Tighter Restrictions for Early Theme Park Entry at Disney World

Disney only recently debuted Early Theme Park Entry, but they are already placing tighter restrictions on the process. See the new change below. Are you glad they are doing this?

Extended Hours

Extra Magic Hours are a thing of the past now that Disney has introduced Early Theme Park Entry and Extended Evening Theme Park Hours. These onsite benefits allow Guests to enter the theme parks early in the morning or stay in the magic later in the evenings.

Every morning at every park, Guests staying onsite can enter 30 minutes prior to official park opening. Onsite hotels include every Disney World resorts and partnering hotels like Shades of Green and Swan and Dolphin.

You can read about my experience at Hollywood Studios on opening day of Early Theme Park Entry HERE. I was able to ride almost everything without a wait!

Tighter Restrictions

While I only had to scan my Magic Band once to get in the park, things have already changed just over a week later. At Magic Kingdom, Disney Cast Members are placing tighter restrictions to ensure only onsite Guests are benefitting from Early Theme Park Entry.

Not only will you have to scan your band at park entrance, but you will also have to scan to enter Fantasyland and then once again once you go through the entire queue of Seven Dwarfs Mine Train.

This will help keep offsite Guests from getting through the cracks and using a benefit that is not given to them.

We will see if this happens at other parks for other popular attractions. I could see this also being in place for Rise of the Resistance and Slinky Dog Dash at Hollywood Studios, Test Track or Frozen Ever After at Epcot, and Flight of Passage at Animal Kingdom.

Are you hoping to use Early Theme Park Entry on your next visit? What do you think of Disney closing any loopholes and placing tighter restrictions on the process? Join the conversation in the comments below and on Facebook.