Using Disneyland’s Lightning Lane Multi-Pass line-skipping service, we used a mix of ride reservations and standby to do 32 attractions in one day. This post walks you through our step-by-step day in both Disneyland and Disney California Adventure with screenshots, return times, tips & tricks, and thoughts at the end about whether it’s worth the money. (Updated June 18, 2025.)
It was a long day from rope drop until park closing, so we’ll cut to the chase and skip the basics. If you have questions about the basics of using Lightning Lanes at Disneyland or how this overly complicated system works, see our Guide to Lightning Lanes at Disneyland & DCA. There are two options: Lightning Lane Multi Pass (LLMP) and Lightning Lane Single Pass (LLSP). This covers the former, as the latter only applies to 2 rides (Radiator Springs Racers and Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance).
One thing to note is that the name changed from Genie+ to Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Disneyland. Unlike at Walt Disney World, there were no substantive changes to the system. It’s literally just a name change–that’s it. So if you used Genie+ before and are confused about how Lightning Lane Multi-Pass might work differently, the answer is: it doesn’t. You already know how to use the “new” line-skipping system!
While this post covers our experience one specific Saturday at Disneyland and DCA with Lightning Lanes on 7/10 crowd level day. We actually attempted this test on several previous day, but crowd levels were simply too low and we had a difficult time stress-testing itineraries as a result. One of our goals with these Lightning Lane Multi-Pass resources is replicability–it’s fun for us to be able to accomplish a lot, but useless for planning if you can’t reproduce our results.
Disneyland crowds tend to be more laid back than Walt Disney World, which means using Lightning Lane Multi-Pass is likewise easier in the California parks. It also helps that Disneyland has a much more robust ride roster than Walt Disney World, so there are more attractions to help absorb crowds, both with and without Lightning Lanes.
Anyway, the point is that this day is not the byproduct of carefully choosing the best day to visit, tweaking our strategy to perfection, or racing around without having fun–things no normal person would do on a fun vacation. To the contrary, you should be able to copy this day so long as it’s not a peak season day for crowds. In fact, you can do better than this with minor adjustments and omissions that we’ll suggest throughout the post.
June 18, 2025 Update: We first did this test a couple of years ago, and have used Lightning Lane Multi-Pass several times since with similar results. We even attended on New Year’s Eve and had shockingly good results with LLMP at Disneyland.
However, all of our testing has been narrower and scope and admittedly more limited in nature now that we have a toddler. We’re often skipping attractions with height limits, or simply not touring nonstop from rope drop until park closing. I’ve done some more aggressive field testing on my own that has involved all headliners, but nothing as comprehensive with this.
The one thing I have noticed recently is that Disney California Adventure is much more difficult to strategize. This has been true in all of my testing, from Early Entry to regular itineraries to Lightning Lanes. The reasons for this are discussed in Cars Closure, Stealth Refurbishments, Delays & Downtime at Disney California Adventure. In a nutshell, a few of the park’s headliner attractions are undergoing ‘stealth’ refurbishments that reduce their capacity (and increase wait times), and on top of that, some are unreliable.
Due to the reduced capacity and higher wait times, Lightning Lane Multi-Pass availability is also throttled. This means that return times are kicked hours into the future, or often gone entirely. You can see this in action via the screenshots here. Contrast the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass return times at Disneyland (above) with those at DCA (below)–both on the same summer day.
As a practical matter, this means you pretty much need to begin your day in Disney California Adventure if attempting to replicate what we did. You also need to almost immediately start redeeming Lightning Lane selections on the most popular rides–Guardians of the Galaxy Mission Breakout, Soarin’ Around the World, Toy Story Midway Mania, Web Slingers, etc–so you don’t have return times far into the future.
Basically, your biggest enemy is the clock on a day like this, and having to deal with the 120 minute rule repeatedly is going to kill your momentum and prevent you from finishing everything in both parks. There are a half-dozen attractions routinely subject to the 120 minute rule during the middle of the day at DCA. If you book all of those (and even that’s an “if” since they might be totally unavailable), that’s it–that’s your day!
Accordingly, the right approach now is necessarily starting at DCA and starting to select and redeem Lightning Lanes almost immediately in order to have earlier return times, so you can move over to Disneyland where near-instant returns are much more common. The problem with this is that it kind of defeats the purpose of Lightning Lanes, as you’ll often be doing rides at DCA when the lines are shorter. So really, the optimal approach is somewhere in between, and recognizing that you realistically won’t get every single Lightning Lane at DCA on most days.
In other words, the day below is still possible, but not practical. And probably not in the order we went about it. Regardless, if you want to see how we approached doing every single Lightning Lane Multi-Pass ride in DCA and Disneyland during 1-day, here’s our original run-through…
Our Day Doing Every Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Disneyland Resort
On the day of our visit, Disneyland operated from 8 am until 11 pm, which meant that the turnstiles would open around 7 am. This is significant because in the California parks, you can book your first Lightning Lane Multi-Pass selection not at 7 am, but upon entering the park…so as early as 7 am on this particular day. Different rule, same result.
We didn’t arrive until 7:45 am, as it was pretty clear from past experience that the clock was not advancing on Lightning Lane reservations during that first hour of entry. Our arrival could’ve been even later, but we’re waking up at ~5 am every day anyway, and wanted to rope drop Fantasyland.
After entering Disneyland, we quickly made our way up Main Street, purchased Lightning Lane Multi-Pass for both of us (sorry, no head to head comparison here), and booked our first Lightning Lane reservation of the day: Space Mountain. Our return time was 8:05 to 9:05 am. As will be explained below, this return time is actually too early for regular guests wanting to use the savviest strategy.
We were close enough to the front of the rope drop pack that starting with Peter Pan’s Flight would’ve made the most sense. However, I dropped back a little to get photos and always get skittish when seeing that line form. Even though it’s not that many people and moves pretty quick, it’s still a tough sell.
Instead, we called an audible and were the very first guests of the day on Snow White’s Enchanted Wish. Following that, we knocked out Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and Alice in Wonderland with minimal waits for both.
It would’ve been possible–and pragmatic, in hindsight–to continue our rope drop run of standby attractions with more in Fantasyland.
Experience from previous days suggested this would’ve been possible, but the noticeably larger crowd made us apprehensive. If we pushed our luck, we wouldn’t be able to accomplish everything via Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, which was the whole point of the day.
With that in mind, bouncing over to Tomorrowland and Space Mountain was next on the agenda. Immediately upon scanning into Space Mountain, I booked the Matterhorn via Lightning Lane Multi-Pass with another immediate return time.
You might notice that our Disneyland Lightning Lane Multi-Pass Ride Rankings have Indiana Jones Adventure above Matterhorn. That’s objectively the right placement, but Matterhorn is closer to Space Mountain. It often ends up being more efficient to minimize walking rather than strictly sticking to those priorities.
That’s Sarah above, scanning into what would be her last thrill ride of the day at Disneyland.
Matterhorn has a way of bustin’ backs and scramblin’ skullz. That should be its new slogan. Still a classic ride that I enjoy, but the “intensity” definitely has more to do with its rickety ride than actual thrills.
Next up was Indiana Jones Adventure, which we booked immediately upon scanning into Matterhorn. Another instant return.
This is one of the few moderately intense attractions that doesn’t give Sarah issues, but I think part of it is that she just really loves Indiana Jones Adventure. Or maybe Harrison Ford is her celebrity crush. She does make a lot of “jokes” whenever we spot vintage aircraft flying overhead in Southern California. Hmmm.
After really flying through our first three Lightning Lane Multi-Pass attractions, we decided to knock out Jungle Cruise, which had around a 10-15 minute wait.
It received a similar “Monkey Mania” reimagining to Florida’s, with minor tweaks here and there. Personally, I love the changes. “Prejudice against primates is distinctly unpatriotic.” ~Sam Eagle, probably.
Pirates of the Caribbean via standby was up next after that, and likewise had minimal wait. Not quite a walk-on, but pretty close.
These last couple of standby attractions are where are day starts to make sense from a balanced perspective, as wait times were starting to build throughout Disneyland.
After that, I was on my own for Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run via the Lightning Lane.
If you’re similarly doing Smugglers Run or the Matterhorn by yourself, there’s always the option for Single Rider. With the former, you’re far less likely to be pilot, but I let someone else in our crew do that anyway (you could say it’s because I’m a nice guy…or because it would’ve been weird to make two couples who were first timers split up from their significant others).
From there, I backtracked to Big Thunder Mountain Railroad and did that next.
One thing I want to reiterate is that our approach of knocking out headliners via Lightning Lane Multi-Pass was not necessary the first couple hours of the day. Lines were still short and were this not a “simulation,” we would’ve spent the first 90 minutes solely on standby. The reason we didn’t was over concern that some Lightning Lanes at DCA would be unavailable later if we didn’t move fast knocking things out.
By the time we arrived at Haunted Mansion at around 10:15 am, that was no longer the case.
We breezed through via the Lightning Lane, but there was a line already forming outside the gates of the mansion.
At this point, we were killing time until restaurants lunch, so we opted for the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, which had a minimal wait via standby.
Perhaps it’s time to give the people what they want and bring back Country Bear Jamboree–or the nextgen trackless dark ride I’ve been armchair Imagineering, Big Al’s Moonshine Maze. It’s like Pooh’s Hunny Hunt, but a lot slower and with a “for mature audiences only” warning label.
Our next Lightning Lane after lunch was Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin. As noted in our rankings, this has seen a popularity spike of late, presumably as locals do their last rides before it closes for a year.
Or maybe it’s an influx of trenchcoat enthusiasts. (Sorry, all of my better jokes were rejected as “too risque” or likely to “rile up the masses.” Just like a mannequin of Jessica Rabbit in a dress, I guess!)
“It’s a small world” is near Toontown, so we did that with another immediate return time via the Lightning Lane despite a 40 minute standby wait.
Now we were starting to see tremendous time-savings with Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Disneyland. Had we stuck to standby early, we could’ve had a glorious afternoon and evening of quickly bypassing long lines.
Autopia was next up.
You know, if there’s a version of the iconic car-driving attraction that’s worth the stench and cognitive impairment of vehicle exhaust, it’s this one. The way the track weaves around under the monorail and a thick canopy of trees is lovely and way better than Tomorrowland Speedway. Autopia could be something special if Disney were to invest some money into modernizing it.
Following that, we knocked out Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters and Star Tours in quick succession. Both had instant return times, and given that the attractions are directly across from each other, it’s easy to do them as a 1-2 punch with in minimal time.
With that, we were done with every (operational) Lightning Lane attraction at Disneyland. It was 1:30 pm.
Note that this run-through does not include Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway, Tiana’s Bayou Adventure or Pirates of the Caribbean, as those were not operational (operative words) Lightning Lanes at the time.
It’s almost always going to be the case that a ride or two is down for refurbishment or unavailable.
Approaching Disney California Adventure presented us with a dilemma: whether to knock out attractions with near-immediate return times via the Lightning Lanes to book Soarin’ Around the World, which had returns inching closer to the end of the night.
This is precisely why we rushed through Lightning Lanes at Disneyland–we knew Soarin’ would pose problems later in the day.
Hedging our bets with Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission Breakout seemed like the savvy approach.
Despite a lengthy posted wait time, it was a near-immediate return time. That might not be the case later in the day, and having to wait 120 minutes to book multiple headliners if we prioritized Soarin’ could cause us to miss something else.
With Mission Breakout off the table, this left only two popular Lightning Lane attractions on the table. At that point, we felt comfortable going for Soarin’ Around the World and taking that 120 minute hit. This was the right move, as much more of a delay would’ve made Soarin’ unavailable.
If we were touring Disneyland and DCA as “real people” and not with the aim of writing a blog post titled “We Did Every Lightning Lane Ride at Disneyland & DCA In A Day,” our approach would’ve been different.
While waiting that 120 minutes, we did a lot.
Radiator Springs Racers via Single Rider, Little Mermaid dark ride, Lunar New Year processional, ceremonial flinging of that Spider-Man dummy into the stratosphere, and some character stuff.
As soon as our 120 minute wait was up, I used LLMP to book Incredicoaster.
Even though the clock was advancing on Toy Story Midway Mania, it felt pragmatic to knock out a few more instant returns first. It was a gamble either way, though.
After that, Monsters, Inc. Mike & Sulley to the Rescue!
With a ride roster that tilts towards adults arguably a bit too much, this dark ride has become increasingly popular with families–and it has a miserable outdoor standby queue. As such, doing it via the Lightning Lane or earlier in the day is surprisingly important. Just mentioning that because this unassuming dark ride’s wait times can sneak up on you if not properly accounted for in your itinerary.
After that, we used LLMP to do Goofy’s Sky School for the first time in a long time.
Obviously, the above image is not from the attraction. I had planned on getting a photo of Paradise Pier from the elevated view, not remembering just how wild that little wild mouse gets. The first turn threw my camera into my face and that’s about all I remember of it. Above is a different mouse, who we met after getting off Goofy’s Sky School.
With that, we used Lightning Lane Multi-Pass to book our last Lightning Lane of the day: Toy Story Midway Mania. We really pushed our luck with this, but it worked out in the end.
The above screenshot also illustrates that Lightning Lane Multi-Pass won’t prevent you from making conflicting plans.
For the next couple of hours, we wandered around, ate, and enjoyed more of Lunar New Year at DCA. We also saw the Sh-Boom lighting in Cars Land, a magical little moment that we hadn’t seen for a while.
Objectively, this would’ve been a great time to have some Lightning Lane reservations in our pockets, as wait times were at their peaks. We love strolling around DCA and Disneyland at sunset and dusk, so it was no issue for us.
Web Slingers was pretty consistently posting a 90 to 120 minute wait time, so that was out of the question for us.
At the end of the night, it was down to 60 minutes posed with an actual wait likely lower. Rope drop or right before close is definitely the best option for the interactive Spider-Man dark ride.
Finally, our windows opened for Soarin’ Around the World and Toy Story Midway Mania within 5 minutes of one another.
Despite it having the earlier end time, we did Toy Story Midway Mania first. Soarin’ is notorious for taking forever even with the Lightning Lane, so that was the thinking there. In actuality, either way would’ve been fine.
We done with Soarin’ Around the World, and by extension, every operational Lightning Lane attraction in both Disney California Adventure and Disneyland, by around 7:45 pm.
This left us with several more hours before the parks closed, which we mostly spent at Disneyland wandering and doing laid back attractions, like the Grand Circle Tour of the Disneyland Railroad. All of that’s beyond the scope of this already-lengthy post and we still have some ground to cover, so we’ll skip that.
Overall, we’ve had excellent experiences using Lightning Lanes to more efficiently tour Disneyland and Disney California Adventure. We accomplished a total of 32 attractions, which is more than we’ve done in a single day at Disneyland Resort in a very long time.
That’s also without really “pushing” ourselves, as we spent a lot of time enjoying entertainment and strolling around the parks. It’s likely that we could’ve hit 40 attractions had we been serious about maximizing our ride count–but we wanted a more balanced and fun day.
The bottom line is that you can accomplish significantly more per day at Disneyland and DCA via Lightning Lanes.
We’ll update our full guide soon, but here are a few quick tips in the meantime:
- Rope dropping the parks is still recommended, especially since there’s no way to skip the lines in Fantasyland.
- Focusing on standby to start the day is ideal. Ride the wave of crowds, so to speak, doing as much as possible via standby before using your first Lightning Lane. (Another reason you might not want to book a Lightning Lane as soon as you enter the park in the morning.)
- You can’t book the same attraction twice with Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, but can do both standby and Lightning Lane for the same ride.
- Unless you do every single available attraction in both parks via Lightning Lanes, it’s likely you’ll run out of LLMP rides before running out of time, which is the opposite of what usually happens at Walt Disney World. (This plus no re-rides is why you want to focus on standby first.)
- You can scan into Lightning Lanes 5 minutes prior to their scheduled arrival time and 15 minutes after the window closes.
- Book the next Lightning Lane reservation as soon as you’ve scanned into the attraction checkpoint.
- If you miss your Lightning Lane attraction window, you can’t rebook the attraction.
- Lightning Lane Multi-Pass is very thrill-ride heavy at Disneyland Resort, and as such, may not be worthwhile for all parties.
- If someone in your party can’t or doesn’t want to do a certain ride (e.g. Matterhorn), book it via LLMP anyway and someone else can use their redemption for a second ride!
- Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Disneyland includes PhotoPass, so be sure to link and download those on-ride photos at the exit of relevant attractions.
Even though it’s stressed a few times in this post, the importance of following regular rope drop strategy cannot be overstated. It’s unlikely that most average tourists will want to do every single Lightning Lane Multi-Pass ride at Disneyland Resort in a single day. For one, different attractions appeal to different demos–the same party may not want to do both Autopia and Matterhorn, and hopefully no one wants to do Goofy’s Sky School.
For another, so many attractions have instant return times most days–even well into the afternoon–that there’s simply not a huge sense of urgency to start booking and doing Lightning Lane attractions right at park opening unless you plan on doing every single Lightning Lane Multi-Pass ride in both parks.
Focusing on standby first makes sense because there’s a high probability you’ll run out of Lightning Lane rides before running out of time. As such, you’re better off doing standby earlier in the day when those lines are shorter than they will be later. This is especially true if you want to do everything in Fantasyland or multiple rides on any headliner–or both.
Ultimately, our impression of Lightning Lane Multi-Pass at Disneyland and Disney California Adventure is positive, much more so than at Walt Disney World. We’ve spent far less time on our phones using it in the California parks, and have found the experience in general is less stressful because everything is lower stakes.
While it may not be evident here, again, this doesn’t really reflect how a normal tourist will use Lightning Lanes on a leisurely day of touring. Rather, we were trying to stress test the system and push it to its limit for “sport,” or whatever you want to call this. It’s like the difference in enjoying hot dogs on a family cookout versus Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest.
Our regular days at Disneyland and DCA using Lightning Lane Multi-Pass have been far less eventful and more closely resemble how you’d use it. They’re just a lot less interesting for post purposes, since they mostly involve circling the park, doing an attraction, then booking an immediate return time for another in close proximity, and repeating that process.
Lightning Lane Multi-Pass offers a significant competitive advantage at Disneyland because the parks’ California-centric guest base is buying it in far lower numbers than its Florida counterpart. While things will likely be different on peak season days or if a Magic Key add-on is offered, we currently highly recommend that all tourists purchase Lightning Lane Multi-Pass for at least one day of their Disneyland vacations.
Planning a Southern California vacation? For park admission deals, read Tips for Saving Money on Disneyland Tickets. Learn about on-site and off-site hotels in our Anaheim Hotel Reviews & Rankings. For where to eat, check out our Disneyland Restaurant Reviews. For unique ideas of things that’ll improve your trip, check out What to Pack for Disney. For comprehensive advice, consult our Disneyland Vacation Planning Guide. Finally, for guides beyond Disney, check out our Southern California Itineraries for day trips to Los Angeles, Laguna Beach, and tons of other places!
Your Thoughts
Thoughts on our day in Disneyland and Disney California Adventure using the paid Lightning Lane Multi-Pass service to do every eligible attraction? Are you planning on buying LLMP or skipping it at DLR? Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!