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HydroGuy
05-16-2005, 11:30 AM
This is my first post. Been lurking for a few weeks and have not found an answer to this question. Will be visiting DLR/DCA with four kids (ages 9-13) in August. All of us have been to DL before. Any input is appreciated.

With the 3 or 4 day Parkhopper pass, one gets admission an hour early (at 7AM in August) to "FantasyLand".

1. To maximize the time, what time should we arrive at the gate? It will most likely be on a Monday.

2. What attractions are typically open? Anything outside FantasyLand?

3. Are closed areas of the park roped off or just...well...closed?

4. Can you get fastpasses for rides that are not yet open to be used after 8AM?

5. In general, what is the best way to use an early entry?

bradk
05-16-2005, 11:42 AM
you should always try to get anywhere in DL at least 30-40 minutes ahead of schedule (with a general exception to fantasmic). that's my rule of thumb.

people will almost always be there before you (unless you opt to go even earlier). you make your own fate there.

EE is limited to fantasyland, although reportedly BLAB is also running, so there's some access to TL, but no other attractions should be operational.

the fastpass machines are not operational until official park opening.

the best way to use EE is to attack the attractions that generally build up the largest queues the quickest. those would include peter pan, dumbo and matterhorn (i want to think there's another, but i can't recall it offhand).

consequently, one of the worse things to do is to go to fantasyland first thing on an early entry day that you aren't entering the park early, since everything will automatically already have queues.

mkcbunny
05-16-2005, 01:42 PM
What he said. :)

Last week, on EE Thursday everything in Fantasyland was open except the Storyland Canal Boats, which opened a bit later. Buzz was not open when we first entered, but it was open before the official park-opening time, so we did ride it, and it was a walk-on.

Official park opening was 10, with 9 a.m. EE, and we got to the gates at about 8:20. [You will have a better advantage time-wise with a 7 am EE target, as some folks just CAN'T get up that early. 9 a.m. EE is not hard to do.] There are separate gates designated for EE vs non-EE. There were people ahead of us, but the lines move SO quickly now that they have moved the security checkpoints to the concourse entryways, rather than at the park gates [not to mention that you can now park-hop without having your bags checked twice]. I would say if you got there about 40-45 minutes ahead, you would be fine. You can always go earlier, but being first isn't a huge advantage over being, say 25th. That said, don't go any later, because the EE crowd is big and Fantasyland begins to get crowded very, very quickly.

Trip report coming tomorrow. I promised bradk I would do it before he departs. :) But my 2 cents is not to leave all your Fantasyland rides for one EE day, because they get so crowded. And DO get yourself in position at the bridge to Adventureland before official opening if you are planning to ride Indy [or Frontierland for BTMRR or Splash]. Because the non-EE crowd behind the rope is waiting to get there and you want to beat that rush.

chepar
05-16-2005, 02:05 PM
HydroGuy- if you don't mind, I'd like to add a question to your post regarding early entry.

My daughter and I have 3 day parkhopper passes. However, I've read all the really fine print on the passes, and it says nothing about an early entry day. I've been assuming that not ALL 3 day parkhoppers allow early entry - only certain ones, correct?

I think I have the "basic" parkhopper w/out early entry - if it makes a difference, mine says something like "military - 3 day".

Can anybody help clarify?

Thanks.

bradk
05-16-2005, 03:18 PM
it does have to be a hopper bonus (which includes early entry and a voucher for a $10 ESPNZone game card).

the ticket will have the words EARLY ENTRY printed on the back (which get crossed off when you use it). if your tickets do not have this printed on them, then unfortunately, you do not have early entry access.

chepar
05-17-2005, 09:29 AM
bradk, thanks for your reply.

It's as I suspected, but that's ok. We'll be there over a weekend (Fri - Sun) and even if I could do EE, don't know if it's offered over the weekend. Also, we like to stay until closing time, so rolling out of bed the next morning to make it to EE would be pretty difficult. ;)

bradk
05-17-2005, 09:47 AM
no problem. for future reference, it actually is available on saturday (in addition to monday, tuesday and thursday). the reason being is that there just can't be 3 days in a row that doesn't have EE since it's available at a 3 day level so they need to give you the opportunity to use it.

mkcbunny
05-17-2005, 12:17 PM
the ticket will have the words EARLY ENTRY printed on the back (which get crossed off when you use it). if your tickets do not have this printed on them, then unfortunately, you do not have early entry access.

And the text size is TINY. It's under the signature line. Also, some of them word it differently, like "Early Admission," or similar. There was a woman in front of us in line one day who had a different wording on her 3-day ParkHopper than we did, and the CM at first thought that her ticket didn't include EE. Maybe she was an on-property Guest; we were not.