Standby Skipper: The App that Books Lightning Lanes (at Disney)

On our most recent Disney trip, we decided to try out the Standby Skipper app, a third-party app designed to automate Lightning Lane bookings. So was it worth it? That’s what I’m breaking down here in this blog post. If you want to book Lightning Lanes but don’t want to be glued to your phone between rides, keep reading!

What Is Standby Skipper?

Standby Skipper is an app that assists with booking Lightning Lane Multi Pass selections at Walt Disney World. By linking with your My Disney Experience app through the Friends & Family feature, it can make reservations on your behalf, adhering to Disney’s booking rules. 

To put it simply, you tell the Standby Skipper app what Lightning Lanes you want and within what timeframe, and it books them for you automatically rather than you having to constantly search for openings and book manually.

​How Standby Skipper Works, Step by Step:

1. Download and Setup: Download Standby Skipper and sign up. Tip: Use the same email as your Disney account.
2. Link Accounts: Standby Skipper will guide you to accept the friend request from them in your My Disney Experience app to grant it access to make bookings.
3. Purchase a Plan: Choose between a $25/day or $45/week plan, covering up to 12 people.
4. Set Your Preferences: Input your desired attractions and preferred time frames into the app. For example, you can choose for the app to only search for rides/attractions within the next 2 hours, or in the afternoon or evening, or any time. To do this, scroll to the right (this wasn’t obvious to me at first for some reason).
5. Let It Work: Standby Skipper will monitor availability and book Lightning Lane selections as they become available, sending you notifications upon successful reservations.

Pros and Cons of the Standby Skipper App

As with anything else, there are pros and cons to using any app, especially a paid one. Here are the pros and cons of Standby Skipper, in my opinion:

Pros

• Time-Saving & Keeps You Off Your Phone: I like knowing that I would automatically be booked if a Lightning Lane came available for my family, and I didn’t have to stress about constantly being on my phone checking for the next available booking. If I can spend less time on my phone and more time present with my family, that is a win for me.
• Customizable: I liked that the app allowed me to specify certain time frames to search for booking, especially when park-hopping and knowing we would be leaving one park at a certain time. You can ask it to search:
  • Anytime
  • Between park open and noon
  • Between noon and 4pm
  • Between 4pm and park close
  • As soon as possible (Within the next 2 hours)
• Group Management: The fact that it can book for up to 12 people is a perk!

Cons

• Additional Cost: As with most things at Disney, the perk costs extra money. While Standby Skipper is not affiliated with Disney, so it makes sense to charge for it’s service, it’s still another add-on. 
• Limited to Lightning Lane Multi Pass: Standby Skipper does not handle Individual Lightning Lane purchases or virtual queues, it only works for the Multi-Pass. I don’t think this is a huge con because you really book your Single Lane pass when you purchase it through the Disney app, and what you really need is help with booking your next lightning lane when you have a Multi-Pass. But still, had to list all the details.

Is Standby Skipper Worth the Cost?

If you’re looking to minimize time spent on your phone and maximize enjoyment in the parks, I would say yes, Standby Skipper is definitely worth it. I’ll share our experience with it for more context:

Our Experience using Standby Skipper for One Day

On our most recent Disney trip we took the kids for a short trip for their birthdays. We did Thursday at Magic Kingdom, Friday morning at Magic Kingdom then park hopped over to Epcot, then spent Saturday at Typhoon Lagoon. We only purchased Lightning Lane Multi-Passes for Friday (our 1 full day at the parks) and so we purchased Standby Skipper for that one day ($25 option).

​We knew we wanted to leave Magic Kingdom around 1pm, so after we used our first Lightning Lane that morning, I had Standby Skipper searching for rides in the “as soon as possible” setting. The one we wanted the most that I had been unable to book so far was Tiana’s. 

​Sure enough, a couple of rides in and I get a notification that Standby Skipper had booked us on Tiana’s! I was super excited to get this notification and that the return time was perfect for our plans for the day. 

After that, I honestly can’t remember what all the app booked us on, but it as able to get us pretty much everything in my search for Magic Kingdom. 

The tricky part for us was then park hopping over the Epcot. We really wanted to ride a few rides at Epcot, including Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and Gaurdians of the Galaxy. However, I did not want to have Standby Skipper searching for Epcot rides earlier in the day because I needed it searching for and booking Magic Kingdom Rides.

In hindsight, I think I could have set up the Epcot searches for any time after 4pm earlier in the day, but it was my first time using it so I didn’t even realize I could do that. That said, we were not able to get on those more popular rides at Epcot in the timeframe we were there. Had we stayed later or I had started my search earlier, we most likely would have had those booked as well, but our kids had walked 10+ miles and were tired by 7pm.

​Would I use Standby Skipper again?

Yes. I would 100% use Standby Skipper again. I think if you’re going to pay the extra for the Lightning Lane, just go for it and add this app to maximize your Lightning Lane experience while minimizing time spent on your phone, trying to navigate the bookings. 

To learn more visit Standby Skipper’s website.

More Disney & Orlando Travel Tips:

• 10 Disney Tips That Made Our Trip Amazing
• The 10 Things I Will Always Bring to Disney
• The Grove Resort Orlando – Our Family Review