Early Theme Park Entry is a perk for guests staying at a Walt Disney World Resort Hotels, plus the Swan and Dolphin hotels, Shades of Green, the Disney Springs Resort Area hotels, and the Bonnet Creek Resort hotels. (See the full list here.) These resort guests may head to select attractions at all Disney World theme parks 30 minutes earlier than the official park opening time.

A similar program (but at night, after the park closes to other guests) called Extended Evening Theme Park Hours is available to guests staying at certain Disney hotels on select evenings.

Valid admission is required to enter the park, and your admission must be associated with an eligible hotel stay in My Disney Experience to get access to Early Theme Park Entry. (If you are staying in a hotel not operated by Disney, we recommend also bringing your room key or some other proof of your hotel stay as a backup.) Some guests, such as Annual Passholders and those using special tickets, may also need park reservations.

Those not eligible to participate in Early Theme Park Entry are generally admitted to the park but held back from the attractions until naer the official park opening time.

Early Theme Park Entry (ETPE) is a HUGE advantage for Disney resort guests. In our testing, we've found that using ETPE can save you 1-2 hours of waiting in line each day.

We think Magic Kingdom benefits most from ETPE since it has the most eligible attractions. ETPE is also useful at Hollywood Studios and Animal Kingdom. It's less useful at EPCOT because of how much time it takes to walk between EPCOT attractions.

ETPE is also helpful if you're trying to get on a park's hottest ride, such as Star Wars: Rise of the Resistance or Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind. If you're trying to get on a ride that's not eligible for ETPE, you can still use ETPE to get in line for it earlier than the general public.

• Make sure you check the Crowd Calendar to see what parks are the best to visit. With Early Theme Park Entry being offered every day at every park, the Crowd Calendar is the easiest way to see which parks will be least crowded.
• Arrive Early! Tens of thousands of guests have access to Early Theme Park Entry, and you want to be ahead of them. We recommend that you arrive at the park entrance at least 45 minutes before Early Theme Park Entry starts. You'll queue at the park entrance. Once Disney starts admitting guests into the park, scan your admission and then follow signs for Early Theme Park Entry guests. One person in your group will need to scan admission (MagicBand, phone, hotel key, etc.) to verify your ETPE eligibility. Then head to your first attraction. You may be held outside the land, or you may be able to join the attraction queue. Sometimes attractions open earlier than the start of ETPE, and you want to enjoy your first attraction as soon as it opens!
• At Magic Kingdom, we've observed the following schedule during 2025. Use this as a guide to plan your first moves, noting that operational problems may cause attractions to open at different times from day-to-day.

  MK Event	ETPE at 7:30am	ETPE at 8:30am
  TTC Parking Opens	6:30am	7:00am
  MK Bus Guest Security Opens	7:00-7:15am	7:30am
  MK Park Entrance Opens	7:00am	7:45-7:49am
  7 Dwarfs Mine Train Opens	7:23am	8:15am
  Fantasyland Attractions Open	7:23am	8:15am

• Immediately after entering the park, head to one of the busiest rides. If you are near the front of the crowd you will have virtually no wait when your first attraction begins operation. After experiencing that attraction, you will have time to get in line for another busy ride. The wait will be a little longer, but still better than if you were to wait until after official park opening.