Trip Report - Were Lightning Lanes & Dining Plan Worth It?
I get a lot of questions from clients asking if Lightning Lanes or the Dining Plans are worth it or not. The answer is nearly always - it depends. On our last trip, I kept track of the costs and savings.
Here is the breakdown of Lightning Lanes first. We stayed at the Polynesian Resort.
Day 1 - Hollywood Studios
We first wanted to maximize Early Entry before starting to use our Lightning Lane Multi Pass (LLMP) selections. We boarded the bus at 6:58am and arrived at Hollywood Studios at 7:19am. Early Entry officially began at 8am with park opening at 8:30am. The gates officially opened at 7:38am. We planned on rope dropping Slinky Dog Dash. We arrived at the entrance of Toy Story Land at 7:42am and were allowed into the Slinky line at 7:49am. The posted wait was 65 minutes. We boarded at 8:07 - an 18 minute wait.
We were then able to do Toy Story Mania at 8:14am. The posted wait was 20 minutes, and due to a delay, the actual wait was 20 minutes. Early Entry was officially over by the time we exited the ride.
We then had 3 prebooked LLMPs:
Smugglers Run
Muppet*Vision 3D
Alien Swirling Saucers
Smugglers Run is a Tier 1 attraction. When prebooking, you can only book one in this category, but once you use any LLMP, you can rebook a new attraction in any Tier or even rebook all of your LLMP selections to Tier 1 attractions.
Here is how we used ours and the time savings we received:
Smugglers Run 8:30am
Arrived 8:48am
Posted 25
Actual 8
Savings 17 minutes
Star Tours 9:15am
Arrived 9:23am
Posted 5
Actual walk on
Savings 5 minutes
Muppet*Vision 3D 9:30am
Arrived 9:40am
Posted 10
Actual walk on
Savings 10 minutes
Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway 10:05am
Arrived 10:12am
Posted 50
Actual 5
Savings 45 minutes
Alien Swirling Saucers 12:35am
Arrived 12:48am
Posted 35
Actual 7
Savings 28 minutes
Tower of Terror 1pm
Arrived 1:10pm
Posted 65
Actual 12
Savings 53 minutes
(We took a mid-day break and had dinner at Trattoria al Forno while ending the night at EPCOT.)
Soarin 7pm
Arrived 7:15pm
Posted 35
Actual 5
Savings 30 minutes
The total savings for waiting in lines ended up being 188 minutes. LLMP was $29 per person that day. This came to a cost of 15 cents per minute for our savings. Hollywood Studios has attractions in really high demand. You can save a lot of time at this park. I will usually recommend LLMP for Hollywood Studios.
Day 2 - Animal Kingdom
If you rope drop successfully using Early Entry, you can usually avoid getting LLMP for Animal Kingdom. We did purchase it for $19 per person. We had some hiccups getting out of the rooms and to the bus stop at the Polynesian, so we missed most of Early Entry at 7:30am. We ended up arriving at Animal Kingdom at 7:35am. We took an unconventional route and went to Dinosaur first because the waits for Flight of Passage and Navi River were already long.
Our prebooked selections were:
Everest 8am
Kilimanjaro Safaris 9:05am
Navi River Journey 9:35am
We also purchased Flight of Passage Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP) for $17 per person.
Here is how our day ended up:
Everest 8:10am
Posted 5
Actual walk on
Savings 5 minutes
Flight of Passage 8:30am
Posted 55
Actual 10
Savings 45 minutes
Kilimanjaro Safaris 9:13am
Posted 45
Actual walk on
Savings 45 minutes
Navi River Journey 9:56am
Posted 55
Actual walk on
Savings 55 minutes
As you can see, we were done with the major rides in the park by 10am. LLMP and LLSP saved us 150 minutes waiting in lines. This came to 24 cents a minute for the time savings all together. But, we actually covered the attractions so fast that we still had an hour and a half until our dining reservation at 11:30am. Unless you really want to be done with the attractions before noon, you can skip LLMP at Animal Kingdom. If you didn’t want to utilize Early Entry, I would recommend grabbing LLSP for Flight of Passage to avoid the long waits there.
Day 3 - Magic Kingdom
We arrived at the monorail station at 6:37am. It took 5 minutes to get to the Grand Floridian and arrived at 6:47am at the Magic Kingdom gates - 10 minutes total. We were third in line. Early Entry was scheduled to begin at 7:30am, but the gates opened at 7:06am. We headed to Tomorrowland to rope drop Space Mountain. The ropes dropped at 7:30 on the dot. We arrived at Space Mountain at 7:35 with a posted wait of 35 minutes. We boarded at 7:45 - a 10 minute wait. We also walked on to Buzz Lightyear before the park opened.
Our prebooked LLMPs were:
Little Mermaid 8am
Pirates 9:15am
Tiana’s 4:45pm
We were going to the Christmas party that night and had dining reservations. We didn’t intend on doing too many attractions during the day, but we did want to maximize our time in the morning and before the party that night.
Here is how our day ended up:
Little Mermaid 8am
Posted 5
Actual walk on
Savings 5 minutes
Haunted Mansion 8:33am
Posted 5
Actual walk on
Savings 5 minutes
Jingle Cruise 3:30pm
Posted 35
Actual walk on
Savings 35 minutes
Space Mountain 4:15pm
Posted 35
Actual 10
Savings 20 minutes
Tiana’s 4:50pm
No standby queue - Virtual Queue expected to be 45
Actual 5
Savings 40 minutes
We spent $29 for LLMP and saved 105 minutes. We ended up spending $0.27 per minute for our time savings. Because it was a party day, Magic Kingdom crowds were pretty light. You could probably skip LLMP on a party day at Magic Kingdom, but on most other days, with so many attractions LLMP is a great way to save a lot of time in the park. Magic Kingdom is definitely the most bang for your buck when it comes to LLMP.
Lightning Lane Wrap Up
Over the 3 days of Lightning Lanes, we saved 443 minutes waiting in lines. That’s over 7 hours! We got to the parks pretty regularly and like to enjoy down time at our resorts. That’s usually what we do with our saved time. If you are ride-focused or don’t go to Disney often, you may want to stay in the parks all day and use that saved time to hit even more attractions or shows. Per person, this was $94 for the 3 days.
Disney Dining Plan Usage
On this trip, we purchased the Disney Dining Plan. This includes the below per person per night as well as a resort refillable mug per person:
1 Table Service Meal (includes one beverage including alcohol for adults over 21)
1 Quick Service Meal (includes one beverage including alcohol for adults over 21)
1 Snack
Per adult, the Disney Dining Plan costs $97.79 per adult per night and $30.56 per child per night. For 4 nights, this comes to $391.16 per adult and $122.24 per child. So, let’s see how we did with our meals compared to what we paid with the dining plan.
Check In Day - Kona Cafe and Oasis Pool Bar
When we arrived at the Polynesian, we had lunch at Kona Cafe and later had dinner and snacks from the Oasis Pool Bar at the quiet pool. Our lunch at Kona Cafe came to $58 per adult. This was an entree, dessert, and beverage. At the Oasis, the quick service meal per adult came to $36. Snacks came to $9 per adult. That brought our total per adult to $103 for Day 1. This meant that we got $5 more out of the plan than we had paid that day.
Please note that tip is not included and should be added to your bill with the full value of the meal in mind.
Day 1 - Trattoria al Forno and Ronto Roasters
On our first full day, we went to Hollywood Studios and grabbed breakfast from Ronto Roasters. A ronto wrap plus a beverage came to $29 per adult. For our snacks, we grabbed some small items from Captain Cook’s back at the Polynesian. This came to $9. Finally, we had a wonderful dinner at Trattoria al Forno on the Boardwalk. Dinner came with an entree, beverage, and dessert. The average cost for each adult came to $65. For the day, the total was $103. We would have spent $5 more if we hadn’t used the dining plan.
Day 2 - Tusker House and Captain Cook’s
On Day 2, we enjoyed lunch at Tusker House. This buffet is $64 per adult. Adding one alcoholic beverage, the total came to $77. Back at the Polynesian, we had a quick service meal from Captain Cook’s which came to $15 per adult. We also grabbed dole whips from the Pineapple Lanai for $7. This brought our total usage for the day per adult to $99. That was $1 more than what we paid for the dining plan that day.
Day 3 - ‘Ohana and Pecos Bill’s
On Day 3 we ate at ‘Ohana. This family style meal was $65 per adult. Adding one alcoholic beverage, the total came to $82. During the party, we snacked at Pecos Bill’s. The quick service meals came to $17 per adult. We also enjoyed cinnamon rolls from Gaston’s Tavern earlier in the day which were $7. This brought the total for the dining plan on day 2 to $106. That was $8 more than the total for the dining plan that day.
Dining Plan Wrap Up
As you can see, we easily got our value out of the dining plan. I will say that children over age 9 are the same price as an adult, but they can’t order alcohol which makes their meals much less. We did have cast members at restaurants who would apply a second drink to the older child’s meal credit because there is no indication on the meal plan whether the meal plan user is over 21 or not. This worked in our favor at multiple restaurants, but not every cast member will do this and shouldn’t be expected.
We like using the dining plan to make the vacation feel more inclusive and pay for the cost up front. When using a Disney Chase Visa, your vacation packages can receive 0% interest for 6 months which is another added benefit. If you don’t have a Disney Chase Visa yet, you can apply here.
