6 AM Park Opening my Entire Stay!?!

[NEMouse]

I am scheduled to visit the last week of Sept. We booked in January, before Star Wars was given an opening date. Looking at the calendar, HS is opening at 6 AM every day (and other parks have 7 AM opening hours).

As much as I love WDW, I was not planning on starting vacation days this early. Is it necessary for me to? If I get to a park at 8 or 9, can I expect it to be noontime crowds??

I might need a vacation after my vacation

 

[sponica]

I don't think anyone REALLY knows what will happen....and I think it depends on what you want to accomplish.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

It’s a rather unprecedented set of circumstances.... so many parks opening so early for such as long series of consecutive days. Plus a crazy popular new land opening. IMO it’s pretty tough to predict just what things will be like at DHS and across property.

The only good thing about your last week of Sept trip is that you’ll be able to monitor the first three weeks of the month from home to set your expectations.

 

[Floppy-Dee33]

And then there's me... I am already going in July and now I'm considering another trip just due to the 6-7am openings daily.
I will only get up at 4:45am for Disney lol.
If you want to get a lot done early in the day then yes I'd say arrive at the parks prior to opening.
If you want a laid back trip then go when you want.

 

[MsOnceUponATime]

I am scheduled to visit the last week of Sept. We booked in January, before Star Wars was given an opening date. Looking at the calendar, HS is opening at 6 AM every day (and other parks have 7 AM opening hours).

As much as I love WDW, I was not planning on starting vacation days this early. Is it necessary for me to? If I get to a park at 8 or 9, can I expect it to be noontime crowds??

I might need a vacation after my vacation

We are also in this situation. Booked last March for a stay Oct 1-6 '19. Star Wars was NOT supposed to be open!!! We were in shock for a few weeks discussing how to deal with this new situation... As Disney fans, but not really Star Wars fans, we felt disappointed at first. Since then we've accepted and embraced this situation and are now in discussions on how to best manage our FP's come August. Consequently, we got park hoppers (which we never do) for this trip and plan to do EMH at 6 am on one of our days!! I wish you luck!!

 

[kniquy]

I am scheduled to visit the last week of Sept. We booked in January, before Star Wars was given an opening date. Looking at the calendar, HS is opening at 6 AM every day (and other parks have 7 AM opening hours).

As much as I love WDW, I was not planning on starting vacation days this early. Is it necessary for me to? If I get to a park at 8 or 9, can I expect it to be noontime crowds??

Like other posters have mentioned -- no one really knows. Are they going to try an implement a reservation system - such as they did in DL? I am sure they are trying to figure out a way to control the crowds. From all the videos that i have seen about SW land it seems their reservation system definitely helped to keep to manageable crowd levels in the land. I can see there being some sort of system we just don't know yet.

As for the 6am early morning -- if you have interest in the land then i would plan for one early morning. i would imagine that with it opening that early you will get plenty of people who will say "hell no am I getting up that early" so this will make touring the land that early a treat. So plan for it at least one morning. You will at least have a few weeks of data before you go to see how it really will all be handled.

 

[puffkin]

We got AP's last August for trips August, October (Food and Wine), December for the holiday stuff, and then another trip this summer (originally August but had to switch to end of July due to work commitments). I am so GLAD our trip is before the Star Wars opening! While we enjoy Star Wars and the land looks really cool, we are much more casual fans and can wait for things to die down a bit before a future trip. I think it will have a huge impact on the other parks, and the early openings are really going to change touring strategies. If we had trips planned in Oct and Dec like last year, it probably would have been significantly more challenging.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

There is a lot of good feedback in the previous posts above. Nobody really knows what to expect given that there is no plan of attack announced yet by Disney for how they will manage the crowds for SWGE. However I think by Disney adding the extra extra magic hours, it leads me to believe there won’t be a reservation system for SWGE like the one used at DL.

I am in earlybird but on my vacation I don’t want to have to be up that early. And I know my family would not want to be in the parks at 6 AM. We are going in early August to avoid Star Wars. I think many of the people going after the new land opens are hoping that many people will avoid the parks during this time and are banking on that premise.

However Disney World is completely different than Disneyland and even though during Star Wars opening weekend at Disneyland, crowds were low I wouldn’t bet that crowds will be low at Disney World. I think since Walt Disney World is larger geographically and has more park offerings and, their park guests are not the same makeup as Disneyland Park guests -WDW will be very busy during that time.

If it were me I’d look for a new travel date.

 

[glamdring269]

And then there's me... I am already going in July and now I'm considering another trip just due to the 6-7am openings daily.
I will only get up at 4:45am for Disney lol.
If you want to get a lot done early in the day then yes I'd say arrive at the parks prior to opening.
If you want a laid back trip then go when you want.

This is how we do Disney as well. Getting up early won't be a big deal as it will be just like getting up for work. I already go into a Disney trip knowing that I'm not going to relax in AM hours. That's what the afternoon is for and/or a beach trip.

Definitely get that this isn't for everyone but that's actually why I prefer it. Once we saw the revised hours it actually made us more excited because we knew we'd likely get to maximize the park experience more than we ever had in the past.

 

[js]

I thought about doing this and putting in a WL for one night on Wednesday, September 11 at BWVs or BCVs. I will be there for 10 nights from September 4-14 staying at GFVs. I would only attempt the 6 am opening if I was staying at BW or BC and walking. I would leave the resort 4:50 am and walk over but that is not going to work staying at GF. I also thought it would be my only attempt to try to see the land before it gets even more popular when the other attraction opens.

Although no one knows, I believe at 8 or 9 am, with a 6 am opening, you will see noontime crowds. Since I cannot walk there, I have decided to stay away from MGM.

 

[gharter]

We have the same situation during our October stay. Still not sure what to do.
Not a big fan of getting to a park at 5:30 am. Nobody knows if the parks will be super busy 6-9 or not.
I know, if we do the 6 am opening, there will be an afternoon break.

 

[Kbosch]

We will be right there with you (9/28 - 10/3)! As of right now our plan is to mostly get to the parks around 8am; will try to convince my family to MAYBE do 7am for one HS day. But our plans have changed on pretty much a daily basis with every piece of new info coming out, so until we figure out what is going on with the reservation system I really have no idea. I just hope they announce the plans by our FP day at the end of July.

 

[Sunelis]

Hey guys... At least you'll have a little time to see how to adjust. I'm there from August 25th to September 6th. SWGE opens literally at the end of my first week. I'll have to adjust while there. And it's messing with my planning. I'm usually a morning EMH person. I rope drop the EMH park of the day, take a break and hop somewhere else. Those EEMH are a pain for my planning... But more time in the park in the morning... I can't argue with that.

 

[glenpreece]

The only good thing about your last week of Sept trip is that you’ll be able to monitor the first three weeks of the month from home to set your expectations.

My thoughts exactly!! We go Sept 22-28 and will be glued to MDE before we go to see how wait times are.

 

[mickyrow42]

I am scheduled to visit the last week of Sept. We booked in January, before Star Wars was given an opening date. Looking at the calendar, HS is opening at 6 AM every day (and other parks have 7 AM opening hours).

As much as I love WDW, I was not planning on starting vacation days this early. Is it necessary for me to? If I get to a park at 8 or 9, can I expect it to be noontime crowds??

I might need a vacation after my vacation

That's extra magic hours, not the true park hours. I feel like the special extra magic hours are for the people who really really want to check out SW:GE. I don't think you'd have to worry about being there that early, as of now I do think you should plan to get there pretty close to the regular park open at 8. Like no later than 10am. But it may not be that bad once SWGE is open. Plus you're going at the end of September I wouldn't think it will be such a crazy time because school is in session.

 

[teddygurl28]

We go 9/21-9/28. We plan on watching mde and then adjusting if we can. My biggest concern with dhs is getting into toy story land since I have littles and Star Wars isn’t our thing. We may end up scrapping the studios and head to sea world or legoland if it looks unbearable

 

[NEMouse]

Thank you! I feel less anxious and will follow advice of watching, waiting and adjusting plans if necessary. I was just looking forward to a relatively relaxed time, hopefully see TSL and now the Star Wars opening is throwing me for a loop! Because of my job, this may be the last time I can go while school is in session so I will enjoy WDW- crowds, (some) early mornings and all!

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

I totally get sleeping on vacation. It is a vacation after all.

And I am in no way a morning person.

BUT

IMO AM EMH are not to be missed.

Especially the 7-8 am EMH that MK has every so often.

I would totally drag my sorry butt out of bed for those hours and then go back and sleep it off after an early lunch.

Getting up and moving is difficult but I’m always soooooo glad I did once we get to a virtually empty park.

 

[SaintsManiac]

If it were me I would do half and half (sleep in half the days and hit EEMH the other half).

I would NOT try to do EMH and then do the parks at night on the same day. We are not nappers and we would be tired and cranky.

 

[js]

IMO, there is a reason that Disney is paying its CMs in MGM to be at the parks, I'm guessing, 5:00 am for a 6:00 am opening. Paying for bus drivers to begin earlier, etc. and that is because they are expecting massive crowds. Once the bulk of people move from SW, they will be going somewhere in the park, and I would expect that would be early/late morning just about the same time non-resort guests can arrive.