Just Back 12/16-12/23 Forget the Early Entry Park

[DemonLlama]

Just back from a great trip. We got to see and ride everything we wanted. But one word of warning: early entry is useless. 4 years ago it was fantastic, 2 years ago it was still pretty nice, but this past week it was awful. In 2000 we hit Dumbo, Pan, Pooh, Carousel, Snow White, each twice with zero waits within that one hour, even stopping for character autographs along the way. That's eight rides in 60 minutes. This year, same time of year, same Sunday EE, we couldn't do three rides in that time, even though we were at the gates at opening and went straight there, bypassing the characters. Mid-trip we changed our plans and did the counter programming thing. We hit the EE park the day after the early entry day and had far less waits for everything. We also found the later hours at MK very useful. We stayed until 11:00 closing two nights and were doing walk ons for Splash, Big Thunder, and POC, plus a 10 minute wait for Space Mountain and the Fantasyland rides during the parades. We also did the 12/16 MVMCP and had a great time, with short wait times. We caught the second parade on Main Street and the closing show of Celebrate the Season at midnight with great views for both. Between all of these strategies, we managed to hit all our favorites several times even with the increased crowds.

Our towncar driver said he hadn't seen this week so crazy ever. He thought it was a combination of Christmas following on a Saturday (so folks were more apt to come the week approaching it), the hurricane vacation folks, and the aggressive marketing of the value resorts that packed them in this year before Xmas.

 

[SandiH]

We're here right now and didn't use EE either. We did go the first Sunday to MK but the things we wanted to ride on weren't open yet (should have read the info better) but we went right at the rope drop to BTMR and Splash and got on a few times with no wait. We are utilizing the evenings at the parks as well and have been very successful seeing and riding all that we want to multiple times!

 

[danny1649]

For sharing,we were at WDW early December and crowds were up.We to didn't get to as many attractions when we went to EE parks this year.Still had a great time and got to do all we wanted to.

 

[DemonLlama]

I'm wondering if this isn't part of the motivation for changing EE with mornings and evenings mixed in. I felt for the first time families who thought these EE mornings really were fewer crowds than they would have had to deal with.

 

[ciera321]

We just got back, too and we didn't use EE either, seemed pointless. I'm looking forward to the extra 3 hours in the evening for our May trip!!

 

[ktbugsmom]

What do you think about EE for the first week in January? We have always had decent luck with EE at MK - especially in Fantasyland. (August is worked great - but it did seem like a lot of people) We will be there next week and I was hoping to go to MK on Friday during the EE. We can usually do all of Fantasyland in 60-90 minutes - going on some rides 2 times.

Thoughts?

We are also going to try the evening hours at MK. My daughter is almost 5 now, so I think she can handle staying up until 10pm. If not, we will just head back to the resort.

We leave in 2 days!

 

[HollyJoy]

We found that the only EE day that was useful to us was at Animal Kingdom. We went straight to the Safari... walked on.

 

[sherE810]

Ahem, if you don't mind me barging in here. May I ask what days are the early entry days the week of Jan.9 till Jan.16th. Unfortunetly, we won't be staying in a disney resort, so I definetly want to avoid the parks on those days. Thank-you!

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

sherE810-

I know MK is late 1/12, Epcot is late 1/13, MK is early 1/14, and AK is early 1/15. If you go to the very top of the screen (just under Mickey's picture) you will see a link for "Park Hours". You can click to see the whole month of January. Early and late times are highlighted for each day. I only memorized the times for the days we will be there!