however it has second-order results.)
The excellent news is that the oldsters over at Thrill-Information monitor what they name Lightning Lane “popup releases” (similar kinda factor, totally different title). The record of points of interest seems incomplete to me, however it ought to offer you an concept of when to anticipate journey reservation refills or popup releases.
It’s price declaring that their information is automated–that means an precise human isn’t reviewing the app and making notes of what’s being refilled. Meaning they’ll–and do–miss refills that seem and vanish shortly. It’s additionally price declaring that refills are largely same-day below Lightning Lane Multi-Cross, however I’ve additionally seen them in the course of the preliminary pre-arrival choice course of. So in case you don’t extra display time earlier than leaving house, you may give this a strive then, too.
What’s the Finest Strategy to Snagging Refills?
You must instantly select the most effective obtainable choice after you’ve tapped into Lightning Lane to unlock your subsequent choice (making the most of the “rolling 3 rule,” a associated idea, is vital to getting essentially the most mileage out of LLMP). At all times e book one thing–don’t refresh and anticipate the “good” Lightning Lane. Reserving one other journey reservation is basically a hedge.
From there, play the refresh sport by looking for one thing higher. My tried and true Lightning Lane refresh technique is tapping in, reserving the most effective obtainable choice, after which modifying. Though the above record of journey reservation refill points of interest could be useful, I assume, I’ve discovered the precise record of points of interest to be longer–and drop instances extra scattershot–in my testing of LLMP. Principally, I’m spamming the modify button.
There are just a few approaches for refreshing from right here, however I favor toggling the “shut” dropdown on the modify display to refresh instances. I do that repeatedly each few seconds all through that 5 minute clock (see the highest of the screenshots). About 75% of the time, I’ll discover one thing higher inside that span of time.
Evaluate the left and proper, the latter of which exhibits pop-up availability for 4:25 pm that wasn’t there 2 minutes earlier. In my expertise, toggling this “shut” dropdown is essentially the most environment friendly technique to play the refresh sport.
Lastly, we wish to underscore but once more that Lightning Lanes aren’t the end-all, be-all of park touring technique. Our Finest Time-Saving Technique at Walt Disney World covers the most effective and worst methods to beat the crowds proper now and Lightning Lanes are not the most effective (and positively not the best) method in 2 of the 4 parks.
The one parks the place Lightning Lane Multi-Cross works higher than all different methods are Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. All over the place else, there are superior methods for saving time ready in line. In any respect 4 parks, there are different approaches that work effectively sufficient, don’t price cash, require as a lot backtracking, and don’t contain display time.
The underside line is that you might ignore Lightning Lanes fully–faux they don’t even exist–and nonetheless have a improbable journey. Don’t let FOMO get the most effective of you–shopping for Lightning Lanes shouldn’t be a “want” and there are many different methods to beat the crowds. In the event you’re overwhelmed by Lightning Lane Multi Cross, the aforementioned put up is essentially the most succinct useful resource for present technique.
Finally, this may be complicated or irritating, however it’s vital to keep in mind that that is basically a “loophole” and Disney itself doesn’t publish something about journey reservation refills for a cause. This isn’t meant to be frequent information–they’re speculated to be a ‘aid valve’ of types for company who don’t know all the ins and outs, and are simply randomly in search of availability.
Whereas the bottom lined right here is nice info to have, on the finish of the day all you actually must know is that spamming the modify button may help you commerce up points of interest and return instances because of journey reservation refills. (There’s a cause why our Prime 10 Ideas & Tips for Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World in 2025 is far more succinct!)
The underside line is that a lot information will make it easier to make higher selections and get extra mileage from Multi-Cross. To cite the good Indiana Jones (Journey): “Actual Rewards Await These Who Select Properly.” For every thing else you could learn about LLMP, see our Information to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Study motels on our Walt Disney World Resorts Evaluations web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Evaluations. To economize on tickets or decide which sort 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 novel 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 every thing you could know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Do these journey reservation refill guidelines make sense to you or is it too overwhelming? Will you utilize this technique for scoring Lightning Lane choices? Have you ever had success in getting Slinky Canine Sprint throughout one in every of these refills? What about headliners in different parks? Ideas on leveraging journey reservation refills versus different technique? Do you agree or disagree with my evaluation? Any questions we may help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even whenever you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
