Insane Magic Morning

[dshimel]

Just back from 5 day trip.

Magic Morning on Tuesday was insanity. I dropped the family off at 6:30. ALL gates were magic morning, and all had lines twice as far as the monorail tracks. Took them until 7:15 just to get into the park.... Space Mt and Pan already had 40 min waits by the time they got in.

I waited for Toy Story lot to open at 7, then made it to the entrance about 7:15. Lines still 2x as far as the monorail tracks... and people just kept coming. magic morning lines were still past the monorail tracks. By 7:45 they had made 4 regular entry gates and just before 7:50 they started letting us in to be held for rope drop, but all the other gates were still magic morning, and all still had lines out past the monorail tracks.

8:10 Space Mt had a 90 min wait time and the line to get Fast Passes was out to the big round rock.

 

[BriannaRuth]

Wow. Sorry it was so bad!

 

[beachdreamr1229]

It's spring break season...Worse than summer I think. Sorry for your experience. It's not always that bad, but this time of year is really hit or miss.

 

[wilkeliza]

Every time Extra Magic Morning or MM has been offered that has been our experience. We no longer see it as a "perk" and purposefully go to the other park not offering that those days.

 

[dshimel]

Every time Extra Magic Morning or MM has been offered that has been our experience. We no longer see it as a "perk" and purposefully go to the other park not offering that those days.

This is not normal in my experience. A few year ago we did all of Fantasyland in that first hour. My wife and I did MM in early December and we did Space 2x as a walk-on, then both sides of matterhorn, in that first hour.

January, we got let in for Magic Morning, even though our tickets didn't allow it, because they didn't have enough people.

I'd never seen that many MM gates, and the lines being long (or existent at all after 7:10 or so). By 7:30 there are usually only a handfull of MM gates and they have no lines.

 

[wilkeliza]

This is not normal in my experience. A few year ago we did all of Fantasyland in that first hour. My wife and I did MM in early December and we did Space 2x as a walk-on, then both sides of matterhorn, in that first hour.

January, we got let in for Magic Morning, even though our tickets didn't allow it, because they didn't have enough people.

I'd never seen that many MM gates, and the lines being long (or existent at all after 7:10 or so). By 7:30 there are usually only a handfull of MM gates and they have no lines.

Maybe it is because one trip was on a race weekend and one was D23 Expo but both times we would get to the promenade about 30-45 minutes before entry time and not get in until about 30 minutes into MM or EMH. Maybe we just have bad luck picking lines.

 

[DLgal]

This is how MM looks on any day during summer break as well. It's ridiculous. They need to start restricting that perk to onsite guests only, IMO.

 

[wilkeliza]

This is how MM looks on any day during summer break as well. It's ridiculous. They need to start restricting that perk to onsite guests only, IMO.

In my experience even on EMH which has a day or two that is onsite guests only it is crazy. We did EMH for Cali Adventur from GC which wasn't too bad because at least everyone at that entrance was suppose to be there so didn't stand and fight with CMs.

 

[DL_Forever]

This is making me nervous for our trip next week. We went last year at the tail end of spring break and had no issues. We typically line up 30-45 minutes prior to EMH.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

I'm sorry to hear of your experience!

In all of our trips, we've never had that problem and we've traveled over typically busy times - Spring Break, Summer, Thanksgiving. I hope it was just a fluke for you.

 

[krispin41]

I was also there that day, got into a line around 6:45, but found the line moved quickly. I rode Star Tours, but since it was a solo trip for me, I was more interested in getting pics in front of the Castle without a ton of people around. I can't do Space Mountain.

 

[Disney Rose]

That was our experience for magic morning too. We struggle to get up early but the made the effort only to find the longest lines we've ever seen for the park! It sounds as though its very hit and miss. We happened to be there when a huge conference was on, and were told that's why it was so busy.

 

[Leopardstars]

Just back from 5 day trip.

Magic Morning on Tuesday was insanity. I dropped the family off at 6:30. ALL gates were magic morning, and all had lines twice as far as the monorail tracks. Took them until 7:15 just to get into the park.... Space Mt and Pan already had 40 min waits by the time they got in.

I waited for Toy Story lot to open at 7, then made it to the entrance about 7:15. Lines still 2x as far as the monorail tracks... and people just kept coming. magic morning lines were still past the monorail tracks. By 7:45 they had made 4 regular entry gates and just before 7:50 they started letting us in to be held for rope drop, but all the other gates were still magic morning, and all still had lines out past the monorail tracks.

8:10 Space Mt had a 90 min wait time and the line to get Fast Passes was out to the big round rock.

We were there on Tuesday as well and arrived at the gates to line up around 6:30 for MM/EMM. The lines that day were the worst of the trip so I really sympathize. The line ups for the other 3 days were not as bad.We pulled FPs on Tues for Splash that we gave away because by 2pm we were done and didn't want to wait for our return time. We were only able to do 3 rides during that hour.

This is how MM looks on any day during summer break as well. It's ridiculous. They need to start restricting that perk to onsite guests only, IMO.

I think either restrict it to resort hotel guests or maybe make off-site guests hold the longer multi-day tickets to get a MM.

 

[mgmgbook]

We were there this week and had planned to use our MM on Tuesday morning. When we saw the lines, we decided to rethink our strategy and hit CA instead. Definitely a smart move. I think lots of people have started taking the advice on this site and try to use their MM the first morning that they can. I noticed that on Thursday the lines were much shorter for MM (we still opted for CA that morning). We used our MM on Saturday and were first in line at one of the gates at 6:20-25. The park was fairly quiet until after 9am. Maybe that's a transition day for people and locals aren't there yet?? It would be interesting to note if this happens thru the spring break weeks - Tuesday most crowded and lessening for Thurs and Sat.

 

[MacMama0930]

Also remember that So Cal residents got those super discounted 3 day tickets recently that expire next month. Those are a lot of magic mornings! I have found that even on busy days, magic mornings are still super valuable - especially those 7am days! DCA EMM are much better since its limited to hotel guests. I think all early entries should be limited to onsite guests. They certainly pay a high premium for it.

 

[alvernon90]

This is how MM looks on any day during summer break as well. It's ridiculous. They need to start restricting that perk to onsite guests only, IMO.

This, this, this! It's not like restricting it to onsite guests means the crowds will be too thin, because they get decent crowds at DCA early entry even without offsite guests. They don't need the Magic Morning perk to sell multiday tickets. What they need is more value added to the onsite rooms.

 

[southlake]

dshimel,

You were there during Spring Break so crowds will be crazy!

Agree with pps that MM should be limited to on-site hotel guests only. We certainly pay a premium to stay there! I'm not even staying onsite at our next visit but still agree with this

 

[dshimel]

dshimel,

You were there during Spring Break so crowds will be crazy!

Agree with pps that MM should be limited to on-site hotel guests only. We certainly pay a premium to stay there! I'm not even staying onsite at our next visit but still agree with this

Yeah, I knew it was spring break... since we were there because by grand kids were on spring break. I knew it was going to be crazy. Notice I didn't complain about the general level of crowding that was high all week.
My comment was limited to just Magic Morning on Tuesday, which was insane compared to any Magic Morning I'd experienced before. Not even close.

As for limiting it to hotel guests only, I'm not sure that is necessary most of the year. Perhaps just the times Disney is expecting high crowds like spring break, big holidays, and... Well, pretty much any time that multi-day ticket holders would really want to use it.

The half-price, 3-day hopper to locals only should NEVER have included a Magic Morning. It is half-price for goodness sake.

 

[agamble]

We were there this week and had planned to use our MM on Tuesday morning. When we saw the lines, we decided to rethink our strategy and hit CA instead. Definitely a smart move. I think lots of people have started taking the advice on this site and try to use their MM the first morning that they can. I noticed that on Thursday the lines were much shorter for MM (we still opted for CA that morning). We used our MM on Saturday and were first in line at one of the gates at 6:20-25. The park was fairly quiet until after 9am. Maybe that's a transition day for people and locals aren't there yet?? It would be interesting to note if this happens thru the spring break weeks - Tuesday most crowded and lessening for Thurs and Sat.

Also, Deluxe and lower APs are currently blocked on all Saturdays through late August. So that may help with the slightly less busy Saturday morning. Though APs don't get MM anyway, but we still hit rope drop every day. I was watching the app this week and it seemed like Monday and Tuesday were extremely busy. I wondered if there were a lot of people who went for just 3-4 days and started last Saturday. Perhaps parents taking a 4 day weekend during the kids' spring break.

 

[brucefan]

<gulp> making me nervous for next Wednesday! It is MM at DCA so we were going to hit DL first. Fingers crossed it's not THAT bad...l