EE at both parks at same time over Xmas and staying off site - need strategy!

[jina]

Apologies if there has already been a post - I tried searching and came up empty.

I just saw EE will be at 7am at both parks every day for the entire Christmas break. Is this normal? I've never been when both parks had EE at the same time. This is our first time going during Christmas as DD5 is in school and we have limited days we can travel. We are staying off site which now looks to be a horrible idea. We would alwyays go at rope drop for the non-EE park, stay a couple of hours then head back to the hotel.

Is this usual for Christmas and if so, are there certain days which are better for a certain park when they both have EE? Ugh. I'm totally re-thinking our plans now - not sure if DD5 would be OK if we canceled but I was really counting on that first hour of operation to allow us to go on any rides at all. She's not into too many of hte FP ones.

 

[junmatno]

Never seen this at all...PLUS, if you are staying OFFSITE, you cannot get into DCA for EMH anyway. That is for Disney a resort guests ONLY

 

[Happytotrip2]

i

 

[SMD]

Strategy: go to the park you want to go to first. Don't plan on hopping before a parade to the park with a parade or to the park with the next night time entertainment scheduled. Also, be aware that during the week between Xmas and New Years DL will have periodic gate closures. If that's the park you want to go to, start there.

 

[gottalovepluto]

EMH & MM appear to be everyday of Christmas week. I saw this happen a few years ago. It was July right after Cars had opened and the day we arrived to stay on-site the hotel staff informed us that due to crowds Disney had just decided to extended the early morning entries. So, this isn't unprecedented for them. As I was onsite I don't know how it affected those staying offsite at the time.

 

[jina]

Thanks all - when you say some gates close, is that because the parks reach capacity? Ugh. I guess we'll just roll the dice each day and figure out which park we want to go to in the AM, and assume we may not get back into any park after our lunch break.

If they limit DCA gates during the day, does it help at all going to the GCH entrance for afternoon arrivals? If yes, maybe we'll start most days at DL and then hop after our afternoon break to CA.

 

[SMD]

Yes, closure means the park has reached capacity and guests will need to leave before the gates reopen. No, which gate you go to makes absolutely no difference. They close the park in stages, so it may close to new guests, but still be open to guests with hand stamps. To my knowledge, I don't think a gate closure has ever reached that level at DCA.

 

[gottalovepluto]

I just googled it up out of curiosity and saw that DCA has also reached max capacity (holidays 2010) though it happened after DL and DCA reopened first.