How early to get to the parks?

[David]

In October we will be taking our frist trip to Disney since the end of Early Entry. We like to stay at the parks from open to close, and used the EE mornings every day. Can anyone give any suggestions on how early to leave the resort and be at the parks? Do they open any early than the advertised time? Thanks in advance for any answers.


46 days to go!
ºOº

 

[FanofDinsey1981]

assuming you are staying on property...

the bus system runs about an hour and a half before park openings. depending on the time of the park you are going to, be at the bus stop a few minutes before that.

you will be there before the park opens, but you will also be on of the first hundred or so in the park!

and that first bus is usually not too crowded, since most people opt for something a bit closer to the time the park opens, or they flat out miss that first bus! (like me!)

have fun, the crowds shouldn't be too bad that time of year! enjoy!

 

[RobFL]

The parks will let you into the main area about an hour to half an hour before advertised opening. Then, at the official time, an announcement is made and the masses go rushing around to get from place to place.

During our "Come back" from post Sept. 11, we had an official opening time of 10am, but opened all the attractions by 9:30. Now our official time is 9am, and we open the attractions at 9am.

-Rob

 

[RogueHabit]

The one time that we arrived early, during our recent trip, was to MGM and they absolutely refused to let anyone in until 10 minutes before official opening.

That said, the bag checking was open much earlier (we arrived at 8:30 and many had already been checked) so we could get that out of the way, but still had to queue at the turnstiles for 20 minutes or so before they started letting anyone in.

 

[Kingdom Konsultant]

Animal Kingdom does not allow anyone in early as far as I know.

 

[AndyP]

Early this month me and my dad went back to MK on the last day of our holiday to get me a watch i had seen (because i collect the Disney limited edition watches. We got to the transportation area for MK before it opened and were on the first monorail accross to the park, then we went straight tthrough into MK but everyone had to saty on Mainstreet USA because the other lands weren't open yet (but all the shops were). we decided to go on some rides first, we queued at tomorrow land until the announcement came on and they opened the lands, we were in the first 10 to go on Buzz Lightyear and then did space mountain in under half an hour, arriving before park opening is definetaly the best thing to do!