I am considering staying on site at the Swan or Dolphin. Do you think the 30 minute early really makes a lot of difference? Which park do you think has the most benefit of 30 minutes early? I am planning to visit only 2-3 days so can’t hit all the parks first. No little kids with us, a mom-daughter trip.
Jenn
I think the 30 minute head start is very helpful. You get shorter lines for 1-2 rides and it makes the rest of the day easier. At MK, I like to go to SM at EE (my waits have been about 15 mins at that time). At EP, I go to FEA at EE. I haven’t done EE at HS or AK. I imagine it would be helpful at HS, but less so at AK.
I get the most out of EE at DHS and AK. EE is why I always want to stay on property now. We fully take advantage.
Yes, EE can be worth it if you are really there ahead of the EE rope drop. At EP, you can get on Remy, for example, and over to Frozen before the regular rope drop crowds arrive. We did that a few weeks ago.
At MK, you can sometimes get 3 rides in before the regular rope drop crowds. We did Peter Pan, IASW, and we’re on HM before the 30 minutes were up. (I do NOT recommend wasting EE on 7DMT, because EVERYONE is doing that. Unless you at the front of the EE crowd, you basically end up in a huge line regardless. I think it is wiser to zig while everyone else zags and end up with walk ons for several other rides during that time instead!)
DHS we were there early, but it didn’t really make a big difference for us simply due to the things we wanted to get done that day…but I am sure you could benefit from it there as well depending on what you want to do. This past, for example, we never stepped foot in TSL nor SWGE, which is where EE probably offers the most benefit.
We get a lot out of Early hours. You can get a lot done at MK if you go to the rides with no waits. Epcot- coming from dolphin if you rope drop, we were able to get onto Remy and go to Frozen all during early hours. For us it has been worth having.
What they said. 
Those 30 minutes can make a big difference at AK and Epcot IF you are in line for those parks at least 45 minutes before the posted EE times.
For a 7:30AM AK EE time, we’ve been at AK by 6:50 and hit FOP and Navi then straight to Safari, Everest and Dinosaur with very little waits and no need for LLMP.
For an 8:30 Epcot EE, we are at the IG no later than 7:45 and often can be off Remy by the time the 8:30 EE starts. We then head over to FEA and Soarin. We are usually off Soarin by 9:30. We can hit Nemo and Spaceship Earth afterward and be done by 10:30-10:45. At times we will add in Living with the Land after Soarin and still be done by 11-11:30. No need for LLMP.
I don’t rope drop MK or DHS as I need to balance my early mornings with ones where I sleep a little later. And we always by LLMP for those two parks unless its a party day at MK.
We are planning to do the early entry for AK on our next trip (staying at Pop). Are the buses running early enough to get to AK that early? And if not, how did you get there?
Yes. Buses run early enough. We usually stay at Pop. We got on the bus sometime between 6:20 and 6:30 in December for the 7:30EE. I have pictures outside of AK at 6:50AM
Awesome, thanks!
I wish I could get my family up and out the door that early. I am lucky if I can get them out the door and on the way to a park by 8:00 am once or twice each trip. On the flipside, my kids love staying out late at the parks so I suppose we can’t burn the candle on both ends.
My trips over the last few years have just been me and DD21 so it’s a little easier to get out the door. Our December trip was 7 park days and we only rope dropped two of those days which makes it much easier.
Last weekend we only did a one day park hopper for Saturday and MNSSHP on Sunday so just two park days essentially. We had LLMP since we were hitting three parks in one day and were skipping FOP so we didn’t head out the door to the bus until 7:30 since we had a pass for Navi. DD knew we would be sleeping in on Sunday morning so she got up early on Saturday.
Also remember that at Hollywood Studios, that 30 minutes is often times 60 minutes if everything is up and running in the park.
When we went last, we were let in 60 minutes before official opening, walked straight into Rey’s room on Rise of the Resistance, then upon exiting, went to Slinky and waited 10 minutes for a ride there, then walked back to Smugglers’ Run and was in the middle of our 20 minute wait when official park opening began and day guests were allowed in.
Only 45 mins ahead of EE? I thought the general rule of thumb was an hour and a half. I have an April trip coming up and was planning to be at DAK by 6am for a 7:30 EE. The plan currently is to go to FOP then Safari and Everest, was planning on Navi later on. Love the idea of Navi after FOP and still having lower waits for Safari and Everest afterwards.
What’s the point of queing stupidly early for 45 to 90 mins at the gate to avoid a 45 to 90 minute wait on a ride?
If you turn up 8.15ish for the 8.30EE at Epcot/HS/MK - how much can you get done in that 30mins?
From my limited experience with early queuing (and mostly in DLR on the west coast) is yes, you’re still putting in the minutes waiting BUT two major advantages of it being at the gate are 1) you’re not using park operating hours to do so leaving you more time within the operating hours to get more accomplished/seen/eaten and 2) the waiting in the morning is broken up into more bite size chunks of waiting, i.e. you park (or bus or Skyliner) 90 minutes ahead of time, then wait a little for security to maybe open 75 min before, breeze on through, then wait a little for the taps to be staffed and then breeze on through, then wait at a rope to be let in towards the queue, and it seems quite often at WDW the biggest headliners as soon as they are up and ready to go, even if it is before that published 30 min before early entry, they start taking a queue and letting people in so you can even be in that queue for just the very first few minutes if at all during EE.
But the tradeoff is that yes, you have to be up and ready to go on vacation & that is hard to do and still enjoy the full day all the way to the evening. And as you’ve pointed out, you’re still waiting in some form or fashion.
Also, you do have to be fairly competitive to get close to the front for the big E-ticket rides. I have 4 kids, and have had a stroller of some kind (usually a double) so I like to say in my best Baymax voice “We are not fast.” And so even when we do rope drope we’re the ones showing up to the back of rope drop aiming to be somewhere towards the tail end of the scrum, going for things that are less competitive but still will draw a line and save any big 45-60 min waits for when we can find a dip in in the ride time throughout the day, or end with it as our last ride so those 45-60 min again are outside of park time.
You aren’t wrong. However, if you use that 30 minutes to get ahead of the crowd, then once the rest of the crowds flood in, you can focus on the lines which are still short as other get in line for the rides you already did. So those 30 minutes, if used effectively, could actually save you a Lot more time than that.
For example, in January, we rope dropped Peter Pan and was off around the time the rest of the crowds started to pour in. We managed to then focus on IASW, HM and PotC in the next 30 minutes while the waits climbed elsewhere.
If we had waited until after ETPE, we would have waited probably twice as long for all those rides at least.
75-90 minutes ahead is when you’d leave the resort. 45 minutes is usually when I’m in line. Ex in line at AK at 6:45 for 7:30 EE and in line at IG by 7:45 for 8:30 EE.