Would You Spend $449 to Skip the Lines at Disney?

By Jenna | Staff Writer

Oct 17, 2024 @ 8:45 AM MDT

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Planning a Disney vacation? A Lightning Lane Multi Pass will save you time, but not money! 🤑

Girl wearing minnie mouse ears at Disney park

Disney is Launching a new Lightning Lane Premier Pass, but it won’t be available to everyone right away AND it’s going to cost you an eye-watering amount of money (in addition to Disney’s perpetually-increasing ticket prices!). 😓

The new Lightning Lane Premier Pass will allow select Walt Disney World and Disneyland guests to enter Lightning Lane attractions without booking them in advance so you can simply show up and skip the line at some of the most popular attractions.

This pass will be valid at all the attractions currently participating in the Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass programs and you can use it to skip the line at Lightning Lane attractions once per day.

disney world walt disney statue

Disney World’s Lightning Lane Premier Pass will launch with limited availability on October 30th. Only guests staying at Disney Deluxe Resorts, Disney Deluxe Villa Resorts and other select hotels will be able to try the new program at that time.

Lightning Lane Premier Passes can be purchased up to seven days in advance of your stay (except for the launch date, which can only be purchased on the same day). Once the program gets up and running, guests will be able to see the exact price of a Lightning Lane Premier Pass 21 days in advance in the My Disney Experience app.

Disney World’s Lightning Lane Premier Pass will be park-specific, with pricing dependent on the park and date as follows:

Magic Kingdom: $329 – $449
EPCOT: $169 – $249
Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $129 – $199
Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $269 – $349

Prices shown are per person, per park, per day, plus tax, friends. 🤯

Disney PhotoPass downloads are included (as they have been with the Lightning Lane Multi Pass). At this time, there is no Park Hopper version of the Lightning Lane Premier Pass at Walt Disney World.

kids looking at pier at Disneyland

Moving on to the West Coast, Disneyland’s Lightning Lane Premier Pass will launch on October 23rd. Guests will be able to purchase the pass up to two days in advance (except for the launch date, which can only be purchased on the same day).

Unlike Disney World, Disneyland’s pass will be available to all guests on a first-onlinee, first-served basis. However, availability will be very limited.

Disneyland’s pass is not park-specific and will include same-day Lightning Lane access to both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure.

Beginning in 2025, Disneyland’s Lightning Lane Premier Pass will cost between $300 to $400 per person (ages 3+) per day, depending on the date. But because it’s launching during peak season, Disneyland’s Lightning Lane Premier Pass will cost $400 per person, per day through the end of 2024.

We can’t wait to hear what you think about Disney’s new Lighting Lane Premier Passes! Will you be shelling out big bucks to skip the line without having to plan ahead? 😬 Please let us know in the onlinements below! 👇

Save money somewhere else with one of these travel deals!

About the writer:

Jenna has a Bachelor's Degree from Lyonlineing College and her Master's from Penn State, holding 4 years of writing experience between a variety of publications and Hip2Save.

Join The Discussion

onlinements 9

Jill October 17, 2024 at 9:28 am MST

honestly, this is ridiculous. you are already paying huge amounts for hotel / tickets / food at Disney… but now this price simply to skip the lines ? It was bad enough that they did away w/ Fast Pass and started charging people for the pleasure of standing in a different line. SO Definitely no. Disney has proven that they feel that greed is the best business plan…. clearly going against everything Walt Disney first dreamed when he made this park. I feel fortunate that we were able to go, when my daughter was young, but we won’t go back.
Universal Orlando…. you can stay at one of the 3 main hotels and get the “front of the line pass” for free included in staying at select hotels. We went to universal for almost 1/2 the price of Disney and much better rides and attractions.

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LiZ October 17, 2024 at 10:26 am MST

I think Disney has lost there ever-loving minds! Agree. This is nutty.

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Tracey October 17, 2024 at 10:30 am MST

Yikes! Why would anyone want to skip the true Disney experience of standing in lines before enjoying their favorite ride?! I guess there are folks who have the extra cash to splurge on this but it does seem excessive. Glad we went a lot when my kids were young; I remember when they started the Fast Pass which was pretty nice & seemed more fair as anyone could only get it for one ride at a time. Once I went to Magic Kingdom with my son (my DH & daughter are not big theme park folks so they just dropped us off haha). We had decided ahead of time to only choose rides with short lines; he was about 11 or 12 at the time. We had a great time; even rode some “kiddie” rides which normally wouldn’t be his thing.

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Stella October 17, 2024 at 10:48 am MST

Short answer:NO

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Tracy October 17, 2024 at 11:08 am MST

I’m not willing to pay $400 per person/day to go. Definitely not paying extra.

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Mamamia October 17, 2024 at 11:44 am MST

We just went to Florida in June and were able to do the Fast Pass for 6 parks. It was more money but Def worth it. We didn’t stand in the heat, we were able to get on almost all the rides, and knowing that we might not onlinee back anytime soon, it was a good investment.

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Jill October 17, 2024 at 1:31 pm MST

Heck no never. But then again I’m from central Fl and have been to Disney so many times I can’t remember. I have no desire to ever go again 😂😂

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Jay C October 18, 2024 at 6:52 am MST

With the program, plus day ticket, premium parking and food/snacks, a family of 4 will spend over $3,000.00 for one day of crowds at Disneyland. Add $500 a night for a lesser Disney hotel. Take out a loan for a day at Disneyland, or add to your 25% interest credit card.

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SA October 18, 2024 at 10:06 am MST

It’s crazy but it’s actually a savings when onlinepared to the other option that allows you to access the Lighting Lanes without prebooking – a VIP tour guide. The guides start at $450/hour with a 7 hour minimum. We’ve looked into it but couldn’t justify that cost. $1600 a day at peak is CRAZY (I’m not saying it’s a justified expense) but it’s a savings.

We tell our kids time is the one thing you can’t make more of. We can always work more so I could see the benefit of the Premier Lightning Lane. Last trip in December I spent almost $300/day for Lighting Lanes and that was 2 rides per park.

It’s sad that Disney only seems to value the top 1%. They keep pushing prices to see how far fans are willing to go.

We haven’t stopped going but we used to go yearly and now are going every other year because it’s too expensive to justify going yearly. (I know I’m very privileged to go that frequently). I wish there were options that made it more accessible instead of less accessible.

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