Lightning Lane at Walt Disney World

[lentesta]

New article and data from @lentesta:

What You Need to Know: These changes should reduce the amount of time guests wait in the Standby line. Guests using the Lightning Lane will see their waits go up by tiny amounts, but should be barely noticeable.

Disney Lightning Lane Changes April 2025: What to Know

In April 2025, Disney changed how many guests enter rides from Lightning Lane vs. Standby lines. Discover what this means for wait times, Lightning Lane value, and your next Disney park visit.

touringplans.com

Thank you!

Yeah, I'm reasonably sure of this. The line counts speak for themselves, but I also confirmed it with a couple of folks in park ops.

I think Disney's allocating 16% to 30% more ride capacity to Standby now, depending on crowd levels. That should reduce Standby waits 5 to 9 minutes on a 30-minute wait (if I've done the math correctly). And that's ~50 to ~135 minutes saved on 10 to 15 attractions over the course of a day.

 

[RememberWhen]

Thank you!

Yeah, I'm reasonably sure of this. The line counts speak for themselves, but I also confirmed it with a couple of folks in park ops.

I think Disney's allocating 16% to 30% more ride capacity to Standby now, depending on crowd levels. That should reduce Standby waits 5 to 9 minutes on a 30-minute wait (if I've done the math correctly). And that's ~50 to ~135 minutes saved on 10 to 15 attractions over the course of a day.

That makes a lot of sense and seems like a win overall for everyone.

 

[monothingie]

Thank you!

Yeah, I'm reasonably sure of this. The line counts speak for themselves, but I also confirmed it with a couple of folks in park ops.

I think Disney's allocating 16% to 30% more ride capacity to Standby now, depending on crowd levels. That should reduce Standby waits 5 to 9 minutes on a 30-minute wait (if I've done the math correctly). And that's ~50 to ~135 minutes saved on 10 to 15 attractions over the course of a day.

Do you think they're doing this because overall crowd sizes are lower? (There's not enough people in the LL or even overall to justify the higher ratios?)

 

[ToTBellHop]

Anecdotally, it was crowded last week but I did not find wait times to be onerous. Of course, for an increasing number of guests, ANY sort of wait for a ride is anathema. I don’t think an hour wait for Cosmic Rewind is unreasonable.

We were shocked to see Rise at 35 minutes one evening around 7 pm and hopped right in!

 

[lentesta]

Do you think they're doing this because overall crowd sizes are lower? (There's not enough people in the LL or even overall to justify the higher ratios?)

I'm not sure.

They can't really publicize this. It's too much math and the comments would be complaints about paying for LL anyway.

I suspect they've seen something in the guest satisfaction surveys about LL getting too much preference. This might be a way to address it.

Crowds are likely lower, but I don't think that explains the desire to shift ratios. Anything that impacts extra-revenue things like Lightning Lane are probably thought about very carefully.

 

[monothingie]

I'm not sure.

They can't really publicize this. It's too much math and the comments would be complaints about paying for LL anyway.

I suspect they've seen something in the guest satisfaction surveys about LL getting too much preference. This might be a way to address it.

Crowds are likely lower, but I don't think that explains the desire to shift ratios. Anything that impacts extra-revenue things like Lightning Lane are probably thought about very carefully.

Then they're optimizing the ratio to still incentivize LL purchases, but also ensure guests in standby lines aren't being held there any longer than they have to. I'm sure it's not much on an individual basis, but collectively the minutes a guest does not spend in a queue are minutes they could be buying food and merch, and they add up. I'm sure they have stats for the average dollar amount spent per guest per minute.

 

[lentesta]

Then they're optimizing the ratio to still incentivize LL purchases, but also ensure guests in standby lines aren't being held there any longer than they have to. I'm sure it's not much on an individual basis, but collectively the minutes a guest does not spend in a queue are minutes they could be buying food and merch add up. I'm sure they have stats for the average dollar amount spent per guest per minute.

This makes the most sense.

 

[Purduevian]

Thank you!

Yeah, I'm reasonably sure of this. The line counts speak for themselves, but I also confirmed it with a couple of folks in park ops.

I think Disney's allocating 16% to 30% more ride capacity to Standby now, depending on crowd levels. That should reduce Standby waits 5 to 9 minutes on a 30-minute wait (if I've done the math correctly). And that's ~50 to ~135 minutes saved on 10 to 15 attractions over the course of a day.

If they are changing to ratio or capacity allocated to LL, that must mean they are giving out less LLs correct?

This would make LL less effective as rides will be pushed out later or sold out faster?

 

[lentesta]

If they are changing to ratio or capacity allocated to LL, that must mean they are giving out less LLs correct?

This would make LL less effective as rides will be pushed out later or sold out faster?

I don't have any info on if the ride allocation percent has changed.

The last numbers I had - from a few months ago:

• 13% of ride capacity on days with low crowds
• 25% on medium-crowd days
• 33% on high-crowd days

I think I posted this park ops document somewhere here.

I could've said this better in the blog post too: a 33% allocation means there'll be times where there aren't enough people in the Lightning Lane to run a 4:1 ratio for a sustained period. You eventually run out of people to pull from the Lightning Lane.

 

[Disstevefan1]

giving out less LLs correct?

Giving out less (lowering the inventory) of LL makes them more valuable and will drive up the price. Its possible they can make MORE MONEY selling LESS and LL becomes more of a status symbol, plus the stand by times go down for the poor folk.

When you think this helps Disney, they make more money selling LLs and standby goes down for the rest of us!

 

[JD80]

Len - can you share what rides you counted?

 

[Disstevefan1]

I don't have any info on if the ride allocation percent has changed.

The last numbers I had - from a few months ago:

• 13% of ride capacity on days with low crowds
• 25% on medium-crowd days
• 33% on high-crowd days

I think I posted this park ops document somewhere here.

I could've said this better in the blog post too: a 33% allocation means there'll be times where there aren't enough people in the Lightning Lane to run a 4:1 ratio for a sustained period. You eventually run out of people to pull from the Lightning Lane.

I have seen Ratatouille's LL EMPTY, I mean NO ONE was there and standby 70 Min. At this time all the LLMPs, LLSPs were sold out.

I remember standing there, looking at the beautiful EMPTY LL entrance and then looking over to the TOTALLY MOBBED standby. At the time we had a family member with a scooter and the thought of navigating that standby with a scooter was something we did not want to do.

If I could tap my magic band at the LL touch point and go in, I DONT CARE WHAT THEY WOULD HAVE CHARGED ME.

If they had some sort of "On Demand LLPP for individual attractions" where of you had a payment method linked to your magic band and you can tap and it turns green and you go in, I would do it!

Needles to say, we didn't ride Ratatouille's

 

[Purduevian]

I don't have any info on if the ride allocation percent has changed.

The last numbers I had - from a few months ago:

• 13% of ride capacity on days with low crowds
• 25% on medium-crowd days
• 33% on high-crowd days

I think I posted this park ops document somewhere here.

I could've said this better in the blog post too: a 33% allocation means there'll be times where there aren't enough people in the Lightning Lane to run a 4:1 ratio for a sustained period. You eventually run out of people to pull from the Lightning Lane.

Gottcha, I was a little confused in the article. So basically on a crowded day in March 2025 they would run a 10:1 ratio assuming there were people in the LL. However, the LL would sometimes empty out and then obviously 100% of the line would be coming from standby. When combined with 100% standby and 10:1 ratio, the overall capacity of the attraction dedicated to LL was ~33% (from your article).

Some quick math 33%= Percent of time at high ratio * (10/11 guests using LL) [Assuming 0 LL guest the rest of the time]

So They were in this 10/1 ratio ~36% of the time (assuming no one in the LL the other 64% of the time)

If we want to continue to give LL 33% of ride capacity, but move the max ratio to 3:1 (instead of 10:1). that means we are using the 3:1 ratio 44% of the time.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems to me unless you change the LL allocation per hour, the standby wait will still be just as long, but the line would move at a more consistent pace.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but the math isn't mathing in my head without changing the LL ride capacity (which maybe they did as you stated).

Did your team count the number of people entering the LL (I know DAS, golden oak, vip, ect can mess with these numbers slightly)

 

[lentesta]

I have seen Ratatouille's LL EMPTY, I mean NO ONE was there and standby 70 Min. At this time all the LLMPs, LLSPs were sold out.

I remember standing there, looking at the beautiful EMPTY LL entrance and then looking over to the TOTALLY MOBBED standby. At the time we has a family member with a scooter and the thought of navigating that standby with a scooter was something we did not want to do.

If I could tap my magic band at the LL touch point and go in, I DONT CARE WHAT THEY WOULD HAVE CHARGED ME.

If they had some sort of "On Demand LLPP for individual attractions" where of you had a payment method linked to your magic band and you can tap and it turns green and you go in, I would do it!

Needles to say, we didn't ride Ratatouille's

Spot pricing for Lightning Lanes should be a thing. Great idea. Holy cow.

 

[SingleRider]

I have seen Ratatouille's LL EMPTY, I mean NO ONE was there and standby 70 Min. At this time all the LLMPs, LLSPs were sold out.

I remember standing there, looking at the beautiful EMPTY LL entrance and then looking over to the TOTALLY MOBBED standby. At the time we had a family member with a scooter and the thought of navigating that standby with a scooter was something we did not want to do.

If I could tap my magic band at the LL touch point and go in, I DONT CARE WHAT THEY WOULD HAVE CHARGED ME.

If they had some sort of "On Demand LLPP for individual attractions" where of you had a payment method linked to your magic band and you can tap and it turns green and you go in, I would do it!

Needles to say, we didn't ride Ratatouille's

You could have gotten on your phone and bought Premier Pass and scanned right in, assuming it wasn't sold out for the day.

 

[Disstevefan1]

You could have gotten on your phone and bought Premier Pass and scanned right in, assuming it wasn't sold out for the day.

1. This was before LLPP existed.
2. Even if it had existed, I do not want to pay for LLPP when I want to ride ONE ride.

I would however pay some price for an on demand LLPP for a single attraction. Obviously depending on the price of the On demand LLPP or ODLLPP that would change my opinion, but for THAT moment, I did not care, if I could tap in, get charged, I would have done it.

 

[Purduevian]

If I could tap my magic band at the LL touch point and go in, I DONT CARE WHAT THEY WOULD HAVE CHARGED ME.

1. This was before LLPP existed.
2. Even if it had existed, I do not want to pay for LLPP when I want to ride ONE ride.

(JK, I know the first one obviously has a limit)

 

[Trueblood]

Spot pricing for Lightning Lanes should be a thing. Great idea. Holy cow.

The mind boggles... a LL touchpoint with a display showing the current market price, with tools like Lines tracking the price. Lightning Lane passes start to look like a futures contract.

 

[dmw]

Spot pricing for Lightning Lanes should be a thing. Great idea. Holy cow.

I surprised Disney has not already implemented something like this. This idea has been brought up by several (including me) over the past many years across many threads, any time the discussion drifted towards wait times, standby vs FP vs LL, etc.

 

[MisterPenguin]

If they are changing to ratio or capacity allocated to LL, that must mean they are giving out less LLs correct?

This would make LL less effective as rides will be pushed out later or sold out faster?

surprised Disney has not already implemented something like this.

This change of policy is probably a result of weeding out all the DAS people in the LL queues who really didn't belong there, or, were just out-and-out faking it.

Consequently, there are more LLs being sold now than before, even with throttling back the ratio of LL:Standby.

So... this change ain't hurting Disney's pocket, and will increase GSAT at the same time, which spurs more in-park spending.