News Early Theme Park Entry and Extended Evening Hours coming for resort guests

ToTBellHop

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
Sirwalterraleigh said:
We don’t stay on property for “value”…the prices have never reflected the service quality

We stay for our own egos and for the convenience of proximity
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I enjoy walking past the peasants toward Space Mountain at 8:30 am like
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Tha Realest

Tha Realest

Well-Known Member
Ayla said:
The number of peasants is getting smaller and smaller with all the off site hotels they've added.
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I wonder how much of a benefit that is to offsite. Internal park transportation gives you a slight advantage in terms of getting to the gates (esp those who can walk to MK/EP/DHS). By the time you drive, park, TTC to park, etc, I think the actual on-site guests will have gotten pretty well into the park
 
S

SingleRider

Premium Member
EPCOT-O.G. said:
I wonder how much of a benefit that is to offsite. Internal park transportation gives you a slight advantage in terms of getting to the gates (esp those who can walk to MK/EP/DHS). By the time you drive, park, TTC to park, etc, I think the actual on-site guests will have gotten pretty well into the park
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Not necessarily for HS and Epcot. You can Uber to Swan/Dolphin and walk to either one from there early in the morning.
 
MickeyLuv'r

MickeyLuv'r

Well-Known Member
EPCOT-O.G. said:
I wonder how much of a benefit that is to offsite. Internal park transportation gives you a slight advantage in terms of getting to the gates (esp those who can walk to MK/EP/DHS). By the time you drive, park, TTC to park, etc, I think the actual on-site guests will have gotten pretty well into the park
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We've attempted rope drop and Early Entry quite a few times. I generally agree that getting to the parks in time for EE is challenging. The things that tend to cause us to be late are often things that are beyond our control.

Most recently, the thing that has tripped us up the most has been MDE/G+ glitches when we attempt to choose a BG or G+ attraction at 7am, or it gives us a return time that bites, so we spend several minutes refreshing for a better return time.

Somehow between 7am and 7:30/8am, onsite guests are supposed to: 1. book BG/G+, 2. travel to the park, 3. get through security/front gate back-ups, and maybe 4. eat breakfast (when onsite food courts don't open until 7am).

We've done this successfully, but more or less- it requires walking to the parks or driving our own car, in-room coffee, and eating in the car/skipping breakfast/having food ready ahead of time.

On my most recent visit, we managed to arrive at HS before the start of EE, but - yowsa! - getting through the front gate took over 45minutes! All the entry points were held to a slow trickle. It was frustrating. Time was ticking past, and none of the lines were moving.

I often stay offsite the first night or two, then move onsite. The morning I move onsite, I have EE access, so I'm pretty familiar with attempting EE from offsite.

Even with having to check out of the other hotel, we have a higher success rate making EE when coming from offsite. One reason is that most offsite places start serving coffee/breakfast by 6:30am. The other big reason is that driving = very predictable timing: usually less than 15minutes.

In my experience, onsite transportation tends to be slower, except when we walk to a park, go GF/Poly to MK via monorail, and perhaps Skyliner. (I don't have a lot of experience taking Skyliner in the AM.)

Entering Epcot via the IG used to be a slight disadvantage vs. the front gate, as the front gate often opened earlier. These days the IG is much closer to Remy, but the IG can still be slow going.
 
S

SingleRider

Premium Member
MickeyLuv'r said:
We've attempted rope drop and Early Entry quite a few times. I generally agree that getting to the parks in time for EE is challenging. The things that tend to cause us to be late are often things that are beyond our control.

Most recently, the thing that has tripped us up the most has been MDE/G+ glitches when we attempt to choose a BG or G+ attraction at 7am, or it gives us a return time that bites, so we spend several minutes refreshing for a better return time.

Somehow between 7am and 7:30/8am, onsite guests are supposed to: 1. book BG/G+, 2. travel to the park, 3. get through security/front gate back-ups, and maybe 4. eat breakfast (when onsite food courts don't open until 7am).

We've done this successfully, but more or less- it requires walking to the parks or driving our own car, in-room coffee, and eating in the car/skipping breakfast/having food ready ahead of time.

On my most recent visit, we managed to arrive at HS before the start of EE, but - yowsa! - getting through the front gate took over 45minutes! All the entry points were held to a slow trickle. It was frustrating. Time was ticking past, and none of the lines were moving.

I often stay offsite the first night or two, then move onsite. The morning I move onsite, I have EE access, so I'm pretty familiar with attempting EE from offsite.

Even with having to check out of the other hotel, we have a higher success rate making EE when coming from offsite. One reason is that most offsite places start serving coffee/breakfast by 6:30am. The other big reason is that driving = very predictable timing: usually less than 15minutes.

In my experience, onsite transportation tends to be slower, except when we walk to a park, go GF/Poly to MK via monorail, and perhaps Skyliner. (I don't have a lot of experience taking Skyliner in the AM.)

Entering Epcot via the IG used to be a slight disadvantage vs. the front gate, as the front gate often opened earlier. These days the IG is much closer to Remy, but the IG can still be slow going.
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I drove to early entry at Epcot one morning, used the Passholder entrance that was the farthest from the bus stop (but closest to me because I came from the opposite side of the parking lot.) Arrived less than 45 minutes before early entry and was the first one to the holding area by Creations. All the other lines were 20-30 people deep and as an AP I breezed right in, no wait using the AP line.
 
PREMiERdrum

PREMiERdrum

Well-Known Member
ToTBellHop said:
I enjoy walking past the peasants toward Space Mountain at 8:30 am like
View attachment 722204
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I was the TA and TD for a high school band group and had them there 2 weeks ago. On our last day I booked us a private, early in-park breakfast at DHS with an exclusive ride experience. We met our host outside the gates at about 6:50 a.m. and got to be ushered through the guest services end of the tapstyles, walking onto Hollywood Blvd as literally the only guests in the park. The kids - who come from a poor part of Ohio and most of whom had never left the state - felt like true VIPs. We had the place to ourselves for at least 20 minutes, taking leisurely photos without anyone in the background and arriving at Midway Mania for a pre-opening ride before Early Entry had even started. From there, it was a private breakfast service at PizzaRizzo.

Never a bad experience doing this for my group trips.
 

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Coaster Lover

Coaster Lover

Well-Known Member
In the Parks
No
There are now 45 listed hotels eligible for early entry. Of those 45 hotels, 11 (24.4% of all eligibles hotels) are non-Disney hotels (not counting Swan or Dolphin who have essentially always been included in these perks).
 
ToTBellHop

ToTBellHop

Well-Known Member
Coaster Lover said:
There are now 45 listed hotels eligible for early entry. Of those 45 hotels, 11 (24.4% of all eligibles hotels) are non-Disney hotels (not counting Swan or Dolphin who have essentially always been included in these perks).
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And yet I always feel like there's no one there that early.
 
Dan Deesnee

Dan Deesnee

Well-Known Member
Can someone explain the business reason for Disney allowing this? I assume those hotels pay Disney for this perk, but surely they will lose more money by people choosing to not stay in the expensive by comparison on-site hotels?

The perks for paying the Disney premium are being eroded more and more every year.
 

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