Extra Extra Magic Hours! Post Your Experiences Here!

[hiroMYhero]

Why do they not load to capacity in the mornings? Do they simply have an "average" wait time they want for certain attractions .. especially in the morning .. so you get "stuck" at the park longer? (Rather than being able to get everything done in a few hours).

Disney analyzes everything and has quotas that they want met.

They’ve calculated the minimum amount of time a guest should spend in line according to morning crowd level. It’s exasperating!

 

[CastAStone]

My question is .. if you show up at DHS "sometime" during the EEMH (like say 7-8 am) .. are wait times still reasonable (to like be able to do SDD with a reasonable wait) .. or does it get too crowded (and rides not running to capacity) that it's not worth it unless you get there at the crack of 6 am?

I don’t know what your definition of worth it is but if you go back through the last few pages of this thread you’ll see at least a dozen posts with wait times from between 7 and 8 AM.

 

[tlmadden73]

I don’t know what your definition of worth it is but if you go back through the last few pages of this thread you’ll see at least a dozen posts with wait times from between 7 and 8 AM.

Thanks .. should be good .. now depends how early I can get the kids (and wife) up.

Maybe if I bribe them with leaving early and spending the afternoon in the pool! LOL.

 

[kymom99]

And it will be interesting to see if all the Stations are open or if it will mainly be Grab n Go type items and MUCH COFFEE!!!!!!

I don't know why grab n go isn't open 24 hours

 

[CastAStone]

Disney analyzes everything and has quotas that they want met.

They’ve calculated the minimum amount of time a guest should spend in line according to morning crowd level. It’s exasperating!

Disney is intentionally reducing capacity in the morning to create a line? Don't tell the "SWGE is a massive failure" people about this...

(or better yet stay away from those threads entirely!)

 

[vleeth]

I don't know why grab n go isn't open 24 hours

Because they won't pay someone to work the register all night.

 

[Headrock6]

I’ve been here since 9/9 and if your doing EEMH the parks are literally dead in the mornings and if you decided to pick this week for vacation you are one happy camper. It picks up in the afternoon a bit but I haven’t waited more than 30 minutes for any ride. 9/9 I had a FP for FOP at 9:35 and walked out and it was only 30 minutes when I got out. Navi was a walk on. Had Everest and Dinosaur FP though I wouldn’t have even needed them as post times were 20 minutes. Went to Galaxy's Edge at night at 7pm. Resi for Ogas and Savis. MFSR had a 25 minute wait. Rode twice. Even Epcot on 9/10 was quiet. I had a PPO and walked on to Soarin at 8:45. Turned around and did it again. Test Track Fast Pass at 9:30 and then FEO which was a 25 minute wait. All 3 majors done within an hour and 15 minutes. Score! HS today at 6am quiet.
Hit SDD and waited 25 minutes. TOT and RNRC both 20. Didn’t do Galaxy's Edge today so not sure how crowds were. Will keep you updated as doing MK tomorrow. And all that stress for Fast Passes and probably wouldn’t have needed them anyway

 

[a11ie]

We arrived on Sunday, the 8th, in the afternoon. Our first park was AK and we didn't get to do EMH but overall crowds were low. Everest was 10-15 mins, Kali was a walk on, Navi was 25 mins, FOP was between 30-45. It was wonderful. We woke up early on Monday morning to be at HS for rope drop. My Boyfriend is the slowest person alive in the mornings and we ended up arriving inside the moment it opened. There were maybe 200 people.
We hadn't gone to the store yet for food so we wanted to pick up something quick in the park. We walked right in to Starbucks and up to the counter. We were out of there in about 5 minutes. We walked down Hollywood Blvd and I got a lovely picture of my son with ToT in the background and not another soul. Walked right onto ToT and got off and walked right onto RnR. We ride ToT two more times and headed to TSL. We rode Slinky with a 15ish minute wait, TSM was about the same. AlienSS was a walk on. We hit ToT one more time before leaving the park before 9am.
AK in the evening but mostly for animal sightings. We did Everest twice and FoP with a last minute FPP score, Navi once, before coming back to swim in the scary clown pool.

Yesterday we hit MK. We rode Space, Buzz and PM before 8am. Space was down for about 15 mins right at open or we could have sqeezed another ride in before heading to adventure land. We rode Aladdin, Pirates, Big Thunder, HM, IASW, Pooh, Splash x3 and another time on Space Mountain before leaving the park at 11am.
Epcot was more crowded, but still a CL 1. We road Soatin, Test Track, the Seas and The Land in about 1.5 hours. We could have done SSE but wanted to eat at some booths before close. We ate at 6 booths in a little over an hour, watch Illuminations and left.

This morning we did HS again and arrived at RD. Walked into ToT, walked into RnR and did ToT once more before heading to GE. We grabbed a breakfast Ronto wrap (I wasn't impressed) and walked to MFSR. Only one of us was interested in riding so he did SR and was on and off in about 15 minutes. Standby line was about 40 minutes. We grabbed some Blue Milk (also not impressed) and left around 8:30.

Overall, EEMH have been great for us but crowd levels in general are minimal.

 

[yorkieteacher]

We arrived at 7 at HS on this past Saturday, the 7th. We walked on SDD, Saucers, TSMM, met Woody and Bo Peep and Jessie, and Olaf all by 9. It was amazing. We went to EEM at MK on Sunday and arrived by 730-did Peter Pan and Space Mountain by 8. Our big disappointment was EMH at AK yesterday. After arriving at 730 we walked on Navi River, then had to wait 15 minutes for the Safari to open at 8. The animal trails didn't open until 9. So unless you want to go to three of the four very spread out AK park areas and walk a blue million miles to ride Everest and Dinosaur and try for one of the Pandora rides, I don't see its worth getting there too early.

 

[CastAStone]

9/12, 7:34 AM:

Another day, another wait time update. AS2 was listed as closed for the first hour+ this morning.

DHS:
MFSR:40
SDD:25
TSM:20
TOT, RNR, AS2:10

AK:
FOP:40

MK:
7DMT, Meet Mickey:20
Meet Cinderella:15
Space, Tinkerbell, meet Ariel, IASW:10

Everything else 5

Crowds are a little lower in MK this morning vs yesterday.

 

[wisblue]

Our big disappointment was EMH at AK yesterday. After arriving at 730 we walked on Navi River, then had to wait 15 minutes for the Safari to open at 8. The animal trails didn't open until 9. So unless you want to go to three of the four very spread out AK park areas and walk a blue million miles to ride Everest and Dinosaur and try for one of the Pandora rides, I don't see its worth getting there too early.

The counterpoint to this is that a lot of people like being able to ride Everest and Dinosaur early with little or no wait and some like doing them multiple times. EMH offers the opportunity to do that.

I don’t know if they still do this, but the last time we did EMH at DAK they let people go down to Pandora before 7 AM and FOP and Navi were operating. If you have FPs for FOP and the Safari, you can arrive a little before 7 and take a leisurely walk to Navi and then go from there out to Everest. Yes, it’s a pretty long walk but it’s a pleasant walk when the park is not hot and crowded. You can then ride Everest and Dinosaur (multiple times if you want), and possibly the other Dinoland rides, before the park gets crowded. Then you can enjoy the rest of the park at a leisurely pace using your FPs and going through the trails and seeing shows that don’t need FPs (usually all of them).

 

[ksdave]

At MK right now. Picked up at POFQ by bus at 6:03 AM, at the park by 6:20, Security opened at 6:30. Queued at main entrance until 6:50, then rope drop at side of castle between Tomorrowland and Fantasyland at 7:00. Walk on for SDMT, Pooh, and Ariel, rope drop at 8:00 into Frontierland for walk one to Jungle Cruise, Pirates, Alladin. Had breakfast, then did PeopleMover walk on. Just now starting to get busy.

 

[Pdollar88]

At DHS this morning for EEMH. Got here about 5:45, walked with the group until they split.

I went to TSL first. 5 minute wait for SDD (twice), no wait for TSMM. Slinky wasn’t down this morning, but Saucers was.

Around 6:45, I stopped to get a French toast pretzel and then proceeded to Sunset Blvd - RnRC x2 with no one ahead of me. Same for ToT x2. Went to GE around 7:30 and waited maybe 5 minutes in the single rider line for SR. Finally did Saucers with a 10 minute wait.

Then I moved into the normal operating hours. Of note - GE was pretty dead last night. I walked right on SR as a single rider at 9:15.

 

[ArielRae]

Just noticed in the app they removed the Fountain and the one part of Innoventions (club cool side) from the Epcot map already.

 

[CastAStone]

Re: Doing SWGE 1st vs doing TSL first. Here's the data. Today's pattern (not necessarily the specific times but the trend) is typical of all EEMH days so far, Dorian or no Dorian.

9/12	6:31	7:15	7:35	8:50
SDD	15	25	25	40
TSM	5	15	20	10
MF:SR	65	60	40	35

 

[fletch1027]

Re: Doing SWGE 1st vs doing TSL first. Here's the data. Today's pattern (not necessarily the specific times but the trend) is typical of all EEMH days so far, Dorian or no Dorian.

9/12	6:31	7:15	7:35	8:50
SDD	15	25	25	40
TSM	5	15	20	10
MF:SR	65	60	40	35

Interesting - we were thinking of doing SM right at 6:00, then heading over to SDD. If that trending holds, maybe easy to hit SM a 2nd time right before 9:00...

 

[Disney102015]

We had an awesome morning today. Left our room around 6:40, caught a bus right away, and were at Magic Kingdom just after 7am. Walked onto Winnie the Pooh, Peter Pan, Small World, and Teacups before 8am (SDMT was showing a 15 minute wait). We were hungrier earlier than expected and I was able to snag a BOG reservation for a couple minutes later. We were out of there by 9am and walked onto Little Mermaid, before the little one was ready to head out and nap. We were moving pretty slowly with a toddler and could’ve done more if we wanted to walk a bit faster - definitely worth the early wake up!

 

[KTR]

We slept in a bit and didn’t walk in the gates to HS until 7 today. We did SDD, TSM, took a snack break, Rock n Rollercoaster, TOT, another snack break, registered for Jedi Training, then we finally headed to Batuu at 8:30. Got in queue for MF at 8:40, we were off the ride and had already done a photopass by 9:05. It was so fast.

 

[wisblue]

We slept in a bit and didn’t walk in the gates to HS until 7 today. We did SDD, TSM, took a snack break, Rock n Rollercoaster, TOT, another snack break, registered for Jedi Training, then we finally headed to Batuu at 8:30. Got in queue for MF at 8:40, we were off the ride and had already done a photopass by 9:05. It was so fast.

Nice. Worth noting that if you got in the line for MF at 8:40 and were off by 9:05 the actual wait was somewhat shorter than the posted wait, which probably was 35-40 minutes.

 

[ShayBells]

We go next week. Planning HS on Thursday. I was gonna do opening but now thinking I will just wake up at 6 make my way over then check app for wait times once there and wing it. As a planner this is hard but it seems and hopefully stays next week waits are unpredictable but low enough I can sleep for a bit