Competitors for Lightning Lanes could be fierce in increased crowds on account of extra friends shopping for Multi-Cross line-skipping. Regardless of surge pricing that may trigger the paid FastPass service to value round $40 on busy days, demand is highest when attendance and wait occasions are at their worst. (Up to date February 23, 2025.)
Accordingly, you want superior technique to attain probably the most experience reservations, particularly in the course of the busiest dates when Lightning Lane Multi-Cross is costliest and features are longest. Sadly for energy customers, many of the next-level hacks that have been exploited underneath Genie+ are all gone underneath LLMP. There’s no 120 minute rule, stacking is now not a factor, and velocity technique doesn’t matter as a lot.
Luckily, there are new methods to squeeze probably the most out of Multi-Cross, which we clarify in our High 10 Ideas & Methods for Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World in 2025. That’s a crash course in turning you right into a Lightning Lanes energy person, and we’d extremely advocate it for all of the ins and outs. Of these methods, there’s a cause why “Have a Sturdy Refresh Sport” is way and away the #1 tip & trick for Lightning Lane Multi-Cross at Walt Disney World. This put up is meant to do a deeper dive, explaining why that issues and the way it works.
None of that is defined by Walt Disney World on its official websites, and doubtless for good cause–the following tips could be complicated and overwhelming. Nevertheless, in case you take ~half-hour to study these ins and outs, you received’t simply be above common–you’ll be a high 5% Lightning Lane Multi-Cross energy person.
Earlier than we dig into the small print, a few warnings are so as. First, that is complicated or intimidating at first. When you can comprehend the contours by studying, you actually need to study this one by doing. The beneath rationalization will make a complete lot extra sense when you truly begin utilizing Lightning Lane Multi Cross.
Even in case you depart this put up extra confused than while you began, that’ll rapidly change when you begin truly taking part in the refresh recreation. The educational curve is steep within the summary, however not in follow.
Second, this may completely improve your display time. I do know that’s a significant concern with a number of Walt Disney World trip planners, and a few of our different recommendation avoids being glued to your cellphone. This doesn’t. Enjoying the refresh recreation is addictive, and you would spend hours of your day making an attempt to commerce up your Lightning Lane choices and return occasions.
Due to that, we extremely advocate setting some floor guidelines. Mine is that I solely play the refresh recreation within the Lightning Lane return line after tapping in. This implies I’ve anyplace 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. I’ll additionally search for experience reservation refills any time I’m ready–to choose up a Cellular Order, the remainder of my social gathering to get out of the restroom, and so forth.
Whereas this does require extra display time, it doesn’t need to require hours of display time. On the contrary, I view taking part in the refresh recreation as being addictive in a nasty manner. Trying to find 5-10 minutes per attraction is an effective use of time, and can normally work out to your benefit. Something greater than that and also you rapidly begin hitting the purpose of diminishing returns.
With these warnings out of the best way, let’s get right down to brass tacks and talk about what the heck experience reservation refill guidelines even are. And for that, we rewind to March 2020, within the halcyon days of FastPass+ at Walt Disney World…
There’s a cause we’re calling this “experience reservation refill guidelines,” and it’s not simply because I’m a sucker for a superb alliteration. It’s as a result of that is nothing new, and was one thing Walt Disney World had been fine-tuning within the closing days of FastPass+. I don’t keep in mind exactly once they began, however it grew to become a extra pronounced follow in 2019. (Or so it appeared to me.)
Walt Disney World would add same-day FastPass+ experience reservations for headliner sights “at random” all through the day. Besides it wasn’t actually at random, it was based mostly on a set schedule. The entire objective of this was to throw a bone to friends who didn’t notice experience reservations have been booked 30/60 days upfront, and confirmed up on the parks with nothing in hand.
Primarily, it was an try to treatment visitor complaints about FastPass+ from first-timers. Besides, like all issues, the predictable course of was reverse-engineered and it was higher exploited by the savviest planners than ill-prepared newbies.
Virtually similar experience reservation refill guidelines have been constructed into the Lightning Lanes for the very same causes. That features the now-defunct Genie+ system. In the event you already performed the refresh recreation with that, you already know the way this works–the mechanics have modified barely, however the thought is identical.
Shifting ahead, right here’s every little thing else it is advisable to find out about experience reservation refill guidelines underneath Lightning Lane Multi-Cross at Walt Disney World…
Refills vs. Cancellations
It ought to go with out saying, however these will not be the identical. If one social gathering cancels a experience reservation, that single reservation returns to the system together with its actual time slot. There are a number of friends all utilizing Lightning Lane Multi-Cross on the identical time.
Let’s say that 9 completely different events all see and try to guide one reservation for Slinky Canine Sprint. Clearly, just one can–and that occurs in milliseconds, earlier than Disney’s methods can mirror that it’s gone to everybody else. Making issues worse, all can provoke the reserving course of and it’ll disappear out from underneath 8 of you.
Cancellations can grow to be simpler to determine over time as a result of they are going to be for some random time. As soon as that’s booked, the return time clock jumps again to wherever it was in its cycle earlier than (or goes unavailable, because the case could also be). In contrast, reservation refills restart the clock and advance incrementally over the course of some minutes (typically much less, typically extra) earlier than reserving up.
Social gathering Measurement Does Not Matter
That is actually solely a tangential level, however it’s one thing that comes up lots, and pertains to the primary level of confusion. In the event you see a cancellation, however are one of many disillusioned events that have been too gradual to guide it, there is perhaps the belief that it’s as a result of your social gathering was too giant.
Honestly, I don’t know whether or not that’s the case with cancellations–if it reveals for everybody regardless of not being a match. Nothing would shock me, however I do know that whilst a celebration of 1, I’m routinely have the cancelled reservation rug pulled out from underneath me.
What I additionally know is that social gathering dimension doesn’t matter with experience reservation refills. Lightning Lanes will not be like Advance Eating Reservations–Walt Disney World isn’t making an attempt to match attraction automobile seating with hourly capability. That’s not even remotely attainable. It’s a pure numbers recreation: X variety of experience reservations are launched, and that quantity could be booked in any permutation attainable.
Refilled Trip Roster
Listed below are the sights that we’ve seen get reservation refills at one level or one other:
- Magic Kingdom: Tiana’s Bayou Journey (far and away the commonest as of 2025), Jungle Cruise, Haunted Mansion, Peter Pan’s Flight, Pirates of the Caribbean, Seven Dwarfs Mine Practice, House Mountain
- EPCOT: Frozen Ever After, Remy’s Ratatouille Journey, Soarin’ Across the World
- Hollywood Studios: Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, Slinky Canine Sprint, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, Toy Story Mania, Twilight Zone Tower of Terror
- Animal Kingdom: Avatar Flight of Passage, Kilimanjaro Safaris, Na’vi River Journey
Word that a few of these are Lightning Lane Single Cross sights.
Do These Trip Reservation Refills All the time Occur?
Nope. Some sights have their Lightning Lane availability replenished regularly, others occur on uncommon event, and most are someplace in between the 2 extremes. I might share a bunch of refill occasions right here right this moment, they usually might be flawed tomorrow, subsequent week or month.
Probably the most illustrative instance is Tiana’s Bayou Journey. It makes use of experience reservation refills way more often than different sights on account of its unreliability. If it’s having a “dangerous” day, refills can be sparse or nonexistent. If it’s having a “good” day, you could usually discover same-day Lightning Lane drops which are solely 10 to half-hour out.
Much less excessive examples happen with most different sights when attendance isn’t as heavy as inside forecasts projected. If Walt Disney World anticipated 50,000 friends, however there solely 40,000 friends confirmed up, that’s a reasonably large miss on the projection. This opens up the door for extra experience reservation refills, as Disney load balances between the Lightning Lanes and standby strains.
When Are Lightning Lane Trip Reservation Refill Occasions?
I need to stress that there aren’t any ensures.
Furthermore, I don’t have the extent of firsthand testing expertise mandatory to identify patterns. There was a time after I was shopping for and utilizing Lightning Lanes not less than as soon as per week at Walt Disney World, as we labored to place collectively our assets. Nevertheless, because the paid FastPass service has grow to be extra secure, the necessity for additional testing has decreased. And we’d quite not waste cash, so we’ve slowed that right down to about as soon as per 30 days, or at any time when issues change. (For instance, Tiana’s Bayou Journey and Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind switching to standby–that doesn’t pertain on to LLMP, however it has second-order results.)
The excellent news is that the parents over at Thrill-Knowledge monitor what they name Lightning Lane “popup releases” (identical kinda factor, completely different identify). The listing of sights seems incomplete to me, however it ought to offer you an thought of when to anticipate experience reservation refills or popup releases.
It’s price mentioning that their information is automated–that means an precise human isn’t reviewing the app and making notes of what’s being refilled. Meaning they’ll–and do–miss refills that seem and vanish rapidly. It’s additionally price mentioning that refills are largely same-day underneath Lightning Lane Multi-Cross, however I’ve additionally seen them in the course of the preliminary pre-arrival choice course of. So in case you don’t extra display time earlier than leaving residence, you may give this a attempt then, too.
What’s the Greatest Strategy to Snagging Refills?
You need to instantly select one of the best accessible possibility after you’ve tapped into Lightning Lane to unlock your subsequent choice (benefiting from the “rolling 3 rule,” a associated idea, is vital to getting probably the most mileage out of LLMP). All the time guide one thing–don’t refresh and look forward to the “good” Lightning Lane. Reserving one other experience reservation is actually a hedge.
From there, play the refresh recreation by looking for one thing higher. My tried and true Lightning Lane refresh technique is tapping in, reserving one of the best accessible possibility, after which modifying. Though the above listing of experience reservation refill sights could be useful, I assume, I’ve discovered the precise listing of sights to be longer–and drop occasions extra scattershot–in my testing of LLMP. Principally, I’m spamming the modify button.
There are just a few approaches for refreshing from right here, however I favor toggling the “shut” dropdown on the modify display to refresh occasions. I do that repeatedly each few seconds during that 5 minute clock (see the highest of the screenshots). About 75% of the time, I’ll discover one thing higher inside that span of time.
Evaluate 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 probably the most environment friendly option to play the refresh recreation.
Lastly, we need to underscore but once more that Lightning Lanes will not be the end-all, be-all of park touring technique. Our Greatest Time-Saving Technique at Walt Disney World covers one of the best and worst methods to beat the crowds proper now and Lightning Lanes are not one of the best (and positively not the simplest) manner in 2 of the 4 parks.
The one parks the place Lightning Lane Multi-Cross works higher than all different methods are Disney’s Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. In every single place else, there are superior methods for saving time ready in line. In any respect 4 parks, there are various approaches that work properly sufficient, don’t value cash, require as a lot backtracking, and don’t contain display time.
The underside line is that you would ignore Lightning Lanes completely–faux they don’t even exist–and nonetheless have a implausible journey. Don’t let FOMO get one of the best of you–shopping for Lightning Lanes isn’t a “want” and there are many different methods to beat the crowds. In the event you’re overwhelmed by Lightning Lane Multi Cross, the aforementioned put up is probably the most succinct useful resource for present technique.
Finally, this is perhaps complicated or irritating, however it’s vital to keep in mind that that is primarily a “loophole” and Disney itself doesn’t publish something about experience reservation refills for a cause. This isn’t meant to be widespread data–they’re presupposed to be a ‘aid valve’ of kinds for friends who don’t know the entire ins and outs, and are simply randomly searching for availability.
Whereas the bottom coated right here is nice info to have, on the finish of the day all you actually have to know is that spamming the modify button will help you commerce up sights and return occasions because of experience reservation refills. (There’s a cause why our High 10 Ideas & Methods for Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World in 2025 is way more succinct!)
The underside line is that a lot data will make it easier to make higher decisions and get extra mileage from Multi-Cross. To cite the nice Indiana Jones (Journey): “Actual Rewards Await These Who Select Correctly.” For every little thing else it is advisable to find out about LLMP, see our Information to Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World.
Planning a Walt Disney World journey? Find out about accommodations on our Walt Disney World Accommodations Opinions web page. For the place to eat, learn our Walt Disney World Restaurant Opinions. To economize on tickets or decide which sort to purchase, learn our Ideas for Saving Cash on Walt Disney World Tickets put up. Our What to Pack for Disney Journeys put up takes a singular have a look at intelligent gadgets to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Trip Guides will assist. For complete recommendation, one of the best place to start out is our Walt Disney World Journey Planning Information for every little thing it is advisable to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Do these experience reservation refill guidelines make sense to you or is it too overwhelming? Will you employ this technique for scoring Lightning Lane choices? Have you ever had success in getting Slinky Canine Sprint throughout one in every of these refills? What about headliners in different parks? Ideas on leveraging experience reservation refills versus different technique? Do you agree or disagree with my evaluation? Any questions we will help you reply? Listening to your suggestions–even while you disagree with us–is each fascinating to us and useful to different readers, so please share your ideas beneath within the feedback!
