I have been watching the lines app in prep for our May 6-10 trip. We will have LLs and Ind LLs for our 3 park days. In the past, I have always advocated for an early arrival to enjoy low crowds for an hour or two in the cooler temps, in order to enjoy repeat rides later with LL. I have been watching Ep and DHS lines, and I am shocked at how often the headliners are down for EEH, and how quickly the lines are long. Does anyone have any opinion or recent experiences with EEH at these 2 parks?
For DHS the only advantage I can see is getting on ToT for an extra ride or two, and then tapping into something at 9 so I can unlock a MMRR LL.
For Epcot, I am thinking of doing Remy (Intl gateway) and then tapping into soarin’ at 9 to try for Frozen (my stalking shows LLs available briefly at 9.) Since Remy isn’t really a favorite of anyone, not sure this is worth it. We would love a ride on GoTG but the back entrance is a real hindrance to that.
I guess I have to decide if this is worth getting everyone out of bed so much earlier.
I am just really surprised how busy things are 10 minutes into EEH. So, unless you are at the front of the pack, it doesn’t seem worth it, and again, that requires getting up even earlier.
I am a bit out of practice but it seems that EEH might actually be a negative these days, with everyone just concentrated to the few big rides for a very brief period? Maybe it is not worth it to compete with that when I will have LL. I realize I am just stating the obvious here, but I would love to hear people’s thoughts. The crowds will be 3s allegedly on our Ep and DHS days. And DHS opens at 8! To take advantage of EEH that day, what time should we get in line to stay ahead of the pack?
I share your feeling about EEH, when we have tried to rope drop we have not had many good experiences. Of course we also don’t get up and out the door at the crack of dawn to be at front of pack. Probably our best experience was when we did NOT try to be there right at open and instead arrived partway into the 30 min EEH. We got on one ride (Frozen in this case) fairly quickly as the initial rush had passed through ahead of us, and then ideally could hop in line for another ride before the regular open crowd poured in. I know my kids are more late night creatures than early birds, and have not rediscovered the joy of napping yet. So I tend to protect their sleep in the morning, have LL to use when we arrive and go from there to close.
ETA- responding about the wrong “extra” time but I’ll leave it anyway. oops
My wife and I used EEH last December for our one day at Epcot. We arrived later to the park (1 pm), and then used EEH to get on Frozen, TT, and GotG. Wait times weren’t necessarily “low”, but “lowerish” than they had been during the day. But it allowed us to have a chance to ride things we wouldn’t have otherwise had the park time to do (since we were focused on Festival of the Holidays during the day).
I would say that people mistakenly go in thinking EEH will be like After Hours or something. It won’t be. But it IS a chance to have a couple hours where wait times aren’t as high, and extra park time you wouldn’t otherwise have. So, don’t go in thinking you can just hop on everything in those 2 hours with very low waits.
Thank you for sharing! I think what is complicating my planning for DHS is my son (24) wants to ride ToT and Slinky at night, so I was planning on getting late LLs for those. My concern is if those are down in the evening, the day might end up being a bust, so at least if we get some good rides in early, we will have that. Otherwise, I would schedule everything early and just do as much as we could after a reasonable arrival time. Hmmm. Right now, the plan is to arrive early and do rides until say 10, break at Swan for brunch and swim rest, and back for late afternoon.
After all of this early morning wait times reviewing (and things being down constantly,) I am seriously considering brunch, swim, and mid-afternoon start and staying through. I guess ultimately I need the input of son and GF, but they are not armed with the info/data.
Eek. I think I called the 30 min early entry the wrong thing. Unfortunately we don’t have access to extended evening hours, or else we would be using them. Thank you for the info!
You should be able to get on one of those two rides by getting in line just before close, then you wouldn’t have to tie up two LL passes for them. And you could use an earlier LL and then ride at close and get 2 rides in! They are both very cool at night. Don’t be put off by wait times posted just before close, they often inflate them.
Very true about having low expectations for Epcot EEH - attractions are just too far apart and with only a few things everyone wants to ride, the lines can still take awhile. Still fun though!
My kids are more late night people now than early risers so we have haven’t used Early Entry for the past couple years. But when we did get up early for Early Entry a few years ago, I felt like it was an advantage and not a negative. But we always targeted the secondary type attractions during Early Entry and not the top headliners (eg we would head to Space Mountain (not 7DMT) and TSM (not SDD). I found the waits for rides like SM and TSM to be relatively short (10-15 mins) even if we arrived around the start of Early Entry.
That’s helpful. And what you suggest is our plan. I know MK will be worth it (we can enjoy most of tomorrowland pretty easily in early hours/first park hour,) but I am agonizing over DHS. If we do DHS, we will aim for ToT and TSM. I might be a little unnecessarily freaked out by the outages of headliners I am seeing at early entry. That must be inflating these other rides. Hopefully this is not a trend that will continue!
I think you are right to be thinking through the pros and cons here. Having LLMP and LLSP is essential for knocking out a couple Tier 1 rides. RD / EE can be useful but is not always a magic bullet.
Personally I find that it is usually more helpful to use RD / EE for a mid-tier or secondary Tier 1 ride … i.e., Space Mountain or Peter Pan instead of Tron or 7DMT. Knock out a ride with a long wait but not the same ride everyone else is going to at RD. You can usually get through 2 rides during EE that way … maybe SM and Buzz (assuming it’s not crazy with the reopening) or Peter Pan + WtP. Then use regular RD for Jungle Cruise or Pirates.
At HS, similarly I would go for ToT, RNRC, MMRR, or MFSR rather than SDD or RotR. You may only get one ride during EE, but it should help to knock one heavy hitter out of the way.
At MK, will do space and buzz. And maybe try to hustle over to BTMRR at regular RD. We will be there just after it returns, so I expect lines will be long. Otherwise, we will just aim to ride it with LL.
At DHS, if we do early entry gonna try for ToT and TSM (is that the best order for those 2?) No RNRC, unfortunately, during our stay!
Still pondering Epcot. We probably would prefer a second TT ride (making that our early entry ride) but the logistics of coming from the back gate are a pain and stressful. Same with GoTG. Therefore, I guess we will just do Remy. Epcot is our first day so I imagine people will want to get an early start that day.
DHS opens at 8 on our day, which means a 7:30 early entry. Will this deter people, or will it still be super crowded for early entry? In the days that I am looking at Lines, there are no 8am openings, so I can’t really tell get a feel for it.
This is all supposed to be fun, but from your posts you seem very stressed out over the planning. I know it’s hard sometimes when planning an expensive trip but try to keep in mind that you are going to Disney World! … and whether or not you get an extra ride or two here and there, you will almost certainly have an amazing time. I am intending this to try be helpful and not as criticism.
Ha ha, you are right, I do sound stressed! I do all of my agonizing beforehand, and then I do have a wonderful time when I am there. In all honesty, we are bringing my son’s gf for the first time, and I do feel some extra pressure to plan a successful and enjoyable trip. And as you have read, I am not used to planning a short, compressed trip, so there is just so much to consider. However, your point is well taken, and I am going to make it an effort to approach it with a bit more joy. Thanks for the reminder!
I absolutely agree with Jeff on this. This is typically the best way to use ETPE. Everyone and their brother seems to want to rush to the top-tier rides for ETPE, which makes it kind of a waste of time. But when we used ETPE at MK to head to PP first, we knocked out PP, IASM, and was in line for HM (which wasn’t included in EE) right at park opening with basically zero wait. In the meantime, it seemed like everyone was heading to SDMT and Tron during that same time period.
oops