Early Entry, Extended Evening Hours, After Hours, Rope Drop… huh?!
Welcome to the ups and downs of planning a trip to Walt Disney World, where all the terms and acronyms turn your trip planning into PhD-level research.
Most people heading to Disney World don’t truly research, however, so they aren’t aware of how to plan for and take advantage of the numerous benefits Disney grants visitors – like Early Entry, for example – to make their trip a little more magical.
But if your search has led you here, you’re way ahead of the pack.
Between the rides, shows, and character greetings, Magic Kingdom offers nearly 40 attractions, which makes for a pretty busy day.
So, how do you make the most of your trip to one of the busiest and most famous Disney parks?
Let’s start by looking at one of the most underappreciated visitor perks: Early Entry.
What is Early Entry?
Early Entry is a benefit reserved for guests staying on property at Disney Resort and other select hotels, granting them access to the Disney parks 30 minutes before the official park opening.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t apply to the entire park. Only Tomorrowland and Fantasyland (not to mention Main Street USA) will be available to Early Entry guests.
But don’t worry; a good strategy will still give you the jump over regular crowds at official park open!
Early Entry Pro Tips
Knowing the ins and outs of benefits like Early Entry will not just set you up for a successful park day, but you’ll also begin to learn to maximize your time at the parks. And we all know that, especially at Disney, time = money.
Here are our biggest tips when it comes to mastering Early Entry:
- Early Entry = Start Early. Early Entry often starts before it says it will. For example, if the park opens at 9 am and EE is at 8:30 am, some attractions will start operating 5-15 minutes earlier. It’s never much earlier than that, but it’s definitely a nice way to get the line rolling earlier, so factor it into your overall arrival time – especially if you’re like many and consider EE to be a competition sport!
- Meander down Main Street. All guests with valid park admission will be allowed past the main turnstiles and onto Main Street USA, so even if you don’t have EE, you’ll still get a chance to enter early. We consider that worth it alone for the chance to grab your morning Starbucks, take photos at the Castle, or just enjoy the vibes.
- Be first for Rope Drop. Strategically speaking, if you don’t have EE, arriving early can also put you ahead of the (regular) crowd when the park officially opens at “rope drop.” Plus, you can see the adorable welcome show at the Castle five minutes before opening!
Early Entry Attractions
Heads up: Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin and Big Thunder Mountain Railroad are closed for refurbishment until further notice (sometime in 2026).
Since you already know only select areas of Magic Kingdom will be available during Early Entry, there is also a specific list of open attractions.
Note: As of now, TRON is not currently on the list of available attractions during Early Entry, but we expect that to change sooner than later, and you can line up to be first for Tron during Early Entry.
- “it’s a small world”
- Astro Orbiter
- Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin
- Dumbo the Flying Elephant
- Mad Tea Party
- Mickey’s PhilharMagic
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Prince Charming Regal Carrousel
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Space Mountain
- The Barnstormer
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Tomorrowland Speedway
- Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of The Little Mermaid
- Walt Disney’s Carousel of Progress
For your planning purposes, it’s important to remember that most character greetings will not be available until the park officially opens.
Food Options
Although major quick service options at Magic Kingdom won’t typically open until closer to lunchtime, some food vendors will be accessible during Early Entry.
We’re fond of grabbing snacks and coffee at Cheshire Cafe or Friar’s Nook if we need them, but note that we don’t necessarily recommend this approach.
If you’re up and at ‘em for Early Entry, you should really be using that time to focus on conquering the beautifully short lines for rides.
Our hot take? Fuel yourself to get through at least the first 90 minutes of your time in the park to make the most of the “extra” time you have. Some quick food in the room or to-go breakfast bars are our first line of defense, and then we’ll typically get a filling snack at Gaston’s Tavern or even settle down for an early lunch once we’ve gotten through our priority attractions for the morning and lines really start to grow.
A Note on Early Entry vs. Rope Drop
Before we get into the actual step-by-step attraction strategies, it’s important to know that there are two different terms used to signify opening times at the parks: Early Entry AND Rope Drop.
Historically, Rope Drop referred to the time when Cast Members would drop the (literal) rope for an attraction so guests could ride. There would additionally be multiple rope drops, such as an 8:30 am rope drop for Fantasyland rides, then another one at 9 am for Frontierland.
Many bloggers and publishers use the terms for park opening interchangeably, but for the purpose of OUR website and the strategies we have for the four parks, we use them separately:
- Early Entry refers to the attractions opening 30 minutes before the park officially does.
- Rope Drop, which we sometimes call Regular Rope Drop, refers to attractions opening at the official park opening time.
It will be clear below, but we needed to mention it!
Early Entry Strategies
Now, we can get to the fun part: planning your ride strategy on arrival. Your Early Entry strategy, however, will depend on multiple factors:
- How early you want to be there to line up for a ride (we’ll get more into this, but your timing matters for certain attractions).
- Whether you’re planning on purchasing and using Lightning Lane Multi Pass and/or Single Pass.
- How much of a crowd you want to deal with that early.
Note: Early Entry is a nice benefit, but it’s important to highlight that 30 minutes goes by quickly. You’ll typically only have time for 1-2 attractions MAX before moving to a regular itinerary (and starting to use your Lightning Lanes if you’ve paid for the Multi Pass), so being intentional with your time is crucial.
Let’s go through the different Early Entry strategies based on priority attractions so you can pick which works best for you:
Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
This attraction typically holds one of the highest wait times in the park from open to close, and the only ways to ride it are to either wait in the standby line or pay extra for the Lightning Lane Single Pass (no fun).
The problem with using Early Entry for this ride is that a significant line will build almost immediately. For example, if EE is at 8:30 am, there will already be a decent crowd waiting by 8:10 am and sometimes earlier.
If you go for this option, know you’ll still technically be waiting in a line. To take the best advantage, we recommend getting there half an hour in advance of EE if you want to be on and off the ride quickly (i.e., 15 minutes). Otherwise, you could get stuck in the EE bottleneck and see a 30+ minute wait, which is no fun and not a good use of your time.
Peter Pan’s Flight
Even though this ride is short and not a thrill ride, it’s another tremendously popular attraction. Not only does it hold one of the longest waits of the day, but it can be a difficult Lightning Lane to get day of (Note: you can pre-book it as your Tier 1 LL, though!).
You may not see as big of a crowd as you will for SDMT, but it’s normally still a decent size, so you don’t want to roll up just five minutes before. Plan on lining up for this AT LEAST 10-15 minutes in advance.
Remember, you will also be waiting in the same group for all Fantasyland attractions, which means you’ll be in the SDMT cluster. Look at the map to get a visual of the path you’re taking, but you’ll want to stay all the way to the left and beeline to Peter Pan to try and avoid the SDMT crowd as much as possible.
If you’re on and off this ride quickly, we recommend heading to Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh next.
Space Mountain
If you want to knock out a headliner/thrill ride, a great option is to hit Space Mountain first! Yes, it’s one of the best rides in the park that keeps a long line most of the day, but it’s a pretty easy Early Entry plan.
Most of the time, you can line up for this 10-15 minutes before EE starts and still have less than a 10-minute wait. It also positions you to get in line for TRON after you exit, although this tactic can get a bit chaotic!
If we’re a party of mainly adults or big kids, it’s fun to do Space Mountain, then head back to Main Street for the welcome show before continuing with our regular day itinerary/Lightning Lanes.
TRON
Since TRON opens at regular park opening and not Early Entry, one strategy here is to line up for TRON during Early Entry, kinda like lining up early for SDMT.
We aren’t huge fans of this approach, however, since you’re really in a “waiting to wait” situation that can get a little wild if you’re not there super early (and even that doesn’t guarantee you won’t have a long wait).
Our suggestion is to wait to ride TRON at the very end of the night or during the fireworks if you don’t mind opting out of the show.
Kid-Focused/Chill Approach
If you’ve got young kids in your group or are looking for a little bit more of a relaxed start to your day at Magic Kingdom, consider hitting the “lighter” attractions in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland during Early Entry.
The benefit is not just a more leisurely morning, but you can get more attractions done. We recommend starting with The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh first (if you don’t have a Lightning Lane), as that line will get big, and day of Lightning Lane times can be way pushed out.
Otherwise, hit Astro Orbiter first if you want to do that (we don’t consider it a must since Dumbo nearby is easier, and better). And after that? We like a few rides on Buzz Lightyear and then doing something easy, like “it’s a small world” or Under the Sea before we move onto a regular itinerary.
Rope Drop Strategies
Again, many rides are unavailable during Early Entry, including all attractions in Liberty Square, Adventureland, and Frontierland.
Since Rope Drop refers to the official opening of the park, now is an excellent time to employ whatever overall strategy you were planning on for your park day.
Consider timing when planning your approach. The early bird gets the worm, and at Magic Kingdom, that is especially true.
At regular park opening, it can be very handy to leave Tomorrowland or Fantasyland and head to rope drop something big ticket like Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Haunted Mansion, or Jungle Cruise. We can often do those first four attractions (sans Jungle Cruise, not a priority for us) in that order with less than 20 minute waits at each during a non-busy time of year.
We won’t get into all the itineraries here because we already have dedicated guides for those, so head there next to get your strategy and set up a plan for the rest of your Magic Kingdom day! 🙂