Walt Disney World has announced the expansion of Lightning Lane Premier Pass, removing all resort restrictions on the top-tier line skipping service. This covers the eligibility changes for the upcharge option at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Plus, our commentary about how this will impact popularity, wait times, etc.
For starters, we want to reiterate once again that Lightning Lane Premier Pass is not Walt Disney World’s core line-skipping product offering. That is not changing today–or probably ever. Rather, Lightning Lane Premier Pass (LLPP) is a third tier of line-skipping in addition to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass (LLMP) and Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP).
There’s a lot more to the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass, all of which is beyond the scope of this post. But if you don’t already know about those line-skipping services, we’d encourage you to read our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World instead of this post. There’s about a 95% or higher chance that’s more relevant for your planning purposes than this one.
Before you worry about the implications of Walt Disney World expanding Lightning Lane Premier Pass repeatedly, the important thing to know is that Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass will continue to exist throughout 2025 and probably beyond. LLPP offers a distinct, alternative line-skipping product offering for guests who don’t want to hassle with LLMP or LLSP. While Lightning Lane Premier Pass features the same ride rosters as the other Lightning Lane services, it’s fundamentally differently.
I’m (over)emphasizing this because we’ve seen a lot of fears from frequent Walt Disney World fans that the pilot program of Lightning Lane Premier Pass is only the first step. They’re concerned that the end result is Lightning Lane Multi-Pass being eliminated entirely, and guests being “forced” to purchase LLPP. These fears are understandably rekindled whenever Lightning Lane Premier Pass is expanded, because a logical conclusion is that the eventual next step is eliminating LLMP and LLSP in favor of LLPP.
Honestly, I’d love for that to happen. Not because I’m a high-roller who has money to burn–I’ve never bought LLPP and never will–but because of the cascading effects on standby lines. That’s also precisely why Walt Disney World will never do it–because it would mean a revenue stream drying up. You cannot force someone with a $30 budget to spend $300. If that were possible, Walt Disney World would also eliminate Value and Moderate Resorts and replace them exclusively with Deluxe Resorts. But I digress.
Here’s what Walt Disney World has officially announced about the expansion to Lightning Lane Premier Pass…
Beginning January 21, 2025, Walt Disney World will expand the Lightning Lane Premier Pass pilot to all guests. Guests of Disney resort hotels and other select third-party hotels (Swan & Dolphin and Shades of Green) will be eligible to purchase up to 7 days before the first day of their stay. Off-site guests will be eligible to purchase up to 3 days in advance of their park visit.
The only change here is the last sentence–that off-site guests will now be eligible to purchase LLPP. This is the second expansion of the program. When it launched, the only eligible guests were those staying at Deluxe Resorts and Deluxe Villas/Disney Vacation Club properties. Then on November 22, Disney expanded the service to all on-site guests (plus the aforementioned third party hotels).
Now, it expands for a final time to all guests as of January 21, with the same on-site vs. off-site timeline as Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Single Pass.
This means some of the most expensive hotels in Central Florida are now eligible for Lightning Lane Premier Pass, including but not limited to the Four Seasons Orlando, JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek, Waldorf Astoria Orlando, Conrad Orlando, and more.
These are real world luxury hotels where many affluent guests elect to stay over Deluxe Resorts at Walt Disney World. Normally, some of these luxury hotels that are located on-site are eligible for Disney perks (e.g. Early Entry).
This probably will move the needle on Lightning Lane Premier Pass sales to some degree. While there might be the temptation to think that guests opting to stay off-site to save money are less likely to buy LLPP, that’s not the full story. Guests staying at the Four Seasons are statistically much more likely to buy LLPP than those staying at All Star Sports.
Point being, there’s a very wide range of accommodations off-site, not just cheaper ones. There are also massive mansions that are rented out as vacation homes, and I’d assume the same is true of those guests being more likely to buy Lightning Lane Premier Pass. (If anything, this move might cannibalize VIP tour sales because some of those off-site guests were previously more inclined to purchase those.)
Even after the 2025 expansion of Lightning Lane Premier Pass, Walt Disney World’s official website still emphasizes that they are piloting the rollout of Lightning Lane Premier Pass with “very limited quantities.” When the new tier of line-skipping first went live, our biggest question was: just how limited is very limited?
Would Lightning Lane Premier Pass be so limited that it easily sells out every single day? Is that the reason Walt Disney World started by restricting it to only Deluxe Resort and DVC Villas? Is this going to meaningful impact Lightning Lane availability for those who want to purchase Multi-Pass or Single Pass? Will this mean more capacity is allocated away from standby lines and to Lightning Lanes?
Those questions will once again be front-of-mind for many Walt Disney World fans seeing this massive expansion of Lightning Lane Premier Pass. While they’re fair to ask, we are not worried. The caps and demand for LLPP are pretty low–and that’s a good thing for everyone else!
The target audience for LLPP is exceedingly limited. It’s my understanding that fewer than 1% of guests have been purchasing Lightning Lane Premier Pass on the vast majority of days. That number is higher when crowds are higher, especially at Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, but it’s still only around 2% of all guests (maybe under).
There’s bound to be fan frustration that the company is getting greedy and simply wants to sell more Premier Pass. That’s probably true, but perhaps not in the way you think. Now that Christmas and New Year’s Eve has passed, prices and demand for LLPP have undoubtedly dropped precipitously.
Lightning Lane Premier Pass did sell out for the most dates between Christmas and New Year’s Eve at Magic Kingdom and Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and a couple at EPCOT. However, that’s the busiest week of the entire year. The only truly busy week on the horizon where Lightning Lane sell outs are conceivable is Easter–maybe a couple dates at Magic Kingdom around Winter Break and early Spring Break. Before and after that, it’s unlikely.
This isn’t about growing Lightning Lane Premier Pass at the expense of everyone else–it’s about opening LLPP to more guests and keeping utilization at 1%. If demand were strong and Walt Disney World wanted to sell more Lightning Lane Premier Pass, they could simply…sell more? After all, they’re the ones who set the caps, so if it were truly a supply shortage, they could create more out of thin air. This is a demand shortfall, hence an attempt at remedying it by expanding the pilot program to all guests.
For our part, we’ve observed absolutely no impact whatsoever on Lightning Lane utilization as a result of Premier Pass. I did extensive testing of Multi-Pass and standby lines in November and December, including one of the busier holiday weekends of the year. There was no problem whatsoever. Lines were much better than last year, despite Lightning Lane Premier Pass having launched (and then expanded) during those timeframes.
Again, we’ve explained this in Here’s Why Standby Lines and Lightning Lanes Are Moving Faster at Walt Disney World and have discussed it elsewhere. That’s really worth reading if you want to understand the growing disconnect between ‘feels like’ crowds and wait times. Suffice to say, Lightning Lane Premier Pass has not caused any problems whatsoever.
Obviously, Lightning Lane Premier Pass isn’t the reason lines are moving faster, either. There are multiple contributing factors, with the DAS changes and, to a lesser extent, switch from Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass having the most significant impact. It should go without saying that there are controversies, downsides, and unfortunate realities to the above. But the improvement to the flow of lines–standby and Lightning Lanes–as well as lower wait times is also undeniable.
As for the impact of the expansion of Lightning Lane Premier Pass on lines, it should continue to be nonexistent. For whatever it’s worth, I’d maintain this position even if Walt Disney World tripled the supply of Lightning Lane Premier Pass.
This is because, once again, it’s mostly a demand issue. More guests staying at the Four Seasons Orlando and the other aforementioned luxury resorts will purchase Premier Pass, sure. But it still won’t be a statistically-significant number–not enough to have an impact on standby line wait times or Lightning Lane utilization.
Even without any caps, my guess is that Lightning Lane Premier Pass wouldn’t really move the needle on those things. For one thing, it’s safe to assume that the majority of LLPP guests are already using some form of line-skipping–meaning that they’re either upgrading from Multi-Pass or downgrading from VIP tours. So this really only incrementally changes their frequency.
For another thing, organic demand is limited by the high price of Lightning Lane Premier Pass. With the exception of a handful of the busiest days of the year, Premier Pass has not been selling out as-is even when available in “very limited quantities” to the guests most inclined to purchase it simply because the price is too high.
There are potential “fixes” to make LLPP more attractive, such as an unlimited version, offering a number of floating re-rides, introducing a Park Hopper option, or making it significantly less expensive. However, all of them come with downsides that have unintended consequences that could hurt Disney’s bottom line, such as cannibalizing VIP tour sales, decreasing revenue, making the service complicated and confusing, or reducing average length-of-stay for high-rolling guests.
Ultimately, if Lightning Lane Premier Pass is mostly not selling out when made available in “very limited quantities” then it obviously also won’t sell out in very high quantities. There is not a huge untapped pool of guests who want to buy this product offering but cannot.
This is also precisely why LLPP will never replace Lightning Lane Multi-Pass or Single Pass. Although it may not seem like it at times, most guests are cost-sensitive. This is precisely why the lower tier resorts are more popular than the higher tier ones, Cosmic Ray’s is busier than Monsieur Paul, etc.
All of the complaints about Disney only wanting rich guests–while feeling valid–ignore this practical reality and limitation. Walt Disney World cannot cater only to the wealthy, because there simply are not enough such guests to even come close to sustaining the parks and resorts. The popularity, or lack thereof, of Lightning Lane Premier Pass should reinforce this conclusion.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think about Lightning Lane Premier Pass? Thoughts on Walt Disney World expanding the top tier of paid FastPass to all guests? Predictions as to how successful this line-skipping service will be? Under what, if any, scenarios would you buy Lightning Lane Premier Pass? Agree or disagree with our assessment? Other thoughts or concerns? 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!
