Everything Early Theme Park Entry (ETPE) - Please Read Post 1

[scrappinginontario]

For those of you who have been recently or just returned can you share alternate Uber drop off points for those who wish to get an early start not waiting on Disney transportation? I know it may vary but has anyone had recent luck being able to be dropped off at CR and walk to MK? Easiest walk to IG at Epcot. Thanks so much!!

Ride shares are not allowed to drop guests off at resorts in the morning without a dining reservation .

 

[accm]

I'm curious if anyone can share their experience with rider swap during early entry. At AK we'll have two kids who won't be able to ride FOP, and in HS 1 who can't ride rise. I'm wondering if stopping for rider swap will put at a big disadvantage, even if we get there early.

 

[TinkOhio]

I’m way behind on figuring out the current EE situation. We’re staying on property and plan to rope drop. We also have 7:30 breakfast reservations at the Contemporary, which we plan on arriving at early. We’ll order as soon as we are sat, eat quickly, and walk to the MK from there. If we eat early, will be be towards the from if the crowd? Any suggestions?

 

[scrappinginontario]

I’m way behind on figuring out the current EE situation. We’re staying on property and plan to rope drop. We also have 7:30 breakfast reservations at the Contemporary, which we plan on arriving at early. We’ll order as soon as we are sat, eat quickly, and walk to the MK from there. If we eat early, will be be towards the from if the crowd? Any suggestions?

Not trying to be a downer but, probably not. When are you going? I’m guessing the ETPE hours officially begin at 8:30 that day?

Depending on how busy the parks are, realistically they could allow ETPE guests into the park as early as 7:30 and possibly into the attractions anytime between 8:00 and 8:30.

A lot depends on things out of your control.
1. Will you be seated early even if you arrive early?
2. How long will it take to order snd have food arrive?
3. Is it worth rushing an expensive meal for a few minutes in the park?
4. How long will it take you to walk to the MK and will their be any lines to get in?

It’s up to you but for our family I would choose one or the other to make the one chosen enjoyable.

 

[GBRforWDW]

Most rides do typically have extremely low waits during ETPE, so if you're willing to chance it and try to get to the park entrance between 8:20 and 8:30, you may be able to get some rides with short waits. But I'd agree with @scrappinginontario. Enjoy low crowds for a few hours before grabbing food. Either rearranging the ADR or a quick service snack in the park

 

[Jonfw2]

For those of you who have already experienced the 30 minute early entry, what do you recommend doing first in each park?

Is it better to go to attractions that will have moderate wait times all day and do several of them? Or better to go straight to what will likely be a huge line all day and use up the whole 30 minutes on that?

Love your thoughts!

 

[ScarletFire]

I like to save the big fancy rides for near closing. The standby line is open until the last minute.

At DHS you can ride RnRC, ToT and get in line for another attraction before official park opening. At least that's my most recent experience. We might hop to AK in the evening to ride Avatar. Or, return to DHS to see Rise. I'm not an all day park person.

 

[Jonfw2]

I like to save the big fancy rides for near closing. The standby line is open until the last minute.

At DHS you can ride RnRC, ToT and get in line for another attraction before official park opening. At least that's my most recent experience. We might hop to AK in the evening to ride Avatar. Or, return to DHS to see Rise. I'm not an all day park person.

Interesting! Because I had the same strategy at HS before early entry- waltz around everyone going to Slinky or Rise and just hit Tower and/or RnRC a few times before the crowds showed up. I suspect that would work even better now.

 

[kandlsutton]

We went to Rise first yesterday. We got to DHS around 8am and walked through the gates without any delay. I expected to be held at the end of Sunset Blvd, but we weren’t. Got in line at Rise and was off before 9am so hit Smuggler's Run too. When we were leaving Galaxy’s Edge around 9:45, the Rise line was posted for 115 min and the queue extended and looped under the Galaxy’s Edge tunnel. We will likely “go right” at the end of Sunset Blvd and hit RnRC and ToT on our second DHS day.

 

[Jonfw2]

We went to Rise first yesterday. We got to DHS around 8am and walked through the gates without any delay. I expected to be held at the end of Sunset Blvd, but we weren’t. Got in line at Rise and was off before 9am so hit Smuggler's Run too. When we were leaving Galaxy’s Edge around 9:45, the Rise line was posted for 115 min and the queue extended and looped under the Galaxy’s Edge tunnel. We will likely “go right” at the end of Sunset Blvd and hit RnRC and ToT on our second DHS day.

Great to know!!!

 

[nurseberta]

We went to Rise first yesterday. We got to DHS around 8am and walked through the gates without any delay. I expected to be held at the end of Sunset Blvd, but we weren’t. Got in line at Rise and was off before 9am so hit Smuggler's Run too. When we were leaving Galaxy’s Edge around 9:45, the Rise line was posted for 115 min and the queue extended and looped under the Galaxy’s Edge tunnel. We will likely “go right” at the end of Sunset Blvd and hit RnRC and ToT on our second DHS day.

This is great information!! I was planning the same strategy except going to start at MFSR1st and then paid LL for RotR. how was the wait for MMSR

 

[Shelby Schroepfer]

I'm hoping someone here has first hand experience but it's sort of unique so I'm not sure! I have spoke to Disney (chat and on the phone) and they have told me that this isn't something they can do.

Me, hubby, and our 2 girls have 10 day park hopper tickets. My mom is staying with us in our room for the first 6 nights of our trip, but ONLY 6 nights. So she has a 6 day park hopper ticket. She is concerned about not having access to the room (magic band opening the door) without us and I am concerned that she will not be allowed to participate in the extra morning time. We did this exact thing in 2017 and she was able to access our room and have access to extra magic hours with us. Disney has told me I can add her as a "day guest" but she would not get the benefits of being a resort guest. People I have spoke to say to add her when we check in and she WILL have resort guest benefits and that the people at Disney I'm talking to are just generic customer service and won't know.

We're not trying to cheat the system at all, she doesn't put us over the room capacity and she literally won't be in FL after day 6 so we don't want her to bump up to the 10 day package we have just to get early entry to the parks. But we plan on utilizing the early entry ALOT and fear she will miss out on rides, or if we want to do LL$ we will have to wait until the park opens to purchase due to her not being a "resort guest". THANKS FOR ANY HELP! SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG.

 

[Tess]

I'm hoping someone here has first hand experience but it's sort of unique so I'm not sure! I have spoke to Disney (chat and on the phone) and they have told me that this isn't something they can do.

Me, hubby, and our 2 girls have 10 day park hopper tickets. My mom is staying with us in our room for the first 6 nights of our trip, but ONLY 6 nights. So she has a 6 day park hopper ticket. She is concerned about not having access to the room (magic band opening the door) without us and I am concerned that she will not be allowed to participate in the extra morning time. We did this exact thing in 2017 and she was able to access our room and have access to extra magic hours with us. Disney has told me I can add her as a "day guest" but she would not get the benefits of being a resort guest. People I have spoke to say to add her when we check in and she WILL have resort guest benefits and that the people at Disney I'm talking to are just generic customer service and won't know.

We're not trying to cheat the system at all, she doesn't put us over the room capacity and she literally won't be in FL after day 6 so we don't want her to bump up to the 10 day package we have just to get early entry to the parks. But we plan on utilizing the early entry ALOT and fear she will miss out on rides, or if we want to do LL$ we will have to wait until the park opens to purchase due to her not being a "resort guest". THANKS FOR ANY HELP! SORRY THIS WAS SO LONG.

We haven't done a "package" deal for quite some time, but I thought that everyone in the room had to have the same package? If this is not a package, i.e., room/tickets for the length of stay purchased together--then adding her as a third adult guest is not a problem.

If that is not the case (a package deal), you should add your Mother to your reservation and pay the additional adult fee which will be required and she will have all of the privileges of any other guest. Room capacity is not the issue, but when you have a third adult in the room--that person is charged the per night rate for third adult.

If all guests in the same room are required to have the same package--that may be the problem.

 

[Shelby Schroepfer]

th

We haven't done a "package" deal for quite some time, but I thought that everyone in the room had to have the same package? If this is not a package, i.e., room/tickets for the length of stay purchased together--then adding her as a third adult guest is not a problem.

If that is not the case (a package deal), you should add your Mother to your reservation and pay the additional adult fee which will be required and she will have all of the privileges of any other guest. Room capacity is not the issue, but when you have a third adult in the room--that person is charged the per night rate for third adult.

If all guests in the same room are required to have the same package--that may be the problem.

that makes sense. it is a package that we have booked. they said it would be no charge to add her as a day guest for those 6 nights but that she wouldn't have resort privileges unless she had the same package as us.

 

[Orsino]

I think it is one of those fuzzy things where it will depend on if the CM checking early entry is scanning everyone or scanning one and asking “how many in your party?” If the latter, you are golden. I saw a video recently where it was the latter, but that doesn’t guarantee it will be the case for you every morning.
I think you will be fine since you aren’t asking for anything unreasonable or not included in your room since you aren’t exceeding the room limit.

 

[scrappinginontario]

Technically, to gain early entry she will have to be registered in the room with you and by Disney standards, everyone in the room has to have the same package. If you want her to have early entry with you for the 6 days she is with you, I would recommend considering spending the additional $80 to have her bumped from a 6 day ticket to a 10 day ticket and registering her as a guest in your room.

There are many people who are staying on property and meet others in the parks who are not and those guests are not entitled to the ETPE. Basically, this is the situation for your mom as she is not on the room reservation.

I would also be concerned that she would not have access to your room without one of you being with her since, if I'm understanding correctly, she is not on your room reservation.

 

[Shelby Schroepfer]

I think it is one of those fuzzy things where it will depend on if the CM checking early entry is scanning everyone or scanning one and asking “how many in your party?” If the latter, you are golden. I saw a video recently where it was the latter, but that doesn’t guarantee it will be the case for you every morning.
I think you will be fine since you aren’t asking for anything unreasonable or not included in your room since you aren’t exceeding the room limit.

Technically, to gain early entry she will have to be registered in the room with you and by Disney standards, everyone in the room has to have the same package. If you want her to have early entry with you for the 6 days she is with you, I would recommend considering spending the additional $80 to have her bumped from a 6 day ticket to a 10 day ticket and registering her as a guest in your room.

There are many people who are staying on property and meet others in the parks who are not and those guests are not entitled to the ETPE. Basically, this is the situation for your mom as she is not on the room reservation.

I would also be concerned that she would not have access to your room without one of you being with her since, if I'm understanding correctly, she is not on your room reservation.

THANK YOU BOTH! Sounds like we will be prepared to pay the 80$ but will ask the front desk when we check in. We have an infant with us so she is telling us "I'll just hang with the baby and you guys go ride in the morning" and her thought is she'll just browse main street while we probably hit up 7DMT (honestly 30 minutes isn't much) but my main concern is when we wanna purchase say a LL$ for Rise or FOP, we won't be able to purchase until park open and by then they'll be sold out. Granted we are going during a "low crowd time" (in previous years anyway) but it seems like since Genie+ has come out, those staying off site are really not getting to purchase those individual LL. Just trying to prepare as we leave in 27 days!

 

[scrappinginontario]

THANK YOU BOTH! Sounds like we will be prepared to pay the 80$ but will ask the front desk when we check in. We have an infant with us so she is telling us "I'll just hang with the baby and you guys go ride in the morning" and her thought is she'll just browse main street while we probably hit up 7DMT (honestly 30 minutes isn't much) but my main concern is when we wanna purchase say a LL$ for Rise or FOP, we won't be able to purchase until park open and by then they'll be sold out. Granted we are going during a "low crowd time" (in previous years anyway) but it seems like since Genie+ has come out, those staying off site are really not getting to purchase those individual LL. Just trying to prepare as we leave in 27 days!

Sounds like a good idea. $80 will be the change to the ticket. Not sure if adding her as an additional adult will change the cost of the package aside from ticket. Also, have you already purchased her a separate ticket? That could possibly be problematic too as you could be required to purchase her a ticket on the package and not be able to use the separate ticket. Many unanswered questions!

It is totally up to you but if it were me, I'd add her soon then not have to think about it. It truly will depend on what things look like for her on MyDisneyExperience so I wouldn't necessarily take the word of a CM at the front desk.

Just my .02.

 

[Shelby Schroepfer]

Sounds like a good idea. $80 will be the change to the ticket. Not sure if adding her as an additional adult will change the cost of the package aside from ticket. Also, have you already purchased her a separate ticket? That could possibly be problematic too as you could be required to purchase her a ticket on the package and not be able to use the separate ticket. Many unanswered questions!

It is totally up to you but if it were me, I'd add her soon then not have to think about it. It truly will depend on what things look like for her on MyDisneyExperience so I wouldn't necessarily take the word of a CM at the front desk.

Just my .02.

Yes she has already purchased her tickets and Disney helped me link her to our park reservations and dining reservations. They also added her as my friends and family so I can make plans for her with us even though she's not on the reservation and in MDE it does show her with our park passes for the first 6 days then day 7 it's just me and my husband and our daughters so it worked that way and no issues to add her to our park reservations or dining for those 6 days. She just won't have access to the room without us unless we send a magic band with her. I'm not sure if she's willing to pay the 80$ so we might have to wait until check in or just do without those early mornings with her. thank you for your help!

 

[scrappinginontario]

If she is not identified as staying in your room I really can't see how she will be allowed ETPE or be able to purchase ILL$ at 7AM.

If you try to add her to your room reservation now I think she would be charged for an entire new ticket as the ticket must be purchased as part of the package and cannot but purchased separately.

You can check when you get there but I would be fully prepared that she will not be allowed to enter the park with you at ETPE or, allowed to purchase ILL$ early. The $80 is not a mute point since her non-refundable ticket was purchased as a stand-alone ticket and cannot now be added to your package even if she is.