MK/Fantasyland “Early Morning Magic” (EMM) (Thread Now Closed, See New MK EMM FAQ Thread)

[GADisneyDad14]

Thanks & yes, I mean April 15th!

We actually have never done space mountain or astroorbiter before. When we did EMM in August, my plans were a little messed up because Peter Pan was down the whole time but we did it’s a small world during EMM instead. Then at 9AM we did haunted mansion and went back to try Peter Pan but it was still down. We didn’t seem to have time to walk somewhere and do much, so we just did carousel & then at breakfast.

Would it be better to try for:
- space, astroorbiter, possibly speedway, or
- little mermaid, barnstormer, dumbo, or
- it’s a small world, haunted mansion

(Doing haunted mansion right when the park opened wasn’t such a good time in August because we went there as soon as they let us out of fantasyland but then we had to wait in that holding room until is was full...)

Having done IASW in that first hour after EMM before, I don't recommend it. It takes too long and just eats valuable minutes!

My personal recommendation would be to at least get in one E-ticket ride (a big, popular ride) right away. Something like Space, BTMR, Splash. Of your options, I'd probably do Space, Astro, restroom to get sick, Speedway if you have time, then breakfast.

Good luck!

 

[Babs1975]

Thank you! I'm so excited about this trip. I've planned a lot of surprises for my daughter with EMM being one of them! We both love 7DMT so she's going to have a blast! Today we are driving her back to college and she'll be starting her 2nd semester classes tomorrow. Enjoy your son's senior year. It goes by way too fast......... I miss my girl already.

Have a blast! We did 7DMT 10 times during our EMM! Was so much fun. Worth every penny!

 

[REEREEG]

I agree with the above poster. Try SM and AO and then see on timing. Speedway shouldn't be too busy by that time.

Funny that you said not to do HM, because that's exactly what we did at 9am and it worked perfectly. We were the first people on that morning. When we went, 7DMT was down until 8:40a. Because we did Rider Switch, we each only had time to do it once because we had to wait 3 trains each. But they did open Small World early so we were able to get that out of the way before 9am.

For anyone going, just be prepared that 1 of the 3 rides may not be running or will start late. They usually open another ride early when that happens, but it helps if you are mentally prepared if that happens. There were alot of unhappy people our morning, since many purchase EMM solely for 7DMT.

It may have just been that we were there on a pretty quiet day (a Tuesday during the first week of school) so it took a while for enough people to get to haunted mansion.

 

[DizzyDis]

Want to say thank you to all who have posted for EMM tips, we have bought our tickets for Feb 4, our first park day. We are thinking about heading over to meet the princesses right at park opening, since we have 2 LOs with us (including a 6yo big time princess fan) and then eat breakfast. Anyone have experiences for when the princesses come out and success at seeing them right away? Ideally, we will see both sets, but would e satisfied with one if that is what works out, so we are sure to get to breakfast by 9:30 or 9:45 (may also have hangry kids at that point). If required, I may run over to grab a muffin to hold them over before we have our full meal.

We have FP for Splash at 11 and BTMRR at 12:15. Hoping we will all go on (3yo is pretty tall), but are mentally prepared for rider swap if he isn't according to their measurements or just isn't up for the thrills (we will see how 7DMT works out and decide from there).

Any issues you see with this strategy? Am I forgetting some aspect of EMM that will throw this for a loop?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Want to say thank you to all who have posted for EMM tips, we have bought our tickets for Feb 4, our first park day. We are thinking about heading over to meet the princesses right at park opening, since we have 2 LOs with us (including a 6yo big time princess fan) and then eat breakfast. Anyone have experiences for when the princesses come out and success at seeing them right away? Ideally, we will see both sets, but would e satisfied with one if that is what works out, so we are sure to get to breakfast by 9:30 or 9:45 (may also have hangry kids at that point). If required, I may run over to grab a muffin to hold them over before we have our full meal.

We have FP for Splash at 11 and BTMRR at 12:15. Hoping we will all go on (3yo is pretty tall), but are mentally prepared for rider swap if he isn't according to their measurements or just isn't up for the thrills (we will see how 7DMT works out and decide from there).

Any issues you see with this strategy? Am I forgetting some aspect of EMM that will throw this for a loop?

Sounds good to me! AFAIK, all four princesses start meeting at Fairytale Hall right at 9AM, I don’t think there is usually a delay for those meets (@hiroMYhero, would you mind correcting me if I’m wrong?).

I’d say you can probably do all four princesses, another ride, then circle back for breakfast - if you wanted to squeeze something else in. Have fun!

 

[DizzyDis]

Thank you!!@GADisneyDad14 ! I am being told I must not over-plan this trip (refer to earlier note on 3yo and 6yo ) but that sounds like an excellent idea! Due to little legs (and he always hated the stroller, so we aren't bothering this time), we won't go far, but I will keep a couple of options in my head in the event that everything moves very quickly... I feel like it is a waste of early park time, but they love things like Dumbo, Tea Cup and the Carousel, so those may just happen because they are right there!

Thanks for the validation that I am not over-planning, I am just right-planning

 

[ADS2508]

Want to say thank you to all who have posted for EMM tips, we have bought our tickets for Feb 4, our first park day. We are thinking about heading over to meet the princesses right at park opening, since we have 2 LOs with us (including a 6yo big time princess fan) and then eat breakfast. Anyone have experiences for when the princesses come out and success at seeing them right away? Ideally, we will see both sets, but would e satisfied with one if that is what works out, so we are sure to get to breakfast by 9:30 or 9:45 (may also have hangry kids at that point). If required, I may run over to grab a muffin to hold them over before we have our full meal.

We have FP for Splash at 11 and BTMRR at 12:15. Hoping we will all go on (3yo is pretty tall), but are mentally prepared for rider swap if he isn't according to their measurements or just isn't up for the thrills (we will see how 7DMT works out and decide from there).

Any issues you see with this strategy? Am I forgetting some aspect of EMM that will throw this for a loop?

We actually did this with our 1 and 3 year old. We met all 4 princesss and were eating at 9:25. We were in line to meet Gaston at 9:45. We hit Little Mermaid, met Ariel, rode the tea cups, saw country Bears and still had plenty of time to make our 11am FP for Splash.

 

[jkostlevy]

Looking for 4 tickets for March 25 if anyone decides to cancel!

 

[nicolispicoli]

Thanks to @steve_rob and @GADisneyDad14 , I've got our plan down for arriving at EMM on 2/20.

I think the only thing I'm still worried about now is the drive from our offsite rental to the MK parking area. I'm not familiar with the area (at all), but is there any reason why a normally 15-20 minute drive (it's 10 miles from the house to the TTC according to google maps) should take longer than that at 6:30AM on a Tuesday? I was planning on leaving the house at 6:30AM arriving around 6:50 or so. To be honest, we're a group of 12 and 5 of those are kids, leaving earlier than 6:30 would be difficult. Any insight would be awesome, thank you!

I'm including the route in case that helps.

[URL='http://s1067.photobucket.com/user/nicolispicoli/media/EMM%20route_1.jpg.html'][/URL]

 

[fiasco32]

Do I need to bring anything with us to check in for EMM or can I just use my Magic Band? I don't see it in my "Plans" on the app so I'm worried it's not linked to my account for some reason.

 

[My3SweetSuns]

Do I need to bring anything with us to check in for EMM or can I just use my Magic Band? I don't see it in my "Plans" on the app so I'm worried it's not linked to my account for some reason.

Check your MDE from your web browser. I have EMM & a dessert party scheduled. The party won’t show up on my app, but it is on MDE when I check it from my web browser.

 

[fiasco32]

Check your MDE from your web browser. I have EMM & a dessert party scheduled. The party won’t show up on my app, but it is on MDE when I check it from my web browser.

Yes, it's there. But now I'm concerned because my DAH reservation for the following Friday is not there. Does that one work differently? It told me when I checked out it would be linked to my Magic Band.

 

[My3SweetSuns]

Yes, it's there. But now I'm concerned because my DAH reservation for the following Friday is not there. Does that one work differently? It told me when I checked out it would be linked to my Magic Band.

I think it still is linked to your band - especially if you can see it on your MDE, I don’t think it will be a problem, but if you’re looking at it from your web browser and you don’t see it, I’d try linking it again & see what it says.

 

[fiasco32]

I think it still is linked to your band - especially if you can see it on your MDE, I don’t think it will be a problem, but if you’re looking at it from your web browser and you don’t see it, I’d try linking it again & see what it says.

Sorry but how do I link it?

 

[ArielSRL]

So now that we can see a full six months of 2018, it's interesting to take a look at the trend. Jan-June 2017 had 15 EMM dates. Jan-June 2018 has 30 dates.

EMMs will be starting again in just a few days, after a two month break (Nov-December).

As a reminder, I'm keeping post #2 (EMM Dates) updated regularly.

Happy planning everyone!

Why oh why couldn't one of those 2018 dates be when I needed it to be? And no PPO at BOG either. Ugh. Disney messing with my plans.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Why oh why couldn't one of those 2018 dates be when I needed it to be? And no PPO at BOG either. Ugh. Disney messing with my plans.

They knew you were coming.

 

[ArielSRL]

They knew you were coming.

Apparently so!

 

[My3SweetSuns]

Sorry but how do I link it?

I think just like a dining reservation.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Thanks to @steve_rob and @GADisneyDad14 , I've got our plan down for arriving at EMM on 2/20.

I think the only thing I'm still worried about now is the drive from our offsite rental to the MK parking area. I'm not familiar with the area (at all), but is there any reason why a normally 15-20 minute drive (it's 10 miles from the house to the TTC according to google maps) should take longer than that at 6:30AM on a Saturday? I was planning on leaving the house at 6:30AM arriving around 6:50 or so. To be honest, we're a group of 12 and 5 of those are kids, leaving earlier than 6:30 would be difficult. Any insight would be awesome, thank you!

I'm including the route in case that helps.

Ok, dumb question... 2/20 is a Tuesday. You say Saturday above. I assume you meant Tuesday? I'd expect relatively light traffic that early, generally speaking. You plan sounds pretty legit to me (good luck, that's a large crew!).

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Do I need to bring anything with us to check in for EMM or can I just use my Magic Band? I don't see it in my "Plans" on the app so I'm worried it's not linked to my account for some reason.

Yes, it's there. But now I'm concerned because my DAH reservation for the following Friday is not there. Does that one work differently? It told me when I checked out it would be linked to my Magic Band.

You should be fine, I suspect. DAH is a "ticket", so like theme park admission. EMM is an ADR. Various parts of the app and/or website will treat these both differently.

For DAH, click My Disney Experience --> My Reservations and Tickets and it should be listed under "Tickets and Passes" (if it's not, then your DAH tickets aren't linked to your MDE account.

For EMM, do the same and it should be listed under "Dining Reservations."

Hope that helps!