The Best Lightning Lanes for Large Families in Disney World

If you’re traveling to Disney World with a large family, it’s best to do a bit of gameplanning before your vacation.

The rules for Lightning Lanes — Disney’s paid front-of-the-line service — are not universal. Lightning Lane Multi Pass, Single Pass, and Premier Pass all come with their pros and cons (and different price points), but it’s also important to remember that the lanes themselves vary in effectiveness. Wait times, ride capacity limits, and other factors create a hierarchy of Lightning Lane necessity. With this in mind, we’re covering several rides that SHOULD be prioritized if you’re using Lightning Lanes with a large group.

Lightning Lane effectiveness is reliant on how popular each ride is (some rides that have Lightning Lanes hardly ever garner long enough standby lines to justify paying more for Lightning Lane access) and the style of ride. Some attractions are practically built for big parties!

These rides often feature roomy boats, long benches, or entire ride vehicles where you can pile in like a clown car. In short, high-capacity rides like these are the ones you’ll want to prioritize if the goal is to experience the attraction together.

When you want to use Lightning Lanes and ensure your whole family gets to sit together in one row or vehicle, certain rides definitely stand out.

High-capacity rides like Pirates of the Caribbean are the gold standard. Those wide boat benches mean most large families can sit together or fill up a single boat.  This is especially helpful when you want to get a full family photo while on a ride.

Other boat rides, like “it’s a small world” deliver the same kind of family-friendly seating experience.

Jungle Cruise is another fantastic pick for bigger families, as these boats cram in tons of guests. In fact, you won’t even need a Lightning Lane to ensure that you stick together and get to experience the backside of water simultaneously, but it does help skip a ton of waiting time!

Meanwhile, at EPCOT, Frozen Ever After combines the family-friendly boat format with one of the most popular Lightning Lanes in the park. The rows are slightly smaller than Pirates and “it’s a small world”, but most families should be able to stay within the same boat.

I’ve really highlighted how boat rides — especially at Magic Kingdom — are usually a safe pick, but not every big family Lightning Lane you should be looking at is reserved to that category. Some of them bring the thrills, including EPCOT’s Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, which features coaster trains with rows that can usually seat pairs across multiple seats in the same car. You will NOT all be in one row, but most larger families are still able to stick together within the same train!

As a heads up, for this attraction, you’ll need a Lightning Lane Single Pass.

Similarly, Magic Kingdom’s Space Mountain and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train are incredibly popular Multi-Pass and Single Pass (respectively) Lightning Lane picks. In Space Mountain, you won’t be sitting side-by-side but can rather occupy your very own toboggan train — all while ensuring family photos together.

Seven Dwarfs is similar to Guardians, sitting you side-by-side but in the same train.

If your crew is brave enough, Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror is surprisingly great for big families. The massive ride vehicle allows large groups to stay in the same elevator car, often even in the same row. This ride is famous for its on-ride photos, but be advised that young ones won’t be too fond of the big drops.

And of course, we don’t want to forget non-ride Lightning Lanes!

Disney World shows that offer Lightning Lane access are not only a great way to keep your family together, but also ensure good visibility and a pleasant experience!

At the end of the day, the best trick is to look at high-capacity rides and shows that usually have a decent wait time, and prioritize those.

We’re constantly discovering new Disney World hacks and refining ones that have already been established. Make sure you’re keeping it posted right here at AllEars before your next Disney World vacation so that you’re always in the know!

4 Charts That Will Change How You Use Lightning Lanes at Disney World

What are your favorite Disney World Lightning Lanes? Let us know in the comments!

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