Starting July 24th, the next generation of Disney’s skip-the-line pass will roll out called Lightning Lane Multi Pass. With this change, the Disney Genie+ branding will be retired, and there will be a number of changes to the service such as pre-arrival selections and the ability to hold up to three Lightning Lane selections at a time. Remember that we can hold up to three Lightning Lane selections at a time, it’ll be important. In this article, we’re going to cover how guests with the Park Hopper entitlement will be able to use Lightning Lane Multi Pass at multiple theme parks.

Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Park Hopper

We’ll start with the purchase process. Right now, guests looking to use Disney Genie+ at more than one park can purchase the Multiple Parks option. That goes away with Multi Pass. Guests purchasing Lightning Lane Multi Pass will purchase it for one theme park when purchasing in advance. Note that guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel can make pre-arrival selections up to 7 days before they visit, and non-resort guests can make selections up to 3 days before they visit.

So, we’ll use the example of a day starting at Disney’s Hollywood Studios before park hopping over to Magic Kingdom. When purchasing our Multi Pass, we’ll purchase it for Disney’s Hollywood Studios and make our first three selections at DHS three days before we visit.

With our Disney’s Hollywood Studios Lightning Lane Multi Pass purchased, and our initial 3 pre-selection Lightning Lanes secured, we don’t have to do anything until the day that we visit. In this hypothetical scenario, we’ve made pre-arrival selections for Slinky Dog Dash off of the Tier 1 group, and we’ve selected Toy Story Mania and Alien Swirling Saucers from the Tier 2 group. Here are our hypothetical Lightning Lane selection windows:

• Slinky Dog Dash: 11am
• Toy Story Mania: 12pm
• Alien Swirling Saucers: 9am

So, how do we make selections at Magic Kingdom for our afternoon and evening? On the day of our visit, we rope drop Alien Swirling Saucers, and when we redeem our Lightning Lane, two things happen. First, by redeeming our first pre-arrival Lightning Lane selection and by having Park Hopper entitlements on our Annual Pass, we have unlocked Lightning Lane access at the other three theme parks. Second, by redeeming our Lightning Lane for Alien Swirling Saucers, we have freed up a “slot” in our Lightning Lane backpack to hold another Lightning Lane.

We’re going to stop here to make two notes. First, anytime you redeem a Lightning Lane Multi Pass, you will then free up that “slot” for another selection – regardless of your Park Hopping status. Being able to hold multiple Lightning Lane selections is nothing new – that was the concept of Genie+ stacking. However, the average guest likely didn’t leverage stacking to unlock this ability. Also, there were tradeoffs to stacking and holding multiple Lightning Lane selections at a time. With Lightning Lane Multi Pass, holding more than one Lightning Lane at a time is baked into the system – no tradeoffs (beyond inventory).

The second note that we wanted to make before moving on is that Disney World has not indicated that being able to use Park Hopping with Multi Pass will come at an additional price. That may change in the future, but for now, there is no upcharge for Park Hopping with Multi Pass. That’s different than how Disney Genie+ operates today, where guests have to buy a (typically) more expansive Multiple Parks option.

Ok, going back to our example. It’s 9:10am, we just got off of Alien Swirling Saucers, and we booked a Big Thunder Mountain Railroad Lightning Lane at Magic Kingdom for 3pm. We still have a few hours to kill at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, and our next Lightning Lane is at 11am for Slinky Dog Dash. 11am rolls around and we’ve ridden Slinky Dog Dash. It’s now 11:15am and, remember, by tapping into Slinky Dog Dash, we’ve opened up a “slot” in our Lightning Lane backpack.

When we check the My Disney Experience app, we’re surprised to see that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway is available for 12:30pm. We have to be at Disney’s Hollywood Studios anyway until 12pm for our Toy Story Mania Lightning Lane, so we grab the 12:30pm Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway. Note that Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway was not available to us as a pre-arrival selection because it was part of the Tier 1 group and we already selected Slinky Dog Dash. That said, on the day of your visit, tiers disappear and all eligible Lightning Lane attractions and experiences become available. For guests with Park Hopper entitlements, that means that tiers also disappear at all four Walt Disney World theme parks.

Ok, it’s 12pm and we’ve tapped into our Toy Story Mania Lightning Lane. With a little bit of a backup in the Lightning Lane queue, we have some time to check the My Disney Experience app and make another selection after freeing up a “slot” by tapping into Toy Story Mania. We see that Tiana’s Bayou Adventure is available, but for 10pm, which is later than we want to be in Magic Kingdom. We grab it anyway because the modification functionality is still available with Lightning Lane Multi Pass.

After riding Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway at 12:30pm, we have freed up a Lightning Lane slot again, and we select Haunted Mansion for 4pm. So, before we leave Disney’s Hollywood Studios at 1pm to Park Hop over to Magic Kingdom, not only have we experienced our initial 3 pre-arrival attractions, but we kept an eye out and got lucky with a last-minute Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway before we had to leave the park.

Before we close out our example day of Park Hopping, a bit of a strategy note that we’ll put into practice at some point. It might be good to keep a floating “low priority” attraction in your Lightning Lane backpack to keep your day moving. In our example day, I might drop my 4pm Haunted Mansion for a 2pm Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin. By keeping at least one Lightning Lane out of your three as an instant return, you can still have two “big” attractions on the books without having to delay your fun. This isn’t all that different than what was possible with stacking, but with more people managing a rotating trio of Lightning Lanes throughout the day, we’ll be mentioning strategy and modifications a lot more in our coverage.

A final note. For guests with Park Hopper entitlements looking to purchase Lightning Lane Single Pass (currently called Individual Lightning Lane), you will still be able to purchase up to 2 attractions at any of the four Walt Disney World theme parks that you have valid admission.

As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!