Extra Magic Hour Strategy?

Mary*Poppins

Mouseketeer
Joined
May 23, 2010
Messages
197
Hi everyone, I'll be going to Disneyland June 16th for the first time (yay!) and we are staying at the Disneyland Hotel so I read that we can get in an hour early. I've read about the rides that are open during that time and was wondering if there was a good strategy to accomplish the most amount of rides. Should we go to Tomorrowland first and do hyperspace mountain and the rides in tomorrowland or hit peter pan and the fantasyland rides first? Or does it not matter? Any help would be appreciated! I'm going with my DH and DS(17)
 
We usually go to Tommorowland and ride Space Mountain because that's what ride my family prefers. Peter Pan is a good one to go on first because they don't have fast passes like Hyperspace Mountain. The times we have gone on Peter Pan first, we still had to wait in at least a 20 min. line.
 
How many days will you be in the parks?

If Disney continues the routine, EE rotates.
DL's EE/MM is on Tue, Thur and Sat. While DCA's EE (no MM) is Sun, Mon, Wed and Fri.

The three of you should be able to handle the mass of people heading straight for PP once their through the gates. You have to be fast to stay up front.
The line for PeterPan can be extremely long all day long. We have found the line to be a little nicer late in the evening right after the fireworks. Some like to hop in line a few minutes before the park closes. As long as you're in line before closing time you'll get to ride.

Since it's your first time, I feel it might be best to do PP first. Especially since it doesn't have the option of FP.
Once you've ridden PP you can go over to HyperSpace Mountain or even Star Tours. Both of those lines generally move ok. Plus both have the FP option.

Getting things done early is key to all days in the parks. Once the parks begin to get crowded, we try to find activities in the shade. For me lines can be brutal when I have to be in the sun.

Have fun

Geemo
 
DH and I have had many discussions about this very topic. I think what we have decided to do is head straight over to Space Mountain and get a FP for it then hop in line to ride SB. Then we will head over to Matterhorn Mountain and ride that, however, after hearing about how PP doesn't use FPs (we are used to going to WDW where PP does use them), we may want to head over in that direction sometime in between Space Mountain and Matterhorn Mountain. Luckily for us we will be spending a lot of time in the parks so we can switch off what we will do first each time. Good luck and have a great trip.
 

Are you ABLE to get a FP immediately at EE/MM opening? I thought they didn't dispense them until general opening.
We always did Fantasyland rides first - Peter Pan, followed by Matterhorn. Then head over to Tomorrowland and see what we felt like....
 
Are you ABLE to get a FP immediately at EE/MM opening? I thought they didn't dispense them until general opening.
We always did Fantasyland rides first - Peter Pan, followed by Matterhorn. Then head over to Tomorrowland and see what we felt like....

Oh no, I think you may be right...I completely forgot about that...DOH! Thanks for setting me straight on that :goodvibes.
 
You cannot obtain FPs during EE/MM hours. Your best bet to maximize efficiency during that hour is to hit short-duration attractions without FP. Things like Peter Pan, Matterhorn, Alice, Pinocchio, Pooh, Dumbo, Toad. I believe most of the Fantasyland rides are open during EE/MM, so you should spend most of your first hour there.
 
Hi everyone, I'll be going to Disneyland June 16th for the first time (yay!) and we are staying at the Disneyland Hotel so I read that we can get in an hour early. I've read about the rides that are open during that time and was wondering if there was a good strategy to accomplish the most amount of rides. Should we go to Tomorrowland first and do hyperspace mountain and the rides in tomorrowland or hit peter pan and the fantasyland rides first? Or does it not matter? Any help would be appreciated! I'm going with my DH and DS(17)

IF you can get to the gates 30 minutes before EMH starts and if you want to do the FantasyLand rides then IMO you should focus on those rides during EMH. HSM, ST and BLAB all have FP and you can come back to those later after EMH. During EMH you can hit most or all of the FL rides with very little wait. Especially if you can get to PP and be one of the first there.

The ride order most would choose is:

PP
Dumbo
Alice in Wonderland/Matterhorn (either order)
Mr. Toad
Mad Tea Party
Pinnocchio/Snow White (either order)

:wizard:
 
Seeing as how everyone seems to head to PP first no matter the morning, if it's an EMH would it make sense to wait until the end of the hour right before the park opens to everyone else to get in line? Say the park opens for EMH at 7am we hit up all of the other Fantasyland rides during that time and then around 7:50am we get in line for PP before regular park open at 8a. Would the line be any shorter at that time before the rest of the crowd comes in and after everyone who wanted to ride it first is done and out of line? Or, are there so many people using EMH that there really won't be any difference between the first part of the EMH and the last part?

In theory it makes sense (at least to me) but in practice I guess I don't know what the crowds do. Our only other trip to DL was when PP was closed for refurb early last summer so guess I'm not sure what to expect and when we experienced it at MK the year before we were able to take advantage of FP+ so we haven't had a typical experience at PP with no FP involved.
 
Seeing as how everyone seems to head to PP first no matter the morning, if it's an EMH would it make sense to wait until the end of the hour right before the park opens to everyone else to get in line? Say the park opens for EMH at 7am we hit up all of the other Fantasyland rides during that time and then around 7:50am we get in line for PP before regular park open at 8a. Would the line be any shorter at that time before the rest of the crowd comes in and after everyone who wanted to ride it first is done and out of line? Or, are there so many people using EMH that there really won't be any difference between the first part of the EMH and the last part?

In theory it makes sense (at least to me) but in practice I guess I don't know what the crowds do. Our only other trip to DL was when PP was closed for refurb early last summer so guess I'm not sure what to expect and when we experienced it at MK the year before we were able to take advantage of FP+ so we haven't had a typical experience at PP with no FP involved.


The line for PP builds quickly since it is a slow loader. We only ride PP once during our visit and we make sure we are one of the first 20 people in line (by being first in line at bag check and first in line at the gates and walking briskly to PP). The line goes from 0-30/45 minute wait during MM so waiting until the end of MM doesn't help.

We do Hydroguy's recommendation and then add SM, ST, Buzz, and then get FP's for SM right at Park Opening.

PP
Dumbo
Alice in Wonderland/Matterhorn (either order)
Mr. Toad
Mad Tea Party
Pinnocchio/Snow White (either order)
Space Mountain
Star Tours
Buzz
FP for either SM or ST
 
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How many EMH do you have at Disneyland? We can take or leave fantasyland, so usually the first EMH at DL we completely skip fantasyland. We usually do star tours, buzz and indy during EMH at DL Then grab a fastpass for space right when the park opens to the public and head to matterhorn within 5 minutes of park opening (yes. it is hard to walk away from space with the short line to go to matterhorn). After matterhorn, it is usually time for our space FP (if it is not, we hit a FL ride to pass the time) so we grab a buzz and star tours FP real quick before we go on space.
 
How many EMH do you have at Disneyland? We can take or leave fantasyland, so usually the first EMH at DL we completely skip fantasyland. We usually do star tours, buzz and indy during EMH at DL Then grab a fastpass for space right when the park opens to the public and head to matterhorn within 5 minutes of park opening (yes. it is hard to walk away from space with the short line to go to matterhorn). After matterhorn, it is usually time for our space FP (if it is not, we hit a FL ride to pass the time) so we grab a buzz and star tours FP real quick before we go on space.

If I read your question right; I guess it depends if you are staying one of the DLR hotels or a good neighbor hotel or if you have a 3 day ticket.
 
How many EMH do you have at Disneyland? We can take or leave fantasyland, so usually the first EMH at DL we completely skip fantasyland. We usually do star tours, buzz and indy during EMH at DL Then grab a fastpass for space right when the park opens to the public and head to matterhorn within 5 minutes of park opening (yes. it is hard to walk away from space with the short line to go to matterhorn). After matterhorn, it is usually time for our space FP (if it is not, we hit a FL ride to pass the time) so we grab a buzz and star tours FP real quick before we go on space.

Indy's not open for EMH; just Fantasyland and some of Tomorrowland.

Since the OP is staying onsite, they'll have all EMH days available-- I'd use one of them for FL and then get FPs for the rides in Tomorrowland. Hydroguy's ride order is the one we've used most frequently. I think I'd do FL on the first EMH on Thursday the 16th. Then you could do rope drop and do the left side (Indy, BTMRR, Splash) on a non-EMH day.
 
The times we have gone on Peter Pan first, we still had to wait in at least a 20 min. line.

I wouldn't waste EMH/MM time on Peter Pan unless you can get on the ride in ten minutes or less. So if you want to ride it with minimal wait, make sure you're one of the first ones on. Since you won't have a stroller to navigate and park this shouldn't be too hard as long as you are at the park early.

I would definitely go to Peter Pan during your extra hour, and also Alice. The other Fantasyland dark rides are worth riding and are all very short, but if you want to skip them and come back later they don't command the long lines of Peter and Alice. You could, for example, ride Peter Pan and Alice then Matterhorn and Space Mountain all during your Extra hour and then go back to Fantasyland after grabbing a FP for something at park opening.

Are you ABLE to get a FP immediately at EE/MM opening? I thought they didn't dispense them until general opening.

Yeah, no FP available until after EMH/MM. But you can still be one of the first to pull one for any given ride.

Your best bet to maximize efficiency during that hour is to hit short-duration attractions without FP. Things like Peter Pan, Matterhorn, Alice, Pinocchio, Pooh, Dumbo, Toad.

Just an FYI at Disneyland Pooh is located in Critter Country instead of Fantasyland, so it isn't open during EMH/MM. But Pooh doesn't usually have long lines anyway as its cars can hold more than one party at a time and it's in the back of the park away from the traditional kiddy rides.
 
If I read your question right; I guess it depends if you are staying one of the DLR hotels or a good neighbor hotel or if you have a 3 day ticket.

No, someone who stays at a DLR hotel will only have so many opportunities to do EMH at DL since DL EMH is only three days a week. If they have more more than one DL EMH that can change the strategy compared to if they only have one.

:wizard:
 
I wouldn't waste EMH/MM time on Peter Pan unless you can get on the ride in ten minutes or less. So if you want to ride it with minimal wait, make sure you're one of the first ones on. Since you won't have a stroller to navigate and park this shouldn't be too hard as long as you are at the park early.

I would definitely go to Peter Pan during your extra hour, and also Alice. The other Fantasyland dark rides are worth riding and are all very short, but if you want to skip them and come back later they don't command the long lines of Peter and Alice. You could, for example, ride Peter Pan and Alice then Matterhorn and Space Mountain all during your Extra hour and then go back to Fantasyland after grabbing a FP for something at park opening.
I agree to only do PP if you can be near the front.

But some people really want to do PP. I was in that boat last summer and DW had an issue that morning with fast walking. And they had some new features on PP with the projections. So we waited it out for like 30 minutes. Arghhh. But it was important to me. Otherwise I would use your 10 minute rule.

Toad and Alice can still have pretty long lines late into the evening, but Snow White, Pinnocchio and Mad Tea will usually drop down more. Same with Mad Tea Party. Dumbo I am not so sure about.


:wizard:
 
WOW! Thanks everyone for all the responses, I guess I didn't have my email notifications clicked on because I just came to find my post and found all of this wonderful advice! I told my husband all the years we've gone to WDW and out of all the questions I've asked I've only ever gotten like one or two responses, lol, so thank you Disneyland Pro's!!! My 3 days are wed. thurs. and fri. so I'm leaning towards DCA wed. DL Thurs. and DCA Fri. We do not have park hoppers. I guess I think my son might enjoy DCA more with the thrill type rides that are there. So because thurs. will be the only time we are going to DL I'm going to go with the FL strategy Hydroguy recommended and get in line at 6:30 am to enter the park and hoof it to PP! I'm so excited, thanks again everyone!!! If I feel like we didn't get enough done Thursday then I'll probably go Friday instead of DCA.
 
I'm also more of a WDW vet and trying to refresh my DL strategies so I'm tagging along for the advice. :) (and to come back later and write these down!!)
 








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