Confused about the Lightning Lane changes coming to Disney World? You’re not alone.
New Lightning Lane changes are coming
We’ve done our best to answer your BIGGEST questions about the updates and later found out that a new, tiered system would be introduced for attractions. Though we’re still learning all the details, the new Lightning Lane passes seem like they’ll give visitors the chance to make better plans ahead of their trip. But, there’s one major problem…
As of July 24th, Genie+ will be known as Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, and Individual Lightning Lanes will be called Lightning Lane Single Pass. In addition to these changes, Disney has announced that beginning July 24th, you can:
- Make Lightning Lane plans before you get to the parks, for added confidence.
- Choose your experiences and times before purchasing, so you know what you’re getting.
- Book Lightning Lane passes for multiple vacation days, all in a single day.
Lightning Lane changes are coming!
Disney World hotel guests (and guests of other select hotels) will be able to plan Lightning Lane passes up to 7 days in advance for their entire stay (up to 14 days). All other guests can plan up to 3 days in advance. But, Disney has included the caveat that you must be in the United States to purchase Lightning Lane passes.
©Disney
When we asked a Disney World Cast Member about this directly, we were told, “Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass features will be available to Guests from other countries, they will be able to begin their pre-arrival planning on the My Disney Experience Mobile App after they reach the United States.”
Lightning Lane
So, international visitors (other than Canadians) won’t be able to purchase Lightning Lane passes or take advantage of the early planning until they arrive in the United States, even if the 7-day planning window begins before that. Essentially, you must be in the US to purchase Lightning Lane passes and begin pre-planning your ride selections ahead of your trip.
Kali River Rapids Lightning Lane sign in Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Of course, we’re still learning the details of the new Lightning Lane Multi-Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass as Disney shares them and it’s possible this could change in the future. There are still likely plenty of kinks to work out with the new system, and hopefully, Disney will update it so that our international friends are able to take advantage of the early planning!
In addition to the advanced planning changes, Disney has introduced (or reintroduced, shall we say) a tiered system for rides. It looks like out of those 3 advance selections, you’ll be able to choose one experience from a higher-tiered group and two experiences (or all three) from a lower-tiered group. You can check out which rides are part of which tiers right here.
Lightning Lane at Expedition Everest
Since we’re still figuring out all the details, we’ll be bringing you all the latest updates you need to know about these new Lightning Lane changes along with letting you know how it all works once they officially roll out, so stay tuned to Disney Food Blog for more.
Learn More About the Changes Coming to Genie+ at Disney World HERE!
All About Disney Genie, Genie+, and Individual Attraction Selection
BIG Genie+ Changes Being Planned For Disney World
FULL List of Rides Included With Genie+ in Disney World
3 Tips to OUTSMART Genie+ in Disney World Right Now
Please Stop Skipping These Genie+ Hacks in Disney World (They Really Work!)
Genie+ Tips for the Most Crowded Days in Disney World and Disneyland
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What do you think of the Genie+ changes? Tell us in the comments.
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As a resident of the UK arriving in the US and a Disney Resort Hotel on 10th August for a 14-night once-in-a-lifetime experience for our 2 children… not being able to pre-book until we land in the US and effectively being disadvantaged for booking rides and experiences is going to be a smack in the face from Disney, as it will be likely that many of the best rides will be booked out (since even non-resort guests will have had a 3-day head-start on us). I will then need to spend some time on our first evening (after a 10hr long flight with two excited children driving us mad) trying to book and plan our experiences.
Even without the international restriction, to be honest, I don’t like the idea of having to pre-plan our days. Whilst we have a rough plan of doing the Disney parks the first week, we can’t be sure if/when we will need to take a pool/rest-day. It was bad enough having to peg certain days to certain parks for the 3 dining experiences we wanted to do, let alone now having to do the same for rides.
I can see the benefit for park guests only doing 1 or 2 days and being able to pre-plan and secure experiences for those, but for longer stays as part of a big holiday (which I guess most international visitors will be doing) the appeal is lessened – especially if you are in a group where you might need to take un-planned odd days out of the parks to recuperate.
Hi Simon,
I fully agree with you.
My husband and I have our holiday booked for next January, and we’re seriously considering cancelling because of this.
It’s outrageous that Disney are discriminating against international guests in such a way and putting us at a disadvantage, even though we are paying customers.
I’ve contacted Disney for an explanation and to clarify if this policy will be changing. Surely they can see that this is a massive error in judgement on their part?!
Thank you DFB for listening and highlighting this issue. I’m hoping that so many overseas visitors complain, that Disney takes notice and does something about it. Miracles happen, right?
Well, considering that guests from the US don’t get the discounted ticket prices that international guests get I think this is a great compromise.
Considering that US guests never get the discounted tickets like international guests do, this seems to be fair.
Simon WDW Florida is like no other Holiday. When you come back you will probably need a holiday.
I have not used Genie+ we have always queued or in the good old days the lightning lanes were free as part of your holiday. You had to plan each day and each park and your lightning lanes and meal experiences. Months in advanced.
You do have to plan each park and what rides you want to queue for you also have to plan down days.
We always used the Water Parks as some of the down days.
We also visited the outlets, i would highly recommend the Disney Character warehouse stores.
If you are staying at a Disney Hotel make full use of the early morning extra time and when your tired go back to the hotel for a swim or a nap.
We used to be a Disney family. We’re a Canadian family of 5 and we’d visit at least every other year (every year when the kids were at that perfect age!). It cost us a fortune (between air costs, fx exchange, and paying for a larger room for 5) but it was always worth it because of all the great perks we didn’t get any where else; free transport from the airport, extra magic hours, fast passes, and being able to plan everything in advance (plus there was always a great “return offer” we could take advantage of, like free dining).
But now it’s been 5 years since we’ve been – the longest we’ve ever stayed away – and we have zero plans to visit again. The perks are all gone, and ever new announcement is another magical ✨️ moment Disney is taking away. We used to feel like “No one did service like Disney”, and that’s no longer true. We feel nickel and dimed to death, and no longer feel good spending our money there. I feel sad for the loss of such a special place, because it used to feel like “home” and now it just feels like another business.
Agreed! BIG slap in the face from Disney. As a Canadian we already pay 35 – 40% more just to purchase a WDW vacation. My family has not made a single trip to WDW since the introduction of Genie+. I was in complete disagreement with having to get up early every morning to “TRY” and get certain rides, especially as 2 adults with no children. This is just more of the same disadvantage. We live on the Westcoast in BC. It’s a long way and super costly. Walt’s magical vision has completely vanished! In the past I was able to plan each day to maximize our trip. It IS supposed to be vacation once you arrive! Sadly our travel money is going elsewhere.
That is unbelievable! So international guests paying thousands of dollars for a Disney Resort Hotel will be the last of the last guests trying to book attractions like Rise of the resistance and Avatar, and as one can imagine, won’t have a chance to get anything available. What a shame. It must be an incorrect information. It doesn’t make any sense at all. Disney! You have a Guest who payed for your Hotel, and the ticket, you see it at your system, WHY would you implement any software restriction to prevent this guest to buy it like anybody else ???
I have spent an awful lot of money to bring my family to Disney and stay at the Beach Club resort for 20 nights in early August. If we cannot book Lightening Lane Plus until we land in the US then this feels grossly unfair. I have no issue with the system per se, but the unequal treatment of overseas visitors is a huge issue which Disney need to address immediately. As a resort guest I am essentially completely missing out on a meaningful benefit from staying on resort and will also fall behind non-resort guests in booking lightening slots if this is not resolved. Not acceptable from Disney if this is the case.
As a Canadian, I can already access the Disney app from home. Will I be able to buy LL in advance?
Hi Christina! At this time it looks like you will not be able to buy the Multi Pass or Single Lightning Lane in advance because Disney stated you have to be on US soil in order to do so. We are keeping a close eye on it though to see if they make any changes.
A agree with all the above comments. This is discriminatory and surely can’t be correct. I’m due to travel from the UK in late August for 2 weeks, staying at a Deluxe Resort as a special holiday for my retirement and had only just got to grips with Genie+ and now it’s all changing before I go and there will be no advantages to staying on-property and a significant disadvantage to travelling from outside of the US. The quality of our holiday, and availability of the sought-after rides, will be significantly affected by this rule if it is retained. Come on Disney this is blatantly unfair and needs a rethink. Please !
It seems that we, guests who are not residents of the USA, despite paying full price to stay at a Disney resort, will be treated as third-class guests. Not paying attention to the problem this will cause, not presenting a solution, compensation, explanation, or concern, is outrageous.
Coming from Brazil in October I will seriously consider cancelling my booking in a wdw resort if that issue is not solved and extending my Universal Studios stay. I have been a returning guest to wdw resorts for many years but I couldn’t bear the feeling of staying where I am being mistreated and discriminated against.
Jesus Christ, at least with Genie plus we were all on an even playing field.
What is even their logic for this? It wasn’t necessary for fast pass+ so why now? What’s next? Can’t book dining reservations from outside the US too?
Are Disney actively looking for ways to make a trip as unattractive as possible?
I’m at Saratoga Springs at the moment and have come from Australia. The added cost to get here is already a negative when we make decisions about where to holiday – I honestly wouldn’t choose to sink so much money into a stay if I knew I was at a disadvantage to other guests staying on site. It’s already hard to justify value when you take our exchange rate into account, so I imagine this will be a tipping point for many. I’m feeling very lucky we’ve squeezed this trip in before changes but I feel for international visitors who have already booked for after the 24th. I could not recommend WDW to friends and family with this change – I would not want it to be any harder to get value for money spent. I realise we’re a small market – perhaps so much so that we are insignificant? But I wouldn’t have thought we weren’t worth the same deal domestic guests receive.
I should add, our previous experience has been four visits between 2011 – 2018 with hours of pre-planning & pre-booking that the then Fastpass (and dining reservation systems) required. I’ve enjoyed being a bit more flexible with Genie+ this time, but these extra costs are becoming prohibitive for us (despite earlier comments, visitors from Australia don’t get discounted tickets). This change will help us realise it’s time for our family to do other things – it’s a big world to explore out there so that’s totally ok – but I really hope for the sake of others that Disney will reconsider and not disadvantage its international guests.
Such a shame they’re bringing in this unfair system, I’ve stayed at Coronado Springs in the Tower for the last two years I won’t be back to be treated like this next year.
Disney has clarified that Canadian visitors can still use the app to plan their LL reservations after July 24th, same as U.S. residents can. For other international visitors, there may be a technical or legal reason we don’t know about that prevents them from using the new system at this time. I highly doubt Disney deliberately said “Hey, let’s piss off all those Brits and other foreigners by blocking them from using the new system.” I would also point out to those shouting “Unfair!” that UK guests in particular get some pretty sweet offers for their trips that we in the U.S. can never access.
I can assure you that the days of British visitors receiving any sort of worthwhile offers are long gone!