All the Ways to Skip the Lines at Florida Theme Parks This Summer

Don’t break a sweat over those eternal theme park queues. Here’s how to navigate the latest “fast pass” options at both Disney World and Universal.

Takeaways by Bloomberg AI

• Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Florida have overhauled their line-skipping systems, with Disney introducing the Lightning Lane Multi Pass and Premier Pass, and Universal fine-tuning its Express Passes service.
• The changes have received positive feedback from guests and travel agents, with Disney’s Premier Pass offering VIP access and Universal’s Express Pass providing convenience and value.
• The new systems offer more flexibility and affordability, with Disney’s Lightning Lane Multi Pass allowing guests to reserve rides up to seven days in advance and Universal’s Express Pass covering 41 rides across three parks.

Skipping the line at Orlando’s biggest theme parks isn’t as hard as it used to be.

Take the recent experiences of Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based retail manager Allison George, who visited Walt Disney World and Universal Studios Florida with her family in 2022 and again this past April. “At Universal, Express Pass lines were almost as long as the standby lines,” she recalls about her 2022 trip—at the time it was company policy to dole out free line-skipping passes at numerous Universal-affiliated hotels. “Getting ‘FastPasses’ at Disney World,” meanwhile, “meant waking up at the crack of dawn each morning to fight over a very limited number of time slots.” She left both parks disappointed but willing to try again.

This time around, she saw major improvements. “It’s like a night-and-day difference at both parks,” she says.

That’s because both Walt Disney World and Comcast Corp.—the parent company of Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure and thenewly opened Universal Epic Universe theme park—have significantly overhauled their line-skipping systems.

Over the past year, Disney has done away with its unpopular Genie+ system. In its place now are the Lightning Lane Multi Pass—which lets you reserve time slots for three rides at a time, up to seven days in advance—and a new Premier pass, which lets you skip nearly every line in a park for a higher daily fee. Universal, meanwhile, has fine-tuned its own Express Passes service: It’s now distributing fewer of them daily and taking other measures to alleviate congestion and boost value.

George isn’t the only one celebrating the changes. “I finally feel like the value I’m receiving at both parks matches the price I’m paying,” says Jerry Davis of Dallas, who visited both Florida theme parks with his family most recently in March.

If you’re planning a trip to either theme park this summer, here’s what you need to know about the changes—and how they work in practice.

How to Skip Every Line at Disney World

At Disney, you can skip almost every line on a given day with the Lightning Lane Premier Pass, introduced officially on Jan. 21 after a few months of testing. Flash it at the start of any queue—provided it’s a ride that has a Lightning Lane, or express line—and you’ll get waved down the fast track.

How much you pay for it correlates with how much value it can offer you in return; at Animal Kingdom, where just six rides have Lightning Lanes, the Premier Pass starts at $129 per person per day. By contrast, it often costs between $329 and $457 at Magic Kingdom, where there are 18 Lightning Lane-enabled rides.

Six months in, the system has gotten overwhelmingly positive feedback from guests and travel agents.

Kelli Hughes, a Texas-based travel agent with Mickey Travels, says it fills a gap for parkgoers who want more VIP access than the Lightning Lane Multi Pass but don’t want to shell out for a private guide, who can offer line-skipping services for between $450 and $900 per hour. “On many dates, Premier Pass is sold out,” she adds. “That should demonstrate its demand.”

More Affordable (and Flexible) Disney World Options

A caveat of the Premier Pass is that it limits parkgoers to a single park per day, undercutting a popular “park hopping” strategy that many guests use to efficiently hit all their favorite attractions.

Die-hards who favor this high-intensity approach should prioritize the more affordable Lightning Lane Multi Pass. Instead of waking up at 7 a.m. to make same-day ride reservations, as was the case with the old Genie+ system, guests with this pass can now reserve three rides a full week in advance for up to $39 per person per day. As those initial bookings get used up, more rides can be reserved in real time.

The system works not just for the most in-demand roller coasters and thrill rides—such as Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain and Hollywood Studios’ Slinky Dog Dash—but also for early access to popular shows with stadium seating. Adrenaline junkies can also add two “Lightning Lane Single Passes” to skip the lines at top attractions such as Tron Lightcycle Run or Seven Dwarfs Mine Train (both at Magic Kingdom), for roughly an extra $12 to $25 per ride. (You can also skip the Multi Pass and buy these individual passes a la carte.)

With many options to choose from, a family of four can now spend as little as $56 per day to cut several lines on a slow day or as much as $1,796 for a quartet of Priority Passes on Magic Kingdom’s busiest day of the year. That’s on top of the cost of park admission, which starts at $119 per person per day.

If it sounds like an expensive vacation in the making, one consolation is that the new system is no pricier than Genie+. At the same time, it’s also more transparent; guests can now see which ride reservations are available when they’re booking Lightning Lane Single or Multi Passes. “I hated having to buy the pass first, only to find that the ride my family most wanted was already gone for the whole day,” Davis says, recalling the now defunct Genie+.

A New Express Pass at Universal

With the $7 billion Epic Universe fresh off its May 22 debut, Universal’s line-skipping upgrades will similarly be under the microscope this summer. As a result, the company has beefed up the value of its Express Pass and made it easier to use—but harder to get.

On the plus side, there’s no need to schedule ride reservations. And just last month the company added Express Pass access to the most popular ride at Universal Studios: Hagrid’s Magical Creatures Motorbike Adventure. Between all three parks, the pass now covers 41 rides. Still excluded is the most popular ride at Epic Universe, Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry.

That convenience has come with a price hike. The basic Express Pass, which ranges from $109 to $299 depending on demand, lets you skip each line once. For about $30 more at either Universal Studios or Islands of Adventure, you can upgrade to unlimited line-skipping powers. (This option is not yet available at Epic Universe.)

Even at the higher rate, travel agent Hughes says the Express Pass “is worth every penny.” That’s if you pay for it all. You can nix the cost entirely by staying at the Hard Rock Hotel Orlando, Loews Portofino Bay Hotel or Loews Royal Pacific Resort. Rates at all three start around $450 this summer, a cost that’s cancelled out if it nets daily Express Passes for a family of four. In a move that has surprised many guests, Express Passes are not being doled out at the new “premium” resorts that flank Epic Universe.

The Bottom Line

On the whole, the recent slew of changes has resolved many of the parks’ pain points. Universal’s system remains the less confusing one—and the only one you can get for free. But Disney has more budget-friendly options and shorter average waits for line skippers.

Len Testa, president of TouringPlans—a company that compiles data about Disney based on frequent guest surveys—says guests are happy. “They are absolutely more satisfied,” he says, adding that 7% more of them are buying Multi Passes compared with Genie+. An extra bonus: Even standby wait times have decreased by 22% as a result of all the changes.

That doesn’t make the system perfect. “I still get a fair number of panicked texts from clients asking how to navigate MultiPass,” says theme park travel consultant Lizzie Reynolds, “especially when rides shut down unexpectedly or new reservation time slots open.”

Many guests also remain nostalgic for the days when line-skipping services were free—and they’re worried these latest upgrades are a harbinger of future price hikes.

“I’m grateful both parks have improved their old fast pass systems,” says George, the Louisiana mom. “But with the packed summer and holidays crowds still coming, I hope both services stay beneficial—and affordable.”