early entry advice

[luisalejandro_ve]

hi i will be in disney on october, this will be my first trip to disney, only my wife and me, i design a plan to go to the parks, because i will be staying on csr i was thinking to use the "extra magic hour", but i just read some comments about doing it and then move to another park when the park open for all the public, since will be using disney transportation do you think this will work for us? i dont want to be too much time traveling on a bus, any advice?

 

[tjkraz]

Others may disagree, but here's my take on Early Entry.

The only time when it is really beneficial is when visiting the Magic Kingdom with small children. At MK, Fantasyland has a number of notorious slow-loading rides like Dumbo and the Carousel. Also Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh are very high-demand attractions, causing lines to form early. Parents who can get to the park early and get these rides out of the way before the general public is let in will make out well.

At the other three parks, the big attractions all have FastPass. Kilimanjaro Safari at AK, Rock N Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror at MGM and Mission Space and Test Tract at Epcot. These are all rides you can conveniently experience with FastPass rather than rushing to Early Entry.

If you do decide to take advantage of early entry, you are correct that you will probably find larger-than-normal crowds as the day progresses. Hopping parks can be easy or difficult depending on the starting and ending point. Using the monorail to get from MK to Epcot is pretty easy and would likely take no more than 10 minutes.

If you want to do Early Entry, make sure you map out your timeline carefully. If the park opens at 8am, you probably want to be at your resort bus stop no later than 7:15. If you're like me, that means setting the alarm for about 6:15-6:30.

Can you tell yet that I'm not a big fan of Early Entry? Sorry, but getting up at 6:30 just isn't my idea of a "vacation".

If you decide that Early Entry isn't for you, the best course of action is to simply skip the EE park on every given day. That way you don't have to worry about getting up extremely early, changing parks mid-day, dealing with larger crowds. Here's a web site you can try that will give you recommendations for the best days to visit individual parks:

http://www.touringplans.com/BestDays.htm

 

[florida sun]

We were at Disney World last December and in my opion we just could not have managed without the early entry. Each day we would get to the parks for the early entry, ride virtually all the major rides using a combination of early entry and fastpast, then when the parks got too busy we make our way back to our hotel using the Disney Bus Transportaion, have a swim, nap, then go back out early evening. It worked really well for us as we are always up early in the mornings anyway. We were staying at the All Star Sports and got the bus from there to the parks at 7.30ish.

 

[tjkraz]

A lot of it depends on the time of year one is visiting. The original poster stated that the trip in question was schedule for October--not the slowest time of the year, but a far cry from peak holiday seasons.

If you felt that Early Entry was a necessity, I have to assume you visited right around Christmas. We've taken several trips the last week of September--which is basically the same attendance as October--and never felt that EE was a necessity.

 

[WEDWDW]

I like to use EMH simply because it is one of the extra benefits of staying on-property.I like the idea of having a "free" hour only available to Disney resort guests,so I always use it some during my visits.I am a "morning person" and I love the "feel" of the parks early in the morning.

 

[florida sun]

tjkraz - yes you are right we did go at Christmas time, the first week was fine but the New Years week was mad and we were glad we could have early entry then, but I still have to say I agree with WEDWDW, we like the parks that early in the morning with minimal amount of people around and as I said we are always up early anyway so it makes sense to do something with the time. We have also travelled quieter times of the year and still used the EE. I suppose it is whatever feels right for you.

 

[B'rer Karen]

I agree with tjkraz. As an adults only traveler, I avoid the EE park. If you are already up that early, well then I suppose I might go to the parks then too. But I am usually out late at Pleasure Island at night, so sleep is precious to me. I still get to the parks at opening, but that extra hour of sleep makes a lot of difference. And there really isn't enough rides open to warrant getting less sleep. If the whole park was open that might change my opinion.