Early Entry?

[Gilliganheel]

We are going to Disney next week 11/14-11/19. We are staying at CR and were trying to figure out if the early entry is worth it. Are the early entry parks more crowded those days thus making the early entry useless and therefore making the other parks more feasible since there will be less people at those parks. Anyone who has any insight please help me make a decision.

 

[MissionMouse]

We find the early entry to our advantage since we are early risers and we can get on some of our favorite rides multiple times within a short period of time. The lines are very short but around 10:30-11:00am the lines start to develop along with the crowds. This is when we PARK HOP to another park.

Overall, you should know only select rides are open during the Early Magical Hour (formerly EE) so if none of the rides are interest to you it probably won't be worth your time. Hit one of the other parks right off.

 

[oogieboogie]

MK is a great EE park since a lot of the big rides (Mountains, Buzz, Fantasyland) are all open during EE.

My family loves going EE because we can get thru a lot of rides with minimal waits and then when the park starts getting full, hop to another park that isn't as crowded or get out for lunch.

We love EE, we actually plan our days around EE.

 

[kathmzh]

As long as geting up early isn't too much of a chore for your family, we found that EE at MK was worth it, then we left the park after a few hours when it got crowded. But we zipped through Fantasyland and some of Tomorrowland on our EE morning.

 

[Gilliganheel]

anyone else used the early entry to their advantage or disadvantage? Also what time of the year were you there?

 

[micmacmissy]

I think if you are going at a slow time of year, EE doesn't really make a difference.

According to the Unofficial Guide to Disney, November (other than around Thanksgiving) and December (up until the 22nd) are the LEAST crowded times of the entire year. This book suggests you skip EE and go to another park that day (logic being all resort guests flock to EE park).

We are going in early December and we will avoid the EE parks for this reason! But I think you're in good shape whatever you do--because even the more crowded parks won't be crazy at that time of year anyway!

Have fun!

 

[MissionMouse]

We went to WDW in December last year and while the crowds are nothing like you find during the Summer months there will be lines on some days in the 35-60 minute range, starting around late morning on the E, D, C ticket rides (like Buzz, Dumbo, etc). It is still better than Summer wait times ranging from 45-120 minutes.

During some times of the day you can find some rides you can just walk right on. At night we typically found we could walk right onto IASW or the carousel without any wait, but none of the other Fantasyland rides.

So, we found it to our advantage to visit a park during the "New" Magical Hour (derivative of old EE) even in December...you can start your day an hour earlier by using this resort benefit. It is a good time to hit rides like Dumbo, Peter Pan, etc which typically have long and slow moving lines.

The hard part comes in knowing when to move toward the entrance in preparation to jump to another park before it really gets crowded.