Actual Opening Times for the Parks

[drosenbe]

I've heard that the parks are opening earlier than the official time.

Years ago, you could count on the MK letting you onto main street 30 minutes before official opening, and on busy days, the whole park would be open.

When we were in WDW in November 2013, the parks would pretty much open right on time.

Has that changed?

RDOD (Rope Drop or Die!)

[azcavalier]

The last couple of times i've been there, they have indeed opened things early.

At the MK, the opening ceremony has taken place just a *few* minutes early...like five minutes or so.

But at Hollywood Studios, for example, i've seen them open the gates fifteen minutes early. When I asked about it, the reasoning given was so that you could take your time getting to the attractions, so that people wouldn't be "stupid" trying to get to the front of the line. Not sure how this helps....I *think* that their thinking was that the rides would still not run until official opening time, but that didn't happen, either. We got to, and rode, Toy Story Mania before 8am on the Saturday we were there.

Epcot and Animal Kingdom were similar.

[ransam]

I've also noticed that epcot future world stays open later than they advertise sometimes.