Disney World Lightning Lanes Just Did Me SO Dirty…

We talk a LOT about Disney World’s Lightning Lanes and how they can be a lifesaver during your Disney World vacations. But, there’ve also been times where they’ve done us downright dirty, too.

Strategizing your way around Disney World’s parks is almost half the battle to planning your full days, but that doesn’t mean that this extra help always makes everything go smoother. While it’s a system designed to help you get to your preferred rides and attractions sooner, that doesn’t mean that we haven’t had our hiccups along the way while testing it ourselves.

Disney World’s paid system to skip the regular standby lines for ride and attraction queues has quickly become a feature we’re not too willing to give up. When you opt to purchase Lightning Lane MultiPass, Single Pass, or Premier Pass, you’re paying extra on top of your ticket purchase for the chance to significantly decrease your wait times once or multiple times throughout your day.

It can be an extremely useful tool if you’re willing to take some of our helpful advice we’ve collected using it incessantly, and to be honest with you, we’ve become quite fond of it. But, just like with any experiment, not everything can go off without a hitch and can lead to very frustrated feelings. So to help you avoid making the same mistakes we have in the past with Disney World’s Lightning Lanes, we’re telling you all about the biggest blunders we’ve encountered using them (and how you can make a quick recovery)!

Your Next Lightning Lane Ride Goes Down Before You Use It

This can be super frustrating, especially if you’re trying to stick to a schedule for the day. It’s the one scenario you’ve probably not factored into your plans, and if you’ve not already mapped out your options, it might feel like it’s too far removed to see. But, you do have options!

First things first, take a look at your My Disney Experience account. Most of the time, when a ride goes down and you’re within your Lightning Lane redemption window, Disney will typically change your ride or attraction over to a Multiple Redemption Experience.

This means that you can either wait to use this redemption experience for your originally intended ride or use it for something else. We do want to caveat and say there may be a few experiences that are exempt from this use, but the majority of the park’s rides should still be compatible with this.

However, if you find that your Lightning Lane doesn’t turn into a Multiple Redemption Experience use automatically, your next option is to politely venture to Guest Services and explain your situation. They’re happy to help walk you through your next steps and see about getting you set up with another experience.

Your Lightning Lane Is Cutting TOO Close for Comfort with Your Travel Plans

Taking one last ride might have unintended consequences if you’re not careful! We’ve run into situations before where we intended to get a few more rides in on our last day at Disney World before we had to leave for the airport or get on the road to venture back home.

This posed a hidden threat to our plans when we talked ourselves into Lightning Lane return times that we knew were really pushing the limits of what we should be doing otherwise. While the queue and ride itself might go off without a hitch, there are a few other factors you’ll want to stop to consider that might be further out of your control.

You’ll need to consider the chunk of time it may take to trek back to your hotel to grab your bags and get to the airport. If you’re flying, we recommend a 3-hour window of time before your scheduled flight to comfortably get to your gate and be on your way traveling back home. If you arrive with a window of time less than that, you could be risking making it through the security line and finding your gate before the airline is ready to leave without you.

As good as the rides are at Disney World, we’re not sure they’re worth having to reschedule your flight, potentially pay for another hotel stay overnight, and explain to your place of work why you won’t be coming in as planned the next day.

In short, Lightning Lane has been pretty good to us in allowing us to skip the longer lines for our favorite rides, but there have been times we might have leaned into it a little too much and thrown caution to the wind. For the most updated Lightning Lane tips and tricks, stay tuned with us at AllEars!

People Are Sharing the Disney Rides That Are So Bad, They’re Actually Kinda Good

Are you planning to buy Lightning Lanes for your next Disney World trip? Tell us why or why not in the comments below!

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