Disney World is a pretty awesome destination.
Get to the parks in the mornings for lower crowds!
When you’re headed to The Most Magical Place on Earth, you might be trying to decide whether to sat onsite or offsite. Well, this year, the on-property hotels have definitely had WAY fewer perks than they have in the past. BUT…there’s a NEW perk coming soon. Or at least…there’s supposed to be one coming soon. Umm…did Disney totally forget about this perk they announced?Â
Early Theme Park Entry is supposed to arrive this year.
Earlier this year, Disney announced that Early Theme Park Entry will arrive as a new perk for Disney World Resort hotel guests. This perk will allow those staying at Disney-owned resorts and other select resorts to enter ANY theme park 30-minutes early on ANY day.
Spaceship Earth
This is a change from the old system of Extra Magic Hours. Extra Magic Hours allowed guests entry one hour prior to the opening of the park or one to two hours after the closing of the park, but it was always one or two specific parks on any given day.
Tree of Life
The new Early Theme Park Entry system will bring a benefit back to resort guests while helping to disperse early morning crowds to ALL FOUR parks (whichever park they chose) ahead of their posted opening times. Extra Magic Hours would draw guests to only one park if reintroduced, which could be a problem with current health concerns. The new setup could give back a guest perk of early entry without everyone cramming in the same park.
Click here to learn more about Early Theme Park Entry!
Perks are limited for Resort Guests right now.
This perk is exciting considering resort guests don’t have a lot of perks going for them right now. In the past, Extra Magic Hours was a MAJOR draw.
Cinderella Castle
Now, pretty much the ONLY perks for resort hotel guests are a few extra days of Advance Dining Reservation access (They get their length of stay added to the standard 60-days-in-advance window.) and complimentary transportation. But, even that complimentary transportation is changing soon — Disney’s Magical Express service to and from the Orlando Airport is ending this year.
Runaway Railway
The introduction of Early Theme Park Entry would bring back the same kind of plus that Extra Magic Hours offered. Extra park time is a pretty big bonus!Â
Want to learn more about dining reservations? Click here!
But how much of a perk is it really?
But, we’re not sure this perk will really be THAT much of an actual perk. At the time of writing, Disney is already letting guests into the parks well before opening.
Disney Balloons
On most days, you can head into a Disney World theme park about 30 minutes prior to the posted opening time. We’ve even seen Disney’s Hollywood Studios allow guests in about an hour in advance of opening!
What’s going on here? If everyone is getting into the parks 30 minutes prior to the posted opening, will this even be a perk when it’s rolled out? Well, yes, but Disney might need to make some changes before that happens.
Main Street, U.S.A.
In anticipation of this perk, we may see Disney start to stick closer to the posted opening time. A similar tightening up of timing happened during the opening of Rise of the Resistance. For some time, park guests were being allowed in the gates prior to the posted park opening until Disney shifted to sticking closely to the posted time.
So, as we near the 50th, we may see informal park entry scale back to allow for Early Theme Park Entry. This way, resort guests actually get the perk! Time will tell if this happens whenever this perk actually…you know…happens!
Partners Statue
We’ll be keeping an eye out for these changes and for the announcement of this perk. Stay tuned to DFB for all the updates!
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What do you think about this interesting situation? Tell us in the comments!Â
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Is there someway we can tell Disney we would love to have them keep the airport to hotel transportation.
Having to rent a car pay parking at the resort or hauling luggage on a train
This just doesn’t seem like a great way to start or end a vacation
Thanks for your help
Do not eliminate the MAGICAL EXPRESS.
I’m not sure how they will get the early entry for resort guests to work unless they don’t open the parking lots until later. The lines for the skyliner can easily be 90+ minutes in the mornings and I think they start running 30 mins before the park opens. The skyliner, and buses of course (both which are used mainly by resort guests) would need to have a chance to GET to the park an hour early (without having to get Lyft) to make this much of a perk…in my opinion.
How is Disney going to distinguish resort quest when the park opens if the crowds are a mixture of resort and non resort quests?
Elizabeth, I imagine that will be dependent on the technology recognizing Resort visitors vs. non-Resort visitors when they tap into the Park. But as far as that’s concerned, I don’t know for sure.
Better check the first sentence of the article. The word “sat” should be “stay” onsite or offsite.
I really miss Extra Magic Hours. 30 minutes early isn’t much of a perk. An hour early or up to 3 hours later is much better. It allows more time to experience the parks without the general public. Universal has never stopped allowing resort guests in an hour early. Universal also has kept it’s Express Pass while Disney has gotten rid of Fastpass. Come on Disney, you are getting rid of all the reasons on site was a better value than off site even though on site resorts cost more than off site options!!
I agree with Sherree Wilkey. The best perks to stay on property was getting in an hour early or staying later in the parks. I wish at
least Fastpass was available. I could understand if the Fastpass line was used for safe distancing but instead it is utilized as a disability access and for Club 55 members. Disney could easily offer Fastpass . With the increase of guests now visiting the parks the attraction wait times are getting much longer. The
summer temperatures and humidity in Florida are now starting to rise which will make the wait of about a hour or more very uncomfortable especially with the sun and the afternoon rains. If Disney increases the crowd capacity from the present 35% I only hope they will reinstate the early hour entry and fast pass perks.
Don’t want you he Magical Express bus to end!