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!
Only 30min? Early morning/extended evening hours is the only reason we stay in a Disney resort. Will most likely cancel our trip or stay outside the Disney bubble if that doesn’t change closer to our dates. Sad…
Excuse me? “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.” Am I understanding this correctly? Moderate and Value resorts will no longer be eligible for Evening Extra Magic Hours? If so, my trip, scheduled for October, is about to be canceled. There is minimal value already in staying onsite, so if the EMH perk is canceled for everyone but the Deluxe and DVC people, there is no value at all.
We received a notice as DVC members presenting the early admission a membership perk. We are starting to think our benefits “perks” are non existent.
30 minutes early entry , and how much can u get in with that . LOL. . We’re passholders and starting to re-examine if we’ll renew . Paying more getting less. Unless they start some perks they will definitely lose more passholders.
In regard the the extra evening hours, I was thinking that the Disney deluxe resorts need to start competing better again at the non Disney luxury resorts on property. Other than a few having superior access and location, they don’t do well when it comes to actual luxury amenities against Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt and Four Seasons. But what they can do is use their IP and their access to the parks. If I were Disney Management, no resorts other than the ones listed would get those highly prized extra evening hours.
@peg and others. Disney hotels offer the “bubble” and some nice theming. Frequent travelers do get tired of the same hotel, different city feel of a name brand. I could see concerns about the loss of benefits for Disney hotels. We usually stay Disney for the bubble even though I’m Marriott top-tier. But alas, it’s all a $$$ calculation for Disney and they are obviously trying to push more of their own business up to the more expensive hotels (thus increasing their $$/guest) with this perk. And allowing some of the nicer hotels to participate, I’m sure is also a $$ decision for Disney revolving around cost to operate the extra hours. Wouldn’t be surprised if the fees from the outside hotels offset the entire staffing cost… and then, bingo, the $$ from luring guests up to deluxe resorts to get the perk looks great if your a Disney bean counter.
I’m glad FastPass is gone. I forgot what a nuisance it is until we visited in December. The regular lines actually were moving again without all the FastPass peeps cutting in.
Do you have the actual press release or can Lin where it is? I don’t see any mention of swan and dolphin being included for evening hours from Disney direct. Thanks
@Peg, I don’t think you’re in the minority, at least out of the people paying an arm and a leg extra to stay at a Disney resort. One of the biggest complaints has been how busy EMH was getting, and it seems like a simple solution would be to stop letting third party resorts buy their way in. Swan/Dolphin and SOG are one thing, but I don’t see how it benefits Disney or Disney resort guests to include all these other resorts. But then I’m just a bitter moderate resort guest who is increasingly questioning my commitment to paying for those hotels.
I will be in the minority with this opinion, but I don’t think it’s right that non-Disney resorts get the Disney perks that people paying higher prices for Disney resorts enjoy. I don’t even see how it’s good for Disney from a business perspective because it diminishes the reasons for staying at the higher-priced Disney resorts. Some may stay just for the Disney bubble, but not all do. Gone is Magical Express. Gone is the luggage pickup and drop off. Gone is the 90-day FastPass advantage. Gone is the 180-day ADR advantage. There’s really not much of an advantage of getting in a mere 30 mins earlier when a lot of off-site resorts are, too. The only “advantage” left is the bus transportation, which is pushing it. Disney’s going to end up pricing themselves out of the resort market if they keep taking away all the benefits of staying onsite.
The evening hours thing is so weird when they’re trying to differentiate their deluxe resorts. I’ve never seriously considered staying at Swan and Dolphin before — I’d rather have a proper, fully themed Disney hotel and pay the extra. Don’t like not having magic bands for the room, or not being able to pay with Disney gift cards.
But, now that Swan/Dolphin are getting that additional perk moderates won’t have, along with their childcare which was always attractive… I think finally it seems worth staying there. Better location than any of the moderates too.
Feels like this deal with Swan/Dolphin will cost them in moderate resort bookings, though it’s often amazing what Disney can do *without* it costing them sales.
I continue to hate third party hotels other than Swan/Dolphin getting in on EMH/early entry though. I’d understand more if it were just the Four Seasons given how crazy expensive/exclusive that place is.
Great to see the Swan and Dolphin now on the list. Admittedly, I was a naysayer your first update on this based on a visit at the swan in December. As a top tier, Marriott traveler I want my hotels in on all the Disney perks so I can get my benefits rather then putting the family in a cracker box Disney hotel room… so happy to see this! Now may they return to Disney bus transport system as well soon. 🙂
According to the Shades of Green Resort facebook page, Shades is now part of the Early Entry list! 🙂
Will the Wyndham Bonnet Creek get an early entry?
We currently have THREE reservations for our annual trip in 2022:
1. Disney package at the Poly – We never do packages (prefer to follow Tom’s advice for discount tix and book hotel separately), but after too many hours dealing with COVID cancelations, we have a retail package through Disney. This option is insanely expensive, but we will hold onto this reservation if the extra evening magic hours for Deluxe resorts are impressive, if FastPass becomes a Deluxe perk and/or if Disney further degrades their resort transportation
2. Dolphin – Our favorite option, is now a bit less appealing without Disney busses to Animal/Magic Kingdom… And potentially no morning hours… And potentially fewer FastPass options…
3. Best Western – Great price. This would be a first for us. If FastPass goes premium, we could stay here and buy 2 unlimited FastPass’es (at $175 each) for the price of the Poly?!?
As a happy Disney planner, I love considering our options for different possible states of the world. But there is some disappointment about our diminished, shorter Disney vacation realities. Lots of reasons for this, mostly a matter of higher demand following the long, slow recovery from the Great Recession and of course the COVID recovery. We will see how things play out over the next few months.
Thanks, Tom. We will be there just before this goes in to effect. What is your current recommendation as to how early we should be showing up pre-October 1st?
We have a trip planned for Labor Day week. It’s our first trip and I’ve been trying to keep up with all the changes but I’m at a loss for when to arrive for “rope drop” with all the changes happening. We were really hoping to be able to knock out a few rides with low waits first thing. I heard they are now holding people instead of letting them get in line for rides when they arrive, but it sounds like we will miss this magic hours too. We are staying at boardwalk and grand Floridian. Did we just pick a no mans land of terrible perks for our first (and likely only) trip? Or do you think they may start a “soft opening” for this?
Glad to read most get that a half hour is a joke. Maybe one ride with little to no wait and that’s it. It essentially is simply opening the park one hour early. The extra evening hours if 2 hours or more are an actual benefit but I hate seeing all these paid perks vs it used to be part of the ticket cost. We keep putting off our next trip because we missed the the small window with low waits and no masks. Guess we’re hoping for a miracle of return to pre COVID policies entirely: “free” fast pass, extra hours unpaid.
Thirty Min is in my opinion a joke.
Also I wonder if Swan and Dolphin gave Disney the boot with their bus service and they will return the favor and exclude them form this.
Still 30 in is nothing as true Disney keep cutting.
Next year will be 15min!!
Where does it stop!
@TammyOrr… staying in bed.. 30 minutes is not worth the trouble.
Tom, what would you suggest is the best practical way to get the most of that 30 minutes? Thank you!