Booked FP for same day as paid EMM what to do...not buying EMM...

[alwaystvl]

Just booked a last minute trip for this June for my 12 and 14 year olds and myself (DH comes later in the week). We will be there Jun. 9-16 and will have 6 days to visit the parks (with park hopper plus). I grew up in FLA and have visited DW a lot, but we haven't been in 6 years. I'm not sure how I did it, but I booked us FPs (got good ones, too) to go to MK on the 11th when there is EMM and then to HS on the 12th when they also have EMH (FP that day aren't great). [clearly I must have reversed them, despite looking at a spreadsheet].

We are NOT morning people and can barely make it there for rope drop (we WILL tho'), so there is no scenario where I would pay the extra to get in early. What is a good strategy to deal with this? My FP tickets for HS suck. I only got Toy Story Mania in the morning and then Tower of Terror around 6pm.

I was thinking 1 of 3 things:
1 option: Drop the HS FP I have and see if I can find any MK for Wed. and then if I can (doubtful), just switch the days. I think we are too close in at this point and I hate the idea of losing what I do have. I figure once we use the TSM FP I'll try and book something else.

2: visit a nearby park to start the day (because the EMM folks will get the best line options) and then come into the park to use the FPs and then see how the day goes as to if we stay or go or..this seems like the worst option because it's too much moving around.

3. Suck it up, get there as close to opening as possible (I presume with the EMM, they don't do rope drop earlier as they would on a non EMM day (?), go get in line for the popular rides (Slinky Dog for instance) and do as much as we can in that time before the parks get super crowded and 'live and learn'.

I do plan to do AK and HS later in the week during their EMH 8am opening (I hope), so do have that option as well. It's complicated, but I can't get tickets for those days until we arrive at Disney -- so we have a 4 day park hopper and the other 2 days are another kind of ticket. so I have no FPs booked for those and won't until Jun. 9.

Ideas I haven't considered, thoughts, suggestions? WDW has changed so much, even in the 6 years since we last went and I don't have a good feel for what to expect. When I was a kid, at MK there were only 2 or 3 rides that had more than 45 min. waits and this was when the only park was MK. Even when EPCOT opened it wasn't bad. We've obviously been many times since that long ago time, but it is hard to get a handle on what to expect.

 

[Robo]

If you truly mean “EMM” (and not “EMH”...)
EMM will NOT affect you at all.

EMH is when resort guests enter a park one hour early and ride any open attractions.

EMM is a paid event for very, very few guests.
Those guests do not affect regular park visitors.

 

[KrazeeK120]

EMM doesn’t affect rope drop at all.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Early morning magic is not the same as Extra Magic Hours. Read this on EMM, https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/early-morning-magic/

Read this for EMH- https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/guest-services/extra-magic-hours/

Bottom link as PP mentioned EMM won't effect your MK visit at all. It's a hard ticket event with very few tickets sold so it won't matter on the morning crowd levels. If you aren't into morning rope dropping, you can try the end of day strategy or try rides during the fireworks show and/or parades. The lines generally will have shorter waits around those times.

 

[alwaystvl]

I realized after I posted that I had a typo at one point with EMH, I do in fact mean EMM where folks pay extra money to get in early. I assumed two things about these EMM for those who don't pay the extra money and still visit that park:
1. that while the folks are limited to rides in certain areas of the park, their being in the park before everyone else would make the lines longer at key rides such as the Mine Train (a new one for me that I really want to hit)
2. the rope drop will occur at the posted opening time (as opposed to earlier as I've read is often the case). In all my life, I've never arrived at a Disney property at rope drop, but we are aiming to do that this time.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

I wouldn't change your plans. As other said, you won't be impacted by EMM at MK. And it sounds like you have another day already planned to hit DHS early, so I really wouldn't try to change anything.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

I realized after I posted that I had a typo at one point with EMH, I do in fact mean EMM where folks pay extra money to get in early. I assumed two things about these EMM for those who don't pay the extra money and still visit that park:
1. that while the folks are limited to rides in certain areas of the park, their being in the park before everyone else would make the lines longer at key rides such as the Mine Train (a new one for me that I really want to hit)
2. the rope drop will occur at the posted opening time (as opposed to earlier as I've read is often the case). In all my life, I've never arrived at a Disney property at rope drop, but we are aiming to do that this time.

Really there is no need to worry about the EMM attendees. Not many tickets are sold for it. I think when we attended a few years back it was maybe 100-200 ppl if that. That's really not a lot of people in Fantasyland when you consider at any given time, MK can have up to 65,000+ people in it before they stop letting in guests. And there is a breakfast served with EMM tickets so when the park is opening, if the people attending EMM are smart, they're eating their breakfast and not in line for rides anymore.

Rope drop for MK means that you can arrive at the park up about an hour (sometimes varies in my experience) prior to the posted park opening time and wait at the castle until the ropes are dropped by a cast member so you can then walk to each of the lands inside MK. At DHS, it's pretty similar. We can usually get into DHS about 30-45 min early and wait by Echo Lake and then go to the ride we are trying to get on.

You can google rope dropping and there's tons of info out there but do make sure to allow time to get from your resort to the gates which will include getting through security and getting back to the area where you will be held for RD. Based on that it will dictate how close to the front of that crowd you end up. For us, we've RD 7DMT several times and arrived around 30 min early and ended up waiting as little as 10 min or as long as 40 min, just depended how far back we were and crowds for the day. And don't sweat it if you're not early birds and miss RD. Also keep checking FP+, for popular rides it's not likely but sometimes they do open up.

 

[alwaystvl]

Thanks all, just so I'm clear, the rope drop can occur earlier than posted times even on EMM days? I'd be kind of unhappy if I paid to get in and then Disney let people in 15 or more minutes early...I'm trying to time when we need to get there given they are EMM and it sounds like you are all saying to treat it like any other day. I was planning to allow 45 min. (I've read an hour, but I'm being realistic with my crew) for transport from Beach Club. I'll google rope drop. Hope this trip is better than the last, when after not so scary Halloween it took over 2 hours and a cast member to help us (and others) get a bus to come to take us to our resort (didn't get back til 230am), we had at least 6 rides break down (it was cool to walk down the golf ball from the top), but not cool to sit in the Pooh ride for 30 min., and they scheduled EPCOT"s 30th anniversary and 2 other big things after we booked (we booked maybe 8 months out) that made the parks unbearably crowded, and I got stuck in the stairwell at Wilderness Lodge. Hoping this time is better than last time at WDW or no one in my family will ever go with me again! Thanks again!

 

[jhoannam]

Thanks all, just so I'm clear, the rope drop can occur earlier than posted times even on EMM days? I'd be kind of unhappy if I paid to get in and then Disney let people in 15 or more minutes early...I'm trying to time when we need to get there given they are EMM and it sounds like you are all saying to treat it like any other day. I was planning to allow 45 min. (I've read an hour, but I'm being realistic with my crew) for transport from Beach Club. I'll google rope drop. Hope this trip is better than the last, when after not so scary Halloween it took over 2 hours and a cast member to help us (and others) get a bus to come to take us to our resort (didn't get back til 230am), we had at least 6 rides break down (it was cool to walk down the golf ball from the top), but not cool to sit in the Pooh ride for 30 min., and they scheduled EPCOT"s 30th anniversary and 2 other big things after we booked (we booked maybe 8 months out) that made the parks unbearably crowded, and I got stuck in the stairwell at Wilderness Lodge. Hoping this time is better than last time at WDW or no one in my family will ever go with me again! Thanks again!

Treat it like any other RD, we did EMM last year at MK. My kids were done riding SDMT by the time RD came. We rushed over to Space Mountain but the RD people go there before us.

 

[TheSouthernBelle]

Thanks all, just so I'm clear, the rope drop can occur earlier than posted times even on EMM days? I'd be kind of unhappy if I paid to get in and then Disney let people in 15 or more minutes early...I'm trying to time when we need to get there given they are EMM and it sounds like you are all saying to treat it like any other day. I was planning to allow 45 min. (I've read an hour, but I'm being realistic with my crew) for transport from Beach Club. I'll google rope drop. Hope this trip is better than the last, when after not so scary Halloween it took over 2 hours and a cast member to help us (and others) get a bus to come to take us to our resort (didn't get back til 230am), we had at least 6 rides break down (it was cool to walk down the golf ball from the top), but not cool to sit in the Pooh ride for 30 min., and they scheduled EPCOT"s 30th anniversary and 2 other big things after we booked (we booked maybe 8 months out) that made the parks unbearably crowded, and I got stuck in the stairwell at Wilderness Lodge. Hoping this time is better than last time at WDW or no one in my family will ever go with me again! Thanks again!

No the actual rope drop occurs at the park opening time but you can get into the park prior to park opening. Prior to park opening you will walk into the park and you will get up to a certain point in the park where a cast member will literally be holding a rope to hold guests back prior to the actual park opening time.

 

[Woody412]

We’ve done the old version of EMM at MK and the new one in HS. It seems to me that Disney has taken great pains to ensure that the EMM crowd has no discernible advantage over the rope droppers at the attractions that aren’t part of EMM. As others have said, if you’re looking to rope drop 7DMT EMM will have nearly no effect on the wait time. Most have moved on to other attractions/breakfast and the ones who haven’t are so small in number they won’t be noticed.

 

[Betty Rohrer]

Thanks all, just so I'm clear, the rope drop can occur earlier than posted times even on EMM days? I'd be kind of unhappy if I paid to get in and then Disney let people in 15 or more minutes early...I'm trying to time when we need to get there given they are EMM and it sounds like you are all saying to treat it like any other day. I was planning to allow 45 min. (I've read an hour, but I'm being realistic with my crew) for transport from Beach Club. I'll google rope drop. Hope this trip is better than the last, when after not so scary Halloween it took over 2 hours and a cast member to help us (and others) get a bus to come to take us to our resort (didn't get back til 230am), we had at least 6 rides break down (it was cool to walk down the golf ball from the top), but not cool to sit in the Pooh ride for 30 min., and they scheduled EPCOT"s 30th anniversary and 2 other big things after we booked (we booked maybe 8 months out) that made the parks unbearably crowded, and I got stuck in the stairwell at Wilderness Lodge. Hoping this time is better than last time at WDW or no one in my family will ever go with me again! Thanks again!

cant say for other than MK but only Main Street shops will be open for nonEMM guests and they would be riding rides at that time. Main Street opens an hour ahead of 9 openings but you are held at the Castle until opening show is over