Do you go to the park that has Early Entry?

[3redheads]

I know this is a crazy question, but are the parks that are open early on a particular day, busier than normal?

For example, MK is open early on Sunday. Will it be that much busier than any other day? We went to MGM during the early entry days at MK. It wasn't so bad.


Do you take advantage of early entry or go to another park in hopes it will be less busier?

Hope this make sense

Kim

 

[shelleybell]

We opted to hit the EE parks on their EE day.Even though they were busy,you still managed to get several big rides done during EE. After that, we hopped to another park.

shelleybell & scar11

 

[JLDSMD]

We are planning on doing the EE on the Saturday (MGM) and Monday (AK) of our 4 day trip in October. With such little time, we wanted to spend as much time in the parks.

We planned on using the EE on last year's trip, but I couldn't get DW and DS up in time (they're not morning people). We still went to the parks that opened early on those days, but didn't experience any really long lines. It was the first week of October, so the crowds weren't bad.

 

[llij]

The only park that we really do on EE day is MK. We take advantage of that extra hour to knock out rides in Fantasyland (my kids favorite land). If the park gets too crowded then we jump to another park. We did MK on Sunday and it never really got too bad so we never had to park hop. Last fall, we avoided the other parks on their EE day and things worked out pretty well.

 

[gigi1313]

if we're up and at 'em early (which ds usually is) we do early entry... if we've got a late night the night before and are not up and out at the crack of dawn, we opt for a park w/out early entry... i figure if we cannot take advantage of that extra hour, then i'm not going to deal w/the people that got up too early that morning

 

[Serenity]

I have only done EE at MK. There are a ton of things to do and we are always up early anyway so it made sense. However, we have not done EE in any other park. They just don't seem to be worth it. They each have only 2-4 things open. With all the Disney hotel guests trying to get in to those 2-4 things, it seems like it would be OVERLY congested. Anyone who has been to EE at any of the other parks - please give me your experience. Thanks.

 

[mike2u]

I'm going to try EE at MK on Thursday in our August trip. This is the first time my kids will be there and I'm going to take advantage of it. We are also planning to try EE at AKL on monday because i hear it gets really really hot in the afternoon there. So i would like to knock it out in the morning.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

 

[Daxx]

We *try* to do EE for AK b/c we don't spend a lot of time there. If we can get into AK an hour earlier, that means we can get out of AK an hour earlier than going at normal time. That means more time to spend at another Kingdom which is a good thing!

DS is less than thrilled w/the thought of going to AK and only likes the Kilimanjaro Safari, Dino Dig and ITTBAB movie. So, we can usually do AK in 2 hours or less. EE leaves us more time for other kingdoms, which is a good thing!!!

 

[gilld]

We usually do EE and then when the park opens to off site guests we move to another park to avoid the crowds. This stratergy has always worked for us.

 

[jann1033]

like every thing else I think it depends on when you go...those who go during busy times seem to have aproblem later in the day at the park with ee. we go off season and don't see much difference later in the day with maybe the exception of mgm. for some reason that park seems to get more crowded which still makes it ok, just a little wait for rnr or tot( not really a bad thing as usually we don't have enough time to see anything in the entrance rooms since we buzz through them to fast...never have time to look for hidden mickeys!!!!)

 

[jacksonsmom]

As a general rule for us, we try to avoid EMH days. We found that if we go to the park that had EMH the day before the park is much less crowded!

 

[kimwim8]

I'm glad I looked before I created a thread! I signed on planning to ask this same question!

We have our Oct trip planned out using the EE days. This is how we've always done it, but we weren't sure what to do this trip. I think we'll stick to going into the EE park.

 

[cortegro]

We did EE three days in a row this week. Three Boys 12,10,9 DW and myself.

Monday- AK :

We walked onto the safari, walked into ITTBAB, and about 10 min wait for Dinosaur. I then went and got FP (9:40-10:40 return)for Kali while my wife and kids waited about 20 min for Primevil Whirl(it was around 9:15-9:30am). I came back and got them, we just missed the FOTLK show so we grabbed a bite to eat headed to the Maharajah Jungle Trek and walked through there, then went on Kali, just missed the next FOTLK. It was starting to get crowded, and we got a few autographs and left. We were back at the Poly by 12:15.

Tuesday- MGM:

After a very late night at e-ride night, we rubbed our eyes and got up for MGM EE. RnR and ToT are the boys faves. My wife wasn't into ToT, so she got FP for RnR while we hit ToT first thing with about 10 min wait. We got ANOTHER FP for RnR just before riding. We did ToT, RnR twice, Muppets, Star Tours, WWTBAM, Lunch at Sci Fi, back for one more RnR and left the park by 1:15pm. Of course, we were dead on our feet and slept till 6:00pm almost. But after a swim and dinner we headed back to MGM for a couple of rides and Fantasmic 10:30 show.

Wed- Epcot:

We were leaving today as it was only a three day trip. My oldest got sick on Mission Space in March, and it ruined his day, so we skipped it. We "ran" to Test Track, with a million other people and got a FP for it and rode it standby with a 2 minute wait. We came out, hit the batrhrooms and rode TT again. We waited for the Characters at 9:05 am and then went on Figment with NOBODY in line at all! Walked through Innoventions quickly, and got a few more autographs at 10:05 and left to go to Poly to check out.

All in all the EE really helped us hit a SELECT FEW attractions. We didn't stick around when the crowds rolled in.

If you don't mind the "hopping" I think it is great!

-cortegro

 

[wishuponastarforever]

Absolutely EE - we hit the main attractions and then leave as the park is getting crowded - then we go to another park. It has always worked for us.

Also no one mentioned this so I will - If you go to AK on EE, the animals are their most active in the early morning. We found we saw just about all of them - including the lazy, aloof lion and lioness. When they are let out in the morning, they are also fed. The feeding areas blend along the way. They are located close to the road you travel so you see most of the animals. Definitely worth getting up early

 

[zcomic]

I'm 100% in agreement with wishuponastarforever. Just make sure you have a plan as to what you want to do during that first hour and make sure those attractions are open during EE. Nothing is more senseless than those people who get up early then spend their first 10 min of EE looking at the park map figuring what to do.

 

[Lesley]

cortegro- so you stayed for enight monday? How did that go? We had tickets that we got refunded....partially because of the rain and partially because we got too tired, even after all taking a nap in the afternoon. I bet it was great though...with so many people returning tickets (saw plenty of others doing the same....) it was probably empty. If if weren't for the kids (mainly the girls, 9yo ds wanted to stay) dh and I would have toughed it out.

And to answer the original question....

We used to always do EE then take a break around lunch time and go to another park in the afternoon/evening. Then we had our first dd (second child) who is not a morning person at all. Since then we've avoided the EE park and arrived later in the morning.

I think we had a much better time and were able to see and do a lot more when we did EE. I get very frustrated with crowds and lines...particularly when trying to navigate 3 children through them....and I really haven't found a solution that pleases me that doesn't involve using EE. I swear at one time we were able to do more in that first hour of EE than we would do between park opening and noon.

I'm hoping that now dd#1 is older she'll become more adaptable and we can start doing mornings again. Otherwise, dh and I may take turns taking our ds on early mornings and letting dd sleep in....or we'll bring my mom to babysit! Of course, as soon as I have a plan worked out, dd#2 will be old enough to need consideration in the matter...right now all I have to do is tuck her in the sling and we're off.

So anyway, I recommend EE if you can at all manage it. But don't stay at that park all day....as someone else said, you don't need to deal with everyone else who got up too early the whole day!

 

[cortegro]

Lesley-

We did go to e-ride on Monday! It was a blast.

We went to EE at AK in the morning. We left and swam at the poly for a bit and went to sleep. (I still can't believe that my 12,10,9 yr old boys took a midday nap!!)
We woke up and got ready for a 6:50 PS at Liberty Tree Tavern. It wasn't raining hard yet, but we knew it was coming. So we packed the 87cent walmart ponchos and took the monorail to MK. The skies opened on our way to LTT.(of course we didn't get the ponchos on yet!) We waited a bit to be seated and we dried off a bit. We took our time at dinner and got back out into the rain at 8:30 or so. We got a FP for Winnie the Pooh to return at 9:45-10:45pm. (we ended up giving them away) Fantasyland was still bustling so we took off for frontierland. The rain seemed to be letting up a bit after 10:00 or so. We did Philharmagic just before with about 10 minute wait. We rode BTMRR during wishes, got our wristbands at SplashDown Photos then shopped our way toward TTA. We took off the ponchos for good during the late Spectro. There was noone there!!(most of the rope was empty) We rode TTA and then we did Buzz Lightyear with a 2 minute wait got off and rode again with ZERO wait about 4-5 more times (the kids, not me). Space was next and we rode twice with 5 minute wait max. We headed to Splash and rode 3 times. We did have to get off and walk through the line though. It was now about 12:40. We rode BTMRR 3 times and the kids did one more. We didn't have to get off if noone was in the que. We didn't go to Fantasyland again so I'm not sure what the lines were like there. We went back to Space for a couple more runs and a Buzz shot again, the called it a night. We started to leave around 1:25am. We saw lots of characters out on main street still! (Pluto, Mickey,Minnie,Figaro, Dopey,Chip &Dale,Gepetto,Pinocchio) The kids wanted a hot dog from Casey's (at almost 2:00am?!) and we took some pictures in front of the castle with NOONE nearby at all!

E-Ride night was worth every penny for a night like that for us. The rain did thin the crowds quite a bit during the evening, so if we were staying longer during our trip we didn't NEED to stay for e-night, but we were not coming back to MK and it gave us a full dose of rides and excitement.

It would have been near impossible without a good midday sleep. The boys were getting a little cranky on the monorail ride back to the Poly. The 9yr old was asleep 2 secs after we got in the door. I fell asleep a little later with quite a satisfied grin on my face.

Magical Memories

-cortegro

 

[Mickey76]

I take advantage of EE. Yes, the parks will be busy that day, but you will have a chance to ride a couple of rides before the park opens for everyone else without having to get a FastPass. When it gets too crowded for your liking, simply go back to the resort you're staying at or go to another park.


Mickey76

 

[travelbug]

We always go the EE park. We arrive when the gates open, spend the morning taking in quite a few shows/rides, and then go back to the resort for lunch and a break. Later we go to a different park to spend the evening. It has always worked well for us.