Big Change to Early Entry at the Disneyland Resort in 2024
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In August 2022, Disney brought back the fan favorite Magic Mornings program under a new name - Early Entry. Many Disneyland fans were delighted with this news.
I say that because prior to covid, anyone with a three, four or five day park ticket were able to access Disneyland Park one hour prior to the official opening time, once per ticket.
When the resort reopened from its covid shutdown in 2021, quite a few perks and features were absent, notably; park hopping, character dining, FastPass and, you guessed it, Magic Mornings.
Roughly a year later, when things began to normalize again, Disney made the announcement that they would be bringing this benefit back. Albeit with a few, rather unpopular changes.
What were those changes? For starters, it was no longer based on your ticket type. Now, the only way you can take advantage of this perk was if you were staying at one of the three resort hotels.
Secondly, Disney cut the early entry time in half to just thirty minutes. As stated above, in the before times, you were permitted to access the park a full hour prior to opening time.
So essentially, now, you enter the park at the same time as those who’re rope dropping, but you get to bypass the rope at two lands at Disneyland and a quite a few major attractions at Disney California Adventure.
One positive change that guests actually celebrated was you could now access either Disneyland Park or Disney California Adventure, as both were available daily.
However, that perk has changed. As of January 20th, 2024, only one park will be accessible during Early Entry each day. The park calendar on the Disneyland website states which park will be available.
Many fans have voiced their displeasure of this change on X (formally known as, Twitter) but as many point out, this appears to be nothing more than Disney reverting the program back to its original form, only with DCA being an option and not just Disneyland.
For now, every other aspect about the Early Entry program remains the same. You must be a registered guest at one of the resort hotels and you still get a thirty minute head start.
Many believe thirty minutes isn’t enough and while I agree to a point, I can testify that it’s enough time to get a small handful of attractions done. Especially when you consider you still have the normal two hour rope drop window.
At Disneyland Park, you get early access to two lands, Tomorrowland and Fantasyland. Provided there aren’t any on the refurbishment schedule, most of the attractions in each land are open during Early Entry, including:
Space Mountain
Peter Pan’s Flight
Dumbo the Flying Elephant
Finding Nemo Submarine Voyage
Star Wars - The Adventures Continue
and more
In this case, the attractions are in close proximity of one another, making it easy to knock out two, maybe three before rope drop. If you head straight for Peter Pan’s Flight, though, prepare for that one to potentially be the only one you get done during Early Entry.
Over at DCA, it’s a whole different beast. The attractions that are open during Early Entry at this park are spread out, making it difficult to get the same amount done that you could at Disneyland.
A few examples of DCA’s Early Entry attractions include:
Guardians of the Galaxy - Mission BREAKOUT!
Incredicoaster
Soarin’ Around the World
WEB SLINGERS: A Spider-Man Adventure
Monsters Inc - Mike & Sulley to the Rescue
and more
You should notice a significant difference between those two lists. DCA has several E-ticket level attractions open during Early Entry, compared to Disneyland’s one. And because rope drop is much harder to do at DCA, having that extra thirty minutes could make all the difference.
Since they’re so spread out, it’s imperative to check the refurbishment calendar (you can read and save mine here) so you don’t waste precious time hustling all the way to Incredicoaster, all to find out it hasn’t opened yet.
At times, cast members will inform you of which attractions are closed, but I recommend playing it safe by reviewing the calendar before you arrive. Having a predetermined game plan, with contingencies in mind, is the only way to go.
Unfortunately, Radiator Springs Racers isn’t open during Early Entry. You can queue up for it outside of Cars Land, though. If you do, queue up at the transition between Cars Land and Avengers Campus. There will be much less competition over there and it’s closer to the attraction.
Early Entry may not be as good or popular as its predecessor, but it’s one of those situations that better we have this than nothing at all.
On one hand, people who usually stay at an off property hotel lose a perk they once had but on the other, those who’re shelling out huge sums of money to stay on property have gained an exclusive perk that helps to justify the price a bit more.
I don’t stay on property often but when I do choose to, I do like accessing the parks earlier. I, like many, believe it should be moved back to an hour, though. Thirty minutes may be better than nothing, but a full hour would make this perk so much better.
