Hey Howdy Hey Steven and welcome back to planDisney!
Lightning Lane Multi Pass is the new product that will give families and visitors to the Walt Disney World Resort more opportunities in the future. Allowing families to plan several days in advance which attractions they want to experience compared to doing it the day of is a huge win in my book! As you mentioned though Steven, there are concerns that come about with this opportunity as well. Thank you for your question and I will be happy to give you some options and strategies for navigating this situation.
When booking your Lightning Lane experiences, you will have the option to do so as long as you are
staying onsite with Disney Resorts Collection 7 days before your date of arrival. You will then have 14 days in the future to cover your length of stay in the parks. The first few days of your reservation you may find that there are times you might not have access to and worst case, attractions you may not have access to. While this might be rare not having the ability to book the attraction you want, you may have to be flexible with your timing on attractions.
One huge strategy that I can offer is saving your more popular attractions for later in your visit. If you plan to purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass, start later in your trip and work your way back from there. You may find later in your trip you are better able to plan your "perfect" day in the park with the attractions and dining experiences planned accordingly. Earlier in your trip, you might have to be more flexible with the timing of experiences due to more people having access to those dates and times for attractions.
With similar products used in the past, it may be possible for attractions to fully book up for the day before your availability window but it is rare. New attractions such as
Tiana's Bayou Adventure in Magic Kingdom will have the greatest risk of being fully booked. The strategy above should help to minimize this risk during your trip. Magic Kingdom has the most attractions available so may not be as likely for things to be booked compared to other Theme Parks with fewer attractions. This may take extra planning steps but if you use a crowd calendar for Walt Disney World during your days in the parks, this will better inform you which parks you may want to visit on which days and expected crowd levels. These numbers may also correspond to Lightning Lane availability in the future. Just know you don't have to use one if you are not that kind of planner!
I hope this helps give you some insights into the soon-to-rollout process. If you have further questions about strategy or anything,
please feel free to reach out directly to me for any questions!
To Infinity and Beyond,
Nick