The best way to ride your favorite and most popular Disney park rides without the long wait requires a little planning ahead. Before you even enter Disney parks, you need do a little research and prepare a plan of action. Here are some tips for successful early park entry into all of the WDW parks. A little strategizing could save you hours of wait times throughout your park day.
Know the hours for the date and park you are visiting.
You can find this information on the Disney World Website. Throughout the year, the parks do change their hours, so make sure you know the hours on the dates you are visiting to take full advantage of early entry. On average, the majority of the time it will be either 8am or 9am, but be sure by visiting the official Disney World site. And be sure to get a good night’s sleep before a day you plan to take advantage of early entry. We like to wake early and get a grab-and-go breakfast while traveling to our park destination so we can eat while waiting once we’ve secured our spot at an entrance.
Know if you are eligible to take advantage of Early Park Entry:
If you are staying at any Disney World resort, you are able to enter parks 30 minutes before regular park opening. Some of the “Good Neighbor Hotels” also offer this benefit, so research what your resort/hotel is eligible for and take full advantage. Even though it is only 30 minutes, traditionally staff will allow you entry even prior to that so do your homework and prepare for an early morning.
Know your transportation options.
Depending on where you are staying on property you may be able to walk to an entrance, or have the use of monorail (Deluxe resorts), friendship boats, Skyliner, and buses. Each of these typically start running at 7am. You also have the option of using your own vehicle or rideshare with such options as Uber or Lyft. (See my post about pros and cons of using Lyft’s “Minnie” van service for Magic Kingdom) The buses typically begin running one hour before park opening, but this may not be your best option. Sometimes buses are unpredictable and if you miss the first, or it is full, it may be quite a wait for the next one to arrive. The key is to research before the morning of arrival and ask a Disney cast member if possible. Most of the time they are knowledgeable about the ins and outs of transportation and suggested entry times. The more planning you do ahead of time, the more rides you will be able to walk right onto, and the less time you will be waiting in lines.
Plan for an Early Arrival
Try to arrive at the parking area/front gates (or wherever staff is holding the line-often at a security checkpoint) 45 minutes to one hour prior to either your Early Entry time or regular opening time. In our experience, they always allow entry before the actual opening time.
For example, on a recent trip to Epcot, we were staying at the Swan Hotel. Regular Epcot opening was 9am on that day, but because the Swan Hotel is considered a Good Neighbor or Partner hotel, we, along with all of the official Disney resort guests, were allowed entry at 8:30am. Because of our hotel’s close proximity to Epcot,we were able to walk right over to the rear entrance (International Gateway). International Gateway is also a hub for the skyliner, but the Skyliner does not start running until 7am which means guests from the resorts on the skyliner route would not arrive at the International Gateway until 7:15 at the earliest. So we arrived just before that and were in the front of the “rope drop” line.
Rope Drop is simply a term used because historically cast members would hold a rope in front of guests lined up to enter the parks in the morning and they would drop it to allow entry at the official start of the day. Now they have partitions or gates and move them at a designated time.
Be patient waiting for entry.
Once you are in line, you will not be able to enter the park until the staff decides to let people in. This varies on dates and by park, but in my experience, they will start allowing people into the parks around 45 minutes before early entry (7:45am on our example day). Once you have passed through security most of the crowd will head towards the most popular rides:
Epcot from IG: Remy’s Ratatouille in France, or Frozen Ever After in Norway
Epcot from Main Entrance: Test Track, Soarin’, or Frozen Ever After in Norway
Magic Kingdom: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Animal Kingdom: Avatar’s Flight of Passage in Pandora
Hollywood Studios: Rise of the Resistance, or Smuggler’s Run in Galaxy’s Edge, or Slinky Dog Dash
Have a general plan of action for Rides.
By heading straight to these rides, you will have little to no wait time. The rest of the day, these rides will have over an hour wait time. Also, after riding, have a second ride planned. For example, in Epcot we were able to ride Remy’s Ratatouille and Frozen Ever After before the heavy crowds really entered the park, so both rides were walk-ons. We then used our Genie + reservation (which we booked at 7am) for other popular rides which Genie + reservations are easier to obtain like Test Track, Soarin and Mission Space. Genie + reservations for the most popular rides above will either not be available or will only be available for late in the day. If you really love a particular ride, you can plan to rope drop it as well as Genie + reserve it. Other than standing in an hour + wait queue, that is the best way to ride it twice. Remember Genie + will only allow you to ride any one ride one time per day. If you want to ride any ride more than that, you will have to wait in line.
For Magic Kingdom you will want to head to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train first and then Peter Pan. When Splash Mountain is finished with its refurbishment that could be another one to ride early. For Animal Kingdom, you, and everyone else will be heading into Pandora and will line up first for Flight of Passage. After that you will be able to ride River Na’vi and then head over to Expedition Everst or Kilimanjaro Safaris. The best time to see the safari animals is early in the morning before it gets too hot. In Hollywood Studios you will want to head to Galaxy’s Edge to ride Rise of the Resistance and Millennium Falcon. The novelty has worn off for Millennium Falcon, and you can usually have a relatively low wait time these days. Before Rise of the Resistance, it was another hour + wait all day. If Star Wars is not your priority, then I would recommend heading to slinky dog dash, which typically has at least an hour wait from opening until closing.
Tips to Remember
- Keep in mind that once you have gotten in line and are waiting, relax. When they begin to allow people to proceed into the park, you do not need to rush. You will see people running and dodging to get to the rides, but we have found even walking at a normal pace will get you to the rides in a timely manner and will still allow you to ride one or two of the most popular rides with little to no wait.
- Even though you will see huge crowds at early entry, keep in mind that you will still get on those first 2 rides of the day with little to no wait. Majority of guests still take a leisurely approach to their park days and won’t arrive until right at posted park opening times or later. This is fine if you don’t mind long lines, or if you do not particularly care how many rides you are able to enjoy in a day. We personally are the type of family that feels like we need to get our money’s worth and do not mind waking up early with a go-getter plan of action. With a little planning, and coordinating Genie+ reservations (keep in mind this is not always necessary – crowd level predictors will assist with this decision) we almost never had to stand in a line for more than 20 minutes in any given park.
- Another benefit of arriving so early, is that you have time to leave the park if you desire in the middle of the day for a break, or an off site meal. You then can return later ( you can continue to reserve your Genie + choices every two hours for later times if you would like to), to enjoy the fireworks, and/or more rides! Hopefully these tips help you to get the most of your next park day. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out and contact me.