Walt Disney World has announced a new line-skipping option with a high price tag. The Premier Pass, which will cost from $129 to $449 per person per day, grants one-time access to the Lightning Lane queue for every attraction that offers it.
The price point range means that, in most cases, a Premier Pass will cost more than a 1-day park ticket.
Is Lightning Lane Premier Pass the Best Value for Your Money?
With this new information, we broke down all the options for optimizing your Walt Disney World day to determine the best value for your money. Below, we’ll look at each option for each theme park and then compare. Since the Lightning Lane options both use variable date-based pricing, we will look at the lowest price for each.
For this option, we’ll consider the value for a guest who purchases both the multi pass and the available single passes. The multi pass gives guests the ability to pre-book up to three attractions at once. For the purpose of the comparison, we will assume that the guest will use the multi pass at three attractions.
Another option is a private VIP tour. Tours are priced starting at $450 per hour for a minimum of 7 hours. For comparison purposes, we’ll use the base rate of $3,150, which includes up to ten guests. We will also only compare the value of the attraction access and not any other perks offered.
Magic Kingdom
Lightning Lane Multi Pass & Individual
- Multi Pass – $20
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train Single Pass – $10
- TRON Lightcycle / Run Single Pass – $20
Potential number of attractions: 5
Lightning Lane Premier Pass – $329
Potential number of attractions: 20
Cost Comparison
| LL Multi Pass & Single Pass | LL Premier Pass | VIP Tour* | |
| Price per person | $50 | $329 | $315 |
| Price per family of 4 | $200 | $1,316 | — |
| Price per 10 people | $500 | $3,290 | $3,150 |
| Average price per attraction, per person | $10 | $16.45 | $15.75 |
EPCOT
Lightning Lane Multi Pass & Individual
- Multi Pass – $15
- Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind – $14
Potential number of attractions: 4
Lightning Lane Premier Pass – $169
Potential number of attractions: 11
Cost Comparison
| LL Multi Pass & Single Pass | LL Premier Pass | VIP Tour* | |
| Price per person | $29 | $169 | $315 |
| Price per family of 4 | $116 | $676 | — |
| Price per 10 people | $290 | $1,690 | $3,150 |
| Average price per attraction, per person | $7.25 | $15.36 | $28.64 |
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Lightning Lane Multi Pass & Individual
- Multi Pass – $20
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance – $20
Potential number of attractions: 4
Lightning Lane Premier Pass – $269
Potential number of attractions: 14
Cost Comparison
| LL Multi Pass & Single Pass | LL Premier Pass | VIP Tour* | |
| Price per person | $40 | $269 | $315 |
| Price per family of 4 | $160 | $1,076 | — |
| Price per 10 people | $400 | $2,690 | $3,150 |
| Average price per attraction, per person | $10 | $19.21 | $22.50 |
Disney’s Animal Kingdom
Lightning Lane Multi Pass & Individual
- Multi Pass – $15
- AVATAR Flight of Passage – $13
Potential number of attractions: 4
Lightning Lane Premier Pass – $129
Potential number of attractions: 10
Cost Comparison
| LL Multi Pass & Single Pass | LL Premier Pass | VIP Tour* | |
| Price per person | $28 | $129 | $315 |
| Price per family of 4 | $112 | $516 | — |
| Price per 10 people | $280 | $1,290 | $3,150 |
| Average price per attraction, per person | $7 | $12.90 | $31.50 |
Which is the Best Value?
Each option offers different advantages regardless of the park in which they are used, as illustrated in the table below.
| LL Multi Pass & Individual | LL Premier Pass | VIP Tour | |
| Allows Park Hopping | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Anyone Can Buy | ✔ | ✔ | |
| No Scheduling | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Potential # of Rides | 3 + Single Pass | All LL attractions | Unlimited |
By Total Cost
When looking at the total cost, the Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Single Passes for each park are going to be the lowest. If you want to ensure access to select specific rides but don’t care about experiencing every attraction, this is still your best value.
Choosing this option means that you have access to a minimum of four Lightning Lane attractions per day, though you can book more on the Multi Pass when you use your original three, so it has the potential to be of greater value.
By Average Price Per Ride
There’s a stark difference between Magic Kingdom and the other three theme parks. Magic Kingdom is the highest priced park for all options and has significantly more attractions. Therefore, if you’re a large group, the VIP Tour is your best value at Magic Kingdom. This does not apply to the other parks, for which the Lightning Lane options are significantly cheaper.
By Number of Attractions
It comes down to how much value you attribute to experiencing most or all of the available attractions. If your goal is to do everything at the park in one day, Lightning Lane Premier Pass is your best bet. If you have just a few must-do items on your list, Multi Pass and Single Pass are the better choice. But if you want the freedom to do as many attractions as you want, a VIP Tour offers more flexibility.
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I don’t understand the reason for continuing with the “FastPass” (LL Multi Pass). With this amount of LLs, the normal line will never move, which will bring great dissatisfaction to visitors (as is already happening). If Disney is now going to offer a more expensive and more functional option, they should end the Multi Pass. As is the case at UO, it is better to have fewer people paying more than many people paying a lot and endless lines (whether the normal one or the LL). It is discouraging to pay so much for a ticket and still have to wait hours in line not because the line is long, but because there are too many priorities (which you here know very well…).