Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
3
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If you think it unlikely that you'll be at the park offering morning Extra Magic Hours 30
minutes before it opens, visit another park instead.
During holiday periods and summer, when Disney hotels are full, getting in early
makes a tremendous difference in crowds at the designated park. The program fun-
nels so many people into the EMH park that it fills by about 10 a.m. and is practically
gridlocked by noon. A mother of three from Lee's Summit, Missouri, writes:
Our first full day at WDW, we went to the Magic Kingdom on an early-entry
day for resort guests. We were there at 7:30 a.m. and were able to walk
onto all the rides in Fantasyland with no wait. At 8:45 a.m. we positioned
ourselves at the Adventureland rope and ran toward Splash Mountain when
the rope dropped. We were able to ride Splash Mountain with no wait and
then Big Thunder with about a 15-minute wait. We then went straight to the
Jungle Cruise and the wait was already 30 minutes, so we skipped it. The
park became incredibly crowded as the day progressed, and we were all ex-
hausted from getting up so early. We left the park around noon. After that
day, I resolved to avoid early-entry days and instead be at a non-early-entry
park about a half-hour before official opening time
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Note that during holidays, the Magic Kingdom opens to regular guests at 8 a.m.
Morning Extra Magic Hours begin at 7 a.m., so you'll need to be at the Magic King-
dom entrance at around 6:30 a.m. You won't be alone, but relatively few people are
willing to get up that early for a theme park, and your first hour in the parks will be
(please pardon us) magical.
This note from a North Bend, Washington, dad emphasizes the importance of ar-
riving at the beginning of the early-entry period.
We only used early entry once—to Disney's Hollywood Studios. We got there
20 minutes after early entry opened, and the wait for Tower of Terror was
1½ hours long without FastPass+. We skipped it
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An alternative strategy for Disney resort guests is to take advantage of morning
Extra Magic Hours, but only until the designated park gets crowded. At that time,
move to another park.
A Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, mom has another tip:
