Enter Parks Before Designated Opening

[ginny65]

Last year, they opened AK earlier than the designated open time. We were there pretty early, and were one of the first through the gate at rope drop. Do all the parks do that? Or is it a random thing?

 

[DWillowBay]

Actually letting people scan into the park is usually earlier than the official opening time. But then, in each park, the crowd is held further inside the park. Like....EPCOT opens around 15 minutes early, but then holds the crowd up by Spaceship Earth until official opening time (but the Jamminators play, so it's great!). HS will hold the crowd at the corner of Hollywood and Vine and then the crowd is 'escorted' to various areas of the park (TSL, TOT, etc). Of course Main St is open an hour before the official opening but you can only go as far as the Hub/ Castle until after the opening show. I hope this helps.

 

[cgattis]

IDK if it’s actually random, but they don’t all always open early. Our last time at Epcot they didn’t let one person through a turnstile until exactly 9:00. Our last time at AK we were let in very early and gradually moved from point to point for FOP boarding. We’ve had the same experience at all the parks—sometimes early, sometimes not.

 

[gharter]

AK almost always lets people back to Pandora about 30 minutes before opening and to the rides 15 minutes early. The remainder of the park is closed until official opening.
MK - you can enter Main Street an hour early, but the park does not open until the stage show right at opening time.
HS - TSL in 30 minutes early and to TSL 15 minutes early, the rest of the park at open time. Once SWGE opens, its anyones guess.
EPCOT have not seen them open early.

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

EPCOT early opening seems a little more sparse.

I wonder if it has something to do with crowd levels at opening.

The bazillion times we’ve rope dropped EPCOT we were let in (and held at the base of SSE) once about 30 minutes prior to park opening and that was Nov 2018 during Jersey Week. That was the busiest I’ve seen that park that early.