Really, how do you do early mornings???

[taniahappy]

For us it works out perfect but it is only my husband and myself, no kids... we get there as soon as it opens and withing 3-4 hours we have donde all the major rides and tons os walking... we go in to DCA for the rest of the evening and get back to DL after 10:00 and do as many rides as possible, which is plenty by then as most of the families have already left...

 

[redbonec]

Everyone,
Seems I posted this thread then bolted out of sight.
Thank you so much everyone for sharing how your mornings go! So helpful to read how each family can make it work for them. So many good points. I have re-read them all.
And...I am SO embarrassed!!! Yes--you are right--from Texas it would be two hours later for us, NOT 2 hours earlier!
Thank you again!

 

[HydroGuy]

I have read that it is good to get to the park early. I think I have read that an hour early is good to get there by. And that you can get so much done in the first two hours of the day.

I have been thinking it through:
To get to DL or CA for an 8:00 opening, we would need to get there by 7:00 supposedly.
Which means we would need to start eating breakfast by 6:15.
Which means we would need to get the kids (ages 5 and 8) around 5:45 a.m, which really to us is 3:45 a.m. since we will be flying in from Texas the day before.

So the above sounds tiring to me and that is just the start of the day.

Then I call our hotel (Embassy Suites South) and breakfast doesn't start until 6:30 a.m.
And the first shuttle starts at 7:15 a.m.
Which would not put us at DL until 7:30 a.m.

How important is it to get to DL an hour before opening and how does anybody do it that early??? Especially if you are coming in from a time zone east of California?

Just thinking of the above makes me cringe considering the one magic morning we would have on our tickets. Yikes.

Advice please!

I have not read all of the 60 responses so I am sure I will repeat things said by others.

- It is important to get to the parks early.
- I cannot recall anyone saying you need to be there 60 minutes early since CarsLand opened in 2012 at DCA. Since 2013 standard advice is 30-45 minutes. We usually shoot for 30.
- It is much easier to get to the parks early when you are staying close to the parks at a walking distance hotel. We always have done that ourselves.
- It is much easier to get there early when you do not eat a full breakfast. At Disney parks we do bagels and fruit and the granola bars for snacks and try to get an early lunch like at 11:30. So we eat breakfast as we are walking to the parks and/or waiting at the turnstiles.
-It is much easier to get up early on your first park day than each subsequent day as you get progressively more tired as days go on. So try extra hard to to sleep early on the night before your first day.
- Someone has bound to have pointed out already that 5:45AM California time is 7:45AM Texas time, not 3:45AM. So it is easier to get up early for those coming from eastern time zones.
-It i

Bottom line is we can get up by 6:30AM or sometimes 7AM and still make it to the gates 30 minutes early. It is not that hard. And sometimes on days 2-4 we just sleep in an go in a little later.

Along these lines I have concluded that the multiple EMH days for those staying at Disney hotels when EMH starts at 7AM is almost impossible to do - for us. Last year we made it to EMH on two our four days. Once to DL and once to DCA. Otherwise it is just too hard to get everyone going.

 

[DaretoDis]

We usually get to the gates 10 or 15 minutes before opening and don't ever wait in the lines. There are ways to jump in front by going to the correct turnstile.