LL strategy with not-too-early entry

I really appreciated the recent Ear Scouts video on Epcot early entry because Rob suggested a way to take advantage of early entry without having to get up super early and spend a lot of time in line. Similarly I appreciated the Animal Kingdom multipass strategy video because it did not involve getting to the park early.

My goal is to not spend time in lines (including to get into the park for early entry), and I'm willing to purchase single and multi pass lightning lanes to make that happen.

So here's what I'm thinking for each park, let me know if this makes sense.

Animal Kingdom: replicate Rob's day where he starts in Dinoland and pre-books Na'vi for late in the day, getting into line for Avatar at park close. Early entry could be used to have some extra time before the park opens to just enjoy the park rather than trying to get in lines for popular attractions.

Epcot: We'll be using the international entrance, so I'm thinking we'll go to Frozen during early entry and pre-book a Lightning Lane for Remy. In the Ear Scouts video from a year or so ago, Rob does Frozen as a walk-on after having done Remy by arriving super early. I'm hoping that if we arrive at the beginning of early entry we can do Frozen without a long wait at the gate or at the ride. I'm assuming I won't have trouble booking Soarin later. We probably won't do Guardians because it might be too intense for my youngest kid.

Hollywood Studios: we plan to do Mickey & Minnie's during early entry. There's an "all the bells and whistles" hs video where Rob does Tower of Terror and then Mickey & Minnie's as a walk-on. Similar to the Epcot strategy, I'm thinking of pre-booking tower, and going straight to what was Rob's second ride as a walk-on. I'll pre-book Slinky, and buy single passes for Rise. Note we won't be doing Rock n Roller Coaster because of height requirements.

Magic Kingdom: this is the hardest to figure out. I'm thinking we'll do Peter Pan in early entry, and hoping that if we show up at the beginning of early entry (without lining up super early), the wait for Peter Pan still won't be too long, and that after riding it we'd be able to get to Jungle Cruise before that queue gets too long. I'll pre-book Tiana's, and buy single passes for Seven Dwarfs. I might use Aladdin to tap in early (en route to Jungle Cruise), to book Space Mountain. Note we won't be doing Tron because of height requirements.

Do these strategies make sense? Any other suggestions?

5 answers0 replies

Comments (5)

Craig Culp

•

I think you have a lot of good plans! Just a reminder you can buy single pass for Flight of Passage in case you don’t want to stay until closing, but the regular queue is pretty cool! Epcot sounds good, just remember to take a left toward the UK and follow the path around the lagoon to Frozen. Hopefully you will beat anyone coming from the front gates. Your MK and HS plans sound good to me! I usually skip Pan and Jungle Cruise, but that sounds like a good way to attack.

Kiran

Replying to

Thanks Craig. Yeah I'm torn about buying single passes for flight of passage. If it's an 11-minute wait at the end of the day like it was for Rob then that's great. But all the data I see suggests the queue remains long right up to park close. In the AK video, Rob seemed confident this would work out, so I suspect his knowledge from experience is more reliable than the data.

I'm not entirely confident in the plans I proposed in my original post. Everything I read says you have to show up an additional 30-45 minutes early to make use of early entry. I'm hoping there's a happy medium where it's not the most you could possibly do in early entry, but is overall more enjoyable and solves the problem of being able to pre-book only one tier 1 Lighting Lane. Though I've not seen any evidence that this approach works in practice.

Craig Culp

•

Replying to

I feel where you're coming from, and maybe just plan on going gung-ho on the first park day or two and then gauge if it was really that necessary. And always bear in mind, even if you come twenty minutes after EE started, you still have a good head start on those who don't have that perk. I have a feeling after a couple of days, you'll hit that Zen moment and you can really relax and enjoy all the effort you've put into this planning!

Claire

There’sa great video just posted about early entry at Epcot and how, if you start with Soarin’, you probably don’t need get there super early (bit guess it depends where you go). They basically knocked off Rémy, Frozen and Soarin’ in about 2 hours.

Appreciate your post as I’m also trying to work out a strategy for my visit

Kiran

Replying to

Yes that Epcot video is largely what inspired this post.

I'm glad you found my post useful. I'm hoping some of the experienced Disney goers weigh in, as I'm not sure if I might be overlooking something. e.g. with Test Track down, are so many people going to Frozen from the main Epcot entrance that it would make it a bad choice if entering from international gateway?