Lightning Lane Premier Pass

[Disstevefan1]

Counter point. We are taking my 21-month-old soon. He has 0 concept of when he can or can't have a meltdown.

Also my "worst" Disney trip was October 2020 right before G+ started and it was standby only.

I have no desire to wait more than 30 mins for any attraction as a grown adult.

Will you be purchasing LLPP for the entire family for all 4 parks?

Will you be purchasing LLPP once for each or the 4 parks or more than once for a given park for a second visit during your stay?

 

[Nottamus]

I’m sure there will be many that rationalize this $$ by thinking - “I already spent$8000, what’s another $1800 to make sure we have one good ride day”

Then it either rains and some rides close, OR you get to the park and big rides have 20 minute wait times …

I had this happen the first time I gave In and bought ILL for Rise - when we got there, it had a 25 minute wait .

 

[Disstevefan1]

I’m sure there will be many that rationalize this $$ by thinking - “I already spent$8000, what’s another $1800 to make sure we have one good ride day”

Then it either rains and some rides close, OR you get to the park and big rides have 20 minute wait times …

I had this happen the first time I gave In and bought ILL for Rise - when we got there, it had a 25 minute wait .

I wondered about this,

Folks purchase LLPP, then attractions close for whatever reason.

Now I am sure many folks who purchase don't care about money or value so many folks will just do nothing.

But for some there is a real expectation that they get on EVERY ATTRACTION so there must be a way to refund some of the fee I presume, or is there fine someplace saying there is no guarantee to get on every attraction?

 

[lentesta]

I'm only asking as I saw Mickey Views video and he did say Disney would roughly get the same profit with the benefit of standby constantly moving as it wouldn't have the slowdowns of so many LL guests

Can you summarize those numbers, if possible? I'd love to see the math.

 

[Purduevian]

Will you be purchasing LLPP for the entire family for all 4 parks?

Will you be purchasing LLPP once for each or the 4 parks or more than once for a given park for a second visit during your stay?

Nope LLMP will be purchased for the entire family for all the parks (maybe not AK this year due to the 18-month-old only have 2 rides on it though). I also never stay more than 4 days due to the law of diminishing returns, half a week at WDW, half a week at the beach for me.

Not planning on riding anything unless we have a LL or under a 15 min wait.

If Disney eliminates all forms of skip the line service for under ~$50 per person, I'm probably not going to go there for the next 8ish years. Maybe Disney doesn't care because I am not a 10K a trip visitor, but I am ~5k a trip visitor that goes almost every year.

Counter point - my best trip ever was in 2021 when it was stand by only.

I'm sure there are a lot of people that do better with standby only. Objectively, I am not one of them.

 

[Disstevefan1]

I'm only asking as I saw Mickey Views video and he did say Disney would roughly get the same profit with the benefit of standby constantly moving as it wouldn't have the slowdowns of so many LL guests

I watched the same video, I guess I wasn't paying attention so I missed that point.

The things I came away with are:

Folks who purchase LLMP, LLSP, LLPP along with DAS and VQ folks all use the same queue, so the LLPP folks are in the same queue with the DAS and VQ folks who paid nothing along with the LLMP, LLSP folks who paid for the cheaper options.

IF Disney eliminated VQ, LLMP, LLSP and only had standby and LLPP then standbys would go much faster.

This would be great for the guest experience but in my opinion Disney would never do it as they make A LOT of MONEY from LLMP and LLSP and THEY WANT the standbys to move very slowly to incentivize the purchase of LLMP and LLSP and LLPP.

For today's TWDC its NOT about the guest experience anymore. Its about MONEY.

PS - its purely a coincidence the posted standby times are always over estimated. Its NOT on purpose.

 

[ConfettiCupcake]

Apparently the latest version of MDE supports an unknown product named "Multi Premier". I'm guessing this is the multi-park version of the Premier Pass.

Putting in my guess now. A multi park version of the Premier Pass that gives you one time access to each LL at all 4 parks, starting at $700 per person - for the quietest days of the year, of course.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

The only thing I didn't remember with that was if you could get another FP for the same attraction after the two hour mark or after using the first one.

I don't think that's something we ever tried to do.

It was slightly controversial, but WDW allowed parkgoers to use most paper FP well after the window expired. Mostly we used them in the time window, because that meant being able to get another one sooner.

Sometimes we'd chance it, and wait to use one so we could do back-to-back re-rides. Towards the end of paper passes though they enforced the time windows as they did all through FP+.

These days they are again relaxing the time windows a bit. In part, rides are often down, we have very limited ability to modify/choose pass times, and we have no control over BG return times.

For BG, you get what you get, and your group gets called when it gets called. It is especially crazy for Tiana's with all the downtime the ride has had. If you use your BG pass when it is called, you can't just change your LL pass to another time.

WDW's system is a bit screwy in that regard.

 

[lentesta]

Hey, @lentesta, did you ever work up that deviation of posted v. real wait times?

OK, here's Peter Pan's Flight from the Magic Kingdom, using data since March 1, 2025, roughly the time we were reliably accessing MDE:

Number of posted wait times we've got: 488,148
Number of actual wait times we've got: 14,900

Average posted wait: 52.6 minutes
Average actual wait: 24.9 minutes

Median posted wait: 50 minutes
Median actual wait: 21 minutes

Posted Wait Standard Deviation: 31.5 minutes
Actual Wait Standard Deviation: 18.7 minutes

Note that many of our users are visiting Peter Pan at off-peak times (because we tell them to), so directly comparing those two numbers probably isn't a true ratio.

The thing I'm working on now is matching each actual to its closest posted, which will do that.

 

[nickys]

using data since March 1, 2025

Whoa, so you’ve been secretly working on time travel too?

 

[MrPromey]

That's not correct at all. You think being fans of Disney is like that of a sports team? And that Cedar Point is the Arch Enemy of Disney? There is almost no similarity, in no small part because Disney doesn't need to beat Cedar Point to advance. Not a great analogy, but it's probably a lot more like going to Texas Roadhouse vs. Ruth Chris. Lots of people on this board have discussed going to other parks and their experiences. We are season pass holders at Cedar Point, which I have discussed multiple times. There is plenty of overlap, and if you honestly think going to Universal or Dollywood or some other park is somehow a horrible attack, not sure what to tell you.

I think you can both be right depending on the guest segments you're talking about.

 

[MrPromey]

Counter point - my best trip ever was in 2021 when it was stand by only.

Counter, counter point - my best trip ever was probably somewhere around the late 90's when they still had slow seasons, when basically all attractions could be relied on to be up outside of planned refurbishments, when Journey Into Imagination had not yet been gutted then left to rot and when they still saw customer service and the guest experience as the key to their success.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

I'm not saying to be concerned about other parks. I will say there is no way the majority of Disney guests don't visit other parks ever. I'm sure there is a lot of cross over.

I haven't been to the 2 parks you listed, but I often combine WDW and Universal. Sometimes I do all standby at US, other times I stay at one of the deluxe hotels.

Otherwise, I have been to many smaller amusement parks that just don't get long lines.

Disney and Universal have somewhat spoiled me for themed rides. Classic non-themed coasters don't wow me, so I often opt just to skip them over long line or paying extra.

When I go to a more classic amusement park, my favorite rides are some like the Music Express/bobsleds, cheesy haunted mansions, and the really old rides like the Whip. The long defunct amusement parks I visited as a small child had classic rides, so they hold a lot of nostalgia.

I also adore the artwork of classic carousels! They require so much love to maintain. There's something very magical about the beautifully carved horses and other animals, plus the charming sound of the band organ/barrel organ.

Often the rides that appeal to me are the ones that don't get long waits, like classic bumper cars. So I'm happy to spend my time riding those attractions.

 

[MrPromey]

Whoa, so you’ve been secretly working on time travel too?

This @lentesta guy, he's a crafty one!

 

[nickys]

This @lentesta guy, he's a crafty one!

He certainly kept it quiet.

I’m hoping my my Touring Plans subscription will include time travel soon.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

That said, I don’t think this breaks the current systems. This is all coming out of excess DAS usage. These also are guests that were obviously going to buy LLMP and Single passes up the whazoo. We aren’t flipping people who weren’t going to pay to begin with.

Alas, this is perhaps an option that appeals to people who have a medical condition, and don't feel able to stand in long lines, but still want to visit WDW, despite the added cost.

I could see this appealing to someone who has a medical condition which limits the family's endurance. Maybe they can't predict what time they will arrive in the park each morning, and/or they only get a short time window before their condition flares.

They might feel like they kinda have to pay for this service in order to go on the big rides.

 

[osian]

He certainly kept it quiet.

I’m hoping my my Touring Plans subscription will include time travel soon.

Given the price of LLPP, I'm sure it's included with that. Get on the ride before you've even joined the queue.

 

[nickys]

Given the price of LLPP, I'm sure it's included with that. Get on the ride before you've even joined the queue.

Which means I can re-ride as often as I want, because I’ll never have joined the queue. Genius!

 

[Dranth]

Counter point - my best trip ever was in 2021 when it was stand by only.

We went late 2020 when it was standby only and it was amazing but to be fair, they still had attendance caps and forced distancing then. It would not be nearly that good now.

 

[MickeyLuv'r]

Prior to all this FP, LL, Genie+ you waited in lines that moved. My sons waited in line and never had a melt down and they knew if they did their day would be cut short. If these little darlings are having a meltdown waiting in line it is the fault of the parents.

then again.....

in my family it wasn't the kids that had meltdowns.

going back to my earliest park days, the adult meltdowns were always more of a problem