Walt Disney World has raised costs of Lightning Lane Single Pass, effective immediately for pre-booked ride reservation dates starting in October 2024. Additionally, Multi-Pass pricing patterns will go up for EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. This covers the before/after prices along with our commentary.
Let’s start with brief background. Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP) attractions are the individual headliner rides that aren’t included in the multi-ride Lightning Lane Multi-Pass (LLMP) service. With LLMP, you can pre-book 3 ride reservations per day, and how many you get total depends upon crowds and how efficient you are at making the rolling ride reservations after entering the park.
LLMP excludes the most popular ride (or two) per park, which are the LLSP attractions. Lightning Lane Multi Pass now uses per-park and date-based pricing, meaning it can cost as little as $16 or as much as $39 per person, per day. Ranges for LLSP are currently $10 to $25 per ride. See our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World for everything you need to know.
Here’s a look at current high and low price points we’ve seen for Lightning Lane Single Passes prior to October 2024:
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: high $12, low $10
TRON Lightcycle Run: $20
Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind: high $17, low $14
Star Wars Rise of the Resistance: high $25, low $15
Avatar Flight of Passage: high $17, low $11
Here are the new maximums for LLSP prices:
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: $13
TRON Lightcycle Run: $21
Guardians of the Galaxy Cosmic Rewind: $18
Star Wars Rise of the Resistance: unchanged
Avatar Flight of Passage: unchanged
This price increases are effective for dates starting October 18, 2024. All dates on the calendar thereafter (so far) are those new maximums.
Additionally, there’s a change to the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass pricing cadence. Here are the prices as of October 19:
Magic Kingdom: $29
EPCOT: $21
Hollywood Studios: $27
Animal Kingdom: $19
Here are the prices as of October 20, 2024:
Magic Kingdom: $29 (unchanged)
EPCOT: $24
Hollywood Studios: $29
Animal Kingdom: $22
Note that none of these LLMP prices are new all-time records, whereas they are for LLSP. The Lightning Lane Multi-Pass changes are, for lack of a better term, new price permutations. Normally, Magic Kingdom is more expensive than DHS by a few dollars, and commonly $10 (or more) higher than Animal Kingdom. Starting October 20, the spreads between the other parks and Magic Kingdom are narrower than normal.
I don’t think this is particularly noteworthy (yet), and if this were happening without the corresponding Lightning Lane Single Pass increase, we wouldn’t even be reporting on it. That fact is, Walt Disney World has experimented with a lot of Lightning Lane Multi Pass (or Genie+ before that) price combinations. This could be nothing at all–a test that’ll be undone within a couple days.
It’s nevertheless been pretty rare for this little of a difference between Magic Kingdom and the other parks, which leads me to suspect we might see higher Magic Kingdom prices soon (dates beyond October 20 have yet to be released). I would not expect a new all-time high for Magic Kingdom until Thanksgiving (at the earliest), but it seems very likely than the $40 barrier will be broken after so many dates sold out last December. Walt Disney World making a big jump–all the way to $49 for peak late December dates–wouldn’t surprise me in the least.
Turning to commentary, these Lightning Lane price increases and changes struck us as worth reporting on for a few reasons. The first is the self-evident one that Walt Disney World raising prices is newsworthy. It’s especially notable with Lightning Lane Single Passes, which seldom see their prices raised. It hasn’t occurred with anywhere near the frequency of Genie+ or Lightning Lane Multi-Pass.
In fact, TRON Lightcycle Run has never varied in price. It has always been $20. Personally, I think this is because the roller coaster is so short, and Walt Disney World fears complaints or backlash about higher prices not being “worth it” for such a short ride.
Then again, maybe this is projection on my part. I like the coaster well enough, but cannot fathom paying even $20 for ~90 seconds. I don’t buy any LLSPs, but if I were to buy one, TRON would literally be my last choice. To each their own, though.
Also worth mentioning is that this applies to dates in October 2024. As we recently covered in Price Increases Likely Coming Soon at Walt Disney World & Disneyland for 2024-2025, the company raising rates on parking, admission, food, upcharges, and more around the start of the new fiscal year is likely. It’s actually less of a prediction and more of an inevitability.
As noted there, Disney has historically increased prices around the start of the new fiscal year for a while and on October 11, specifically, for both of the last two years. Despite that, we felt/feel that this is more likely to occur on October 8 or 9, 2024 than October 11, due to the latter being a Friday.
Well, October 18 is also a Friday. Personally, I don’t think that’s particularly meaningful as a predictor for when the rest of the increases will roll out, because Lightning Lane Single Pass prices aren’t going up on that date. The increase has already happened (effective immediately)–that’s just the first impacted date.
With that said, I am surprised by the October 18, 2024 timing. That’s the weekend after Columbus Day, which is typically the most popular weekend for fall breaks. To be sure, both long weekends–and the entire week in between–are busy.
As covered in our list of the 10 Best and 10 Worst Weeks to Visit Walt Disney World in 2024 & 2025, we expect October 11-19 to be one of the busiest stretches of the year. So why not start the increase at the front-end of fall break rather than the backside?
Even as fall break has gotten busier and busier, it still has nothing on the November and December peak week holidays, meaning that it’s entirely possible that these Lightning Lane Single Passes still haven’t hit their highest highs for 2024. Not suggesting I’d bet on further price increases for Thanksgiving, Christmas or New Year’s Eve–as Walt Disney World has been slower to raise prices on the a la carte rides–but I wouldn’t bet against it, either.
As for why Lightning Lane Single Pass prices are increasing, the simplest explanation is demand.
Even in low to moderate crowd levels, Lightning Lane Single Pass is selling out much more often than Individual Lightning Lanes did. The likely reasons for this are beyond the scope of this post, but it’s something we address at length in Lightning Lane Single Pass is Selling Out FAST!
The title there really says it all, but suffice to say, several of these LLSPs are now fully booked up in advance or have limited same-day availability. For what it’s worth, we’re seeing something similar with higher demand for Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. The move to pre-arrival booking has clearly been a smart one for Disney from a financial perspective.
Speaking of which, this is probably a great time to plug our recent post: When You Should Skip Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. While good for Disney’s bottom line, unfortunate byproducts of pre-arrival Lightning Lanes from a guest perspective are heightened FOMO and FUD–two of my favorite “facronyms.” Since you’re no longer buying Lightning Lanes same-day, it’s more difficult to assess the need for them and adjust accordingly during your vacation. That post will help you determine when LLMP may not be “necessary” for you.
On a somewhat similar note, but slightly more speculative, I wouldn’t be surprised if Walt Disney World is raising prices on Multi-Pass and Single Pass in anticipation of launching Lightning Lane Premier Pass, which we fully expect to be Disney’s answer to Universal’s Express Pass (but not with an unlimited option).
Raising prices on ‘regular’ Lightning Lanes may help improve the perceived value proposition of the higher end offering. Since that new system will undoubtedly be controversial, I could also see Walt Disney World launching it on the exact same day that the rest of the price increases hit. Ripping the band-aid off all at once and consolidating the negative news into a single day rather than drawing it out would be in Disney’s best interests. Again, pure spitballing speculation on my part, but it would make sense.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
What do you think of the Lightning Lane Single Pass price increases? Is $20+ for a 90 second roller coaster too much or reasonable if it means bypassing a 2-hour wait? Thoughts on the likelihood that Walt Disney World will raise rates around the start of the new fiscal year? Think Lightning Lane Multi-Pass will break the $40 barrier this year? Expect a $49 price point, or something lower? Any predictions about Lightning Lane Premier Pass? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
