15 minute early entry perk - Worth it?

Bobb_o

DIS Veteran
Joined
Jul 12, 2015
I'm planning a trip that will have me going to DisneySea on 7/21 (This is 1 of 2 days that Sinbad's Storybook Voyage and Journey to the Center of the Earth are open) but according to a crowd calendar I found this is going to be a busy day. I've been looking at a line app for 3/3 which has the same estimate for crowds and it's looking at bit rough (9:30am and Journey is at 160m, RagingSpirits 130m, Nemo 110m, ToT 120m)

So if I was there I would have a FP for ToT and probably have ridden Journey by now. That still leaves waiting a while for at least 1-2 rides (Indiana Jones is under refurbishment right now) and I'm not a big fan of 2 hour lines for rides (But who is?)

So with the early 15 that means I'd probably be able to get a second FP relatively quickly and possibly only have to wait in a long line maybe once? The other thing is I have no idea how long the FP queues take, I understand they can be a while. Also which rides totally run out of FP? I know Toy Story and Tower of Terror but I'm not interest in TS since it's the same as the US version and I plan on doing ToT first thing so that's not an issue. Would I be able to end up with 4 FP for Journey, Indiana, Nemo, and RagingSpirits if I'm at the park all day?

Now, the problem is that I can get an official hotel for like $160/night with points and the Celebration Hotel is ~$350/night and it's off site. I would probably do a split stay if I want the 15 min cause the distance of the Celebration is not worth it. So is the 15 minutes worth $200? I would say you're crazy if you offered me that at WDW but for 1 day in a possibly once in a lifetime situation I'm thinking about. And as nice as the Ambassador Hotel looks I don't think I could justify $526/night to my wife.

I'd appreciate any advice/tips!
 
On the Japanese crowd calendar, if you hover on a date, a box will appear to the right. Scroll to the bottom of that box and there are predicted times of when FP will run out. You'll have to use Google Translate, but it's not too hard to figure out which ride is which.

Doesn't look like they have Nemo yet, the label still looks like StormRider. My guess is they're just using the old algorithm for StormRider, which probably wouldn't be accurate for Nemo.

http://www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney/
 
Our first trip to TDR in 2014 we stayed at the Sheraton. I don't think we missed too much by not getting the early 15, but we had four park days. We returned in 2016 and stayed at the TDL hotel. The early 15 was nice, and so was the TDL hotel, but I think we got our room at a pretty good price.

If you only have a couple of days and want to try to get as much as you can in, it might be worth the money.
 
On the Japanese crowd calendar, if you hover on a date, a box will appear to the right. Scroll to the bottom of that box and there are predicted times of when FP will run out. You'll have to use Google Translate, but it's not too hard to figure out which ride is which.

Doesn't look like they have Nemo yet, the label still looks like StormRider. My guess is they're just using the old algorithm for StormRider, which probably wouldn't be accurate for Nemo.

http://www15.plala.or.jp/gcap/disney/


Looks like the 15 could be worth it because I would be able to get a ToT ride in, grab a FP for Nemo, and ride standby on Journey pretty quickly (or vice versa) That leaves a FP for Indy probably and then 20k leagues. All that's left is RagingSpirits which I could use single rider.
 
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When we went in 2016 it was in July and we didn’t need a FP for 20,000 leagues. I’m pretty sure we just did it in the afternoon or evening when we walked by and the wait was only 15 or 20 minutes.

Make sure to do Sinbad in the afternoon. It’s a great ride, kind of a mix between small world and pirates. The magic show next door is okay if you have time.
 
Indy has single rider, too. Raging Spirits we found single rider to be very slow moving and the ride was really not worth the wait to us.

We were a bit confused about the single rider entrances as most times they were not very well advertised and you got to walk down the FP line. But Alls CMs knew the words single rider and pointed us to where we had to go.
 
Indy has single rider, too. Raging Spirits we found single rider to be very slow moving and the ride was really not worth the wait to us.

We were a bit confused about the single rider entrances as most times they were not very well advertised and you got to walk down the FP line. But Alls CMs knew the words single rider and pointed us to where we had to go.

The thing is I'd rather not have to do single rider at Indy if possible but I think without early entry we'd have to. If there was one "big" ride I'm ok with skipping it's RagingSpirits.
 


it would not be worth it to me to pay $200 just to ride one more attraction. I would get a FP for nemo, then ride journey and 20000 leagues standby. Once you can get a another FP get it for TOT. Do raging spirits at the end of the night, it's at the very back of the park, and so the lines definitely drop near park close. Just skip your story if you've ridden it before, it's a time suck.
 
it would not be worth it to me to pay $200 just to ride one more attraction. I would get a FP for nemo, then ride journey and 20000 leagues standby. Once you can get a another FP get it for TOT. Do raging spirits at the end of the night, it's at the very back of the park, and so the lines definitely drop near park close. Just skip your story if you've ridden it before, it's a time suck.

I am happy to see that Fantasmic is at 8 and there's still going to be ~90 min of park time after that and a significant number of people leave after the show.
 
I am happy to see that Fantasmic is at 8 and there's still going to be ~90 min of park time after that and a significant number of people leave after the show.

Yes, our experience was that people tend to leave earlier than in the Anerican parks. The last hour was always great to hit multiple attractions.

At TDS you have to take the distances into account though. The park is very spread out and a bit convoluted in its layout. While that adds to its charm, when trying to hit multiple attractions late at night it becomes a bit frustrating.
 
We where there two weeks ago... and on a Monday in the winter there was very long lines to get in DisneySea. We were able to use our 15min early entry to go in a separate entrance and bypass the line (we basically got there at opening as we were staying in Celebrations Discovery)
 

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