5 Important Tips For Early Theme Park Entry in Disney World
A big offering is coming soon to Disney World!
Magic Kingdom
Disney has announced that resort guests will soon have access to Early Theme Park Entry. This perk will let resort hotel guests into the Disney theme parks 30 minutes prior to opening every day. We’re not sure when this will start, but we DO have some tips for when it does!
1. Know your transportation options!
First up, if you’re headed to the Disney World theme parks for early entry you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a good understanding of your transportation options. These vary from resort to resort, and there are some limitations right now on some of the transportation, so it’s important that you know exactly how you can get yourself from your hotel to the parks.
Monorail
Monorail
If you’re staying at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa or Disney’s Contemporary Resort, you can hop on the monorail to go to Magic Kingdom. The monorail station at Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort is temporarily closed, but guests staying at that resort can take a quick walk over to the Transportation & Ticket Center and hop on the monorail there to get to Magic Kingdom.
Monorail
If you’re hoping to go to EPCOT for Early Theme Park Entry, keep in mind that the EPCOT Monorail is not running at the moment, so you won’t be able to use that as your form of transportation to the park.
EPCOT Monorail | Photo from March 2020
Generally, the Monorail System operates from 30 minutes prior to earliest park opening until one hour after latest park closing.
Walk
If you’re in the mood for some morning exercise, you can choose to walk to some of the parks, depending on what resort you’re staying at. Those at the Contemporary have a short walk over to Magic Kingdom. And the walkway between Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa and Magic Kingdom is also now open. You could even walk from the Polynesian to the Grand Floridian and from there to Magic Kingdom if you want to.
Grand Floridian Walkway
Guests at Disney’s BoardWalk Inn, Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club Resort, and the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel can walk to EPCOT and enter through the International Gateway section. They can also take a little bit longer of a walk over to Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Boat
Several resorts also offer boat transportation to certain parks. You can hop on a boat at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort & Campground, the Grand Floridian, the Polynesian, or Disney’s Wilderness Lodge to get to Magic Kingdom. Or, you can take a boat from Disney’s BoardWalk Villas, Disney’s Beach Club Villas, Disney’s Yacht Club Resort, or the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Hotel to EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios.
Friendship Boats
Most routes run on 15 to 20 minute intervals, and the hours of operation can vary depending on water and weather conditions. So, before you plan on using the boats to get to the park, you’ll want to make sure they’re operating for that day and check with your resort to see at what time they’ll begin taking guests to the parks.
Skyliner
If you’re staying at Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort, Disney’s Art of Animation Resort, Disney’s Pop Century Resort, or Disney’s Riviera Resort, you can hop on one of Disney’s newest forms of transportation — the Disney Skyliner — to get to Disney’s Hollywood Studios or EPCOT.
Disney Skyliner
The hours of operation for the Skyliner can change so be sure to check exactly what they are during your trip.
Buses
One of the most common forms of transportation you might use to get to the parks is a Disney bus. In most cases, a bus may run between your resort and the park beginning 45 minutes prior to the opening of the park — or, in this case, the start of Early Theme Park Entry.
Disney Bus
Drive or Use Rideshare
You can also drive your car to the parks if that’s what you prefer, or use a rideshare service.
To make sure you have the BEST choice of transportation in mind, check with the front desk at your resort hotel to see what options are available for you. The Cast Member will be happy to let you know your options so that you can get to your early entry morning as easily as possible.
Click here to learn what we know about the reopening of the EPCOT Monorail!
2. Make sure you have a Disney Park Pass.
As far as we can see, the Disney Park Pass theme park reservation system will be sticking around for some time, so getting a Park Pass will still be a necessity — even for Early Theme Park Entry. What’s a Park Pass, you ask? Well, it’s essentially a reservation to enter a park. The Park Pass system was introduced when the Disney World theme parks reopened in 2020.
Park Pass and Safety Signs
Let’s say you want to visit Magic Kingdom on a particular day. First, you’ll need a valid ticket to enter the park on that day. But, to get in, you’ll ALSO need a valid Park Pass reservation for Magic Kingdom for that same day as well.
Disney Park Pass Screenshot
Park Pass availability can change a LOT. So, when the dates and details for early entry are announced, you’ll want to make sure that you snag that Disney Park Pass for the park you want to enter early.
International Gateway
Even if they don’t seem to be going quickly, we’d recommend you go ahead and snag them well in advance just to be sure. You can always try to change your plans later as long as capacity and availability allow!
Click here to learn EVERYTHING you need to know about Disney Park Pass!
3. Set an alarm and leave on time!
A lot of the same tips that apply to getting to a park right at its regular opening (a.k.a. “rope drop”) time generally apply to Early Theme Park Entry. Perhaps the BIGGEST of those tips is to make sure you set an alarm and leave on time! We know, we know — “no sleeping in?! But we’re on vacation!!” If you’ve got some members in your family who want to sleep in, you’ll want to start convincing them that the “early bird gets the worm” right now. Or, you might want to talk about splitting up your group so some can stay and sleep in while others take advantage of the Early Entry.
Disney’s POP Century Resort!
Early entry is a BIG perk and you’ll want to get into the park as soon as you can to take advantage of the extra time and more limited lines, especially since this will only get you in 30 minutes early. In general, we recommend allowing one full hour for transportation to get anywhere in Disney World. As we mentioned earlier, some transportation really only kicks off around 30/45 minutes prior to the parks’ opening.
Bus Stop
If you want to make sure you’re at early entry as soon as you can, you’ll want to head out of your resort hotel room about an hour in advance. That means you’ll have to add in that extra hour to your regular getting ready and getting breakfast morning prep-time.
If Mickey waffles and bacon are a must, consider whether you want to get up EXTRA early and eat them at the Food Court in person, or if you can maybe designate one person in your party to go get them for the family and bring them back to the room while everyone else gets dressed and ready. You might also want to talk about bringing your own breakfast snack bars or just getting breakfast in the park.
Chef Mickey’s Waffle, Pancakes, and French Toast
And while leaving your room a whole HOUR before the Early Entry time might sound like a bit much, we think it’s better to get to the park early and end up waiting a little bit than to end up losing out on some of that extra time! If you get lots of things done in the morning, you can always take a nap later when the crowds start to form.
4. Have a parks plan for your day in advance.
Prior to the park closures, Disney resort guests could enjoy Extra Magic Hours (sometimes in the morning and sometimes at night). Early Theme Park Entry is somewhat similar and gets us one more step closer to how things used to be prior to the park closures. But, as more options get added back to the Disney World experience, planning your trip can get a little more complicated. This is especially true if you’re thinking of taking advantage of the newly returned Park Hopper option.
Magic Kingdom
If you’re looking to Park Hop AND visit a park for Early Theme Park Entry, you’re going to need to have a pretty specific plan. In the past, folks would head to Extra Magic Hours and then immediately hop elsewhere, but that won’t necessarily be an option in this case.
Tree of Life
So far, Park Hopper hours have started at 2PM each day. So, you’ll need to be okay with spending the morning and rest of your day — until 2PM — in the park that you chose to visit for Early Entry, or at least not hopping to another park until the afternoon. Keep in mind you’ll also need a Park Pass reservation for the first park you want to visit — the one with the Early Entry, and Park Hopping all depends on park availability and capacity limitations.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios
Consider what park you want to visit first, look at the available Park Passes, make sure you know which park(s) you’d like to hop to later, and check on all the park operating and Park Hopper hours well in advance of your trip, so that you can really maximize your time in the various parks.
To learn more about the return of Park Hopping, click here!
5. Be flexible!
Planning is fantastic and necessary, but you still need to be flexible with your plans! As we know, things can change last-minute, so don’t get TOO attached to your plans. If there is some sort of hangup, it’s always good to have a backup plan.
EPCOT
On top of that, we’re not really sure what attractions or even what parks will be open with Early Theme Park Entry. Some of your favorite attractions may not be open.
Sunset Boulevard
Our best guess is that much of the same rides that were available during the Early Morning Magic offerings will likely be available for Early Entry (meaning Rise of the Resistance may NOT be an option — we’ll see), and the exact details for Early Entry in that regard have not yet been confirmed. Where Extra Magic Hours had the majority of attractions available in a park, Early Morning Magic was limited to one land or a few attractions. Early Entry could look like either one or somewhere in between.
Click here to learn more about what Early Morning Magic was like!
Of course, we’ll be reporting as SOON as we hear more about the Early Theme Park Entry offering for resort guests. Stay tuned to DFB for all the latest updates and to make sure you’re prepared for your next trip!
Want to learn more about early entry? Click here!
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