We Tested Disney’s NEW Lightning Lane System in ALL 4 PARKS — Here’s How It Went

Disney World just got a HUGE change as of July 24th! Disney Genie+ is no more, and now the new Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass system has taken its place.

We are out in the parks in full force to test out this new system, answer all your questions, and show you all the details you need to know!

We will be providing live updates here on AllEars.net, but also make sure you follow along on our social media channels for even more updates as we put Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass to the test!

Before we get too far, let’s start with a bit of a recap of what Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass are. These are the newest skip-the-line systems at Disney World and they officially live as of July 24th, 2024. The Lightning Lane Multi Pass is similar to the old Genie+ system, while Lightning Lane Single Pass is similar to the old Individual Lightning Lane system.

With both the Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass, you will be able to reserve your selections in advance.

With the Lightning Lane Multi Pass, you can make up to three selections in advance (one ride from the “choose one” tier and two rides from the second tier, or three from the second tier). Then, once you use one of the Lightning Lane selections you will be able to make another one.

With the Lightning Lane Single Pass, you can purchase up to two single passes per day. The Single Passes will be for some of the most popular rides that are not included with Lightning Lane Multi Pass. These rides are Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, TRON Lightcycle / Run, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and Avatar Flight of Passage. 

If you want an even more detailed look at the new Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass system, including when you are eligible to make your selections, we have a FULL guide to both of these services that you can check out!

We were in the parks testing it all out and provided live coverage for YOU, our readers! To start, let’s talk about the process of booking our selections this morning. Usually, you will be able to make these selections in advance, but since the new systems just went live on July 24th, we needed to book our selections in the morning.

But first, let’s check out those PRICES! Luckily, it doesn’t look like the price has increased with the new changes, and is still dynamic based on the date and park you choose. For July 24th Lightning Lane Multi Pass prices are:

• Magic Kingdom — $29
• EPCOT — $21
• Hollywood Studios — $26
• Animal Kingdom — $18

Disney has also announced pricing for the Multi Pass through August 14th, and you can see those full prices here.

Purchasing Lightning Lane Passes

Okay, now onto booking. On the My Disney Experience app, we navigated to “Today’s Plans.” From there, we went to the “Tip Board” section of the app. Nothing has changed about this process from the old system to the new one.

After that, you can select “Purchase Lightning Lane Passes” near the top of the screen and select your date. Your park options will pop up on a list, and you can choose the first park you plan to start your day in. Each park has a dropdown menu with the prices of Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass.

With the new system, you can purchase pay-per-ride (Single Pass) attractions and Multi Pass attractions at the same time, which does make things much easier. You also have five minutes to check out without losing your selections and there is a little notification at the top of the screen letting you know how much time you have left.

Booking Lightning Lanes

Then, you’ll make selections using the drop-down menu.

After making your selections, you can then modify the times in the “Review Details” section. Disney will also show in your plans here if you have any reservations that might conflict with your selections.

Then, you’ll review your selections one more time before checking out.

After you’ve checked and everything is just how you want it, you pay for the service. We highly recommend having a card attached to your My Disney Experience app already since you only have five minutes.

Then you can see your choices in the app. You can choose to “Get Details”, “Modify Selection”, “Cancel Booking”, or “Show Party”.

We decided to try clicking “Modify Selection” to see what would happen and it showed us an alternate time. By 7:07AM, times for the day had filled up to around 6:25PM and if we clicked “Change to This Time”, it would have modified our original time window.

We also attempted to book Lightning Lanes seven days out like Disney World hotel guests will be able to do — and luckily it works the same way as we showed above. But, one major difference is that there are many, many times to choose from.

We even snagged an early time slot for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure. When we tried booking on the 24th, Lightning Lanes filled up quickly for some team members and later times showed up for other team members. It’s clear that being a hotel guest is definitely going to give you the upper hand when it comes to snagging an earlier Lightning Lane for this.

For Lightning Lane Single Pass, we could buy both Seven Dwarfs Mine Train for $11 and TRON Lightcycle / Run for $20.

We also noticed that the new system let us overlap with one of our Lightning Line Multi Pass Selections and with our other Lightning Lane Single Pass for TRON. We’re not sure if this is a glitch or what, but it’s something to keep in mind when booking your selections.

How To Park Hop with Multi Pass

Disney said that with Multi Pass, you choose only one theme park when you purchase it, so unlike Genie+, there is no Multi Park option. However, you can still use it in multiple parks if you have a valid park hopper ticket. Once you redeem one of your selections of the day in the park you’ve scanned into (your first park), you can choose another Multi Pass Lightning Lane in another park.

We noticed that this was exactly the case once we had scanned into our first pre-selected Lightning Lane ride. Not only can you book another Lightning Lane in another park, but you can also modify into another park. This was not an option with Genie+ and it gives you a lot of flexibility when modifying your selections.

But, we had also wondered how this works when Multi Pass costs less for your first park and more for the park you plan to hop over to. Well, we tested it out. We paid $18 for the Lightning Lane Multi Pass in Disney’s Animal Kingdom, which is the cheapest park for the day, and then we scanned into our first ride. We then got a message that we could select another experience.

So we decided to see if we could switch over to Magic Kingdom (Multi Pass is $29 there) and book a Lightning Lane experience.

And we did! We booked a Lightning Lane for “it’s a small world” in Magic Kingdom. We were not given any messages that it would cost us more, so we booked a Magic Kingdom experience for the Animal Kingdom price.

Other Things To Know

It does seem that at first, the more popular rides were quickly snatched up. But, the trusty ol’ “refresh” method has still been working for us! For example, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure Multi Pass sold out within a couple of minutes on July 24th, but when we were doing some modification experiments later in the day, we saw evening times for the ride pop back up.

We also confirmed that you can hold multiple Tier 1 reservations after you’ve used your first Lightning Lane, regardless of what Tier the one you use is. Essentially, Tiers only apply for the advanced Lightning Lanes you book. Once you get into the park and have scanned into that first ride, you’re able to hold three Tier 1 reservations at the same time.

And, if you’re wondering what happens if you try to book a Lightning Lane reservation that overlaps with a dining reservation, we’ve got an answer there, too!

We were in Disney’s Hollywood Studios with an advance dining reservation for Oga’s Cantina at 12:45PM. We were booking our Lightning Lanes right at 7AM when we were about to book one for Rise of the Resistance. And the system LET US book our Lightning Lane for an overlapping time as our dining reservation!

We also confirmed that character meet and greets are no longer part of the Lightning Lane system. We did see the Lightning Lanes still being used, but Cast Members told us the physical lanes are still being used for those who qualify for Disney’s Disability Access Service (DAS).

With the old Genie+ system (and even with FastPass+, to an extent) you could keep refreshing the My Disney Experience app to “stack” Lightning Lane reservations on top of existing ones depending on timing and availability. This meant that you could have stacked 3,4,5+ Lightning Lanes to be used later in the day.

But, we’re finding that a bit harder to do with this new system since you can only hold three Multi Pass Lightning Lanes at one time. You can still use Multi Passes for more than three Lightning Lanes in one day overall, but you won’t be able to snag a fourth until you’ve used your first, and so on.

Essentially, the new system evens the playing field and makes it more fair across the board — no matter if you’re a Lightning Lane pro or if you’ve literally never heard the term before stepping foot onto Disney World property.

You Can Read More About Stacking Here

We also noticed a glitch when you were making your selections for the day. One of our reporters had chosen all of their selections, however, when they went to continue to the next page, they found out that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure was no longer available. They went back to make another selection, but they didn’t realize that the app also deselected ALL of their other selections — something to keep an eye on.

And, we had a selection for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster at Disney’s Hollywood Studios at 7:40PM. However, at 12:30PM we received a Multiple Experiences pass for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster stating that the ride was temporarily unavailable during our return time.

In addition, sometimes when you hit “Modify” in the My Disney Experience app, it takes you to the confirmation screen for when you got that Lightning Lane instead of the screen to modify it. This glitch will probably be worked out as this is only the first day of the new systems.

Keep in mind that now, selections can be made three days before your trip, but that window is extended to seven days in advance of an entire stay (up to 14 days) if you are a Disney World hotel guest. In most cases, you must be on U.S. soil to pre-book these — more on that here.

There is also a tier system at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Disney’s Hollywood Studios where you can book one attraction in tier one and two attractions in tier two ahead of time. Disney’s Animal Kingdom does NOT have tiers. See a full breakdown of the tiers here.

We will be updating this post throughout the day, so keep checking back to see how we are progressing!

Still feeling a bit overwhelmed by the new Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass system? Have no fear, because Quincy is here to help! We created a whole video to help explain the new Lightning Lane System:

We are putting this new system to through the ringer and we will keep you updated as we go! Make sure to stay tuned to AllEars for ALL the coverage of Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass!

Check out our FULL guide to Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass!

Will you be purchasing Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Single Pass on your upcoming Disney World trip? Let us know in the comments!