Early Admission (MM/EMH/APEE) Super Thread

[DLR29]

Just full disclosure, I did finally see a wait time photo for Mater's at 40 minutes. People seem to be starting to realize how fun the ride is. But I'm still guessing that was probably mid-afternoon. It's still a shorter wait than either of the other 2 Cars Land rides.

FWIW I waited about 25 min in a full queue yesterday afternoon around 1PM.

Hi, we're staying at Paradise Pier 8/18-20, so we only have Sunday and Monday. I had originally planned to do DL Sunday and DCA Monday, thinking crowds might be lighter Monday and there's no APEE to contend with that day.

But now I realize that the real early entry crowds come from MM, so I should avoid DL on Sundays at all costs. And since APEE turnout has been negligible enough for them to offer EMH (so the story goes), we should do DCA on Sunday?

But I wonder if DCA APEEs are slightly higher on weekends vs Tue/Thu.

Decisions decisions... Would appreciate any thoughts. Thanks!

I'm gonna agree with jcarwash and say that Monday the 20th will be more crowded than the 19th because of AP holders who have bee blocked out all summer finally being allowed back in, especially to see the new additions. Your best bet is to DCA on Sunday and DL on Monday, unless you have hoppers in which I would start both days at DCA.

 

[notyou]

I'm gonna agree with jcarwash and say that Monday the 20th will be more crowded than the 19th because of AP holders who have bee blocked out all summer finally being allowed back in, especially to see the new additions. Your best bet is to DCA on Sunday and DL on Monday, unless you have hoppers in which I would start both days at DCA.

Ahh, I forgot to look at the AP calendar. So APEE shouldn't even be a factor at DCA on Sunday, or at least no SoCal AP holders will be there. Woot. And hopefully all those same SoCal AP holders hit DCA after their long blackout period. Oh, maybe not if they can't use their APEE that day. But they wouldn't want to "waste" their APEE on DL, right? So then it's likely we wouldn't have any competition for early entrance Monday (no MM, which is probably a way bigger factor than APEE). Sweeeet.

Thanks everyone!

 

[DLR29]

Ahh, I forgot to look at the AP calendar. So APEE shouldn't even be a factor at DCA on Sunday, or at least no SoCal AP holders will be there. Woot. And hopefully all those same SoCal AP holders hit DCA after their long blackout period. Oh, maybe not if they can't use their APEE that day. But they wouldn't want to "waste" their APEE on DL, right? So then it's likely we wouldn't have any competition for early entrance Monday (no MM, which is probably a way bigger factor than APEE). Sweeeet.

Thanks everyone!

AP holders get 1 APEE for DCA and 1 for DL during the time frame, so it's not "wasting" their APEE.

 

[notyou]

AP holders get 1 APEE for DCA and 1 for DL during the time frame, so it's not "wasting" their APEE.

Ah, I missed that. But still, no MM. :-}

 

[mj23cj]

Wow to new information!! So I am staying at DLH and going to the parks Wed Aug 8th & Thurs Aug 9th. I originally planned to go to DCA Wed and DL Thurs but I should switch them now right? I assume hotel guest will be told this upon checkin making Carsland equally busy for EMH each day of the week but DL will be less crowded MWF due to no MMers. So should we switch? I think I would rather go to DL first anyways (we are not park hopping) to take in the whole we are at Disneyland feel!! TIA!!

 

[skiingfast]

Wow to new information!! So I am staying at DLH and going to the parks Wed Aug 8th & Thurs Aug 9th. I originally planned to go to DCA Wed and DL Thurs but I should switch them now right? I assume hotel guest will be told this upon checkin making Carsland equally busy for EMH each day of the week but DL will be less crowded MWF due to no MMers. So should we switch? I think I would rather go to DL first anyways (we are not park hopping) to take in the whole we are at Disneyland feel!! TIA!!

Yes you should switch to get a slower day in DL. Of course for RSR you may want both days in DCA.

Also while EMH can be either park, you can't count on some hotel guest to go to MM too because they may of learned that habit in the past and not been retrained to know they have an option. So the DL MM days may be a little slower in DCA.

 

[suevr]

I just wanted to let you guys know what our experience was with DL last week. We were there from July 14-18. When we checked into our hotel on the 14th we were told that starting on Monday we could go to either park for EMH.

The first morning we went to CA we arrived at the gates at 6:40 and when the park opened went straight to the standby line for RSR. We had been in line for about 10 minutes when they announced that the ride wasn't running and they were still testing it. We hoped it would only be for a few minutes but we were wrong. It was just after 8:00 when it started running, so that entire EMH was wasted. The ride was great, but when we got off and went to add our photo to the Photopass+ card, they said the photos were down. Very disappointing experience. By this time Carsland was crazy since the park was open, so we just left and went to Paradise Pier.

The next time we went to EMH at CA we arrived early again, but this time went straight to Luigi's FT. They were testing the ride and we didn't get on until 7:15, but we were able to ride twice in a row. After that, DH and our boys went to Mater and rode it twice while I got in line for Fastpasses for RSR (at about 7:50). Our FP return time was 10:50 and the machines also spit out two surprise FPs for California Screamin'.

On that day (I think it was Tuesday, the 17th), they held the regular park guests right before the entrance to the RSR Fastpass line. At rope drop at 8:00 they allowed them to line up but they weren't letting them get Fastpasses until all of the EMH guests got theirs. I'm not sure the reason for that.

On the other days we went to DL for EMH and there were very few people there until about 9:00.

 

[nancy drew]

We will be in DLR in less than 2 weeks, and I'm looking for advice on maximizing our EE. We are staying on site, so we can use EE every day. I am a solo adult traveling with 2 kids, so we can't split up and send a FP runner, and really the only FP rides we want to do are RSR, maybe Soarin' (trying it for the first time with a nervous kiddo) and Star Tours (DD totally panicked last time but says she wants to do it again). We will be there from a Tuesday afternoon to a Monday morning. I'm guessing we will try to do DCA EE on Wednesday, so we can ride RSR and the other Carsland rides. From what I've read, our best bet is to either ride Luigi's and/or Mater's and time it so we get in the FP line before 8:00 or try to ride RSR standby and time it so we get in line for FP right after riding it. Is that correct? Is there a better strategy?

 

[DLR29]

We will be in DLR in less than 2 weeks, and I'm looking for advice on maximizing our EE. We are staying on site, so we can use EE every day. I am a solo adult traveling with 2 kids, so we can't split up and send a FP runner, and really the only FP rides we want to do are RSR, maybe Soarin' (trying it for the first time with a nervous kiddo) and Star Tours (DD totally panicked last time but says she wants to do it again). We will be there from a Tuesday afternoon to a Monday morning. I'm guessing we will try to do DCA EE on Wednesday, so we can ride RSR and the other Carsland rides. From what I've read, our best bet is to either ride Luigi's and/or Mater's and time it so we get in the FP line before 8:00 or try to ride RSR standby and time it so we get in line for FP right after riding it. Is that correct? Is there a better strategy?

This is what I'd do...

1. Get to the gates of DCA around 6:40 (or earlier if you are so inclined)
2. At 7 run straight to the Racers
3a. If RSR is open, ride through stand-by
3b. If RSR is not open yet (a common occurrence), don't waste any time and go ride Luigis
4. Ride Luigi's if you rode RSR in #3
5. Ride Mater's
6. Line up to get a RSR FP

If you are one of the first people in line for RSR AND it's open right away, you can probably get away with all 3 CL rides and start lining up for FP in that first hour.

If you have to wait a bit for RSR but it is open right away, you might only be able to do RSR and Luigi's. This is not a problem because Mater's line during the day really doesn't get much longer than 30 min usually, especially late afternoon/early evening.

If RSR is not open right away, you'll definitely be able to do both Luigi's and Mater's within that hour. You may even be able to go down and get a ride or 2 in on Toy Story as well before lining up for RSR FP. Or you can choose to skip Mater's altogether during that hour and do Luigi's first followed immediately by a ride on Toy Story (which has no line that early).

 

[Congo Queen]

Yes yes DLR29. This is the same strategy I've developed based on hours and days of obsessive reading of comments and trip reports on these very boards. I will be putting this strategy to the test during our visit the week of August 13th. My only caveat to add is that since MJJ seems to be a relatively short wait throughout the day (20 mins average), I might just remove that altogether from the EE hour of power. If RSR is down first thing, I am right over to Luigi's and then booking it down to TSMM for a few back to back rides (on a beloved ride with too long a line later in the day) before getting in line for RSR FP by 7:45am.

 

[nancy drew]

This is great, thank you so much!

 

[ArchOwl]

Just wanted to update with my experience with EMH and how APEE influenced the early morning experience.

Monday, July 30th
This would be a EMH day with no APEE at DCA. I was about third in line at the DCA gates, was there by 6:40am. Everyone was headed to RSR at 7am and RSR was up and running at 7am! They were very serious about keeping people from running and had Lightning McQueen and Mater escort people from the temporary RSR FP machines all the way down to the entrance to RSR. They were like pace cars. Got off the ride at 7:20 and rode Luigi's and Mater and then headed over to get another RSR FP at about 7:40am. The EMH folks were allowed in line for the RSR FPs before the general public.

This was the line for EMH people for the RSR FPs at about 7:40am:

[/IMG]

We got RSR FPs for 8:50am return time. Not bad!

This was where they kept the regular folks who were headed for RSR standby at 8am. On the far right, you can see where the FP line. They merged those lines shortly before 8am. FPs were gone by 9:45am I believe.

[/IMG]

Tuesday, July 31

We decided to try for Carsland again and repeat yesterday's success. This was APEE day at DCA. They had several turnstiles roped off for APs. We arrived again at 6:40am and already we could tell it was much busier. The lines were backed way up, we were probably about 10th in line. However, we got further ahead as CMs went up and down the lines asking if you were a hotel guest or not. There were many confused tourists who thought they could use their MM at DCA and were directed to DL.

We were let in at 7am and repeated the process, but we were much further behind in the pack. We could tell something was wrong because they weren't letting people in the queue at first for RSR. They eventually opened up the outside lines, but announced that RSR was not running. This was the first we had heard that RSR was not up. It would be nice if that information were given at the turnstiles or somewhere else.

We bagged it after waiting about 10 minutes. The rest of the park was a ghost town and we did Screamin' and Toy Story on repeat until 7:40am, when we headed over to RSR FP line. There were no lines on either ride. The process was the same as yesterday, except the FP line was painfully slow that morning. I don't know what was going on, but we got a significantly later RSR FP return time of 10:45am, even though we were roughly in the same spot in the FP line as yesterday.

I don't think RSR came online during EMH that day, but I didn't go all the way over to the ride to check it out. We did ask a few CMs who all said it wasn't up during EMH.

The park was significantly busier on APEE day, including the lines for coffee and breakfast, but seemed to be confined mainly to Carsland.

Wednesday, August 1

This was a APEE day for DL and we used our EMH this morning. We were a little late today, getting to the DL gates at 6:50am. They had all the gates for early entry roped off and the APEEs and EMHs all entered through the roped off portion. We were about the 5th in line.

DL was absolutely deserted. We were the only ones in both Pinocchio and Snow White around 7:15am, the CMs told us we could be as loud as we wanted!

We rode Peter Pan twice, Mr. Toad, Dumbo, Carousel, Pinocchio, Snow White, Alice, Matterhorn, and Space Mountain during our EMH. This was the line for Peter Pan at 7:48am before we left to do SM:

[/IMG]
Yes, that is right, there is no one in this line!!

Based on my experience, I would say that DL just isn't drawing the AP early entry people the same way DCA is. I would go to DL on a APEE day and DCA on a non-APEE day if I had a choice. I would also show up earlier to DCA on days when APEE is in effect if I wanted to be in the first group to go on RSR.

I hope this is helpful!

 

[Congo Queen]

Thank you ArchOwl. This is indeed v v helpful.

 

[DLR29]

That is a great report ArchOwl! Thank you very much. Regarding those odd RSR FP return times, one guess i have is that at 8AM they started distributing later FP return times than normal because the ride still wasn't up yet. They probably didn't start with the regular 8:40-9:40 if they weren't sure that the ride would be up by 8:40.

 

[Eeee-va]

The process was the same as yesterday, except the FP line was painfully slow that morning. I don't know what was going on, but we got a significantly later RSR FP return time of 10:45am, even though we were roughly in the same spot in the FP line as yesterday.

Darn it; DLR29 beat me to posting my guess!

Of course, not wanting to give out FPs for a time the ride may be closed wouldn't explain why the FP line itself would be slow, unless it basically didn't move until they figured out what return time should be on the first FPs...or if maybe they had to manually adjust each machine, so it took a while to get them all running?

Thanks for the helpful details and photos. Your DL report is astounding, though it makes sense (I imagine on a regular Magic Morning day a lot of guests are on parkhoppers but aren't hotel guests).

 

[jeaneg]

I noticed how slow the line was on Thursday, and I asked a cast member about it. He said that they'd already filled in the lines leading to the machines, so there wasn't the initial large movement forward at 8. I was at roughly the same place in line as I had been on previous days, but it took about 25 rather than 10 minutes to get the FPs. Not sure if what he told me was correct, but it is what he said.

 

[kimmypie1]

Forgive me if this is common knowledge, but how do you know which days of the week are APEE?

Thanks

 

[ArchOwl]

Forgive me if this is common knowledge, but how do you know which days of the week are APEE?

Thanks

The first page has all the info, but APEE is a temporary event during summer for which the AP holder must register in advance.

For DL, APEE is Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
For DCA, APEE is Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday

The first page has more info, definitely check it out!

 

[kimmypie1]

The first page has all the info, but APEE is a temporary event during summer for which the AP holder must register in advance.

For DL, APEE is Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
For DCA, APEE is Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday

The first page has more info, definitely check it out!

Thank You!!

 

[hulamom]

Hi,

We'll be staying at the DLH this week and plan to visit the parks Thursday and Friday. Since we have EMH both days, which day would you recommend doing DCA EE? Thursday when there is also APEE (and might be busier)? Or Friday (but means DL EMH would be Thursday which is also MM)? I keep going back-and-forth.

The other question I had... and asked an another thread... the morning that we (or rather, I) do DCA EMH, I was thinking of going ahead of the rest of my family to stand in the RSR FP line so the rest (who groan at the thought of waking up early) can sleep a little extra and find me between 7:45-8:00 in the FP line. Would they be held back with the regular entry people wanting RSR FPs or could they come ahead to find me in line? Oh the things I do for them!

Thanks!