Why do lightning lanes sell out?

Selling Out & Hardest to Get Most Individual Lightning Lane attractions will sell out at some point during a given day. This depends on the date you are visiting and how crowded the theme parks are that day. The most popular attractions will sell out first, sometimes within minutes of reservations opening up.



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You may be out of luck for purchasing Individual Lightning Lanes for any attraction if you're staying offsite on high crowd days. Rise of the Resistance used to be the clear winner of the popularity contest here, and that doesn't hold true anymore either. At all crowd levels, Flight of Passage sells out first.

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If an attraction is unavailable for purchase once you open your app that day to check, that likely means it sold out for the day. For these rides, I suggest making your purchase as early as possible to ensure you'll be able to experience that attraction.

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It only begins when the park opens. Let's say you got up early and booked a Lightning Lane for Haunted Mansion at 7 am. The return time you were able to get starts at 12:15 pm. The park opens at 9 a.m. Thanks to the 120 minute rule, starting at 11 am, you can book another Lightning Lane.

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Here's a look at a graph from thrill-data showing just how unprecedented yesterday was. This graph shows Individual Lightning Lane availability for Rise of the Resistance for the past 30 days. As you can see, Individual Lightning Lane typically sells out before 9am (or shortly thereafter).

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As a general rule of thumb Disney Lightning Lane passes for the most popular rides at each of the Disney World theme parks can sell out within minutes after the 7:00 AM release time. This is especially true when travelling to Walt Disney World during one of the busier times of year such as the summer or the Holidays.

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Ride Reservation Refills Aren't Guaranteed For some rides, Lightning Lane reservations are typically refilled multiple times throughout the day, while other attractions only rarely get a return window boost. It depends on guest demand, which can vary substantially depending on the season or even from day to day.

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All guests, regardless of where they stay, are limited to a maximum of two pay-per-ride attractions per day and can only book a particular ride once per day. What about Annual Passholders? Annual Passholders will need to purchase Genie+ on the day(s) of their visit.

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There is a grace period if you're early. While there are specific times linked to your Lightning Lane reservation, they do give a little leeway to guests who are early. There is a five minute grace period before that stated time where they will go ahead and honor your Lightning Lane pass. But five minutes is it!

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1. You can only book Lightning Lanes one at at time. Unlike with the old Fastpass system, Genie Plus Lightning Lanes can only booked one at a time. You must badge in to the attraction before you can book your next one.

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Can Disneyland Genie Plus rides sell out? Genie+ rides are not guaranteed. The most popular rides can run out of available Genie+ Lightning Lane selections.

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To use the Lightning Lane, you need a reservation for a specific time. Disney Genie is a feature of My Disney Experience. The Genie page in the app has two tabs, the Tip Board and the My Day tab. On the Tip Board, you can see attraction and dining information to help you make decisions as you tour.

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After that, Genie+ Lightning Lane refills tend to occur throughout the day, usually shortly after the hour or half-hour (e.g. 9:02 am, 9:33 am, 12:02 pm, 1:32 pm, 2:03 pm, etc). Those are examples, not exact times. Actual ride reservation refill times vary by day, park, crowd levels, and attraction downtime.

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While there is no limit to Lightning Lanes, there is a limit to Individual Lightning Lanes. You can book up to two Individual Lightning Lanes per day. Currently as of April 2023, Walt Disney World offers ILLs on Seven Dwarves Mine Train, TRON, Cosmic Rewind, Rise of the Resistance, and Flight of Passage.

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The Genie 120-minute rule says that you can make a new reservation at most 2 hours from when you made the last one, and this countdown timer doesn't change if you modify the reservation. If you made it at, say, 11 a.m., then your two hours will be up at 1 p.m. even if you modify the reservation at noon.

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If you select a Lightning Lane through the Disney Genie and the return time is more than 2 hours after the current time and after park open, then after 2 hours you can go in and select your next Lightning Lane even though you have not redeemed your first one.

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The Genie 120-minute rule says that you can make a new reservation at most 2 hours from when you made the last one, and this countdown timer doesn't change if you modify the reservation. If you made it at, say, 11 a.m., then your two hours will be up at 1 p.m. even if you modify the reservation at noon.

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Honestly, it's not so much that there are differences between Lightning Lane and Genie+, but that one is the subset of the other. Genie+ is something that you purchase for each member of your family. It includes access to specialized photo filters and audio guides and the ability to use Lightning Lanes on most rides.

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Genie Plus is definitely worth it for Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, and if you don't like early starts, you might consider it for Epcot and Animal Kingdom. If you are park hopping, Genie+ is even better value as it maximises the number of rides you have access to.

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You can make your first Genie+ Lightning Lane booking for the day at 7AM. It doesn't matter if you're a guest of a Disney hotel or not, all guests can make their first booking at 7AM. You can make Genie+ Lightning Lane bookings through the Genie Tip Board in the Disney World app.

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Lightning Lane and Individual Lightning Lane work independently of one another, so you are in fact able to book attractions that have overlapping time slots. If these attractions are close to one another this might work in your favor but double-check your itinerary first so that you don't end up missing one!

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If you select a Lightning Lane through the Disney Genie and the return time is more than 2 hours after the current time and after park open, then after 2 hours you can go in and select your next Lightning Lane even though you have not redeemed your first one.

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