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News Early Theme Park Entry and Extended Evening Hours coming for resort guests
- Thread starter DCBaker
- Start date
jeanericuser001
Well-Known Member
Depends on the hotel and when you stay at hotel. The average guest at most gets that 30 minutes early access as well as the ability to be at the park early while the average guests have to wait till the parking lot opens. Hotel guests are more likely to get park reservations than non hotel guests. In addition some premium hotel guests get to the parks a lot sooner than non premium hotels so they can be at their favorite park in less than 10 minutes while everyone else will have a longer bus ride depending on where you are going. If you go during a less busy time you may only get that 30 minutes but during the busier times the parks seem to offer extra magic time to guests as they know they need to get as much people in as possible as the off season may see a lot less people.
Rose&Crown
Well-Known Member
Wait they quietly upped capacity to 40%? Sorry didn’t know that at all
wedenterprises
Well-Known Member
I imagine the parks will open 30min early for everyone but only resort guests will be able to get on the rides?
I suppose it is nice that we don't have to avoid the EMH parks anymore.
Indy_UK
Well-Known Member
hmmm. This is an odd one. Not sure if i agree with it or not.
Disneyland Paris does something similar where resort guests can enter the park any day earlier than day guests. I think for WDW, I get it too as it doesn't mean a single park is slammed on a particular day and spreads the crowds out. However, i think it should be an hour, not 30 minutes. Some rides take that time to walk to
Disneyland Paris does something similar where resort guests can enter the park any day earlier than day guests. I think for WDW, I get it too as it doesn't mean a single park is slammed on a particular day and spreads the crowds out. However, i think it should be an hour, not 30 minutes. Some rides take that time to walk to
DisneyOutsider
Well-Known Member
Not sure the logistics. Just assuming they can figure it out... not always a given I know.
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
Yeah, but with 30 minutes being such a short window, those non-resort guests will still be able to get in line for major rides because by the time they reach the entrance those 30 minutes will likely be up unless they were one of the very first people inside the park.
doctornick
Well-Known Member
Hmmm... I'd say that having smaller children causes us to get up earlier. My youngest is normal up at 7-7:30 AM everyday anyway. If I didn't have kids, I'd sleep in all the time.
Now, granted that having younger children makes "getting ready" time longer in the morning. But I've never had a problem with the kids not getting up while on vacation at WDW. Obviously everyone's experience varies though.
I think the bigger issue with kids and early mornings isn't the "being up early" but the "getting ready and fed". That's one of the reasons I loved pre-park opening buffets because they were easy to do with kids and gave a chance to see characters in a much more efficient fashion while still being ready for rope dropping rides.
doctornick
Well-Known Member
I dunno. Every park every day seems like it has value for those who will utilize it to its fullest. Yes, doing an hour would be substantially more beneficial though.
I mean, at the very least, unlike previous 1 hour EMH in the morning, guests utilizing will be spread to all of the parks. so any individual one will not be crowded at all. If you could do 2 high demand rides early without much/any wait and do that every day, it would add up. It depends on if this perk gets you on two rides versus one in that time (makes sense to do a shorter ride like a coaster first).
Wendy Pleakley
Well-Known Member
Evening magic hours were already a mixed bag. They are decent at MK where there are enough attractions that I could find a few with short wait times.
At Epcot the headliners were still in the 45 minute range, so one could do a couple of extra rides but it's not like there wasn't more than enough time during the day to do everything anyway. I enjoyed doing things like Nemo and Spaceship Earth with minimal wait.
This basically provides a superior rope drop experience. Maybe it will be the case that you can show up at Animal Kingdom one minute after opening and the wait for Flight of Passage won't already be 300 minutes. One could probably fit in one ride on Everest or Dinosaur and still get into a relatively short line before the non-resort guests enter.
Hard to really evaluate this without seeing it in action, but my initial reaction is a decisive "meh?".
I wish it were an hour either way. 30 minutes goes by in the blink of an eye at a theme park, especially if you're not through the gates right at opening, and have to spend half the time just walking to your destination.
At Epcot the headliners were still in the 45 minute range, so one could do a couple of extra rides but it's not like there wasn't more than enough time during the day to do everything anyway. I enjoyed doing things like Nemo and Spaceship Earth with minimal wait.
This basically provides a superior rope drop experience. Maybe it will be the case that you can show up at Animal Kingdom one minute after opening and the wait for Flight of Passage won't already be 300 minutes. One could probably fit in one ride on Everest or Dinosaur and still get into a relatively short line before the non-resort guests enter.
Hard to really evaluate this without seeing it in action, but my initial reaction is a decisive "meh?".
I wish it were an hour either way. 30 minutes goes by in the blink of an eye at a theme park, especially if you're not through the gates right at opening, and have to spend half the time just walking to your destination.
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Hcalvert
Well-Known Member
Pre-COVID when Disney had early EMH, not all the lands/rides were open for them including some of the major headliners. It wouldn't surprise me if they do the same thing with this 30 minute EMH snafu---roping off areas and making them unavailable to not only ride but queue up as well. 
UNCgolf
Well-Known Member
My reason for thinking the 30 minutes isn't that beneficial is that it will be relatively difficult to even get there in that 30 minute window. Disney buses aren't the most reliable way to get somewhere at a specific time, and then you will also have to wait in line to actually get inside the park.
I suppose you can just be ready to go an hour+ in advance, but that just forces you to get up even early and also would require the buses to actually be running that early.
It's not like everyone can just magically get there and be inside the park right when the 30 minute window begins.
IHeartArt
Active Member
So are you saying that if you're an off-site person and you ropedrop, you're going to have a lower wait, or that that advantage is gone?
networkpro
Well-Known Member
- In the Parks
- Yes
If you've been doing this for a while, you knew that the early morning attendance for whichever park had early morning access would have the predominance of the onsite guests and if you wanted a better experience you would avoid it. With all parks having early 30 for onsite guests, we still have park reservations for those more crowded days. It should skew attendance to those parks where Disney Death Marchers are mobbing the buzz attractions (Slinky, Smugglers, FOP, or anything MK).
JoeCamel
Well-Known Member
The offsite guest will be standing at the tap points while the resort guests are in line for the attractions.
DisneyOutsider
Well-Known Member
If you're off-site, "rope-drop" doesn't exist anymore. You sit in time-out while resort guests fill the queues for popular attractions.
matt9112
Well-Known Member
You get to be in bobbys presense? Isnt that what you want? Stop spending 6k on vacations and they will stop doing this crap.