Would you do Early Entry?

[Kindermouse]

Hi all,
I am just starting to sketch out my first trip to WDW and my travel agent asked me a question that I'm not sure I know the answer to so I thought I'd get feedback from seasoned WDW vet before deciding.

She asked if I was planning to take advantage of early entry or extra night time hours. In all my trips to Disneyland I always try to take advantage of early morning hours and be at rope drop because these are often the best times of the day in terms of short wait times and low crowds. I rarely do any late nights because I'm always too tired from getting up at 5:30-6:00 am and walking through the parks all day. I assumed at first I would stick to what works for me and do early entry and rope drop times and not do any late nights but....I am a Californian and my body clock is about 3 hours ahead of orland time. I may well have a rough time getting up at what my body thinks is 3 am for rope drop.

Would I do better sleep in and avoid the parks with early entry? Are evening extra hours worth it or are they hardly any less crowded than regular day times? do the extra evening hours make you miss out on night time shows too much to be able to make use of them?

Do those of you that have done the coast to coast timehop feel like your body shakes it off and adjusts quickly enough or do you feel like you do better the stay a bit closer to your regular sleep schedule? Are there simple tips and tricks that make it all work out that I dont know about? Would I be able to sleep in if I wanted to or are the resorts (POFQ) too loud during the morning to do that any way?

This will be my first trip and possibly my only trip since a WDW trip costs me more than double what I pay for a DL trip so I want to be sure I dont burn myself out and end up being the less adorable version of grumpy ( I am about that short and yet I just can't pull it off the way he does).

 

[Accident]

I don't find rope drop relaxing as I don't wake up that early so getting up even earlier is something I really wouldn't do unless traveling with someone that wants to. i'm a wait for the park to get really quiet at night and then bust out most of the rides type of person and sleep in.

Rope drop can be very beneficial and the emh being in the morning does give you a litlte more time with less crowds before the rest of the visitors show up and they tend to show up about the same time every day (10-11ish). you need to weigh your person style and how much shower time your familiy needs in the morning. I know many that also don't rope drop is because they would need to be up stupid early for everyone to get ready and get out in time because of their morning shower needs and the single shower available.

 

[chaysmom]

I am in Colorado...so we are 2 hours behind FL time. Not quite as bad as CA, but I feel your pain on the time difference. And we go back and forth between DL and WDW every year.

I say absolutely it's worth it. In fact, I think more so there then CA for the reason you described. For example, when we go to DL our body is on a time clock an hour ahead of local time...so sure, you're not sleeping in but in the big picture getting up early for rope drop isn't that bad. Even if it's 6 am local time, we feel like it's 7 am...so as a result, the DL parks seem to fill up quicker to me. If you are from the mid west, 8 am CA time is 10 am.

So going to Florida - more people are in the situation you are talking about and less likely to hit parks for rope drop or early entry therefore crowds are much lower and for a good couple of hours. Unlike DL, I feel like the crowds start surging more at 11-11:30 so depending on how early you are there, you can get A LOT accomplished. My kids are 6 and 8, and if we stay on the resort, we have always built our schedule around which days we can take advantage of early entry. Which unfortunately means we are sometimes getting our kids out of bed at 4 am our time.

My friend did later hours with her kids and loved it, however from what I've seen the crowds are still a little thicker late hours versus early morning. Think about it - just like it's easier for people to head west and get up earlier for rope drop, the reverse holds true - it's going to be easier for people from the west to travel east and stay up later, as 11 pm their time is only 8 pm your time. One example - we did a rope drop at HS at 7 am last January. We were able to sign both kids up for Jedi Training, see Darth Vader and Chewie, and ride Toy Story in the first hour.

We have found a couple things that tend to work. We either do rope drop and then around 2-2:30 go back to the resort for some down time, and then return around 5:30 OR we will start early and push through, knowing that in the afternoon we will do some in-park activities that are a little more laid back and that we can veg. For example, if you have younger kids - the Dumbo ride is great in the afternoon because they are on the pager system. So you don't mind waiting...mom and dad sit on the benches and rest, while the kids run around and play until your buzzed to go on the ride. You almost hate to be buzzed, lol.

We have gone enough that now I start to say in the planning we are going to take it easy, and not do rope drop...and yet we always end up doing it. It's the only way to go in my opinion, LOL.

 

[chaysmom]

Also...looks like you are a year out. One of my best tips that seems to work for us, is trying to book 8:10 breakfasts when the park opens at 9 am. We make sure to pay early on, so that we can be out the door right away when the park is open. This is away to take advantage of rope drop, but doesn't feel quite as painful as we are enjoying breakfast versus sitting outside.

For the mornings we don't have breakfast but do rope drop - we utilize Garden Grocer to deliver food and drinks to our room the first day. We always include some basic continental breakfast food items. I always pack the backpack the night before, so when it's time to get up we are basically getting the kids out of bed and getting on the shuttle. We will eat our breakfast while we are sitting in line waiting for gates to open. Nothing fancy, but does seem to help kill some of the time and make it easier.

 

[Quellman]

There are Extra Magic Hours that come standard as part of staying in a Disney Hotel. Then there is Early Morning Magic which is a separate ticketed event.
For The Extra magic Hours, you can get a lot done on morning hours. Most folks with kids don't usually get to the parks until 930-1030 in the morning anyway. So if you are an early riser you can accomplish a lot. The night time hours used to be the best thing going, but it has started to shift away from that. At EPCOT the countries start closing down and the only main attractions (Soarin' and Test Track) will have lines lines lines. Magic Kingdom usually begins clearing out after fireworks and the last hour of Extra Magic Hours there can be a good time to hit a lot of attractions. Evening hours do not impact your ability to see any shows if that is what you want to do.

Early morning magic is a separate ticketed event that gives you breakfast (continental style) in the park and access to select attractions for about 2 hours. For Magic Kingdom you get like Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, and 7D mine train. At the Studios you get Star Tours and Toy Story Mania (I think).


The debate rages on if you should go to a park with Extra magic hours or not. Often more people will go to the parks with hours than those parks that do not. It just comes down to if you will have a park hopper. If you do and it gets too crowded you can always bail out and go somewhere else.

 

[lborne]

I can't say about EMHs. We tend to avoid them and go to the parks that will be least crowded for the day per crowd calendars.
As for adjusting, 3 time zones is not that much and you should be ok fairly quickly. The rule of thumb when traveling across time zones is 1 day to recover per zone, but I find it not to be that bad. It usually only takes me 1 day when traveling to California from Florida and back. Some tricks: 1. Start adjusting your sleep schedule a few days before you leave. 2. Drink plenty of water on the plane ride and your first day in Florida - don't drink alcohol during that period of time (I can never do this when in California with all your great craft beers). 3. Once in Florida - get on EST zone immediately. If you are still wide awake at midnight, but you tend to go to sleep at 11:00pm, then you should at least get in bed and try to sleep. Having said all that, when on vacation, people tend to be on odd hours anyway - staying up for EHM, etc., so don't worry about it much. You will be fine.

 

[Mome Rath]

As another has said; if you are staying onsite you have the option of utilizing EMH's automatically. I adore rope drop, and I basically do it every morning. I am not a late-nighter, so I don't tend to use much of the night owl hours. It's totally up to you and your style/preference. I'm only an hour off of Eastern time, so there's not really any adjustment time for me, so I can't speak to that. As to why I rope drop; I love the parks in the morning and being there at opening. I hit maybe one or two rides and then grab coffee and people watch. The weather is usually much more pleasant in the mornings (and evenings) as far as temp goes. I also have hoppers every trip and getting up early leaves me plenty of time to hop as much as I want/need to.

 

[Kindermouse]

Thanks for the info!

chaysmom- you make a great point about how more people are affected by the time change at WDW in ways that make them want to sleep in which can make early entry a better choice. I am still a year off but there are so many more decisions to make at WDW and I know absolutely nothing. All my DL experience isnt worth a hill of beans at WDW. Ugh I hate being a newbie!

Quellman-I am such a know nothing since things are so different between the coasts. In DL you get 1 Magic Morning day if you have a 3 day park hopper or more ticket at DL and you get early entry to 1 park every day if you are staying at a disney resort. I guess this isnt the case with WDW. I originally said I want the park hopper since I always park hop-several time a day even- at DL and I didnt want to be limited in my dining choices by not having a park hopper. My travel agent asked me if I would make use of park hopping as much as I think I will so as to feel like it was money well spent since its not so easy to do at WDW and I may decide that park hopping wastes too much park time. I think I'll stick with my park hopper just so I dont feel like limited since I hear a lot of people say that HS and AK are half day parks.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

If I was coming from California I wouldn't do AM EMH. I would try to do as many late nights as possible and shut the park down. The lines are pretty short the closer you get to park closing.

 

[Mome Rath]

I didn't see if you put it in your info; how many days/nights will you be there? More than likely it will make a difference on your early morning/late nights.

 

[Kindermouse]

I will be there for 7 days and we will be leaving on the 8th day. One day I am planning on doing a half day and just going into MK for MNSSHP

 

[Klayfish]

I've never stayed on property, so I've never done extra magic hours. I suppose it's one of those "you don't know what you're missing" things, but I don't have any regrets of having not done it. I don't have any interest in getting up at the crack of dawn to do it anyhow...I get up at 4am in my normal life, on vacation I want to sleep in a bit. We honestly have stopped doing rope drop too. We've found it unnecessary, we can still get what we want without it. Don't get me wrong, we still try to show up within 30 minutes of park open, but we make no special effort to get there early and stand with the masses at RD.

Don't be misled, HS and AK aren't necessarily half day parks. A lot of people think "half" of HS is closed, which isn't true. Ride and attraction wise, only a small handful of things closed. All the "big" stuff is still there. You can easily spend a full day there. Same for AK...it's physically huge and there is plenty to do to occupy a full day.

 

[Accident]

I suppose it's one of those "you don't know what you're missing" things

I actually find anyone that recommends early or rope drop in general to also not really know what both are like because they don't do it.. same goes with close the place down and don't rope drop people. I do go out of my way sometimes to try different styles of being at the park to see if maybe I would prefer the other way so it's really personal preference. I do find trying it like vacation where your not going too far out of your normal day schedule to be really helpful with enjoying your time and not feeling like you didnt' vacation when you get home works best for me.

 

[Mome Rath]

Yeah, since you'll be there a week, you'll probably have at least a day or two you'd like to either do an early EMH, or a late one. It will depend on which parks which days because they move the EMH love around to different parks on different days, morning and evening. lol

 

[gatorlisa]

I used to always stay off site, so couldn't do any EMH. The last 4 trips, I have stayed on site and we have taken advantage of both morning and evening EMH. The morning ones are very productive. So much so, that even though we aren't exactly morning people, we make the effort to get up and do them and enjoy it. We also take advantage of the evening EMH and have been known to utilize both in the same day. We take short trips, so we can burn the candle from both ends and enjoy ourselves. No way could we do that if we were there for a week. If the evening EMH hours, particularly at MK, are late...like 11 to 1 or midnight to 2, they can also be very productive. Earlier ones, like 8 to 10 at HS, are less so. It's a lot easier for people to make it 'til 10 PM than it is 'til 1 or 2 in the morning. Perhaps plan to take advantage of the evening EMHs at the beginning of your stay, as you adjust to the time difference, and then give some morning EMHs a try later in your trip. As for park hoppers...while park hopping is more difficult at WDW and takes longer, it is totally worth it to me. We like the flexibility it offers. We usually open one park, then hop to another in the mid to late afternoon. If one park gets busy, hop to another that looks less so. If you are interested in table service meals in the parks, it will also allow for a lot more flexibility there, not forcing you to spend a day in a particular park just because you want to have dinner there (not a factor for us, we don't do TS). If you are unsure about the hopper, you can always wait and add it to your ticket when you get there. Just keep in mind, the price will be the same regardless of when you add it. You'll pay the same amount for the PH feature on an 8 day ticket whether you order it from the beginning, add it on day one, add it on day 4 or add it on the last day. Just something to keep in mind.
For reference, I have visited both WDW (many times) and DL (twice), almost always with hoppers. I have done rope drop and park closings at both (sometimes in the same day), one Magic Morning at DL and many morning and evening EMHs at WDW.

 

[marx]

For us, utilizing early entry is dependent on crowd levels. Unless the parks are projected to be very crowded we avoid the park with early entry.

We have only used EMH during trips we've made during Christmas/New Years and Easter break.

(This is not to say that EMH isn't beneficial on moderate crowd days. We just prefer to wake up later, use FP and deal with any lines).

 

[Quellman]

Thanks for the info!

chaysmom- you make a great point about how more people are affected by the time change at WDW in ways that make them want to sleep in which can make early entry a better choice. I am still a year off but there are so many more decisions to make at WDW and I know absolutely nothing. All my DL experience isnt worth a hill of beans at WDW. Ugh I hate being a newbie!

Quellman-I am such a know nothing since things are so different between the coasts. In DL you get 1 Magic Morning day if you have a 3 day park hopper or more ticket at DL and you get early entry to 1 park every day if you are staying at a disney resort. I guess this isnt the case with WDW. I originally said I want the park hopper since I always park hop-several time a day even- at DL and I didnt want to be limited in my dining choices by not having a park hopper. My travel agent asked me if I would make use of park hopping as much as I think I will so as to feel like it was money well spent since its not so easy to do at WDW and I may decide that park hopping wastes too much park time. I think I'll stick with my park hopper just so I dont feel like limited since I hear a lot of people say that HS and AK are half day parks.

You are correct, Extra Magic Hours are available every day of your stay.

I must have missed that part about the park hoppers. I think park hoppers can be a good idea, especially since you may spend less time other places. We don't usually hop more than between 2 parks a day, mainly because they are so spread out. HS is not a half day park if you take in all of the shows. You'll be able to skip toy story mania and Star Tours, but Coaster and Tower of Terror are things you can't get in California.

 

[Nancyg56]

I think that a lot of people really like EMH and use them to their advantage, but in over 12 years of visits. I never have use them one time. I think that even though we tend to be early risers. we are lucky to make it for RD, and maybe one or two PPO breakfasts. WE have never found that we missed much, but as thers have said. maybe its because we don't know what we are missing.

I would say that since you are coming from the West coast you might want to see how you all feel that early and if anything, take advantage of the evening hours which may be closer to your body clock.

 

[Mama Lo]

You didn't say who was coming. If it's an adult trip I would say you should try to push to do early EMHs, you will get SO much done in the first two hours in the park. If you are a good napper you could head back to your resort around 10:30 nap and head out for a late lunch somewhere once you are ready. Not sure how that would go over with kids, I might try it with mine.

It will probably be easier for you to make it to early EHM towards the later part of your trip as you acclimate to EST.

Although they screw around with the hours all the time the parks won't be open all that late during your visit. So you will very easily be able to close out most parks if you try to stay on California time or even if you don't.

As for the hoppers, they can be added at anytime during your stay. So if you spend your first day at only one park, the next day go in the morning to one park and want to switch to another you can upgrade at that point. WDW is HUGE, having been to DL (and being first at the gate having had a full breakfast after coming from the east coast) it's so nice that things are so close together. You will not believe how much walking you will do!

Don't worry about being a newbie, you have nearly a year to figure this out. Just calendar your ADR and FP dates so you can get what you want.

Whatever happens just have a super fun time!!

 

[Kindermouse]

You didn't say who was coming.

It will be me and my son who will be 14 at the time of our trip. As a teenager he is more of a late nights and sleep in person at home on the weekends but as long as as he isn't off of his game to badly (like he was on our march DL trip because he was still having some pain from knee surgery) he gets up well for fun stuff on vacations. We were in DL last week and he didn't have too much difficulty with doing a 7:00 early entry and getting there at 7:20 for an 8:00 rope drops. We did sleep in a couple of days so we would have late night stamina for a halloween party and to recover from said halloween party (we probably didn't get to sleep until close to 1:00 am that night) but otherwise it was early mornings for us and usually is since that first couple of hours at DL is sooooo much better than night times since night are extra crowded with locals until after 10.