Disney Tips Your Guide To A Great Disney Vacation
The Walt Disney World Resort is set to drop its pricey Lightning Lane Premier Pass at Magic Kingdom quite significantly.
Credit: David Aughinbaugh II, Flickr
With The Walt Disney Company confirming lighter attendance but bigger revenue in its last earnings quarter, it’s easier to see why the Disney Experiences arm continues to push its pricier add-ons. Not only have vacation costs–including hotel stays and ticket admission–grown, but so too has the demand for things like the Lightning Lane.
Across three different pathways (the Single, Multi, and Premier Passes), the Lightning Lane at the Walt Disney World Resort is available at all four theme parks and offers guests a chance to skip the traditional standby line for expedited access to their favorite attractions.
While the Single Pass gives access to just one attraction per purchase (such as Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind at EPCOT), the Multi and Premier Pass options allow guests to select multiple rides or experiences. The latter gives guests Lightning Lane access to the whole catalog at one specific park–it’s the reason why it is the most expensive option for visitors.
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Operating on a variable pricing scale across parks and within each park’s dates, the Lightning Lane Premier Pass has been a controversial offering at the Walt Disney World Resort. That said, sell-outs continue to occur, especially during busy seasonal periods like Spring Break, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, when prices can reach their highest, at $449.
And while the Magic Kingdom Premier Pass has been hovering in the $300-$400 range for quite some time, that all changes on August 23, when guests can snag the all-access ticket for its lowest price of $299. That sub-$300 price tag also applies on August 25. There are two clear reasons for this significant drop.
The first is that both of these August dates are Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party dates, with non-ticketed guests needing to leave the park at 6 p.m. ahead of the festivities. The popular Halloween Party returns to Magic Kingdom on August 7, and the changes to operating hours and Lightning Lane pricing indicate that Disney World is aiming to cater to both sets of guests.
Credit: Steven Miller, Flickr
Secondly, the last week in August is historically a quiet period for Disney World, with children heading back to school among the reasons footfall gets softer. “For each of the last 3 years, the last week of August has had the lowest year-to-date crowds (up to that point) at Walt Disney World with average wait times under 25 minutes and 1/10 crowd levels,” Disney Tourist Blog writes in its August analysis.
As Disney closes out the summer season and transitions into fall, the late August period may be the best time to visit for both crowd levels and Lightning Lane prices.
What is your favorite time to visit the Walt Disney World Resort? Let Inside the Magic know in the comments down below!
