arrive 45 minutes before opening?

[themysciran]

I haven't gone to Disney World on my own. This time I am the planner, not the kid or follower. I have read in multiple places that, for Magic Kingdom, I should arrive 45 minutes before the park opens. First, does this recommendation mean I should park 45 minutes early or does it mean I should be done with parking and our monorail ride and be standing in front of the entrance 45 minutes prior to park opening? Can someone explain to me the difference between arriving 45 minutes early and 10 minutes early? Will there be a crowd of 200 people waiting at the gates at opening? Will it take me an extra 15 minutes to get to my ride of choice at Fantasyland if I show up right when the park opens?

I don't want to make my small children wait 45 minutes in order to save 15 minutes.

Also, what are guidelines for other parks.

Let me just describe my overall strategy for our trip. We are staying at Wyndham Bonnet Creek and we'll have a car anyway since we will be coming from visiting cousins and going to a graduation 1 to 2 hours away. We will drive to the parks. We arrive in Orlando late afternoon and will go to Fantasmic our first night there; we won't have much time in the park. For the first 3 whole days at Disney World, we want to arrive at the parks early (Magic Kingdom, Epcot, and HS) and plan our itinerary carefully so that we can avoid lines. We plan to leave the parks before dark. We have 2 days following that where we will have a loose schedule and see the nightime shows. We can sleep late and/or add things to our itinerary that we didn't know about, etc. The last day, we will go to Animal Kingdom. We will have Park Hopper tickets.

Thanks.

 

[hkp1042]

I don't always follow that guideline but I would suggest it. Once you get near the gates if you bring bags in they will check them which can take some time if there is already a line. Often they are plenty of people already lined up about an hour before.
But in the end it's a personal choice.

 

[purvislets]

We always try to be there prior to park opening, but rarely are there 45 mins early. The earlier you can get there the better, but keep in mind that some people are more than willing to get there 45+ minutes early to be first at the turnstiles. Anytime you can get there before rope drop will shave a little bit of your wait time off some of the more popular rides (7DMT, Toy Story, Soarin, etc).

How small are your kids? I personally wouldn't stress too much about getting there super early with toddler/pre k aged children simply because trying to keep them occupied to wait to get in and then doing the same in a ride line doesn't seem like it would be much fun.

 

[Alesia]

I haven't gone to Disney World on my own. This time I am the planner, not the kid or follower. I have read in multiple places that, for Magic Kingdom, I should arrive 45 minutes before the park opens. First, does this recommendation mean I should park 45 minutes early or does it mean I should be done with parking and our monorail ride and be standing in front of the entrance 45 minutes prior to park opening?

I try to be at the gate about 45 minutes before opening, so I leave about 75 minutes before the park opens.

Can someone explain to me the difference between arriving 45 minutes early and 10 minutes early? Will there be a crowd of 200 people waiting at the gates at opening?

45 minutes before, there might be 100 people. At 10 minutes before, it's going to be about 10 times that.

Will it take me an extra 15 minutes to get to my ride of choice at Fantasyland if I show up right when the park opens?

About that.

I don't want to make my small children wait 45 minutes in order to save 15 minutes.

It's not just about that first ride, though. If you wait an extra 15 minutes for the first ride, you're going to wait an extra 25 minutes for the second ride, and and extra 35 minutes for the third. Wait times grow exponentially throughout the morning. That extra 45 minutes in the morning will save you several hours of waiting throughout the day.

Just bring a portable breakfast with you and eat it while you wait. It really doesn't seem like that long of a wait.

Also, what are guidelines for other parks.

I leave an hour before park opening.

 

[maxiesmom]

The later you arrive, the more people are there ahead of you. It is pretty simple.

 

[Jrsy Boy]

During our June trip, we would typically arrive right around opening time and just ride the back of the wave into the park. Never once thought it would be a better use of our time to get there early to be among the first inside.

 

[nkereina]

IMO, it depends on the time of year and what attractions you want to get on. If this is Christmas week and you're hoping to get on 7DMT or A&E first thing, you should get there much earlier than 45 minutes out. If it's the week before Thanksgiving and have no interest in 7DMT or A&E first thing, then you'd be ok with 10 minutes out.

Only time we participated in the "rope drop mad dash" was at DHS getting to TSMM. We got there about 45 minutes early and thought it was a little silly - we either wait 45 mins at the gate to get right on the ride, or show up 10 mins before rope drop, and wait a little bit in line for the ride to get on. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. Doesn't apply in all situations though