DHS/Toy Story Land "Early Morning Magic" (EMM) FAQ & Discussion

[Twilight Sparkle]

I scrapped the idea of doing TSL EMM the morning after MVMCP and have rebooked for our departure day. The problem is I don't have park tickets that day since we were planning on just doing DS before we leave. Is it possible to add an extra day onto my tickets while I am at WDW, or will I need to buy full price single day tickets in order to attend EMM? For those of you that have done this event on departure day, would you do it again or did you feel too rushed vacating the room, stowing stuff with bell services, checking out, etc while still trying to get to the park that early?

 

[jennab]

I scrapped the idea of doing TSL EMM the morning after MVMCP and have rebooked for our departure day. The problem is I don't have park tickets that day since we were planning on just doing DS before we leave. Is it possible to add an extra day onto my tickets while I am at WDW, or will I need to buy full price single day tickets in order to attend EMM? For those of you that have done this event on departure day, would you do it again or did you feel too rushed vacating the room, stowing stuff with bell services, checking out, etc while still trying to get to the park that early?

Yes it will be cheaper to just add a day on to the tickets you already have. You should be able to do this after arrival.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

Yes it will be cheaper to just add a day on to the tickets you already have. You should be able to do this after arrival.

Great! Thank you so much!

 

[disneyworldsk]

I was at this EMM as well. Still deliberating with Guest Services regarding a refund. With SDD down for basically the entire event, lines were longer for everything else..

11/5 . emailed gr and they replied with a full refund. we rode sdd once. then it was down the rest of the event. i have been to many special events and this is the first time i've ever requested anything like this. but i felt very strongly we did not receive the value of what we paid for. I didn't want two fp's and didn't even use them. i didn't pay for that. and i was angry someone received a refund on site and i did not. so i emailed and received a full refund as i said above in quick time reply.

 

[Runnsally]

11/5 . emailed gr and they replied with a full refund. we rode sdd once. then it was down the rest of the event. i have been to many special events and this is the first time i've ever requested anything like this. but i felt very strongly we did not receive the value of what we paid for. I didn't want two fp's and didn't even use them. i didn't pay for that. and i was angry someone received a refund on site and i did not. so i emailed and received a full refund as i said above in quick time reply.

So interesting. In the park (albeit at Animal Kingdom), the guest relations manager (the initial cast member said there was nothing he could do) would only offer additional fastpasses. I then called guest relations after returning home. After much back and forth, they offered me a 50% refund. I guess I’m either very annoying or not very persuasive or both!

 

[RachaelA]

Has anyone had any luck signing up for Jedi training academy before entering for EMM?

If you can’t do that what time does it open for sign ups? I’m looking for an idea of what time we should leave EMM to be at the start of the sign up queue.

Thanks

You can’t do it until after 8 and you’ll waste a ton of time going it.

3 weeks ago we walked up at 9:45 after EMM and had plenty of JTA slots to chose from.

 

[dachsie]

So interesting. In the park (albeit at Animal Kingdom), the guest relations manager (the initial cast member said there was nothing he could do) would only offer additional fastpasses. I then called guest relations after returning home. After much back and forth, they offered me a 50% refund. I guess I’m either very annoying or not very persuasive or both!

it doesn't seem fair when others did get a full refund, but I think that was a reasonable thing for them to do - they just should have applied it consistently

 

[maiapapaya]

So interesting. In the park (albeit at Animal Kingdom), the guest relations manager (the initial cast member said there was nothing he could do) would only offer additional fastpasses. I then called guest relations after returning home. After much back and forth, they offered me a 50% refund. I guess I’m either very annoying or not very persuasive or both!

Maybe disneyworldsk could forward you their email and you could send it to customer relations and ask why did this person get a full refund and you only 50%. I can see the argument that you still got the other rides, character greets and meal, so a full refund might not be warranted, but if it's given to some it should be given to all.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I scrapped the idea of doing TSL EMM the morning after MVMCP and have rebooked for our departure day. The problem is I don't have park tickets that day since we were planning on just doing DS before we leave. Is it possible to add an extra day onto my tickets while I am at WDW, or will I need to buy full price single day tickets in order to attend EMM? For those of you that have done this event on departure day, would you do it again or did you feel too rushed vacating the room, stowing stuff with bell services, checking out, etc while still trying to get to the park that early?

We did it on our departure day (early October). We were staying at YC, so didn't check-out before hand. We did the event then went back to YC, final room check/packing up lose ends, then headed out. We could have packed up/left our bags with bell services before hand and had more park time, but it was early enough as it was, last day, and we really just wanted to hit EMM and head out (1pm flight).

Obviously not ideal, but it was the only day we could squeeze it in.... so of course 'had' to.

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

We did it on our departure day (early October). We were staying at YC, so didn't check-out before hand. We did the event then went back to YC, final room check/packing up lose ends, then headed out. We could have packed up/left our bags with bell services before hand and had more park time, but it was early enough as it was, last day, and we really just wanted to hit EMM and head out (1pm flight).

Obviously not ideal, but it was the only day we could squeeze it in.... so of course 'had' to.

Thanks for sharing your experience with this. We're staying at SSR this time, so not as close, unfortunately. I might ask about a late check out. It probably won't be granted, but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask. We do want to have time at DS, so I don't see us staying in HS very long, but I'm not sure we can guarantee being back before 11:00 am since we're relying on the bus.

I hear you on squeezing things in. If I would have known about EMM before I bought the non-refundable MVMCP tickets, I would have done things differently.

 

[Lisa F]

Thanks for sharing your experience with this. We're staying at SSR this time, so not as close, unfortunately. I might ask about a late check out. It probably won't be granted, but I guess it doesn't hurt to ask. We do want to have time at DS, so I don't see us staying in HS very long, but I'm not sure we can guarantee being back before 11:00 am since we're relying on the bus.

I hear you on squeezing things in. If I would have known about EMM before I bought the non-refundable MVMCP tickets, I would have done things differently.

you could call and ask if they can move your MVMCP date. Perhaps if you explain why they would do it.

 

[ColoradoMom12]

I’m curious if anyone else was at this event this morning. I will write a more detailed post once we’re home, but unfortunately I encountered the same as someone else had posted about recently— very long lines for SDD. We waited 20 minutes the first time (not entering first thing) and 18 the second. I will ask DD in the morning if we rode it a third time, but I think after that we did AS2 4 times. We were waiting outside when TSL opened, went straight to AS2 and then to the W&J meet & greet (a 12 minute wait). After that we got in the line for SDD.

 

[maiapapaya]

I’m curious if anyone else was at this event this morning. I will write a more detailed post once we’re home, but unfortunately I encountered the same as someone else had posted about recently— very long lines for SDD. We waited 20 minutes the first time (not entering first thing) and 18 the second. I will ask DD in the morning if we rode it a third time, but I think after that we did AS2 4 times. We were waiting outside when TSL opened, went straight to AS2 and then to the W&J meet & greet (a 12 minute wait). After that we got in the line for SDD.

The event description on WDW's website says "Guests of all ages can be among the first to enter Disney’s Hollywood Studios for the day and ride popular Toy Story Land attractions with little wait time." Maybe Guest Relations needs to be defining "little wait time." Sorry your experience wasn't what you had expected.

 

[Lisa F]

I’m curious if anyone else was at this event this morning. I will write a more detailed post once we’re home, but unfortunately I encountered the same as someone else had posted about recently— very long lines for SDD. We waited 20 minutes the first time (not entering first thing) and 18 the second. I will ask DD in the morning if we rode it a third time, but I think after that we did AS2 4 times. We were waiting outside when TSL opened, went straight to AS2 and then to the W&J meet & greet (a 12 minute wait). After that we got in the line for SDD.

I'm guessing this was a 2x sold out party. I think they need to rethink how many people they let into this thing. I'm sorry your experience was disappointing. You should not spend 38 minutes of a 1:15 event waiting to ride 2 rides.

 

[ninafeliz]

I scrapped the idea of doing TSL EMM the morning after MVMCP and have rebooked for our departure day. The problem is I don't have park tickets that day since we were planning on just doing DS before we leave. Is it possible to add an extra day onto my tickets while I am at WDW, or will I need to buy full price single day tickets in order to attend EMM? For those of you that have done this event on departure day, would you do it again or did you feel too rushed vacating the room, stowing stuff with bell services, checking out, etc while still trying to get to the park that early?

We did it on our checkout day, we had originally had an early afternoon flight and changed it to an evening one so we could do this event after it was announced.

We were staying at the BCV, so that helped. I got up at 4:45 to shower and make sure all last minute packing was done. We called bell services at around 5:45 and took our bags down to RAC, and had no wait. We left out carry ons with bell services. Then we walked to DHS and were there at 6:30. I had planned to be there a little later, but for once everything went smoothly in the AM so we were actually earlier than I had figured. But that ended up working out great, since they let us onto Hollywood Blvd at 6:45 and to the ABC Commissary at 6:50. After the event we did 3 FPs at DHS, then walked to Epcot for a little while, then back to the BCV for DME at 4:50. We got to Pittsburgh around 10:30 and weren't home until 1 AM.

I feel it was worth it doing on check out day, if that's what works best in your schedule. It was a fun last day, and much better than our usual just kind of hanging around and watching the clock to see how long until we had to leave. I did have to get up inhumanly early, and I am not a morning person, but for this I was able to manage . I didn't want to have to hustle back to leave the room and do RAC, so I chose to lose sleep and gain park/fun time instead of rushing back after the event. Since we were walking distance I think we could have just managed and still done breakfast at 10, but I didn't want that added need to rush though the event and have to leave DHS right afterwards. If you are staying away from the BW area it would be much harder to check out afterwards, and I personally wouldn't do it, I would just lose the sleep to do it super crazy early.

 

[Nferk]

Here is my review of EMM from 11/14 - sorry I'm a little late, wanted to wait until I was home and had some more time. This thread was insanely helpful in putting together my game plan and knowing what to expect so thanks to all!! In case you don't want to read all the details below, overall - I thought the event was really really great and worth the expense if you can swing it. I did not think it was overly crowded - although I was prepared in advance for a larger crowd due to reading some of the earlier posts. Below is a detailed timeline - I used the pictures on my phone to rebuild it.

6:30am - Picked up by Mears (reserved in advance, paid $14 for all 6 of us including 2 carseats). Totally worth it not to have to deal with stress of bus being late.
6:46am - Took pictures outside the front gate, got checked in, got bracelets, and through security in 8 minutes
6:54am - Pictures on Hollywood Blvd.
7:00am - ABC Commissary (everyone grabbed fruit, pastries, coffees, and a bathroom break)
7:15am - Joined the crowd waiting to be let into the land
7:20am - Was walked back into TSL. While we were waiting, the Cast Members were yelling out that Andy was still playing with Slinky Dog and he was not ready yet. This led to a little bit of yelling from some people misunderstanding and thinking that SDD was down. I really think this was just their way of trying to get people not to go their first - but I'm not sure. We decided to risk it and go wait there anyway. They let people get in line and let people onto the ride right at 7:30am. You could have rode the other rides right away (before 7:30). The characters were not out yet when we walked by at 7:20am.
7:36am - Exited the line for SDD (so about 10-12 minutes from when we got to queue until we were off the ride). I think going straight to SDD is the key to not waiting in the 20-25 minute waits that people were reporting. Also, this only cut into 6 minutes of actual event time.
7:40am - Got in line for Jessie & Woody since people said early in the event would be the shortest lines. This was definitely true - the line got longer and longer as the event went on.
7:50am - Met Jessie & Woody so only a 10 minute wait (they interact a lot so even though only a few families in front of us - it does go slow).
7:54am - Got in line for Buzz.
8:06am - He took a break right as we were the next people in line (bummer!) so we actually waited longer for him than we did for W&J.
8:10am - Got in line for TSMM - never stopped walking until we got onto the ride and they let us through the FP queue so it was nice and quick
8:20am - Walking out of exit for TSMM
8:26am - AS2 - walk on
8:30am - 1/2 of the group rode SDD again and the other 1/2 rode TSMM again - about a 15 minute wait for SDD
8:50am - Exited the land - we were about 30 seconds too late unfortunately and ran smack into the RD crowd. It surprisingly wasn't hard to pass them as we stayed to the ride and they stayed to their right for the most part. Seeing the RD crowd is what made the rest of my family thank me for booking this event - I don't think you can believe it until you see it. Just so so soo many people that never seem to stop coming. So thankful to have gotten to enjoy the land for the first time with zero crowd.
9:00am - Our group split up after this: My DH and parents went to ride RnR and ToT and were done with both by 9:30 - zero waits for either of them. I took the 2 kids over to get in the Jedi Training line. This was the one bummer as my DS wanted to ride ToT but the Jedi training line was so long, we wouldn't have had time to make it all the way up there. Took us a full 30 minutes to get through it but we somehow snagged the last spot for the 11:40am show - which I thought was really early considering how many people were in line before us.
9:30am - We then split up again, 4 people rode Star Tours with a 10 minute posted wait and I took DD to Meet Olaf with a 10 minute wait.
9:45am - ABC Commisary, zero line for the hot breakfast and it was starting to empty out in there. We tried just about everything and some people got 2 entrees and we asked for fountain beverages. They still were serving food shortly after 10am and had the buffett lines opened. Everyone was really happy with their meals and we felt that we got 2 meals out of it since we had pastries and fruit earlier.

Summary: SDD (2X), AS2 (1), TSMM (1), Met Jessie, Woody, and Buzz. Our kids were 4 and 2 so I definitely think more rides would have been doable with older, faster moving kids. We also could have gotten one more ride in before leaving the land but were anxious to get a few things done before breakfast. Sorry for being long-winded - I hope it helps someone planning!

 

[Twilight Sparkle]

We did it on our checkout day, we had originally had an early afternoon flight and changed it to an evening one so we could do this event after it was announced.

We were staying at the BCV, so that helped. I got up at 4:45 to shower and make sure all last minute packing was done. We called bell services at around 5:45 and took our bags down to RAC, and had no wait. We left out carry ons with bell services. Then we walked to DHS and were there at 6:30. I had planned to be there a little later, but for once everything went smoothly in the AM so we were actually earlier than I had figured. But that ended up working out great, since they let us onto Hollywood Blvd at 6:45 and to the ABC Commissary at 6:50. After the event we did 3 FPs at DHS, then walked to Epcot for a little while, then back to the BCV for DME at 4:50. We got to Pittsburgh around 10:30 and weren't home until 1 AM.

I feel it was worth it doing on check out day, if that's what works best in your schedule. It was a fun last day, and much better than our usual just kind of hanging around and watching the clock to see how long until we had to leave. I did have to get up inhumanly early, and I am not a morning person, but for this I was able to manage . I didn't want to have to hustle back to leave the room and do RAC, so I chose to lose sleep and gain park/fun time instead of rushing back after the event. Since we were walking distance I think we could have just managed and still done breakfast at 10, but I didn't want that added need to rush though the event and have to leave DHS right afterwards. If you are staying away from the BW area it would be much harder to check out afterwards, and I personally wouldn't do it, I would just lose the sleep to do it super crazy early.

We're not morning people either, so thank you for sharing how this worked for you and your thoughts about doing it. I think we also won't be home until 1am or a little later that night. It will be a long day, but it sounds like it's worth it.

 

[MattH]

We attended on Monday October 29 and had a fantastic time. As many others have detailed out, we did the cold breakfast bar as quick fuel before joining the handful of people waiting in front of the theater. We were on the second train of the day for SDD, rode it a few times in a row with less than 10 minute complete ride cycle each time, then checked out AS2 a couple times, made our was to TSMM for four rides (twice with reloading from the platform since no one in queue), we then grab a few more rides on SDD and witnessed the wave of rd crowd as we creasted the hill (pretty cool site). It was then time to relax for a bit having our hot breakfast. The dining room was crazy busy but the lines to order food very short. Overall we loved it.

Summary: SDD (7x), AS2 (2x), and TSMM (4x). Did not stop to meet the characters. We were on a mission to ride the rides!

 

[ddog171]

Here is my review of EMM from 11/14 - sorry I'm a little late, wanted to wait until I was home and had some more time. This thread was insanely helpful in putting together my game plan and knowing what to expect so thanks to all!! In case you don't want to read all the details below, overall - I thought the event was really really great and worth the expense if you can swing it. I did not think it was overly crowded - although I was prepared in advance for a larger crowd due to reading some of the earlier posts. Below is a detailed timeline - I used the pictures on my phone to rebuild it.

6:30am - Picked up by Mears (reserved in advance, paid $14 for all 6 of us including 2 carseats). Totally worth it not to have to deal with stress of bus being late.
6:46am - Took pictures outside the front gate, got checked in, got bracelets, and through security in 8 minutes
6:54am - Pictures on Hollywood Blvd.
7:00am - ABC Commissary (everyone grabbed fruit, pastries, coffees, and a bathroom break)
7:15am - Joined the crowd waiting to be let into the land
7:20am - Was walked back into TSL. While we were waiting, the Cast Members were yelling out that Andy was still playing with Slinky Dog and he was not ready yet. This led to a little bit of yelling from some people misunderstanding and thinking that SDD was down. I really think this was just their way of trying to get people not to go their first - but I'm not sure. We decided to risk it and go wait there anyway. They let people get in line and let people onto the ride right at 7:30am. You could have rode the other rides right away (before 7:30). The characters were not out yet when we walked by at 7:20am.
7:36am - Exited the line for SDD (so about 10-12 minutes from when we got to queue until we were off the ride). I think going straight to SDD is the key to not waiting in the 20-25 minute waits that people were reporting. Also, this only cut into 6 minutes of actual event time.
7:40am - Got in line for Jessie & Woody since people said early in the event would be the shortest lines. This was definitely true - the line got longer and longer as the event went on.
7:50am - Met Jessie & Woody so only a 10 minute wait (they interact a lot so even though only a few families in front of us - it does go slow).
7:54am - Got in line for Buzz.
8:06am - He took a break right as we were the next people in line (bummer!) so we actually waited longer for him than we did for W&J.
8:10am - Got in line for TSMM - never stopped walking until we got onto the ride and they let us through the FP queue so it was nice and quick
8:20am - Walking out of exit for TSMM
8:26am - AS2 - walk on
8:30am - 1/2 of the group rode SDD again and the other 1/2 rode TSMM again - about a 15 minute wait for SDD
8:50am - Exited the land - we were about 30 seconds too late unfortunately and ran smack into the RD crowd. It surprisingly wasn't hard to pass them as we stayed to the ride and they stayed to their right for the most part. Seeing the RD crowd is what made the rest of my family thank me for booking this event - I don't think you can believe it until you see it. Just so so soo many people that never seem to stop coming. So thankful to have gotten to enjoy the land for the first time with zero crowd.
9:00am - Our group split up after this: My DH and parents went to ride RnR and ToT and were done with both by 9:30 - zero waits for either of them. I took the 2 kids over to get in the Jedi Training line. This was the one bummer as my DS wanted to ride ToT but the Jedi training line was so long, we wouldn't have had time to make it all the way up there. Took us a full 30 minutes to get through it but we somehow snagged the last spot for the 11:40am show - which I thought was really early considering how many people were in line before us.
9:30am - We then split up again, 4 people rode Star Tours with a 10 minute posted wait and I took DD to Meet Olaf with a 10 minute wait.
9:45am - ABC Commisary, zero line for the hot breakfast and it was starting to empty out in there. We tried just about everything and some people got 2 entrees and we asked for fountain beverages. They still were serving food shortly after 10am and had the buffett lines opened. Everyone was really happy with their meals and we felt that we got 2 meals out of it since we had pastries and fruit earlier.

Summary: SDD (2X), AS2 (1), TSMM (1), Met Jessie, Woody, and Buzz. Our kids were 4 and 2 so I definitely think more rides would have been doable with older, faster moving kids. We also could have gotten one more ride in before leaving the land but were anxious to get a few things done before breakfast. Sorry for being long-winded - I hope it helps someone planning!

Thank you for the review... quick question, how were the car seats with Mears taxi? How far in advance did you book them?

 

[Nferk]

Thank you for the review... quick question, how were the car seats with Mears taxi? How far in advance did you book them?

Car seats were great! Very clean and were already installed and waiting for us when we got there. I got confirmation emails the day before and morning of so I was comfortable the driver was going to show up. The van itself too was spotless and the driver was very nice. We booked it about 2 weeks in advance. Got a small discount for booking online.