Lightning Lane Multi Pass Priorities at EPCOT

We’re wrapping up an empty summer and early fall at Walt Disney World and headed toward one of the busiest times of year. That means more people than usual will be in the parks and getting in line for attractions. Longer lines tempt more people to purchase Lightning Lane Multi Pass (LLMP), so I want you to have all of the information you need to make the most of your LLMP purchase.

I will preface all of this by saying that I always recommend booking what you enjoy, but I enjoy math. So I want a LLMP reservation prioritization list powered by data. You may see other priority lists pop up on Disney sites, based on various things like previous experiences or gut feel. But this one is supported by … EQUATIONS. Strap in and enjoy the ride.

This post was last updated on September 28, 2024.

Explain the Math!

We can rank the LLMP attractions in each park in different ways. In this post, I am going to aggregate three of those different measures by averaging them. Easy peasy.

1. Rank by average availability, ascending – the attraction in each park that usually sells out first will get rank 1, and the attraction in each park that has book now/ride now availability the most through the day will get the lowest rank.
2. Rank by average time savings, descending – the attraction in each park where LLMP usually saves the most time compared to standby will get rank 1, and the attraction in each park where LLMP usually saves the least time compared to standby will get the lowest rank.
3. Rank by attraction satisfaction, descending – the attraction in each park with the highest overall average satisfaction from 2024 will get rank 1, and the attraction in each park with the lowest overall average satisfaction from 2024 will get 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!

Prioritized List of EPCOT Lightning Lane Multi Pass Tier One Attractions

1. Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure

Availability Score = 1 out of 3
Time Savings Score = 1 out of 3
Satisfaction Score = 2 out of 3

If you’re not staying at a resort with walking or Skyliner access to EPCOT, there is no way for you to efficiently rope drop Remy. It just won’t happen. Even on the least crowded days of the year, there is easily a 30-minute wait of people already lining up in France before you’re even allowed into the World Showcase part of the park. That makes Remy a popular strategic choice for LLMP.

Remy has the highest LLMP time savings of any attraction in the park – 31 minutes on average during a very uncrowded time of year. Remy is also selling out faster than Frozen Ever After, and Soarin’ just never sells out. In the new era of advance selections, Remy is almost always sold out before the park even opens for the day. The availability issues combined with the time savings make it an easy first pick, assuming it’s something that your party is actually interested in experiencing.

If you don’t or can’t select it in advance – don’t fret. Almost every day, Disney drops more availability at 1:45 pm (the only exception is if the ride has had a lot of downtime). Set a timer and be ready to snap up a reservation!

2. Frozen Ever After

Availability Score = 2 out of 3

Time Savings Score = 2 out of 3

Satisfaction Score = 3 out of 3

Frozen Ever After, like Remy, used to be an Individual Lightning Lane over at EPCOT, and for good reason. You can save large amounts of time by using it, and probably your littlest kids aren’t particularly interested in Cosmic Rewind anyway.

So far with LLMP, Frozen Ever After has worse time savings than Remy, but not by much – an average of 25 minutes during low season. And its availability is slightly better, but it still sells out before 10 am most days. And its satisfaction keeps dropping overall – the worst out of any of the Tier One attractions at EPCOT.

3. Soarin’

Availability Score = 3 out of 3
Time Savings Score = 3 out of 3
Satisfaction Score = 1 out of 1

There is almost no reason that Soarin’ should ever be your Tier One advance selection at EPCOT. If you don’t care about Remy and Frozen anyway, then you probably just don’t need LLMP for your EPCOT day. Standby waits take a while to build up at Soarin’. You can just rope drop. Or … show up any time in the first 90 minutes after early entry starts.

Even if you arrive later in the day, your ride reservation at Soarin’ will save you a whopping 6 minutes compared to standby. This is thanks to that lengthy preshow and three theaters being generally able to keep up with crowds, especially during low crowd season. If you do decide you want to use LLMP at Soarin’, just book it sometime during the day right before you want to ride. It’s generally available with almost immediate return times all day.

Prioritized List of EPCOT Lightning Lane Multi Pass Tier Two Attractions

Before we even get into EPCOT Tier Two – just know that the time savings are NOT GREAT. They range from nothing to … a whole 6 minutes. Now, this is in an uncrowded time of year. But even that uncrowded time of year has averaged a crowd level of 4 or 5 thanks to Food and Wine drawing people to EPCOT instead of other parks. So these time savings will go up in the late fall and winter, but this is still a shockingly bad set of time savings compared to any other park.

1. Mission: SPACE

Availability Score = 1 out of 7
Time Savings Score = 1 out of 7
Satisfaction Score = 6 out of 7

A semi-controversial pick here at number one with Mission: SPACE. If you struggle with motion sickness or small spaces, ignore this entry altogether. But if you can handle those things and are a space geek (I happily include myself in that list), Mission: SPACE is a decent choice. It sells out before any other tier two attraction (but not until 4:00 pm most days). And it saves a whole 6 minutes, which is enough for top spot. Its near-rock-bottom satisfaction isn’t even enough to knock it from number one.

2. Living with the Land

Availability Score = 3 out of 7
Time Savings Score = 3 out of 7
Satisfaction Score = 3 out of 7

Despite the fact that Living with the Land is one of the most awesome attractions at WDW, it doesn’t typically draw large crowds of hydroponics fans. Weird. But … interestingly, with Soarin’ drawing more crowds, LLMP users are getting more tempted to just use an LLMP reservation on Living with the Land while they’re already in the area, so it sells out before quite a few other attractions. Plus, its satisfaction score has recently been improving! The Becky advice: ride this ride, just don’t use LLMP to do it, unless you walk up to the line, it happens to be long, it has immediate reservation availability and you happen to be able to make a reservation. Weird advice for the second-best Tier Two LLMP in the park.

3. The Seas with Nemo and Friends

Availability Score = 5 out of 7
Time Savings Score = 1 out of 7
Satisfaction Score = 5 out of 7

Coming in 3rd place is The Seas with Nemo and Friends. Should you experience the main Seas tanks and exhibits while at EPCOT? 100% yes! Do you have to do the ride in order to access them? Nope! If you haven’t done it before, and/or have big Nemo fans in the group, then, by all means, go for it. But unless the attraction is having reliability issues, you won’t need to use LLMP to do it. Oddly enough, those operational issues recently, combined with the need to prioritize LLMP reservations before standby means that time savings here have ticked up the tiniest bit in the past month. But that tiny tick up to 6 minutes of time savings is enough to temporarily tie it for first place out of the Tier Two attractions in the park. That’s bizarre.

4. Spaceship Earth

Availability Score = 2 out of 7
Time Savings Score = 5 out of 7
Satisfaction Score = 4 out of 7

Spaceship Earth is one of the attractions that has much worse availability with LLMP than it did with Genie+. It’s a popular advance selection. Not enough that it books up totally in advance, but enough that a day-long average results in return times about an hour behind booking time. That’s enough to score the second-worst availability for Tier Two in the park. But its average time savings so far are only 3.5 minutes.

If you’re at EPCOT on a high-crowd day and already nearby with a reservation to spare, go ahead and grab it to avoid whatever standby line exists. I’d call this a reservation to use opportunistically as time allows.

5. Turtle Talk with Crush

Availability Score = 4 out of 7
Time Savings Score = 6 out of 7
Satisfaction Score = 2 out of 7

Okay, LLMP isn’t going to save you any time at Turtle Talk. You’ll be entering the show at the same time as anyone else lining up in the pre-show area. But its satisfaction is higher than many other Tier Two options, and it doesn’t always have immediate availability. So that means statistically it isn’t at the bottom of the list.

6. Short Film Festival

Availability Score = 7 out of 7
Time Savings Score = 7 out of 7
Satisfaction Score = 1 out of 7

The Short Film Festival having the best satisfaction out of any Tier Two attraction says more about the overall lower satisfaction of EPCOT rides than it says about the Film Festival itself. It’s a nice cool escape from the heat in the summer. And, sure, the short films are cute. But watch them at home and go enjoy the A/C in the Seas instead. You’re welcome.

7. Journey Into Imagination

Availability Score = 6 out of 7
Time Savings Score = 4 out of 7
Satisfaction Score = 7 out of 7

As a lifelong Figment fan (seriously, not an exaggeration), this one pains me. But I also agree with it. Journey into Imagination is a shell of its former self. And if you weren’t familiar with its former self, you still have to be okay with permeating skunk stench to enjoy this version of it. Shockingly, there are no large crowds of people wanting to experience that. You can pretty much always book it with immediate availability if you so choose. But even if you do, you might save something like 4 minutes compared to standby.

What Does This Mean For You?

1. Especially with the lower individual-park prices, it may be worth considering using LLMP at EPCOT. Within reason. And that reason is wanting to do Remy and Frozen and not having early entry access.
2. EPCOT is the hardest park for making effective use of LLMP. It has a whole two attractions where LLMP is truly worthwhile from a time-savings perspective … and both book up remarkably quickly compared to attractions at any other park. If you’re going to buy LLMP on an EPCOT day, have a plan – and potentially research times at which more reservations get released in the afternoon to try to “game” the system.
3. Like at Animal Kingdom, there are many other activities, attractions and shows that score much higher in satisfaction than the majority of the LLMP options. If you don’t purchase LLMP and the crowds descend, spend your time exploring World Showcase. You can easily fill a whole day and not be stuck in queues.

Have you used LLMP in EPCOT? Do you agree with these rankings or would yours be different? Let me know in the comments!