List of Early Theme Park Entry Eligible Hotels at Disney World
Walt Disney World has released more details about Early Theme Park Entry, which is the replacement for Morning Extra Magic Hours. In this post, we’ll share the official list of eligible hotels plus other minor clarifying info, and offer commentary about the hotels that are eligible–and those that are conspicuously omitted. (Updated July 17, 2021.)
Early Theme Park Entry will start on October 1, 2021 as part of the World’s Most Magical Celebration for Walt Disney World’s 50th Anniversary. This perk will allow on-site resort guests and those staying at select third party hotels (that are also all on-site) to enjoy 30-minute early entry to any Walt Disney World theme park, every day before normal operating hours begin.
Much like during Extra Magic Hours, only select attractions will be open in each park. A full ride roster has not yet been revealed, but our expectation is that it’ll be all of the headliners plus other popular attractions. Basically, everything but shows and lower profile attractions. (It’s also possible Magic Kingdom will only open Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.) To participate in Early Theme Park Entry, guests will need valid admission or Annual Pass, a theme park reservation for the same park on the same date, and Resort ID (MagicBand or room key).
Early Theme Park Entry is a benefit for registered guests staying at Walt Disney World Resort hotels and select other third party hotels, including the following:
Eligible Disney Owned Hotels (Spoiler: It’s All of Them)
- Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort
- Disney’s All-Star Music Resort
- Disney’s All-Star Sports Resort
- Disney’s Art of Animation Resort
- Disney’s Pop Century Resort
- Campsites at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
- Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort
- Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort & Gran Destino Tower
- Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – French Quarter
- Disney’s Port Orleans Resort – Riverside
- Cabins at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Lodge
- Disney’s Beach Club Resort
- Disney’s BoardWalk Inn
- Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
- Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort
- Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Yacht Club Resort
- Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort
- Boulder Ridge Villas at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Copper Creek Villas & Cabins at Disney’s Wilderness Lodge
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Jambo House
- Disney’s Animal Kingdom Villas – Kidani Village
- Disney’s Beach Club Villas
- Disney’s BoardWalk Villas
- Disney’s Old Key West Resort
- Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows
- Disney’s Riviera Resort
- Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa
- Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa
Eligible On-Site Third Party Hotels
- Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek
- Waldorf Astoria Orlando
- B Resort & Spa Lake Buena Vista
- DoubleTree Suites by Hilton Orlando
- Hilton Orlando Buena Vista Palace
- Hilton Orlando Lake Buena Vista
- Holiday Inn Orlando
- Wyndham Garden Lake Buena Vista
- Wyndham Lake Buena Vista
- Four Seasons Resort Orlando
- Shades of Green
- Walt Disney World Swan Hotel
- Walt Disney World Dolphin Hotel
- Walt Disney World Swan Reserve
July 17, 2021 Update: The Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin have issued a press release that their guests will be eligible for 30-minute early entry to any Walt Disney World theme park, every day beginning October 1, 2021. For early theme park entry, guests will need valid admission, a park reservation and Resort ID.
Additionally, guests of the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin can enjoy extended evening hours–experiencing select attractions, shops and dining after regular park hours–in select theme parks on select nights. Both benefits will be available to guests of the hotel’s newest addition, the Walt Disney World Swan Reserve, opening later this summer.
Similarly, Shades of Green has announced that it will be participating in the 30-minute morning early entry. No word yet on extended evening hours there.
The morning early entry news for all of these properties was expected. However, the extended evening hours eligibility is particularly noteworthy because Disney announced that only Deluxe Resorts and Deluxe Villas (DVC) would be eligible. While the Swan & Dolphin have a stronger relationship with Disney than most third party resorts, it’s possible other hotels that aren’t owned by Disney will participate in the extended evening hours.
With Swan & Dolphin and Shades of Green now added to the list of participating resorts, there aren’t nearly as many conspicuous omissions on this list. The biggest absence now is the JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek, which is a brand new hotel and still might be working out the details with Disney.
Regardless, our expectation is that this list is incomplete, and more hotels will end up being eligible for early theme park entry once the dust settles. All of the Disney Springs Resort Area Hotels negotiate these deals collectively via their association–and these properties were the last added to the Extra Magic Hours lineup only a few years ago. The other hotels all negotiate their deals individually.
As with the Disney Dining Plan, these third parties and Disney have to agree on contract terms. Sometimes that takes longer with certain operators or management groups than others. We used to see the same thing every year with some restaurants (like Chefs de France) being ineligible for the Disney Dining Plan until the very last minute–or even a couple weeks into the new year.
It’s likely the same idea here–I have a tough time imagining that the Swan & Dolphin or Shades of Green are not going to offer early theme park entry to their guests. I’d be downright shocked if Shades of Green, in particular, is ineligible. Hopefully Walt Disney World is cognizant of the optics of excluding that particular hotel.
Ultimately, not much more in the way of commentary beyond that. It was pretty much a foregone conclusion based on Walt Disney World’s previous announcement that the same hotels eligible for Morning Extra Magic Hours would be participating in Early Theme Park Entry. The bigger surprise is actually the high profile properties that are not included, but we suspect that’ll be remedied in the coming weeks.
It’ll be interesting to see if any of these hotels manage to sneak onto the list of hotels for Extended Evening Hours. Those are officially only for guests of Deluxe Resorts, Deluxe Villas, and guests staying in Disney Vacation Club units (whether members or not). However, it wouldn’t be a huge shock to see the Four Seasons Orlando buy its way onto that list. As long-time partners with Disney, we might’ve predicted the same of the Swan & Dolphin, Swan Reserve, and Shades of Green up until seeing this list. Now, who knows?!
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Your Thoughts
What do you think about this list of hotels that are eligible for Early Theme Park Entry at Walt Disney World? Are you disappointed that so many third party hotels are included, or happy that it’ll give you cheaper on-site options for this perk? Do you agree or disagree with our commentary? 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!
I’m just disgusted with what is obviously *not* a perk. People already arrive 30 min or even earlier prior to park open, and the park opens earlier than posted open time. Now, post-pandemic, there is little to no social distancing in or around the entrances at any of the parks, nor is it happening inside, either. Let’s get real here.
Tom, I challenge you to do the math as to how many *potential* people would arrive at rope drop for this “supposed” perk. My bet is that it is 1,000s of people, which will deem arrival 30 min early, clearly not even close to being the “perk” Disney is promoting.
Many, many perks have been pulled from onsite guests. Many complaints have been made regarding this. Yes, companies need to reassess and move forward, and adjust to post-pandemic business practices; however, Disney seems to think that people will continue to come in droves to spend more money for things that in the past have been free.
Apparently issues with the Magical Express made Disney pull that particular perk; now everyone will have additional hassle when booking onsite, if the family is flying in (fast train notwithstanding, and the train plan is not nearly as convenient as Uber or Lyft or even Mears. )
The Dining Plan and Fastpass are coming back, in some form; trouble is, for those coming in to vacation in 2021, it doesn’t give a lot of time to earn and squirrel away the extra money that for which we didn’t plan.
Yet, despite the complaints, Disney is counting on people to be willing to spend more to get less. I just wish that Disney didn’t mislead people into thinking 30 minutes early is going to make marked difference.
We *are* coming this year, despite everything, because we really need a vacation. It’s awesome just to be able go enjoy. I’m grateful and looking forward to it!
If I do have to pay-to-play, I’d at least like to know how much to start saving!:)
I’ve been anxiously awaiting your interpretation of the excluded hotels all day. Your commentaries have become the highlight of my still quarantined days. I get so excited with new posts. You have so much little insight, like the collective agreement with the Disney Springs area hotels, that I love. I completely agree about SoG and the optics of it. Already I’ve seen articles from sites that have literally never mentioned SoG before commenting on its absence from this list. I’d be shocked if it isn’t included. We stay there almost exclusively now, and Disney still bends over backwards to help ground it in still being on property while still being a technical military installation. It would be a huge shift if it wasn’t included, and it wouldn’t bode well to me for future military programs from Disney if this really holds true.
Personally I never found the magic hours to be that great anyways. There are many hotels included and many of those guests running to take advantage of them. For us even an hour of extra time is not worth it for us. We would rather have a nice breakfast and go to the parks at our leisure. All the little perks they offer really were never enough to entice me. I love Disney and we go often however I don’t find any of their hotels no matter which category to be worth it. We prefer to stay at a nicer hotel where the amenities are real and worthwhile. You can stay at a 5 star resort off the property for less money and more service than the deluxe resorts at Disney and be treated like a real Prince and Princess. In the scheme of things a half hour is really not worth it.
Keep in mind that if the official opening for resort guests at the park is 30 minutes early, they will probably start letting us in the gates 30 minutes prior to that and they may even start operating rides a little early to prevent lines from piling up.
Point being, if the opening time for a park for the general public is 0800 hours, I recommend arriving at 0700 hours.
This sucks! 30 minutes of early entry hardly qualifies for an “on-site” perk of staying at Walt Disney World and secondly, staying in a Walt Disney World hotel used to feel exclusive. Unfortunately now, it seems as though the exclusive list of perks is dwindling and it is opening up to more off site hotels which is a double whammy!! Ugh.. this is disappointing along with on-site parking fees!! Hoping the fast pass system in Paris doesn’t get implemented in Florida! Yikes!!
I don’t think the dolphin and swan will be back on the list. Stayed there in December, unapologetic about getting rid of the Disney transportation. I think they’re banking on their location and prior reputation and splitting from the Disney perks frankly. We shall see.
30 min is pretty sad…how little mg is the extra time in the evening? Surely it’s longer than 30min.
30 min is pretty sad…
Hi Terese,
They should sell those towels.
They don’t but I’m not suggesting you steal them.
My story was meant to keep my point light while using something as simple as towels to represent how everything in the Deluxe Hotels are far better than anything in the value resorts.
You get what you pay for at each resort level but a Park perk like an hour at the end of the day should be for everyone in the bubble.
Come on Disney let’s have a little love here.
@Mickey1928 Wait…are you saying you steal the towels from the hotel rooms? Or are these towels you can buy specifically at the Treehouse vs the Value resorts? Just trying to see if there’s something I’m missing out on here.
This concept is intereresting. DVC Villas will not necessarily see more demand because of this new perk. But, they likely will see a lot more people eating breakfast at their resort. When I am up early for rope drop, my breakfast is a coffee & a muffin. When I sleep in, I often do a full-service breakfast.
A big complaint for guests spending $700+/night is cramming into every cubic inch of those early morning buses. (At least pre 2020).
I think this is a smart way for them to better utilize transportation, sell more high-priced meals and increase guest satisfaction at the Deluxes. At the same time, this should have less people rope-dropping and somewhat less crowded transportation in the early morning, thus increasing the guest satisfaction for those non-deluxe guests.
How do you think marathon week Jan 2022 will be more or less busy than past years and will hotels have a grasp of how they will be impacted?
Tom, please clarify… extra morning hours will be at each park EVERY morning, correct?
If this is correct, then another way to say this is that the parks will open 30 minutes later for all off-site guests.
Thanks to an earlier blog of yours there are no surprises with this first official release of Early Theme Park Entry. Completely agree there is no way Shades of Green will be excluded.
“It’ll be interesting to see if any of these hotels manage to sneak onto the list of hotels for Extended Evening Hours. Those are officially only for guests of Deluxe Resorts, Deluxe Villas, and guests staying in Disney Vacation Club units (whether members or not). ”
I fervently hope so.
I totally disagree with your earlier position that it is fair that only guest at Deluxe resorts and DVC units get Extra Evening Hours. Your defense was that they pay more and deserve more.
True but they are getting more by staying at a better hotel.
With each level up they get a nicer room, a bigger room with higher quality amenities, an abundance of food options a cut above, superior pools, nicer gift shops, quicker lobby service, beautiful grounds to roam, luxurious places to lounge.
Everything is better on the deluxe level. For example, after I stayed at the Treehouse, as soon as I arrived home I threw out all our towels from the value rooms and replaced them with towels that sucked the water off your body before it touches your skin.
In all seriousness whether one stays at a deluxe or moderate or value the offsite equivalent is cheaper and ofttimes nicer.
Let us not lose sight that first and foremost people are coming for the Parks.
Therefore those who choose to stay on WDW property paying more at every level than they would outside, ALL deserve the extra hour or half hour at the parks.
It also serves Disney by inducing people to stay at their resorts rather than go off site. Staying onsite puts money in Disney’s pockets in so many ways.
In closing I would also argue that ALL deserve some Fast passes. Maybe value gets 3 FP+ and no fourth, moderates 4 FP+ and deluxe 5FP+ and an extra after those are used.
They came for the Parks and deserve park extras.
Ok
@Brian and @Ashley, I think that you are misunderstanding the new “””perk””” , now all the parks are eligible for these 30 minutes (that obviously are not a big perk and we will have to see to what extent Disney is able to separate guests from hotels from the others…
Loved the Morning Extra Magic Hours option when we visited 5-yrs ago, before theme park reservations were required in addition to a valid ticket. So it’s disappointing to see the shortened time and frustrating to have to coordinate your park reservation with the correct day for early entry into that park. Seems to me if you are staying at an Disney property, you should get early entry to any park without having to jump through hoops. Otherwise, what’s the point?
30 minutes is a slap in the mouth. You are better off going to the parks that are not offering it that day if you can.
This is a joke, 30 minutes and the morning sucks because you have to get up early while on vacation.
Disney continues to cater to the rich by raising prices, taking away perks for the average family and making things exclusive to the rich people.
Is it worth taking advantage of EMH if the overall foot traffic is higher in the park for the rest of the morning/day? The residual bottlenecking might not be worth it for one hour of early access -?