Early Entry ?

[HydroGuy]

Can I ask if your confirmation stated this when you received it? Just want to make sure I'm not in for a disappointment when I get there.

Disney has been kind of strange about this. The only "official" way to get EE is with the 3+ day parkhopper bonus ticket.

Starting in July 2005 Disney starting allowing their resort hotel guests to use EE for each day it was available. It was initially described as a "test". I have never seen it published anywhere, and it is not listed as an official perk of staying at the resort hotels. At WDW their early entry Extra Magic Hours for resort guests are pushed liked crazy. Not so at DLR.

In summary, the EE perk for resort hotel guests is an unpublished, unofficial perk that has been going on for almost two years now. You should not have any trouble using it.

 

[LOLA2]

Question - If I am staying at Disneyland hotel does the monorail start letting people on at 8:00 for early entry or a bit earlier so you are in park by 8:00. Also where do they scan your tickets? Getting onto monorail or getting off in fantasyland.

Does California adventure have EE? What time does that open?

 

[3for Me]

Disney has been kind of strange about this. The only "official" way to get EE is with the 3+ day parkhopper bonus ticket.

Starting in July 2005 Disney starting allowing their resort hotel guests to use EE for each day it was available. It was initially described as a "test". I have never seen it published anywhere, and it is not listed as an official perk of staying at the resort hotels. At WDW their early entry Extra Magic Hours for resort guests are pushed liked crazy. Not so at DLR.

In summary, the EE perk for resort hotel guests is an unpublished, unofficial perk that has been going on for almost two years now. You should not have any trouble using it.

Thanks, Trey. I am glad the answer came from you!

 

[HydroGuy]

Question - If I am staying at Disneyland hotel does the monorail start letting people on at 8:00 for early entry or a bit earlier so you are in park by 8:00. Also where do they scan your tickets? Getting onto monorail or getting off in fantasyland.

Does California adventure have EE? What time does that open?

I do not know the answer about the monorail. In case you were not aware, and for the benefit of DLR first timers out there, what makes it different from say WDW is that the monorail does not drop you off at the front of the parks. It drops you off inside TomorrowLand. Since the park does not open until EE officially starts, I would be surprised if the monorail got you into DL before EE actually starts. Unless someone else here knows, I would ask some specific questions at the hotel when you get there. If you want to get in line early for EE, which is a good idea, I would guess your best bet is just to walk over to DL.

DCA does not have a formal early entry program. However, most days DCA opens its gates 30 minutes before the official park opening time. And it has one open ride - Soarin Over California.

 

[mrogerson6083]

Monorail opens just before early entry but doesn't leave till same time as early entry. They scan your tickets before you enter the station. Friends lined up for early entry at monorail and got to the train and at 9:00am they annouced mechanical problems and the momorail was out of service, so they had to go to the main gates anyways.

 

[TeamTnC]

When we were there two years ago, the monorail did scan tickets until EE began. Then they waited for people to arrive before pulling out of the station. In all I would have guessed they got their about 15-20 minutes into EE. If you really want to get the most out of it, follow Hydro Guys advice and walk over about 1/2 before EE and be ready to go.

After reading a little about ride capacity per hour for Nemo, I would think Disney would open this for EE. It is conviently located to everything and will allow more people per day to ride. However this is just my opinion.

 

[BCV23]

In summary, the EE perk for resort hotel guests is an unpublished, unofficial perk that has been going on for almost two years now. You should not have any trouble using it.

It is official now. We stayed at the GCH this month and it was on the welcome letter "Grand News."

It was not on the confirmation sheet though. It would be good to know ahead for those of us who so enjoy planning! Thanks to all of you here, I did know the details.

When I went through the turnstiles the first am, I just presented my AP since I am so used to that at WDW. With great disdain, the CM told me that "this is early entry." I apologized and pulled out my resort id (little white sheet) but I don't think she was happy I had it.

 

[challada]

So BCV, does everyone in your party get a white resort guest paper? We have a mix of both AP holders and nonAP folks going so I want to make sure we can all get in early together. We're staying at GC and assume we have to walk over to DL entry.

 

[HydroGuy]

It is official now. We stayed at the GCH this month and it was on the welcome letter "Grand News."

It was not on the confirmation sheet though. It would be good to know ahead for those of us who so enjoy planning! Thanks to all of you here, I did know the details.

Thanks for the feedback. It is a matter of semantics I suppose, but when you go to WDW and stay onsite, the EMH perk is published and promoted everywhere both before and during your trip. You probably know this.

I do not know but am guessing the welcome letter is what you receive upon check-in. If so, at DLR you cannot find about the EE perk unless you come to a place like this. Otherwise you find out at check-in.

By looking at the Disneyland website, etc., you cannot find out. In this sense it is unofficial and unpublished. I mean, if it was really official, why don't they use it to sell more rooms or get you to buy a Disney package? It would be easy to add a bullet onto the list of perks, like they do for TTMM. But they have not added this bullet for two years. I think the reason is that they do not want to promise it to people so they have the flexibility to change their mind and terminate it at any time. They just have not used that flexibility for almost two years since they started this "unofficial" perk. But one day they might stop this perk, and those who have "banked" on having it available will find out that it was never official.

 

[BCV23]

So BCV, does everyone in your party get a white resort guest paper? We have a mix of both AP holders and nonAP folks going so I want to make sure we can all get in early together. We're staying at GC and assume we have to walk over to DL entry.

No, since it can also be used for charging to your room I don't know that you'd even want everyone to have one. We had two since my DH had a meeting our first morning and was meeting us in the park. The slip is good for your whole party but of course only those registered in your room(s).

Yes, you must walk over to the DL entrance....a short walk indeed.

Hydroguy, I thought it was a change to have it in the newsletter because someone had posted that the resort wouldn't tell you about it unless you asked. And yes, it is the handout you get at checkin with the description of the hotels amentities, etc..

You're right that it is not publisized like EE at WDW. But at WDW, I think the main objective in publication is to encourage folks to stay in WDW hotels. At DL, there aren't enough hotels to make EE feasible for just DLR hotel guests. So I think EE is probably to encourage people to buy muti day packages/tickets. And perhaps the lack of publicity also has to do with whatever the Good Neighbor agreements are.

And actually, I didn't see anything at all about EE before we made this trip except on the DIS. I suppose that has to do with how one books their trip.

 

[HydroGuy]

You're right that it is not publisized like EE at WDW. But at WDW, I think the main objective in publication is to encourage folks to stay in WDW hotels. At DL, there aren't enough hotels to make EE feasible for just DLR hotel guests.

They have offered EE in the past just to DLR hotel guests. When we stayed at the PPH in 2000 we got to use it. If I remember right, the whole park was open rather than just Fantasyland/Tomorrowland.

But you are right that if they offered it solely to hotel guests, that would limit the number of people who would be able to use it because so many folks stay at the good neighbors.

So I think EE is probably to encourage people to buy muti day packages/tickets.

Yes, this is true. At WDW it is inherent that people will stay for multiple days. At DLR, it is the minority that do this.

And perhaps the lack of publicity also has to do with whatever the Good Neighbor agreements are.

As EE itself has nothing to do with good neighbors, it is hard to see how this could be so. The EE privilege with a 3+ day ticket is available to anyone, whether they stay at a Disney hotel, good neighbor, or elsewhere.

And actually, I didn't see anything at all about EE before we made this trip except on the DIS. I suppose that has to do with how one books their trip.

If you go to the DLR website and choose the ticket pages, it is clearly stated that you get one day of EE for 3+ day tickets.

As you probably noticed, it is also printed on the entrance tickets themselves. While not promoted as heavily as EMH at WDW, EE is promoted. What is not promoted (at least before you arrive) is the usage by DLR hotel guests.

 

[BCV23]

Wow, the park must have been nearly empty if the whole thing was open to only resort guests! You would think that would not be very cost effective.

Of course, it was with a "maybe" but my thought was that the Good Neighbor hotels would lose more guests to DLR hotels if EE were to be more widely publicized. Who knows what kind of contracts/agreements are in place to even the playing field...besides price, of course.

And no, our tickets were APs that have just expired and say nothing about EE... understandably so. We bought them at the gate last March. Nor have I ever checked out the ticket section of the DL website. I'm sure I used Mousesavers for my basic research last year on AP prices but don't remember anything about EE then either. Last year we were at the Marriott with APs so EE didn't apply to us. So I do think it is a function of booking or research that determines whether one knows about EE. In our case, the DIS was a help in my planning for this trip.