While staying on property at the Disneyland Resort you will get to enjoy the perk of Early Entry. This means you will be able to enter either Disneyland or California Adventure 30 minutes before the park is scheduled to open. Early Entry gives you extra time in the park with lower wait times and crowds. Here are my tips of how to get the most out of your Early Entry time. To get the best deals on the Disneyland Resort hotels and tickets visit Get Away Today or call them at 1-855-GET-AWAY. Be sure to tell them Magical Trip Tips and Tricks sent you so you can get the best prices.
How Early Entry Works
Both Disneyland and California Adventure will open 30 minutes before the park is stated to open for Disney hotel guests. Security will open 30 minutes before Early Entry is supposed begin. I recommend to be in the security line 30 minutes before it is going to open so you have time to get through security and to the main gates.
Once you are through the gates of the park you will begin to see signs for Early Entry. Be sure to follow these and don't line up with all of the people in line for rope drop. Once you are in the Early Entry area, a cast member will be there to make sure you are a hotel guest. You can either show them your room key or your hotel reservation in the Disneyland App. After, you will be able to go start riding the attractions that are open.
Rides That are Open During Early Entry
Not all of the rides and lands are open during the 30 minutes of Early Entry. Some of the rides that are open however are ones that will have very long wait times later in the day. It is a good idea to ride some of the more popular attractions during Early Entry. However, if the ride during Early Entry already has a long wait by the time you get to it, I would recommend skipping this attraction and riding something else, so you are able to get more rides in during this precious time. Below is the list of rides open at both Disneyland and California Adventure.
Make a Plan and a Backup too
Before you go to enjoy your Early Entry into Disneyland or California Adventure, you'll want to have a plan for what rides you are wanting to ride during this time in the park. You can decide on which rides you are wanting to ride most and head to those first. You'll want to have a back up plan as sometimes some of the rides are having a hard time waking up and are not running yet. This way you won't panic and will just be able to shift your plan A to plan B. It's a good idea to have a plan for what ride you are wanting to ride after Early Entry when the park has opened. For example, at California Adventure we rode WEB SLINGERS then headed over to Cars Land and got in line for Radiator Springs Racers when the park opened. This cut down the wait time for Radiator Springs Racers by a lot. By the time we got off the ride it already had a long wait time behind us.
Something I noticed, is you are able to ride multiple rides in Disneyland during Early Entry. But at California Adventure you will only get on 1 or 2 rides. This is due to the fact that the rides that are open at Disneyland are mostly in Fantasyland and closer together, and the duration of these rides are shorter than the ones open at California Adventure. So, don't be discouraged or upset over not being able to ride multiple rides at California Adventure during this time.
Don’t Spend time Eating During Early Entry
One of my biggest suggestions during Early Entry is to not spend your time eating or waiting in line for food. Some the lines for food are usually shorter during Early Entry but some of them may be extremely long already. You don’t want to waste this special time eating while you could be riding attractions. I would recommend to either eat breakfast before you go to the parks or plan to eat breakfast after the park has officially opened. What my family and I did was eat a protein bar before we went to the parks then after Early Entry we ordered breakfast from the one of the restaurants in the park to enjoy. This made it so we rode multiple rides before the lines got long and still had a delicious breakfast.
Don’t Use Genie+ and Lightning Lanes
If you have purchased Genie+ for your trip keep in mind you will not want to use your Lightning Lanes during Early Entry. The lines during Early Entry are not long because it is only hotel guests in the parks. Using your Lightning Lanes for the open rides will use those up for the day when the stand-by line itself isn't very long. You'll want to save those Lightning Lanes for the big rides later in the day when the parks are much busier.
Have Fun
Most importantly have fun during Early Entry! Enjoy being in the park with fewer people. It's a serine experience. Soak up all of the Disney magic and live in the moment. Walking around and having nobody around you, will not happen for the rest of the day. Same with the rides, enjoy only having a few people on the rides at this time. It makes for a unique and memorable experience.
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