Usually not worth it
The rides where we would keep the money, including several that post a wait long enough to make you reach for your wallet anyway.
The short answer
35 of the 175 attractions we track across Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Universal Orlando and Disneyland Paris get this answer — roughly one attraction in five. The rides where we would keep the money, including several that post a wait long enough to make you reach for your wallet anyway. 18 of the 35 sit in a moderate peak-standby band, which is also the worst peak wait in this group; the other 17 post shorter waits than that. All 35 do offer a paid line skip. 13 of them carry a minimum height rule, from 32" up to 52"; the other 22 have none at all.
What this answer means
A ride lands here when the line is short enough to absorb, when the ride is brief enough that the wait is a bad trade at almost any length, or when the pass queue it offers barely moves faster than the standby line beside it. The decisive number is not how long the wait is — it is how long the wait is compared with what you get at the end of it.
Why these rides, and not others
Our answer is not a rating of how good a ride is. It is a reading of its queue, so the honest way to show the reasoning is to show the queues. Here is how the 35 attractions in this group break down by the peak standby wait we track:
The longest lines in this group
18 attractions here post the worst peak wait in this group — 30–60 min at peak — and still get the same answer:
- ·"it's a small world" — Disneyland Park · Usually skippable
- ·Autopia — Disneyland Park · Usually skippable · 32"
- ·Autopia — Disneyland Park · Usually skippable · 81 cm
- ·Doctor Doom's Fearfall — Islands of Adventure · Express not needed here · 52"
- ·Fast & Furious – Supercharged — Universal Studios · Express not needed here · 40"
- ·Flight of the Hippogriff — Islands of Adventure · Express not needed here · 36"
- ·Fyre Drill — Epic Universe · Express not needed here
- ·Mad Tea Party — Magic Kingdom · Usually skippable
- ·Orbitron — Disneyland Park · Usually skippable
- ·Pirates of the Caribbean — Disneyland Park · Usually skippable
- ·Popeye & Bluto's Bilge-Rat Barges — Islands of Adventure · Express not needed here · 42"
- ·Skull Island: Reign of Kong — Islands of Adventure · Express not needed here · 36"
Plus 6 more in the same band, all listed park by park below.
Who this answer is for
Everyone, and especially anyone rationing a limited number of pass selections. Every skip on this list is a selection you get to spend on the groups above.
The mistake this group invites
Treating a posted wait as a price tag. A good number of the rides here show a middling board wait at peak, and that number is what sells passes — but a middling wait for a ride measured in seconds, or for a queue that is itself air-conditioned and part of the show, is not a problem money should solve.
What it costs, and why we will not give you a number
None of the three pass systems publishes a flat per-ride price for skipping a line. Disney prices Lightning Lane by date and demand, Universal sells Express Pass as a day product whose price swings hard with the calendar, and Disneyland Paris prices Premier Access per ride per day. Any site quoting you a fixed dollar figure per attraction is quoting a number that was true on one day. So we answer in bands and send you to the parks for the figure. No pass product of any kind changes our answer on this list, and that includes the all-you-can-ride day products. It is also the one list here that nobody selling a pass has any reason to publish.
The ride-by-ride verdicts behind this page live in the Lightning Lane worth-it guide, the Express Pass worth-it guide and the Premier Access guide for Paris.
Where these rides are
The same answer is not spread evenly across the resorts we track, and the split is worth seeing before you buy anything:
Height and thrill are separate questions
Whether a queue is worth paying for and whether your party can ride at all are different problems, and they come apart more often than families expect. This group runs from 32" up to 52", so a child can be tall enough for one ride on this page and turned away from the next. The ride height guide walks that ladder inch by inch, and the thrill level guide answers the other half — whether a rider who handled one ride will handle the next. By thrill level, this group is 17 gentle, 11 family, 6 moderate and 1 big thrill. If you are planning around where these rides sit in the park, the lands guide groups them that way, and the crowd calendar covers the weeks that change the answer on this page most.
Every attraction with this answer, park by park
Stop guessing which lines are worth paying for.
A real Disney guide watches the actual waits on your actual day, tells you which passes to buy and which to leave alone, and books them in the right order — from $75/hour on your first trip. The answer to this page changes with the date; a guide changes with it.