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

[Ferrentinos]

Hey @Ferrentinos

Remember, there's a 1 day cancellation policy on EMM, so keep looking! Maybe something will pop up. Good luck.

Hi!

I know! I keep looking and crossing my Disney fingers in hopes that someone changes their minds! We literally saw it available in the morning... went to book it later that day... and poof! Gone!

 

[zebrastreyepz]

I didn't realize until the hulabaloo that there are only 3 rides for this.

And this is popular?

 

[Surgie2]

And this is popular?

I think it's popular for people with younger kids. Speaking as a Nana bringing 4 grandkids who are 5 and under, I am happy to have one morning where we don't have to FP these popular rides and can enjoy a less crowded park with breakfast right there in Fantasyland. It is a splurge but one we think we'll enjoy. Obviously there are those who don't see the value in this experience. But we're excited to find out for ourselves in May!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I didn't realize until the hulabaloo that there are only 3 rides for this.

And this is popular?

Three rides and a buffet breakfast. Obviously 7DMT is the headline draw which "carries" the popularity, followed by PP to a lesser extent.

It is seemingly popular....it has been offered on a generally consistent basis since April 2016 with no changes and many dates selling out (although it's a relatively low ticket count to begin with). Other than the cluster that was last week's date, reviews and comments around DIS tend to slant positive more often than not.

It's certainly not a product that fits everyone, but it does for some.

 

[KrazeeK120]

I didn't realize until the hulabaloo that there are only 3 rides for this.

And this is popular?

It was a no-brainer for my family. My son (only child) was 18 months old the last time we went. He is up early every morning anyway (as very young children often are). There are lots of rides in MK he can do, and it was nice to not have to use FP for PP or Pooh, and he got to experience both of them multiple times. Plus, his admission was free. DH and I both also got to ride 7DMT several times as well. We just switched off...one of us took DS on a ride and the other rode 7DMT and then traded.

DS will be almost 3 on our next trip and I hope we will be able to attend this event again.

 

[Ferrentinos]

I didn't realize until the hulabaloo that there are only 3 rides for this.

And this is popular?

We've done it twice and were hoping to do it again this trip - It is so peaceful in Fantasyland having so few people there - our daughter literally feels like she has the place to herself! We got back and forth - she rides 7DMT over and over with DH - I take in the sites and sounds of a quiet park

Last trip we had the privilege of being chosen as Family of the Day at Pinocchio Village House - it was so neat! We had table service at breakfast - the CM's fawned all over us - two extra FP's because the experience was taking longer than we expected to eat breakfast and we were going to miss our upcoming FP - even a princess gift and meet and greet with Ariel set up for us! They walked us down to the grotto and walked us right up to her! Such a special surprise and DD truly believes that the Blue Fairy chose us! I was all teared up the entire experience! I know that we will never have that experience again - but we will never forget how special that was and would love to relive it!

 

[Babs1975]

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.

Your plan sounds perfect. We too stay offsite and it takes us 20 minutes to get to MK. We arrived right before 7 as well. Traffic will be super light at that hour and extra bonus, when going in for EMM we didn't even have to pay for parking because we were there before the booths were staffed. Do exactly what you said above. Your timing should be perfect.

 

[theone74733]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but couldn't get this question answered in the search feature.

We plan on not doing EMM, but want to get to the park at rope drop on Sunday, January 28th to ride Peter Pans Flight first. Is the line right at 9 am backed up due to the EMM crowd there already? I don't mind if the wait is around 10-15 mins, but if the line is 45-60 mins at that time due to the crowds already there, I could book the FP for it. Rather save the FP for other rides though.

 

[Whit64130]

Hi , stumbled across this thread! I did EMM back in Nov 2016 and just booked for April 29 of this year. We really enjoyed it and the emptiness of the park. We loved the breakfast too!

 

[steve_rob]

Sorry if this has been answered before, but couldn't get this question answered in the search feature.

We plan on not doing EMM, but want to get to the park at rope drop on Sunday, January 28th to ride Peter Pans Flight first. Is the line right at 9 am backed up due to the EMM crowd there already? I don't mind if the wait is around 10-15 mins, but if the line is 45-60 mins at that time due to the crowds already there, I could book the FP for it. Rather save the FP for other rides though.

There's only about 200 people doing EMM on any one day and most of them will have already ridden PP multiple times before 9am comes round and so won't feel the need to queue up for it again. And anyway, when the park fully opens up to all guests, people doing EMM are far more likely to have moved on to the other Fantasyland attractions, in order to take advantage of short queues there - that, or they'll be eating breakfast.

If you head straight to PP at rope drop, the queues will almost certainly be whatever the usual morning wait time is.

 

[londontime]

Just booked this for April 10! We are only in WDW for 3 days as its the end of a Georgia/ Carolinas trip. Totally looking forward to it.

 

[L_MD]

I didn't realize until the hulabaloo that there are only 3 rides for this.

And this is popular?

I think it's good for families but I also like it as a solo-tripper. I adore Peter Pan (fond memories) so I can ride that a few times and then basically get my fill of 7DMT for my whole trip. It also frees up FP room to use at attractions that aren't part of EMM. I like to do it on my first day, too...a fairly empty Fantasyland and a good breakfast really set the scene for the rest of the day.

 

[Scooter2376]

We’re taking a mid-day break from the parks, so I wanted to post a quick report from this morning’s EMM in light of all the complaints about the one last week.

Things couldn’t have gone more smoothly today. We arrived at MK about 7:35, and a CM checked us in quickly and put on our wrist bands. They let us into the park right at 7:45, and we walked back to SDMT and rode it 6 times in a row. We could have ridden a few more times if we had wanted to. A dad and his daughter we met said they rode it 13 times! We rode PP and Pooh twice each. It was 8:50 by then and the park opened at 9:00. We waited at the Teacups until RD (we definitely could have ridden SDMT a couple more times before RD if we had wanted) and then made our way to Buzz before the crowd at the main entrance to Tomorrowland. We walked on to Buzz twice and could have ridden it again with no wait but were getting hungry, so we headed over to Pinocchio Haus at about 9:15.

Breakfast was exactly what I remembered from the EMM we attended last January, which is to say it was perfectly fine— scrambled eggs, a vegetable frittata, two kinds of sausage, bacon, potatoes, French toast, yogurt, cheese, fruit, and some pastries.

While I totally understand all the bad reviews of last week’s EMM and would have felt the same way if we had had that experience, I’m really glad that I didn’t let the bad reviews dissuade me from going this week because we had a great time.

 

[nicolispicoli]

Your plan sounds perfect. We too stay offsite and it takes us 20 minutes to get to MK. We arrived right before 7 as well. Traffic will be super light at that hour and extra bonus, when going in for EMM we didn't even have to pay for parking because we were there before the booths were staffed. Do exactly what you said above. Your timing should be perfect.

Thank you!!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I updated Post #2 with dates that the MK calendar suggests (key word) may be EMM dates in early July. Note that these aren't bookable yet, I'm just reading into dates where the MK calendar says "Ticketed Event: 7:45AM-9AM."

Also note that this is not always a totally reliable source, but it's been reasonably accurate in the past as a leading indicator.

Also note that the MK calendar is only available through 7/16/18.

Happy planning!

 

[patty57]

Attending this on Sunday, May 20th, with my two nieces.

 

[mekay1012]

Crossing my fingers for July 17.

 

[Surgie2]

We waited at the Teacups until RD (we definitely could have ridden SDMT a couple more times before RD if we had wanted) and then made our way to Buzz before the crowd at the main entrance to Tomorrowland.

Glad you had such a positive experience today @Scooter2376. We have a big Buzz fan in the family and I hadn't really thought about being strategic to position ourselves to quickly get there at 9:00 so thanks for the heads up.

What about people heading to get in a different ride before breakfast such as BTMR? PP looks closest to that but will there be a rope in place at the walkway into Frontierland until 9:00...so we just need to station ourselves there a bit before 9:00?

 

[PPFlight75]

Crossing my fingers for July 17.

Me too!! I'm patiently waiting. (Sort of)

 

[Scooter2376]

Glad you had such a positive experience today @Scooter2376. We have a big Buzz fan in the family and I hadn't really thought about being strategic to position ourselves to quickly get there at 9:00 so thanks for the heads up.

What about people heading to get in a different ride before breakfast such as BTMR? PP looks closest to that but will there be a rope in place at the walkway into Frontierland until 9:00...so we just need to station ourselves there a bit before 9:00?

They don’t have actual ropes but they have a couple of CMs stationed at each of the pathways out of Fantasyland to prevent people from wandering into other sections of the park before RD. It just goes to show how uncrowded the EMMs are that a couple of CMs are all they need to contain folks.