Early Entry - pros/cons

[merlinsgang]

My family (wife, mother in law, 2 boys 9 & 7) are going Labor Day week. We will arrive on Labor Day and are planning on 5 day Park Hoppers. What are the pros and cons of early entry? Is it a huge advantage? Part of me hates the idea of prodding everyone along to get there on time and the other part can't stand the thought of missing something. The idea of 5 day tickets was to be able to take our time and enjoy the trip.

 

[hlbtimes2]

This biggest advantage is the short lines in Fantasy land. The lines for some of those rides, like Dumbo and Peter Pan, get long early in the day. The average line for Peter Pan is probably 45 minutes, and its a short little dark ride (my favorite ride, but still pretty small for that wait!). If you go to EE you will be able to do most of the rides in FL in that one hour. Our last couple trips, EE would have been at 7 am, park opening at 8. We just couldnt do it. We did get about 1/2 hour on one trip and didnt even try on the other trip. We usually stay at the park until closing- its hard to close it down at midnight and be back at 7 am! Not much time in there for sleep.

I recomend that you do EE as early in the trip as possible. Dont save it for the end.

 

[disneylndorbust]

Hi, I'm new to these forums, but I wrote an article on Early Entry on another Disney fansite and thought it might help you make your decision. Since I can't post the url though, if you go to Mickey News website and go to "columns" and "Disneyland or Bust" it's the second article in there.

Hope that helps!

 

[SA53]

We were just there last month and never did use EE. For us we really wanted to see fireworks and the such so went around 10:30 and stayed until around 11:30 pm. I found that the rides at Fantasyland had really no lines after the fireworks so this worked best for us. We also had a 5 day hopper and were able to ride all rides many more than once. My kids are 5 and 9 and we are not morning people so this worked best for us. I figure if no one is going to enjoy getting there the day is off to a bad start. We also noticed that once we were in the start later end later pattern it was hard to try an EE!!!!!

Have fun,

K in SA

 

[HydroGuy]

This biggest advantage is the short lines in Fantasy land. The lines for some of those rides, like Dumbo and Peter Pan, get long early in the day. The average line for Peter Pan is probably 45 minutes, and its a short little dark ride (my favorite ride, but still pretty small for that wait!). If you go to EE you will be able to do most of the rides in FL in that one hour. Our last couple trips, EE would have been at 7 am, park opening at 8. We just couldnt do it. We did get about 1/2 hour on one trip and didnt even try on the other trip. We usually stay at the park until closing- its hard to close it down at midnight and be back at 7 am! Not much time in there for sleep.

I recomend that you do EE as early in the trip as possible. Dont save it for the end.

As usual, I agree with hlb. EE is a huge advantage and you should use it. Ours started at 7AM, and we used it on the first day of our trip because I knew we would have the most energy and could get to bed early the night before. We got to the DL gates at 6:45 (we were shooting for 6:30), and were about the 10th group in line. Use it early in your trip. On all of our four nights we were at DL until midnight, and getting up 6AM the next morning would have been a bear.

 

[ZeusNike]

We don't like huge crowds or lineups and my family all think EE is a huge advantage. We always use it and if we don't have it on a particular day we still head before opening to get in as early as possible. Never in the day is it less crowded than first thing in the morning, especially on an EE day. Our usualy MO is to go early, stay until the crowds get thick or we are tired, head to the hotel for a swim or perhaps a nap and then head back to the park and close it down. Beating the crowds is key in my opinion!

 

[blackjackdelta]

EE is the only way to go for the 6 of us. Since the normal day starts for everyone at 0500 and ends around 2300, it is not to difficult to do EE and see the fireworks. We will close the park down on most days..we do take a break day in the middle of the DLR trip and shop, explore, etc. But it is such a short time frame, it does not beat us up that much to make the most of our time. Beatting the crowds is optimal to having the best time.

Jack