Walt Disney World has a way to reserve attractions you’d like to ride ahead of a park visit called Lightning Lane Multi Pas. This was previously known as Genie+ but without being able to reserve ahead. Before that and a worldwide pandemic, this was known as FastPass+ but it was free. In this post, we’ll breakdown the best use of Lightning Lane Multi Pass in Animal Kingdom. To read our strategy for other parks, click here!

Before we get any further, a word of caution. Animal Kingdom is by far the worst park at Walt Disney World to spend money on Lightning Lane Multi Pass. As much as I love the park, there’s not enough rides to even have the tiered system that the other three have. That actually benefits guests booking it but goes to show how little is offered. If you show up near opening at Animal Kingdom, getting all of the attractions done in one day via standby is easy. Lightning Lane adds convenience but is far from necessary.

We love Animal Kingdom for other reasons – the many beautiful paths, the elaborate theme and story. Lightning Lane Multi Pass will save you time to experience all of those things. But the time saving is minimal compared to other parks. Animal Kingdom offers 8 attractions total to use with Multi Pass. That doesn’t include Flight of Passage, which is a Single Pass. That Disney World is calling them ‘Single Passes’ is very funny to me.

Assuming you did decide to get Multi Pass and kept reading (goodbye to those who didn’t!), purchasing can happen 7 days in advance of your hotel stay if you’re staying on-site, 3 days ahead of your park visit if not. Guests can purchase Lightning Lane passes for days they have valid theme park admission starting at 7:00 AM Eastern Time on their first day of eligibility. That’s 4 AM(!) on the west coast, but I do recommend waking up for it. If you’re going to splurge on this then you might as well make it worth your while. The way to do that is right when they go on sale. Make sure all of your group’s tickets are linked in the app before purchasing. After booking, please go back to sleep!

Once done with that step and the park day has rolled around, guests will have 3 reserved Lightning Lanes. When the first of those attraction windows comes up (or you’ve checked into the ride) a new reservation can be made for whatever is available. Animal Kingdom has a decent top 5, so you may find something here. To accomplish as much as possible, reserve one attraction as early as possible and keep reserving as soon as you check in for a ride. One of the biggest plusses of this new system is that it’s a rolling 3 attractions to reserve and you don’t have to complete all 3 pre-reserved passes first. You can also hop to another park if you have an applicable ticket, which is one way to make the Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Multi Pass worth the cost. One other note is that you can only book an attraction once.

Without the tiers at Animal Kingdom, we’ll just give you a straight ranking of all of the attractions offered. Keep in mind, these are not in order of what our favorites are but instead what is the best use of a Lightning Lane. More than anything, this is to help you stay out of line. Naturally, these rankings do follow some of our attraction rankings but they are being judged off of popularity and what attractions run out of Lightning Lanes the fastest. If you have questions about how Multi Pass works or our rankings, let us know in the comments below. Let’s get to it!

Animal Kingdom Lightning Lane Multi Pass Rankings

1. Kilimanjaro Safaris – The top two are very close so I opted to just pick my favorite of them. Kilimanjaro Safaris is one of the best attractions in Walt Disney World and draws long lines from mid-morning through late afternoon. Like much of Animal Kingdom, the queue is also very hot to stand in so we’ll try to avoid that with a Lightning Lane. If you’re purchasing Multi Pass and don’t reserve these top two then it is not worth the price at all.

2. Na’vi River Journey – This attraction has sustained it’s popularity even after the initial opening rush. Whether that’s warranted for the short boat ride is questionable but the vibe is nice and so is that giant Na’vi shaman at the end! No matter our feelings on the ride, grabbing a Lightning Lane here will save a bunch of time.

3. Expedition Everest – To round out the three reservation picks, we’ll go with Everest. The attraction won’t always have long standby waits, especially in the opening and closing hours. Still, the roller coaster is easily more popular than the following options and a much better ride too!

4. Kali River Rapids – The next two could be flipped depending on weather. Seeing how we’re talking about Florida and I sweat an ungodly amount 10 months out of the year, we’ll keep the water ride in 4th place. The downside here is that the queue is the best part of Kali River Rapids. Once on the ride, it’s a little bit of a buzzkill but is a good way to cool off!

5. Zootopia: Better Together – This new 3D attraction is a good time for families and still has a new car smell, keeping some popularity. We expect that to last into summer 2026. There might be a case for this in the number 6 spot but 5th or 6th is the clear choice.

6. Festival of the Lion King – The rest of these are shows and you could likely find a better use of the Multi Pass by going to a different park. Festival of the Lion King could be the exception, as some showtimes do get busy and it’s a hot outdoor queue. We love the show though, it’s a must do at Animal Kingdom! This is our first (and maybe only) Lightning Lane pick among the shows but is well behind of the attractions in front of it.

7. Finding Nemo: The Big Blue… and Beyond! – The Finding Nemo musical is inside of a very large theater and will be just as easy to access via standby as it is booking a Lightning Lane. The only benefit to booking is slightly better seats but I still don’t think it’s worth the effort. Go see the show if you need some A/C and want to get “in this big blue world…” stuck in your head for years!

8. Feathered Friends in Flight – Look, I like birds as much as the next guy. Maybe even more than the next guy! At this show, those creatures swoop and soar over your head. It’s a good time! But you can experience that by walking in 2 minutes before showtime without having to pull out your phone.

Getting Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Animal Kingdom will have you zipping through the rides here and likely accomplishing everything by early afternoon. The issue is that you can do that via standby without having to spend the money on your group. While it’s a fun splurge if you have the means, we’d recommend purchasing Multi Pass at every other park before this one.

Will you use Lightning Lane Multi Pass at Animal Kingdom? Let us know your thoughts or any questions you might have in the comments below. Planning a trip to Walt Disney World? Check out our Disney World Trip Planning Guide to help you out. Looking for Disney World discount tickets? You can find them here! If you enjoy what you are reading here on Wandering in Disney please share this post with your friends, as well as like our social media pages. You can also subscribe to the blog via WordPress or email. All of those links are on the right side of this page. Thank you for reading, we really appreciate it!