We're home now (sob) and here's my full TSL EMM review with pictures. It was our family of five, me, hubs, and three kiddos - 10, 8 and 4. Everyone was tall enough to ride everything and our priorities were to ride TSMM and AS2 at least once, a few rides on SDD and meet Buzz.
To start, this was our third time at HS this trip. We went to the Star Wars dessert party on Friday night (10/5), attended EMH on Sunday (10/7) and did EMM on Monday (10/8, a semi-holiday with holiday level crowds.) Touring Plans predicted a 7/10 and saw a 10/10. There was also
MNSSHP at MK that day probably pushing visitors to other parks. So let's just say, it was pretty darn crowded. We didn't have a chance to observe TSL crowds on Friday as we were focused on the dessert party. On our EMH morning (Sunday, 10/7), my husband took our son to JTA sign ups and my girls and I rode TOT so we purposely avoided TSL knowing that we had this even coming up. At about 8:45, my girls and I headed to get in line to meet Chewie and the line for SDD was already out of the arches leading into TSL. Sunday afternoon, we made the mistake of trying to have lunch at Woody's lunch box and ended up eating off the top of trash cans because there was absolutely no seating to be found in TSL. What I'm getting at with all of this is that TSL is crowded. Always. And this event is really the only way to avoid it. So it might be oversold but it's still no where near what you're going to find on a regular day.
This was an event with both entrance times and I moved our original 7:30 to 7:00 but as we've seen, there's no difference between the two times at all.
We left Wilderness Lodge at 6:28 (first bus on the app was at 6:01 so no problems there!). The bus went by the Contemporary before going to HS and we were the only folks on the bus the whole trip. We arrived at HS at 6:50, at the entrance at 6:57 and had our wristbands on by 7:01. Everyone was very friendly and it was quite a festive atmosphere. I think there may have been some PPO folks in the mix but almost everyone seemed to be there for the EMM.
Main Street was practically empty - it was a super fun experience.
We were all herded in the direction of ABC and told TSL would open at 7:30. However, some people were just hanging out in front of the Chinese Theater so they won't force you to go to eat. And TSL seems to open a few minutes before 7:30 so if it's important to you to be there literally first, don't wait until 7:30 to leave the restaurant.
When we checked in,the CM told us just to leave our wristbands on until 9, but I knew better. Listening to chatter around us in lines and at the tables, many people thought they
had to eat between 7:00-7:30 which is not the case.
The lines for hot entrees were long but not for the buffets. We grabbed a few plates of pastries and a lot of coffee and took a bathroom break.
Walking into TSL at 7:31
A completely empty TSMM queue at 7:34 (they should really open up the FP line for this one)
We went and got in line for SDD at 7:44. Posted time was 25 minutes, but it was less than 15.
Wheezy at 7:59. This was the longest we waited for SDD.
Galaxy's Edge at 8:02
AS2 at 8:04. They had the FP line open and no wait. I know this ride gets knocked a lot, but we had so much fun on it!
We made sure to take advantage of the picture opportunities (earlier on we saw a photographer here but I guess s/he was roving)
Then back to SDD for as many rides as we could fit in. We ended up riding four times, opting once or twice to wait for a dog so we could ride in the back.
Biggest complaint is that you had to walk through the long standard queue each time. Would have been really nice and a few minutes savings if the FP line had been open.
There was no wait to meet Buzz but there was a wait for Woody & Jessie.
At 8:45, we split up. Hubs, one daughter and son went on TSMM. Big girl and I went to RD RNRC.
And we saw the reality of the rope drop crowd with our own eyes. Y'all. It's insanity.
May the odds be ever in your favor.
As you can tell, no such crowds over to see Aerosmith.
We actually beat my husband back to breakfast. The Commissary was well stocked, maybe just two or three people at each line to order hot foods and everyone was very welcoming and friendly. I'm not going to expound (much) on the food as that's been well covered. We're adventurous eaters and had been up for a solid four hours at the point, so we were very pleased with the offerings of entrees and what was on the buffet. Also, for these sort of offerings, we view the food as a bonus, not as a main event, so we're not picky.
Some things they could do better - open the FP lines for SDD and TSMM.
Cutting back on the tickets sold would be nice of course, but honestly, it didn't feel crowded to me. There was a wait for SDD at first but there was a wait for SDMT at MK when we did this event as well, so I think those two events are fairly even. Our family loved every minute of it and it is the highest ranked of all the paid events we did on our trip (EMM at MK, HEA dessert party, SWAGS dessert party, FOLK dining package, MNSSHP and this event.) When we go to Disney again, if they continue to offer it, it's something we'll make sure we always do. As others have said, it freed up our rope drop experience, freed up the rest of our day and provided so much TSL fun for us. We weren't going to see how many times we could ride SDD but rather, to just enjoy the whole thing and fully delivered on that.