If staying onsite do you still get EE?

[xoxosmom]

I was just about to purchase our tix and saw I could save about $30 if I use the So California tix instead of Park Hopper tix. But the only way to get EE is with park hopper. Since we are staying at GCH, I thought I read that you get EE regardless. Am I way off? I am not sure how important EE is to us yet since I havent planned out our game plan. I will need to concentrate on rides for the munchkins. Which land is that?

 

[caimakale]

I was just about to purchase our tix and saw I could save about $30 if I use the So California tix instead of Park Hopper tix. But the only way to get EE is with park hopper. Since we are staying at GCH, I thought I read that you get EE regardless. Am I way off? I am not sure how important EE is to us yet since I havent planned out our game plan. I will need to concentrate on rides for the munchkins. Which land is that?

I have learned alot about EE lately...I had similar questions. If you are staying on-site is all you have to do is show them your room charge slip that you get when you check in.

And any 3+ day Park Hopper pass gets one EE, regardless of whether you stay on site or not. I believe the southern cal pass comes with a 3 day park hopper so you should be ok either way.

 

[CalGal]

EE has been available to on-site guests any day that it is offered. The benefit is not advertised and could go away, but I think you should be able to count on it. I strongly recommend making use of EE; you can ride most of the FL rides and a couple of others before normal park opening. These are rides that often get pretty backed up as the day goes on. As the other poster said, all you need to do is show your charge slip for the hotel which shows the dates of your stay, and you will be able to get in for EE. I did this 3 times with my AP in Dec.

Another consideration if you haven't already booked and you are a member of AAA, is to book your stay and parkhopper through AAA; in that case you will get the enhanced FP -- a pretty nifty benefit particularly during the busy season.

 

[rsjj]

we just got back! and yes, staying on-site, we were at dh. we got ee. as we checked in, they told us we had ee on monday (this morning). so we took advantage of it. although they tell you you need to show your charge slip thing, when we went, they never asked for it. we boarded the monorail from dd, and all they asked for was our tickets (ap). maybe it's different when you're at the main entrance? and ee was only for fantasy land and parts of tomorrow land. it's amazing how many people are up so early on their vacation! (us being part of that!! lol)

 

[Dukland]

EE has been available to on-site guests any day that it is offered. The benefit is not advertised and could go away, but I think you should be able to count on it. I strongly recommend making use of EE; you can ride most of the FL rides and a couple of others before normal park opening. These are rides that often get pretty backed up as the day goes on. As the other poster said, all you need to do is show your charge slip for the hotel which shows the dates of your stay, and you will be able to get in for EE. I did this 3 times with my AP in Dec.

Another consideration if you haven't already booked and you are a member of AAA, is to book your stay and parkhopper through AAA; in that case you will get the enhanced FP -- a pretty nifty benefit particularly during the busy season.

I just booked through AAA. This means I get enhanced FP? How cool is that?!?
Now, is there a post bookmarked somewhere that explains the enhanced FP?

 

[hlbtimes2]

I just booked through AAA. This means I get enhanced FP? How cool is that?!?
Now, is there a post bookmarked somewhere that explains the enhanced FP?

The basics of enhanced fast pass: It is available if you are staying onsite and have booked thru AAA. It allows you to get a fast pass for each ride that offers it with out having to wait for the return time or 2 hour wait like a normal fast pass. For example you can hold FP for : Indy, Space, Buzz, Splash all at one time. Once the time on a single ride comes up or you've had it for two hours you may get another fp for that ride.

 

[Dukland]

The basics of enhanced fast pass: It is available if you are staying onsite and have booked thru AAA. It allows you to get a fast pass for each ride that offers it with out having to wait for the return time or 2 hour wait like a normal fast pass. For example you can hold FP for : Indy, Space, Buzz, Splash all at one time. Once the time on a single ride comes up or you've had it for two hours you may get another fp for that ride.

Oh, man!
I am not staying onsite. So that means I don't get it? That sucks!
Oh, well. I am paying close attention to how others have "worked the system". Not having enhanced FP will not make or break the trip.

 

[jemilah]

I am almost positive you get enhanced fast pass regardless of hotel if you bok through AAA. I should get my tickets tomorrow by fed ex and I will check !

 

[Dukland]

I am almost positive you get enhanced fast pass regardless of hotel if you bok through AAA. I should get my tickets tomorrow by fed ex and I will check !

Have I told you lately that you Rock? You are a wealth of information!
Thanks so much!

 

[jemilah]

I just looked on the AAA web site and found nothing , I hope to get my package tomorrow [almost as good as Christmas] !

 

[HydroGuy]

If you haven't found it yet, here is a link to my exhaustive FastPass topic: Getting the Most Out of FastPass During High Season http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=885132

If you want to learn about Enhanced FP, check out this link: http://mousepad.mouseplanet.com/showthread.php?t=43193

To confirm, at this time you can only get EFP by booking a DLR hotel thru AAA for at least (I believe) two nights.

If EFP is important to you, here is a trick you can use. Book your two night stay at a DLR hotel thru AAA, buy a ticket for your whole trip (say 5 days) then switch hotels for the three other days to something more economic. Your tickets will have EFP for all 5 days.

In addition, I disagree with the previous post that you should count on getting EE Early Entry if you stay in a DLR hotel. The only sure way to get it is with the parkhopper tix. The DLR hotel method is unofficial and could be changed any day. For the record, it has been in place since July 2005, so one may feel some comfort expecting it next week. But anything could happen between now and someone's trip a few months down the road.

 

[Laurabearz]

I loved your FP post Hydroguy! That is exactly my style too... the family likes to keep moving and not wait any longer than they have too. I can not wait until the kids are old enough to be the runner

My biggest concern about Disneyland (as appose to Magic Kingdom) is no peoplemover... that is our 'we all love it, can jump on it with no line ever, kill some time before buzz fp ride" lol

 

[maryfree]

Hydroguy,we are going for the 1st time this August,I read your post and loved it in fact I printed it out and will follow it closely...thanks so much,cant wait till August...

 

[HydroGuy]

I am almost positive you get enhanced fast pass regardless of hotel if you bok through AAA. I should get my tickets tomorrow by fed ex and I will check !

When I first read this I thought you meant regardless of which DLR hotel. If you mean thru any hotel booked thru AAA, I believe you were misinformed. It is Disney's deal with AAA to get AAA people to send people to a DLR hotel. Why else would Disney give out this privilege if they get nothing for it?

 

[HydroGuy]

Hydroguy,we are going for the 1st time this August,I read your post and loved it in fact I printed it out and will follow it closely...thanks so much,cant wait till August...

Have a great trip. I think August is a great time to go to DLR if you avoid weekends. Just get to the parks early, take a long break mid-day, and if your group/family can handle it, stay until midnight. You can get so much done in the first two and last two hours of the day. On our Early Entry day we got on 29 rides including all the biggies twice, and took a five hour break. The hardest part of that was getting up at 5:45AM. The rest was easy.

 

[HydroGuy]

My biggest concern about Disneyland (as appose to Magic Kingdom) is no peoplemover... that is our 'we all love it, can jump on it with no line ever, kill some time before buzz fp ride" lol

I rode the old PM when they had it at DL. Indiana Jones is a good trade for PM.

 

[Dukland]

Have a great trip. I think August is a great time to go to DLR if you avoid weekends. Just get to the parks early, take a long break mid-day, and if your group/family can handle it, stay until midnight. You can get so much done in the first two and last two hours of the day. On our Early Entry day we got on 29 rides including all the biggies twice, and took a five hour break. The hardest part of that was getting up at 5:45AM. The rest was easy.

I'm really hoping I can get my family up in time. I can see my dh complaining already, at me taking on Disney "kamikaze-style!"
But, hey, having a plan works for shopping the day after Thanksgiving. If you know what you are doing, it should definitely work for Disneyland!!
I will be printing your advice out, too, as soon as I get more ink in my printer.

 

[mabas9395]

Just to make sure, are these the rides that are open during EE? Anything I am missing? Is there an official list?

Alice in Wonderland
Casey Jr. Circus Train
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
It’s a Small World
King Arthur Carrousel
Mad Tea Party
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
Peter Pan’s Flight
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey
Snow White’s Scary Adventures
Storybook Land Canal Boats
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Space Mountain

 

[HydroGuy]

Just to make sure, are these the rides that are open during EE? Anything I am missing? Is there an official list?

Alice in Wonderland
Casey Jr. Circus Train
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
It’s a Small World
King Arthur Carrousel
Mad Tea Party
Matterhorn Bobsleds
Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride
Peter Pan’s Flight
Pinocchio’s Daring Journey
Snow White’s Scary Adventures
Storybook Land Canal Boats
Buzz Lightyear Astro Blasters
Space Mountain

There is no "official list", at least not one available ot the public. DL says clearly in the fine print that the EE rides are subject to change at any time. I believe they pass out a list to DL Cast Members each week with a list of planned EE rides. But this is not available to the public.

I believe your list is complete, except for these three which are not typically open during EE.

IASW
Casey Jr
StoryBook Land

Casey Jr and IASW are not too bad to work in later in the day, as long as you do not do it mid-afternoon. We got in line at IASW last August at about 12:15 and had a 15-20 minute wait. The line can look really long and scary, but IASW is one of the highest capacity rides at DL and the line moves fast. It rarely exceeds a 30 minute wait, even mid-day.

We rode Casey Jr during the evening at 7-8 PM and had a 5 minute wait.

The only difficult one of the three is StoryBook Land Canal Boats. This will quickly build a line in the day and stay long most of the day. It is very slow loading, though not as slow as Dumbo.

We rode StoryBookLand on a non-EE day when DL opened at 8AM (StoryBookLand opened at 8AM). We got in line for it at about 8:45AM and waited maybe 10 minutes to ride. It will approach 60 minutes at mid-day.

Also if you are touring later at night, be careful with FantasyLand during the Remember Dreams Come True fireworks show. I believe they close a number of FL rides during Remember.

Finally, if you have multiple EE days, then you may be more casual about which rides to do. If you only have one EE, here are my recommendations:

A. Resist the temptation to ride Space Mtn or Buzz during EE. These are FastPass rides that can be done any time with FP.

B. Most FantasyLand rides are of very short duration (2-3 minutes). That means if the lines are short, and the ride length is short, you can do a whole bunch of rides in a short time. But you need to do them in the right order. And it is worthwhile to get yourself over to EE early. Our EE started at 7AM, and we were shooting for getting to the gates at 6:30AM, but forgot something in our room and did not get there until 6:45AM. That still put us in good position (we were maybe the 10th group to go thru our gate), because tons of people came between 6:45 AM and 7AM, and the lines at the gate got really long.

The priority of rides you want to do during EE depends on the ride popularity and how fast it can load. Here is what I would recommend for EE ride order:

1. Peter Pan
2. Dumbo
3. Matterhorn
4. Alice in Wonderland
5. Mad Tea Party
6. Mr. Toad
7-9 (order not important for these three)
Carousel
Snow White (line will be 1 minute max)
Pinocchio (line will be 1 minute max)

The last three can be done easily after EE ends and regular hours start, too.

Note that if you get to the gates at say 7:05AM on a 7AM EE day, you will be lucky to ride the first two in the list. Those few minutes make a big difference.

 

[HydroGuy]

I'm really hoping I can get my family up in time. I can see my dh complaining already, at me taking on Disney "kamikaze-style!"
But, hey, having a plan works for shopping the day after Thanksgiving. If you know what you are doing, it should definitely work for Disneyland!!
I will be printing your advice out, too, as soon as I get more ink in my printer.

It is really not kamikaze unless you make it. It is figuring out where everyone wants to go and making sure you are there first. We never ran anywhere or got stressed. On our Day 4 my DW commented how wonderful it was that our trip had been so relaxed. About the only time I would put my foot down is when my kids wanted to do something other than a ride in the early morning (during EE or during early regular parks hours). I told them there would be plenty of time later for that kind of thing after we had ridden all of our rides with short lines - in fact they spent way more time shopping in stores than I would have guessed. They understood that after they saw everyone else standing in long lines and realized that we hardly ever waited in line. Well, we did some. But we never waited in any line for a ride more than 20 minutes, and rarely waited more than 10 minutes. There is no way around waiting in line for shows and such.

If you do not feel confident that you can get a good ride order, consider buying RideMax - www.ridemax.com . It will create a schedule for you to minimize line waiting.