Hot Takes on Disney's New $400+ Lightning Lane Premier Pass

Rumors have been swirling for awhile that this was coming, but today Disney finally unveiled a new addition to its Lightning Lane portfolio: Lightning Lane Premier Pass.

We already have Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass at both Disneyland and Walt Disney World. Those aren't going anywhere. So how is Premier Pass different?

What is Disney's Lightning Lane Premier Pass?

As the name suggests, Lightning Lane Premier Pass is a way to ride attractions at Disney parks in an expedited fashion via a shorter line (called the Lightning Lane). At both parks, Lightning Lane Premier Pass will enable guests to ride each and every attraction that has a Lightning Lane once in a single day.

There's no need to book return time windows as is the case with other Lightning Lane products. There's no need to learn the complex systems of each resort and its ride booking priorities. There's no need to spend time tapping around and refreshing on your phone in Disney's apps while you are in the parks.

Related: Advanced Strategies for Maximizing Lightning Lane at Disneyland

Instead, guests can simply go to the attractions at any time in their day and scan into the Lightning Lane. It's much more like how Express Pass works at Universal parks or how Flash Pass works at Six Flags locations.

There are a couple of very key differences between Premier Pass at Disneyland in California and Walt Disney World in Florida. These differences include the following:

• Price: The cost at Disneyland will be $300-$400 per person per day (initially $400 for the remainder of 2024). At Walt Disney World, the product will cost between $129 and $449 per day (plus tax) depending on the park and the date. As you might imagine, Premier Pass at Animal Kingdom will be far cheaper than it is at Magic Kingdom, as is already the case for Lightning Lane Multi Pass. Prices are $329-$449 for Magic Kingdom, $169-$249 for Epcot, $269-$349 for Hollywood Studios, and $129-$199 for Animal Kingdom.
• Parks included: At Disneyland, Premier Pass includes both parks in a single purchase price. So for guests who purchase Park Hopper tickets, they can hop between both parks in a single day and use Lightning Lanes at both. At Walt Disney World, however, the purchase only includes a single park per day, even for guests who have Park Hopper tickets on their vacation.
• Who can purchase: At Disneyland, any guest who wishes to purchase Lightning Lane Premier Pass can do so. At Walt Disney World, however, only guests staying at Disney deluxe or deluxe villa hotels (the same list of hotels eligible for deluxe evening hours) are allowed to purchase.
• Start date: Lightning Lane Premier Pass debuts October 23, 2024 at Disneyland and October 30 at Walt Disney World.

Related: Comparing Deluxe vs. Moderate vs. Value Resorts at Walt Disney World

Is Lightning Lane Premier Pass Worth It?

As you might expect, Disney fans have very strong reactions to this new product. Many of them are shocked and angered by the high price tag. Some have gone on record that they don't think there is much of a market for this product - that the uber-wealthy will just stick to taking Disney's VIP tours.

Others wish that Disney had adopted a system more like Universal Express pass where the expensive option is the only option for Lightning Lanes. They would prefer that Disney eliminate the other less expensive Lightning Lane Multi and Single Passes in favor of this one pricey product. Such a change would surely have the effect of making standby lines shorter for all guests, as fewer guests would purchase a more expensive product like this one.

As someone who goes to both Disney resorts regularly, I naturally have some thoughts. Here are a few of my takes on this new Lightning Lane Premier Pass product.

This isn't for you (or me).

If you are a guest whose jaw dropped when you saw the prices listed when this product was announced, you are not alone. It's crazy expensive. Disney has been hit with a lot of negative PR of late, with headlines lamenting the increasing costs of Disney vacations. In this landscape, it's a little surprising that Disney is serving up more fodder for just this kind of criticism.

That said, if you were shocked by the pricing of this product, it probably isn't for you. It's not for me either. I think its fair to say that 99% of Disney guests - and probably more like 99.9% - won't find Lightning Lane Premier Pass even remotely accessible budget-wise.

But the same could be said for Disney's VIP Tours. And I'd argue that this new service is much more akin to that offering, despite the Lightning Lane name that suggests that it's a souped up version of the other (much less expensive) Lightning Lane products.

If you aren't angry that Disney offers VIP tours to the rich and famous, you shouldn't really be angry this product exists. This is a niche offering for a super-select group of guests. We are all better off if we just ignore its existence.

I get the frustration though. Learning and using the other Lightning Lane offerings is a burden and a hassle. We all wish that there was a simpler product at a price we could afford to improve our Disney days. But that's just not how the world (or theme parks) work.

Disney may purposefully be looking to force change to VIP tour supply and demand.

Speaking of VIP Tours, a lot of Disney fans have observed that Lightning Lane Premier Pass is in a similar price tier per person as taking a VIP tour. This is only the case, however, when you can fill the VIP tour up with the maximum number of guests (10).

At Disneyland, for example, VIP Tours start at $500 per hour for a minimum of 7 hours. Split that cheapest $3500 tour among 10 people and the per person cost is $350 - right in the middle of the range that Disneyland is now looking to charge for Lightning Lane Premier Pass.

So why offer Lightning Lane Premier Pass at all? Isn't it duplicative? Not really.

VIP Tours are only are equivalent in cost if you fill them up. If you are a couple or small family with money to burn who likes visiting Disney, it's hard to justify many thousands of dollars for just a few people to book a tour. You could round up your friends and split a VIP Tour with them, but maybe you don't have friends with whom you can coordinate vacation schedules. Or maybe your friends have different ride preferences and you'd rather keep your vacations to your immediate family.

For these guests, Lightning Lane Premier Pass will come in at a lower per person cost than a VIP Tour. And don't forget - guests will get to use it for a truly full park day (often at least 12 and up to 16 hours at Disneyland at least) if they have the stamina. Few people do VIP tours that many hours.

In short, Premier Pass allows Disney to capture additional revenue from guests who want a VIP product but who won't spring for the cost of it under the current VIP tour framework. I'm sure it's also not missed that a DIY offering like Lightning Lane Premier Pass allows Disney to do that without adding any labor costs.

In fact, I worry that perhaps Disney is looking to reduce the ranks of VIP Tour Guides and replace some of them with this labor-free alternative. To be clear, I really hope that doesn't happen because these cast members are some of the very best Disney has to offer. But if Disney can supplement the existing system and perhaps also make a VIP-style offering available to guests even when VIP Tours sell out (and they do sell out!), it's a net win for everyone.

Other guests won't notice any changes to the line status quo.

Any time a premium offering comes out at a theme park, regular guests are rightfully concerned that greasing the wheels for some guests will mean additional impediments for others. When Fastpass was introduced at Disney parks, it made waits shorter for the guests who used it, but the tradeoff was longer lines for everyone else (see Defunctland's truly groundbreaking documentary about Disney's Fastpass for a deep dive.)

Whether Lightning Lane Premier Pass will tip the balance in any way remains to be seen, but I strongly suspect it won't do anything to upset the status quo of lines at Disneyland or Walt Disney World. The guests who will be using Lightning Lane Premier Pass are guests who would already either use the other Lightning Lane products or purchase a VIP Tour, which also uses Lightning Lanes. This product won't meaningfully change the overall number of guests using the Lightning Lane. It will just redistribute them into different cost buckets than before. I suppose a guest switching from Lightning Lane Multi Pass to Lightning Lane Premier Pass will be able to experience several more rides over the course of a day, but that's a pretty small shift.

And even if it did change the numbers a bit, Disney has made clear that Lightning Lane Premier Pass sales are going to be tightly limited in number. The effect on Lightning Lanes or standby lines overall is likely to be de minimis, much like VIP Tours already are.

There will be dissatisfaction with this offering at peak crowd periods & when rides break down.

With a price tag that is several hundreds of dollars per person, guests who purchase Lightning Lane Premier Pass naturally will have pretty high expectations for the product. They will, however, be using regular Lightning Lanes to ride all attractions. And while those lines are shorter than standby lines, they aren't always objectively short.

If you've been to a Disney park somewhat recently, you probably know that Lightning Lanes don't always function as intended. When rides break down, Lightning Lanes quickly get backed up. When more than one ride breaks down, things can get even uglier.

After parades or shows end, guests also sometimes swarm Lightning Lanes in a particular park area. Lightning Lane waits are also longer on average during peak crowd periods like Christmas week when so many more guests in the parks overall purchase them. Additionally, there are quite a few rides, particularly at Disneyland, where the Lightning Lane waits even without irregular operations can run 20-30 minutes or more (ahem, Indiana Jones Adventure and Soarin' come to mind).

Will a family paying over $1000 a day for Lightning Lane Premier Pass be upset when they still have to wait? I think so. They likely expect a frictionless experience when they've paid this kind of money, but friction seems inevitable. I wonder whether Disney has bitten off more than it can chew given current ride reliability and demand.

Of course, VIP Tour guests use the Lightning Lanes to ride and don't get to completely dodge waiting either. But they also have an expert guide with them. That guide isn't likely to take them to a Lightning Lane that is experiencing a chokepoint moment.

Lightning Lane Premier Pass guests won't have that same expertise on their side. Having guests DIY it when it comes to premium products is a gamble. I suspect this could well lead to some guest dissatisfaction among a pretty demanding set of guests.

Lightning Lane Premier Pass is likely a better value at Disneyland than at Walt Disney World.

Above, I highlighted the key differences between Lightning Lane Premier Pass at Walt Disney World and Disneyland. Walt Disney World's product is cheaper on average (except at Magic Kingdom on peak dates). Walt Disney World's Lightning Lane Multi Pass system is also more complicated to master and to maximize than Disneyland's. So at first glance it may seem that Walt Disney World has the superior product since it charges less and allows guests to bypass the hard work to learn the system.

As someone who visits both parks, I actually believe Lightning Lane Premier Pass is a better value on the West Coast at Disneyland, even at the (mostly) higher price point there. Why? First, guests are required to have a deluxe hotel reservation at Walt Disney World to purchase the offering (so they are essentially paying more). Guests at Disneyland could opt to stay in an off-property hotel for hundreds less per night and have a much lower overall trip cost with Premier Pass.

Second and perhaps more importantly, the product at Walt Disney World limits you to a single park. That means the the average guest will experience fewer rides per day than at Disneyland. If you buy Lightning Lane Premier Pass at Disneyland, most guests will easily be able to ride all 24 attractions that offer Lightning Lane across both parks (22 Lightning Lane Multi Pass attractions plus 2 Lightning Lane Single Pass attractions) in a single day.

At Walt Disney World, you'd only be able to do 20 total attractions at Magic Kingdom, 11 in EPCOT, 13 in Hollywood Studios, or 10 in Animal Kingdom. But quite a few attractions on the list at Walt Disney World are "filler" attractions that you never need Lightning Lane to experience with minimal waits, such as Mickey's Philharmagic, The Seas with Nemo and Friends, Muppet Vision 3D, or Festival of the Lion King. The ride counts are not measuring the same thing.

Per dollar charged, most guests are going to bypass more minutes of waiting for more total attractions at Disneyland. One example to demonstrate:

You really only need Lightning Lane for 6 of the attractions at most (one of which is closing soon) at Animal Kingdom. If you paid the cheapest $129 Premier Pass price in Animal Kingdom, that's equivalent to $21.50 per ride. At Disneyland, I'd argue that Lightning Lane can be meaningfully helpful for every attraction on the list across both parks, but let's subtract 2 rides to be a little generous. At the cheapest $300 Premier Pass cost on the west coast, that comes out to $13.60 per ride. Disneyland just offers more bang for the buck in my humble opinion.

Final Thoughts

I'm really curious to hear what you think about Lightning Lane Premier Pass. Would you ever consider purchasing it? Are you angry that Disney is now selling yet another service at a price premium? Leave your comments below.