Disney 3-Day 3-Park Ticket, Lightning Lane, & Dining – Superb or Sour?

This year we returned to Walt Disney World, staying at Copper Creek in the Wilderness Lodge from a Friday afternoon until the Tuesday after Labor Day. We took advantage of a summer offer for those living outside of Florida for the Disney 3-Day 3-Park ticket to visit Hollywood Studios, Animal Kingdom and EPCOT, while also buying a Lightning Lane Multi-pass for our day at EPCOT. This is our recap, looking back at whether the special ticket and Lightning Lane pass were worth it. During our stay in the subtropical house of mouse we also ate a bunch, and so with this recap, we humbly present our dining favorites.

For more details on this Disney visit, please check out Disney Day 1 – Copper Creek Dreams, Hollywood Studios Nightmares, & the Magic Pumpkin and 2 Days in Disney World: Awesome Animal Kingdom & EPCOT Itinerary, which you can also find within our Disney collection.

Disney 3-Day 3-Park Ticket

We paid $267 per person for a 3-Day 3-Park Walt Disney World ticket, with which we could enter one theme park per day on three separate days in early September. This kind of ticket is not valid for Magic Kingdom, so you can visit either EPCOT, Hollywood Studios, or Animal Kingdom once each day. You don’t have to visit a different park each day, so if you want to visit EPCOT all three days, you can do that.

The ticket was available in the summer of 2025 through the end of September and is still available to Florida residents through late December, 2025.  There are options to add park hopper, water parks or a combination of both, all for an additional cost.

In contrast, a 3-Day park pass in late October without the park hopper option was priced on Disney’s web site at $503 per person, though it does include Magic Kingdom. Still, this is nearly double the cost, and we paid $89 per day to enter each of the three other parks, whereas now we would need to pay an average of $168 per day.  Note that we could have purchased an additional 1 day ticket for Magic Kingdom, which at the time was $150, or a ticket for Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party for a similar price.

So, was it worth it? For folks like us who have been to Walt Disney World, and specifically Magic Kingdom countless times, you bet it was. To put it in perspective, the last time a 3-Day park ticket cost anywhere in the vicinity of $267 was in 2016. Yes, that ticket in 2016 included admission to Magic Kingdom, and we probably would have gone to that theme park, and skipped either Hollywood Studios or Animal Kingdom. 

There are add-ons if park hopping or water parks are important to you. However, if Magic Kingdom is a “can’t miss” for you, then you need to factor in the additional cost of adding another ticket for the original Disney theme park before deciding. 

Lightning Lane at EPCOT

In our 2 Days in Disney World: Awesome Animal Kingdom & EPCOT Itinerary trip report, we covered a whole bunch about Lightning Lane, explaining how it all works, and what our experience was at EPCOT. At a cost of $25 per person, we purchased the Multi-pass for the Labor Day two days prior, expecting the park to be crowded and the waits long on the holiday. 

With the Multi Pass, we were able to book three arrival windows in advance: Mission Space just after lunch, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure in the afternoon, and Soarin’ Around the World later in the evening. With Multi-pass, once you finish an attraction for which you had a reserved Lightning Lane slot, you can try to reserve another one.

The first reservation, Mission Space, turned out to be unnecessary. When we arrived, the standby line was almost empty, so using the Lightning Lane didn’t actually save us any time. This was essentially a waste of a slot.

Our second reservation, for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, was the clear highlight. The standby line was about 45 minutes long, but with the Lightning Lane we boarded within a few minutes, making this the one attraction where the system felt genuinely worthwhile.

Later in the evening, we used our final reservation for Soarin’. By that time, the posted standby wait was only five minutes, and we could have walked straight on even without the Lightning Lane slot, which made that reservation feel redundant as well.

After each of those three rides, we did look for additional Lightning Lane windows but found that few were left, and in most cases we had already been on the attraction. The other EPCOT tier-1 attractions on Multi-pass, like Test Track and Frozen had no availability the rest of the day.

How much of this experience was because we booked Lightning Lane a couple of days before we used it? In retrospect, not very much.

Had we purchased the pass seven days’ prior rather than two, we might have been able to reserve Soarin’ – a popular second-tier attraction – earlier in the day when the wait is typically quite long. However, this would have offered no compelling advantage for two reasons. First, the standby line was non-existing in the evening when we did have our Lightning Lane window, so we did not really need to reserve it. Second, we virtually walked on to every other second-tier attraction except for Journey into Imagination with Figment, which was only 15 minutes.

Reflecting on that specific day, for $25 per person at EPCOT and EPCOT alone, the Multi Pass provided a real benefit only once — at Remy’s — while the other two reservations offered little to no advantage. The experience at each theme park is bound to vary. The $50 we spent did offer us enough peace of mind to feel that we did not need to arrive at EPCOT for early entry, affording us more sleep and a more relaxing morning than we otherwise would have had.

Our overall impression, however, is that the Lightning Lane is a downgraded version of Disney’s old free FastPass system and not something we would normally pay for again. While it can save valuable time for high-demand rides, our experience at EPCOT showed that with a bit of smart planning and awareness of real-time wait times, it might be just as easy to enjoy the park without it. Your experience can and will vary, and almost certainly will at the other theme parks.

Dining Favs

As always, here are the rules. There aren’t any. Sometimes both of us liked the same thing best, sometimes not. Sometimes we felt obliged to pick a runner-up, sometimes we didn’t stop there. Rona wants you all to know that this can be like choosing a favorite child, which as everyone knows is impossible, most of the time. Let’s get on with it!

First up, drinks, and not just the alcoholic variety:

• Rona – Peanut Butter Cold Brew @ Gideon’s Bakehouse at Disney Springs. Nothing else really had a chance, however honorable mention goes to the Iced Tea @ Space 220 in EPCOT. She loves a good iced tea.

• Jay – Old Fashioned @ Steakhouse 71 in the Contemporary Resort. It appears to be a universal truth that higher end steakhouses are able to craft a top notch old fashioned. Steakhouse 71 was no exception.

Next, our favorite pre-entree category, appetizers:

• Both – Apollo 16 Shrimp Tacos @ Space 220. First you get the crunch of the wonton shells, followed by the savory shrimp and freshness of the lettuce and shallots.

• Both – Runner up – Irish Egg @ Raglan Road at Disney Springs. The Guinness and onion sausage crusted egg was just the tasty protein we were looking for.

We now present the big one… entrees:

• Rona – Galactic Miso Salmon @ Space 220. This was among the best salmon Rona has ever had. The excellent service and cool ambiance likely augmented the experience too.

• Jay – Interstellar Steak & Frites @ Space 220 – The steak was cooked really well, was tender and juicy, and the frites (fries) topped it off nicely. This was better than the Prime Rib I had at Steakhouse 71, and I normally love a Prime Rib.

• Rona – Runner up Filet Mignon @ Steakhouse 71. Perfectly cooked, tender, sliced like butter

• Jay – Runner up – Grilled Salmon w/ Risotto @ Storybook Dining at Artist Point. Before Artist Point started hosting Storybook Dining, they were known for their salmon, and I can see why. It was flakey and delicious.

It is a total coincidence that Rona’s favorite entree was salmon and runner-up was steak, while my favorite entree was steak, and runner-up was salmon. Really. We promise.

With many good entrees comes a good side:

• Rona – Brussel Sprouts @ Polite Pig in Disney Springs. She loves a good brussel sprouts side, and these whiskey-caramel babies were perfectly charred and delectable.

• Jay – Au Gratin Potatoes @ Steakhouse 71. Holy crap are these good. This would have been Rona’s vote too, but then she remembered the Brussel Sprouts.

Lastly, we round out our meals with something sweet… dessert!

• Both – Cookies & Cream Cookie @ Gideon’s Bakehouse. We didn’t even eat this cookie until TWO FULL DAYS after we bought it. And yet it was so darn good.

And that concludes our 2025 Disney experiences. We hope the trip reports, and this recap were informative. Let us know in the comments!