Extra Extra Magic Hours! Post Your Experiences Here!

[AJS84]

For those who have experienced this, how would you handle your FP if you had park hoppers?

I cancelled all our DHS FP+ because we had already done everything we wanted during EEMH. I'm keeping our SDD FP+ for Saturday just incase we get up later, but if we get there early I know we won't need it.

We did MK today and arrived just before 7am. The gates opened at 7am, SDMT and PP were both down so we walked on Pooh and IASW, then PP was up and a walk on. We went for cinnamon rolls at Gaston's then did the carousel and went straight in to Cinderella and Elena. Rapunzel and Tiana was a 5 minute wait just after 8am.
We then walked onto carpets and Aladdin and Jasmine jumped on the back of our carpet for a ride! We followed them over to the M&G and waited maybe 10 minutes. Then did BTMR (15 min wait) and Splash (5 minute wait) before using FP+ for Pirates, JC and carpets. We went for an early lunch at Cosmic Ray's and picked up a Speedway FP+, did Laugh Floor, got a Buzz FP+, a Tinkerbell FP+ and then managed to get a last minute reservation for The Plaza Restaurant for some Mickey and Minnie milkshakes. We were out the the park by 2pm and back to the resort for an afternoon in the pool.

Crowds were light all morning at MK and we did so much more than I ever imagined we would in one morning. EEMH are awesome!

 

[kayemgi]

Extra Extra late post today but to be fair I’m actually at Disney world right now which makes this harder.

9/15, 7:42AM

DHS:
MFSR:45
SDD:35
TOT,TSM:20
RNR:10

Getting busier!

MK:
7DMT:Closed!
Meet Mickey:30
Space:15
Speedway, PP, Meet Tink, Meet Cinderella, Pooh, Dumbo:10

AK:
FOP:45
Navi:10

All other rides and attractions 5 or 0.

I’ll probably be posting at weird times for the next several days, but I’ll try to take those AM screenshots to do it from!

I can do this for you while you’re on vacation! Enjoy your time away and don’t worry about this! Let me know when you’re back.

7:23 am September 17:
TSM: 50
SDD: 35
MFSR: 25 (!)
TOT: 10
RNR:10

FOP: 45

7DMT: 25
Mickey & Minnie: 20
Meet Cinderella: 15
Meet Ariel: 10
Under the Sea: 10
Space: 10

 

[Mambo Junkie]

I can do this for you while you’re on vacation! Enjoy your time away and don’t worry about this! Let me know when you’re back.

7:23 am September 17:
TSM: 50
SDD: 35
MFSR: 25 (!)
TOT: 10
RNR:10

FOP: 45

7DMT: 25
Mickey & Minnie: 20
Meet Cinderella: 15
Meet Ariel: 10
Under the Sea: 10
Space: 10

Been following as I will be at HS in 8 days! It looks as if the crowds are definitely increasing; we still plan on the 6 am entry. By these times, do you think the strategy of hitting TSL first is the best one, then go to SWGE? Also, I currently have my fp for ToT; would you recommend changing it to TSMM? ToT is our #1 must do, but taking a relative who loves TSMM.

 

[glamdring269]

I cancelled all our DHS FP+ because we had already done everything we wanted during EEMH. I'm keeping our SDD FP+ for Saturday just incase we get up later, but if we get there early I know we won't need it.

This is the specific park where I think we might consider doing this. Our strategy is rope drop, afternoon break, return to another park at night. Considering you can only really get one great ride at DHS with FP+, and also assuming I will likely knock everything out with ease by utilizing 6AM rope drop, it seems less optimal to have FP+ assigned to DHS. Even if crowds double between now and our first DHS day (10/6) it still sounds like it wouldn't make sense to have those FP+ in place.

I'll continue to wait it out and see how the next 2 weekends look before making a change. I doubt FP inventory for the time period we will be in the parks is going to change much between now and then at this point.

 

[Turk February]

Been following as I will be at HS in 8 days! It looks as if the crowds are definitely increasing; we still plan on the 6 am entry. By these times, do you think the strategy of hitting TSL first is the best one, then go to SWGE? Also, I currently have my fp for ToT; would you recommend changing it to TSMM? ToT is our #1 must do, but taking a relative who loves TSMM.

ToT has been a walk-on for the entirety of EEMH. I don’t see any reason to keep that FP

 

[Mambo Junkie]

So, I have 9 am Star Tours, 10:05 Mermaid (throw away and 10:55 ToT. Would you just scrap them all? Based on your EEMH experience?

ETA: Our plan is to hit TSL at 6 am then head over to SWGE. On to ToT and RnRC, probably leave around 9:00 - 10:00. Come back at 3:30 (ADR) then Ogas at 6:55 F!, and then whatever we want to do after that.

 

[SarahD112]

I went back and forth and have decided to keep my morning fast passes “as is”. If we decide to sleep in, we’ll need them. And as much as I plan ahead, I’d like the flexibility for the kids to choose which park to do after our afternoon swim/nap. That way I can plan each morning so we get to all the important things, and then the evenings are free to hop around, do what we want, go where the crowds are lowest.

 

[AJS84]

We arrived at AK about 6.40am this morning. We went straight through bag check without a wait and met a decent sized crowd waiting to get through the main entrance. The park opened at 7am. It seems like all the parks are opening at the official opening times, and not before, from our experiences so far.

The whole crowd headed to Pandora so we went to Dinoland. Only Triceratop Spin and Dinosaur were open. There was literally nothing else to do there, even Boneyard was closed until 10am. So we headed to Africa for breakfast from Kusifari and to do the Safari when it opened at 8am. We used a FP+ for the safari but it was a waste as there was no queue. All the trails were also closed until 9am so we walked round to Kali River Rapids and waited for that to open at 9am and went round four times with no wait. We had a FP+ for it but didn't use it. We did the trail and then went to do the M&G with Mickey and Minnie at Adventurers Outpost just after 10am. The posted standby wait was 40 mins so glad we had a FP+. I got a 7.25pm NRJ FP+ and modified it to 10 mins away so we walked over to Pandora and had a look around before riding NRJ. Standby was posted at 45 mins and we walked straight on with FP+. We got an early lunch at Pizzafari and headed to the Boneyard and met Donald Duck. We were out the park and on the bus by 1pm.

We won't bother with EEMH at AK again. If you were headed to Pandora it might be worth it but my kids are too small for FOP and we can easily pick up a FP+ for NRJ later on. Dinoland was totally dead for EEMH - we saw about 20 other people in the 30 minutes we were there. It was crowded but still very tolerable around midday. With most things not opening until later (Kali & trails 9am, Boneyard 10am) being there at 7am seemed a bit of a waste of a morning. It felt like we were waiting for things to open and walking back and forth when they did.

We'll be using the MK and DHS EEMH but going to AK later when everything is open.

 

[CastAStone]

ToT has been a walk-on for the entirety of EEMH. I don’t see any reason to keep that FP

It has also been the easiest to get day of; it’s rare that the FP return time is more than 2 hours from the time you look in the app.

 

[CastAStone]

ADVICE: If you have a choice of resort bus or driving for MK EEMH - take the bus! We were in the parking lot at 6:35, but they parked us in Simba(!) and made us take the resort monorail (!!) so we didn’t enter the park til almost 7:15!

We didn’t want to deal with strollers on the bus but man were we wrong!

 

[CastAStone]

FOOD ADVICE for MK: Eat before you go, or bring food. There is barely anything open until 10, and the lines get super long everywhere as a result.

 

[CastAStone]

MK this morning: We walked onto Space Ranger Spin and the People Mover. We waited at least 10 minutes for the Speedway because they were only running 4 cars. Because we were 15 minutes late getting in and we waited so long at the speedway, by then it was 8:50 and we walked over to Adventureland, which was quiet.

 

[Davey Jones II]

I can do this for you while you’re on vacation! Enjoy your time away and don’t worry about this! Let me know when you’re back.

7:23 am September 17:
TSM: 50
SDD: 35
MFSR: 25 (!)
TOT: 10
RNR:10

FOP: 45

7DMT: 25
Mickey & Minnie: 20
Meet Cinderella: 15
Meet Ariel: 10
Under the Sea: 10
Space: 10

Why on earth would TSM have a longer wait than SDD?

 

[AJS84]

FOOD ADVICE for MK: Eat before you go, or bring food. There is barely anything open until 10, and the lines get super long everywhere as a result.

Gaston's Tavern is open at 7am for EEMH and was empty at 7.45am on Monday.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Why on earth would TSM have a longer wait than SDD?

Could be just random wait time variability as things get going in the AM, they were likely single-tracking it that early and a crowd built, may have been a delay/some downtime on that one track. I suspect some combo of one or all of those factors may have been involved.

 

[Turk February]

Could be just random wait time variability as things get going in the AM, they were likely single-tracking it that early and a crowd built, may have been a delay/some downtime on that one track. I suspect some combo of one or all of those factors may have been involved.

For what it's worth I've been checking times every 30 minutes in the morning and at 7:30 (7 minutes later), it was SDD 40 TSM 45.

 

[CastAStone]

Gaston's Tavern is open at 7am for EEMH and was empty at 7.45am on Monday.

That, Starbucks, and a donut stand were it. Not a lot in the way of real food, a lot of various forms of cake. The waffle place in Liberty Square was BANANAS for the entire 9:00 hour after it opened.

 

[CastAStone]

Sorry one more thought: bring tickets or e-tickets that have a barcode. There were no ticket windows open when I arrived at the TTC at 6:45.

 

[Chanth]

First, thank you for this thread! Hopefully this is the right place to post these questions.
1. Has anyone tried to get a Disney ecv during eemh? Trying to confirm if they’re open that early (I’m assuming so)
2. Has anyone successfully entered the park for eemh on resort check-in day? Will have magic bands and have done online checkin.

Thanks!

 

[wisblue]

Posted wait times at DHS this morning are as low as they have been. At 720 just 20 minutes at MFSR and 25 at SDD.

MFSR was posted at 60 at about 6:30, but I suspect the actual wait was never that long.