Early Entry at Walt Disney World
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Hello, and welcome to The Budget Mouse, a podcast that will help you plan an incredible Walt Disney World vacation, even if you're on a shoestring budget. I'm Leah Altheiser, and I've been helping people save money at Disney World for the past 10 years through my websites, podcasts, and courses. I'm so glad you're here, and let's dive in. Hello again, everyone, and welcome to episode 107. I got an email from a reader this week asking some really good questions about early entry, so I figured it's a great topic for a podcast episode. So I'm going to try and answer all of your questions in this show.
What is Early Theme Park Entry and why does it matter for Disney World guests?
First of all, what is it? Essentially, it's 30 minutes earlier that Disney Resort guests and guests of select other resorts that I'll talk about in a minute, they get to get on rides at the theme parks 30 minutes before anyone else. So at first you might think, is this a crappy perk? Like, does that really matter? How much can you really do? Well, if you have good strategy, you can do a lot and get some attractions done that will just accelerate how much you can do over the course of the whole day. So I really think it is a valuable perk and probably one that most people underestimate. You might be wondering what time is early entry? And so while we say 30 minutes before regular entry, when is that?
And that is not an easy question to answer, sadly, because it's changing all of the time. So there are some like default times that certain parks open, but this does change seasonally. And Disney isn't great about updating their daily calendar with opening and closing times up until about 60 days before your trip. So you won't know, unfortunately, what time early entry is until 60 days before your trip. But what you can do is go to the Disney World website and find the daily calendar. These are the default times where the parks open. Magic Kingdom Hollywood Studios and Epcot generally open at 9 a.m., but Animal Kingdom generally opens an hour earlier at 8 a.m. And Magic Kingdom is the one park where this changes the most.
So depending on the time of year and the crowds, it may open earlier and sometimes 8 a.m. So you just definitely need to check. Hollywood Studios will also open early during peak time. So you've got to check that as well. All right, who gets this benefit? So if you're staying at a resort hotel owned and operated by Disney World, you will get this benefit. The way you can tell if your resort is, is the beginning of its name will say Disney's. So we'll say Disney's Animal Kingdom Lodge, Disney's Pop Century Resort. So you know that's included. Other resorts that also get this benefit are the Swan and Dolphin and Shades of Green. Those are located on Disney World property, but not run by Disney. And then the Disney Springs hotels, as well as the Bonnet Creek hotels.
All of these are on what's considered Disney World property, but they are not owned and operated by Disney. And I would guess that people staying at these resorts sometimes don't know that they actually do get early entry. So it's worth looking into. And I can put a link in the show notes to a new blog post I did that really breaks down what benefits and perks you get depending on where you're staying. So there's different categories of resorts that get different perks. And that blog post hopefully will make it all clear to you. And it includes a list of these resorts that all get early entry. Something to point out is that you do qualify for early entry on your check-in day and your check-out day, in addition to all the days where you're staying at your resort.
So even if you haven't officially gone to your resort yet, you can still use your early entry benefit. So for example, I have stayed off property on my arrival day And then I go straight to the theme parks the next morning that I'm checking into the Disney Resort, and they will let you in for early entry, even though you haven't technically been to your resort and checked in yet. And same with your checkout day. The day that you're departing, you will have access to early entry.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–0:46
2
What is Early Theme Park Entry and why does it matter for Disney World guests?
0:46–7:17
3
When exactly does Early Entry start and how can I find park opening times?
7:17–12:33
4
Which hotels and resort categories qualify for Early Entry access?
12:33–18:18