Individual Lightning Lane Review

Rather than launching one pay-to-skip solution with Genie+, Disney decided to complicate things a little extra by also launching Individual Lightning Lane (ILL). It’s an odd choice and I have to wonder if it’s a trial to see which approach goes forward. Either way, the focus on this post is just ILL (great abbreviation, I know). I’ll reference Genie+ – which we will go into more detail on later – but we’ll talk about it a bit here as we compare the two.

First, a brief explanation of ILL for those unfamiliar:

•  A select set of rides are available for ILL purchase on a given day at Walt Disney World. On our most recent trip this included Flight of Passage, Rise of the Resistance, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, Mickey and Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Space Mountain, and Frozen Ever After. On the last day of our trip (and as of this writing) the list was reduced to just the first four, or one in each park. Note: Expedition Everest was/is currently closed for refurbishment and not available. 
• Prices vary – by ride, time of year, and crowd levels – but currently do not go above $15 per person, per ILL.
• ILLs can be purchased through the My Disney Experience (MDE) app on the day of intended use. Guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort (or select good neighbor hotels) will be able to purchase starting at 7 a.m. Non-resort or off-property guests can purchase at official park open time. 
• In MDE, you will see a general time on the first screen (such as 10 a.m.) and then will be presented with a few more specific time options to select around the original time on the following screen (such as 10:15, 10:30, 10:45, etc.). Times sell out in order – 10 a.m. then 11 a.m. and so on. In theory this means that if the current time offered doesn’t work for you, you can wait a bit and get the next. In practice, ILLs sell out so quickly that times feel randomly assigned since they can change drastically from what you initially select. 
• During purchase, you can select the party members who want to ride the ILL attraction and you do not have to automatically purchase for every person in your group.
• Once purchased, an ILL cannot be changed and requires contacting Guest Services to cancel.

From my personal experience, on our most recent trip to Walt Disney World in February, my family used ILL a total of four times:

*Due to ride breakdown, this became a “return at any time” pass.
**This conflicted with an Advanced Dining Reservation (ADR) we had and the second Guest Services Cast Member we talked to switched it to a “return at any time” pass.

Buying ILL

The ILLs are for the most popular rides at Walt Disney World and they sell out fast, instantly even. It wasn’t uncommon while en route to a park or walking around to overhear someone discussing how they failed to obtain a Rise or Mine Train pass that morning. Our experience was that ILLs went very fast and if you did not get one in the first 30-seconds of new times dropping (read about this in our upcoming Genie+ tips and tricks), you didn’t get one. This was particularly frustrating on two occasions where we got all the way to payment and then the app froze, only to have the passes gone after exiting the processing screen and reentering. One of my upcoming articles in this series will be about issues in the app, and this is a big one. It also means when there is a time, you take it and figure it out later.

This happened to us on the last day of our trip when we had an ADR for Storybook Dining at the same time we got for Mine Train. A major issue is if this happens, there is no way to change or cancel your ILL on your own. When we went to Guest Services to address this scheduling conflict, we had an inconsistent experience. The first Cast Member told us to go to our dinner reservation and then come back after (around 8 p.m. and many hours after our slotted time) where then ride operators would either fit us in or not – and if not, we could return to Guest Services again to get a refund. Discussing this shortly after, we went back to just cancel even before our dinner but the second Cast Member changed the ILL to an anytime pass. The inability to change or cancel easily is an issues, but it is made worse by the mad dash buying process that sees you accepting bad times and trying to fix them afterwards.

Conclusion

Overall, ILL is a good product. You get exactly what you pay for and the value is surprisingly reasonable relative to Disney’s other pricing (I’ll share my thoughts on this later). The issue with ILL generally comes down to how it’s sold and the inability to make any adjustments through the app. These issues are shared with Genie+ and I’ll go deeper into them soon. I also like the general concept – if you go to Walt Disney World and there is one “make-or-break” ride for your trip, being able to pay a little to guarantee you can ride it is nice.

— Dave