3 day pass, Monorail, early entry

[Princess Yellow]

We have the SoCal 3 day passes. I know we have to get how pics taken. How does that work? Where do we have to go? Will we be able to do it before early entry? (Staying at DLH). Can you use the monorail for early entry? Has anyone tried entering with the Monorail and going straight to Frozen M&G? TIA

 

[SMD]

They take your picture in the entry line, just before you get to the turnstile. There is no advantage to taking the monorail, if anything it takes longer. The earliest it will begin to load is when the park opens (no idea if it runs during EMH), but add loading time and trip time when the gates will already be open. If you go through the main gate you can line up ahead of EMH and go through the turnstile as soon as it opens.

 

[bumbershoot]

Two other issues with the monorail. Sometimes it's not running at all. Now, you're staying at the DLH so you'll be walking by anyway, not going out of your way, so that's OK. We once walked from PPH to the monorail, to find it not running yet at all. We'd gone out of our way for it.

The other issue is that it puts you back in the Nemo area. That's not always where you want to be for that first hour, and backtracking to where you want to be isn't really fun. Especially if Fantasyland is your intended destination, you have to travel "backwards" to hit the rides in the order that makes the most sense, short-line-wise. For instance, going by "Peter Pan first, always first", you have to go all the way back to the beginning of FL to get there. Probably faster to just walk there from the main gates of the park.