Early admission question

[countrygal]

Hi,

I am taking my kids to Disney for the first time. We are going to be onsite and visiting the parks 12/30, 12/31 and 1/1. My question is the hours posted say the parks open at 8am does this mean the early admission park is then 7am or is the listing taking into account the early hour for hotel guests?

We are generally morning people and I believe we are an hour ahead of FL time so we'd be up and ready to go by 7 or 8am FL time anyways. We do NOT plan to do any night activities this trip because my son is mildly autistic and it would just be too much for him with the parades, fireworks, crowds, etc. He always does better in the mornings.

Thanks for the help.

 

[oogieboogie]

The listed times is general public time. EMH would be a hour earlier. In order to get to the park at EMH time, you would need at least 1/2 hr alloted for travel especially if you're using Disney transport.

Is your son going to be OK since the dates you're going is going to be the busiest days, especially 12/31! There have been many reports of MK closing very early in the morning.

 

[Julanne]

You might call and ask about early entry times. We are going to be in the parks on 12/21-12/26 and there are early entry times for that week, but the woman I spoke to said all the parks are opening early on the following week, WITHOUT early entry. I'd call to check that, though.

 

[Lollipop Mom]

assuming they do things the same as last year, all 4 parks will be open at 8 am on 12/30 and 12/31 then back to 9 am on 1/1. The EMH park will open at 7 am. we didn't try for EMH during that week just because it was too early for our kids but we were there for rope drop at 8 am and most of the time didn't have a HUGE crowd there (still more people than other times but nothing like what you have by 11 am). It started to pick up a little after 9:00. We actually wondered if people weren't aware the parks were opening earlier.

Hope you have a great trip!

 

[countrygal]

Thanks for the help! We chose this week (albeit a bad one) to go because my son "can't" miss school. He refuses. It's one of the autistic characteristics he has. He just doesn't understand that he WILL be okay if he misses one day if he's sick or whatever.

I think we'll be fine going from the time the park opens until noon or 1pm. Then we'll spend the rest of the day back at the hotel or maybe drive to a beach. We know full well it will be overstimulating for him, but we deal with this on an everyday basis. He did super well at the WI state fair and that is really crowded and my husband complains the entire time we're there:

The biggest thing is we try to maintain as normal a lifestyle as possible because we also have a 5 yr old daughter. His autism is quite mild, but still exhausting nonetheless.

 

[Brian Noble]

Good for you for listening to your son. It will be more crowded, but manageable. If you haven't already bought one (or both), I *strongly* recommend the Unofficial Guide or tourguidemike. I haven't used either during this time, but folks particularly rave about tourguidemike's advice for the Winter holidays.