Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane Multi Pass Strategies to Maximize Your Day

It’s your first day at Walt Disney World and you have plans to visit Magic Kingdom. You roll out of bed, wake up the family, and scarf down an order of Mickey waffles at the food court on your way to the bus stop. The kids have declared they are having them every day of their vacation. You non-verbally agree.

Everyone is as excited as a kid in a candy shop. You are headed to the Most Magical Place on Earth! As you stand in line at the bus stop, you can’t help but notice the crowds. They thicken as you exit the bus and wait in line to pass through security. Wow, you think, “A lot of people are visiting today.”

You make it through the ticket turnstiles and are surprised at how quickly things have moved along, even with the crowds. Minutes later, you pass through the tunnel under the train station and set foot onto Main Street, U.S.A. It’s every bit as magical as you imagined (or possibly remembered). As you take a deep breath to take everything in, you feel a tug at your side. Little Ethan is not amused. “Are we ever going to ride anything? Because this is not fun.”

It’s understandable. They’ve been up for a few hours, had breakfast, and waited in three lines just to get inside the park. At this point, Disney does not feel like the fun place everyone makes it out to be. It’s time to get to a ride and fast. You reach into your back pocket and pull out the already-crumpled map someone handed you on the way into the park. As you unfold it, somewhere, a Disney blogger dies just like fairies do when someone says they don’t believe in them.

It worsens as you start figuring out where you are and where you’re going. You decide to go to the left toward Adventureland and work your way around the park from there. It’s not necessarily the worst thing you can do. I’ll give you that. The first attraction you run into is the Swiss Family Robinson Treehouse. What luck! It doesn’t even have a line! It’s too bad you didn’t know ahead of time that it has 116 stairs!

Thankfully, the kids enjoyed it, but they really want to ride something, and well, after all those stairs, so do you. Up ahead, you see the Magic Carpets of Aladdin. What a cute ride you think as you join the standby queue. While you wait in what appears to be a short line, you notice that other guests are entering a separate line and boarding the ride ahead of you. That doesn’t seem fair.

As the day goes on, you go from ride to ride without any strategy. You learn that you could have purchased Lightning Lane Multi Pass ahead of time and skipped many of the regular lines. It’s quickly becoming apparent that you could have done so much more with a little advanced planning. But you don’t know what you don’t know. Exhausted at the end of the day, you return to your room. While everyone sleeps, you purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass for your remaining park days and begin making a few selections. At the very least, you won’t have to stand in line for some of the rides, you think to yourself as you simultaneously select the Disney and Pixar Short Film Festival for the following day at Epcot. Aye, yai yai!

Hopefully, if you’re reading this, you’re not sitting in your hotel room at Disney World trying to figure out what to do. (If you are, it’s okay; you’ll just want to speed through our step-by-step process to salvage things.) Ideally, I recommend planning your Lightning Lane selections at least a month in advance and preparing a list of what to select when your booking date opens. I’ve even created a free Resorts Gal Ride Selector to help you form a plan.

Let’s get started as we walk through the process step-by-step.

Step By Step Magic Kingdom Lightning Lane Multi Pass Strategy

If you have read our one-stop Lightning Lane Guide, it provides an overview of everything you need to know about Lightning Lanes at Walt Disney World (Multi Pass and Single Pass). It is the primer for this article. So, if you haven’t read it and aren’t familiar with how things work, that guide is the best place to start. One of the topics we cover in it is what Lightning Lanes are and what they are not.

While Lighting Lanes are often pumped as the “skip the standby line,” many people take that to mean “skip the line.” In reality, the Lightning Lane might still have a wait. It just won’t be as long as the standby one. If you have the expectation that you’ll skip all the lines with the Lightning Lane, you might feel frustrated if you find yourself waiting 15-20 minutes to ride Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance. That’s an incredibly reasonable wait for such a unique experience. I know a Disney blogger who would ride Rise of the Resistance all day if the posted wait was only 15 minutes.

For example, these photos were taken on a busy afternoon at Magic Kingdom. The Haunted Mansion had a 55-minute wait posted. While many guests were in Lightning Lane, the wait was less than 15 minutes. Which line would you prefer?

Step One: Determine Which Rides Are Most Important to Your Family

The saying “to each their own” is true regarding rides at Disney World. Depending on the makeup of your travel party, you’ll need to decide which Lightning Lanes are most important to your family. In some cases, you might need to modify Lightning Lanes for specific members of your group. For instance, if your child doesn’t meet a height requirement for an attraction, they won’t be able to experience that attraction. In this instance, Disney states:

1. When purchasing Lightning Lane Multi Passes for your travel party, you’ll be prompted to select up to 3 multi pass attractions or experiences—which must be the same for each member of your travel party at that time.
2. After completing your purchase, you can modify the selected experiences and arrival windows for some members of your travel party, subject to availability.

Reference

*If your child doesn’t meet a height requirement, you can use Rider Switch with (or without) Lightning Lane.

The following Magic Kingdom rides are part of Lightning Lane Multi Pass. Notice they are in tiers. For your initial selection, you can choose one ride from Tier 1 and two from Tier 2. You can hold three Lightning Lane Multi Passes at one time. Once you use an entitlement, you can add another one via the My Disney Experience app.

Tier 1 Lightning Lane Multi Pass:

• Big Thunder Mountain Railroad*
• Jungle Cruise
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Space Mountain*
• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure*

Tier 2 Lightning Lane Multi Pass:

• The Barnstormer*
• Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
• Dumbo the Flying Elephant
• Haunted Mansion
• “it’s a small world”
• Mad Tea Party
• The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
• The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
• Mickey’s PhilharMagic
• Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
• Pirates of the Caribbean
• Tomorrowland Speedway*
• Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid

Rides denoted with a * have a height requirement.

Step Two: Decide on a Strategy or Combine Multiple Strategies

It’s no secret that some Lightning Lanes are more coveted than others. These attractions will have longer waits throughout the majority of the day. Of course, we do not want to confuse Multi Pass attractions and Single Pass attractions. Magic Kingdom has two Lightning Lane Single Pass attractions: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Tron Lightcycle / Run. If you want to ride those attractions via Lightning Lane, you’ll have to purchase a Single Pass. They are not part of Multi Pass, which we are focusing on in this article.

Think of Lightning Lane Multi Pass as a system comprised of multiple rides. Below, we’ll cover a few strategies

Early Park Entry Strategy: Disney Resort hotel guests can enter each park 30 minutes early each morning of their stay. To make the most of this time, you will want to be at the park’s entrance at least 30 minutes before the park opens for early entry with a plan. That plan should include 1-3 rope drop attractions.

For example, let’s use a day when Magic Kingdom opens at 9:00 a.m.

• Arrive at Magic Kingdom no later than 8:00 a.m.
• Enter the park with the rest of the early entry crowd.
• At 8:30 a.m., head straight to the attraction of your choice, in either Fantasyland or Tomorrowland. (We would visit Space Mountain, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, or Peter Pan’s Flight first.)
• Have a plan to experience at least two more attractions before your first Lightning Lane at 10:00 a.m. (We would use this time to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh and Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin.)
• Experience your first three pre-planned Lightning Lanes between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. if possible.
• Continue selecting new Lightning Lanes one at a time as you use them throughout the remainder of the day.

Tip: When selecting additional Lightning Lanes, pay attention to return times. You wouldn’t want to use your first three Lightning Lanes by 12:00 p.m. and not have any other attractions reserved until 6:00 p.m. (unless you’re going back to the resort to spend the afternoon at the pool.) If you get into a situation where you’re not seeing reasonable return times, reserve what you can and use the modify function to check for better times while you’re standing in line for other rides.

“Tour Where You’re At” Strategy (Circle Touring): As a child, my family always toured the theme parks in a circle, starting in Adventureland or Tomorrowland. We did not backtrack. As a parent who researched and practiced touring with my own family for many years, I began touring in a criss-cross fashion that required a lot of backtracking. Both touring styles can work, depending on a person’s level of commitment and experience. If you are not familiar with the park’s layout, you will want to stick with what I call circle touring. This will ensure you hit an area’s major and minor attractions before moving on to another section of the park.

When you use this form of touring, you’ll want to pick Lightning Lane selections that are near each other in as close of time windows as possible. Here’s an example:

• Arrive at Magic Kingdom at the park opening.
• Head to Adventureland.
• Ride Pirates of the Caribbean and Jungle Cruise before waits begin to build.
• Ride the Magic Carpets of Aladdin (if desired).
• Experience your first three Lightning Lanes between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m. (Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Haunted Mansion, and “it’s a small world”).
• Continue selecting Lightning Lanes one at a time as you use them throughout the remainder of the day. Try to keep them within proximity of each other and the same time ranges if possible.

*Note we did not use early entry in this example. You could easily combine this plan with the early entry option listed above.

Circle Touring (Later Arrival): For this next example, we will discuss arriving later in the day, which is my preferred method. In this instance, I would schedule the first Lightning Lane for my estimated arrival time. Here’s an example:

• Arrive at Magic Kingdom at 2:00 p.m.
• Ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure with Lightning Lane Multi Pass between 2:00 and 3:00 p.m.
• Ride Pirates of the Caribbean with Lightning Lane.
• Take advantage of low crowds in Adventureland (if you’re in this area when the parade passes).
• Ride Haunted Mansion with Lightning Lane.
• Continue selecting Lightning Lanes that suit your location or preferences as you make your way through the park.

Remember that when everyone scans their entitlement at the ride’s entrance, you can open the My Disney Experience app and select a new attraction based on availability. Tiers no longer matter. But you can only hold three Lightning Lane Multi Passes at one time. You also cannot repeat any Lightning Lanes. Of course, if you want to ride an attraction multiple times, you can do so via standby.

What Magic Kingdom Lightning Lanes are the highest priority?

As you know, a few Lightning Lane Multi Pass rides might be more difficult to secure on the day of your visit. Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will likely be the first Lightning Lane to disappear. We consider these three to be the highest priority in this order.

• Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
• Peter Pan’s Flight
• Space Mountain

Of course, this will largely depend on the time of your visit. If you’re visiting during Fall Break, over the Christmas holidays, New Year’s, Spring Break, or Easter, you can expect limited availability when selecting an additional Lightning Lane Multi Pass after your initial ride. So, if your visit coincides with a busy season, it is essential that you’re up early and ready to book your first three Lightning Lanes when your window opens.

*Note: We did not include Single Pass rides like Tron Lightcycle / Run or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. But they would be the highest priority, hence the extra cost of a Single Pass Lightning Lane.

What Magic Kingdom Lightning Lanes are the lowest priority?

Just like high-priority rides, there are a few rides where you would rarely want or need to select a Lightning Lane. We would not select these attractions unless it were a 5th, 6th, or 7th choice on a crowded day. Most days, your longest wait for these attractions will be for the next performance.

• Mad Tea Party
• Mickey’s PhilharMagic
• Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor

Step 3: Use our Free Ride Selector to Plan Your Park Days

We’ve created a free ride selector tool to help organize your initial three Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass for Magic Kingdom and the three other parks. When your booking window opens, all you have to do is open the spreadsheet and use it as a guideline for making your selections in the My Disney Experience app. You’ll know exactly what you’re doing!

Step 4: Reserve Your Magic Kingdom Lightning Lanes

Make sure to set a calendar or some sort of alert system to book your Lightning Lanes when they become available. Your booking window is based on how you’re visiting the parks:

• Disney Resort and select other hotel guests can purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Pass up to seven days (7) before their stay for the entire length of their stay. They will be available at 7:00 a.m. (Eastern).
• All other guests can purchase Lightning Lane passes up to three days in advance. (See our Lightning Lane Guide for specifics depending on your status.)

Step 5: Have Fun on Your Vacation

At this point, you’ve probably figured out which rides will be most important for your family. If you haven’t, I can’t stress this point enough. Those traveling with toddlers versus teenagers will have very different vacations that prioritize unique attractions. When my niece was younger, we spent a lot of time in Storybook Circus and Fantasyland, experiencing rides like Dumbo, the Flying Elephant, the carrousel, and meeting characters.

When my son was a teenager, we hit the parks hard for years doing all the thrill rides. We were that exhausted family who park-hopped until we dropped! I cherish so many memories from a lifetime of visiting Walt Disney World and look forward to making more with my loved ones, all of them. So try your best to accommodate everyone in your group, and remember that flying in an elephant or on a magic carpet is a big deal to the little ones. There is no written rule that says you can’t take a spin three times in a row, which reminds me of a quote from The Princess and the Frog. “Never, ever lose sight of what’s really important.”

Sure, knocking out a lot of rides with your family is fun. You might even be considered pretty cool for a few hours if you manage to get everyone on all the “big” rides. But at the end of the day, standing in line with the people you love isn’t so bad. Who knows what you’ll end up talking about?

In the Comments

I hope you found these strategies helpful for planning your Magic Kingdom Lightning Lanes. Make sure to get a copy of our Ride Selector. I promise it will make the initial planning process so much simpler. Feel free to leave a comment below with any feedback, questions, or experiences.