Is the New Lightning Lane Premier Pass Actually a Good Deal?

Two of the biggest complaints regarding the existing Lightning Lane Multi Pass is that it is complicated to use and you aren’t guaranteed to be able to reserve the rides and times that you want. In response to that, Disney introduced a new product to its skip-the-line arsenal: the Lightning Lane Premier Pass (LLPP).

This new pass is meant to address both of these criticisms. Purchasing it gives you the ability to enter the Lightning Lane once for every ride at any time during the day. You don’t have to worry about making advanced reservations. You don’t have to worry about being shut out of a ride because all of the LL’s are gone. Finally, you don’t have to worry about getting to the ride before your window closes. The new LLPP simplifies the process… just show up and ride.

Of course, this simplicity comes at a cost… a very high cost! According to Disney, you can expect to pay anywhere from $129/pp + tax (non-peak day at Animal Kingdom) to $449/pp + tax (peak day at Magic Kingdom). This is over ten times what you can expect to pay for the Lightning Lane Multi Pass!

So is the time savings and simplicity of the LLPP worth it? Let’s find out!

[If you want to read more about the existing Lightning Lane Single and Multi Pass system, you can check out some of our previous articles here]

More Details on the Lightning Lane Premier Pass

I covered most of the info about this new pass in the intro. However, there are a couple more important details you should know.

Availability is Limited

Currently, the LLPP can only be purchased by guests staying at a Disney Deluxe Resort, Disney Deluxe Villa, Swan/Dolphin, or Shades of Green. And even then, Disney is only offering a limited number of these pass per park per day, so there is a possibility that they might sell out.

Disney has stated that they are piloting the rollout of this new product, which is why the scope and quantity are limited for now. I am guessing is that they want to start small so that they can gauge its popularity, as well as see its impact on park operations. I wouldn’t be surprised if they start to open it up to more guests after this pilot phase.

It is Only Good at One Park

When you purchase the LLPP, you are purchasing it for a specific park only. You can’t use it in another park, as there is no “park hopping” add on.

You Can Purchase it in Advance

Similar to the LLSP and LLMP for on-property guests, you can purchase the Premier Pass starting at 7am Eastern Time 7 days in advance of your check-in day for the entire length of your stay (up to 14 days).

So is the Lightning Lane Premier Pass a Good Deal?

WIth any of these paid “skip-the-line” systems, the value comes from the time savings you get from not having to wait in the standby line. The more time you save, the bigger the benefit. Of course, that time savings comes at a price. So then the question is:

How much time do you save for every dollar spent?

Calculating this is straightforward. You just take the amount of time saved and divide it by the cost of the pass.

Determining the Time Saved

To determine the amount of time saved from purchasing the LLPP, I compared the average standby wait time to the average Lightning Lane wait time. The difference between these numbers is the amount of time saved by using the LL.

Fortunately, the average standby wait times are easily available on thrill-data.com. For the purposes of this exercise, I used the data from week ending 11/16/2024. Unfortunately, nobody tracks the Lightning Lane average wait time, so I used an assumption that you’d wait an average of 5 minutes in the LL line. Some rides might be more. Others might be less. But this seemed like a reasonable assumption.

As an example, for w/e 11/16, the average standby wait time for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad was 25 minutes. That means, if you had purchased the LLPP and used it at BTMRR, you would have saved 20 minutes of time.

It was a little more difficult to get the data for shows and VQ rides, so I had to make more assumptions. For shows, I assumed that using the LL gives you no time savings. You can usually walk up and get a seat for most shows, so the LL really gives you no benefit. For VQ rides, I assumed that you would be waiting in the VQ line for 45 minutes, so your time savings from using the LL would have been 40 minutes.

Once I did this calculation for all of the LLPP eligible rides, I summed it up to get the total time saved if you had purchased this pass.

Determining the Cost

Figuring out the cost of the Lightning Lane Premier Pass for week ending 11/16/2024 was very simple. The aforementioned thrill-data.com website also tracks the historical cost of all LL products. I was able to pull this information straight from there.

The Calculation

After summing up the total minutes saved by purchasing the LLPP, and then dividing it by the cost, I got the following results:

So you’d save somewhere in the range of 1.15 – 1.35 minutes for every dollar you spent on the Lightning Lane Premier Pass.

But is this a good value? The only way to determine that is to compare it to the value you get from the other “skip-the-line” products that Disney offers.

Comparing it to the Value of a Lightning Lane Single Pass and Multi Pass

There were three different scenarios I wanted to compare it to:

1. What if I purchased a LLMP?
2. What if I purchased a LLSP for all eligible rides?
3. What if I purchased both a LLSP for all eligible rides and a LLMP

I repeated the same calculation of time saved per dollar spent for each of these scenarios. For the LLMP, I assumed that I used it on the one Tier 1 ride and two Tier 2 rides that would save me the most time. Some people might be able to extract more value out of the LLMP (by stacking additional rides after using their initial LL’s) or less value (if they aren’t able to reserve the highest value LL’s). But I figured that my approach would be a reasonable middle ground.

[In case you were wondering, here were the rides that I selected as part of my LLMP analysis. These combos would have saved you the most time on average for the w/e 11/14/2024:

• MK: Tiana’s, Haunted Mansion, Winnie the Pooh
• EP: Remy, Living with the Land, Nemo (I was surprised that Spaceship Earth wasn’t higher, but the data is the data!)
• AK: Navi River, Everest, Safaris
• HS: Slinky Dog, Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror]

Conclusions

So is the Lightning Lane Premier Pass a good deal?

Here is my conclusion:

While the Lightning Lane Single Pass and Multi Pass are better values than the Lightning Lane Premier Pass, you do have to work to extract the value from them.

With LLSP and LLMP, you have to worry about arranging your reservation times, making sure you show up within your time window. However, with LLPP, you can just show up any time you want. So is that worth the diminished value? That’s up to you to decide!

Wrap Up

Personally, I don’t think that the Lightning Lane Premier Pass is something I am going to purchase anytime soon! At most of the parks, once you get past the most popular 3 – 6 rides, the standby line is pretty manageable. So I can still have a great day purchasing the LLMP and/or LLSP, use them for most of those popular rides, and use the standby line for the rest. The LLPP doesn’t really add a lot of value for me and our family.

What do you think? Are you going to purchase the LLPP on your next trip? Let us know in the comments!

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