Hiya, Mary! I'm excited to welcome you to planDisney. Trips to
Walt Disney World Resort are even more magical when you enjoy them with other families. Making memories together is priceless!
I am glad you stopped by with this question about
Lightning Lane passes. Since you are not all staying within the
Disney Resorts Collection, the timing of when you can purchase these is a bit different. Your friends can access these starting seven days before their resort check-in for the length of their stay (up to 14 days). You will be able to purchase these starting three days before your first park visit. If you are using a date-based ticket, you can make selections for the number of days you are visiting the parks.
The easiest way to plan together is to wait until you all have access. At 7 am, three days before your first park day, you can purchase a Lightning Lane Single Pass or Lightning Lane Multi Pass for your whole group. With this, you will have the same arrival windows for all attractions.
If patience is not your thing, your friends can purchase theirs a week ahead. If you buy separately, you can try to coordinate, but you cannot combine into one group for the pre-arrival selections. Once you have purchased your passes a few days later, they can modify the times of their attraction selections to align with yours. You would want to coordinate when you do this because the options are based on availability, which is constantly changing.
When you are in the theme park, it's Hakuna Matata! Once you have each used your first Lightning Lane entry, you can pick another attraction in the
My Disney Experience app. The app will show you all eligible Guests you can include in the group. So even if you purchased separately to start, you can plan together as a group on your day in the magic.
Mary, I hope this helps clarify how the Lightning Lane passes could work for your trip. Please stop back by
planDisney with any other questions. We are here for you!
Thinking of the Happiest Things!
Jana