Early Entry...good or bad?

[bradmag]

I'm reading scatered opinions that this is a good day to visit or a terrible day. I'm going in late September and trying to create a good schedule. Currently, I have us hitting all the parks on early entry day - is that a mistake? Should we go for a couple of hours and head for another park? I'd love to hear your experiences so that I can schedule our days to the best benefit (meaning the least crowds).

 

[sters]

I have young kids, so the early entry for the MK is great, but not so much for MGM (Tower of Terror and Rockn don't appeal to my little ones.) At Epcot, it seemed okay and have never tried it with Animal Kingdom. We knocked off most of Fantasyland in that hour, by the way.

We usually just stay the whole day, although if you do EE at MK on Sunday, I'd highly recommend hopping over somewhere else around noon. We went off season and were astounded at how packed it was at the MK on Sunday.

 

[LoveThoseLabbies]

We went in July, tried an early day and quickly came to the conclusion that way too many people use the early entry. Everything, buses, etc. were very crowded. Parks were jammed.

We then tried the day after strategy ( MK early day is Sunday...go to MK on Monday). It worked much better. Lines didn't get big (over 20 minute waits) until around 11 am, even for the big attractions. We'll never use early entry again.

We felt that is was best for us to get to the park at opening (not on an early day), stay till around 12-1, go back to the hotel for a swim, rest, etc. and come back between 4-5. Surprisingly, there was a slow period at the parks from around 5-7 when lines for the rides were no more than 15 minutes.

I would try a day of both and experiment. Crowds and conditions in September will be different than July, but this worked for us at a very crowded time of year.

Good Luck and have a great time!

 

[oldkicker]

I went earlier this month, first week of August. I've always been a promponent of Early Entry, but this time decided to not do it. Things worked out just fine without it.

I'd still advise getting to whatever park you're going to for opening and to avoid whichever park is having early entry.

Use Fastpass whenever you can and as often as you can and you'll get through things very well!

 

[bubba's mom]

i'd have to agree with all the above comments. we were at MK aug. 12th and EE allowed us to get thru fantasyland with no more than a 5-10 minute wait...for anything!! i believe since the kids are back in school, the lines will be down. in june and july, there isn't school and even EE can be busy. we loved EE and credit it with finishing 1/2 of MK by noon-1:00ish. good luck & have fun!!

 

[Geoff_M]

EE at MK rocks! We usually hit Dumbo first and it's always been a walk-on or wait one cycle ride at most. Within an hour you're done with Fantasyland... an area that's notorious for long waits once the crowds build. We've done EE at Epcot and MGM, but the advantage can be pretty much blunted by the use of FP.

 

[DizBelle]

What about EE in November at a time that is not Thanksgiving week or Jersey week?