Is Early Entry at EPCOT Worth Waking Up for With Test Track Closed Until 2025?
One of my favorite things about Walt Disney World is that it “keeps moving forward.” When Walt uttered those three famous and poignant words, I’m sure what he totally had in mind was changes to policies that shake up the strategy for most efficiently experiencing EPCOT, which was totally a theme park in Walt’s mind.
In the spirit of Walt Disney’s sentiment, I’ve also been “opening up new doors and doing new things” with curiosity leading me down new paths. For example, I used to be a photographer with a blog. Now I am a blogger with heavy camera bag. You see the difference? Instead of photographing sunrises over Crescent Lake, curiosity about changes has led me down the paths towards the parks to do Early Entry at Magic Kingdom and EPCOT on a few recent mornings during a stay at BoardWalk Inn.
On one of those mornings, a particularly stunning sunrise was forfeited for the sake of heading to Magic Kingdom to see how the Party Season dynamic was playing out. Then less than one week later, and before I could publish a photo report, Walt Disney World dropped the virtual queue from TRON Lightcycle Run, rendering my results obsolete. (I’m not mad. Please don’t put in the newspaper that I got mad.) Thankfully, this morning at EPCOT went a bit better, and the sunrise was average anyway, so nothing of value was lost…
My basic goal here was to see the impact of losing Test Track until Summer 2025 on the other headliners at EPCOT during Early Entry. Specifically, whether it’s still possible to arrive at EPCOT via International Gateway in World Showcase, starting with Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and continuing with Frozen Ever After before the wait times get unmanageable.
For those who aren’t aware, International Gateway is the back entrance to EPCOT, situated between the United Kingdom and France pavilions, which makes it advantageous for starting at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Guests who have access to International Gateway are those staying at the Crescent Lake and Skyliner resorts, as well as those who jump through hoops to get dropped off at one of those resorts via Uber/Lyft, Minnie Vans, etc. Before you ask, no we do not recommend this. It isn’t worth the vacation time, money, or stress. (Seriously, if you’re considering something like this, you’re planning “too hard.”)
Anyway, I arrived at EPCOT’s International Gateway at approximately 7:50 am on this particular morning. The Skyliner was already dropping off guests at International Gateway when I arrived, and security and the turnstiles were already open. Both of those things had likely just occurred 5 or so minutes earlier, as there were roughly 100 guests in front of me.
Upon entering International Gateway, there’s a row of Cast Members scanning MagicBands, resort room keys, or whatever appropriate identification you might have if staying at one of the participating third party hotels. Cast Members didn’t start scanning until 7:55 am.
You get held back by the gift shop and can’t access the rest of the park without scanning here, after which time you can proceed towards the bridge to France. Or you can be like the 2% of guests who, for some reason, head towards the United Kingdom.
The crowd at the France bridge was held until 8:27 am. (In the photo below, the front of the line as at the beginning of the bridge.)
This is actually later than I’m used to experiencing, and I was surprised we were in this spot so long. How long each hold lasts varies from day to day (it’s not like this is tightly choreographed to occur at 8:27:00 am daily) and likely depends upon a variety of factors. During peak season, the new arrivals would necessitate the line move forward. I was just happy to be in the shade for once.
In any case, we started moving in a loosely formed line at 8:27 am, heading towards the Streets of Paris.
This is normal, as is the inevitable party or two that decides they’re going to bolt ahead of the group, ignoring the fact that everyone else is shuffling forward in a line (more or less).
Look, I can also power walk–much faster than we were collectively moving–but it’s patently obvious that this is a line. Point being, don’t be “that party” that decides to ignore protocol and race ahead. The icy stares aren’t worth it. (And believe me, we were all glaring our hardest. Take that, line cutters!)
Anyway, the group was once again held at the entrance to the Streets of Paris area until 8:30 (so for like 45 seconds), at which point there were roughly 112 people in front of me, a catastrophic increase of one-dozen thanks to the line cutters, who saved themselves a whole 2 minutes waiting in line by playing dirty. I hope it was worth it.
Conversely, this type of thing only cost all of us rule-abiding icy starers a few seconds. So don’t sweat the small stuff. It’s not worth getting bent out of shape over things you cannot control. You’re at Walt Disney World, enjoying EPCOT’s World Showcase as it wakes up for the morning. It’s going to be a great day.
At 8:30 am we moved forward, filling in the full line and outdoor overflow queue at Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. It quickly became clear, even though it wasn’t in the My Disney Experience app, that the attraction was going to have the dreaded delayed opening. Now the decision to hold us for so long on the bridge made a lot more sense.
Again, only about 112 people in front of me. This would’ve been a near walk-on (however long it took to slowly trudge through the queue, assuming no further line cutters) once the ride came online. Nevertheless, I immediately began deliberating about whether to cut my losses and jump out of line. I debated the pros and cons until I just couldn’t bear it anymore–the wait was excruciating.
So at 8:39 am, I exited the line. The amusing (at least to me) thing is that, if going by memory, I’d swear that I stood in that non-moving outdoor queue for 30 minutes, easily. And that’s precisely why I take notes when doing these field tests, because it was actually less than 10 minutes. Longest 8-9 minutes of my life…until the next time this happens.
My calculus for getting out of line at this point would be different than your decision-making process. A good rule of thumb for you to determine when to cut your losses is how long it’ll take you to walk over to Frozen Ever After. The goal is to arrive there by 9:05 am if you get out of line, so work backwards from that.
I wanted to be able to approximate a normal morning without a delayed opening, and how things would go with my second stop. I also wanted to see how long the line was for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure, whether guests were arriving from the front of the park, etc.
Honestly, a delayed opening that “forced” me to jump out of line was for the best of this field test. I shouldn’t have been in that line in the first place–I know how long it takes to do Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure on average from my spot–it was more worthwhile to observe how things had changed behind me. Why I didn’t think of this previously is beyond me. Perhaps I just really wanted to ride my 10th favorite attraction at EPCOT. More likely, it was the lack of sleep and coffee.
The line behind me was long. Very, very long:
As of 8:40 am, the back of the line was still forming with new arrivals speed-walking from the front of the park. This steady stream probably would’ve continued for the remainder of Early Entry since there is no line all shuffling together from this direction. People arrive at different times based on how quickly (or not) they can walk.
The posted wait time around 8:45 am for Frozen Ever After was 35 minutes and the posted wait time for Soarin’ Around the World was 10 minutes. This told me that the biggest impacts of the Test Track closure during Early Entry were Frozen Ever After and Remy’s Ratatouille, and not Soarin.
That came as a slight surprise, but not completely. After all, EPCOT has a trio of nearly co-equal headliners with standby lines, and Soarin isn’t part of that. Nevertheless, I figured Soarin would see gains due to the Test Track closure. After all, it’s at the front of the park and the other options are much longer walks for anyone arriving from the main entrance. But I guess not.
The line for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure is very long. Part of that is attributable to the ride not operating, and thus absorbing the International Gateway guests before the main entrance ones began arriving over the course of the previous ~15 minutes (the Rat Ride sometimes starts running before 8:30 am).
Regardless, this would’ve been a really long line. To the point that I struggle with the notion of hoofing it from the front entrance all the way back here. Is that really how you want to start your day? Getting hot and sweaty before it’s even 9 am? Not only that, but there’s the opportunity cost.
To each their own, but I just cannot see how it’s worth it to do Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure during Early Entry if you’re coming from the front of the park. Yes, you probably will have a shorter wait time than the daily average. Perhaps significantly so. You also power walked like a mile to the back of the park (which takes time and energy) and could’ve done something else instead.
None of this is anything new, though. I’ve never recommended Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure for Early Entry when entering through EPCOT’s main entrance. This just further seals the deal, because now there’s more competition with Test Track being down.
As I was taking photos en route to Norway, Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure came online for the day. If I had about ~8 minutes of patience in the tank, I would’ve been fine to ride it.
Anyway, I decided to “let it go” (hahahaha) and headed over to Frozen Ever After, where I arrived at 8:58 am to a posted wait time of 35 minutes. This is pretty much always my goal during Early Entry at EPCOT via International Gateway: beat the park opening crowd to Frozen Ever After.
I got here slightly earlier than anticipated since I didn’t ride Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Even had I arrived at 9:05 am, I still would’ve beaten the rope drop crowd. You cannot teleport from the front entrance to Norway, and I cannot imagine that technology is being added to the park anytime soon. If CommuniCore Hall is the current high water mark on innovation at EPCOT, we’re 1,982 years away from teleportation.
This is definitely a longer line than I’ve seen during the average Early Entry at EPCOT, but not by that much. The days of Frozen Ever After being a walk-on during the tail end of Early Entry ended a while ago–pretty much when the park moved to a 9 am opening time.
I was still on Frozen Ever After by 9:10 am, making for an actual wait time of 12 minutes. Notably, I did not see a single person scan into the Lightning Lane while I was in line (and I was watching).
All in all, that’s not too shabby. Especially when you consider that I could’ve done Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure and still made it to Frozen Ever After with a 15-20 actual wait time. From that perspective, Early Entry is still very obviously worth it at EPCOT. I’d argue that it’s better than Lightning Lane Multi-Pass.
Of course, the true test of whether Early Entry at EPCOT is worthwhile during Test Track closure is going to come when arriving via EPCOT’s front entrance.
I don’t have a definitive answer for that since it’s not what I tested, but my observations did lead me to a few preliminary conclusions:
- Don’t race to Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. The tradeoffs just don’t work out from my perspective.
- If you want to ride Frozen Ever After back-to-back, do that first! It’s still a bit of a hike from the front, but not as bad. More importantly, there’s less demand and you’d have the time to loop Frozen Ever After in that first ~45 minutes.
- Consider a more laid back approach, arriving at ~8:45 am and doing Soarin’ first.
I know it’s anathema to the apparent philosophy of this blog, but on balance, I’m probably taking the third option if I’m a regular guest.
While we obsess over efficiency and strategizing, we also like to think about things in holistic terms. Not all vacation time has equal value, but it all does have some value–and there’s an opportunity cost to every strategy or decision. Arriving at 8:45 am doesn’t mean sleeping in “only” an extra 15 minutes–it’s more like 45 minutes.
I didn’t roll up right when Early Entry started–being on time would’ve been too late for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. I arrived at 7:50 am and waited around for a while. Even if the Rat Ride didn’t have a delayed opening, my total wait would not have been ~5 minutes–it would’ve been 5 minutes plus 40 minutes.
If we’re going by actual waits as opposed to posted ones, 45 minutes is not that far from the average for Remy’s Ratatouille Adventure. Early Entry only crosses over into “worth it” territory from International Gateway for me because: 1) pre-park opening time is lower value; 2) I love that peaceful morning stroll through World Showcase without any crowds; and, 3) I also did Frozen Ever After. The second point is the most important to me even though it’s glossed over here. It’s what keeps me motivated to do this, from a personal perspective.
If I were coming to EPCOT from the other direction and I didn’t function at Walt Disney World in a state of perpetual sleep deprivation, I would’ve weighed the wisdom of coming so early and whether that required any tradeoffs. Specifically, would it necessitate a midday break or leaving before park closing?
If so, I would’ve recalibrated and made my goal, quite simply, to arrive a few minutes before rope drop. Being even slightly ahead of that crowd is highly advantageous, and would’ve saved time at Soarin. It’s obviously not as high value as the Rat Ride or Frozen Ever After, but it’s the lower effort approach. And sometimes taking the path of least resistance is the best strategy of all. I think that’s probably true of Early Entry at EPCOT from the front during the Test Track closure.
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YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on Early Theme Park Entry at EPCOT? Have you experienced this 30 minute jumpstart to the day since Test Track went down until 2025 for reimagining? What’s your preferred approach to mornings at EPCOT? How would you have done things differently? Any other feedback on arriving early to the Walt Disney World theme parks? Agree or disagree with our advice or approach? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
Just curious: wouldn’t arriving at ~8.45 am (main entrance) and doing Frozen Ever After (instead of Soarin’) first be a laid back approach as well? As you would still beat the (regular) rope drop crowd.
I visited EPCOT last June using that promotional 3-park 3-day ticket with no hopping allowed. Because I was at AS Sports, the IG was not feasible for early entry. It turned out I just didn’t have the energy to make it to the main entrance when I could have. After showing up at the turnstile probably around 8:38 am, I trudged over to Frozen and waited in the queue about half an hour (although maybe it just seemed like half an hour; I didn’t pay close attention). Regardless, I thought it was worthwhile since I hadn’t been on the ride for a while, and Frozen seems to have long waits all day so there was definitely some time savings. The other thing is that, especially in June, doing a super-headliner early in the day gets me a little ahead of that punishing Florida sun. Despite early entry being worthwhile, I remember thinking that its value at EPCOT is somewhat impaired by the distance between the top attractions. It would be nice to get two rides in before the unwashed hordes invade.
Tried to do Early Entry at 8:30, but my family was acting out “The One Where Nobody’s Ready” that morning, so we didn’t get to the International Gateway until 8:50. We went straight to Ratatouille…and waited about 55 minutes. =\
That seems to be every morning on our trips! Might just make everyone go in their pajamas and they can get ready in the park bathrooms while I’m riding all the best rides during early entry.
Peaceful morning strolls at Disney are the best.
With Test Track closed, during the relatively slow seasons the capacity of Soarin’ reduces lines for much of the day. Right now the best time-saving strategy at EPCOT is likely “Go on the one popular ride at the beginning of the day and the other at the end of the day.” (While Early Entry might technically still be better than LLMP or showing up late/leaving early, those extra 45 minutes are spread across *two* rides instead of about five at other parks)
That being said, give me a Park Hopper and I’d go for a couple of afternoons and end the day with them both. (World Showcase entertainment doesn’t pick up until afternoon, and there’s so much less walking that way.)
Appreciate all your articles! I had similar thoughts about Epcot and early entry specifically. We went last during spring break and I think we caught the worst crowds in April. From that perspective, early entry was a no-brainer. We are also up early anyway, so it wasn’t a problem for us. But from a waiting perspective, it’s really more of a toss-up to me. Of all the parks, I disliked the early entry process at Epcot most. And the multiple wait points made no sense to me. On our Epcot day, all rides started on time from what I could tell and crowds were building up to insane levels at different points. We were headed for Frozen from the front, but I could see ridiculous crowds heading for Remy’s the whole time, and even Test Track. At the final buzzer, it was insane stampedes everywhere. I saw plenty of CM’s along the way who had clearly given up to contain anything. I think this could be managed better, and looked fairly unsafe.
Despite our ambitious programs for touring, I think what I enjoy(d) the most during early entry is the atmosphere and just being there. The anticipation, and crisp air at that time was one of my best memories. Not so much the rides, especially when counting all the pre-opening waiting. Your article made me think that I may actually enjoy a few more casual strolls than squeezing x more rides in.
Thank you for calculating the true time cost of Early Entry!
It always drives me slightly bonkers when folks say “only a 5 minute wait” when they arrived 1 hour early and waited around in order to score that “5 minute wait”…. Also, my family are really not morning people and try as I might, I’ve only gotten them up for early entry a few times… at which point they complained we got up early to wait in line.
Once the September lull passes, I’d love to see an article on late arrival strategy with the new Lighting Lanes. Genie+ was pretty awesome for that (if you didn’t mind waking up at 7 AM).
Yes a lazy night owl itinerary with LLMP would be informative!
Unfortunately, LLMP is *not* awesome for this because the stacking rules are gone. I would not recommend that night owls purchase LLMP in most cases. You really need to be arriving earlier in the day to get the most mileage out of it. That is, unless you’re happy with only having 3 selections (maybe 4-5, but the remaining 1-2 won’t be great ones).
Here’s what everyone waiting in line needs to sing in unison to the line-cutters…like a flash mob:
“Let ‘em go, let ‘em go
Can’t hold them back anymore
Let ‘em go, let ‘em go
We turn around and glare some more
We don’t care what they’re going to do
Such a beautiful day
The ride is not up and running anyway”
Another fabulous article! I was cracking up at the line cutting jokes in this one. kudos! I also cracked up at your gentle dig at the over planners trying to shortcut getting in thought the IG while not staying there. I admit to being one of those people planning tooooooo hard for this trip in November. I actually told my sis yesterday that I am taking a break from planning bc I’ve gone off the OCD deep end. I like your Epcot strategy. Keep writing, Tom!
Tom do you think Disney is not dropping the virtual queue for Guardians because they are waiting for Test Track to open and have a virtual queue for TT then drop it from Guardians? Just curious what you think. I am just so surprised, as you, as to why they haven’t dropped the VQ for Guardians.
I have no clue at this point. I thought they would’ve dropped it a half-dozen times over. The latest weird thing I’ve heard is that the overflow queue they created (like a year ago) isn’t wide enough, so it has to be redone. But that could’ve happened several times by now.
I don’t think Test Track will need a virtual queue when it reopens unless it’s somehow much less reliable. Unfortunately, that’s a possibility we can’t rule out.
We were at Epcot in August with a 2 year old, and a 5 and 7 year old, staying at All Stars. I believe we went through the front gate at 8:30 am. We felt no need to rush to Remi, everyone had rode it already and it’s ok but we don’t love it. Instead, we went to Soaring. We all went on that twice and rode Living with the Land to keep the 2 year old happy. We also skipped Frozen, so again, no need to rush. We dead a virtual queue and bought Lighting Lane for Guardians, our favorite! Things may change when Test Track reopens but we had a casual tour day. Prefect for Epcot!
We were at Epcot in May – the day after Mother’s Day – and entered through the IG (stayed at the Swan). We were off Remy by 8:45 AM and I noted the posted wait time was already 75 minutes! We walked over to Norway, not to ride Frozen but to have breakfast at the bakery there, and the line for Remy was even worse than in your photos – it was almost to Morocco! I would never try to go there for early entry if entering from the front of the park.
And I completely agree with your “peaceful morning stroll” comment. When we’re with the grands they have other ideas, but for an adults-only trip, that’s the way we roll. It’s also a reason why I love doing the runDisney 5K races as a slowish run/walker. The 5Ks are not as crowded as the other races (I’ve done them all) and hitting the WS so early in the morning is delightful.
Why don’t all parks do early entry like Hollywood Studios (once you’re through the pass check, you’re in)? Being able to walk straight to your first queue is so much less stressful, and certainly more safe, than the multiple lawless stampedes and checkpoints at each other park’s headline lands.
I can’t agree more with you on the line cutters.
We haven’t been to Disney World since 2010. While we were there it was the tour groups from Brazil that were causing all of the trouble.
And unfortunately, we have done the power walk also. Like you said, who really wants to burn up that much energy that early.
We are hoping to make it back next year. So I will be watching for your updates until next fall to help with our plans. Myself like others appreciate your knowledge and sharing it. I can only imagine how much Megatron is learning with each trip. She will probably be taking over for you when she turns 10. HaHa.
But seriously, enjoy ever second with her. They go from newborn to 27 before you know it.
Maybe the line cutters were just power-walking past eh Rat line to get over to get in line for the 3 Cabaleros! (A friend of mine has a story from the days when the rope drop crowd stampeded to Soarin’. A family with them at the front of that line bee-lined it over to the Circle of Life movie in the land. Probably had the theater to themselves.)
I agree with your assessment about Remy from the front of the park. I mapped it out and it’s just under a mile from the bus stop to Remy. That’s a lot of walking first thing in the morning.
We actually did option 3 just today, but we combined it with buying LLMP. My logic in doing so was wanting to avoid getting up early enough for front-of-pack power walking to Norway first thing from the front entrance and having to cross cross back to ride Guardians, since we’re monorail guests this trip and we were out late at MK EEH last night.
I pre-booked Remy for around 11am along with Spaceship Earth and a throwaway LL for the Pixar short film at 9am. We chose to have a leisurely rope drop at Soarin at 8:30, with about a 10 minutes wait. Afterwards we tapped into Pixar and I was successful booking Frozen for 6pm, which works out very well for our post midday break return. I can’t tell you how much more relaxed our morning was doing this. It was especially welcome given the heat. This allowed us to take it easy, enjoy some rides at the front, and some booth snacking. It is absolutely how I will rope drop from the front until Test Track is back. I realize LLMP is pricey but with only 2 ppl it was so worth it to give us a relaxed stress free morning.
This sounds like the perfect approach, especially after doing EEH (or MNSSHP/MVMCP, for that matter) the previous night.
Well, nearly perfect. I think the ideal option would’ve been a LLMP for LwtL, but I’m guessing you couldn’t get a 9 am return, or had some other reason for not doing it?
Tom – you’re correct, I wanted LwtL as our throwaway but unfortunately it was only giving me later morning return times when I prebooked, so I opted for the Pixar short films as a decent alternative since it’s so close to the Land. All in all it worked out really well for us. I get LLMP is seen as a “waste” at Epcot but this was a perfect use case as it freed us up to enjoy ourselves with less breakneck pacing.
I like how you balance-in the intangible factors of vacation enjoyment. I would tend to agree with your Soarin’ first strategy, which could potentially be combined with a Living with the Land LL swipe to allow you a shot at a second tier one early in the day.
Your swipes at the EE line-cutters was very entertaining. I try to cut them a little slack on the assumption that the ones that do that are first-timers or infrequent visitors, who are just really anxious about max’ing their day. Ultimately, you are right that all that jostling saves only a minute or two. Of course, the worst instance of this phenomenon is Guardians with the mad-dash out of the pre-show room. If you think about it the time difference between when the first person out of the room rides and the last person is probably like 4-5 minutes tops. But again, I try to give them the benefit of the doubt.
I hope the sections about the line-cutters wasn’t too mean-spirited. I wrote this post partially while waiting during Early Entry, which means in a sleep and coffee-deprived state when I’m just a bit more curmudgeonly than normal.
The point is that, no matter the perspective, is that it’s only saving them minutes and costing you seconds. It’s not that big of a deal either way–you are correct. Perhaps I should punch that section up a bit to make that clearer.
Not too mean-spirited at all, and quite funny. I certainly identify with all the feelings you wrote about. You’re right –it would be better if everyone was a little chiller. You’re on vacation after all.
Don’t sweat the small stuff and you’ll have a much better time. That’s definitely advice I need to remind myself of as a type-A rope dropper.