It’s a BIG day in Disneyland Resort!

Today (October 23rd), Disney is launching its new Lightning Lane Premier Pass service on the West Coast (before it launches in Disney World next week), and we’re here to try it out. Is this new offering for skipping the long lines worth the cost? We’re about to find out.

What IS Lightning Lane Premier Pass?

Before we dive into our experience today, let’s talk about the new service. Lightning Lane Premier Pass is a “luxury” style offering where you pay to access ALL the Lightning Lanes in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure for one day. With your purchase, you get access to each Lightning Lane one time, including every attraction on the Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Lightning Lane Single Pass lists.

The big kicker is that Premier Pass costs $400 per person per day. (Hence why we called it a “luxury” type offering.) Through December 31st, 2024, that price will remain the same. Starting in 2025, price will vary by date but will remain in the $300-$400 per person, per day range.

With Premier Pass, you’ll be able to skip the process of booking your Lightning Lanes throughout the day and scheduling return times. Instead, you just show up to the Lightning Lane entrance and scan in at whatever time is convenient for you.

So, let’s test it out!

Why are we rope dropping Disneyland, you may ask? To test out the FIRST DAY of Lightning Lane Premier Pass, of course! Stay tuned throughout the day as we tackle this new Lightning Lane system! pic.twitter.com/aBGpaVgyjm

— Disney Food Blog (@DisneyFoodBlog) October 23, 2024

Purchasing Lightning Lane Premier Pass

To purchase Lightning Lane Premier Pass, you’ll need to log into the Disneyland app at 7AM Pacific time two days before your visit. But as it’s the first day of the offering, we had to purchase the morning of.

Starting on the app home page, you’ll need to select the Premier Pass option…

… and choose which day you’d like to use it for.

Once you purchase your Premier Pass, a single scannable ticket appears in the Disneyland App for you to use, and the wait times for each eligible ride appear on app’s home screen.

Step-By-Step: How to Buy Lightning Lane Premier Pass on the Disneyland App

Using Lightning Lane Premier Pass

We’re starting out by testing the Premier Pass at Disneyland! Here, we headed to Galaxy’s Edge first to see how it works.

When we reached Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run, we opened the app and selected the attraction from the list of available Premier Pass attractions.

… which in turn redeemed our pass for the simulator attraction.

Following our ride, Smugglers Run was “Redeemed” and is now unavailable to be selected a second time.

Be forewarned that while Premier Pass is expensive, the actual process when you arrive at the attraction is the same. You’ll still redeem at the Lightning Lane entrance and join the same Lightning Lane queue that you would if you were using Lightning Lane Multi Pass or Lightning Lane Single Pass. There are no additional perks beyond the normal Lightning Lane usage. 

As our day went on, we continued to use Premier Pass *almost* entirely successfully, redeeming rides across Disneyland, including Rise of the Resistance, Star Tours, Pirates of the Caribbean, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Autopia, and the Indiana Jones Adventure. We boarded the majority of these attractions quickly.

Now, we say almost, because there were a couple of technical snafus. Specifically, at one point our rides briefly disappeared from the Disneyland app. Now, they did reappear quickly, but it is a technical glitch to note.

Thanks for coming along with us to Disneyland to test out the new pass! We’ll keep you in the loop when it arrives in Disney World.

Click Here to Learn More About Premier Pass!

Would you try using this service? Tell us in the comments!