Early Entry

[FeliciaB23]

Hi. We are staying at VDH in November and I’m trying to figure out early entry. Opens to hotel guests at 7:30 but…

What time should we be at the gates for DL? We plan to RD Fantasyland.

For DCA, should we use the regular entrance or the GCH entrance? What time for this one?

We plan to RD Avengers Campus and then head to Radiator Springs Racers for the 8am open since I read it’s not included in EE. Is this still true?

 

[Piscus]

I haven't been on my trip yet, but I leave in a week and have done a butt-ton of research into the matter. According to my research...

• There are no dedicated lines at the main entrance to either park for Early Entry guests. You will be getting into the same lines as everyone else. If the park opens at 8:00am, they begin to let people into the park regardless of their EE status at just before 7:30am. Non-EE guests will be filtered in one direction to wait at the ropes, while EE guests will get filtered in a different direction to get their hotel reservation info verified and to be allowed into the park early. If you are close enough to the front of the line when people are allowed into the park, you should be near the front of the EE queue and able to maximize the most out of your 30-minute EE time. In summary: I'd plan on being at security an hour before people are allowed into either park. In your case, be at security by 6:30am for both DL and DCA.
• From what I can tell, the line into DCA directly from the GCH can be pretty slow at park open. The line fills up fast, and there's only a few security stations to move guests through, so there's a greater risk of valuable EE time being spent waiting to get through that. Plus, I'm not 100% on if it can be used by people staying at other locations when the park opens. I think there's more leeway to go in and out that way once the day passes a bit, but you might be turned away at park open if you aren't a GCH guest. Despite staying in the GCH during our trip, I plan approaching DCA like I will DL: be at security around 6:30am as I exit the hotel into Downtown Disney and line up at the main park gate for DCA with everyone else.
• I've read that sometimes a park will run a ride for EE guests that isn't on the regular list, but I wouldn't count on it. Radiator Springs Racers isn't on the list of EE attractions for DCA, so I would follow your plan: once you've entered early, hit up the Avengers Campus rides (and whatever else you have time for) but be as close to the RSR line as they will allow before 8am hits and everyone else comes rushing over. I've read of mixed results with people trying to ahead of everyone else for RSR via EE, but I plan to do the same when I go. Good luck!

Of course, this advice is just applicable to people going in November, like yourself. If anyone is going to the parks before October ends, just sleep in and come to the parks later in the day. You won't miss anything, I'm sure!

 

[twodogs]

We just did EE last weekend. They let us into the line for RSR at about 7:40am and we were held in the switchbacks by the side of Flo’s until about 7:50. They said we had the “green light” and they let us move into the main line, and we were on before 8am.