Guests staying at Disney Resort hotels and select other hotels can take advantage of a 30-minute early entry into Walt Disney World theme parks every day. Valid theme park admission, park reservation and Resort ID are required.
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Early Entry at Magic Kingdom is a good way for on-site guests of Walt Disney World hotels to get a head-start, accomplishing a few attractions with low waits.
Early Theme Park Entry grants Walt Disney World Resort hotel guests access to any of the resort's theme parks — Disney's Hollywood Studios, Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and Disney's Animal Kingdom — 30 minutes before the parks open to the public.
Expect the first bus of the day to arrive between 1 hour to 75 minutes before Early Theme Park Entry starts. The goal is to be on the first bus of the day, and the lines for the buses will get very long, very fast.
Michael, if you use Walt Disney World Resort bus transportation from one of the Disney's All-Star Resorts to Magic Kingdom Park, you will be dropped off at the Magic Kingdom Park bus terminal. This bus terminal is a short walk from the Magic Kingdom Park entry and exit points.
Typical Hours at Magic KingdomThe typical hours for Magic Kingdom's are 8AM or 9AM to 10PM or 11PM, but hours vary even beyond that. On nights where Magic Kingdom hosts an After Hours or holiday party event, the park may close earlier than other days.
The following tips will help you make the most of Rope Drop at Magic Kingdom. Arriving at the Magic Kingdom 30–60 minutes before official opening ensures the shortest possible waits for rides.
Guests are allowed to bring outside food and nonalcoholic beverage items into the park for self-consumption, provided they are not in glass containers and do not require heating, reheating, processing, refrigeration or temperature control and do not have pungent odors.
Two rides, Kilimanjaro Safaris and Kali River Rapids are not open during Early Entry. The shows and meet and greets start to operate at, or in the hour or two after the regular opening.
Early Theme Park Entry is a perk for guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort Hotels, plus the Swan and Dolphin hotels, Shades of Green, the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels, and the Bonnet Creek Resort hotels. (See the full list here.)
Is Genie+ available during Early Theme Park Entry, Extended Evening Hours or After Hours events? No, Genie+ and the individual Lightning Lane selections are only available during normal park hours.
The Genie 120-minute rule says that you can make a new reservation at most 2 hours from when you made the last one, and this countdown timer doesn't change if you modify the reservation. If you made it at, say, 11 a.m., then your two hours will be up at 1 p.m. even if you modify the reservation at noon.
You won't need a Disney Park Pass theme park reservation or a regular theme park ticket to get in as long as you enter the park no earlier than 7:00 PM. If you want to drop in earlier, you'll need a standard theme park ticket — and a park reservation (if your ticket type requires one).
In the parks, bottled water runs about $3.50-$4, or if you're using the Disney Dining Plan you can pay with a snack credit. There are two places to get water for free: water fountains and Quick Service restaurants.
Guests are welcome to carry a bag or backpack with them into the theme parks. The maximum allowable bag size is 24 by 18 by 15. All Guests and their bags will undergo a security screening process prior to entering the theme parks and Disney Springs.
Because Magic Kingdom is often the number one park on visitors' lists, they'll hit it first on their trip. If they arrive on a weekend, that makes it a Sunday or Monday! Generally, Tuesdays through Thursdays are much less crowded than other days of the week.
If you have Early Entry, you'll probably want to start with Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan's Flight, or Space Mountain. We discuss the details of these rope drops in more detail in our dedicated Magic Kingdom Early Entry and Rope Drop post.
Off-peak times fall around January, February, September, and early November. Discounts on vacation packages booked directly through Disney (which combine park tickets and hotel stays) can be found year-round, though they're most common at these less-crowded times.
MNSSHP and MVMCP are separately-ticketed, meaning that only those who purchased event tickets are able to stay in Magic Kingdom after 6 pm. (Those parties run until midnight.) In other words, the park stays open 4-5 hours later to regular guests when MNSSHP and MVMCP are not held.
Magic Kingdom Park offers the nighttime firework show known as Happily Ever After!The 18-minute-long show occurs nightly. If you click on the link that I provided, you will be taken to the webpage on the Walt Disney World Resort website.
Rope drop is Disney terminology for the time when a theme park, or part of a theme park, opens for the day. Historically, when a Walt Disney World theme park is closed, Disney often used ropes stretched across the entrance to prevent guests from coming in; thus, when the park is opened the rope is dropped.