Disney's new all-access, skip-the-line plan can cost more than the park ticket does

Guests line up in the Lightning Lane at Space Mountain at Disneyland in California in August 2022. (Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images via CNN Newsource)

Got a few hundred extra dollars? That will buy you one person’s access to Disney’s new service at its U.S.parks, which allows you to go into a faster line at any time of the operating day – once per ride – without having to reserve it on an app.

Mind you, that’s in addition to the cost of your park ticket.

The pilot launch of “Lightning Lane Premier Pass,” formally announced Wednesday by Disney, is being offered in extremely limited quantities. It’s designed to be purchased and used by few guests.

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The pass will be priced per person per day, based on date and demand. That can range from US$137.39 to $478.19 (after tax) at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida, available starting October 30.

At Disneyland Resort in California, the pass will be $400 (not taxable) per person per day, available from October 23 through the end of 2024. Variable pricing will begin in 2025 based on date and demand, ranging from $300 to $400.

How the new pass will work

At Disney World, the pass will also be priced based on the specific park you’re visiting, Disney told CNN ahead of the announcement.

For example, it will cost $137.39 (after tax) to add the Premier Pass to an Animal Kingdom park ticket on a less busy day. That pass would work only in Animal Kingdom.

EPCOT’s pass would cost more, Hollywood Studios a bit more than that, with the most expensive Premier Pass at Magic Kingdom. To buy a Premier Pass for the Magic Kingdom park on a very busy day such as Christmas would cost $478.19 (after tax) in addition to your park ticket.

A guest can buy only one Premier Pass a day.

During the pilot launch of this program, the pass will be available only to guests staying at Disney World’s deluxe hotels, seven days in advance of check-in.

At Disneyland, the Premier Pass will work a bit differently.

It will be available to any guest at one price, usable at both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure parks on the same day. Guests can purchase it two days in advance, at 7 a.m. PT.

A lesson on Lightning Lanes

Not every attraction has a faster line, which Disney calls a “Lightning Lane.” But they tend to be available for many of the more popular attractions at both resorts. There are currently 55 attractions with Lightning Lanes at the four Disney World parks and 24 at the two Disneyland parks.

Using these lessen-the-wait lanes can be complicated to arrange, especially for Disney newbies and people who aren’t all that smartphone savvy.

Until this pilot program, people going to Disney parks have been able to use these Lightning Lanes by purchasing what’s called a “Multi Pass.” It allows access to these faster lines by reserving them one at a time in the resort’s app. A handful of the most popular rides are sold separately as a “Single Pass,” where guests buy access to the faster line just for that one ride.

According to Disney Food Blog editors who have tracked prices, Multi Pass at Disney World so far has ranged from $15.98 to $37.28 (after tax), per person per day, depending on the season and the park. At Disneyland, this pass starts at $32 (not taxable). But using Multi Pass involves a lot of strategizing in an app, and most of the time, you can only reserve access to a Lightning Lane during a specific return time window, after accessing the previous one.

This Premier Pass dispenses with all those steps by allowing guests to simply hop in the faster line, wherever available, at any time.

This concept of charging a premium for express service is not new.

The Universal Studios model

Disney’s biggest competitor, Universal, has been selling their own “Express Pass” for more than 20 years. It too often costs more than the park ticket. A similar skip-the-line pass exists at Six Flags parks, Cedar Point, Busch Gardens and SeaWorld.

At Universal Studios Hollywood, which has one theme park with 17 express lines, this pass can cost anywhere from $80 to $170 (not taxable) in addition to the theme park ticket price.

Universal Resort Orlando, which has two theme parks with 30 total express lines, offers this pass for $111.81 to $319.49 (after tax), usable at both of its current parks on the same day if a guest holds a park-to-park base ticket. The price is less for using the pass at only one park. (It’s not known at this time if or how the express pass system will change after the newest theme park, Epic Universe, opens next year.)

Universal also sells an “Express Pass Unlimited,” where guests can get in the faster line multiple times per ride, for $143.76 to $351.44 (after tax) in Florida and is included for anyone staying at any of three, higher-end hotels on the Universal Orlando property: Portofino Bay, Hard Rock and Royal Pacific. The same unlimited pass in California costs between $115 to $215 (not taxable).

At this time, Disney is not offering the same unlimited service. The Lightning Lane Premier Pass allows the use of a Lightning Lane only once per ride, per day.

Wealth messaging

Don Munsil, who has tracked theme park prices for decades at his site MouseSavers, said, “If people feel like every new thing that they hear from Disney for a period of time seems like a new thing that only wealthy people can use, it’s going to feel bad.”

The Disney company lately has responded to criticism of high prices by emphasizing a range of choices for consumers of all budgets, including deeply discounted children’s tickets at $50 per day at Disneyland in the new year.

Munsil said the Premier Pass seems to fill a gap between two service levels: the current Multi Pass, costing tens of dollars, and the VIP tour experience, which could cost thousands of dollars for a day of being guided through faster lines, among other perks.

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He said the price sends a clear message: “The message is, you only buy this if you have money to burn – or you have very little time and are trying to get through everything as fast as possible.”

For most people, Munsil said, this service will not be necessary.

Instead of paying a premium for a theme park ticket plus a Premier Pass in one day, guests could still get on all the rides at a lower price by buying a multiday ticket (because subsequent days cost less per day) and adding on Multi Pass.

The difference is whether someone has more time to spend in the parks.

The Premier Pass is “priced for someone for whom the time-money tradeoff is different,” Munsil said.