I spent an extra $44 on Disney World's new Lightning Lane system. I don't know how you can visit without it.

• Disney introduced the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass on July 24.
• I visited the parks for one day in July after the new system went into effect.

The Disney parks have had some version of an expedited queuing system since 1999 when FlashPass was introduced.

Twenty-five years and multiple incarnations later, Disney introduced the Lightning Lane Multi-Pass in July 2024. This latest system is an extra add-on to your ticket, and is available per day, per park.

I visited Disney World in Orlando soon after this new system was introduced, and I don't know how you can get on all the rides you want without purchasing it.

What is Lightning Lane Multi-Pass, and how much does it cost?

It might seem overwhelming or complicated when you first purchase a Disney World ticket, especially as the website or app keeps asking if you want to add on a Multi-Pass or Single Pass to your ticket.

But it's actually relatively simple.

A Lightning Lane Multi-Pass allows you to choose three Disney rides that you want to prioritize. Once you choose your rides, the Disney app will offer you three one-hour-long slots (one for each ride).

You can have three Lightning Lanes at once — that means, once you complete your first ride, you can add another one for later in the day.

However, not every ride in the park is the same. Disney has already decided which rides are top-tier, and you can only book one top-tier ride at a time. The other two rides you can choose from have to be from the lower tier of rides.

Each park's Lightning Lanes are differently priced, and they change depending on the day of the week.

For an upcoming Tuesday (the day of the week I went), prices are as follows: $27 for Magic Kingdom, $18 for Epcot, $22 for Hollywood Studios, and $16 for Animal Kingdom.

I opted for Hollywood Studios, since that had the most rides I wanted to experience. When I went, a Multi-Pass for Hollywood Studios was $24.

The big change with this new system is that, before, you were only able to schedule your Lightning Lanes on the day of your visit at 7 a.m.

Now, if you're staying at one of the resorts on Disney property, you can do it up to a week in advance. Everyone else can do it three days in advance.

So, what's a Single Pass?

Remember when I said some rides are top-tier? Well, some rides have been deemed even more exclusive than those rides, and you can only purchase a Lightning Lane for those separately.

The biggest rides around the parks — Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, TRON Lightcycle, Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind, Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance, and Avatar Flight of Passage — only have Lightning Lane Single Passes.

These range from $11 to $20 each.

That means if you want to ensure you get on these rides, you'll have to purchase an additional pass. I wanted to go on TRON, which was another $20.

If you're keeping track, that's a total of $44 in extras, for one person, in addition to my park-hopper ticket, which was $247.

Overall, I spent $291 just to get into the park for a day.

If you care about rides, I think it's necessary — but the additional fees can be difficult to justify for a family

As someone who paid for a single ticket for a single day, I'm grateful I opted for a Multi-Pass. I was able to breeze through all three rides I wanted to get on at Hollywood Studios, and my wait for TRON was around 10 minutes. For perspective, the queues for popular rides can be 75 minutes and up.

Overall, the pass meant I wasn't wasting precious park time in long lines and allowed me to pack much more into my day.

However, if I was going as part of a family of four, these passes would have cost an extra $176 — and that's just for one day. I can't even imagine how a family is supposed to do Lightning Lanes for multiple days at the parks.

It's just one way that the cost of going to Disney has increased. In fact, when FastPass was first introduced in the '90s, it was free, and it stayed that way for years. I remember going to Disney as a kid and receiving a physical printout that would tell you what time to come back so you could get on the shorter line.

If you're doing Disney on a budget, the Multi-Pass might not be for you, but I'd strongly recommend springing for at least one of the single rides. Those are the best attractions in the park, and you could waste hours trying to get on them without a Lightning Lane.

But if you're already willing to spend thousands of dollars — which seems more and more likely these days — adding the Multi-Pass is a must.