Early Entry Changes 2024

[starlite_]

I am sorry that you think it is weird, I will edit my comments now.

You don't have to edit anything, just let it go and lets keep talking about how awesome this change is for offsite guests

 

[joseph821]

Comments edited.

 

[OlliePop27]

I'm certainly not defending the early entry change, and it definitely benefits off-site guests, but the number of on-site hotel guests is simply not that large. Narrowing it down further, the number of people staying on-site who take advantage of early entry is even smaller. I suspect the impact on crowds will be pretty minimal in the mornings for the park with early entry. It's possible that the non early entry park becomes more crowded since many off-site guests will now choose to start there.

 

[BrianL]

Comments edited.

That wsn't necessary. It's fine - we're just talking here. I understand that you don't see much benefit for offsite guests, but I definitely used to before the changes. If they went back to that I would be happy. I am not happy about them removing ANY perks though - I mean they charge so much there should be more!

 

[BrianL]

I'm certainly not defending the early entry change, and it definitely benefits off-site guests, but the number of on-site hotel guests is simply not that large. Narrowing it down further, the number of people staying on-site who take advantage of early entry is even smaller. I suspect the impact on crowds will be pretty minimal in the mornings for the park with early entry. It's possible that the non early entry park becomes more crowded since many off-site guests will now choose to start there.

That is a good point. At WDW the park with the early (or late) Extra magic Hours was always the most crowded - but WDW has a TON more hotel rooms to sell compared to DLR. Still it was nice to be able to rope-drop without the onsite guests having a head start. You can fix the crowding issue by park-hopping!

 

[sophy1996]

I wonder how early they will release the schedules. For planning purposes reservations need to be made and if you are staying at one of these hotels there will be no benefit if you booked the wrong resort on the wrong day.

But if you’re staying on-site you get the hotel bucket and that’s usually wide-open. So you should be able to change parks pretty easily. If you’re off-site and trying to avoid the EE park, there may be more trouble.

 

[joseph821]

That wsn't necessary. It's fine - we're just talking here. I understand that you don't see much benefit for offsite guests, but I definitely used to before the changes. If they went back to that I would be happy. I am not happy about them removing ANY perks though - I mean they charge so much there should be more!

Actually it was necessary. I was accused of being weird for making a point and fixated. No one said that you= were fixated that off site guests had an advantage and you repeated that more than once. My comments were edited. In reality I do not care either way. When I visit, I stay on site and I do early entry. Now the choice is up to Disney and not me.

 

[BrianL]

Actually it was necessary. I was accused of being weird for making a point and fixated. No one said that you= were fixated that off site guests had an advantage and you repeated that more than once. My comments were edited. In reality I do not care either way. When I visit, I stay on site and I do early entry. Now the choice is up to Disney and not me.

Nah, man, i's fine. I don't think anyone meant anything by it other than it being slightly irrelevant. I'm the one who brought it up.

 

[JerrodDragon89]

Unpopular Opinion but as a normal person who can't spend 600-800 bucks minimum a night , this is a good change for most guests
I already have to play for FP and this makes it much more fair, so I can rope drop Peter Pan and Carland again unlike now where those rides are packed before 8 AM

Next time I go, i will for sure plan around the EE times so I can max out my day

 

[DisneyMountainWoman]

Unpopular Opinion but as a normal person who can't spend 600-800 bucks minimum a night , this is a good change for most guests
I already have to play for FP and this makes it much more fair, so I can rope drop Peter Pan and Carland again unlike now where those rides are packed before 8 AM

Next time I go, i will for sure plan around the EE times so I can max out my day

To be fair... I am only paying a crazy price of 408 a night... for Paradise Pier lol (but I am excited that it will be new renovated by the time I try it out in Jan)

 

[starlite_]

Unpopular Opinion but as a normal person who can't spend 600-800 bucks minimum a night , this is a good change for most guests
I already have to play for FP and this makes it much more fair, so I can rope drop Peter Pan and Carland again unlike now where those rides are packed before 8 AM

Next time I go, i will for sure plan around the EE times so I can max out my day

EE was so noticeable this past visit. Last year when there was no EE we rope dropped RSR and had maybe a 5 min wait, this year it was like 25 min. Happy to have the chance to save those 20 min in the future.

 

[JerrodDragon89]

To be fair... I am only paying a crazy price of 408 a night... for Paradise Pier lol (but I am excited that it will be new renovated by the time I try it out in Jan)

Just the normal guest can't afford those. If the hotels were even 250ish then sure or if I could pay extra to get in early but not a fan I buy a ticket and can't get in at rope drop because I don't have 400+ extra a night.

EE was so noticeable this past visit. Last year when there was no EE we rope dropped RSR and had maybe a 5 min wait, this year it was like 25 min. Happy to have the chance to save those 20 min in the future.

25 mins is still a good deal
When I've done it every time it's over an hour for RSR unless it was after the Pandemic before EE was back

 

[LKing]

Arent they suppose to be adding value to staying on site? This takes away value... I was really excited to be able to choose between the two.

It will save money by only having one park staffed early.

I don't think they are looking to add value to staying on site. They could eliminate EE completely and still sell out the on site hotels.

 

[RoseColored97]

Well, this is a bit of a crappy change. When I saw the title I thought it was going to be moving towards an hour of EE and not just 30 mins. Now EE will be more crowded, which lessens the value on top of it being lessened by only being able to go to one park. Plus with both parks being SOP for the last year, people are going to be confused.

 

[Tanya Tink]

I'm certainly not defending the early entry change, and it definitely benefits off-site guests, but the number of on-site hotel guests is simply not that large. Narrowing it down further, the number of people staying on-site who take advantage of early entry is even smaller. I suspect the impact on crowds will be pretty minimal in the mornings for the park with early entry. It's possible that the non early entry park becomes more crowded since many off-site guests will now choose to start there.

I’ve been trying to find the silver lining for on-site guests as well and have been wondering if many off-site guests will just go to the park without early entry, making the early entry park for on-site guests not that bad

 

[moorish]

I’m not as familiar with Disneyland. When they alternated early access between parks in the past, was it always every other day or were there set days of the week when each park opened early?

We’ll only be there for 2 days and we’re going to do one park a day. So if we don’t get a chance to do early entry at each park, I might eventually rethink staying on-site.

 

[OlliePop27]

I’m not as familiar with Disneyland. When they alternated early access between parks in the past, was it always every other day or were there set days of the week when each park opened early?

We’ll only be there for 2 days and we’re going to do one park a day. So if we don’t get a chance to do early entry at each park, I might eventually rethink staying on-site.

In the past, there were fixed days of the week for each park. If I remember correctly, pre-2020 it was Disneyland on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, then DCA on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Sundays. Everything changed post-Covid and is now changing again. We likely won't know what they do until calendars start posting for 1/20/24 and beyond, which should happen late this year. We'll all have to just look at the calendar and try to pick up on a pattern.

Long ago, before Cars Land opened in 2012, I don't even know if DCA had early entry for a long time. The park wasn't very popular pre Cars Land and everyone wanted to start at Disneyland. One key distinction here is there's still no Magic Morning, so early entry is still limited to only on-site guests.

 

[Epcot Forever Forever]

This sucks for on site guests because it’s a true cut from pre-Covid.

The 30 minute 2 park system was different but not clearly better or worse.

This is unmistakably worse.

And as literally the only on site benefit, reducing it is garbage, and cheap, and gross.

 

[OlliePop27]

This sucks for on site guests because it’s a true cut from pre-Covid.

The 30 minute 2 park system was different but not clearly better or worse.

This is unmistakably worse.

And as literally the only on site benefit, reducing it is garbage, and cheap, and gross.

Maybe, possibly, will they start having dedicated entrances for early entry instead of the mad scramble it's been? That would be one possible way to improve the experience. Right now, with the limited time and the fact that non-early entry folks can also enter, the 30 minutes doesn't go very far. You have to get in line before 7:00 am at security to position yourself to take advantage of the 30 minutes - it's not very long. 1 maybe 2 rides in DCA especially.

I remember in the old days with the 1-hour you could get so much done in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.

 

[gelatoni fan]

As someone who always stays offsite, this is obviously a good change for me. It makes Peter Pan, Racers and some other rides rope droppable again. I am a bit concerned though that this will give them an excuse to slack on maintenance. Peter Pan was almost never operating at rope drop in 2021-2022 before they brought back EE.

This seems like a simple cost cutting measure. If I actually thought Disney management was competent, I'd expect them to know how this would affect the sale of things like Genie+, hotel rooms, etc but I don't really trust them to have thought through everything thoroughly.