Welcome back to the Disney Parks Moms Panel, William! Your Walt Disney World Resort vacation will be here before you know it!
My family almost always gets to the park before they open to take advantage of the lower crowds and lower heat. As an added bonus we get to be some of the first guests of the day on our favorite rides!
William, in the Magic Kingdom, Main Street, U.S.A. will open about an hour before the park opens. While you will not be able to leave Main Street, U.S.A, most of the shops and restaurants will be open. My family usually takes advantage of this time to stop by Starbucks and grab a coffee and Mickey Cinnamon Roll before we start our day. To officially open the park, Mickey Mouse and Friends put on a special welcome show called
Let the Magic Begin.
The other three theme parks will also allow you to scan in a little early and will then hold the crowd at a designated location. Once the park opens, or occasionally a little before, you will then be walked to the most popular attractions by Cast Members.
If you want to be one of the first to enter the park, I would recommend that you arrive around 30 minutes to an hour before the published opening time. This will let you get through security in plenty of time to be one of the first guests in line.
William, another strategy that my family loves to take advantage of is to book a breakfast
reservation at a restaurant inside the park about an hour before the park opens. For example, on our last vacation, we had an 8:00 am breakfast reservation at
Garden Grill Restaurant in EPCOT. Garden Grill Restaurant is located right next to
Soarin' Around the World so we were on and off the ride before the rope drop crowd even made it there. This strategy can be applied at almost any park, but those reservations are a little hard to book, so make them as soon as possible.
I hope that this has helped, William! Please come back to the Disney Parks Moms Panel if we can help as you plan your magical vacation!
See you real soon!
Sarah B.