Disney has announced a new way to skip the lines at its parks. But depending on where you go and when, you might have to spend over $400 a day per person to take advantage of the new Lightning Lane Premier Pass.
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On Wednesday, Disney announced its plans to roll out a new tier of Lightning Lane, a pre-existing program that lets visitors pay extra to skip the lines for certain rides in Disney World and Disneyland. Previously, Lightning Lane Multi Passes, which let you skip the line on multiple rides, cost $32 a day per person, though the price could increase for various reasons. These passes forced guests to select a time to arrive for their “line skip,” which could cause problems if you were late. This newly announced tier of line skipping, Premier Pass, does away with that restriction, but at a steep cost.
As spotted by GameSpot, the new “Premier” pass—which will be available later this month—will cost up to $450 a day per person at Disney World. The price varies depending on the park and when you go, with Disney saying that the highest prices will be found on a “limited number of days over peak travel periods.”
Here are the prices for each park, but keep in mind that you still need to buy a ticket to the park, and at Disney World, only folks staying in Disney World hotels on property will be eligible to buy these new, limited passes.
Disney’s Animal Kingdom: $129 to $199
EPCOT: $169 to $249
Disney’s Hollywood Studios: $269 to $349
Magic Kingdom: $329 to $449
Meanwhile, at Disneyland, the Premier pass will cost $400 per person until December 31. In 2025, the pass will drop to $300 to $400 a day per person, based on what dates you visit.
In 2023, Disney CEO Bob Iger said that the massive company had been “too aggressive” about increasing prices at the parks and wanted to make them more “accessible.” This, uh, doesn’t seem like a good way to do that. And sure, you can argue that people don’t need to buy these passes, that they can just wait in line, but ride queues can get quite long and waiting sucks. Besides, the big appeal of Disney World and Disneyland is the rides! And making it more expensive to actually enjoy them seems like the opposite of making your parks more accessible to more people.
If you’re going down the bayou to ride Walt Disney World’sTiana’s Bayou Adventure, there’s a few things you need to know to make sure you’ll be able to experience the Magic Kingdom’s newest exciting attraction. It won’t have a traditional “wake up early and rush to the line” queue, but rather an online virtual queue you’ll have to wake up early to enter on the MyDisneyExperience app (with a second shot in the afternoon)—or as a pay-as-you go Lightning Lane, which has replaced Genie+ just in time for the in-demand ride’s opening.
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When Does Tiana’s Bayou Adventure open?
Disney’s Orlando theme park has officially opened the long-needed replacement for the dated and problematic Splash Mountain with a property that fans love. The Princess and the Frog universe expands with a continuation in ride form following Tiana’s adventures through the swampy, magical land of New Orleans with the bones of Disney World’s iconic log flume ride. Soft previews in the past few weeks and first-day reactions are flooding the internet with praise celebrating the incredible animatronic work, sets, and music with Disney Animation’s original cast—including Tiana herself, Anika Noni Rose, singing the ride’s finale song. So if you’re heading to Disney World this summer, it’s not to be missed if you want to keep cool on a water ride and see Princess Tiana’s fairytale continue before her Disney+ animated series Tiana arrives.
Image: Sabina Graves/Gizmodo
How to Ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure
Here’s the spice: in order to ride without any additional costs beyond park admission, make sure you have the MyDisneyExperience app downloaded before your trip. On the app, ensure that your entire party’s tickets are saved under the trip planner’s profile (pick the most tech-savvy person in your group to handle this)—but multiple people can try to book on the Virtual Queue for the entire group at the same time; you just have to make sure they select all party guests for your boarding group lottery.
Walt Disney World’s Virtual Queue is available twice a day, once at 7 a.m.(which can be done at your leisure from anywhere on property) and then at 1 p.m.—the catch at Magic Kingdom is that TRON Lightcycle/Run currently still only has virtual boarding groups, so you have to choose between Tiana and Tron. If you want to do both, you can try for Tiana in the morningbut not get it, and then have a hard choice at 1 p.m. to try to secure the free boarding group pass for Tiana’s again (not guaranteed) or Tron (also not guaranteed). It’s worth noting that in order to try for a second time at 1 p.m., your party has to be inside of Magic Kingdom to be eligible—and you can only hold a boarding group once per day during the park’s operating hours.
It feels tricky—it is tricky!—but there’s another way to make sure you’ll get to ride Tiana’s Bayou Adventure and Tron, or any high demand ride like Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind which is restricted to the Virtual Queue and does not have standby lines currently available.
What is the new Lighting Lane option at Walt Disney World?
Genie+ is gone! Poof! Disney Experiences’ pay-as-you-go option has streamlined the process by rebranding as simply Lightning Lane, the line that used to contain the free fastpass (RIP to that feature). It’s had multiple names since becoming a financial add-on at both Disney World and Disneyland but will now be known as Lightning Lane, broken down into Lightning Lane Multi Pass (a three-ride package) or Lightning Lane Single Pass for an individual ride.
Purchasing a Lightning Lane Multi Pass allows you to make up to three Lightning Lane selections in a theme park. If you’re staying at a Disney hotel or a participating neighbor hotel, you will be able to access this up to seven days before your trip to make selections, and you’ll be able choose available times as you make your ride choices. If you’re purchasing the Multi Pass the day of your visit, your selections will vary on availability. Your three ride selections will come from three levels: one from rides that have the highest demands like an E-ticket new attraction (think Tiana or Tron),and two that will be lower in demand level (think classics, i.e. Haunted Mansion). The cost of a Lightning Lane Multi Pass will vary depending on when you go, scaled between peak vacation days and the off-season.
If you only want to secure a single new Lightning Lane for Tiana’s Bayou Adventure or other in-demand rides or attractions, the same booking rules apply—and day of availability will vary, with the stipulation that you’ll only be able to buy into two single Lightning Lane options for your party.
This is what the options look like on Day 1 in the afternoon at Walt Disney World.
Image: Sabina Graves/Gizmodo
Don’t miss out on Tiana’s Bayou Adventure by not being in the know—and make sure you plan your Disney World vacation with the above in mind. And if you miss out or have a Disneyland trip planned this year instead, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure will also open on the West Coast soon in Walt Disney’s original park in Anaheim, CA.
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During Pixar Fest at the Disneyland Resort, the Turning Red crew have brought 4*Town into the spotlight for show-stopping moments that will get you on your feet. First, during the day, you can catch them featured on their own float in the Better Together: A Pixar Pals Celebration parade at Disney’s California Adventure. We get to finally see red panda Mei she performs “Nobody Like You” with 4*Town and her best friends—even Mei’s dad in the cardboard red panda costume gets in on the action. It’s exciting to see Disney lean into its own boy band fandom. Take a look below to see the Turning Red parade float in action!
Then at night, Turning Red is featured twice during Together Forever: A Pixar Nighttime Spectacular. The first segment features Mei’s introduction with friends and her red panda transformation practice set to fireworks; it’s so cool to see a kaiju-sized panda Mei on the Sleeping Beauty castle and a welcome addition to the show.
“Together Forever is a story about meeting new friends. It’s about taking those friends and setting out on adventures. And it’s about overcoming adversity together,” shared KC Wilkerson, the principal media designer for Disney Live Entertainment at the Disneyland Resort and show director for the return of Together Forever. He noted that Turning Red’s story was perfect for the parade’s theme and wraps it all up in the film’s second appearance in the show. “We’ve also changed what we call the walk-out of the show—we changed the song so we get to enjoy an instrumental version of ‘Nobody Like You’ from Turning Red,” Wilkerson said. And it’s such a sweet moment to close out on.
Robledo discussed how the magic all comes together thanks to the Imagineers. “This is a milestone. It’s the first time we’ve seen these characters realized in three dimensions, and so much care is included from the finishing group into the hair, the texture of the hair and color of the hair, the materials themselves, and the fact that they can do this 18 hours a day, all day long is amazing,” he said. “ And that really is the credit of the care design from who’s going to build these things, be able to perform all day long.”
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Last week, Disney CEO Bob Iger asked rhetorically if Florida and its governor, Ron DeSantis, wanted all of the company’s business and taxes. Now, events are moving beyond the mere rhetorical as Disney—citing “new leadership and changing business conditions” in Florida—has canceled big plans to move thousands of its staff and their families to the Sunshine State from California, and also axed a planned $1 billion facility in Florida.
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As reported by Deadline on May 18, Disney Parks and Resorts boss Josh D’Amaro sent a note to Disney Parks, Experiences & Products employees explaining that the massive corporation is abandoning its plan to transfer about 2,000 employees and their families to Florida. Also in the note was the announcement that Disney will no longer be building a massive campus facility in the state’s Lake Nona region. Staff who have already relocated in preparation for that facility will be given the opportunity to return back to California.
“Given the considerable changes that have occurred since the announcement of this project, including new leadership and changing business conditions, we have decided not to move forward with construction of the campus,” D’Amaro wrote in his Thursday note. “This was not an easy decision to make, but I believe it is the right one. As a result, we will no longer be asking our employees to relocate. For those who have already moved, we will talk to you individually about your situation, including the possibility of moving you back.”
These now-canned plans were announced back in 2021, with Disney then looking to move most jobs and related staff not directly working on California’s Disneyland theme park to Florida. In 2022, as tensions between Disney and Florida increased, the company announced a delay until 2026. Now, as Florida and Disney’s war grows hotter, it seems the Walt Disney Company is done dealing with DeSantis, and is willing to walk away from a reported $550 million in tax credits, too.
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This ongoing war between Disney and DeSantis—likely to be one of the GOP’s frontrunners for president in 2024—started in 2022 with House Bill 1557, referred to by opponents as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which prevents discussion of sexual identity in Florida’s public schools. The law is just one part of DeSantis’ ongoing culture war over LGBTQ issues. After DeSantis signed the controversial bill into law—and following pressure both internally and publicly—the Walt Disney Company eventually issued a statement in March of last year, calling for a repeal of the bill. In response to Disney’s lukewarm stand against the law, the governor said the company had “crossed the line.”
What followed was an action seen by many as punishment against Disney for speaking out against the controversial bill. DeSantis went after Disney World’s special zoning district, which was established in 1967 and allowed the popular park to be exempt from normal Florida laws concerning matters like building codes.
Following the spat, the governor created House Bill 9B to restructure the district. The bill, in part, gave the district a new name, and appointed a new board of DeSantis-picked directors to oversee it. This crony-packed board lost most of its power this past March after being outsmarted by Disney lawyers. The defanged board then tried to undo what had been done, leading to an immediate lawsuit filed by Disney on April 26 to fight back against the state and DeSantis.
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California Governor Gavin Newsom was quick to respond to today’s news, tweeting, “Turns out, bigoted policies have consequences. That’s 2,000+ jobs that will be welcomed back with open arms to the Golden State. Thank you for doing the right thing, Disney.”
Shortly after the news broke that Disney was canceling its plans to invest more jobs and money into Florida, DeSantis press secretary Jeremy Redfern shared a statement about the situation. According to Redfern, the state was “unsure” that the planned facility in Lake Nona would ever happen. He also suggested that Disney was in “financial straits” and that this move was “unsurprising.”
“Disney announced the possibility of a Lake Nona campus nearly two years ago,” said Redfern in the statement. “Nothing ever came of the project, and the state was unsure whether it would come to fruition. Given the company’s financial straits, falling market cap, and declining stock price, it is unsurprising that they would restructure their business operations and cancel unsuccessful ventures.”
While DeSantis and his office may be playing this one cool at the moment, it’s unlikely they are happy to see billions of dollars in future taxes and revenue, as well as thousands of jobs, vanish into the ether as Disney begins to reevaluate how much business it wants to conduct in Florida going forward.
