Welcome to planDisney, Hiram! Your magical vacation is almost here, and I'm sure you're ready to reach out and find your Happily Ever After at the Walt Disney World Resort! Let's talk all things Lightning Lane so you'll be ready to go when your booking window opens in a few days!
Lightning Lanes are separate attraction entrances that allow eligible guests to bypass the standby queue on select attractions to experience a shorter wait time. There are two separate ways to access the Lightning Lane entry for select attractions - using Lightning Lane Multi Pass and/or Lightning Lane Single Pass. For both of these products, guests may choose to purchase them per day for their visit. As you mentioned, if you are staying at a Disney Resort hotel, your advance booking window opens 7 days before check-in for the length of your visit; so if you plan to visit the parks for 3 days, you will be eligible to make 3 advance Lightning Lane selections for each day using the Lightning Lane Multi Pass, and you will also be eligible to make two advance Lightning Lane Single Pass selections if you choose. This, however, is just the beginning!
Once you've made your advance Multi Pass selections (check out the included
attractions and experiences here), you will be eligible to make additional selections while you are in the theme parks each time you redeem a Lightning Lane entry. Since you mentioned
park hopping, you will also be eligible to make additional selections in a different theme park than the one you initially selected if your plans include visiting a different park later on the same day. These additional selections are, of course, subject to availability and available for booking throughout the day in your
My Disney Experience mobile app.
Hiram, I haven't used this new system yet, but I'm looking forward to trying it out in November when I visit. I'm hopeful that the ability to make advance selections and then pick up attractions across multiple parks with my park hopper ticket will help me to experience all of my favorite attractions with less time waiting in line.
I hope this helps, Hiram, and I hope you get all of the attractions you want in advance of your visit so you can enjoy the magic in the moment! If you have any additional questions about
how to purchase Lightning Lanes, or
how to modify your initial selections if need be, come on back to
planDisney and let us know! We're always happy to help!
Happy Planning,
Alison