With the busy Christmas season ahead of us, and Thanksgiving behind us, we hit a bit of a lull in terms of crowd levels over the next week or two. This gives us a good chance to take a brief pause during the holiday crush and assess the situation so far. In this article, we’re going to take a look at Lightning Lane Pass availability, both over the past month and looking ahead. This is the first holiday season that the new “Multi Pass” offering has been available, and it has certainly changed the dynamics of how guests can skip-the-line at Walt Disney World. Let’s dive in.
Lightning Lane Multi Pass Availability During the Busy Holiday Season
For this article, we’ll be utilizing data from thrill-data.com, a website that collects and archives posted wait times and more data pulled directly from the My Disney Experience app. With that comes some caveats – the most well-known caveat that posted wait time data is often manipulated to try and provide a better guest experience. In this article, we’ll be focused on Lightning Lane Pass data, which Disney seemingly has less incentive to manipulate, but there are still opportunities for bad data. We’ll be dealing with averages, which should hopefully provide a much better high-level view of what’s going on around the parks. Let’s begin.
November 2024 Lightning Lane Availability
We’ll begin by taking a look back. In general, wait times are down around 11% in 2024 vs 2023, and November 2024 wait times were down just over 15% when compared to 2023. This downward trend in wait times can speak to the larger downward trend in attendance for the theme parks, specifically in the second half of this year. In terms of overall attendance in fiscal 2024, Disney says that it was flat, but not all quarters are created equal. Attendance chatter is outside of the scope of this article, especially when we’re trying to hone in on the busiest weeks of the year.
Ok, when dealing with the new Lightning Lane Multi Pass system, guests who are staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel have a distinct advantage. Those guests are able to make selections up to 7 days in advance of their visit, and for the full length of their stay. Guests who are not staying at a Walt Disney World Resort hotel can only make bookings up to 3 days before their visit. So, how much of an advantage is this? During “normal” weeks of the year, it’s a good advantage, but not something that completely disqualifies the off-site guest. During busier weeks, the scale tips heavily in the favor of the on-site guest.
Here’s a look at the toughest attractions to secure, and their percentage available at certain milestones. We’re tracking the average chance that you can secure the attraction at all (not even a good return time, necessarily), on the various days before the day that you plan on using the Lightning Lane Pass.
| Attraction | Day 0 | Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4-7 | Day 8+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tiana’s Bayou Adventure | 14% | 19% | 16% | 26% | 40-71% | 91-100% |
| Slinky Dog Dash | 9% | 20% | 21% | 32% | 59-88% | 98-100% |
| Seven Dwarfs Mine Train | 17% | 27% | 33% | 49% | 69-97% | 98-100% |
| Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure | 19% | 60% | 74% | 85% | 95-100% | 100% |
| Toy Story Mania | 38% | 54% | 60% | 76% | 97-100% | 100% |
The remaining attractions all hit 100% availability within the 3-day booking window that off-site guests receive, so there is little to worry about in terms of ability to book, but there’s always the question of the quality of return times. While I’m sure that anyone is happy to skip the line, there is something to be said about the quality of your skip-the-line return window. If you get a 10-11pm return window for The Haunted Mansion, you’re maybe skipping a 10-minute wait time. If you get a 2-3pm return window, not only will you be skipping a 60-minute wait, but you also won’t have to wait 8 more hours to use your skip-the-line pass. What’s the point of having a skip-the-line pass for 8 hours from now when you can jump in line right now and only wait 45 minutes? Yes, you can do other things, but at a certain point in your day, you don’t want to be jumping around from Tomorrowland to Frontierland to Fantasyland to Adventureland to chase your Lightning Lane Passes. All that to say, there is some value to a “good” return window, and the earlier in the day, usually the better.
Current December 2024 Lightning Lane Multi Pass Availability
Looking forward to the rest of the month, here’s a look at Lightning Lane Pass availability over the next week. Do note that the first half of December is considerably slower than the second half of the month, but here’s a look at availability to get the pulse of the current Lightning Lane Pass situation.
Magic Kingdom
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train: sold out through Dec. 8th, limited availability after that
- Tiana’s Bayou Adventure: sold out or extremely limited availability through Dec. 6th, limited availability or sold out through Dec. 11th
- Haunted Mansion: extremely limited availability through Dec. 4th, limited availability through Dec. 6th
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh: limited availability through Dec. 10th
- Peter Pan’s Flight: limited availability through Dec. 5th
- Jingle Cruise: limited availability through Dec. 5th
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
- Slinky Dog Dash: sold out through Dec. 7th, extremely limited availability through Dec. 9th, limited availability through Dec. 12th
- Toy Story Mania: sold out through Dec. 6th, limited availability through Dec. 12th
- Twilight Zone Tower of Terror: limited availability through Dec. 10th
- Alien Swirling Saucers: limited availability through Dec. 6th
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway: limited availability through Dec. 6th
EPCOT
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure: extremely limited availability through Dec. 6th, limited availability through Dec. 9th
- Frozen Ever After: extremely limited availability through Dec. 3rd, limited availability through Dec. 9th
- Mission SPACE: limited availability through Dec. 9th
- Spaceship Earth: limited availability through Dec. 6th
- Journey into Imagination with Figment: limited availability through Dec. 5th
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
- Na’vi River Journey: limited availability through Dec. 9th
Looking Ahead: Christmas and New Year’s
Speaking in general, Lightning Lane Multi Pass should become harder to secure the closer we get to Christmas Week and New Year’s Eve. In terms of day-of availability, temper expectations. The Lightning Lane Multi Pass system is improved over the Genie+ system in that you can make up to three selections ahead of time, but that means that there are fewer day-of winners. In short, work hard to secure your top three attractions before your visit, and then try to think of any good day-of selections as a bonus.
Of course, if you don’t want to have to play the attraction selection game, Walt Disney World has introduced the Premier Pass system that allows guests to skip the line once per day at each eligible Lightning Lane Pass attraction within a single theme park. This means that if you’re willing to pay upwards of $450 per person to skip the line at Magic Kingdom, this entire article is pointless for your visit and you can simply walk up to any eligible attraction at any point during the day and skip the line.
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!