Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World might be complicated. There are three separate methods for line-skipping at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom. Genie+ is gone, as is free FastPass. This information affords a crash course with our greatest ideas & methods that may prevent essentially the most time (and cash) when utilizing Lightning Lane Multi-Move at WDW in 2025.
Let’s begin by straightening issues out. Lightning Lane Multi-Move (LLMP) is the first line-skipping possibility at Walt Disney World. Moreover, there’s Lightning Lane Single Move (LLSP), which is the a la carte possibility that was once known as Particular person Lightning Lanes. Lastly, there’s Lightning Lane Premier Move (LLPP), which is the highest tier of line-skipping meant for the highest 1-2% of company and priced accordingly. Obtained all of that? Good. If not, see our Information to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World.
Lightning Lane Multi-Move is basically the core product. It’s just about paid FastPass+, however minus the marquee attraction in every park (or 2 in Magic Kingdom), which has line-skipping entry bought a la carte by way of LLSP. We’ll solely be specializing in LLMP right here as a result of it’s the one one which’s actually “hackable.” The others are extra simple, so whereas we may supply restricted ideas & methods, they’re mainly a matter of purchase them or don’t.
It is a crash course supposed to make you a Lightning Lane professional, so we’re going to gloss over most fundamentals. It would take studying this a few instances for every part to “click on,” nevertheless it ought to after this if you have already got a foundational understanding of how line-skipping works at Walt Disney World.
To that time, the primary tip is to realize some “free” firsthand expertise by taking part in round with the Lightning Lane Multi-Move function in My Disney Expertise as soon as the window opens in your tickets. You’ll be able to undergo the motions of reserving your first 3 picks earlier than shopping for, which supplies beneficial hands-on experience for understanding the fundamentals. For those who’re a visible learner, spending ~half-hour within the app is the simplest option to get a really feel for LLMP.
With that out of the way in which, let’s dig proper in with important recommendation and ideas & methods for getting essentially the most out of Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World…
These Are the Finest Parks for LLMP
Underneath the prior system, the most effective park for buying Lightning Lanes was Magic Kingdom. Our recommendation was to virtually all the time purchase there, and often at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. We beneficial skipping it typically at EPCOT and more often than not at Animal Kingdom.
This roughly stays true, with the most important change that we’ve seen Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom flip-flop in our subject testing. We’ve had the most effective success and saved essentially the most time with Lightning Lane Multi-Move at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, making that our new #1 for LLMP.
Magic Kingdom is now #2. There are a couple of causes for this. First, tiering at Magic Kingdom presents considerably extra friction, as in comparison with what was once the “best” park. Second, the unreliability of Tiana’s Bayou Journey (TBA) makes that unpredictable (extra on technique for this particular experience under). Even should you rating a LLMP for TBA, you might not be utilizing it. Lastly, rolling refurbishments of tier 1 points of interest–now with Huge Thunder Mountain Railroad closed by means of 2026–makes the highest tier sparse, and the second tier extra aggressive because of this.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios hasn’t actually gotten higher or worse. It’s the park with the very best common wait instances, the #1 general Lightning Lane Multi-Move, and competitors for headliners. Nonetheless, it additionally has simpler availability for (objectively higher) tier two points of interest and experience reservation refills should you leverage the rolling 3 rule and put a bit elbow grease into your refresh recreation. For these causes, we discover ourselves having the most effective expertise with Lightning Lane Multi-Move at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and saving essentially the most time.
Park Hopping Saves Cash
There is no such thing as a further cost for Park Hopping, and you don’t want to pay for the Lightning Lane Multi-Move a second time. This implies you may pay the bottom value for Lightning Lane Multi-Move by beginning at Animal Kingdom, after which Park Hopping to Magic Kingdom (the most costly park). That’s a technique unto itself for saving cash!
It’s not one which I’d essentially suggest, as you’re on the mercy of same-day availability and the luck of experience reservation refills, nevertheless it’s not essentially a foul method. That’s doubly true should you mix all the ideas right here and get good at hacking LLMP.
Regardless, Park Hopping might be the difference-maker for whether or not Lightning Lane Multi-Move is “price it” at Animal Kingdom or EPCOT. For those who begin out at DAK early within the morning, use LLMP strategically for less than a few key points of interest earlier than beginning to make subsequent picks in one of many different three parks, that may be a game-changer. Though we’re not large followers of shopping for LLMP at Animal Kingdom or EPCOT, we do like shopping for it at Animal Kingdom and EPCOT (which means a single day for each).
Prioritize Early Return Occasions
When you redeem your first Lightning Lane, you may e-book one other. Contemplate this the “rolling 3 rule,” which is to say that you may all the time have 3 Lightning Lane picks (topic to availability). With the rolling 3 rule of Lightning Lane Multi-Move, you may make your subsequent experience reservation as quickly as you’ve used one.
Furthermore, when you’ve tapped into your first Lightning Lane, tiers not apply for subsequent picks. It thus behooves you to order no less than one Lightning Lane earlier within the day to faucet into that and unlock subsequent picks sooner–and get rid of the tiers for future and present picks.
In apply, this may imply reserving an unpopular Lightning Lane very first thing within the morning with a brief experience length (so that you’re not committing a lot time to it) should you can’t rating an early preliminary return time for a tier 1 attraction. We name these “burner” Lightning Lanes–rides just like the Magic Carpets of Aladdin, Alien Swirling Saucers–or different spinners and flat rides. As quickly as you faucet into one among these, you may make one other Lightning Lane choice and modify your different tier 2 decide to improve to tier 1. Once more, all topic to availability.
That is why you don’t need to merely prioritize the most effective rides–it’s essential to optimize for top precedence but additionally earlier return instances. This isn’t to say each choice must be within the morning–that’s additionally a poor method as a result of it’ll prevent the least time. However you don’t need all 3 of your pre-booked Lightning Lanes to be within the afternoon. Steadiness is the secret!
Prioritize In style Rides
We rank the most effective Lightning Lane Multi-Move picks for every park primarily based upon time saved and the way shortly return instances replenish and run out. Listed here are complete lists of each main attraction in every park:
With that stated, it’s arguably overkill to fret about each Lightning Lane attraction in mild of the above ‘rule’ about optimizing for return instances.
The highest tier points of interest it is best to completely e-book prematurely in the event that they’re choices are Tiana’s Bayou Journey, Peter Pan’s Flight, Remy’s Ratatouille Journey, Frozen Ever After, Slinky Canine Sprint, Na’vi River Journey and Kilimanjaro Safaris (no tiers at Animal Kingdom, however recommendation nonetheless stands).
It doesn’t matter should you can solely get a 6 pm return time for Slinky Canine Sprint–it is best to completely take that as a result of scoring a refill is unlikely. Simply ensure you have no less than one different Lightning Lane choice earlier than 10 am (ideally) to unlock subsequent picks by way of the rolling 3 rule.
Keep On-Website
Company staying at an on-site Walt Disney World Resort lodge and different choose lodges are in a position to buy Lightning Lane passes as much as 7 days prematurely, for his or her whole keep (as much as 14 days). Off-site company can solely make experience reservations as much as 3 days prematurely.
The top results of this could be a important on-site benefit, as numerous the “finest” Lightning Lanes will probably be wolfed up earlier than off-site company may even e-book. On the very least, optimum return instances will probably be gone previous to off-site company having an opportunity to e-book. Because of this, you actually ought to contemplate staying on-site.
This shouldn’t be the one cause, in fact, however should you’re debating between off-site and on-site, it is best to completely ascribe worth to this and different perks, together with however not restricted to Early Entry, WDW transportation, ADR home windows, and so forth. From a value calculus, we now discover it troublesome to beat the Worth Resorts. Although their base value is usually greater than the most cost effective off-site lodging, the worth of the perks and never having to pay for transportation or parking greater than closes the hole. See Off-Website vs. On-Website Motels at Walt Disney World for an goal rundown of execs & cons.
E-book Backwards
When pre-booking your Lightning Lanes picks, you achieve this at some point at a time beginning at 7 a.m. on the date that your window opens. You aren’t alone. You’ll be competing in opposition to hundreds of different rabid (not actually…hopefully) planners doing the very same factor.
I’ve been informed that I’m “too intense,” however I believe it’s all the time useful to view touring Walt Disney World as a aggressive recreation you’re taking part in in opposition to your fellow company. Like Squid Video games, minus the violence. (Though it doesn’t damage to sharpen your elbows, as our outdated pal easyWDW used to say, earlier than doing the Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare shuffle!) Or maybe an issue to be solved, should you’re not the aggressive sort.
In any case, it makes essentially the most sense to e-book your most troublesome day first and backload the troublesome days on the finish of your journey with Disney’s Hollywood Studios furthest out, then Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, and Animal Kingdom. This issues much less in case you have an extended journey and extra for a shorter one. It additionally issues much less should you’re visiting throughout low to reasonable crowds, and extra throughout peak weeks.
For instance, if visiting the parks November 24-27, 2025 (Thanksgiving week), e-book within the following order:
- Disney’s Hollywood Studios (Slinky Canine Sprint): November 27
- Magic Kingdom (Tiana’s Bayou Journey): November 26
- EPCOT (Remy’s Ratatouille Journey): November 25
- Animal Kingdom (Na’vi River Journey, Kilimanjaro Safaris & Expedition Everest): November 24
Hopefully Tiana’s Bayou Journey is extra dependable by then, through which case Magic Kingdom would drop under EPCOT. Notice that this isn’t a tough and quick rule, particularly throughout Occasion Season. You must optimize this with the Finest & Worst Days of the Week in Every Park at Walt Disney World. Selecting the flawed day to go to every park is approach worse than not backloading your picks when your LLMP window opens.
Fish for MEP
A number of Expertise Passes (MEP) are what you obtain an attraction for which you’ve gotten an upcoming experience reservation is experiencing downtime. You’ll obtain a notification a couple of modification to your plans, together with a proof that the attraction is quickly unavailable or one thing like that.
MEPs can be utilized on the Lightning Lane entrance of your alternative all through the day, with numerous caveats. These floating experience reservations don’t have the restriction of solely being legitimate for every attraction as soon as per day–you should use MEPs to expertise your favourite rides repeatedly.
You’ll be able to ‘fish’ for Multi-Expertise Passes by reserving Lightning Lane Multi-Move prematurely for points of interest which are statistically vulnerable to delayed openings. Simpler and higher but, you may typically make day-of picks for points of interest which are at the moment experiencing downtime. In the event that they’re nonetheless unavailable when your return window rolls round, the LLMP robotically converts to a MEP. It’s mainly a bonus Lightning Lane! That is advanced-level technique, so for a extra thorough rationalization, see: Beat Lightning Lane Multi-Move Guidelines & Re-Journey Sights.
Know When to Skip
One of many issues we stress on this web site is that it is best to NOT all the time purchase Lightning Lane Multi-Move at Walt Disney World. On the contrary, most individuals ought to skip the line-skipping service no less than among the time, at among the parks. In Finest Time-Saving Methods for Walt Disney World, we cowl the perfect approaches to every park, and Lightning Lanes don’t win in no less than 2 of the 4 parks.
The pitfall some individuals make is assuming Lightning Lane Multi-Move is a ‘golden ticket’ or straightforward option to beat the crowds. But it surely actually isn’t! That may lull planners right into a false sense of safety, to the purpose that they really are worse off as a result of they over relied on LLMP, mistakenly pondering it will supply a stress and strategy-free day.
If you need that, you’re going to should pay $129 to $449 per individual, per day for Lightning Lane Premier Move. What Lightning Lane Multi-Move affords stress free is just 3-4 rides per day. Leveraging LLMP requires a little bit of homework and legwork, therefore the publish. And should you’re prepared to do this, possibly you’re higher off placing the trouble in the direction of Early Entry, rope drop, environment friendly itineraries that decrease strolling, staying late, Prolonged Night Hours, and so forth.
Don’t merely succumb to FOMO and purchase Lightning Lane Multi-Move every single day of your journey. For those who’re buying since you’re frightened it’s the one option to assure a very good day within the parks, you’re doing it flawed. It’s completely potential you’ll find yourself wanting it every single day, which is ok! Everyone seems to be totally different! Simply don’t view LLMP because the default, and purchase out of concern of the unknown.
For our half, we seldom buy Lightning Lane Multi-Move for enjoyable. Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom are the one exceptions (we by no means purchase at EPCOT or Animal Kingdom), and solely from time to time. It helps that crowds are trending down, and in addition that standby traces are transferring quicker and wait instances are down at Walt Disney World because of this. That’s simply us, although, and our circumstances are distinctive in that we’re frequent guests.
It’s vital you assess your individual distinctive circumstances to find out when and the place Lightning Lane Multi-Move is best for you. Elements to think about are your funds, what number of days you’ve gotten within the parks, whether or not you’re staying on-site, should you’re an early riser or evening owl, whether or not you’ve been earlier than or it’s your first go to, tolerance for traces, and if there are must-do points of interest for you. For a deeper dive and extra complete recommendation, see When You Ought to Skip Lightning Lane Multi-Move at Walt Disney World.
Search for TBA Refills
Tiana’s Bayou Journey remains to be struggling reliability woes and downtime because of this. Some days, it’s down for a number of hours; different days, none in any respect. It’s unpredictable. It’s additionally the latest attraction at Walt Disney World, and something new is in greater demand. On account of these two components, Tiana’s Bayou Journey is likely one of the most troublesome Lightning Lane Multi Passes, proper up there with Slinky Canine Sprint.
Tiana’s Bayou Journey is often working out of Lightning Lane Multi Move reservations earlier than the 7-day mark. (This varies primarily based on climate–it’s a lot simpler when every day excessive temperatures are 60 levels!) There have been instances after I’ve had bother reserving it over 10 days out, with restricted return instances that didn’t work for my schedule.
With that stated, same-day experience reservation refills for Tiana’s Bayou Journey could be a totally different story. On account of its unpredictability and issues, Disney is clearly setting apart most Lightning Lanes for Tiana’s Bayou Journey and releasing them day-of primarily based on uptime and downtime.
That means that on days when the attraction is working effectively and doesn’t have downtime, there are Lightning Lane drops for Tiana’s Bayou Journey which are occurring with almost-immediate return instances. A few of these situations when there was nothing on the 7-day mark, I’ve been in a position to rating same-day availability for return instances ~half-hour into the longer term.
The issue is that that is dependent upon Tiana’s Bayou Journey not breaking down. If it’s having a tough day, there may not be any experience reservation refills for TBA. Suffice to say, there’s numerous luck concerned, however should you’re visiting on the fitting day, it is best to actually hold a detailed eye out for near-instant return instances for Tiana’s Bayou Journey. It’s essentially the most hit and miss excessive profile attraction for Lightning Lanes.
Have a Sturdy Refresh Recreation
As you’ve most likely gathered from all the above, extra attraction availability is added to Lightning Lane Multi-Move all through the day. That is no shock in anyway, as each FastPass+ and Genie+ had experience reservation refills, drops, pop-up availability or no matter you need to name it. This happens each pursuant to a reasonably constant schedule, and in addition at random. (See Journey Reservation Refill Guidelines at Walt Disney World.)
Enjoying the refresh recreation is way and away the #1 tip & trick for Lightning Lane Multi-Move at Walt Disney World. For those who’re merely settling for no matter you see instantly, you’re doing it flawed. That’s a recipe for disappointment and solely getting 3-4 “good” Lightning Lanes per day.
Past this being the #1 tip, taking part in the refresh recreation additionally combines a number of of the above methods. It’s why you need to steadiness the most effective Lightning Lanes with earlier return instances, as meaning extra time to play the refresh recreation, thereby bettering your odds of success.
Combining this with the rolling 3 rule, what it is best to do is instantly select the most effective out there possibility after you’ve tapped into Lightning Lane to unlock your subsequent choice. At all times e-book one thing–don’t refresh and look ahead to the “good” Lightning Lane. Reserving one other experience reservation is basically a hedge. The chook in hand, and so forth.
From there, play the refresh recreation by modifying to one thing higher. Commerce up, so to talk. It’s a great way to hedge your bets. Simply be warned: it turns into addictive–identical to a online game. Additionally like a recreation, it could imply dropping a ton of ‘actual world’ time as your face is glued to a display screen.
My tried and true Lightning Lane refresh technique is tapping in, reserving the most effective out there possibility, and modifying. There are a couple of approaches for refreshing from right here, however I favor toggling the “shut” dropdown on the modify display screen to refresh instances. Examine the left and proper, the latter of which reveals pop-up availability for 4:25 pm that wasn’t there 2 minutes earlier. In my expertise, toggling this “shut” dropdown is essentially the most environment friendly option to play the refresh recreation. YMMV.
Once more, this will turn into addictive and you may waste numerous time taking part in the refresh recreation–therefore so many Walt Disney World followers complaining about Lightning Lanes “requiring” you to have your face glued to the cellphone. My tough “rule” for enjoying the refresh recreation is limiting it to my time within the Lightning Lane return line after tapping in. This implies I’ve wherever from 2 minutes to 10 minutes–all of it relies on whether or not there are two faucet factors, the place merge happens, and so forth. Similar goes for any time I’m ready–to select up a Cellular Order, for espresso, the remainder of my celebration to get out of the restroom, and so forth.
Frankly, you’ll be stunned at simply how a lot buying and selling up is feasible with only a few minutes right here and there spent refreshing. Even should you don’t get the most effective picks when pre-booking, you may often overcome that by taking part in the Lightning Lane refresh recreation for a couple of minutes right here and there. With that and the remainder of the following tips, you actually ought to be capable to get essentially the most mileage out of Lightning Lane Multi-Move at Walt Disney World!
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Find out about lodges on our Walt Disney World Motels Evaluations web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Evaluations. To economize on tickets or decide which kind to purchase, learn our Ideas for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets publish. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys publish takes a singular take a look at intelligent objects to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Journey Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, the most effective place to start out is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for every part it’s essential to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
What are your finest ideas & methods for leveraging LLMP at WDW? Do you steadiness return instances with experience priorities when making Lightning Lane Multi Move picks? Any guidelines of thumb when taking part in the Lightning Lane refresh recreation? Do you agree with our evaluation that getting earlier return instances issues rather a lot for the ‘rolling 3’ rule? The place/when do you purchase LLMP or skip it? Any questions we can assist you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each attention-grabbing to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas under within the feedback!
