Disney Introduces Lightning Lane Premier Pass

The Walt Disney Company just announced its latest digital queuing option. While the headline-grabber is the price, this reveal is terrific news for Disney Vacation Club members. Yes, Disney has introduced Lightning Lane Premier Pass, and DVC members will have the easiest time using it. 

What Is Lightning Lane Premier Pass?

By now, you’re intimately familiar with the Lightning Lane system, which we used to call FastPass. Disney introduced this form of digital queuing in 1999. Then, it went paperless after the creation of MyMagic+. 

During the pandemic, Disney ended the FastPass program, replacing it with Lightning Lane, which is basically the same thing as a paid digital queuing system. Disney was actually the last major theme park company to charge for its digital queue, which is commendable. 

However, the company has priced the service aggressively since then, recently raising its rates yet again. Now, the company has announced a new version. And if you thought Lightning Lane was expensive, you may want to avert your eyes. 

Meet Lightning Lane Premier Pass (LLPP), the deluxe version of the Lightning Lane program. You can think of this service as Lightning Lane without any restraints. Or, if you’ve stayed at Hard Rock Hotel Orlando, you can think of it as the Universal Unlimited Express Pass. 

Basically, your purchase of a Premier Pass entitles you to Lightning Lane access for every qualifying attraction at the park. I’ll discuss the rules before getting into the caveats, of which there are a few.

We’ll discuss the pricing in the next section, but the gist is that LLPP costs range from $129-$449. That’s a massive range for an understandable reason I’ll explain in a moment.

First, let’s discuss Premier Pass by using a single-park example.

How Does Premier Pass Work?

Let’s say that you’re visiting Magic Kingdom on October 30th. Conveniently, that’s the opening day for Premier Pass. From then on, it’ll be available at all Disney parks, albeit with limited capacity. In short, Disney will only sell a few of these per day, which makes sense. At this price, it’s like selling the same park guest two admission tickets for the same day.

As far as usage, here are the current Lightning Lane options at Magic Kingdom:

“Choose up to one experience from this group:

  • Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
  • Jungle Cruise
  • Peter Pan’s Flight
  • Space Mountain
  • Tiana’s Bayou Adventure

Choose your other 2 experiences—or all 3—from this group:

  • The Barnstormer
  • Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
  • Dumbo the Flying Elephant
  • Haunted Mansion
  • “it’s a small world”
  • Mad Tea Party
  • The Magic Carpets of Aladdin
  • The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
  • Mickey’s PhilharMagic
  • Monsters Inc. Laugh Floor
  • Pirates of the Caribbean
  • Tomorrowland Speedway
  • Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid”

With standard Lightning Lane, you would pick one option from the first tier and then two more from the second tier (or three if you don’t choose anything from the top tier). With Premier Pass, you can experience all of it.

Disney will allow you to enter the Lightning Lane queue once for each of these attractions. Even better, you don’t need to pull out your phone and schedule anything. Instead, your Premier Pass entitles you to access whenever you want, freeing you from the tyranny of staring at your phone all day during your park visit.

Disneyland Resort will work similarly and will have a price range of $300-$400. It’ll launch a week from today on October 23rd. So, we’ll know more then.

Why You Might Not Love Lightning Lane Premier Pass 

Well, the obvious reason you won’t like it is the price. USA Today broke this story and listed the price ranges at Walt Disney World. Take a look:

  • Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $129-$199 plus tax  
  • EPCOT: $169-$249 plus tax 
  • Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $269-$349 plus tax 
  • Magic Kingdom: $329-$449 plus tax 

If you just got sticker shock, I don’t blame you. Obviously, LLPP will employ surge pricing, meaning it’ll cost more on the most popular days of the year. Conversely, it will be the “cheapest” on the least crowded days, which are the ones where it’s also the least helpful. With small crowds, the value of LLPP diminishes greatly.

Then, we have the caveat that you cannot re-ride attractions with LLPP. Your purchase entitles you to front-of-line access once per attraction. Afterward, you can obviously stand in the regular line and experience something multiple times. But you may only enter the Lightning Lane queue once. 

Next, you should know that this isn’t a multi-park feature. Let’s say that you buy the Premier Pass at Animal Kingdom. You won’t be beating the system by leaving at noon to Park Hop somewhere else. 

That’s because LLPP only works at the park where you purchase it. So, you’re wasting your money by Park Hopping somewhere else. As such, I’d strongly encourage you to choose it only at a full-day park where you plan to stay the entire day. 

Here’s How the New Service Benefits DVC Members

Also – and here’s the biggie for DVC members – only one group of people may purchase this service at Walt Disney World. They’re the ones staying at Disney Deluxe or Deluxe Villas Resorts. So, all other Disney park guests are on the outside looking in at LLPP. 

Meanwhile, you’re on the inside looking out. As a DVC member, as long as you stay at a participating property, you qualify to purchase LLPP. That helps you even if you have no intention of using this service. 

Grand Floridian - Exterior

Your DVC Points are more valuable now. Someone will want to use your points even if you don’t. So, you can rent them to someone else through our friends at, DVC Rental Store

Here’s the thought process. Guests who want to buy LLPP must stay in a Deluxe Tier resort. They’ll want to do so for the cheapest amount of money possible to offset the stiff price of LLPP. And everyone knows that renting DVC Points is the cheapest way to book a Deluxe Villa. Ergo, this announcement increases the value of your DVC membership and your DVC Points. Not bad, eh?

Note that Disneyland Resort will offer Premier Pass to anyone. It doesn’t have the Deluxe Tier requirement. Also, I mentioned the price range earlier at Disneyland. That’s for 2025. In 2024, it’ll cost $400 each day because it’ll debut during the busy season. 

Access all available Disney Vacation Club resale listings, or learn more about buying and selling with DVC Resale Market.

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