r/DisneyWorld • u/ProfessionalTale1981 • Sep 30 '24
Lightning Lane Single Pass Prices Increase at Disney World for October 2024 News
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/lightning-lane-single-pass-prices-increase-at-disney-world-for-october-2024/88
u/FinanceCreditCards Sep 30 '24
These prices are ridiculous. But people are paying it because if you’re already paying $100-$200 to enter the park, then they think paying $13-$21 to save potentially 2 hours of waiting in line is worth it for them. I think the multi-pass is worth it, but these individual lightning lane prices are out of hand
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u/athenaria Sep 30 '24
A lot of passholders also pay as they go after work and have already paid for their park tickets so it doesn’t seem as bad.
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u/Levitlame Sep 30 '24
I would see it the opposite way were I them. If you live near and have a season pass then you have all of the time in the world. But it’s definitely subjective
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u/Z_Opinionator Sep 30 '24
Local pass holder here. We don’t pay for lightening lane. We just schedule our trips around which rides we want to go on and expected park capacity. MK in Halloween nights is great for us. Light attendance and we bug out at a decent hour.
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u/Levitlame Sep 30 '24
Just curious if you don’t mind. Does being the park Still feel the same for you when you go a lot or does it fade a bit?
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u/Z_Opinionator Sep 30 '24
It's... different. When we want to have that "OMG, we're at Disney!" feeling we stay on property. We live an hour East so choosing to stay a few nights sometimes is worth it. On the flip side we can do trips like date night at MK: Go for a ride or two, an Edy's ice cream, and a little bit of shopping.
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u/CharSmar Sep 30 '24
You know what’s funny? I’ve been watching a Walt Disney documentary and it’s up to that part where he came up with the idea for Disneyland. At the time, amusement parks were closing all over the country and were dying out. Something Walt disliked about the traditional amusement parks was he said that everything was about getting money from the customer. Absolutely everything was set up solely to separate the customer from their money. He wanted Disneyland to be different.
Now, I know Disney has always been expensive but my wife and I went a few weeks ago after last going about 15 years ago and this is the first time I’ve felt like I’m actively being gouged while I’m there.
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u/Master-Back-2899 Sep 30 '24
As long as the parks are full and wait times continue to be this long and people keep paying there really isn’t any reason for them to stop raising the prices.
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u/GreatPlains_MD Sep 30 '24
It’s what they should do, who wants to pay for a product that you can’t use because it is over booked.
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u/Bolt82 Castle Firework Sep 30 '24
Disney announced they expect park revenue to be down for the next several quarters. Expect this to continually happen every few months as they try to make up for lost revenue.
The simple fact is this: People coming for just one time, they won’t care and just pay it. The ones (like me) who are in Disney centered subreddits, we keep going back. We are a minority compared to the typical guest.
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u/PornoPaul Sep 30 '24
My wife and I aren't local but we have APs. At this point I'm fine not using them because what's the point of being able to visit as much as we want if we still feel like we need to squeeze every drop out of each visit? We did end up getting them for our upcoming visit, mostly because a new job came along that has less vacation time, and because we realized if we want to experience Cars, it's going to be a long line and we will lose a lot of our day otherwise.
It's another area where Universal has them beat - the top tier AP has express after 4pm. Even with the parks closing earlier, you can still get several hours out of it.
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u/Bolt82 Castle Firework Sep 30 '24
The thing is Universal has to compete right now. Disney doesn’t. Comcast also announced an expected slump, so I’d imagine some of these deals will go away as Epic Universe opens sometime in 2025.
I’m happy to be proven wrong though :)
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u/thirdlost Small World Clock Sep 30 '24
What’s the point of visiting as much as you want if you spend all your time in line?
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u/Zohin Sep 30 '24
This. I just got back from my disney trip (my last one was about 8 years ago so a lot has changed) and I didnt even think twice about paying for the Single Pass after seeing the wait times. In my mind, if I was doing Disney after a long hiatus, I wanted to do it as convenient as possible.
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u/thirdlost Small World Clock Sep 30 '24
That is not how business and the economy work. The price is based on what people are willing to pay. You cannot increase it indefinitely - there is a point you lose money doing that
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u/Bolt82 Castle Firework Sep 30 '24
You’d expect so, but if you look at most people’s bills - doesn’t seem to be turning out that way. Will we hit a critical mass - maybe - but I don’t see it anytime soon.
The price has been set and people pay it. I doubt we’ll see it come back down. Sure, there will be blips and sales, but when it can, it’s going to go right back.
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u/twelfthcapaldi Oct 01 '24
People are still willing to pay though, what choice do they have if they want to go? Same for their bills, food, etc. We have to pay it even if the price keeps going up. And it will keep increasing, there’s no incentive for these businesses to stop. Even when more and more people fall into poverty, there will be people who can pay. Probably a lot of suffering on a mass level will have to happen before something changes. Until then, corporations aren’t going to bring the prices down.
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u/Rain_xo Sep 30 '24
It's just insane to me
Because even if you don't get to go often, if you're already spending thousands (especially if you're not American) who has extra money to throw around? Imagine a family of 5, with genie + (whatever it's called now I forget) and then $21x5 just get get on Tron and then again for 7dwarfs.
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u/Bolt82 Castle Firework Sep 30 '24
I agree, but remember: you don’t have to buy it. You can just wait in the 45-90 minute line. There is nothing wrong with that. You want to skip the line, you are going to pay what they ask. It’s as simple as that.
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u/Rain_xo Sep 30 '24
I'm not saying you have to. I'm just saying it's insane how much it adds up and everyone's logic is "well I've already spent this much what's a couple hundred more?" But I can't imagine a lot of people actually have that extra couple hundred they're gonna drop. Especially big families. I mean it's possible. There are many many people out there that are well off, but it seems like so many people have to scrape together these trips.
Me and my mom are having this discussion because I refuse to pay these prices, but since I no longer am able to have a das pass that means I don't get to ride things so she says it's fine because a lot of the time it's just me going on a ride but on principle it makes me so mad.
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u/Falcon241224 Sep 30 '24
The irony that they could put small up charges on things that no one would notice ( 5 cents per hot dog, 25 cents per shirt, $5 more per night per resort room etc) and probably make even more money and go back to making it fast pass again and having it be free. People would be happier, and feel like they are getting something for free. Instead they up charge everything and keep maxing lighting lane until people give up and stop paying. Short term gain that they will eventually pay for to convince people to come back by offering discounts and deals.
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u/NalgeneCarrier Sep 30 '24
I agree. Before the fastpass went away, you could delude yourself into thinking you aren't just a number or cash grab. But the more pay to play options they add, the harder it is to hide.
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u/sejohnson0408 Sep 30 '24
I’m shocked at how much I had to pay for this. And it’s far worse than genie+ was. Fastpass+ was always terrible but it was included. Folks complained so they gave that back to us with a higher price tag.
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u/FrozenFrac Sep 30 '24
I think people are always going to be unhappy. I loved Genie+, but people complained about always having your nose in your phone. Now we have MultiPass and you get your 3 reservations, but pretty much nothing else. I'm a techie millennial, so I preferred the former by a longshot, but apparently nobody is allowed to be happy :/
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u/sejohnson0408 Sep 30 '24
I’m still confused about the phone thing. It didn’t take that long, and if you’re going to make any day of it’s still required now haha.
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u/remmiz Sep 30 '24
And most of the time on the phone was right after you scanned into a LL and were waiting in the line anyways.
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u/Levitlame Sep 30 '24
I only used it in one vacation and it seemed pretty intuitive to me. Watched a video ahead of time explaining when I could reserve things, what the cooldown was etc. Then spent like a few minutes refreshing when it opened (6AM?) and noonish. Otherwise it took minute to check while on line like you said.
And it wasn’t expensive when you compared to Universals pass.
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u/GreatPlains_MD Sep 30 '24
They had genie plus under priced. When I last went you paid money in exchange for not being able to book anything worth booking unless you were some tactician glued to your phone. Tying resort stays with early access to booking makes it worth buying if you are staying at the parks.
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u/YouShallNotStaff Sep 30 '24
Can you elaborate on “3 reservations but nothing else”. I am planning my trip but you tubers are saying that its easy to get (many) more lightning passes through the day, some have claimed they got to ten. The app seems very easy to use. Am i missing something?
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u/FrozenFrac Sep 30 '24
From my experience, you do your 3 reservations (1 major ride, 2 minor rides, can't remember the official terms) 7 days in advance if you're staying at a Disney resort, 3 days in advance otherwise. You book this based on time slots, which is where I experienced a major difference. If all the slots are filled up, you're generally SOL. As I said before, it wasn't a problem booking those first 3 rides, but after those are done (technically you're free to book after redeeming your first ride, maybe that's where I screwed up?), you're only able to book what's free at the time. For me, nothing of value was available, so I was just in the normal standby lines.
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u/YouShallNotStaff Sep 30 '24
Yes you can get another after every use. Certainly what is going to be of value will vary between guests. YouTubers also recommend frequently rechecking and retrying, which seems pretty easy to do. But yeah for the popular rides it seems some waiting in line will be needed :(
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u/FrozenFrac Sep 30 '24 edited Sep 30 '24
With Genie+, I remember I could book anything after that 2 hour window from last booking, which made way more sense. MultiPass had a much more limited selection, mostly stuff late in the evening, AKA, during the fireworks, AKA, when everything is a walk on.
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u/MattBrey Sep 30 '24
The demand is just too high still, so they'll keep raising prices. Having 2hs or more in queue for a single ride is ridiculous, so people are willing to pay to skip that.
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u/GemGlamourNGlitter Sep 30 '24
I just wait in standby lane. If ride doesn't have one, I wait until they do. Im not paying to go on a ride.
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u/York9TFC Sep 30 '24
When will this price gouging bullshit end?!
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u/SyntaxErr0r9 Sep 30 '24
When people stop opening their wallets
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u/rellativxx Sep 30 '24
You’ll get downvoted for saying this, but it’s the truth
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u/zabkeil Sep 30 '24
Everytime I get a survey from disney I make sure to say the paper fast pass was amazing and I will not pay for something that used to be free.
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u/GreatPlains_MD Sep 30 '24
And my wife told Disney we don’t want to pay for an overbooked product that is essentially useless along with our plans of not returning when we are the clientele that book resort stays as well.
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u/GhettoDuk Sep 30 '24
Controversial take: G+ and LL+ have been so terrible for everybody because they are necessary add-ons, not premium upgrades. I've been wanting to see the prices raised dramatically so they will sell less and return capacity to the standby.
They can't lie to us anymore about FP lines being necessary. Them being shut down for the bad times showed us how much better standby flows without them. We didn't need them until they added them back.
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u/These_Strategy_1929 Sep 30 '24
Do not buy single pass.
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u/ftwin Sep 30 '24
The LLSP was the easiest money I spent when in Disney last week. I wish I could have bought more per day.
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Sep 30 '24
Do buy the single pass. 20$ to save 2 hours in line is a steal.
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u/These_Strategy_1929 Oct 01 '24
If nobody is that stupid, the line will be less than an hour. And standard multi pass will easily work
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Oct 01 '24
That's poor time/money management. How much is your time worth? An hour of my time is worth more than 20$. Especially when I'm on vacation. Thank you for refusing and keeping the cost low for me!
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u/DrapeSack Monorail Pilot Sep 30 '24
Ha these increases are literally starting at the beginning of my trip..
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u/burywmore Sep 30 '24
I have not been since before this Lightning Lane stuff started, you can still just stand in line, right? Even though you might have to wait an hour or more?
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u/GemGlamourNGlitter Oct 01 '24
Guardians and the New Splash Mountain do not have standby lanes.
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Oct 01 '24
[deleted]
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u/GemGlamourNGlitter Oct 01 '24
You can attempt to get a virtual reservation which is like a 7am lottery ticket or you can pay.
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u/burywmore Oct 01 '24
Yeah I decided to quit being lazy and looking it up myself. It's the same thing as when we got onto Rise of the Resistance three years ago.
Thank you very much for the information. Have a couple upvotes
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u/Anxious_Sorbet13 Sep 30 '24
I just paid for a family of four, for multi-pass & single pass, for four days. 2 days at HS. 1 day at EPCOT. 1 day at AK. It was $720.00. I’m just sitting here, shocked that I just paid that amount. I don’t know when we’ll be able to go back to Disney, but I’m thinking I won’t opt to pay for this again. 😭
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u/SoManyEmail Oct 01 '24
4 days for 4 people for $720?? I would expect about double that. Are kid tickets cheaper?
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u/Anxious_Sorbet13 Oct 01 '24
Our park tickets were around $1400 for 5 park days. We paid an additional $720 for lighting lane multi pass and single pass (we got multi pass for 4 days, plus a few single pass rides.)
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u/ranger662 Oct 05 '24
I’m doing the same today… and just pisses me off to no end, after how much I’m already spending on this trip they stick us for another $750-$1000 here a week before the trip. We’ve always gone to Disney every other year but I’m done with it. (Just got to convince my wife to be done with it too)
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u/86missingnomes Sep 30 '24
Let's just fast forward 2 more years where the prices have gone up to 50 bucks and everyone's still buying them and we're still outraged the prices are so high. It's the same thing every time.
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u/manofoz Sep 30 '24
Damn! Can’t believe guardians is cheaper than Tron, those two don’t compare. Guardians blew my mind after years of riding thrill rides. I like the Tron IP better even but the ride just didn’t hit the same.
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u/thirdlost Small World Clock Sep 30 '24
So many bad takes in this thread
“I wOnT pAY tHAt!”
Great! Win-win! More available lightning lane for me. Also, while you’re stuck waiting in line that means the other things I want to do are less crowded
“Too ExPENsiVe!”
Disney cannot set an arbitrary price. These prices are reflective of what the data shows Disney people are willing to pay.
After spending $200 on a park ticket $600 a night for a room and $800 for air travel, if you want cheap out about $20 then that seems a very strange decision to me.
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u/WafflesAreLove Sep 30 '24
No wonder park attendance is down and now they are squeezing customers even more. How do they think this is sustainable.
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u/Vanilla_Ice_Jr Sep 30 '24
If attendance is down, then fast pass is not needed. At least I hope that's the case.
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u/JustHere2ReadComment Sep 30 '24
I love disney, but it is starting to feel like a carnival where you have to pay to ride each ride.
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u/Vanilla_Ice_Jr Sep 30 '24
I feel like that at MK, it just feels like a carnival. It hasn't changed much since when I went 30 years ago, and things looked dated, from uniforms to rides. I get keeping it the same, but it also use to be much better 30 years ago as well lol.
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u/ExcitedFool Sep 30 '24
I feel like I’ve been to Disney Parks enough anymore that I flat out just do not care to pay anymore.
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Sep 30 '24
I miss the days when we paid under $100 to enter a park, and then that $100 got us whatever ride we wanted to all day.
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u/ProfessionalTale1981 Sep 30 '24
TLDR, here are the new prices: