No more early ride admission after Be Our Guest?

[jldeahl]

I saw this review on Trip Advisor about a recent PPO Be Our Guest ADR:

"...we were corralled and forced to wait until the opening crowds were where we were (we asked and this is their new policy so you won’t find it any different on your trip). They literally would not even let us get in line for a ride not one second before the whole crowd caught up to where we were."

Does anyone know if this is in fact a new park policy? It's making me rethink my interest in PPO Be Our Guest breakfast, since my primary motivator was to get an early jump on rides.

 

[mousehockey37]

I wouldn't be surprised if eventually (if not already) Disney squashed this practice. You're theoretically there to eat and not get the jump on rides. With EMM, they want you to pay the extra for that.

This is a good spot, IMO, to just throw out the general reminder that there are Disney brass on these forums. They may not post, but they see the threads and are aware of all the loopholes that people find (such as this particular one). There have been instances in the past where things pop up on message boards that expose a loophole and changes come about quickly.

 

[leiaorgana]

We lined up for SDMT last Tuesday (19/06/18) after BOG and were let on just as the fireworks went off in the Welcome Show and when we did EMM on Sunday(24/06/18) they were still letting people line up by the fence for SDMT because I saw them when we went over to Peter Pan.

 

[sharonabe]

The problem with the TripAdvisor review is there is no way of knowing where the reviewer was wanting to go or what time they exited the restaurant. I would trust reviews here over that one.

As to loopholes, PPO breakfasts have given advantage to those who do them for YEARS. Moving the opening show to the castle took away the advantage for anyone doing Crystal Palace, but not BoG or CRT (if you could get done in that time at CRT). We're talking a handful of people getting a 5 min jump on rope drop crowds. I don't think that's worth their trouble.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

It's not a loophole if Disney has to actively do something to allow it to happen. They have to have the ride running and allow people into either the FP or standby lines before the RD crowds get there. Which they have been doing for years. This isn't guests sneaking something, it is Disney allowing them a perk at their own discretion. They can end it any time they want (and maybe they have). They don't have to allow it on any given day even if they did the day before or the day after. And they don't owe a guest anything if they don't get to ride early. But it is not guests or CMs doing something wrong. The brass absolutely knows that this is how they operate the parks on most days. They probably decided to do it that way to entice more people to have breakfast in the parks.

 

[mesaboy2]

Yeah, Disney’s had PPO ADRs for years allowing a handful of people to get a slight advantage at a small handful of attractions—Garden Grill for Soarin’ or Akershus for FEA come to mind. It’s not some nefarious loophole, and certainly nothing new.

 

[mrcase77]

It seems like it would be an incentive to eat at those restaurants. I’d had vague thoughts about going for Garden Grill and BOG for early breakfasts, but would rather just eat in the room if the early ride thing is no more and spend the money on a bigger lunch. Curious to see how this plays out.

 

[epcotobsessed]

PPOs at BOG and GG are my secret weapon (I do tell everyone I know who is going about them, so I'm not the best secret keeper). I had what was a PPO ADR at BOG for this trip but then Disney changed MK to an 8am open that day so I cancelled it. It would stink if this were true, but I would not be surprised.

 

[Allison]

Perhaps it was an Early Morning Magic day.

 

[jldeahl]

Perhaps it was an Early Morning Magic day.

Good call! Perhaps (fingers crossed at least

 

[sharonabe]

Perhaps it was an Early Morning Magic day.

Could have been, but even on EMM days, they don't "corral" people and make them wait. They let them line up at the ride entrance and wait until 9:00 on the dot. Sometimes they will let them go through the standby entrance line and wait at the boarding area. But I've never heard of them corraling guests anywhere.

Sorry, but I still would take this TA review with a grain of salt.

 

[mamamelody2]

Perhaps they were trying to head to Tomorrowland for Space Mountain or something like that. I know you can't get out of BoG before the park is opened and just go anywhere you want.

 

[jldeahl]

OP here - the Trip Advisor poster mentioned that she was trying to get to SDMT. I’m going to hope the EMM theory is true, or that the TA poster was just confused!

 

[emmabelle]

we did BOG in May and lined up around 8:40am for SDMT. They didn't let the line move up to the front of the ride until 8:55am, I know because I was freaking out that they wouldn't move us before the hoards came in, but they did. The castmembers pulled it a little too close for my comfort though.

 

[mesaboy2]

we did BOG in May and lined up around 8:40am for SDMT. They didn't let the line move up to the front of the ride until 8:55am, I know because I was freaking out that they wouldn't move us before the hoards came in, but they did. The castmembers pulled it a little too close for my comfort though.

This recent report contradicts the Trip Advisor review quoted in the OP so, again, I would not draw any long-term conclusions from that one review.

 

[GillianP1301]

Perhaps it was an Early Morning Magic day.

This was my first thought as well. They will keep the BOG people behind the rope right up until 9:00am when there is EMM because those people paid for the advantage to have exclusive access to the ride up until 9:00. I'm not sure I get the part about the review stating all the RD people got in ahead of them though, that doesn't make sense unless the CM on the BOG rope was half asleep.

 

[ShadeDK]

Perhaps they were confused about "early" access to rides with a BoG PPO and thought they'd get to start riding well before official park opening? What they described (lined up or "corralled" along the fence and then let into the queue at opening) has been happening for a long time. I've read accounts of PPO guests who were let in to start riding 10-15 minutes early, but my experience after numerous PPOs over the last couple of years is that the PPO crowd lines up and is let in right at 9 am. You get a slight head start on the Hub crowd, but that's about it.

The most recent PPO I did (within the last couple of months) was the same - held at the fence until park opening and then directed to the standby line. The CM leading the crowd from the HUB, however, showed up from the other direction before all the PPO guests got into the standby line - which caused some confusion and a few upset PPO guests that then had to mix and file in behind. We weren't held until the non-PPO guests arrived, but we did end up merging almost as soon as we hit the standby line.

 

[sarmat1]

You get a slight head start on the Hub crowd, but that's about it.

True - but that slight head start can be huge in terms of saving a bunch of initial wait time at SDMT (and then moving on to another standby directly after).

On a separate, but related note - I know that PPO ADR's get in early via the list with CM. Does a 9:00 am ADR (on a 9 am open day) count for that as well or does the ADR have to truly be for prior to (and not directly at) opening?

 

[ShadeDK]

True - but that slight head start can be huge in terms of saving a bunch of initial wait time at SDMT (and then moving on to another standby directly after).

On a separate, but related note - I know that PPO ADR's get in early via the list with CM. Does a 9:00 am ADR (on a 9 am open day) count for that as well or does the ADR have to truly be for prior to (and not directly at) opening?

As someone who only rides SDMT via FP or first thing after a PPO breakfast, I agree 100% that the PPO still saves a lot of time by being first in line and is worth doing - you can be off the ride by 9:05 and head to other attractions (SDMT is one of those handful of rides that falls into the "Pandora Principle" - which suggests that you shouldn't even consider the normal standby line when the average wait time exceeds the running length of the actual movie on which the ride is based).

On your other question - my experience is that the parks will let you in early if your ADR is right around opening since you should be checking in before that time and have to be there to do that. I don't know that there's a hard cutoff, but I think the general guidance is not to expect early entry once the ADR is for 15 minutes after park opening or later.

 

[Jadyreen1282]

We hop on line after bog PPO. Still get a fp in case they change which they do nearly every year.