Early Entry Days or Not

[JBSLJames]

I've seen some threads discuss early entry days, but are they worth it. We have a hard enough time getting our kids up for school. Does it make any sense to go to a non-early entry park when a park has an early entry day? Boy that's clear as mud.

Let's say Thursday is EE for the MK, would it make more sense to do Epcot, AK or MGM for crowd reasons?

I know I don't head out until November, but all the info is much appreciated.

 

[tigsmom]

I'm not a morning person by any means. I have to drag my kids out of bed bodily for school. Put them in WDW and those kids need very little sleep. :lol: We try to do EE into the MK whenever we can. We do the park and then head back to our resort for lunch, a swim & a nap. Then we head back out to the parks or a show for the evening. It works for us, but I know other people don't bother & never leave a park until it closes.
I'd give it a try. Not sure the age of your kids, but a rest in the afternoon works well for younger ones.

 

[iluvstitch]

I think it depends on the time of the year. If you're going in a slow time, I would take advantage of that extra hour since the parks close earlier.

When I went to WDW this past July it was super crowded everywhere, so we decided to do AK early entry on a Monday July 7th. It was so crazy in the park- the line for Kilamanjaro Safaris was already to the bridge. The line just to use the fastpass machine was even like a 15 minute wait!!

On my next trip this May, I think I might try one EE, but for the most part I will do reverse psychology and not go to the EE parks.

-Stephanie

 

[David]

We ALWAYS take adavtage of EE. I find that I can get a lot of things accomplished during that first hour. We may do a little differently this year and go to EE then change parks because the EE mornings mean larger crowds in that park on that particular day. A lot of folks try this and it seems to work best for them, so we are going to try that. But I suggest taking advantage of EE. Our son has trouble getting up during school times, too, but at WDW the magic takes over and he's ready to go!

 

[netenyahoo]

If we are ever at the parks at the same time then don't do EE , but since you are going in Nov and we aren't then you should do EE. We did EE to MK one trip and finished all of Fantasyland before the park opened. We also had time for meeting characters too. It was awesome!

 

[JBSLJames]

Originally posted by iluvstitch
I think it depends on the time of the year. If you're going in a slow time, I would take advantage of that extra hour since the parks close earlier.

I have not seen an hours of operation for Thanksgiving week 2004 so I am not sure on how late the parks are open. I did see something on Thanksgiving week 2003 and it looked like some parks had extended hours compared to the week prior.

My kids are now 5 and 8. For the trip in November they will be 6 and my oldest will turn 9 while we are there. Already looking into ways to make her b-day extra special.

 

[Maria]

I would say do the early entry and then move to another park later in the day.

 

[tigsmom]

Originally posted by JBSLJames
I have not seen an hours of operation for Thanksgiving week 2004 so I am not sure on how late the parks are open. I did see something on Thanksgiving week 2003 and it looked like some parks had extended hours compared to the week prior.

My kids are now 5 and 8. For the trip in November they will be 6 and my oldest will turn 9 while we are there. Already looking into ways to make her b-day extra special.

Thanksgiving? I would definately do EE. My kids are 15 & 9 and they still need a nap in the afternoon. We walk the life out of them. (we usually only stay 3/4 days). Try to plan a rest period.
Its great to see the characters early. My kids got to ride with Tigger on Winnie the Pooh & then meet up with him before the opening of Mickey's Toontown Fair. Got some great pictures.

 

[cherrynegra]

Well, there are three schools of thought here.

A. Use EE because it will give you extra time not afforded to other guests who are not staying on property.

B. Use reverse psychology. Instead of using EE, head to one of the other parks that is not on a EE schedule, because everyone else will be in the EE park.

C. Use reverse-reverse psychology. Use EE because those who would have shown up early for EE are now at the parks not using EE so head against the crowd and go to the park using EE.

 

[MKCP 1985]

Originally posted by cherrynegra
Use reverse-reverse psychology. Use EE because those who would have shown up early for EE are now at the parks not using EE so head against the crowd and go to the park using EE.

Aaah, yes - but isn't THAT just what they would EXPECT you to do? :lol:

Sounds like the thing to do on busy days is to use the reverse-reverse-reverse psychology and go fishing, but I'll be out there in the mob, waiting 15 minutes for my fast pass and loving every minute of it, I'm sure!

 

[cherrynegra]

Originally posted by MKCP 1986
Aaah, yes - but isn't THAT just what they would EXPECT you to do? :lol:

Sounds like the thing to do on busy days is to use the reverse-reverse-reverse psychology and go fishing, but I'll be out there in the mob, waiting 15 minutes for my fast pass and loving every minute of it, I'm sure!

:lol: Yeah, or you could use reverse psychology to the fourth power by just staying home.

 

[JBSLJames]

Originally posted by cherrynegra
:lol: Yeah, or you could use reverse psychology to the fourth power by just staying home.

That would be cheaper, but not nearly as fun.

We are leaning towards to the EE and staying at that park for the day.

 

[DisneyPhD]

Originally posted by JBSLJames
That would be cheaper, but not nearly as fun.

We are leaning towards to the EE and staying at that park for the day.

The few times we've done EE, we usually would leave the park by 11 am because it was getting really crowded. Also take a look at what rides will actually be open during EE. For us, only MK was worth doing. MGM for example, didn't have much for us to do with our young one.

 

[cherrynegra]

Originally posted by JBSLJames
That would be cheaper, but not nearly as fun.

We are leaning towards to the EE and staying at that park for the day.

Well, in that case, I would recommend that you use EE until the parks really get crowded, usually around the noon hour, and then hightail it to another park. I've read in some posts and in guidebooks that that's usually a good plan to follow.

 

[JBSLJames]

I think I have seen something to that effect. I have to assume that Thanksgiving week will be crowded on Thursday (Turkey Day) and Friday but hopefully not as much the Sunday through Wednesday.

As always, good tips. Thanks.

 

[HauntedPirate]

My experience with EE has been this:

If you do EE, you have to do as much as you can, as quickly as you can, because it gets busy *fast*, and stays busy throughout the day. EE can be a good thing, as previously mentioned, when park hours are reduced. Thankgiving week is insane, nuff said.

Avoiding the EE park that day typically means slightly less crowding at the other parks, so you could, hopefully, see and do more at, say Epcot and MGM on days when MK opens early.

Just my $.02

 

[JBSLJames]

Originally posted by HauntedPirate
My experience with EE has been this:

Thankgiving week is insane, nuff said.

The whole week is insane or just Thursday through Sunday (Thanksgiving day til the Sunday after)?

We were told that the days leading up to Thanksgiving are not that bad. We will be at CBR from 11/20 to 11/26 Saturday through Friday. We will be getting in later on Saturday and will probably just hit one of the parks for the closing fireworks and leaving earlier Friday (we may not even go to the parks on Friday)

Please, someone tell me that the other days won't be sardine time.

 

[LivefortheMouse]

Early entry days are the best . thanks to this we see all of magic by 3 4 oclock on full days. i love early entry days its also the best way to see all ur favorite characters. on early entry days we also get a chance to ride our favorites more than once. we really recomend early entry days.

 

[disneydentist]

Originally posted by JBSLJames
The whole week is insane or just Thursday through Sunday (Thanksgiving day til the Sunday after)?

We were told that the days leading up to Thanksgiving are not that bad. We will be at CBR from 11/20 to 11/26 Saturday through Friday. We will be getting in later on Saturday and will probably just hit one of the parks for the closing fireworks and leaving earlier Friday (we may not even go to the parks on Friday)

Please, someone tell me that the other days won't be sardine time.

We've done Thanksgiving week a couple of times. The weekend you arrive will likely be more crowded simply because it's a weekend. Those pesky natives like their parks (lucky!). It should slack off on Monday and pick up some every day throughout the week. That being said, you shouldn't expect Monday-Wednesday to be sardine time, but the parks won't be empty either. It's a good time to as far as we're concerned. Only our daughter's band schedule keeps us from going during Thnksgiving week these days.

 

[Nansafan]

You mentioned that one of your children will be having a birthday while at WDW. Make sure and visit the MK that day. When you get to the park, stop in at City Hall first thing and tell them it's her birthday. She will get a pin to wear telling all that it's her magical day. The CM's do a great job watching for that pin and wishing the birthday person Happy Birthday. We were at WDW last June for my bro's 40th. Our matching birthday shirts helped too. His said "HI! My name is John. Today is my 40th birthday."