Early entry is definitely worth it if you're a morning person. The temperature is cooler. Fewer people in the park.
Prob will be rough
Yes! It was very nice to just walk into the shows and rides.
I would be more worried about a potential hurricane.
I don't think that's realistic especially as we're talking months in advance. I say that having been down in Disney and Universal during Irma. I think you can say if you don't want to deal with a potential hurricane avoid ALL months where that is more likely including several weeks before and after and you're left with a very short timeframe but to give advice about Labor Day weekend in June and being more worried about a hurricane is just overkill here and unnecessary scare tactic.
It's not a scare tactic. Just putting it out there so people can choose reservations that are refundable.
We did Helios, it is nice for a quick break (we went back to the room yesterday during the rain storm and waited it out from our theme park view). With that said, I'd argue it's a disadvantage during early entry. Until you get to Super Marioworld, everyone from the front is already in. If they keep opening up Battle at the Ministry with early entry though, then you have the advantage. We did one day entering Mario world and it was kind of a bust (mine kart was down - seems to always be down) and bowsers filled up fast (stardust was also down this day, so really it was bowsers or the monster universe rides).
Just got home...Did 1 day with express...and 1 day without express. On the day with it, we had everything done except mine kart madness by 3:30 (thats with eating lunch, and doing both shows). On the day without it, we still did a good bit, but by 1PM lines were more or less over 90 minutes for pretty much every ride except Monsters Unchained and curse of the werewolf. Even fyre drill was pushing 90 minutes. Then the thunderstorms came and basically shut down the whole park for 2.5 hours. If you're going during rainy season, I would get it just because of that factor. A few storms and your day will be wiped out, but it could at least be salvaged with express during the non rain periods. They actually were giving 50% refunds yesterday due to all the ride downtimes and storms (we personally didn't ask for one, but several people we talked to that night said they went to guest services and received them, and I saw other people in the facebook group saying the same thing.
Just got home, and they would only let people through this door in a mobility device or with a stroller. They weren't even letting other family members through this area with people in mobility devices during early entry. There is a separate area though between the portal opening and the store that you can enter through on the ground level the rest of the day, if you walk past the mario fountain just outside the land. I did not see it open for early entry (since they have to check your hotel key), but we used that the rest of the trip with success entering the land.
Wanted to provide an update. For reference I am 6'1 and 305lbs currently. The only ride, I could not get on was Stardust Racers. I was able to get on everything else, and honestly felt comfortable on all of them (except curse of the werewolf, because my knees were hitting the front (size wise, I was fine, but my knees hurt...thankfully its very short). I do think they will struggle getting onto stardust, Hiccups roller coaster (although they apparently added a more big person friendly cart to the back of their carts), and curse of the werewolf will be tough due to the broad shoulders.
Thank you for the update. That is an annoying change, especially when there are so few strollers and mobility devices at Epic.
My goodness HP sounds like Black Friday vibes. No thank you. Given what you said we'll definitely start with Dark Universe instead. Appreciate you!
Don't think they were saying there will be. But it is peak hurricane season at that time so it'd absolutely realistic there could be one, no one is saying their def will be. Everyone who travels then should keep an eye on the tropics when it's close to travel time.
I can under talking about refundable (though that was not in your initial comment). They are already going to Disney and just asking about their additional day potentially going to Epic and concerns over crowds so presumably they've already considered what happens if they need to cancel a trip with already having Disney as their main reason for going.
