The pros and cons of Lightning Lane Single Pass at Animal Kingdom all come down to the stats for one very popular ride experience: Avatar: Flight of Passage. It’s the ride that’s just a little bit different, but always has a crazy queue time. If you’re wondering how to beat the queues a Lightning Lane Single Pass could be the option for you. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons of Animal Kingdom’s Lightning Lane Single Pass.
Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Single Pass: An Overview
Lightning Lane Single Pass is one of the two paid queue options available in Animal Kingdom. You pay a one-off cost for a single ride experience to beat the queue. It’s been in effect since July and is the replacement service for the Genie+ paid queue systems. The main difference from the old system is that visitors are now able to plan and schedule their rides in advance of their visit to Animal Kingdom.
Lightning Lane Single Pass
There is only one ride in Animal Kingdom using a Lightning Lane Single Pass. That ride is Avatar: Flight of Passage. It is the most popular ride in the park and one of the most popular rides in Disney World Resort in Florida. With queue times hitting 3 hours on the busiest days of the year, you can see why people opt to purchase Lightning Lane Single Pass. No one wants to queue for three hours.
Avatar: Flight of Passage
An immersive 3D ride experience with a unique seating experience, riders fly through the Pandora skies on the back of a banshee. It’s a bit like Soarin, but upgraded with a Pandora overlay. It’s a 4 minute experience, with an engaging pre show and beautifully themed queue line. The queue line for this ride even has a toilet, in case you forget to go before you join the queue. You can also fill up your water bottle in this line.
Cost
The cost of Lightning Lane Single Pass for Avatar: Flight of Passage fluctuates daily. You can expect to pay between $12 and $16, which is £9 to £12 per person for your faster way queue experience. Here is our costings table so you know roughly how much to budget if you want to use Lightning Lane Single Pass in Animal Kingdom.
| Number of people | Cost $ | Cost £ |
| 1 | 12 – 14 | 9 – 12 |
| 2 | 24 – 28 | 18 – 21 |
| 3 | 36 – 42 | 27 – 32 |
| 4 | 48 – 56 | 37 – 43 |
| 5 | 60 – 70 | 46 – 53 |
| 6 | 72 – 84 | 55 – 64 |
How it works
Head to the app and choose a Lightning Lane Single Pass for Avatar: Flight of Passage. Choose the time in the app best for you and purchase it. You can change your time after booking if you need to. Head to the ride to enjoy your experience at the time you chose. Once you have had your ride, that’s it.
Park hopping
You can buy two Lightning Lane Single Pass in a day, which means that if you plan to park hop you can purchase another for one of the popular rides in the other 3 parks.
Choose wisely to skip the queues – but be wary. Some rides can be surprisingly quiet anyway at the right time of day
Animal Kingdom Lighting Lane Single Pass: Pros
The Lighting Lane Single Pass has some significant benefits to help your day go magically.
Smaller wait time
This is the option that will save you the most time out of every possible queue busting strategy for Avatar: Flight of Passage. Lightning Lane waits can be as low as 5 minutes for this ride, which makes it a wonderful time saving investment.
Choosing the Lightning Lane option for this ride is brilliant for visitors who have children who meet the height requirement of 112cm or 44 inches. No more hunting in your park bag for lots of queue line entertainment or rummaging for snacks, you can simply enjoy the ride with a short wait.
More time to enjoy other attractions
Losing over an hour of your day, and possibly up to 3 hours to enjoy 1 attraction is a big investment to make in a ride experience. It’s an even bigger investment to make if you only have 1 day to spend in Animal Kingdom during your holiday.
Using Lightning Lane Single Pass will give you more time to enjoy other attractions. This is a huge pro when you have only 1 day to pack as much Animal Kingdom magic in as you possibly can.
You don’t need another strategy
Using Lightning Lane Multi Pass is the most efficient way to beat the wait times. No other strategy is as consistently effective or efficient as this one. If you want to wait the shortest possible amount of time in a queue for Avatar: Flight of Passage this is for you. It will cost, but it will give you the result you want.
Resort guests using Early Entry can get similar results if they are in the park, near the front of the queue when early entry begins. Using the Single Pass you don’t need to commit to the early start of Rope Drop or Early Entry, you can have a lie in if you want. You don’t need to budget more to pay a resort stay and enjoy the Early Entry perk, a one-off Lightning Lane payment works.
Choose the time to suit you
The best perk of using the Single Pass is the ability to plan and pick your time to ride. This means you are able to plan your day around any other experiences you want to do, such as character dining or other Multi Pass reservations.
The freedom to choose extends beyond Disney reservations when you have young children with you, as you can plan around their needs. This makes your holiday so much easier and takes a lot of stress and anxiety out of your day.
Animal Kingdom Lighting Lane Single Pass: Cons
There are some cons to consider before deciding whether it’s the right option to beat the queues on your holiday from the UK.
UK Visitors cannot use the planning option
The new Lightning Lane system has a planning option for both Multi Pass and Single Pass purchases. The major problem with the planning feature is that UK guests can’t use it. You can only use the app to book this system in the US. This means UK guests can’t plan before their holiday. Because US guests can, availability of the passes for UK guests when they land is reduced. US guests can purchase and plan from up to 7 days before their park day if staying on resort. Meanwhile, a UK family staying on resort with a park ticket scheduled to begin on the same day, can’t purchase or plan their Lightning Lane until they land on US soil.
It’s a frustrating feature of the new Lightning Lane system that is a huge con for UK guests.
Cost
It’s a costly addition to skip a long queue for a 4 minute attraction. Although, for some guests it may be needed to enjoy the ride, for budget conscious Disney travellers the cost can price it out and this is a big negative. This is particularly true for families where there may be 5 or 6 people, and the cost to skip the queue for one ride is £64 on a high season day. This can be too much, especially on top of a once in a lifetime vacation, where the cost for a quick ride queue is equivalent to lunch.
Free options achieve similar results
If you’re a resort guest, you can use Early Entry to achieve a similar result. Similarly, rope drop will provide a shorter queue time that may only be a few minutes longer than using a Lightning Lane. If you can get the same result and keep your money, why spend it? It’s an unnecessary cost, so that’s a reason not to use the Single Pass.
Sells out
The Lightning Lane Single Pass is available to buy 7 days in advance of your park day for resort guests, and 3 days in advance for all other guests. As there is only limited availability and this ride is incredibly popular, the Single Pass often sells out by the middle of day 3. Availability can shift, so it is always worth going back to check, but don’t get your hopes up if it is sold out when you check.
For UK visitors this means a Single Pass is tricky to buy, particularly if they you to head to Animal Kingdom at the beginning of your holiday to guarantee a shorter queue time. Finding availability for a day or two after you land is nearly impossible during weekend dates. If you don’t want to use a free strategy, the best way to get your Single Pass in Animal Kingdom is to check for availability towards the end of your holiday. This tactic works well if you have bought the 14 day UK Exclusive Magic Ticket.
If you don’t have that ticket, consider planning to visit Disney towards the end of your stay if you want to use a Lightning Lane Single Pass to ride in Animal Kingdom. Or indeed to ride any ride with a Lightning Lane Single Pass. This will increase your chances of being able to buy one. As it is such a popular attraction, the planning and ability to purchase in advance is leaving UK visitors with nothing to buy.
Lightning Lane adds time to the stand by line
Ever wondered what the impact of having a paid queue system at Disney is? It adds time to the length of time everyone else spends in a queue. And while you can expect Disney to offer a quicker queue line service, it’s annoying to think about. Noticeably, on days where queue lines hit high numbers, Lightning Lane availability seems to be higher. There then seems to be a knock-on correlation with higher queue times.
Both Lightning Lane options do add time on to the amount of time you will queue in a stand by line. The trick to getting a lower queue time is to try and ride when the Lightning Lane system is not in operation, like during Early Entry. Another trick is to wait in line towards the end of the day when there are not as many visitors with Lightning Lanes in the queues.
Animal Kingdom Lighting Lane Single Pass: The Verdict
There’s pros and cons to the system and wherever you land in this debate, Lightning Lane Single Pass is a cost you can avoid if you want to. It is possible to ride for free with a lower wait time and it is possible to enjoy Avatar: Flight of Passage without the cost.
The cost does however free up time in your day. If you purchase and ride during busy periods in the middle of the day, that’s when you will feel the benefits the most. It’s a luxury you can choose to use or not. It is not a Lightning Lane that we purchase, as we find it unnecessary.
Lightning Lane Single Pass: When it’s the best choice for visitors to Animal Kingdom
- UK visitor’s spending two weeks or longer in the US who want to buy the Single Pass for a shorter queue time, this is the best choice for you. Book your Lightning Lane Single Pass in the US at the same time as US guests and enjoy all the benefits.
- For any visitor who may need to skip the queue line because they are unable to queue, this will reduce your queue time greatly. Usually your queue time will be significantly less than 30 minutes.
- People with a 1 day ticket for Animal Kingdom who want to experience everything will find this the best option for them. It will free up time to get everything in and reduce the stress of wondering of clock watching while doing attraction maths.
- People who need to guarantee their ride experience and have a busy itinerary during their trip with limited flexibility.
- People who plan to ride in the middle of the day.
Lightning Lane Single Pass: When it’s the worst option for visitors to Animal Kingdom
- Guests doing Disney on a budget will not benefit from this option. It is a cost that you don’t need to spend to ride, to reduce wait times, or to have an awesome day in Animal Kingdom.
- Visitors only get one ride experience when buying a Single Pass in Animal Kingdom where there is only one very popular ride and other queue times are manageable. Instead you could invest in a Multi Pass in Hollywood Studios where you will get more experiences for a similar cost. This is more valuable to you as a Disney World visitor as you can enjoy more rides and save time in a different way.
- Anyone with motion sickness and who isn’t sure about the ride seat. If you’re a first time Disney visitor, don’t just get a Lightning Lane on the say so of other people. Check the ride vehicle first. This isn’t a ride for anyone with a bad back or motion sickness.
Other options for UK Visitors
There are other options to the Lightning Lane Single Pass at Animal Kingdom which will save UK visitors the cost and the hassle of trying to secure an increasingly illusive pass. At Animal Kingdom, given there is only one very popular ride you can queue and still get everything else done. Animal Kingdom has the least attractions, and it is a park people can easily navigate in a day with a little bit of planning. If you have more than one day and your ticket allows for park hopping, a half day approach to experiencing Animal Kingdom is a great option.
Conclusion
Lightning Lane Single Pass in Animal Kingdom is a luxury way to bypass queue times. For some visitors to Animal Kingdom it will work well and be the best option to enhance their day. For other visitors, including many families, it will be an unnecessary cost. They will be able to replicate the Lightning Lane Single Pass experience of a low wait time by using a free strategy.
