7 Dwarfs Mine Train with no fastpass?

friedela

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Nov 15, 2017
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We are staying off-site for our first trip, (I know there are perks to staying on property but the prices... yikes. o_O ) Anyways, being that we only get 30 days advance dibs on fastpasses I already know that in all likelihood the 7 Dwarfs Mine Train will probably all be taken by the time I get to book our fastpasses so my question is how long is the regular line up at this ride on a low crowd day early in the morning? We will be there Feb 27th and will get there at probably 7:30 AM but I understand the ride doesn't open until 9 AM.
TIA.
 
Feb 27th is an early morning magic day. People who pay $69 per person get to go in at 7:45 AM to have breakfast and do 7DMT, Peter Pan, and Winnie the Pooh. If you go there first thing, there will be people in line already. I'm guessing it won't be too long if you are one of the first regular park guests to get there and most regular park guests don't get there as early as 7:30 AM so you should have an advantage if you go that early (I don't know exactly how long the wait would be for 7DMT- we have never done 7DMT first on an EMM day. But they don't sell that many tickets to the event, so I'm guessing it wouldn't be a super long wait.). Don't try to get a good view of the welcome show or else you will get behind. Line up behind the rope on the walkway leading into Fantasyland to the right of the castle. (Don't go under the castle or through Liberty Square to get there. You won't even be close to being the first regular park guests there.) Hope this helps.
 
Or just go in the last hour, waits aren't that bad then
 
FP for 7DMT has been available at 30 days. I picked up some for several weekends
 

There will most likely be hardly anyone is line for 7DMT from EMM at rope drop. They only admit around 200 people for the event and it easy to ride 7DMT multiple times during the event ( we rode 6 times in a row back in June). At rope drop most EMM people are ready to leave Fantasyland or hit the Fantasyland rides that weren't open during EMM.
 
Rode 7DMT (standby) at rope drop many times.. could have be EMH, hard to remember.. We used to always hit Buzz Lightyear as our first ride but 7DMT has changed that, now we hit that ride first but always at RD..

In the evening, an hour before closing might be your best chance to ride standby with minimal wait.
 
OP, you won't have any residual 7DMT riders from EMM (and it's too small to worry about anyway) but you WILL have the PPO BOG folks who will be let in line before any of the rope drop crowd can get there. The BOG PPO folks will not be able to ride until very close to/right at 9AM when EMM ends. But they're a relatively manageable number too... just making the point that you won't be 'first' to get there.

Just in case you don't know how the opening procedures these days.... for a 9AM opening, they open the MK front gates 7:45AMish. Everyone is free to walk around Main Street up through the Hub. Some shops/Main Street Bakery are open.

The welcome show will be at the castle stage at 8:55AM, after which the 'ropes drop' into the various lands and the park is open.

The large majority of people there will be heading to 7DMT, so just be prepared.

Agree with the poster above that said you want to position yourself towards the bridge to the right of the castle heading to Fantasyland. This will be your quickest route to 7DMT. To be specific, see the pic below. Those people grouped by the bridge won't be able to see the welcome show, but they'll be first walking to 7DMT. FWIW, this was at 7:48AM on a 8AM opening morning. I'd expect a larger crowd for a 9AM opening.
748AM-Fantasyland Bridge.jpg

Hope that helps!
 
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You do have a good shot at a FP. Be on line at 7:00 at you 30 day mark and try for a day later in your trip. Take whatever you can get and you can modify later. If you don’t get one that day, keep checking back multiple times a day as they do open up all the time. If you still don’t get one try each day you are there.we have even got one while in the park that day.if it is very important,you could also do the EMM event. Rope drop to SDMT is crazy but doable.
 
Lol We couldn't get fp for 7DMT even at 60 days out. The EMM won't affect you. I've done that and it's awesome but those people will be gone by the time you come through. They hold the PPO dining people in a line until just before the regular ropedrop crew so they will be ahead of you, but if you are at the gates at ropedrop and walk right to 7DMT you will have a very short wait. Should only be a few minutes and most of it you will just be walking through the line. We've done that too, and although it's not my favorite, it's doable. Just expect high traffic and very fast walking.
 
We were at the park an hour early and the first ones at our turnstile. We jogged to the right of the castle where a line of cast members were waiting to block us. They then walked us to the mine train. I will say that if you don’t hold your spot, people will budge in front of you. We walked quickly right on the cast members tails and were the second people on the ride. It was definitely worth the wait in the morning because neither dh nor I like 7dmt that much. We’ve waited 2 hours at the end of the night during fireworks and left underwhelmed.
 
This line gets really short near the end of the day. Our longest wait ever was 20 minutes during opening week in 2014. You can usually get on twice in less than a half hour. This is a much more efficient use of time than early morning.
 
Went to 7DMR at rope drop in November. Already said 70 minute line wait. We got in line anyway, we were in and out in 25 minutes.
 
Went to 7DMR at rope drop in November. Already said 70 minute line wait. We got in line anyway, we were in and out in 25 minutes.
They do that with fop too. They put the time higher than it actually is at first.
 
We were at the park an hour early and the first ones at our turnstile. We jogged to the right of the castle where a line of cast members were waiting to block us. They then walked us to the mine train. I will say that if you don’t hold your spot, people will budge in front of you. We walked quickly right on the cast members tails and were the second people on the ride. It was definitely worth the wait in the morning because neither dh nor I like 7dmt that much. We’ve waited 2 hours at the end of the night during fireworks and left underwhelmed.
Did your end of the night wait match the posted wait time at all?

I've heard they inflate the wait time to discourage people from getting in line. But 2 hours is a legitimately long wait!
 
Did your end of the night wait match the posted wait time at all?

I've heard they inflate the wait time to discourage people from getting in line. But 2 hours is a legitimately long wait!
I actually don’t remember(it was 2 years ago). It was the first time I had ridden it so I was pretty excited and the fireworks were going off while we were in line. At the time it didn’t seem like a long wait but after riding it we decided never to wait that long again. I think thunder mountain is a million times better.
 
It is pretty easy to get 7DMT even same day. We were there over Christmas and got two 7DMT FPs as a 5th and 7th FP and then got it again as a 5th FP on the 26th while waiting for a dining res. at BOG. If you don't get one before you go, just keep refreshing after you use your 3rd FP.

ETA: When we got our FP on the 26th, the wait time was 180 minutes.
 
Don't give up hope on getting FPs at 30 days out. We are AP holders who often stay offsite, and have found SDMT FPs often available to us
 
Or, go just before, during the fireworks. Everyone, well, most everyone, are at their watching areas for this and the standby queue is very short. We were there just after thanksgiving and experienced this. The wait time at the entrance to the attraction displayed 180 minutes but there wasn’t any visible people in the queue... we knew this wasn’t correct.... we entered the queue and did not encounter anyone till we entered the building, hence a 20 minute or so wait time. There is hope!
 
Lol We couldn't get fp for 7DMT even at 60 days out.

That's interesting. We were just there over Xmas day (on-site) and were able to get it easily for all 3 days we were at MK.

To the OP, we have stayed many times off-site and never had a problem getting it at 30 days. This has always been mid March, so it has been at a fairly busy time of the year. Stand-by is always very long for this ride, usually the longest wait of all the rides at MK.
 
That's interesting. We were just there over Xmas day (on-site) and were able to get it easily for all 3 days we were at MK.

To the OP, we have stayed many times off-site and never had a problem getting it at 30 days. This has always been mid March, so it has been at a fairly busy time of the year. Stand-by is always very long for this ride, usually the longest wait of all the rides at MK.
Nope...and tried many times. Could have just been a busier day...but actually was deemed a moderate or less crowd level.
 













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