I am a DL newbie, so if this is a stupid question please forgive me. I am staying at the DL hotel for a conference, Can I have breakfast at the GCH and use the "special entrance"? or is it only for guests of the GCH?
thank you all for your updates! I thought this may be the case, DH worked with several of the "imagineers" who built the GCH so I know we will be spending lots of time there on our upcomming trip.. he has to check out all the details. I may be able to tear him away for at least one ride on Soarin!?!
When we were there in Jan they had a big line inside the gates before opening time for Toy Story Mania..then that group hustled over there..you should be safe with Soarin!
We've been at GCH the last week and used the entrance on the days when we started at DCA. Only on the weekend will the entrance have more than a few people waiting. On weekend's, they open a half hour before park opening and have a queue to the left side of the walk to line up for Toy Story Mania. They walk you in to the ride once the queue get's long. On other days, there is no TSM queue. A rope is stretched across just past Grizzly River and only those with breakfast reservations at Ariel's Grotto can get past until 10 am.
Our routine has been to go in about 9:45 am and go to Soarin' to get FastPasses for an hour later. Then hop in the TSM queue if its a weekend or just wait at the rope if it's not. Either way gets you onto TSM before the big line forms. You can even get on California Screaming after TSM with little or no line. You can then take your time getting back to Soarin' for the Fastpass ride.
Anyone from any of the 3 hotels AND anyone dining at Storytellers are allowed to use it (which was a great help when I had breakfast there once, because for the life of me, I wouldn't have been able to find my way "out" without probably covering the whole hotel grounds).