DisneyDotty said:
Please excuse my ignorance here...I'm assuming EE is not like EMH at WDW, which allows WDW resort guests early entry into the parks. Who is eligible for EE at DL? How do I get it?
Thanks so much for the info!
DL has had different strategies in different years for allowing guests into the parks early. In year 2000 we got in early when we stayed at the DLH hotel. I think the whole park was open early back then. Then for awhile there were no privileges for entering early.
To your question, I believe it was just this year that the "Early Entry" (EE) program was started in its current form. There is one formal way to get it. You must buy a 3-day or more parkhopper
bonus ticket. This is what is sold, for example, on the DLR website. There are other types of parkhoppers out there that are not bonus. For examples, ones bought thru the military are not bonus.
When you get a parkhopper bonus ticket, it will say on the ticket that you get an EE day. And it is only one day out of your trip that you get EE. In summary, the parkhopper bonus ticket is the only sure way to get EE.
Now, to confuse things, there is another "unofficial" way to get EE. Starting on July 18 of this year DLR began allowing DLR hotel guests to use EE for each day they stayed at the hotel and EE was available
as an experiment. It is not guaranteed to be available like the parkhopper is, and the experiment can be ended at any time. You will not see this EE method published on any website or on any materials. It is purely a verbal, unofficial, test that may end tomorrow. There were rumors DLR was going to end this in September, but they didn't. In short, you should not expect to get EE this way. Rather, if you stay at a DLR hotel and the test is still ongoing, you should just be glad and use it.
Unlike in previous years where early park privileges allowed you pretty much full access to the park, the EE program was always focused on FantasyLand. And even then, not all of FL is open. Just most of it. Then DL started opening parts of TomorrowLand. When Buzz LY opened (in March I think) DL started opening Buzz during EE. Then when Space Mtn reopened in July they added that. However, there is no official list of which rides will be open during EE. The actual open rides can change at a moment's notice.