Why We’re WORRIED About This Disney World Hotel Perk

Could this popular Walt Disney World perk be on the chopping block?

In recent years, Early Entry has become one of the most popular perks offered to Walt Disney World Hotel guests.  According to Disney, guests staying at Disney Resort hotels and select other hotels can take advantage of a 30-minute early entry into Walt Disney World theme parks every day of their stay (including check-in and check-out days). In my most recent visits to Disney’s theme parks, both as a guest and a 6+ year-long reporter covering the parks, I’ve often seen guests taking advantage of this offer. However, Disney’s recent cross-country announcement has some worrying that the perk may be going away.

In late August 2025, Disney announced that Early Entry for Disneyland Resort hotel guests would be ending in 2026. The Anaheim resort’s system works slightly differently than Disney World’s, with the two parks – Disneyland and Disney California Adventure – alternating which park offered the perk on a given day.

Starting on January 5th, 2026, guests who are checked in and staying at one of the Disneyland Resort hotels will instead receive one Lightning Lane entry to a Lightning Lane Multi Pass attraction during their stay.

According to Disney, this change is due to the majority of hotel guests not taking advantage of this offering, and the designated early entry park sometimes not lining up with where guests had theme park reservations for 1-Park-Per-Day tickets.

So, will this change come to Walt Disney World?

Well, for now, it seems unlikely.  For starters, Disney has already confirmed that the perk will “continue” through 2026. Beyond that, each of Walt Disney World’s four theme parks are open for Early Entry each day, and serve the resort’s many more hotel rooms.

All of this differentiates the resort from its West Coast counterpart, making the perk much more valuable in Florida, and much less likely to disappear. Though, of course, there was a time when the  Magical Express seemed like an invaluable Disney World perk that would never disappear…

Disney is eliminating Early Entry as a Disneyland perk, though the Walt Disney World Resort seems unlikely to follow suit any time soon. Stay tuned to AllEars for more on the resort.

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How often do you take advantage of Early Entry? Let us know in the comments below.