Early Morning Entry's impact on staying off site

[mshanson3121]

Since the option to rope drop is now gone for off-site guests thanks to the new Early Entry, how big of a disadvantage is that putting off site guests?

Some thought it wouldn't be too bad since the rope drop crowds would dispersed over all parks instead of just one?

Others figured it would still be quite bad, as crowds will have already been building by the time you're allowed in.

What has your experience been? Reports you've seen etc?

 

[ucfknight]

Huge difference from what I saw this past weekend if you are looking to try to rope drop one of the headliners that typically have huge lines throughout the day. Used to be you could show up at the tapstyles around an hour before official park open and be guaranteed to ride a headliner with minimal wait. When you got off that you could move to less in-demand attractions and then stay ahead of the crowds for the first couple hours. That's not possible any longer for offsite guests now that they have Early Entry for resort guests for every park, every day. Just an example:

I was at DHS this weekend. By 9:00 am when they opened the park to offsite guests there was already a 140 minute wait for Rise of the Resistance. So if you were the very first offsite guest at the park entrance that day you were going to wait nearly 2.5 hours for Rise of the Resistance once you finally were allowed inside the park. Likewise, Slinky Dog was already 80 minutes at 9:00 am when the gates opened for offsite guests.

There is still some value to rope drop if you are looking at riding non-headliners. If you skipped Rise of the Resistance and Slinky Dog Dash, you could find wait times of 5-10 minutes for Tower or Terror, Rock 'n' Roller Coaster, or Toy Story Mania. We went straight to Smugglers Run and waited 15 minutes. All of those lines quickly built to an hour or more within about 30 minutes, but if you hit them first you could get a ride or two in before the lines built.

At least this past Sunday, it was actually better to go later in the day (maybe those Early onsite guests got tired and headed back to their resorts). Rise of the Resistance was 75 minutes or less for the last couple hours before park close.

 

[Scalemaster34]

And things are in flux right now... new ways of doing Disney will need to be adjusted to.
Early Entry and Extra Evening Hours are still very new... folks might not really understand the importance of these. Six months from now things could be hugely different as more guest are coming and more people figure out these "advantages".

 

[Grumpy by Birth]

Since the option to rope drop is now gone for off-site guests thanks to the new Early Entry, how big of a disadvantage is that putting off site guests?

Some thought it wouldn't be too bad since the rope drop crowds would dispersed over all parks instead of just one?

Others figured it would still be quite bad, as crowds will have already been building by the time you're allowed in.

What has your experience been? Reports you've seen etc?

Our experience (this was on October 1st, so maybe different now) was that they let everyone into the MK to stroll Main Street, shop, and meander around the hub. Resort guests could enter Tomorrowland early (CMs were there with tablets checking MBs) and could also access Fantasyland once they got past the checkpoint.

For an offsite guest, you could still enter early and be at the hub for "RD" (even though resort guests will have already entered Tomorrowland and Fantasyland). If you do like my family always does and head to the left first (Adventureland), you'll still be among the first to arrive to those attractions. That said, we will probably alter our routine and head to Tomorrowland or Fantasyland if we're there for early entry in the future.

If your goal is to RD in order to be first for Fantasyland or Tomorrowland, I think off-site guests will be at a disadvantage due to early entry for on-site.

For the other parks, I haven't been yet since they implemented the early entry for onsite, so I can't speak to how it might affect RD for off-site.

 

[luv2cheer92]

Our experience (this was on October 1st, so maybe different now) was that they let everyone into the MK to stroll Main Street, shop, and meander around the hub. Resort guests could enter Tomorrowland early (CMs were there with tablets checking MBs) and could also access Fantasyland once they got past the checkpoint.

For an offsite guest, you could still enter early and be at the hub for "RD" (even though resort guests will have already entered Tomorrowland and Fantasyland). If you do like my family always does and head to the left first (Adventureland), you'll still be among the first to arrive to those attractions.

If your goal is to RD in order to be first for Fantasyland or Tomorrowland, I think off-site guests will be at a disadvantage due to early entry for on-site.

For the other parks, I haven't been yet since they implemented the early entry for onsite, so I can't speak to how it might affect RD for off-site.

It was pretty similar for the other 3 parks in my experience.
At HS, offsite guests were held outside the park. I'm not sure when they were let in, but they had them go to a different side of the tapstiles than onsite.

 

[mshanson3121]

Nm

 

[srauseo]

I would say, based on my experience, that offsite guests should not go to headliners when the park officially opens.

At HS, I was walking off of ROTR at 8:50 and the line was very, very long before any offsite guests were even allowed in the park. Like extended outside of the actual queue and into the walkways long. I'm pretty sure it was already two hours. Slinky Dog also had a huge line by 9am. Offsite guests would be better off aiming for Runaway Railway or Rock 'n Roller Coaster as the lines for those two built a little slower. From 7:30 until 8:20 we stood at the front of the line in the holding area and watched a steady stream of hundreds of onsite guests arrive and get in line behind us. Seriously, I wouldn't bother getting in that line at 9am.

Likewise, at AK we were walking out of Pandora at 8am when the park officially opened and saw tons of offsite guests headed for FOP where the line was already over an hour long (and, again, I don't think that was an exaggeration - the line extended outside of the queue and up the pathway toward the bridge). Meanwhile, they could have walked onto Safari and got a great show from the animals in the early morning or walked onto Everest. Reports are lines at FOP get better later in the day.

 

[mshanson3121]

So sounds like if we stay off site, we'll need a whole new touring plan.

 

[MainMom]

I would say, based on my experience, that offsite guests should not go to headliners when the park officially opens.

At HS, I was walking off of ROTR at 8:50 and the line was very, very long before any offsite guests were even allowed in the park. Like extended outside of the actual queue and into the walkways long. I'm pretty sure it was already two hours. Slinky Dog also had a huge line by 9am. Offsite guests would be better off aiming for Runaway Railway or Rock 'n Roller Coaster as the lines for those two built a little slower. From 7:30 until 8:20 we stood at the front of the line in the holding area and watched a steady stream of hundreds of onsite guests arrive and get in line behind us. Seriously, I wouldn't bother getting in that line at 9am.

Likewise, at AK we were walking out of Pandora at 8am when the park officially opened and saw tons of offsite guests headed for FOP where the line was already over an hour long (and, again, I don't think that was an exaggeration - the line extended outside of the queue and up the pathway toward the bridge). Meanwhile, they could have walked onto Safari and got a great show from the animals in the early morning or walked onto Everest. Reports are lines at FOP get better later in the day.

What time were you at the park to be in the front?

 

[GrumpyDad1974]

Doing our 1st offsite stay this December due to onsite costs and last minute planning but seriously not looking forward to this. I have pushed off 2 trips since COVID. We used to be on site rope droppers and I have no idea how to tackle a touring plan.

 

[mshanson3121]

Doing our 1st offsite stay this December due to onsite costs and last minute planning but seriously not looking forward to this. I have pushed off 2 trips since COVID. We used to be on site rope droppers and I have no idea how to tackle a touring plan.

I really prefer off site - but that was back when we could rope drop like anyone else, by choosing the non-EMH park that day. Now...oie.

 

[srauseo]

What time were you at the park to be in the front?

At EPCOT we arrived a little before 8am for a 8:30 ETPO. That may have been a little late. But not too bad. We had a short wait to get on Test Track.

At Studios, we arrived around 7:20 to a small crowd for 8:30 ETPO. This was good timing as they opened the gates shortly after we arrived and we ended up close to the front of the line for Rise.

At AK, we arrived a little before 6:30 and were the first ones there. They let us in a little after 7am and ETPO was 7:30. We were on the first cycle at Flights of Passage.

In my experience, the time listed as Early Theme Park opening for on-site guests was the time the ride started running. We were actually through the gate ~30-60 minutes before that time.

 

[rmclain73]

I have entered the parks early all week as an on-site guest. If I were staying offsite I would choose to go in a little later rather than rope. drop. Waits have seem to be their highest from opening just prior to lunch.

 

[rmclain73]

One thing that I forgot to add to my post was that once Genie starts next week everything that has been experience thus far with early entry will change. Most people have been going in early just so they can get on rides with the crowds. For those who have gotten up early and gotten a Lightning Lane already set up there really is no need to rush to be the first person in the park for a headliner.

 

[MainMom]

At EPCOT we arrived a little before 8am for a 8:30 ETPO. That may have been a little late. But not too bad. We had a short wait to get on Test Track.

At Studios, we arrived around 7:20 to a small crowd for 8:30 ETPO. This was good timing as they opened the gates shortly after we arrived and we ended up close to the front of the line for Rise.

At AK, we arrived a little before 6:30 and were the first ones there. They let us in a little after 7am and ETPO was 7:30. We were on the first cycle at Flights of Passage.

In my experience, the time listed as Early Theme Park opening for on-site guests was the time the ride started running. We were actually through the gate ~30-60 minutes before that time.

Thank you! This is great information.

 

[Suebee33]

We're staying off-site, therefore without access to the Early Morning Hours in MK and Epcot. ANyone have tips on what your strategy would be for those first few rides? I've searched other sites but many are based on rope drop early vs. entry at actual park opening. I'm sure Early Entry people will head for ILL$ rides (SDMT, Space Mtn, Remy, Frozen), right? So should we head elsewhere or just go ahead & get in line for those?
What would YOU do?

 

[Robo]

We're staying off-site, therefore without access to the Early Morning Hours in MK and Epcot. ANyone have tips on what your strategy would be for those first few rides? I've searched other sites but many are based on rope drop early vs. entry at actual park opening. I'm sure Early Entry people will head for ILL$ rides (SDMT, Space Mtn, Remy, Frozen), right? So should we head elsewhere or just go ahead & get in line for those?
What would YOU do?

I would not sweat a general big line-up at Space Mtn. (or Splash or Big Thunder) early on.
Soarin’ should be relatively easy.
Tower of Terror, RnRC, & Star Tours may be approachable.
Expedition Everest (especially Single Rider) may be OK.

 

[Disney.Dreamin.Dee]

Now that early entry is only 30 minutes but is also at every park every day I don't think you're going to run into the same issues as previous EMH that was at one park for one hour where MANY onsite guests would choose that park that day making the lines start out longer for offsite guests.
I really wouldn't worry too much and just do what you want.

 

[coolbrook]

At Magic Kingdom ETPE is only for Tomorrowland and Fantasyland, so you will be on an equal footing for Adventureland, Liberty Square, and Frontierland. You may want to start in one of those three lands.

 

[ucf_knight]

We're staying off-site, therefore without access to the Early Morning Hours in MK and Epcot. ANyone have tips on what your strategy would be for those first few rides? I've searched other sites but many are based on rope drop early vs. entry at actual park opening. I'm sure Early Entry people will head for ILL$ rides (SDMT, Space Mtn, Remy, Frozen), right? So should we head elsewhere or just go ahead & get in line for those?
What would YOU do?

Staying off site doesn’t matter anymore. You’ll be fine