Welcome to our Disney World Lightning Lanes and Genie+ Guide and Strategy. In this post, we discuss the “skip-the-line” option at Disney World—Lightning Lanes—and the two main ways you’ll get access to those lanes—Genie+ and individual Lightning Lanes. We cover the basics to help make sure you understand the difference between Lightning Lanes, Genie+, and individual Lightning Lanes, but we also dive into some strategy, including the famous “stacking” idea and how to combine rider switch and Lightning Lanes. Let’s learn all about Lightning Lanes and Genie+!
Park-Specific Posts
All four theme parks at Walt Disney World have Lightning Lanes and Genie+, and strategies etc. will vary greatly by which park or parks you’re visiting. To that end, we have individual park guides:
What’s In This Post
In this post, we’ll cover:
Basics of Lightning Lanes
Basic Rules of Genie+
Genie+ Strategy
Basic Rules of Individual Lightning Lanes
Individual Lightning Lane Strategy
Lightning Lanes and Rider Switch
Other Lightning Lanes FAQ
Basics of Lightning Lanes
We’ll start with the Basics of Lightning Lanes. Here, we introduce Lightning Lanes, Genie+, and individual Lightning Lanes. Then we’ll move onto Genie+ rules and strategy, followed by individual Lightning Lanes rules and strategy.
What Are Lightning Lanes?
This is the only easy part of this post. “Lightning Lane” is the term for what used to be called the “FastPass” line. That is, Lightning Lanes are shorter lines for rides that you need to get special access to. Lightning Lanes are how you “skip the line” at Disney World. As for how you get access to them…keep reading (spoiler: it costs money).
The Lightning Lane at Under the Sea (Magic Kingdom)
Does Every Ride Have A Lightning Lane?
No, but almost every ride does. Notable exceptions are Astro Orbiter, PeopleMover, and the Prince Charming Regal Carrousel at Magic Kingdom. Most character greetings don’t have Lightning Lanes, though a few do.
How can I use a Lightning Lane?
The two primary ways to use Lightning Lanes are through Genie+ and individual Lightning Lane purchases. With these services—which we cover in much more detail in this post—you will book a return time, consisting of an hour-long window, for a ride.
During your return window, you can approach the Lightning Lane at the ride you booked, tap your Magic Band or park ticket (or phone if you’re using Magic Mobile) on the touchpoint. The touchpoint should turn green, and you’ll be let through. You may have to tap at a second touchpoint later in the queue. If the touchpoint turns blue, it means something has gone wrong—maybe you arrived too early or you’re at the wrong ride, for example.
The Lightning Lane will generally be a much shorter wait than the regular line, but it merges with the regular line usually a few minutes before you board the ride. This means a wait of around 5 to 10 minutes is very common, even with Lightning Lanes.
Other services, like DAS and rider switch, also use the Lightning Lanes, but they aren’t the subject of this post.
Tap points for Slinky Dog Dash
What is Genie?
This is a little confusing, but really doesn’t matter much for this post. There are two distinct but similarly named services—Genie and Genie+. Most of this post is concerned with Genie+, but I want to quickly clarify what “Genie” is first.
Genie is sort of an app within an app. It’s a part of the My Disney Experience app (Disney World app) that helps you plan your day at the parks. (As an aside, I assume the Genie features and main app features will eventually just be more simply organized. For now, though, you’re sort of left scratching your head at this weird situation.)
Genie contains two parts. The “Tip Board” provides you a quick look at information on attractions (and dining options) in the park you’re visiting today. “My Day” is a schedule of things you’ve booked or that Genie recommends you visit today. Genie is also where you buy Genie+.
For our purposes, Genie is the part of the Disney World app that you’ll use to buy Genie+, book Genie+ Lightning Lanes, and buy individual Lightning Lanes. You’ll do this through the “Tip Board” part of Genie.
You don’t need to buy Genie+ or anything extra to access Genie, and you can see most of Genie’s contents even before your trip, so be sure to look around it in advance.
The below four screenshots show one way to access Genie, where you’ll tap to buy Genie+, an example of the “Tip Board”, and an example “My Day” showing booked Lightning Lanes.
What is Genie+?
Genie+ is a paid service that grants you access (subject to some important rules we’ll get to) to almost all of the Lightning Lanes at Disney World’s parks. Depending on the version you purchase, it may include rides at all four parks or just at a single park. There are also Individual Lightning Lanes (discussed below) that are NOT a part of Genie+.
Confusingly, Genie+ is not really an “upgrade” to Genie, it’s just a different service entirely that happens to live within the Genie part of the Disney World app.
Additionally, Genie+ includes a few other benefits, including (according to Disney) access to special Photopass lenses, select Photopass attraction photos, and “audio tales” throughout the park. Honestly, I’ve never used any of these and don’t have any sense of how they work. This post is focused on the Lightning Lane aspect of Genie+. If you opt to get Genie+, you should take a few minutes to research these benefits and decide if you’ll use them.
Does Genie+ Cover All Four Parks?
You’re able to buy Genie+ for a specific park or Genie+ for all four parks. If you buy Genie+ for a specific park, you’ll only be able to use it to book the Genie+ Lightning Lanes in that park. If you buy it for all four parks, you’ll be able to book in different parks (just remember you’ll need park hopping privileges to make bookings at multiple parks).
How does park hopping with Genie+ work?
For most guests, if you buy the multiple parks version of Genie+, you’ll be able to book the Genie+ Lightning Lanes in any park as you please.
However, as of this update, guests who require park pass reservations (annual passholders, for example) can only make reservations in the park they have a reservation for until they tap into that park. Once they tap into the park they have a reservation for, they can make bookings anywhere. I hope they remove this goofy rule soon—and indeed they may by the time of your visit—but who knows anymore.
How much does Genie+ cost?
The price of Genie+ varies by the day. It begins at $15 (plus tax, so about $16) per person per day, but prices have hit $39 and we expect $45 by the end of 2024. A typical day is priced around $20 to $25. You can buy it any time after midnight for use that same day and that day only.
Since there are also single-park options, you’ll see that each day basically has five prices—one for each of the parks and one for the Multiple Park option. Here’s the pricing for March 15, 2024, for example:
Multiple Parks - $29
Animal Kingdom - $18
EPCOT - $21
Hollywood Studios - $26
Magic Kingdom - $29
Should I Buy Genie+ for One or Multiple Parks?
There’s no way to say this except the obvious…if you’re planning to use Genie+ at multiple parks in a single day, you’ll need to buy it for multiple parks.
But, trying to be a little more helpful, I’ll say that our approaches to the parks almost always involve a single park in a single day. If you’re minding the budget of your trip, I’d be 100% perfectly content with someone who planned to just buy Genie+ for single parks, whichever park days they decided to do that.
There are times when I’d buy Genie+ for multiple parks. The most common is that I’m splitting a day between EPCOT and Hollywood Studios, or between Animal Kingdom and any other park. I bolded those two parks because you’ll notice those also usually have the lowest Genie+ prices, and this is part of the point—if you opt into the single park option at those parks, you probably will have to spend more time in them because your Genie+ won’t be useful at the second park.
Can Genie+ Sell Out?
Yes! The rides within Genie+ can run out of times to book and the Genie+ service itself can sell out for the day. Generally, you should be fine purchasing it in the morning (say, before 10AM, though it has sold out before that time before). We don’t expect to ever advocate staying up until midnight to purchase Genie+. If crowds are that high, you’ll probably need to be up at 6:45AM to make your first ride selections anyways, and we expect Genie+ to be available for purchase at 6:45AM even on the busiest days.
What are individual Lightning Lanes?
Some rides (1-2 per park, generally) have individual Lightning Lanes that are not a part of Genie+. To access these Lightning Lanes you pay specifically for them. You do not need Genie+ to purchase these individual Lightning Lanes, they’re completely disconnected from Genie+.
In the below screenshot, you can contrast Star Wars Rise of the Resistance (at the top), which is an individual Lightning Lane with the option to “Purchase for $15” from Toy Story Mania (at the bottom), which is a Genie+ Lightning Lane with the option to “Book Experience.”
What rides have individual Lightning Lanes?
The rides with individual Lightning Lanes at Disney World are:
Magic Kingdom — Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, TRON Lightcycle Run
Hollywood Studios — Rise of the Resistance
Animal Kingdom — Avatar Flight of Passage
These have changed over time (in both which rides were offered and how many rides were offered) and will continue to change a bit as new rides debut and as existing rides get older.
How much do individual Lightning Lanes cost?
Individual Lightning Lanes typically cost roughly between $10+tax and $25+tax, but prices vary by day and ride.
Basic Rules of Genie+
There’s a lot of confusion about the Genie+ rules, but the underlying system is really not so complex.
You purchase Genie+ at the start of the day. You can buy it any time after midnight for the current day. Typically, I buy it at about 6:45AM. Genie+ is good for the calendar day only. It isn’t good for 24 hours. If you buy it at 6PM on Tuesday, your access will end when the parks close Tuesday night.
Everyone who plans to use Genie+ Lightning Lanes needs Genie+. If there are four people in your group, all four need Genie+ in order to use the Genie+ Lightning Lanes. If someone isn’t planning on using any of the Genie+ Lightning Lanes, they won’t need Genie+. (Kids under 3, who don’t need park tickets, also don’t need Genie+ or Individual Lightning Lanes.)
Usually, it’ll make sense to have one person making bookings for your entire party, but you also could all make your own individual bookings.
You can make your first Genie+ Lightning Lane booking for the day at 7AM. It doesn’t matter if you’re a guest of a Disney hotel or not, all guests can make their first booking at 7AM.
You can make Genie+ Lightning Lane bookings through the Genie Tip Board in the Disney World app. There are different ways to get to the booking screen, but my preference is just to find the ride I want on the “Tip Board” in Disney Genie (within the My Disney Experience aka Disney World app) and tap into it there.
You can only use Genie+ for each ride once per day. You can wait in line for a ride if you’d like to ride it again, but once you book it in Genie+ you can’t book it later, even if it has available times. If you cancel a Genie+ booking you will be able to book a different time. If you let a Genie+ reservation expire without using it, you’ll be able to book the same ride again.
When you make a booking you only see one available time for each ride. This is different from the individual Lightning Lanes, discussed later. With those, you get to pick any available time. With Genie+ Lightning Lanes, you’ll see an available time and you can either book that time or pick a different ride.
Generally, these times roll forward. So at the start of the day, every available window will basically start at the time the park opens. Within a few minutes (or seconds, some days), you’ll start to see some rides with windows starting an hour or more into the day. By 1PM, there will be some windows starting at 1:05PM, some starting at 3PM, some starting at 7PM, and some rides that have run out of return times entirely.
If you refresh the Tip Board, you might see a better time. These better times often disappear fast, so you have to be really quick. Also, during the morning we’ve noticed lots of availability comes and goes. Of course, if a ride is running out of slots fast you don’t want to spend too much time refreshing hoping for a miracle.
During peak times (the morning, typically), Disney actually hides the next times on the tip board. This is because the times change so quickly, though it probably isn’t the best “solution.”
You can modify Genie+ bookings. If you’re unsure or hoping for a specific ride that isn’t showing good times immediately, you can grab the best thing you see and then spend time attempting to modify to a better time or better ride.
Now, we’ve saved the big confusing question for last…
When can you book your next Genie+ Lightning Lane?
This is the question that trips everyone up and causes the most confusion, but it really isn’t too hard. Once you make a Genie+ Lightning Lane booking, you are prohibited from making another booking until:
You use that Genie+ Lightning Lane booking OR
You wait two hours from when you made your last Genie+ Lightning Lane booking EXCEPT
The two hour clock doesn’t start running until the park where you made that booking opens
I said not too hard. I didn’t say it was easy. How about some examples…
Example: Hollywood Studios opens at 9AM. At 10AM, I book an 11AM-12PM slot for Alien Swirling Saucers. I tap onto the ride (small note: some rides have two tap points in the Lightning Lane, you can book once you tap into the second one in that case) at 11:30AM. I can make my next booking immediately at 11:30AM. I cannot book earlier, at say 11:15AM, since I didn’t actually use the booking for Alien Swirling Saucers until 11:30AM.
Example: Animal Kingdom opens at 9AM. At 11AM, I book a 4PM slot for Na’vi River Journey. I can make my next booking at 1PM, two hours after I made my previous booking. I don’t have to wait until I ride Na’vi River Journey, and even if I make another booking, I won’t lose my Na’vi River Journey booking.
Example: Magic Kingdom opens at 9AM. At 8AM, I book a 1PM slot for Peter Pan’s Flight. I can make my next booking at 11AM, two hours after the park opens. I can’t make a booking at 10AM because the two-hour clock does not start running until the park opens.
Here’s an example with park hopping: Animal Kingdom opens at 8AM. Hollywood Studios opens at 9AM. At 7AM I book an 8:30AM reservation at Kilimanjaro Safaris (Animal Kingdom). I use that reservation at 8:30AM and immediately book Tower of Terror (Hollywood Studios) for 3PM. I can make my next booking at 11AM, two hours after Hollywood Studios opens.
Cancelling a booking removes all restrictions related to that booking. For example…Epcot opens at 10AM. At 9AM I make a booking for Living at the Land at 11AM. At 10AM, when the park opens, I cancel my Living with the Land booking. I can immediately book any available timeslot because the Living with the Land booking has been canceled.
Finally, you don’t automatically get to “replace” a cancelled booking. For example, Hollywood Studios opens at 9AM. At 7AM I book a 2PM Slinky Dog Dash. At 11AM—two hours after the parks opens—I book a 5PM Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run. At 11:05AM I cancel my Slinky Dog Dash. I can’t make a new booking until 1PM because I have to wait two hours from 11AM, when I last made a booking.
Genie+ Strategy
Genie+ strategy is 90% a park-by-park affair, which is why we have those specific park-by-park posts. Magic Kingdom, with over 15 attractions of varying demand on Genie+ is different from Hollywood Studios, which sees high demand for almost all of its Genie+ rides, which is different from Animal Kingdom which sees pretty low demand for all of its Genie+ rides.
That said, there are some general ideas you should keep in mind.
Making Your First Genie+ Selection
We’ll start with the strategy to keep in mind when you’re making your first pick.
Always purchase Genie+ before 7AM. Try to make sure you’re up at 6:45AM to buy Genie+.
Always run Genie (not Genie+) setup before 7AM. The Genie “My Day” screen has a “Get Started Now” button for setting up Genie for the day. When you run this setup, you’ll want to do two important things.
First, you make sure your party is specified. This will save you the time of selecting who you’re including in your Lightning Lane bookings. If different people might have different plans for the day, your Genie party should be the group you’ll be making your very first Lightning Lane booking for.
Second, prepare your first booking by adding it to your “Top Picks.” Not going to get into the weeds on this one, but the Genie Tip Board has a “Top Picks” list where you can pick the things you’re most interested in and they’ll show up at the top of the Tip Board. To start your day, pick only the ride you are planning to book first. It will be at the top of your Tip Board allowing you to pull-to-refresh if you’re trying to get a “perfect” time or just to tap right in at 7AM to book whatever you can get.
Always be ready to make your first booking at 7AM. If you don’t like it, you can cancel it. Usually, you’ll make your first Genie+ booking before your individual Lightning Lane purchase if you’re a Disney resort guest (this tip is always subject to change, and is covered in specific detail in each park-specific post, but usually as long as you’re booking by 7:05AM you’ll have a wide range of individual Lightning Lane timeslots).
(You might sometimes join a virtual queue at 7AM before making your first Genie+ pick. This is very much a situation-dependent decision, though.)
Pull to refresh at 6:59:59 AM. I open a world clock (just google for one) on my laptop. At 6:59:59 AM, I pull down on the Tip Board to refresh it. Once it refreshes, you’ll see Lightning Lane availability for whatever is at the top of your tip board (earlier I told you to make your top picks appropriately). Tap quickly—it’s better to grab a time that’s too early than to be too late (on a busy day, too late by a few seconds can mean you don’t get that ride at all).
The Rest of Your Genie+ Selections
Know which rides run out of return times first, and second, and…If you head over to an example date and park on Thrill Data and scroll to “Lightning Lane Availability Map”, you can see what times the different Lightning Lanes ran out of return times. On the example date here, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (which isn’t on Genie+) ran out first at 11:45AM, then:
Jungle Cruise ran out at 3:10PM
Peter Pan’s Flight ran out at 5:05PM
Big Thunder Mountain ran out at 5:55PM
Winnie the Pooh ran out at 6:00PM
Haunted Mansion ran out at 6:35PM
(I’m ignoring Monsters Inc Laugh Floor here.) You can see each of these had availability pop up at least one time after they ran out, but for the most part after these times you probably weren’t going to get these.
Standard disclaimers apply—this random date in November I showed you won’t look exactly like your date. You’ll want to look at more recent dates near your trip. But part of the strategic takeaway is that you want to make sure you can book these Lightning Lanes before they run out.
On this example day, if at 2PM someone had booked a 6PM return time for Pirates of the Caribbean, they’d better have already booked Jungle Cruise. They can’t make another selection until 4PM (2 hours after 2PM), and by then, Jungle Cruise was out.
You can monitor the current return times on the Genie Tip Board to see if anything is close to running out. The “safe” approach to these is just to grab the most popular Lightning Lane first and then the second most popular second, and so on. That will mean you use fewer Lightning Lanes overall.
Instead, you want more of a balance. Grab the most popular Lightning Lane first, but then do a handful that have really quick return times before booking the second most popular and taking a break. How you strike this balance will just depend on the park and your plans for the day.
But there’s another good lesson here…
Pair your Genie+ strategy with a good rope drop and Early Entry strategy. Our rope drop (after Early Entry) strategy at Magic Kingdom focuses on rides like Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, and Haunted Mansion. Without even using Genie+, you can get short waits for these to start your day.
If you’d done that on this example day, you wouldn’t have even cared that they ran out of return times, because you visited them earlier in the day. If you have Early Entry, you’ll also be able to check off a few significant rides early on. Read more about:
Keep in mind single rider. You usually won’t have to resort to this, but single rider is a good way to bypass long lines at a few rides if you don’t mind your group getting split up. If your Genie+ strategizing gets tricky with one of these rides—like you just can’t fit in Test Track at Epcot—consider using single rider instead.
Think geographically. Once you’re sure you have a plan to get on anything that’s going to run out of return times, you’ll want to plan your visits to specific rides to minimize the time you have to spend to get between them. This doesn’t mean you have to get on close rides one immediately after the other, but you’re using your time effectively if you can have a schedule that looks like (example from Hollywood Studios):
3:30 — Use Tower of Terror Lightning Lane
4PM — Watch Beauty and the Beast Live on Stage
4:30 — Use Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Lightning Lane
Before we get to “the big one”, we’ve got one last tip, related to thinking geographically.
“Streaming” Lightning Lanes. “Streaming” is just a word I’m using for when you book and use a bunch of Lightning Lanes one after another. It’s not stacking, where you hold multiple reservations at the same time, which we discuss next. Here’s an example of a stream:
10AM Use Under the Sea Lightning Lane, immediately book Mad Tea Party return for 10:10AM
10:10 Use Mad Tea Party Lightning Lane, immediately book Dumbo return for 10:20AM
10:20 Use Dumbo Lightning Lane, immediately book Barnstormer return for 10:30AM
10:30 Use Barnstormer Lightning Lane
Streaming is obviously subject to availability—it only works on rides that have very low Lightning Lane demand. But if you can “batch” rides together like this, you’ll get through chunks of the park really efficiently.
Trying to Improve Your Lightning Lane Time (Refreshing and Modifying)
It’s unfortunate that this section has to be buried in the middle of this huge post because it’s arguably the most important tip that doesn’t get talked about much (because people are rightfully trying to focus on just understanding the system). This is also a super wonky / technical section, which I’m only a little a sorry for…
While Lightning Lane times generally roll forward and you can’t control them, you can refresh the screen to try and get better times.
You can approach this two ways. First, when you’re on the tip board attempting to make a booking (or if you’ve already made a booking and you’re on the modify screen), you can refresh and see if the time goes from, say 5:30PM to 2PM. This is usually what people are doing when they say they’re refreshing. It’s also the only way to “refresh” if you’re considering multiple rides and want to see the best times for each of them.
But there’s another way…
If you’re focused on a particular ride that you want a better time for—you don’t even have to “pull to refresh” the screen. Just tap the time it shows and the next screen will automatically show you the best available time.
“But why not just refresh to see what the best time is before I tap in?” Because oftentimes, if you refresh and see a better time, it will be gone by the time you tap into it. Conversely, if you just tap the time that’s showed, if a better time is available you will be bumped up to that time and locked into it (once you hit confirm, that is).
I’ll hopefully add a video explaining this more soon.
Finally…stacking…
Stacking: A Complicated But Powerful Strategy
“Stacking” is holding multiple Lightning Lane reservations (for different rides) at the same time. For example…Hollywood Studios opens at 9AM. At 8AM, I book Slinky Dog Dash for 2PM. I can make my next booking at 11AM, two hours after the park opens.
At 11AM, I book Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster for 12PM. I now have two Lightning Lanes booked:
12PM-1PM Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster
2PM-3PM Slinky Dog Dash
Big congratulations me. I have stacked.
Stacking sounds really cool, and it is potentially really powerful. Here’s a completely made up example of what people are dreaming of when they think of stacking.
Let’s say a Magic Kingdom opens at 8AM and closes at 10PM, decently long hours but nothing unheard of. Peter Pan’s Flight runs out of Lightning Lane slots quickly, so that at 9AM you’re booking a 6PM-7PM slot.
You wait two hours and at 11AM book Jungle Cruise for 5:30PM to 6:30PM. You wait two more hours and at 1PM book Haunted Mansion from 4:30PM to 5:30PM. You wait two more hours and at 3PM book Pirates of the Caribbean from 5PM to 6PM. You wait two more hours and at 5PM book Magic Carpets of Aladdin from 5:05PM to 6:05PM. Now it’s 5PM and you’re holding:
4:30 - 5:30 - Haunted Mansion
5PM - 6PM - Pirates of the Caribbean
5:05 - 6:05 - Magic Carpets of Aladdin
5:30 - 6:30 - Jungle Cruise
6PM - 7PM - Peter Pan’s Flight
Those are some good rides, and Magic Carpets, with little to no waits, all in succession. This is why people want to stack. Here are some thoughts about stacking.
Stacking is a high-crowd or high-demand strategy. Stacking is going to be most useful when crowds (or, at least Genie+ usage) is high, pushing return times later in to the afternoon quickly.
On less crowded days, you’ll likely still have opportunities to stack the more popular rides, as return times for those can get pushed later and later in the day even when crowds across the parks aren’t too high.
The challenge with stacking is that you don’t know well enough how things will go on any given day. Rides break down, Lightning Lanes book faster than expected, or you simply mess up the basics of the park, not knowing that one ride takes 25 minutes to get through and is a 15 minute walk from another ride.
If a stack works out, great. But if you start planning to stack because you think you can fit a park into an afternoon, you’d better be careful, do your research, and make sure you understand the risks. Again, if you want data on specific rides and how the Lightning Lane windows are progressing throughout the day, visit Thrill Data.
Otherwise, if you’re going to stack, do it carefully, and don’t bank on a perfect stack to save your day. Do not think that just because you saw someone else on some other day with the perfect stack that you’ll be able to do it to. In any case, may the odds be ever in your favor.
That’s all for Genie+ strategy. Again, more details are covered in the individual park posts. Now, let’s move onto individual Lightning Lanes.
Basic Rules of Individual Lightning Lanes
The individual Lightning Lanes are on a completely different set of rules from the Genie+ Lightning Lanes. Let’s quickly talk through them.
You can make individual Lightning Lane bookings through the Genie Tip Board in the Disney World app. There are different ways to get to the purchase screen, but my preference is just to find the ride on the “Tip Board” in Disney Genie (within the My Disney Experience aka Disney World app) and tap into it there.
You pay for individual Lightning Lanes once you select them. You don’t buy these in advance or as a package like Genie+. You pick one, pick a time, and then make the payment.
Everyone who wants to use an individual Lightning Lane needs to have it booked. If three of you are hoping to ride Rise of the Resistance at 3PM, all three of you need to have an individual Lightning Lane booked that allows access at 3PM. You can’t book for one person and “bring” more people—that’s not how it works.
Individual Lightning Lanes are not a part of Genie+. Genie+ doesn’t get you access to all the Lightning Lanes in the park. As of early 2024, there is at least one ride at each park that has an “Individual Lightning Lane” that is not a part of Genie+. Magic Kingdom now has two such rides.
As noted above, the current (January 9, 2024) individual Lightning Lanes at each park are:
Magic Kingdom — Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, TRON
Hollywood Studios — Rise of the Resistance
Animal Kingdom — Avatar Flight of Passage
Epcot — Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind
You can buy two individual Lightning Lanes each day. You can only buy an individual Lightning Lane for each ride once per day. So each guest gets up to two distinct individual Lightning Lanes each day. That’s not per park—it’s total. So if you purchase Rise of the Resistance and TRON Lightcycle / Run, you can’t purchase Flight of Passage as well. You also can only buy one timeslot per ride, so you can’t pay to ride Rise of the Resistance twice. You’re free to wait in line for it to ride it a second time, though.
You pick your individual Lightning Lane time. Unlike with Genie+, you get to pick your individual Lightning Lane times. When you make your purchase, you’ll see a selection of available times. Generally, these times still run out from earliest to latest, but if you book at 7AM you’ll get to pick from a day’s worth of times. Our preference is usually to book something between 12PM and 4PM, the busiest time of the day.
Guests of Disney hotels, (along with Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotels and Shades of Green) can purchase individual Lightning Lanes for the day beginning at 7AM. This gives them an advantage over other guests, as rides canand often do run out of slots during this booking window.
All other guests can purchase individual Lightning Lanes for the day at the time the park containing the ride opens. So if Animal Kingdom opens at 8AM and Hollywood Studios opens at 9AM, a guest of a Disney hotel will be able to book slots for Avatar Flight of Passage and Rise of the Resistance at 7AM. All other guests will be able to book Flight of Passage at 8AM and Rise of the Resistance at 9AM.
Individual Lightning Lanes are non-modifiable and mostly non-refundable. You cannot change your return time or ride selection for an individual Lightning Lane. If a ride breaks down so you cannot use the lane during your return time, you will be able to return at any point later in the day. If a ride breaks down and does not come back up, Disney will allegedly automatically refund the cost. If a ride breaks down during your window and you cannot ride it later in the day, you’ll need to contact guest services about a refund.
As a sidenote, we’ve had luck getting the Guest Experience (blue umbrella) cast members to modify an individual Lightning Lane, but they were 100% clear they were only able to modify it subject to availability. Your experience will vary, but keep in mind that while they want to help, frontline Cast Members cannot literally work magic on the system.
Individual Lightning Lane Strategy
There isn’t as much strategy around individual Lightning Lanes as Genie+ because you simply have to pick you up-to-two rides and the times you want to ride them. Here are some tips.
Keep trying, particularly around 7AM. If you logon right around 7AM and see Individual Lightning Lanes have sold out, keep trying. Not everyone who immediately secures a time will go all the way through with payment.
Similarly, if there’s availability just before the park opens that disappears as the park opens, keep trying for the same reason. Even later in the day, people may cancel their Individual Lightning Lanes (rare, but times do sometimes pop up later in the day).
Know when bookings run out. As with Genie+, individual Lightning Lanes can run out of return times. Generally you’ll go into your day knowing what rides you’re going to book, and you’ll do that ASAP. But some days you might decide to wait and see how your morning goes. In those cases, you need to be sure you have an idea of when return times will run out.
We talk more about these in the individual park posts, but you can look up the recent data on Thrill Data.
Try to ride between 12PM and 4PM. This is when waits are at their peak, so you won’t be missing out on anything else in the park. An Individual Lightning Lane that has you riding at the very start or very end of the day makes little sense since you could be getting on rides with short waits during those times.
Don’t miss your return time. Disney can be strict with these return times. Do not book them in conflict with dining reservations etc. If you have a conflict, check with a Guest Experience (blue umbrella) Cast Member to see if anything can be done.
Again, remember rope drop, Early Entry, and single rider. We touched on these as part of our Genie+ tips above, but if you can use these approaches to get on an individual Lightning Lane, you’ll save yourself some money.
Lightning Lanes and Rider Switch
As parents of a toddler, a common question we get is “how do Lightning Lanes work with rider switch?” This post isn’t a full guide to rider switch, which we talk more about here. But here’s a quick overview.
A Simple Rider Switch Example
If you have a guest who can’t ride a ride (usually because of a height restriction), you can use rider switch so your entire party doesn’t have to wait in line separately (someone who doesn’t meet the height requirement can’t wait in line).
For example, in our case, to use rider switch at Flight of Passage, Emily, Zoe, and I will find a Cast Member with an iPad near the ride entrance. They’ll scan my Magic Band, and I’ll go do something else with Zoe, like play in the Boneyard. Emily waits in the regular standby line for Flight of Passage.
When Emily’s done with the ride, she comes and hangs out with Zoe, and I’m able to use rider switch to access the Lightning Lane, so I don’t have to wait in the standby lane.
How Lightning Lanes and Rider Switch Work Together
In the past, people had all sorts of “tricks” around combining rider switch with FastPass+, with some even going so far as to suggest you “ask to speak with a manager” if Cast Members didn’t do your bidding (vom).
Nowadays, there are two things you need to know about combining rider switch and Lightning Lanes.
First, if the group that rides first intends to use a Lightning Lane, everyone needs a Lightning Lane booked. Continuing the Flight of Passage example, if Emily purchased a Flight of Passage individual Lightning Lane, she’d only be allowed to use it as part of our rider switch if I also had purchased a Flight of Passage individual Lightning Lane.
Will you hear your cousin’s neighbor’s mechanic was able to get around this rule? Probably. Will someone in forums link to this post and say “tHeY doN’t KnoW the SimPLesT HaCK?” Definitely (and hey, thanks for the link). But I’ve talked to CMs about these rules at multiple rides, and while it’s obvious some people break the rules (or maybe someone just got lucky someday, it happens), you shouldn’t do that.
This means that in the case of Emily and I with one small child—we usually don’t need to use rider switch when we have Lightning Lanes. As long as we’re not too close to the end of our return window, one of us can ride first, then we switch. For a ride with an individual Lightning Lane, knowing how strict Disney is with those return times, I’d definitely set up rider switch every time.
Our example was with an individual Lightning Lane, but the same idea would apply with a Genie+ Lightning Lane.
Second, some people in your party might still get to use the Lightning Lane twice. The most straightforward example is a party of four—two adults, one older child who can ride, one younger child who can’t ride. If the two parents and the older child have Lightning Lanes booked, the Cast Member may let one parent ride with the older child via the Lightning Lane and then the other parent ride with the older child via the Lightning Lane using Rider Switch. The older child gets use the Lightning Lane twice in that case.
Again, some people consider this a “trick”, but I’ve had CMs openly tell it to me when I just ask “If I have a Lightning Lane do I need rider switch?” Might different rides or different CMs handle it differently? Perhaps. And if they do, don’t ask to speak to a manager.
Finally, these two things aren’t in conflict. In order for the first group to use the Lightning Lane, everyone needs Lightning Lane booked. If everyone has Lightning Lane booked, the Cast Member might also let, for example, an older child ride twice using Rider Switch for the second ride.
Other Lightning Lane FAQ
Here are some answers to some miscellaneous questions that don’t fit into the rest of the post.
Are Lightning Lanes the same as virtual queues?
No, these are two entirely different concepts at Disney World. We’ve already explained what a Lightning Lane is. A virtual queue is something used on some rides for all guests instead of a regular standby queue.
For rides that use virtual queues, subject to capacity, any guest can join the virtual queue for free at set times during the day. They’ll then get a notification when their spot has been called and it’s time to go to the ride.
Rides that have virtual queues use them instead of a standby queue that people would usually physically wait in. As of this update, two rides at Disney World—Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind and TRON Lightcycle / Run—use virtual queues. Both also have individual Lightning Lanes. Rise of the Resistance no longer uses a virtual queue.
What happened to FastPass+ at Disney World?
It’s gone and never coming back.
Is there Free FastPass at Disney World?
No. There is no more FastPass, and none of its replacements are free. There’s no longer a free skip-the-line system at Disney World. Your only options are Genie+ (starting at $15+tax per person per day) and the individual Lightning Lanes.
All Your Other Disney World Planning Questions Answered
Don't be overwhelmed by Disney World planning! Take a second to check out our most important content and you'll not only be an expert, but you'll save big $$$ along the way.
Just starting out? Check out our Walt Disney World planning guide! If you're still picking dates, we've got everything you need to know about Disney World crowd calendars. For picking your hotel, check out our Walt Disney World hotels guide.
When it comes time to book we’ll help you find discount Disney World tickets. Decide whether you need a dining plan in our Complete Guide to Disney World Dining Plans! And don't forget to book those Disney World Advance Dining Reservations!
Don't forget to master your Disney World Genie+ and Lightning Lane strategy a few months in advance. We'll keep you out of long lines so you can maximize the magical time in the parks! We've got park-specific guides as well: Magic Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Epcot Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, Animal Kingdom Genie+ and Lightning Lanes, and Hollywood Studios Genie+ and Lightning Lanes.
Know what to ride with our guides to: Magic Kingdom rides, Hollywood Studios rides, Epcot rides, and Animal Kingdom rides! Plus learn about the water parks with our guide to Blizzard Beach and our guide to Typhoon Lagoon! And for some some fun prep, check out our Ranking of Every Ride at Walt Disney World.
Finally, before you head out, be sure to check out our to-the-point packing list, 10 essentials you forget to pack for every Disney trip. And if you're interested in saving, there's no better list than our 53 Ways to Save on your Disney trip from start to finish.