Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World can be confusing. There are three separate systems for line-skipping at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Genie+ is gone, as is free FastPass. This guide offers a crash course with our best tips & tricks that will save you the most time (and money) when using Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at WDW in 2025.
Let’s start by straightening things out. Lightning Lane Multi-Pass (LLMP) is the primary line-skipping option at Walt Disney World. Additionally, there’s Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP), which is the a la carte option that used to be called Individual Lightning Lanes. Finally, there’s Lightning Lane Premier Pass (LLPP), which is the top tier of line-skipping meant for the top 1-2% of guests and priced accordingly. Got all of that? Good. If not, see our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World.
Lightning Lane Multi-Pass is essentially the core product. It’s pretty much paid FastPass+, but minus the marquee attraction in each park (or 2 in Magic Kingdom), which has line-skipping access sold a la carte via LLSP. We’ll only be focusing on LLMP here because it’s the only one that’s really “hackable.” The others are more straightforward, so while we could offer limited tips & tricks, they’re basically a matter of buy them or don’t.
This is a crash course intended to make you a Lightning Lane pro, so we’re going to gloss over most basics. It might take reading this a couple of times for everything to “click,” but it should after this if you already have a foundational understanding of how line-skipping works at Walt Disney World.
To that point, the first and easiest tip is to gain some “free” firsthand experience by playing around with the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass feature in My Disney Experience right now. You can go through the motions of booking your first 3 selections before buying, which provides valuable hands-on expertise for understanding the basics. If you’re a visual learner, spending ~30 minutes in the app is the easiest way to get a feel for LLMP.
With that out of the way, let’s dig right in with essential advice and tips & tricks for getting the most out of Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World…
These Are the Best Parks for LLMP
Under the prior system, the best park for purchasing Lightning Lanes was Magic Kingdom. Our advice was to almost always buy there, and usually at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We recommended skipping it sometimes at EPCOT and most of the time at Animal Kingdom.
This more or less remains true, with the biggest change that we’ve seen Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom flip-flop in our field testing. We’ve had the best success and saved the most time with Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, making that our new #1 for LLMP.
Magic Kingdom is now #2. There are a few reasons for this. First, tiering at Magic Kingdom presents significantly more friction, as compared to what used to be the “easiest” park. Second, the unreliability of Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (TBA) makes that unpredictable (more on strategy for this specific ride below). Even if you score a LLMP for TBA, you may not be using it. Finally, rolling refurbishments of tier 1 attractions–now with Big Thunder Mountain Railroad closed through 2026–makes the top tier sparse, and the second tier more competitive as a result.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios hasn’t really gotten better or worse. It’s the park with the highest average wait times, the #1 overall Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, and competition for headliners. However, it also has easier availability for (objectively better) tier two attractions and ride reservation refills if you leverage the rolling 3 rule and put a little elbow grease into your refresh game. For these reasons, we find ourselves having the best experience with Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and saving the most time.
Park Hopping Saves Money
There is no additional charge for Park Hopping, and you do not need to pay for the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass a second time. This means you could pay the lowest price for Lightning Lane Multi-Pass by starting at Animal Kingdom, and then Park Hopping to Magic Kingdom (the most expensive park). That’s a strategy unto itself for saving money!
It’s not one that I’d necessarily recommend, as you’re at the mercy of same-day availability and the luck of ride reservation refills, but it’s not necessarily a bad approach. That’s doubly true if you combine all of the tips here and get good at hacking LLMP.
Regardless, Park Hopping can be the difference-maker for whether Lightning Lane Multi-Pass is “worth it” at Animal Kingdom or EPCOT. If you start out at DAK early in the morning, use LLMP strategically for only a couple of key attractions before starting to make subsequent selections in one of the other three parks, that can be a game-changer. Although we’re not big fans of buying LLMP at Animal Kingdom or EPCOT, we do like buying it at Animal Kingdom and EPCOT (meaning a single day for both).
Prioritize Early Return Times
Once you redeem your first Lightning Lane, you can book another. Consider this the “rolling 3 rule,” which is to say that you can always have 3 Lightning Lane selections (subject to availability). With the rolling 3 rule of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, you can make your next ride reservation as soon as you’ve used one.
Moreover, once you’ve tapped into your first Lightning Lane, tiers no longer apply for subsequent selections. It thus behooves you to reserve at least one Lightning Lane earlier in the day to tap into that and unlock subsequent selections sooner–and eliminate the tiers for future and current selections.
In practice, this might mean booking an unpopular Lightning Lane first thing in the morning with a short ride duration (so you’re not committing much time to it) if you can’t score an early initial return time for a tier 1 attraction. We call these “burner” Lightning Lanes–rides like the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Alien Swirling Saucers–or other spinners and flat rides. As soon as you tap into one of these, you can make another Lightning Lane selection and modify your other tier 2 pick to upgrade to tier 1. Again, all subject to availability.
This is why you don’t want to simply prioritize the best rides–you need to optimize for high priority but also earlier return times. This isn’t to say every selection needs to be in the morning–that’s also a poor approach because it’ll save you the least time. But you don’t want all 3 of your pre-booked Lightning Lanes to be in the afternoon. Balance is the name of the game!
Prioritize Popular Rides
We rank the best Lightning Lane Multi-Pass picks for each park based upon time saved and how quickly return times fill up and run out. Here are comprehensive lists of every major attraction in each park:
With that said, it is arguably overkill to worry about every Lightning Lane attraction in light of the above ‘rule’ about optimizing for return times.
The top tier attractions you should absolutely book in advance if they’re options are Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Peter Pan’s Flight, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Frozen Ever After, Slinky Dog Dash, Na’vi River Journey and Kilimanjaro Safaris (no tiers at Animal Kingdom, but advice still stands).
It doesn’t matter if you can only get a 6 pm return time for Slinky Dog Dash–you should absolutely take that because scoring a refill is unlikely. Just make sure you have at least one other Lightning Lane selection before 10 am (ideally) to unlock subsequent selections via the rolling 3 rule.
Stay On-Site
Guests staying at an on-site Walt Disney World Resort hotel and other select hotels are able to purchase Lightning Lane passes up to 7 days in advance, for their entire stay (up to 14 days). Off-site guests can only make ride reservations up to 3 days in advance.
The end result of this can be a significant on-site advantage, as a lot of the “best” Lightning Lanes will be gobbled up before off-site guests can even book. At the very least, optimal return times will be gone prior to off-site guests having a chance to book. For this reason, you really should consider staying on-site.
This shouldn’t be the only reason, of course, but if you’re debating between off-site and on-site, you should absolutely ascribe value to this and other perks, including but not limited to Early Entry, WDW transportation, ADR windows, etc. From a cost calculus, we now find it difficult to beat the Value Resorts. Even though their base price is often higher than the cheapest off-site accommodations, the value of the perks and not having to pay for transportation or parking more than closes the gap. See Off-Site vs. On-Site Hotels at Walt Disney World for an objective rundown of pros & cons.
Book Backwards
When pre-booking your Lightning Lanes selections, you do so one day at a time starting at 7 a.m. on the date that your window opens. You aren’t alone. You’ll be competing against thousands of other rabid (not literally…hopefully) planners doing the exact same thing.
I’ve been told that I’m “too intense,” but I think it’s always helpful to view touring Walt Disney World as a competitive game you’re playing against your fellow guests. Like Squid Games, minus the violence. (Although it doesn’t hurt to sharpen your elbows, as our old pal easyWDW used to say, before doing the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train shuffle!) Or perhaps a problem to be solved, if you’re not the competitive type.
In any case, it makes the most sense to book your most difficult day first and backload the difficult days at the end of your trip with Disney’s Hollywood Studios furthest out, then Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Animal Kingdom. This matters less if you have a longer trip and more for a shorter one. It also matters less if you’re visiting during low to moderate crowds, and more during peak weeks.
For example, if visiting the parks November 24-27, 2025 (Thanksgiving week), book in the following order:
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Slinky Dog Dash): November 27
- Magic Kingdom (Tiana’s Bayou Adventure): November 26
- EPCOT (Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure): November 25
- Animal Kingdom (Na’vi River Journey, Kilimanjaro Safaris & Expedition Everest): November 24
Hopefully Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is more reliable by then, in which case Magic Kingdom would drop below EPCOT. Note that this isn’t a hard and fast rule, especially during Party Season. You should optimize this with the Best & Worst Days of the Week in Each Park at Walt Disney World. Choosing the wrong day to visit each park is way worse than not backloading your picks when your LLMP window opens.
Fish for MEP
Multiple Experience Passes (MEP) are what you receive an attraction for which you have an upcoming ride reservation is experiencing downtime. You’ll receive a notification about a modification to your plans, along with an explanation that the attraction is temporarily unavailable or something like that.
MEPs can be used at the Lightning Lane entrance of your choice throughout the day, with a number of caveats. These floating ride reservations don’t have the restriction of only being valid for each attraction once per day–you can use MEPs to experience your favorite rides again and again.
You can ‘fish’ for Multi-Experience Passes by booking Lightning Lane Multi-Pass in advance for attractions that are statistically prone to delayed openings. Easier and better yet, you can often make day-of selections for attractions that are currently experiencing downtime. If they’re still unavailable when your return window rolls around, the LLMP automatically converts to a MEP. It’s basically a bonus Lightning Lane! This is advanced-level strategy, so for a more thorough explanation, see: How to Beat Lightning Lane Multi-Pass Rules & Re-Ride Attractions.
Know When to Skip
One of the things we stress on this site is that you should NOT always buy Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Walt Disney World. To the contrary, most people should skip the line-skipping service at least some of the time, at some of the parks. In Best Time-Saving Strategies for Walt Disney World, we cover the ideal approaches to each park, and Lightning Lanes do not win in at least 2 of the 4 parks.
The pitfall some people make is assuming Lightning Lane Multi-Pass is a ‘golden ticket’ or easy way to beat the crowds. But it really isn’t! That can lull planners into a false sense of security, to the point that they actually are worse off because they over relied on LLMP, mistakenly thinking it would offer a stress and strategy-free day.
If you want that, you’re going to have to pay $129 to $449 per person, per day for Lightning Lane Premier Pass. What Lightning Lane Multi-Pass offers stress free is only 3-4 rides per day. Leveraging LLMP requires a bit of homework and legwork, hence the post. And if you’re willing to do that, maybe you’re better off putting the effort towards Early Entry, rope drop, efficient itineraries that minimize walking, staying late, Extended Evening Hours, etc.
Do not simply succumb to FOMO and buy Lightning Lane Multi-Pass every day of your trip. If you’re purchasing because you’re worried it’s the only way to guarantee a good day in the parks, you’re doing it wrong. It’s entirely possible you’ll end up wanting it every day, which is fine! Everyone is different! Just don’t view LLMP as the default, and buy out of fear of the unknown.
For our part, we seldom purchase Lightning Lane Multi-Pass for fun. Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom are the only exceptions (we never buy at EPCOT or Animal Kingdom), and only on occasion. It helps that crowds are trending down, and also that standby lines are moving faster and wait times are down at Walt Disney World as a result. That’s just us, though, and our circumstances are unique in that we’re frequent visitors.
It’s important you assess your own unique circumstances to determine when and where Lightning Lane Multi-Pass is right for you. Factors to consider are your budget, how many days you have in the parks, whether you’re staying on-site, if you’re an early riser or night owl, whether you’ve been before or it’s your first visit, tolerance for lines, and if there are must-do attractions for you. For a deeper dive and more comprehensive advice, see When You Should Skip Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Walt Disney World.
Look for TBA Refills
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is still suffering reliability woes and downtime as a result. Some days, it’s down for several hours; other days, none at all. It’s unpredictable. It’s also the newest attraction at Walt Disney World, and anything new is in higher demand. As a result of these two factors, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is one of the most difficult Lightning Lane Multi Passes, right up there with Slinky Dog Dash.
Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is regularly running out of Lightning Lane Multi Pass reservations before the 7-day mark. (This varies based on weather–it’s much easier when daily high temperatures are 60 degrees!) There have been times when I’ve had trouble booking it over 10 days out, with limited return times that didn’t work for my schedule.
With that said, same-day ride reservation refills for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure can be a different story. Due to its unpredictability and problems, Disney is clearly setting aside most Lightning Lanes for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and releasing them day-of based on uptime and downtime.
Meaning that on days when the attraction is operating efficiently and doesn’t have downtime, there are Lightning Lane drops for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure that are occurring with almost-immediate return times. Some of those instances when there was nothing at the 7-day mark, I’ve been able to score same-day availability for return times ~30 minutes into the future.
The problem is that this is dependent upon Tiana’s Bayou Adventure not breaking down. If it’s having a rough day, there might not be any ride reservation refills for TBA. Suffice to say, there’s a lot of luck involved, but if you’re visiting on the right day, you should really keep a close eye out for near-instant return times for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. It’s the most hit or miss high profile attraction for Lightning Lanes.
Have a Strong Refresh Game
As you’ve probably gathered from all of the above, more attraction availability is added to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass throughout the day. This is no surprise whatsoever, as both FastPass+ and Genie+ had ride reservation refills, drops, pop-up availability or whatever you want to call it. This occurs both pursuant to a fairly consistent schedule, and also at random. (See Ride Reservation Refill Rules at Walt Disney World.)
Playing the refresh game is far and away the #1 tip & trick for Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Walt Disney World. If you’re simply settling for whatever you see immediately, you’re doing it wrong. That’s a recipe for disappointment and only getting 3-4 “good” Lightning Lanes per day.
Beyond this being the #1 tip, playing the refresh game also combines several of the above strategies. It’s why you want to balance the best Lightning Lanes with earlier return times, as that means more time to play the refresh game, thereby improving your odds of success.
Combining this with the rolling 3 rule, what you should do is immediately choose the best available option after you’ve tapped into Lightning Lane to unlock your next selection. Always book something–do not refresh and wait for the “perfect” Lightning Lane. Booking another ride reservation is essentially a hedge. The bird in hand, and so forth.
From there, play the refresh game by modifying to something better. Trade up, so to speak. It’s a good way to hedge your bets. Just be warned: it becomes addictive–just like a video game. Also like a game, it can mean losing a ton of ‘real world’ time as your face is glued to a screen.
My tried and true Lightning Lane refresh strategy is tapping in, booking the best available option, and modifying. There are a few approaches for refreshing from here, but I favor toggling the “close” dropdown on the modify screen to refresh times. Compare the left and right, the latter of which shows pop-up availability for 4:25 pm that wasn’t there 2 minutes earlier. In my experience, toggling this “close” dropdown is the most efficient way to play the refresh game. YMMV.
Again, this can become addictive and you can waste a lot of time playing the refresh game–hence so many Walt Disney World fans complaining about Lightning Lanes “requiring” you to have your face glued to the phone. My rough “rule” for playing the refresh game is limiting it to my time in the Lightning Lane return line after tapping in. This means I have anywhere from 2 minutes to 10 minutes–it all depends on whether there are two tap points, where merge occurs, etc. Same goes for any time I’m waiting–to pick up a Mobile Order, for coffee, the rest of my party to get out of the restroom, etc.
Frankly, you’ll be surprised at just how much trading up is possible with just a few minutes here and there spent refreshing. Even if you don’t get the best selections when pre-booking, you can usually overcome that by playing the Lightning Lane refresh game for a few minutes here and there. With that and the rest of these tips, you really should be able to get the most mileage out of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Walt Disney World!
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your best tips & tricks for leveraging LLMP at WDW? Do you balance return times with ride priorities when making Lightning Lane Multi Pass selections? Any rules of thumb when playing the Lightning Lane refresh game? Do you agree with our assessment that getting earlier return times matters a lot for the ‘rolling 3’ rule? Where/when do you buy LLMP or skip it? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
