Don’t Make My Mistake: Early Entry at EPCOT to Test Track from the International Gateway

Let’s face it. If you’re staying in the Epcot Resorts Area, you’ll most likely want to take advantage of its location. One big location advantage is that you can walk to Epcot or Disney’s Hollywood Studios for early entry. While everyone has to deal with the hassles of waking up early and preparing for the day, you’ll have the unique opportunity of being in control (somewhat) of what time you arrive at the park. I say “somewhat” because we had an unexpected snag that put us a little further behind than anticipated. We’ll get to that.

For this walk-through, our primary focus is experiencing early entry from the International Gateway to ride Test Track. This walkthrough was completed on a weekend in mid-August, when about 50% of the Disney Resort Hotels showed no availability. So we’re dealing with moderate crowds, but not excessive like you might experience during Fall break or the upcoming winter holidays. To give you a little backstory, we were staying on the Swan side of the Disney Swan and Dolphin Hotel. On Sunday morning, Epcot opened at 9:00 a.m., which meant the park opened at 8:30 a.m. to resort guests for early entry. If you’re not familiar with early entry and are planning to stay at a qualifying hotel, you might like to read our primer on Early Entry at Disney World.

As far as our snag, we were checking out this morning and leaving our baggage with bell services. Since we were planning to spend the day at Disney World and not return to our room before check-out time, it was a necessity. Unfortunately, it took a little longer than expected, which put us about 15 minutes behind my anticipated schedule. I also had an issue with the camera lens fogging because our room was as ice-cold as it is when Elsa creates a snowstorm. So we’re working with mostly mobile phone images.

Per the time stamp on my phone, we walked out of the Swan Hotel at 8:09 a.m. From the Swan and Dolphin, it was a 0.61-mile walk to Epcot’s International Gateway that took us approximately 12 minutes at an average pace. We arrived at the park at 8:21 a.m. and were able to walk inside. At this point, I knew we had arrived entirely too late and that things probably weren’t going to go as I hoped. Yes, we were early. Yes, we were late.

After walking through security and the ticketing area, we continued up the walkway into the park. Before we reached the divide where you can turn left to head toward the front of the park or right to continue to France, we had to stop and scan in for early entry. The cast member at the checkpoint will scan one person in your party’s ticket or MagicBand and ask how many are in your group. As long as you’re eligible, they will then allow everyone through. So you don’t have to scan everyone’s ticket. One will suffice. (This checkpoint was at 8:24 a.m.)

We stayed to the left since we were headed to Test Track. Per the timestamp on my mobile device, we arrived at 8:33 a.m. While that may sound okay, the majority of the early entry crowd was already in the queue, and a 40-minute wait was posted. I don’t know about you, but if I’m going to take advantage of early entry, I would prefer a 30-minute or less wait for a coveted ride.

So we joined the queue, and it was pretty full with a few standstill points. Since Test Track no longer offers the design queue, these points were not because we were waiting on guests to finish that process. By 8:56 a.m., we joined the final portion of the line where you’re side-by-side with the combined Single Rider and Lightning Lane queue. Not one single person was waiting in the single rider line. So if you don’t care to be split up from your party for the sake of getting a ride out of the way and moving on to something else–this is the way. You’ll want to remember that Disney’s rules require that all eligible guests 7 years old or younger be accompanied by an adult aged 14 years or older. (By eligible, I mean meeting the height requirement.)

For reference, here is a photo of how many guests were waiting behind us.

From this point, we were on the ride in a matter of minutes, and I took a timestamp photo of the ride exit sign at 9:05 a.m. Overall, we had an approximate 27-minute wait to board the attraction. By 9:08 a.m., I was back at the ride entrance, and the wait was posted at 75 minutes. Ultimately, we were okay with the amount of time we waited. That said, if we were doing this for fun, I would have insisted my party split up and go through the single rider line. Even though we were a little later than I would have liked, the single rider line would have completely remedied the situation. From there, we would have continued to Guardians of the Galaxy: Cosmic Rewind and still have been able to enter the queue before regular guests entered the park at 9:00 a.m.

The moral of this story is that you’ll want to be at the International Gateway at least 45 minutes to 1 hour early. That way, you can scan in and head to the attraction of your choice as soon as guests are allowed to enter. If you’re 15 minutes early, you’re probably going to be late. If you are late, we suggest sticking with your plan and making the best of the situation. Remember that the posted wait times might not be as bad as they suggest at that early in the morning. In our case, we only waited 23 minutes with a posted 40-minute wait.

A Little Tip: If guests are at a complete standstill in the exterior portion of the Test Track or Cosmic Rewind queue, you can expect a long wait.

For more of our touring walkthroughs, you might enjoy the following:

• An Ideal Evening at Epcot: Touring Without Lightning Lanes
• Why I Go to Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the Late Afternoon (And You Should, Too!)

*Note that due to timing, some attractions might now be closed for refurbishment or possibly permanently closed due to new lands being built in three of the four theme parks. So make sure to check the list of Disney Ride Refurbishments and Closures before your upcoming visit.

More Planning

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