Lightning Lane Premier Pass Coming to Walt Disney World

 

 

For years, Walt Disney World fans have been clamoring for a "skip the line" service that was similar to Universal's Express Pass and today that day has arrived ... with a price.  We're going to take a look at Disney's new service, compare it to Express Pass as well as other Walt Disney World offerings and try to determine who actually the audience for this new product is.

Let's start with the basics - the new service is called Lightning Lane Premier Pass (LLPP).  These acronyms are going to be tough to follow, so please pay attention as to whether I'm using this one or the other Lightning Lane offerings - Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP) or Lightning Lane Multi-pass (LLMP).  Disney loves a good acronym!

Ride Closures & Delayed Openings Report

Disney dropped a few bits of news recently concerning their upcoming renovations and new attractions.  While these things are exciting, there is often the downside, which includes attractions currently going down for maintenance or going away entirely.  Since these items are all at least tangentially related and I didn't think any one individually deserved its own post, we'll look at them all here.

I'll start with what I consider the least important of these, which is that the Little Mermaid Musical Adventure stage show at Hollywood Studios has been delayed.  I can't say this comes as much of a surprise, as the opening timeframe was supposed to be ... well, right around now, and there just hadn't been much word since it had been announced.  

Magic Kingdom Wait Times - The Tron Effect?

 

A few weeks ago, we posted about Tron: Lightcycle Run dropping its virtual queue (VQ) at the Magic Kingdom and going to a normal standby system.  Now that we have a couple of weeks worth of data, I wanted to see how this major change has affected wait times at the park as a whole, as well as whether Tron has become the new "big bad" at Magic Kingdom, with the highest wait time throughout any given day.

My supposition in that earlier post was that Tron would indeed become the attraction with the highest wait time in the park, supplanting Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and would probably remain this way for years, until at least the new Cars rides if not Villains Land opened.  I also posited that the average wait time at the park as a whole would increase, as heretofore there was no posted wait time for Tron, meaning that even if a lot of people rode it in any given day, it wouldn't get included in the crowd level posts because there was no way to simply wait for it.  Throwing a major ride to the top of the wait times board would likely raise the average wait time since then (or so I figured).

Tron Lightcycle Run Dropping Virtual Queue

 

Disney just announced that Tron Lightcycle Run at Magic Kingdom will drop its virtual queue (VQ) system starting on September 9, 2024, and having a standby line for the attraction for the first time.  At first glance, I wasn't sure if I needed to make a post about this (small?) change, but the more I thought about it, the more I had to say.  So this post will look at why it's being done, compare it to the other VQ rides that are currently in existence and try to speculate about how this will affect crowd patterns going forward.

If you are unfamiliar (though I suspect that's not the case if you're reading this), a VQ is one of the (many) ways in which you can experience attractions at Walt Disney World.  The first one was Star Wars Rise of the Resistance way back in 2019, and most new rides debut with a VQ, at least for a little while.  Essentially it's just what it says it is - a virtual queue is where you can have your place in line held for you until your return time, while you are free to experience other attractions at the parks.  It amounts to a "free" ride in the future, as there is no cost for the VQ, either in money or time spent (except perhaps trying to secure one at the start of your day).

Disney Villains Stage Show Coming to Hollywood Studios

Concept art courtesy of Disney Parks Blog

 

In a somewhat surprising announcement, Disney posted about a new villains-themed stage show coming to Hollywood Studios in summer 2025.  This post will talk about what little we know about the show, what it's replacing and how this fits into all of the recent D23 announcements for the future of the parks.

The actual announcement is light on details (and therefore subject to change before opening) but it says that Sunset Showcase will "transform" into the "mysterious, reflective realm of the Magic Mirror."  It also say that dozens of villains will be a part of the show, including Cruella de Vil, Captain Hook and Maleficent.  

Cars Attractions to Replace Rivers of America

Artwork courtesy of Disney Parks Blog

 

This past weekend, Disney unveiled a bunch of blockbuster announcements at the annual D23 event in Anaheim.  It was easy to come out of that event with an air of positivity, as these projects will generally push the parks forward.  My next post was actually intended to be a follow up on the Villains Land announcement, a victory lap of sorts for a project that was almost universally lauded.

One of the things about events like D23, however, is that they give you all of the good news but rarely any of the bad.  In the case of Villains Land, we already know that it is going to be "beyond Big Thunder" at Magic Kingdom, in an area that wasn't utilized as park space.  Some of the other new attractions didn't mention where specifically they were going.  There's still a possibility that the Monsters Inc. Land at Hollywood Studios, for example, will lead to a closer of the beloved Muppetvision 3D. 

D23 Announcements - Blue Sky Becomes Reality

 

All artwork courtesy of Disney Parks Blog

The annual D23 convention is taking place in Anaheim this weekend.  Disney always has a ton of stuff to announce, and plenty of celebrities to trot out to help with these announcements.  There were already a ton of things announced for the entertainment division the other day, but for the purposes of this blog, the real focus is on the Parks and Experiences division, which had its major showcase last night

Even more specifically, this blog focuses on Walt Disney World.  There were a bunch of exciting announcements for Disneyland (with their 70th anniversary coming up next year) as well as the international parks and the cruise line.  But we're only going to look at the things that impact Disney World, and there were a bunch of bombshells this year.