Staying at a Disney World hotel comes with plenty of perks.
Art of Animation
But if you ask us, the BEST perk might just be Early Theme Park Entry. This benefit lets all Disney World hotel guests into the theme parks earlier than non-hotel guests, which can be a great jumpstart to your day. But, on a recent visit to Hollywood Studios, we noticed it wasn’t just those staying at Disney World hotels who were allowed in before the park opened.
Early Theme Park Entry allows Disney World hotel guests to enter ANY of the four theme parks 30 minutes early EVERY DAY to get a head start on their day in the parks! Folks start lining up at the park entrances pretty early, and in order to get in you’ll need a valid theme park ticket and resort ID (like MagicMobile, a MagicBand, or a Key to the World card).
Early Theme Park Entry
Cast Members are stationed to scan your credentials, and then you’ll be let into the park to explore! But, as we headed into Hollywood Studios on the morning of October 18th, we noticed something strange was going on during Early Entry.
Early Entry
You see, we weren’t staying at a Disney World hotel on this particular morning — yet we were allowed to scan into Hollywood Studios early. The park normally opens to everyone at 9AM, but we were inside by 8:35AM.
From there, Cast Members directed resort guests and non-resort guests into two separate lines at each attraction: resort guests were directed to use the Lightning Lane, which was open. Non-resort guests were directed to the standby line, which was not open or allowing anyone on the ride — just into the queue.
Non-hotel guest Slinky Dog Dash line
We spoke with a Cast Member who told us that this was a new test they were doing today. They let everyone into the park itself early and then checked for resort guests inside individual lands. The test concluded once Hollywood Studios officially opened at 9AM.
This is something Disney World used to do before the parks shut down for the COVID-19 pandemic, but we haven’t seen this implemented since the parks reopened. We’ll be interested to see if this is something Disney starts doing at every park and if it sticks around!
Hollywood Boulevard at Hollywood Studios
As a reminder, these are the rides open during Early Theme Park Entry at each park:
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Mickey & Minnie’s Runaway Railway
- Millennium Falcon: Smugglers Run
- Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Star Tours – The Adventures Continue
- The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror ™
- Toy Story Mania!
Slinky Dog Dash
- Avatar Flight of Passage
- DINOSAUR
- Expedition Everest – Legend of the Forbidden Mountain
- It’s Tough to be a Bug!
- Na’vi River Journey
- TriceraTop Spin
Dinosaur
- Frozen Ever After
- Mission: SPACE
- Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure
- Soarin’ Around the World
- Spaceship Earth
- Test Track
- The Seas with Nemo & Friends
Mission Space
- “it’s a small world”
- Astro Orbiter
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Mad Tea Party
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Space Mountain
- The Barnstormer
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Tomorrowland Speedway
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress
Haunted Mansion
In the meantime, we’ll be on the lookout for the latest updates from Disney World. Make sure you stay tuned to the Disney Food Blog for more theme park news!
EVERYTHING You Need To Know About Early Entry at Disney World
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As a resort guest I could usually eek out 2 rides and be in line for a third before the majority of non-resort guests made it to the line queues. Now there will already be a long line as soon as official opening time hits. I guess it’s good for non-resort guests but it further devalues the Early Entry benefit for resort guests.