Is Early Entry Worth It?!

Gone are the days of getting to the Disney parks at rope drop, and getting three, four, or even five rides in before the crowds arrive. 

As part of the 50th Anniversary Celebration, guests staying at Walt Disney World Resort Hotels (and select other hotels), get 30 minutes of extra park time at all four parks, every single day. Does that 30 minutes really make a difference?!

How It Works

Each morning, guests stay at included hotels, will be allowed to enter a theme park of their choice (Park Pass Reservations are required) 30 minutes early. When you arrive at your chosen park you will go through security like normal, and then procede to the "turnstiles." On some occasions we have arrived at the park and there has been a few select turnstiles for Early Entry. This has mostly been the case at Epcot and Hollywood Studios. 

At Epcot and Hollywood Studios, one guest from your party will need to scan their Magicband, ticket card, or phone to verify that you are a resort guest, and have a Park Pass for that park for that day. You will then be allowed in to wait until Early Entry officially starts. At Hollywood Studios our experience has been that you can enter the queue for the attraction you would like to ride first and wait for the attractions to start running. At Epcot, we have waited just before the path splits right next to what is going to be Cosmic Rewind. There is also a waiting point on the the other side of the park, but we have not gone to that side. 

At Magic Kingdom all guests will be allowed to scan into the park, but guests wishing to use Early Entry will find a Cast Member in the Hub directing guests towards Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. Before you can pick a direction, though, one member of your party will need to scan to verify that you are staying at an elligible hotel. After scanning, we have always gone towards Fantasyland. Here you'll wait between the Cheshire Cafe and Cosmic Ray's, just before Mad Tea Party.  

We have no used Early Entry at Animal Kingdom. 

We can't speak for you, but we will say that that 30 minutes is worth it for us to stay on property. 

September

Our trip in September ended up being in the first few days of Early Entry. Although the perk officially started on October 1, there was a soft opening the last week of September. We were lucky enough to be there for it, while they worked out the kinks, and while less people knew about it! We were able to get on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in 12 minutes after we were allowed into the queues. We also made it onto Rise of the Resistance and Smuggler's Run in the first hour that we were in the park. 

November

By Novemeber more resort guests were taking advantage of Early Entry, but we were still able to get on a lot of rides before the non-resort guests were allowed into the parks. 

December 

This trip we booked kind of last minute, just two and half weeks before we planned on going. It also happened to be two weeks before Christmas when we went. These two factors made it so that there was almost no availability at on-site hotels, so we opted to stay somewhere off-site since we were only going for one park day to check out Festival of the Holiday at Epcot. We were one of the first people to enter the parks after Early Entry had ended, and by the time the park officially ended Frozen and Test Track, the two big name attractions at Epcot, had 90 and 70 minute waits respectively. 

January 

Last week we took advatange of Early Entry at Magic Kingdom. We arrived a little bit later than we would have liked, so we were a couple of hundred people back in the gaggle of people that were waiting for the Cast Members to allow us past Cosmic Ray's and into attraction queues. It was a BUSY day, it was a holiday weekend, and crowds have just picked up because people are done being stuck at home. We were still able to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train in about 35 minutes after we were allowed "into the park." Later in the day this attraction had a 130 minute wait. 


What Should You Ride?! 

What you go to first is up to you, but there are some attractions that will have higher wait times after the first few minutes of early entry, and we suggest you do one of them first. 

Magic Kingdom:

Seven Dwarfs Mine Train 

Space Mountain

Peter Pan's Flight 

Hollywood Studios

Rise of the Resistance

Mickey and Minnie's Runaway Railway

Slinky Dog Dash

Epcot

Frozen Ever After

Test Track 

Remy's Ratatouille Adventure 

Animal Kingdom 

Flight of Passage  


Participating hotels:

  • Disney's All-Star Movies Resort
  • Disney's All-Star Music Resort
  • Disney's All-Star Sports Resort
  • Disney's Art of Animation Resort
  • Disney's Pop Century Resort
  • The Campsites at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort
  • Disney's Caribbean Beach Resort
  • Disney's Coronado Springs Resort
  • Disney's Port Orleans Resort - French Quarter
  • Disney's Port Orleans Resort - Riverside
  • The Cabins at Disney's Fort Wilderness Resort
  • Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge
  • Disney's Beach Club Resort
  • Disney's BoardWalk Inn
  • Disney's Contemporary Resort
  • Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
  • Disney's Polynesian Village Resort
  • Disney's Wilderness Lodge
  • Disney's Yacht Club Resort
  • Bay Lake Tower at Disney's Contemporary Resort
  • Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney's Wilderness Lodge
  • Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney's Wilderness Lodge
  • Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas - Jambo House
  • Disney's Animal Kingdom Villas - Kidani Village
  • Disney's Beach Club Villas
  • Disney's BoardWalk Villas
  • Disney's Old Key West Resort
  • Disney's Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
  • Disney’s Riviera Resort
  • Disney's Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
  • The Villas at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
  • Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel
  • Walt Disney World Swan Hotel
  • Walt Disney World Swan Reserve
  • Shades of Green® on Walt Disney World® Resort
  • B Resort & Spa Lake Buena Vista
  • DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Orlando
  • Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace
  • Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista
  • Holiday Inn Orlando
  • Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista
  • Wyndham Lake Buena Vista
  • Four Seasons Resort Orlando
  • Signia by Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
  • Waldorf Astoria Orlando

What Attractions are included?

Magic Kingdom Park

  • “it’s a small world”
  • Astro Orbiter
  • Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
  • Dumbo the Flying Elephant
  • Mad Tea Party
  • Mickey’s PhilharMagic
  • Peter Pan’s Flight
  • Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
  • Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
  • Space Mountain
  • The Barnstormer
  • The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
  • Tomorrowland Speedway
  • Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover
  • Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid
  • Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress

EPCOT

  • Beauty and The Beast Sing-Along
  • Frozen Ever After
  • Mission: SPACE
  • Remy's Ratatouille Adventure
  • Soarin’ Around the World
  • Spaceship Earth
  • Test Track
  • The Seas with Nemo & Friends

Disney's Hollywood Studios

  • Alien Swirling Saucers
  • Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
  • Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
  • Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
  • Slinky Dog Dash
  • Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
  • Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
  • The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ™
  • Toy Story Mania!

Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park

  • Avatar Flight of Passage
  • DINOSAUR
  • Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
  • It’s Tough to be a Bug!
  • Na’vi River Journey
  • TriceraTop Spin

Have you taken advantage of Early Theme Park Entry? What attraction do you go to first?!

Are you ready to start planning your next vacation? I'm a travel advisor with Vacation Guru, and I'm here to help! Contact me at miriya@govacationguru.com for your FREE quote and to start planning. For more Disney and travel information, follow me on Facebook. 

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