The Basics: Visiting the Disney World Theme Parks and Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass

By Dave Shute

The best visits to Walt Disney World are built from four key choices:

• Picking when to go
• Dividing your time among the parks
• Picking the best days to visit each park (most important during the party season,  August-December), and
• Designing what you do each day, using especially Early Entry, and Disney’s paid line-skipping programs,  Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass, to minimize time spent waiting in line.

These last–Disney World’s Early Entry, Lightning Lane Multi Pass, and Lightning Lane Single Pass programs–are particularly important.

Wise use of the Lightning Lane programs can substantially reduce your time spent waiting in line–albeit at the cost of substantial upcharges. Moreover, in a nice compromise between the last two predecessor programs to Lightning Lane at Disney World, if you stay in a Walt Disney World resort hotel (or a few other hotels), you can pre-book time-saving Lightning Lane appointments for several rides a day for your entire visit beginning seven days before check-in. Guests staying elsewhere can only pre-book beginning three days before arrival. For the most popular rides, there can be a large payoff to being able to book seven days ahead.

AN INTRODUCTION TO WALT DISNEY WORLD AND ITS FOUR THEME PARKS

Walt Disney World occupies about 40 square miles southwest of Orlando Florida, making it just a little smaller than San Francisco and almost twice the size of Manhattan.

It contains hotels, shopping, two waterparks, a campground, and most significantly, four theme parks: Disney’s Animal Kingdom, Epcot, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and Magic Kingdom.

Magic Kingdom

The Magic Kingdom is the quintessential Disney theme park and the heart of Walt Disney World.

Inspired by the original California Disneyland, it presents iconic attractions ranging from Dumbo to the Haunted Mansion. Loved by the young and old, it is particularly suited to younger guests.

For those tall and mature enough to enjoy everything in the park, all its best can be seen in two long days—but three days will provide a more flexible and relaxing visit.

Epcot

Think of Epcot as being two parks combined into one:

• What used to be Future World, but is now “World Nature,” “World Celebration,” and “World Discovery,” somewhat explores ideas, technology, and the planet Earth, and has most of the rides
• World Showcase suggests a permanent World’s Fair, with an intriguing mix of attractions, cultural experiences, themed architecture, shopping, and dining.

“France” at Epcot

The favorite Disney World park of some adults, Epcot has recently deepened its attractiveness to children–historically Epcot’s weakest feature. Epcot has opened over the past few years new and reimagined attractions aimed in particular at the younger set, including Frozen Ever After, a Frozen Meet and Greet, the new evening fireworks show Luminous, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and a charming walk-through attraction about water, Journey of Water, Inspired by ‘Moana’.

Another wildly appealing attraction also recently opened—albeit one with a 42” minimum height requirement and too intense for most younger children—Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind.

Epcot repays attention and exploration, and for those old enough to get it, takes more than a day to appreciate. The very youngest visitors may wish to devote half a day to it.

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Disney’s Hollywood Studios celebrates movies, music, TV and other popular entertainments via rides and shows.

Recently completing major projects that include new Toy Story and Star Wars lands, Disney’s Hollywood Studios now takes more than a day to see with reasonable waits, especially since many days of the year demand for its rides via Lightning Lanes can quickly exceed supply, leading to some spectacular waits.

Many of its best rides are thrill rides, so the youngest visitors will have only half a day or so’s worth of appropriate things to do, even with the recent openings of Slinky Dog Dash,  a “family friendly” roller coaster with a 38 inch height requirement, and of Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, an all-ages dark ride.

Toy Story Land (c) Disney

For folks old enough for its thrill rides, challenges in seeing attractions with reasonable waits make Hollywood Studios best seen over two partial days.

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Disney’s Animal Kingdom combines the all-ages appeal of the Magic Kingdom with the repayment to intellectual curiosity that used to be a key value of Epcot.

Kilimanjaro Safaris at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Its rides and shows appeal to almost everyone, but the park best showcases itself to those who also bring an interest in animals—real, imagined, and/or blue.

Before then an easy day, Animal Kingdom visits lengthened with the 2017 opening of an entirely new land, Pandora: World of Avatar with two new rides, Na’vi River Journey and Flight of Passage.

Animal Kingdom is now an easy two day park and a do-able but harder one day park. Only a few of its attractions are inappropriate for the youngest, so target it for more than half a day with the littlest ones.

Those first timers who are able to return for another trip later may choose to come on their first visit with younger kids and spend just a few days at Magic Kingdom, returning a few years later to both see more of that park and see the other three parks as the kids grow and develop.

First time visitors tall and mature enough to see everything on a once in a lifetime trip should budget the equivalent of seven to eight days in the parks, spread over nine calendar days—three calendar days at Magic Kingdom, and two at each of the other three parks.

THE BASICS OF EARLY ENTRY, LIGHTNING LANE SINGLE PASS, AND LIGHTNING LANE MULTI PASS

Early Entry, Lightning Lane Multi Pass, and Lightning Lane Single Pass are the principal tools for limiting the amount of time you spend waiting in lines. Each of these is built into my recommended itineraries. There are also two other tools that I’ll discuss later.

Early Entry. Guests at 46 eligible hotels—every one of those on this page—get at least an extra half an hour in the parks at the beginning of the day, every day. Most of the time, if you arrive at the park tapstiles 30 minutes before Early Entry is scheduled to begin (earlier at Hollywood Studios, and earlier still during the most crowded weeks of the year), then you will typically be able to see one to three rides that usually build long waits with little in the way of waits. At the eligible hotels—31 Disney owned, and 15 other hotels—Early Entry comes free with your hotel reservation. More on Early Entry is here.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass is a paid service–it does not come free with your ticket. In return for a single daily, per-person fee–varying from ~$15 to ~$40+ tax, per person, per day—you will be able to pre-schedule beginning either seven or three days before your arrival return times for as many as three rides in a single park, for each of your ticket days, and to continue to schedule more rides for a day once you use your first Multi Pass in a park. Think of it as being similar to a set of restaurant reservations, but for rides.

When pre-booking, at Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and the Studios, you can choose at most one ride from a short list of the most popular rides in each park (rides on this list are known informally as “Tier 1” rides), and two or three less popular rides.  At Animal Kingdom you can book any three rides. However, you can book more rides from the short “Tier 1” list the day you visit–subject to availability.

With Multi Pass, you can see in a day with low waits three to half a dozen or more rides that traditionally build longer waits quickly (fewer at Hollywood Studios and during high-crowd weeks; more at Magic Kingdom and during low-crowd weeks). For the most popular rides and most convenient times, the four-day advantage in when you can book that comes form staying in a Disney World hotel can be decisive. More on Lightning Lane Multi Pass is here.

Lightning Lane Single Pass rides are one or two rides per park where you pay a specific price per person per ride to book an appointment for that ride. Guests at the 31 Disney owned hotels, and at 4 others, get exclusive access to Single Pass bookings beginning at seven days before arrival. Everyone else can’t begin booking Single Pass until three days before arrival. As a result, guests eligible for bookings at seven days can have a huge advantage, as they can scarf up much of day’s allotment of Single Pass for the most popular Single Pass rides and times before other guests are even eligible. More on Lightning Lane Single Pass is here.

Every one of these rides is also available for no upcharge to your ticket, but at the price of potentially much more time waiting in line, or the risk of not being able to join a virtual queue.

Lowest wait itinerary design optimally includes

• Booking Lightning Lane Single Pass seven days in advance of your arrival
• Seeing the most popular ride(s) you’d otherwise book via Lightning Lane Multi Pass during Early Entry, and
• Booking seven days before arrival the next highest priority Lightning Lane Multi Pass rides.

That’s in general how my recommended itineraries work. And as a consequence, you need to stay in a Disney owned resort, or one of the four non-Disney resorts, that have access to both Early Entry and seven days in advance booking of Multi Pass and Single Pass, to be able to schedule the lowest-wait visits.

There are two other tools available to lower waits, one for everyone, and one for a subset of guests.

Available to everyone is entering lines for rides near the end of a park’s scheduled day. Actual waits typically drop off precipitously in the last hour of operation, at least partly because posted wait times are inflated at the end of the day to discourage guests from filling lines and causing overtime. But you can enter a line as late as a minute before scheduled park close and still ride it, so this is a sound option for seeing one last high-demand ride with a lower wait than you’ll face earlier in the day.

The second tool is “Extended Evening Hours,” available only to guests of 25 Disney World hotels—the Disney deluxes, the Disney DVC hotels, the Cabins at Fort Wilderness as they transition to DVC, and 4 others. Typically this is offered two nights per week at one or two parks (most commonly Epcot and Magic Kingdom, and most commonly Mondays at Epcot and Wednesdays at Magic Kingdom, but both parks and days vary). The parks are open an extra two hours after formal park close, with most of the popular rides operating throughout those two hours. This can be a particularly time-efficient way to see rides at Magic Kingdom. More on Extended Evening Hours is here.

LIGHTNING LANE SINGLE PASS, LIGHTNING LANE MULTI PASS, AND EARLY ENTRY PRIORITIES AT MAGIC KINGDOM

Splash Mountain at the Magic Kingdom

Magic Kingdom has both more attractions and a wider range of attractions than any other Disney World theme park. For first time visitors with kids old enough to enjoy everything, favorites will almost certainly include many of Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, the evening fireworks show, Enchanted Tales with Belle, the afternoon Festival of Fantasy parade, the Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan’s Flight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Space Mountain, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, and TRON Lightcycle Run.

Most of these (not the parade, Enchanted Tales with Belle, or the evening fireworks) are accessible via Lightning Lane Single Pass (currently Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and TRON) or Lightning Lane Multi Pass (the rest). Among the dozen or so rides not on the list above but also available in Multi Pass, most notable for kids old enough to enjoy everything are Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, “it’s a small world,” Mickey’s PhilharMagic, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.

Magic Kingdom does Early Entry differently than any other Disney World park. First, only two of its lands are open for Early Entry—Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. Second, almost every ride in these lands is open during Early Entry—in Fantasyland only character meets are not available, and in Tomorrowland only TRON and Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor are not open. Since Fantasyland has many very short duration rides just a quick walk apart, you can knock off several rides there during Early Entry, so long as you avoid Seven Dwarfs.

On Lightning Lane Multi Pass, the current “Tier 1” (“T1”) attractions are Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Jungle Cruise, Peter Pan’s Flight, Space Mountain, and Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. You can pre-book only one T1 ride per ticket day. Tiana, due to both popularity and unreliability, is the top choice. Longer trips with more planned Magic Kingdom days allow additional T1 pre-bookings.

Given current guest preferences and wait patterns, the most time-efficient way to visit Magic Kingdom is to

• See Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and TRON Lightcycle Run via Lightning Lane Single Pass,
• See Peter Pan (T1) and Space Mountain (T1) during Early Entry
• Then use Lightning Lane Multi Pass for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure (T1), Jungle Cruise (T1), Big Thunder Mountain (T1), Pirates of the Caribbean, Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh and a few other rides.

Multi Pass can also save you time at Magic Kingdom on other rides, so long as you pick nearby enough rides that you don’t dissipate the wait saving by extra walking.

A new evening parade will open at Magic Kingdom in the summer of 2025.  Over the next five or so years, fundamental changes at Magic Kingdom will occur in Liberty Square, Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island.  New Cars-themed rides will eventually replace much or all of Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island, and a new Villains land will open in the area beyond Big Thunder Mountain and the Haunted Mansion. Some of the affected attractions such as Tom Sawyer Island and the Liberty Belle Riverboat will likely close as soon as 2025.

LIGHTNING LANE SINGLE PASS, LIGHTNING LANE MULTI PASS, AND EARLY ENTRY PRIORITIES AT DISNEY’S ANIMAL KINGDOM

The best attractions at Disney’s Animal Kingdom are Flight of Passage in Pandora, Kilimanjaro Safaris in Africa, Expedition Everest in Asia, and DINOSAUR in Dinoland USA. In the next group are Festival of the Lion King in Africa, Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond and, on especially hot days, Kali River Rapids.

Expedition Everest at Disney’s Animal Kingdom

All of these rides are accessible via Lightning Lane Single Pass (currently Flight of Passage) or Lightning Lane Multi Pass (the rest). Among the other rides available in Multi Pass, most notable is Na’vi River Journey—a minor ride, but one whose lines can quickly build due to its propinquity to the wildly-popular Flight of Passage.

A smaller group of these rides is available to those eligible for Early Entry. Not on the Early Entry list are Kilimanjaro, Kali, Lion King, and Nemo.

Note that alone among the parks Animal Kingdom has no Tier 1 Multi Pass rides.

Given current guest preferences and wait patterns, the most time-efficient way to visit Disney’s Animal Kingdom is to

• See Flight of Passage via Lightning Lane Single Pass
• See Na’vi River Journey during Early Entry or right at park open, and
• Use Lightning Lane Multi Pass for a few other rides, with your highest priorities being Kilimanjaro Safaris, Expedition Everest, and Kali River Rapids.

Animal Kingdom will be seeing substantial changes over the next few years. The Dinoland area will close in stages, perhaps beginning in later 2024, and transform by 2027-ish into a new land, Tropical America, with Encanto and Indiana Jones-inspired rides. In 2025, the show It’s Tough to Be a Bug will be replaced with a Zootopia themed show.

LIGHTNING LANE SINGLE PASS, LIGHTNING LANE MULTI PASS, AND EARLY ENTRY PRIORITIES AT EPCOT

The Imagination Pavilion at Epcot

The best at Epcot includes (in alphabetical order) The American Adventure, Frozen Ever After, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, the evening show, Luminous; Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Soarin’ Around the World, and Spaceship Earth. Experienced Epcot fans would likely add Turtle Talk with Crush in the Seas Pavilion and Journey of Water, Inspired by ‘Moana.’ Test Track will likely re-join this “best of” list when it re-opens from a re-imagining in 2025.

Most of these rides are  accessible via Lightning Lane Multi Pass (Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind), or Lightning Lane Single Pass (most of the rest—not, though, The American Adventure or the evening show).

At Epcot, Tier 1 Multi Pass currently includes Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, and Soarin’ Around the World. Test Track will likely join this list upon re-opening, with perhaps Soarin dropping off at that time. Remy and Frozen are the current highest T1 priorities.

Little in Epcot beyond the Tier 1 rides currently much repays Multi Pass.

Most of these better attractions are also available during Early Entry, including Remy and Frozen Ever After—although not The American Adventure, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, or the evening show.

LIGHTNING LANE SINGLE PASS, LIGHTNING LANE MULTI PASS, AND EARLY ENTRY PRIORITIES AT DISNEY’S HOLLYWOOD STUDIOS

Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

The best attractions at Disney’s Hollywood Studios are Slinky Dog Dash, Rise of the Resistance, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror. In the next group are Toy Story Mania, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (more appealing to deep Star Wars fans than to the general public), Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, and Fantasmic.

All of these rides except Fantasmic are accessible via Lightning Lane Single Pass (currently Rise of the Resistance) or Lightning Lane Multi Pass (the rest). Among the half-dozen attractions other than those noted above available in Lightning Lane Multi Pass, none much needs it, although it can be handy for the scheduled shows like Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular, For the First Time in Forever: A Frozen Sing-Along Celebration, and Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage.

Frozen Sing-Along at Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Most of these rides are available to those eligible for Early Entry. All those listed above as “best” and “next group” except Fantasmic are on the Early Entry list.

At Disney’s Hollywood Studios, Tier 1 Multi Pass rides include Slinky Dog Dash, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, and Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway.  All of these are worth pre-booking–impossible on most trips–with Slinky Dog Dash being the highest priority.

Given current guest preferences and wait patterns, it can be very hard to do the Studios without substantial waits unless you divide your visit over two days, with each an Early Entry day.

The most time-efficient way to visit Disney’s Hollywood Studios is to

• See Rise of the Resistance via Lightning Lane Single Pass
• See during Early Entry Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway (T1) and Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run (T1)
• Use Lightning Lane Multi Pass for Slinky Dog Dash (T1), Rock ‘n Roller Coaster (T1), Tower of Terror, and Toy Story Mania

Disney’s Hollywood Studios will also be seeing changes. Later in 2024, a re-imagined Little Mermaid show is expected to open.  In 2025, a new Disney Villains show will replace the current Lightning McQueen show.  And later, a new roller coaster based on Monster’s, Inc. will open.

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