I wonder if they will still let people in and start some rides in a soft opening, like now, before the official 30 min early or if your MB will not turn the tap green until exactly 8:30 for a 9 opening (and off-site guests exactly 9). Either way, this could be a good thing, and hopefully the parks are fully running in that 30 min and it’s not like UOR with just DA and Despicable Me open in that early hour.
Imagine though being in line to get in and a family at the ticket tapstiles being refused entry because they’re offsite guests. An angry confrontation, entire line held up, upset resort guests who don’t get in early …
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It’s something I would avoid for sure. And I like trains! When I travel to New York City I always take the train. It’s a fabulous method of transport when you’re actually on it. It’s fast, doesn’t hit traffic, offers dining cars and rest rooms, and is quite comfortable. It is, however, expensive. And can be wildly inconvenient on either end of the trip when you’re getting to/from each station and your final destination. So while I do think the Brightline will be a good option to get people further in their journey, it’s not necessarily going to get them to their destination very efficiently. You’ll still have to take a cab/bus/shuttle to your hotel. It’s a good option for some folks but not one that I’d consider as a suitable replacement for DME.
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Me too. I travel by train quite a lot.
But after I’ve been travelling for 15 hours I am not doing all that. I’ll call an Uber XL (for all the luggage).
Not everything was running during morning EMH, pre-COVID. Then there are rides which commonly start late for technical reasons (looking at you Test Track). I do agree with your point though.
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Realistically in 30 minutes, if you were at the very front of the line and picked rides that were ready and running, what could you actually do before everyone else arrived? Two rides and in line for a third? Do 7dmt, PP and possibly be heading to HM.
Any further back and all you’d be able to do is get ahead of everyone else for your first ride.
At AK everyone would head for FoP, you’d be lucky to have ridden it in 30 minutes. Same at DHS, although people might split off in different directions.
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My biggest grip is that it’s only 30 minutes. It should be an hour. I’m old enough to remember when this was the way WDW did it back in the 80s & 90s.
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Remember, though…the number of people going to those rides will be probably 1/2 to 1/4 what they would have been with EMH, since they are spread out across 4 parks instead one 1. The trick will be picking the rides first with the shortest ride times so you can squeeze more in.
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On the benefits of being On-Site, I always saw the Airport transportation being the #1 reason listed for on-site, with 50 day+ fast pass+ being #2.
The within Disney transportation is good for those who really really don’t want a car, but you see “Use Uber” suggested for it to be all that fabulous.
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One group this really hurts … off-site guests hoping to RD an E-ticket ride. There is no longer an opportunity to do that at any park. By the time an off-site guest arrives, the lines for the E-tickets will be very long.
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Yeah, I was thinking this “perk” gives on-site guests 1-2 ride head start depending on the ride.
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I haven’t been to evening EHM is years now that I have young kids, but years ago when there were 3 hour late night EMH at the parks … those were awesome!
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I like this perk. Having different EMH days for each park always made crowd distribution problematic. You didn’t want to go to the EMH park because that’s where everyone else was going - unless you were doing reverse reverse psychology and going to the EMH park since everyone knew that.
It will be interesting to see how they solidify the operating hours. That 30 min will need to be exclusive to resort guests, but I doubt it will literally be the 30 min before announced opening. We’ll see.
I feel bad for the offsite RD crowd, as @davej mentioned. OTOH, this makes EMH a very lucrative perk for onsite.
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Had not thought about this. This change may not create a big incentive for on-site guests but creates a big disadvantage to off-site guests trying to rope drop.
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I wonder how much this reduces the initial lines at headliner rides. If 7DMT has an hourly capacity of ~1400/hr, that’s 700 people they can get through before “park opening.” Especially since Early Entry is all 4 parks…wonder how big that EE crowd will be and if they can clear a couple rides before offsite, everyone might benefit (since you are basically adding park hours).
Also some guests who have decided favorite park like @OBNurseNH can now go to Animal Kingdom early every day of her trip.
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So as an on-site guest I get to enter the park’s half an hour before they open.
Which apparently is half an hour after everyone else who just shows up.
Gee, great.
I think we need to buy the CEO Parks a membership here so he knows WTF is going on in his parks.
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This was already happening with EMH.
If it’s only 30 minutes of early access, it will be interesting to see how they design RD to allow quick park access to onsite guests, while preventing congregating of offsite guests at the entrances or at the entrance to queues. Can’t exactly hold offsite guests at the taps or ropes, due to COVID measures.
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That assumes they roll this out when COVID procedures are still in place. For that exact reason, they might hold off.
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