Credit: DisneyAttention all visitors to Walt Disney World Resort: Even in “The Most Magical Place on Earth,” not everything is as easy as it might seem.
If you’ve taken a visit to Walt Disney World Resort in the last couple of years, you know that there’s much more that goes into planning a Disney vacation than a decade ago. While Park Pass Reservations are a thing of the past for most, you still have to make Dining Reservations, which includes making plans for what Disney World park you’ll be visiting each day, and look ahead at how to make the best use of services like Disney Genie+ and Individual Lightning Lane purchases.
While you can purchase Disney Genie+ on the My Disney Experience app on the day of your excursion to Magic Kingdom, EPCOT, Disney’s Hollywood Studios, or Disney’s Animal Kingdom, there is another art to purchasing and making the most of Individual Lightning Lane purchases, which go quickly on busy days.
For those who don’t know, Individual Lightning Lane passes are offered for only the most popular attractions in each Disney park. These include TRON Lightcycle / Run and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in Magic Kingdom; Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind in EPCOT; Avatar Flight of Passage in Disney’s Animal Kingdom; and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance in Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
If you want to skip the standby line– keep in mind that there is no standby line for TRON or Guardians– you’ll have to purchase one of these a-la-carte. Earlier this week, all the Individual Lightning Lane passes were sold out before 10:00 a.m. This means that only a couple of hours into the day– and only three hours since the virtual queue opened for Guardians and TRON– you could no longer purchase these passes.
For any Disney World guests who were trying to sleep in and start their day late, they were left out of the mix when it came to purchasing any systems that would assist them in skipping lines. In addition, if you weren’t up at 7:00 a.m.– or didn’t get into the first Virtual Queue– this means you only had one more chance– at 1:00 p.m.– to score a Virtual Queue Boarding Group for either TRON at Magic Kingdom or Guardians at EPCOT. Unfortunately for many guests, this means they were barred from riding either of the popular attractions.
Guests may purchase Individual Lightning Lane entry for up to two attractions per day, one at a time. Guests may purchase this option with or without Disney Genie+ service.
At this time, there are no plans for things to change in terms of the virtual queues, meaning that you will likely have to be up early to get your shot at riding these attractions, at least during busy times of the year. Spring breaks typically span through the month of March and early-to-mid April. After this, Disney World turns its attention to summer crowds for the remaining portion of April, May, June, July, and August.
What do you think of Disney World’s system? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments!