Tell me how you take advantage of EE

[VicgirlBC]

I would love to hear how you navigate EE at both Disneyland and DCA. Do you go through security at DTD even if you're going to DCA? Or is the entrance at GCH a better option? What time do you arrive at security? What rides do you prioritize? I want to hear it all!

We will be staying at GCH and have four early entries, two in each park, for our late August visit. I am travelling with my DD 21 and DS 19. While the Fantasyland dark rides aren't super important to us, we would love to ride a few of them. We also don't plan to rope drop ROTR (will attempt standby during a parade instead) but do plan on riding RSR in DCA. I was thinking it makes sense to attempt to beat the rope drop crowd to RSR since we will have a head start with EE, but I have also heard that it's sometimes not open right at rope drop.

Thanks in advance for all of your wisdom!

 

[disneychrista]

If you are staying at GCH then you can use the hotel entrance to DCA for EE.

The main benefit is that you are in the park 30 minutes before general admission and can get on an extra ride or two with incredibly short waits.

It is true that on occasion RSR does not open right with the park but I have seen a couple YouTube videos where it actually opened before the park/rope drop for EE guests.

 

[VicgirlBC]

If you are staying at GCH then you can use the hotel entrance to DCA for EE.

The main benefit is that you are in the park 30 minutes before general admission and can get on an extra ride or two with incredibly short waits.

It is true that on occasion RSR does not open right with the park but I have seen a couple YouTube videos where it actually opened before the park/rope drop for EE guests.

Thanks for this!

 

[OlliePop27]

I would love to hear how you navigate EE at both Disneyland and DCA. Do you go through security at DTD even if you're going to DCA? Or is the entrance at GCH a better option? What time do you arrive at security? What rides do you prioritize? I want to hear it all!

We will be staying at GCH and have four early entries, two in each park, for our late August visit. I am travelling with my DD 21 and DS 19. While the Fantasyland dark rides aren't super important to us, we would love to ride a few of them. We also don't plan to rope drop ROTR (will attempt standby during a parade instead) but do plan on riding RSR in DCA. I was thinking it makes sense to attempt to beat the rope drop crowd to RSR since we will have a head start with EE, but I have also heard that it's sometimes not open right at rope drop.

Thanks in advance for all of your wisdom!

Opinions are going to vary on this based on people's interests. We prioritize Fantasyland dark rides. Skip Peter Pan unless you're literally at the front. If you get there and boats aren't yet cycling, skip it as it won't be opening right away. If they are cycling, but not yet loading, it will open quickly. If you aren't at the front, it will take at least 20 minutes and not be worthwhile to miss out on riding other things.

We do Alice, then Dumbo, Toad, Snow White, Pinocchio, then Casey Jr. and Storybook when the park opens. You could instead head to Runaway Railway and Roger Rabbit when the park opens, or go to Big Thunder/Jungle Cruise. Lots of options.

If you are not interested in dark rides, the only other option during EE is Tomorrowland. Only Tomorrowland and Fantasyland are open. This would give you Space, Star Tours and Buzz. Matterhorn is not open during EE.

As for DCA, I personally do not recommend rope dropping RSR. It is often down at park open and the experience is not pleasant when it is open due to the crowds. Given the ages in your group, I recommend doing single rider later in the day or paying for ILL. If you do RSR and it's open, it will still take 20-30 minutes in the best scenario and you're missing out on short waits everywhere else. Another option is Toy Story, but it's way in the back of the park and it too is often down at park open, but you could pivot to Incredicoaster. For EE, try doing Guardians, Webslingers, maybe Soarin (but it moves slowly and eats up lots of time).

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

I would love to hear how you navigate EE at both Disneyland and DCA. Do you go through security at DTD even if you're going to DCA? Or is the entrance at GCH a better option? What time do you arrive at security? What rides do you prioritize? I want to hear it all!

We will be staying at GCH and have four early entries, two in each park, for our late August visit. I am travelling with my DD 21 and DS 19. While the Fantasyland dark rides aren't super important to us, we would love to ride a few of them. We also don't plan to rope drop ROTR (will attempt standby during a parade instead) but do plan on riding RSR in DCA. I was thinking it makes sense to attempt to beat the rope drop crowd to RSR since we will have a head start with EE, but I have also heard that it's sometimes not open right at rope drop.

Thanks in advance for all of your wisdom!

You can go through the GCH gate for early entry, but I’ve usually just gone to the main gate for early entry to DCA just because I think given the small number of turnstiles at the GCH entrance i worry it can be unreliable in terms of how long it takes to get in.

however if you go to the main gate, you do have to be prepared for security to take awhile since at least when I was there they only had 2 security lanes open between GCH and DTD, so it took a long time.

I have done the thing where you kind of line up for RSR towards the end of Early Entry and that worked well for us. We did Web Slingers then went to Cars Land afterward and got to RSR before the rope drop crowd, and line was around 20 minutes. YMMV of course

 

[LKing]

We also don't plan to rope drop ROTR (will attempt standby during a parade instead)

In my experience, the ROTR standby line isn't significantly shorter during parades.

 

[VicgirlBC]

Opinions are going to vary on this based on people's interests. We prioritize Fantasyland dark rides. Skip Peter Pan unless you're literally at the front. If you get there and boats aren't yet cycling, skip it as it won't be opening right away. If they are cycling, but not yet loading, it will open quickly. If you aren't at the front, it will take at least 20 minutes and not be worthwhile to miss out on riding other things.

We do Alice, then Dumbo, Toad, Snow White, Pinocchio, then Casey Jr. and Storybook when the park opens. You could instead head to Runaway Railway and Roger Rabbit when the park opens, or go to Big Thunder/Jungle Cruise. Lots of options.

If you are not interested in dark rides, the only other option during EE is Tomorrowland. Only Tomorrowland and Fantasyland are open. This would give you Space, Star Tours and Buzz. Matterhorn is not open during EE.

As for DCA, I personally do not recommend rope dropping RSR. It is often down at park open and the experience is not pleasant when it is open due to the crowds. Given the ages in your group, I recommend doing single rider later in the day or paying for ILL. If you do RSR and it's open, it will still take 20-30 minutes in the best scenario and you're missing out on short waits everywhere else. Another option is Toy Story, but it's way in the back of the park and it too is often down at park open, but you could pivot to Incredicoaster. For EE, try doing Guardians, Webslingers, maybe Soarin (but it moves slowly and eats up lots of time).

This insight is invaluable, thank you! We will have Genie+ and I hope to try fishing and accelerating too. I don't mind waiting 20-30 for RSR if it's open, but I will keep in mind that single rider may be the best way to go. I will plan to do Guardians, Webslingers, and maybe Soarin' at EE.

 

[VicgirlBC]

In my experience, the ROTR standby line isn't significantly shorter during parades.

That's really interesting to hear. I watched Fresh Baked Youtube when he did 30 days of riding ROTR and that's when he suggests going. Do you have a recommend time to ride it?

 

[VicgirlBC]

You can go through the GCH gate for early entry, but I’ve usually just gone to the main gate for early entry to DCA just because I think given the small number of turnstiles at the GCH entrance i worry it can be unreliable in terms of how long it takes to get in.

however if you go to the main gate, you do have to be prepared for security to take awhile since at least when I was there they only had 2 security lanes open between GCH and DTD, so it took a long time.

I have done the thing where you kind of line up for RSR towards the end of Early Entry and that worked well for us. We did Web Slingers then went to Cars Land afterward and got to RSR before the rope drop crowd, and line was around 20 minutes. YMMV of course

Thank you for this! I was thinking going through DTD may be the better bet based on what I have already read. Do you have a suggestion of what time to arrive at security?

Thanks for sharing your experience about RSR. I am happy with a 20 minute wait over having to pay for ILL

 

[Disney Dad ADL]

Thank you for this! I was thinking going through DTD may be the better bet based on what I have already read. Do you have a suggestion of what time to arrive at security?

Thanks for sharing your experience about RSR. I am happy with a 20 minute wait over having to pay for ILL

I'd probably allow for 20-30 minutes to get through security? So I would figure out what time you want to get to the gate, and then add 20-30 minutes for security and then add walking time.

I don't know if the new longer security lines have been affecting GCH -> DTD as well though.

 

[LKing]

That's really interesting to hear. I watched Fresh Baked Youtube when he did 30 days of riding ROTR and that's when he suggests going. Do you have a recommend time to ride it?

I know a lot of people like him but he annoys me.

Personally, I find it less busy in the evening just before it closes. With Fantasmic drawing a lot of people and the NOS -> Rise walkway being closed for the next few months, I would imagine it should be lighter after 8 pm. Note, that a decent number of people are in Galaxy's Edge to watch evening fireworks and may plan on going on Rise first.

 

[OlliePop27]

I know a lot of people like him but he annoys me.

Personally, I find it less busy in the evening just before it closes. With Fantasmic drawing a lot of people and the NOS -> Rise walkway being closed for the next few months, I would imagine it should be lighter after 8 pm. Note, that a decent number of people are in Galaxy's Edge to watch evening fireworks and may plan on going on Rise first.

And note ROTR usually closes at 10:00 pm even if the park is open later.

 

[Anal Annie]

OY! I completely forgot about early entry. We just bought our park tix yesterday and I made our park reservations this morning. We opted for park hoppers and I was trying to plan around potentially getting OBB tix for a Tues or Thurs. It didn't appear that park hours were available yet for our dates (the last week of August). How do I find out which park has EE on which day??? Since we paid extra for hoppers I booked CA on Sun morning assuming we could hop to DL for the evening since CA closes early for OBB. Then I booked DL for Monday morning thinking we'd have the option to hop to CA if we wanted to later. We're skipping the rest of the weekdays to do other sightseeing and we're doing our last park day on Sat 8/31 (we know it will be busier than a weekday and it's Labor Day weekend which will compound it but we leave on Sun and wanted to finish our trip at the parks). I think I booked DL as our entry park that day. But have I just completely missed being able to do EE? Do I need to cancel & re-do the reservations?!?!?! I don't know the DL ins & outs... Any advice?!

 

[OlliePop27]

OY! I completely forgot about early entry. We just bought our park tix yesterday and I made our park reservations this morning. We opted for park hoppers and I was trying to plan around potentially getting OBB tix for a Tues or Thurs. It didn't appear that park hours were available yet for our dates (the last week of August). How do I find out which park has EE on which day??? Since we paid extra for hoppers I booked CA on Sun morning assuming we could hop to DL for the evening since CA closes early for OBB. Then I booked DL for Monday morning thinking we'd have the option to hop to CA if we wanted to later. We're skipping the rest of the weekdays to do other sightseeing and we're doing our last park day on Sat 8/31 (we know it will be busier than a weekday and it's Labor Day weekend which will compound it but we leave on Sun and wanted to finish our trip at the parks). I think I booked DL as our entry park that day. But have I just completely missed being able to do EE? Do I need to cancel & re-do the reservations?!?!?! I don't know the DL ins & outs... Any advice?!

The EE schedule doesn't change. Even if the hours for your dates are not posted, this is what it will be:

DCA - Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday
DL - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

 

[Anal Annie]

The EE schedule doesn't change. Even if the hours for your dates are not posted, this is what it will be:

DCA - Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday
DL - Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday

Thank you. I didn't know where to find them. So unless we want to go to CA 2 mornings in a row I guess we lucked out with what I booked.

 

[VicgirlBC]

I know a lot of people like him but he annoys me.

Personally, I find it less busy in the evening just before it closes. With Fantasmic drawing a lot of people and the NOS -> Rise walkway being closed for the next few months, I would imagine it should be lighter after 8 pm. Note, that a decent number of people are in Galaxy's Edge to watch evening fireworks and may plan on going on Rise first.

Great advice, thanks!

 

[BriannaRuth]

You can always change your reservations to a different park first as long as it's still available.

My experience at the GCH is do EE elsewhere unless you are one of the *very first* in line. However, I haven't been since the recent security changes.

 

[itr452]

Experience 2 weeks ago 2 days at dca and 2 at DL
got to security kine at Dtd at 7AM , about 20 people ahead of us already. Got to main entrances at 720. Went to EE line at tomorrowland to get on hyperspace mountain first then on to the gate at red rose to go to ROTR. However they were warning guests that it wasnt going ti be up for opening and wasnt sure. Did smugglers run then checked if ROTR was up yet but not up and CMs were telling people to bugger off. We decided to stay since we had nothing else we wanted to ride on and most standby lines were quite quick. It went up at 845 and off we went.
2nd Ee at DL was same thing cept for at tomorrowland they told us hyperspace mountain was closes so we decided to do PP and were the first ones on. Again same thing CMs were warning us ROTR was down. Ugh worst EE luck.

DCA line up at GC entrance, walked over to EE lineup to do guardians then off to RSR. Opened at 8am and off we went. 2nd time same plan but with my wife going straight to RSR. She was cheesed because they opened it early for EE and there were no waits.

Practise your fast walking!

 

[VicgirlBC]

Experience 2 weeks ago 2 days at dca and 2 at DL
got to security kine at Dtd at 7AM , about 20 people ahead of us already. Got to main entrances at 720. Went to EE line at tomorrowland to get on hyperspace mountain first then on to the gate at red rose to go to ROTR. However they were warning guests that it wasnt going ti be up for opening and wasnt sure. Did smugglers run then checked if ROTR was up yet but not up and CMs were telling people to bugger off. We decided to stay since we had nothing else we wanted to ride on and most standby lines were quite quick. It went up at 845 and off we went.
2nd Ee at DL was same thing cept for at tomorrowland they told us hyperspace mountain was closes so we decided to do PP and were the first ones on. Again same thing CMs were warning us ROTR was down. Ugh worst EE luck.

DCA line up at GC entrance, walked over to EE lineup to do guardians then off to RSR. Opened at 8am and off we went. 2nd time same plan but with my wife going straight to RSR. She was cheesed because they opened it early for EE and there were no waits.

Practise your fast walking!

Thanks for posting! Love your comment about practicing fast walking. Haha. My daughter and I are speedy, but I'll have to work on getting my son to move faster.

What time did you arrive at the GCH entrance to get into DCA for EE? Glad you got on RSR with very little or no wait times. I hope we manage to do the same!

 

[GrimGrinningGuy]

Even if you scan in and do EE you can’t start making lightning lanes until 8 am right?
How about buying ILL? Also 8 am even if you’re scanned in EE at 7:30?