As a frequent visitor of theme parks and CinemaBlend’s resident theme park expert, I spend a lot of time, and a lot of money, inside parks. Theme parks are certainly expensive places, but I don’t mind spending money as long as I feel like I’m getting something for that money that I can’t get elsewhere. Some of the best food at Disneyland can’t be found anywhere else, so it’s worth it to me. But when it comes to theme parks charging for things like skipping lines, I’m never quite so sure.
At this point, every theme park has some sort of line-skipping option, and they all cost money. Disneyland and Walt Disney World were among the last to charge for such a service, and while it’s annoying as hell to have to pay for something that used to be free, the ultimate question is, is it worth it to spend the money? Does the product provide the value it promises? Having recently returned from a Disneyland vacation where I used the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass for two adults and a child (with a toddler in tow), I can now answer that.
The Short Answer
At around $30 per person per day, buying the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass for a family can equal the cost of an additional ticket to the park. However, the simple fact is that the product does what it’s advertised to do. So if your goal is to ride as many of the best rides at Disneyland in one day as possible, Lightning Lane is the way to go.
The Long Answer
Of course, there’s a bit more to it than that. Simply spending the money doesn’t automatically make all your problems regarding lines go away. Depending on how you approach attractions at all, Lightning Lane may not make all the sense in the world. Here’s how it all works.
As A Tool To Get On The Most Rides, Lightning Lane Multi-Pass Works
Things work a little bit differently at Disneyland regarding Lightning Lane Multi-Pass than they do at Walt Disney World. At the Orlando resort, guests can book up to three Lightning Lane passes a few days before you arrive. At Disneyland, everything is handled the day you arrive. You can’t book anything until your phone crosses the turnstiles and you are actually inside the parks.
Starting at 7:00 am, about an hour before the park officially opens, if you are inside the gate waiting for rope drop, you can book your first Lightning Lane. On our two days in the parks, we were not inside the parks right at 7:00 am, but we were there before rope drop and had the ability to Lightning Lane almost anything fairly early. In our case, we grabbed an LL for Big Thunder Mountain Railroad for about an hour after the park opened, then ran to Rise of the Resistance when the rope drop happened. That attraction requires an additional cost to skip the line, and we did not spend money on that.
This plan would have worked perfectly, except BTMRR went down just before our scheduled time. When that happens, you are given a Multiple Experiences Lightning Lane, which can be used on most Lightning Lane Multi-Pass attractions immediately. We jumped on Pirates of the Caribbean while making another reservation for the new Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway about an hour later.
Making reservations with shorter waits is much easier earlier in the day. Popular attractions will end up resulting in the next available Lightning Lane time potentially being several hours in the future, but you don’t have to waste that time. New Lightning Lanes can be booked, either after you have used your previous one or two hours after your last selection, whichever comes first.
As a result of this, my family was able to ride more than 10 attractions in a day at both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure, and this still allowed time for a table service meal each day, watching all three of the nighttime spectaculars at the two parks, and watching the Magic Happens parade at Disneyland, as well as other activities that didn't require waiting in lines, like watching the hilarious Storytime with Deadpool. The number is even higher than that because due to having a toddler and needing to rider swap with my wife, my older daughter got to go on more than 30 total attraction experiences over two days since she was able to do several of them twice, once with each parent. While we started each day early, we didn’t stay until the park closed either day.
For many people visiting Disneyland Resort for that once-in-a-lifetime vacation, they’re going to want to “do everything” or as close to it as possible. To that end, I can’t argue that Multi-Pass Lightning Lane didn’t do its job. We got to ride a lot more on a busy summer day than we would have otherwise.
You Have To Be Vigilant On The App
To be that successful, however, you have to do some work. Bring a backup battery for your phone, because you’re going to be spending a fair amount of time on it over the day. As soon as you cross the turnstiles, you’ll want to jump on to grab the first Lightning Lane. As soon as you use one, you’ll want to be on checking for the next.
If you book a Lightning Lane more than two hours in the future, you’ll want to be sure you’re checking the app again two hours later to grab the next thing. It may result in you having a gap where you’re not riding as much stuff, which isn’t a bad thing if it’s time to grab lunch, but you’ll end up using multiple Lightning Lanes later in the day.
It’s also potentially worth it to check the app now and then just for the hell of it. If somebody else cancels a Lightning Lane they previously booked, it will just go back in the pool and be available to all, so you may be able to snatch a time slot for a popular attraction that’s much earlier than previously available if you happen to be looking at the right time.
If you’re casually checking the app because you’re only really interested in the marquee attractions, you’ll likely get them, but you may not feel like you got the full value of what you spent.
Don’t Forget To Use The PhotoPass
There is more to Lightning Lane Mult-Pass than simply skipping the line, however, and you should make sure to use it. You also get access to PhotoPass at Disneyland, which means any of the additional photographers that are around the parks taking pictures of guests can get a picture of you and your family, including the creative and fun Magic Shots, that add Disney characters and other effects into the frame. Digital versions of those pictures are yours to keep.
For many, this might be the most important reason to spend the money on Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. If you or your family would rather stand in line to get a picture with a character than get on a ride, then Lightning Lane won’t let you skip the line, but it will give you the picture for no additional cost.
Having the experience of visiting Disneyland Resort is special, but having photos that you can look back on to help remember that experience will always be valuable. You can easily get $30 worth of pictures out of a day if you want.
If you visit Disneyland often enough that you’ve done all the rides and you don’t need pictures, then there’s going to be little reason to spend money on Lightning Lane Multi-Pass. However, if you want to do as many rides as possible, you’re going to have to bite the bullet and spend the money. For the rides and the photos, it’s an investment that will make your overall experience easier and more fun, leading to a more memorable vacation.
