Lightning Lane Multi Pass Priorities at Animal Kingdom
Welcome, Disney data fans! If you’re looking to make the most of Lightning Lane Multi Pass (LLMP) at Animal Kingdom, you’re in luck—this park is the simplest to plan for. Unlike other parks, there are no attraction tiers, meaning you can choose any three available attractions for your advance selections. Plus, Animal Kingdom is the cheapest park for purchasing LLMP, making it a great place to maximize value.
But which attractions give you the biggest time savings and best overall experience? Let’s break it down!
This post was last updated on February 11, 2025.
Explain the Math
We can rank the LLMP attractions in each park in multiple ways. In this post, we are aggregating three of those measures by doing a simple average.
- Rank by average availability, ascending – the attraction in each park that typically sells out first (including in advance) will receive rank 1, and the attraction in each park that maintains book now/ride now availability the most through the day receives the lowest rank.
- Rank by average time savings, descending – the attraction in each park where LLMP typically saves the most time compared to standby will receive rank 1, and the attraction in each park where LLMP typically saves the least time compared to standby will receive the lowest rank.
- Rank by attraction satisfaction, descending – the attraction in each park with the highest overall average satisfaction from the past two years will receive rank 1, and the attraction in each park with the lowest overall average satisfaction from 2024 will receive the lowest rank.
Once I calculated all three ranks, then I averaged the three results and sorted from score that was closest to one all the way to the highest number. I used those averages to come up with the following prioritized list! Phew.
Prioritized List of Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Multi Pass Attractions
1. Kilimanjaro Safaris
Availability Score = 2 out of 5
Time Savings Score = 1 out of 5
Satisfaction Score = 1 out of 5
At Animal Kingdom, Kilimanjaro Safaris has the second-worst availability of all LLMP attractions (but that really only matters on high-crowd days, when it sells out by 10 a.m.), and is the option with the highest satisfaction – and the only other attraction that is even close is Expedition Everest. Its time savings are currently the best in the park, with an average of 25 minutes saved. Wait times rise rapidly at the Safari thanks to no early entry, and lots of guests wanting to ride in the morning when animals are active. So this can be a great use of LLMP at Animal Kingdom.
2. Na’vi River Journey
Availability Score = 1 out of 5
Time Savings Score = 2 out of 5
Satisfaction Score = 4 out of 5
Na’vi River Journey is the obvious choice for LLMP priorities – if you only care about what might book up the fastest. On medium-crowd days, it’s sold out by 8 a.m. And during high crowds, it books up 3 days in advance! Still … it’s not hard to get and use every LLMP reservation in the park in a single day, so maybe availability shouldn’t be the deciding factor. Time savings are decent – coming in right behind Safaris with a 21-minute average wait time savings in the past 3 months.
When you factor in satisfaction, the decision to prioritize Na’vi River Journey doesn’t hold true. River Journey ranks 4th out of the 6 LLMP attractions in average satisfaction. But I’m going to go ahead and say it’s worth trying, especially without much of a wait.
3. Expedition Everest
Availability Score = 3 out of 5
Time Savings Score = 3 out of 5
Satisfaction Score = 2 out of 5
Ohhhhhhh … Expedition Everest. Surprisingly, Everest keeps pretty good availability all throughout the day, only booked out an hour or two in advance. And its 14-minute average time savings with LLMP is good enough for 3rd place, even if it’s not astounding on its own. As far as satisfaction goes, you’re better off not making any other reservations further down on this list and exploring the animal trails or watching the shows. Or playing Wilderness Explorers!
4. Kali River Rapids
Availability Score = 4 out of 5
Time Savings Score = 5 out of 5
Satisfaction Score = 3 out of 5
Kali River Rapids is pretty low on the list – and some of that is due to low wait times over and high availability since we’re pulling data from the winter months, when people are less likely to want to get soaked to cool off in the middle of the day. Its satisfaction doesn’t come close to touching Everest or the Safari either. Kali River Rapids does experience a much more volatile availability than any other attraction on this list. If it’s a hot day, it will sell out much more quickly!
5. DINOSAUR
Availability Score = 5 out of 5
Time Savings Score = 4 out of 5
Satisfaction Score = 5 out of 5
DINOSAUR ranks in 5th place for availability (almost never selling out for the day) and in 4th place for time savings compared to standby (12 minutes on average). But what really sinks DINOSAUR is its lowest satisfaction ranking in the park. That’s all bad enough news to keep it solidly on the low end of our list.
What Does This Mean For You?
- I’d generally not recommend using LLMP at Animal Kingdom. But on high crowd level days later during spring break or the summer, and especially if you tend to miss rope drop, it could be worth it even if you only use reservations for Kilimanjaro Safaris and Na’vi River Journey.
- There are so many other things to do in Animal Kingdom that have higher overall satisfaction than the LLMP attractions that I’m tempted to just say forget LLMP in all circumstances and go hit the trails or watch Feathered Friends in Flight and spend your time getting Wilderness Explorer badges. You’ll have a full and informative day without the hassle of long queues and booking reservations.
- The one caveat to this is that LLMP is least expensive at Animal Kingdom, and always includes park hopping. If you’re confident in your ability to get same-day reservations, you could make your three advance reservations at Animal Kingdom, use one or two in the morning, and then start booking at another park. You’d save yourself some money if that was your park-hopping plan anyway.
Have you used Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Animal Kingdom? Do you agree with these rankings or would yours be different? Let me know in the comments!
(Originally published October 16, 2024)
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In describing “Rank by attraction satisfaction,” you say the highest overall satisfaction is based on the past two years, but the lowest overall satisfaction is based on 2024. Were there any differences between the two-year rankings and the 2024 rankings? If so, your top-to-bottom and bottom-to-top lists would differ. How did you resolve the differences to come up with a single ranking list? (These questions apply to all parks, not just Animal Kingdom, unless you use a different standard for the other parks.)
You say that Na’vi River Journey ranks 4th out of 6 LLMP attractions in average satisfaction. Since It’s Tough to be a Bug is now gone, that should read 4th out of 5 (as it does in the Satisfaction Score).
what if your 2nd park of the day is DHS and you are hoping to get Slinky Dog?? Would you start with LLMP in AK for price advantage or jump straight to afternoon LLMP at DHS and get SD at 7 day window?
The Satisfaction Score is useful for newcomers, but less so for return visitors. I’d like to see a quick reranking that excludes the satisfaction score; I can look at the top one and say “nope, don’t want to do that ride, skipping ahead.”