Early Entry's future?

[Simba's Mom]

Since Disneyland announced the upcoming discontinuation of the Early Entry park program, to be replaced by one Lightning Lane per length of stay (yes, one for your whole vacation, not one every day, which is how often you got Early Entry), I have some fear for WDW. Do you think it could ever be possible that WDW's Early Entry could be discontinued/replaced?

 

[Minnie1222]

Do you think it could ever be possible that WDW's Early Entry could be discontinued/replaced?

Absolutely!
I can see them dropping free EE and bring back paid EE such as early breakfast in so and so land.

 

[BrianL]

It has been brought up on the DLR thread, but one thing to know is that WDW doesn't always do what DLR does. I'm not going to say that it wouldn't surprise me, but I am also not too worried about it happening too soon.

 

[CarolynFH]

I've always thought that EE was one way to encourage visitors to stay onsite rather than offsite. It seems that Disney's data shows EE isn't returning the results they want at DLR, but that doesn't mean it's the same at WDW. If the EE perk is more effective at WDW than at DLR, it might "save" EE at WDW.

 

[Kooks and Bay Bay]

WDW and DLR rarely do the same thing.

I honestly wouldn't care if they did get rid of EE at WDW though since imo its not worth much anymore.
I've noticed that up to 3 attractions that are supposed to be operating during EE are down.
I'd prefer them go back to 1 hour at varying parks throughout the week at this point.

If they gave each person a LL that would be A LOT of money they are not bringing in since there are so many resorts at WDW so I doubt they'd do that.

 

[hardcorestitch]

Since Disneyland announced the upcoming discontinuation of the Early Entry park program, to be replaced by one Lightning Lane per length of stay (yes, one for your whole vacation, not one every day, which is how often you got Early Entry), I have some fear for WDW. Do you think it could ever be possible that WDW's Early Entry could be discontinued/replaced?

WDW better not pull a Disneyland in this case. If they do, we might see a cancellation spree among guests.

 

[gottalovepluto]

It has been brought up on the DLR thread, but one thing to know is that WDW doesn't always do what DLR does. I'm not going to say that it wouldn't surprise me, but I am also not too worried about it happening too soon.

This is key. DL is NOT WDW. Case in point: Security is still an old school backed up disaster at DL with no indications of ever changing. Metal detectors that could be from the 2000s and hand searches of all bags that vary wildly from security person to security person. Like lol. I had one morning where it was a quick peak and that evening they pulled it all out down to the tampons in the tiny interior pocket of purse. It's a joke compared to WDW.


Is it possible WDW nixes EE? Sure. Likely? Ehh, there are a lot of guests who use it and off-site hotels who benefit from it as well. And it serves to spread arrival crowds out which WDW seems to be into getting crowds split out and staged... Idk that Disney World is going to find themselves in the same situation as DL. (I'm convinced DL has found themselves in a Situation, idk what though. All of the sudden EE is dead and the just updated PPH DCA entrance is axed? Something about 2026 changed...)

 

[jaredjohn4]

Disney World has 5 times the hotels that Disneyland has. It is not fair comparison to the parks. But in reality, Disney does what Disney wants to do.

 

[JayMass]

I'd prefer them go back to 1 hour at varying parks throughout the week at this point.

If they gave each person a LL that would be A LOT of money they are not bringing in since there are so many resorts at WDW so I doubt they'd do that.

I agree. The EE half-hour is almost like nothing at all. The morning EMH were always so much better!

I also agree that they are not going to give away any LLs. That's a perk that I don't see coming back.

 

[Cyberc1978]

Couldn’t it be that the EE was too expensive? And maybe that’s the reason why Disney axed it?

I mean the labor cost in CA is high and if Disney felt that it didn’t bring in that much extra money vs the cost to have it?

But I agree by not having it why should visitors stay onsite instead of off site.

 

[AnnaS]

The LL should be at least one per day.

 

[eticketplease]

Since resort guests are the biggest purchasers of LL I wonder if the free LL selection would be bookable twice, i.e. once with the free one for Roger Rabbit and then able to use one of your paid selections for another Roger Rabbit.

My money is no which would make the free LL completely useless unless there was somehow extra LL slots that were only bookable by resort guests.

 

[Cyberc1978]

Since resort guests are the biggest purchasers of LL I wonder if the free LL selection would be bookable twice, i.e. once with the free one for Roger Rabbit and then able to use one of your paid selections for another Roger Rabbit.

My money is no which would make the free LL completely useless unless there was somehow extra LL slots that were only bookable by resort guests.

I would say it depends. If the LL is given as the ones we get when a ride is down, I think they are called "Multiple experience" lightning lane, then I would assume you can book another for the same ride. The multiple experience LL are not tied to a specific ride, therefore no one knows which one you are gonna use it at until you actually tap in.

If Disney creates a new category of LL for resort guests where you need to pre-book it then its possible that they would count towards the one you book and therefore you can't book the same ride twice.

 

[Genie+]

So they traded running an extra park hour for taking inventory from LL buyers. Good deal for them!

 

[eticketplease]

So they traded running an extra park hour for taking inventory from LL buyers. Good deal for them!

They shortened the extra hour to 30 minutes several years ago but yes that is what it seems like.

 

[Genie+]

https://www.wdwinfo.com/disneylandc...ining-the-value-of-its-own-disneyland-hotels/

^Tim made some great points here. I really hope WDW doesn’t follow suit.

 

[Genie+]

If guests only get one per stay regardless if they are 1 night or 5 nights, wouldn’t this encourage people to book a string of single night stays? I realize that could mean having to change rooms each day but the hotels save alot of money when not needing to flip the room every day, so might still decide not to move the guests. Would be a gamble but we are planning to visit DL late 2026 with our WDW DVC points. I’m going to put a different lead guest each day lol. Let’s see who blinks

 

[Cyberc1978]

If guests only get one per stay regardless if they are 1 night or 5 nights, wouldn’t this encourage people to book a string of single night stays? I realize that could mean having to change rooms each day but the hotels save alot of money when not needing to flip the room every day, so might still decide not to move the guests. Would be a gamble but we are planning to visit DL late 2026 with our WDW DVC points. I’m going to put a different lead guest each day lol. Let’s see who blinks

I've recently stayed at BWV, the room was booked as two separate reservations. The front desk managed to keep me in the same room. However I still had to checkin twice in the app, pay the deposit twice and I had to go down to the frontdesk on the morning of my first checkout day to ensure smooth sailing.

IF the meaning of this is 1 LL regardless of length of stay, then this would be a circumvention which would cause extra work for the front desk CM's. If they dont ensure ppl staying in the same room, one thing is that ppl need to checkout and back in but the cost to cleaning rooms will also increase, as more ppl will do it. My best bet is that Disney at some point will clarify it and say that its 1LL per day of your stay. If not ppl will start to do whatever they can to trick the system to get more free LL.

 

[Genie+]

I've recently stayed at BWV, the room was booked as two separate reservations. The front desk managed to keep me in the same room. However I still had to checkin twice in the app, pay the deposit twice and I had to go down to the frontdesk on the morning of my first checkout day to ensure smooth sailing.

IF the meaning of this is 1 LL regardless of length of stay, then this would be a circumvention which would cause extra work for the front desk CM's. If they dont ensure ppl staying in the same room, one thing is that ppl need to checkout and back in but the cost to cleaning rooms will also increase, as more ppl will do it. My best bet is that Disney at some point will clarify it and say that its 1LL per day of your stay. If not ppl will start to do whatever they can to trick the system to get more free LL.

Yeah I think you’re right. They did manage to keep the system only 1 free waterpark day at WDW regardless of split stays.

 

[eticketplease]

Yeah I think you’re right. They did manage to keep the system only 1 free waterpark day at WDW regardless of split stays.

I thought there had been multiple reports of this working?

Check-in at SSR and then hop over to OKW wouldn’t trigger 2 water park days?