What are lines like for Early Theme Park Entry and Extra Magic Hours?

[LittleMerman]

I'm going to WDW in early Feb and staying at AKL. What are the lines like during the Early Theme Park Entry and Extra Magic Hours (or whatever it's called now) in general? About how many rides can you fit in? And do you still need to get Genie+ and buy a la carte Lightning Lanes if you have Extra Magic Hours? Thanks.

 

[G00fyDad]

I'm going to WDW in early Feb and staying at AKL. What are the lines like during the Early Theme Park Entry and Extra Magic Hours? Thanks.

I doubt anyone here would know since they just started doing the Early Theme Park Entry and Extra Magic Hours recently. There has not been a February with these yet.

 

[LittleMerman]

I doubt anyone here would know since they just started doing the Early Theme Park Entry and Extra Magic Hours recently. There has not been a February with these yet.

I just meant in general but didn't realize it was That new!

 

[G00fyDad]

I just meant in general but didn't realize it was That new!

Well extra magic hours and early entry are not exactly new but the manner in which they are using it right now is. It used to be that each day at least one park opened an hour early for resort guests and another park stayed open several hours later for resort guests. Now they have butchered that and shaved off a huge chunk. Now resort guests can get into any park any day but only a half an hour early. Deluxe guests can stay up to two hours later in every park every day but only if you're willing to fork out the thousands of dollars extra it's going to take to stay at a deluxe.

 

[nickys]

This thread might help.

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

"Early Theme Park Entry: We know how much guests enjoy extra park time, so coming later this year as part of our 50th anniversary celebration, Disney Resort hotel guests and guests of other select hotels will be able to enjoy more fun with 30-minute early entry to ANY theme park, EVERY day...

forums.wdwmagic.com

At MK and AK everyone gets in early and resort guests get to go and line up in specific areas whilst everyone else is held, much like EMH before. Epcot and DHS work slightly differently. In each park, rides start running 30 minutes early and reports are good from those who arrive in plenty of time. If you don’t arrive until the start of the early hours then you’ll be well behind the pack and likely will get caught up with offsite guests. Aim to arrive for 60 minutes+ before official park opening if you can. As before, at Mk only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland are open.

The evening hours reports have been amazing, pretty much walk-ons for most rides other than the obvious exceptions. Remy has just been added at Epcot as of last night.

 

[networkpro]

Early morning entry just means that you get near front of the standby line for the top tier attraction for that park so you only wait for about an hour. Doesn't buy you much at all.

 

[nickys]

Early morning entry just means that you get near front of the standby line for the top tier attraction for that park so you only wait for about an hour. Doesn't buy you much at all.

That depends on whether you rope drop the early hours so you walk onto FoP, Rise etc. And then you get the benefit of heading to the other popular rides whilst the offsite guests queue for the headliners.
Rhe reports I’ve seen show you can get through a lot by using the early hours and then the following hour as you stay ahead of the crowds. The thread I linked to shows some possible scenarios.