Disney World Individual Lighting Lane and how it works
By: Anna Trosper
April 25, 2024
Are you heading to Walt Disney World and wondering, what are Lightning Lanes?
We all know that a trip to Walt Disney World can be expensive, so maximizing the enjoyment of your vacation time is the smart thing to do! Individual Lightning Lanes are special entrances available at select attractions that allow you to skip the regular standby line and get straight to the ride quickly, usually in 10 minutes or less. If you’re familiar with the (now discontinued) FastPass system, it’s roughly the same thing, just no longer included with the ticket price.
A couple of ultra-popular attractions in each park have a separate paid option to get an Individual Lightning Lane reservation.
Reservations for these attractions are not available through Genie+ (and do not require buying Genie+ to reserve) and can be purchased individually. You can buy up to two of these each day, and you can grab one or both at the start of the day. Don’t wait too long, though – the most popular rides absolutely sell out before the end of the day.
The prices for getting Lightning Lane reservations for these attractions vary, both based on ride popularity and how busy the parks are that day. Examples of individual Lightning Lane prices we’ve seen so far range from $7 per person for Expedition Everest to $20 per person for Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. Disney will adjust those prices up or down on different days depending on how much demand there is for Lightning Lane reservations for each ride. On weekends, for example, the prices are a little higher, and on weekdays they’re a little lower. On holidays, they can be much higher. The price stays the same all day. You don’t have to worry that the price of a Lightning Lane reservation will change later in the day, but you do potentially need to worry about it selling out.
How do you get access to the Individual Lightning Lane? I’m glad you asked!
Making an Individual Lightning Lane Reservation - In the “Tip Board” section of the My Disney Experience app, certain attractions have an “Individual Lightning Lane” button with a starting time and price listed. Tap the button to book a reservation. The app will offer you all the times available to book for that day, starting at the time shown on the button and continuing throughout the day. Choose one of the times, select your party, and pay. You’ll need to provide payment info if you don’t already have a credit card attached to your Disney account.
Be careful! You may get a different time on the next screen! The time listed on the Tip Board is not guaranteed to be the time you get when you actually book. The system doesn’t “hold” the times listed on the Tip Board. Once you get to the actual booking screen, the time should be held (for at least a minute or so), and you should be able to count on the time listed there being the time you’ll actually book. Return times can change very quickly, especially early in the morning. You may think you’re getting a 9:00 – 10:00 am reservation, only to see that it’s now a 10:20 – 11:20 am reservation on the next screen.
If you’re staying at an official Disney-owned resort, you can start making Individual Lighting Lane reservations at 7:00 am for that day only. If you’re staying at another hotel, you can start making individual paid ride reservations at the official opening time for the park that ride is in (whether you’ve entered the park or not).
You can make both Individual Lightning Lane reservations at the same time; there’s no waiting period, like there is with Genie+. You get a choice of reservation times, but often time slots can sell out, so late in the day you may find that certain slots aren’t available, and at some point, there may be no more reservation slots at all for the rest of the day.
If you have a 1-Park-Per-Day ticket, you can only select rides in one park. If you have a Park Hopper ticket or Annual Pass, you can make reservations at multiple parks.
Additional Individual Lightning Lane Notes
You can only get one reservation per ride each day. Once you’ve used (or let expire) an Individual Lightning Lane reservation for an attraction, you cannot get another reservation for that same attraction.
Individual Lightning Lane reservations are independent of Genie+ reservations, so making Individual Lightning Lane reservations has no impact on your ability to make Genie+ reservations, if you purchase both.
The system will let you make a reservation that conflicts with something else such as a dining reservation, a Genie+ reservation or another Individual Lightning Lane reservation. It will warn you that another reservation overlaps, but it won’t stop you from making it.
You cannot cancel or modify paid Individual Lightning Lane reservations. Guest Relations staff have the technical ability to modify one but will only do so under special circumstances.
If your ride goes down during your reservation window and before you were able to ride, or after you’ve tapped in but have not yet completed the ride, you should get assigned a special pass that lets you ride that ride once at any time for the rest of the day. If it doesn’t, visit Guest Relations and they should be able to fix it. If the ride stays down for the rest of the day, you should get a refund, though it may require a trip to Guest Relations if it doesn’t happen automatically. If the ride comes back up, but you weren’t able to ride because you had to leave the park or had another conflict, you won’t get an automatic refund, but Guest Relations should still be able to help.
The complete list of rides available for individual Lightning Lane reservation (which Disney can change any time):
Magic Kingdom:
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Tron Lightcycle / Run
Epcot:
Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind
Hollywood Studios:
Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
Animal Kingdom:
Avatar: Flight of Passage
I hope this helps you understand a little more about Individual Lighting Lanes. It can be a bit overwhelming but that is where I come in as your personal travel planner. I would be happy to help you navigate all the aspects of a Walt Disney World vacation, from booking the right resort, to getting the right ticket type for your needs, to seeing if a dining plan is worth it for your trip and all the other many tips and tricks I have learned over the years. I would love to set up a time to talk and get you a quote for your magical trip. You can email me at annat@wishesfamilytravel.com or you can also find me on Facebook. Please like and follow my page.
I hope to hear from you soon. Until then, have a magical day!