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

[Lsdolphin]

Staying at POFQ what time should I be at bus stop for tomorrow's EMM?

 

[Pembo]

Just wanted to pop in and say we were at EMM on June 10. I was able to ride 7DMT 10 times!! It could have been a few more but I drank too much water and had to make a stop. My family went on Pooh while I went to the restroom and then I did 7DMT alone before meeting up with them for 2 more rides. We planned to hit PP right at the end but it was down. I went to HM for the first ride of the day and my family raced to BTMRR and walked right on. We had breakfast about 9:30 and also took pastries to go. It was an awesome experience that I'm glad we did.

My only complaint is that we were let in to the park at 7:45 but it was 7:52 by the time we made it to Fantasyland. It's a long walk! Would be nice to be let in and held by FL to enter the area right at 7:45.

The rest of the day was HOT!!!! and the crowds were building. An afternoon rain was a welcome reprieve that lasted for 10-15 mins. The rain came back at 10:00 when we were on the last ride of the day on BTMRR. We came out of the mountain and it rained our whole ride and we walked to the front of the park. The rain stopped by the time we got to Main Street.

 

[blabadie]

Just wanted to pop in and say we were at EMM on June 10. I was able to ride 7DMT 10 times!! It could have been a few more but I drank too much water and had to make a stop. My family went on Pooh while I went to the restroom and then I did 7DMT alone before meeting up with them for 2 more rides. We planned to hit PP right at the end but it was down. I went to HM for the first ride of the day and my family raced to BTMRR and walked right on. We had breakfast about 9:30 and also took pastries to go. It was an awesome experience that I'm glad we did.

My only complaint is that we were let in to the park at 7:45 but it was 7:52 by the time we made it to Fantasyland. It's a long walk! Would be nice to be let in and held by FL to enter the area right at 7:45.

The rest of the day was HOT!!!! and the crowds were building. An afternoon rain was a welcome reprieve that lasted for 10-15 mins. The rain came back at 10:00 when we were on the last ride of the day on BTMRR. We came out of the mountain and it rained our whole ride and we walked to the front of the park. The rain stopped by the time we got to Main Street.

Were you able to get unlimited PP fastpasses on your magic band till noon since it was down during EMM?

 

[jacksmommy]

I have a while before my next EMM (October 14), but I cannot help but start to make mental touring plans for that trip, so my question:

Has the carousel been open lately? I know this is an unadvertised bonus and our record is roughly 50% for the carousel, but it seems like it was generally open except when it was being refurbed (of course). Is that still the case?

My kids love themselves some carousel... so not having to wait in line (while Mom and Dad take turns doing 7DMT) would be helpful for other MK days...

Thanks!

We went last Sunday, June 17th and it was not open initially but did open before the rest of the park opened.

 

[jacksmommy]

We did EMM last Sunday, June 17th and we also did it exactly a year ago on June 16th, 2017. Last year I drove to TTC and then took the monorail but it was not running yet so I decided to do Lyft. I've never used that service before and I thought I was getting a Minnie Van but go a regular Lyft, which was fine but we had to be dropped at TTC since only MV can drop at the MK bus depot. Drive was easy and cost $13 with tip. Monorail was running (about 7:00 a.m.) and then we were maybe in the 2nd group of people at the entrance after going to get our bands. True both times that they do not let you in to MK until 7:45 a.m. I remember last year this surprised me and it is a haul to Fantasyland. Since we did it last year we only stopped for one quick picture and we were closer to the front of the line to get into MK so we were on the first ride of 7DMT of the day. We rode it probably 7 times in a row and then headed to do Pooh once. Next we did Peter Pan twice and then back to 7DMT for 2 more rides. About 5 minutes to 9 we headed to Cinderella/Elena's line and then used our first FP on Tiana/Rapunzel. Then my daughter rode the carousel. We headed to breakfast about 9:15 so right around the same time last year. Breakfast was fine, but I remember it being really good last year and this year both my son and I thought it was not nearly as good. Still good enough. Here is where I noticed a difference. Last year after breakfast we managed to ride IASW, meet Peter Pan and ride Haunted Mansion on our way to our 10:00 FP for BTMRR. The crowds were much higher and HM was at a 30 minute wait by 9:45 and IASW was like 15-20. I know last year I felt EMM got us so far ahead in our day which was amazing. We had an awesome time and would do it again just for the 7DMT over and over but the overall experience differed I think because it was much heavier crowds early in the day. So I was thankful we did it because those first 2 hours of valuable touring time would not have accomplished nearly as much without it.

 

[LandonDunes]

Just wanted to pop in and say we were at EMM on June 10. I was able to ride 7DMT 10 times!! It could have been a few more but I drank too much water and had to make a stop. My family went on Pooh while I went to the restroom and then I did 7DMT alone before meeting up with them for 2 more rides. We planned to hit PP right at the end but it was down. I went to HM for the first ride of the day and my family raced to BTMRR and walked right on. We had breakfast about 9:30 and also took pastries to go. It was an awesome experience that I'm glad we did.

My only complaint is that we were let in to the park at 7:45 but it was 7:52 by the time we made it to Fantasyland. It's a long walk! Would be nice to be let in and held by FL to enter the area right at 7:45.

The rest of the day was HOT!!!! and the crowds were building. An afternoon rain was a welcome reprieve that lasted for 10-15 mins. The rain came back at 10:00 when we were on the last ride of the day on BTMRR. We came out of the mountain and it rained our whole ride and we walked to the front of the park. The rain stopped by the time we got to Main Street.

ugh...another story about one of the EMM rides being down. I feel like it is somewhat common that one of the three are down for EMM. By common, I mean 20%+ of the time...which is really not that common but when you are paying that much $$$ for 3 rides, you would think they would be able to open those 3 rides!

 

[chupacabra]

I felt the same way when my daughter and I did EMM last october. As soon as we entered fantasy land a CM was there telling us that 7DMT was down but we had a fast pass until noon. I was initially ticked off but we rode the other rides and then they got 7DMT opened and we still had fast passes till noon. We ended up riding it like 12 times before noon and it worked out in the end my biggest worry would be weather

 

[Tessaf]

I felt the same way when my daughter and I did EMM last october. As soon as we entered fantasy land a CM was there telling us that 7DMT was down but we had a fast pass until noon. I was initially ticked off but we rode the other rides and then they got 7DMT opened and we still had fast passes till noon. We ended up riding it like 12 times before noon and it worked out in the end my biggest worry would be weather

So when the 7DMT was down during EMM, did they offer you 1 FP till noon or was it unlimited and you just showed your wristband?

 

[chupacabra]

It was unlimited FP until 12:00 that day. The CM at the FP just needed to see our wristbands and they let you pass.

 

[Pembo]

Were you able to get unlimited PP fastpasses on your magic band till noon since it was down during EMM?

Honestly I don't know. Since we headed there at the end of EMM I didn't even think to ask about riding it later. We were able to score a fp on MDE for late afternoon and rode it then. Riding 7DMT was all we really wanted to do anyway.

 

[KML11]

Were you able to get unlimited PP fastpasses on your magic band till noon since it was down during EMM?

We were also there for EMM on 6/10 and yes we did get unlimited FP for 7DMT, PP, and Pooh until noon because PP was not running until about 9:45. Initially we were bummed that PP was down, but it turned out better than I had expected after all. We’re were able to ride 7DMT 7 times that morning (we said one for each dwarf!)... 6 times before 9:00 and we definitely could have done more if we had wanted to!

 

[SilSprBea]

We were also there for EMM on 6/10 and yes we did get unlimited FP for 7DMT, PP, and Pooh until noon because PP was not running until about 9:45. Initially we were bummed that PP was down, but it turned out better than I had expected after all. We’re were able to ride 7DMT 7 times that morning (we said one for each dwarf!)... 6 times before 9:00 and we definitely could have done more if we had wanted to!

Did your bands work until noon for just PP or for all the rides? I just read it that it was for all the rides. That would be so cool!

 

[KML11]

Did your bands work until noon for just PP or for all the rides? I just read it that it was for all the rides. That would be so cool!

Our bands worked for all three rides! It really was great!

 

[SilSprBea]

Our bands worked for all three rides! It really was great!

Awesome!

 

[scottishmum]

Report on EMM on 6/24. We got uber from Kissemee at 0630 to Contemporary and walked over, no issues getting dropped off and arrived in queue by 0715.
Let into park at 0745 and got fantastic photo of us in front of castle then headed straight for 7DMT. Rode that til kids wanted to move on then went to Pooh x 1 and PP x 2. Carousel was also open. most people were at SDMT so sometimes waiting for few minutes before getting on again. All ride photos appeared on MM.
Headed for breakfast at 0835. Asked about vegan options and CMs were most helpful showing allergy book and offered to make oatmeal dish, however i opted for fried potato and veg dish (delicious) and fruit platter.
Just before 9, daughter and I joined princess meet and greet queue whilst husband and son headed for BTM. They did say it was hard to be ahead of stampede heading from main street. Unfortunately this ride was down so headed for Splash and we managed to secure FP for later in day.
Overall definitely worth doing, particularly as we only had one day at MK. Hope this review is helpful to anyone considering booking this

 

[SaintsManiac]

Report on EMM on 6/24. We got uber from Kissemee at 0630 to Contemporary and walked over, no issues getting dropped off and arrived in queue by 0715.
Let into park at 0745 and got fantastic photo of us in front of castle then headed straight for 7DMT. Rode that til kids wanted to move on then went to Pooh x 1 and PP x 2. Carousel was also open. most people were at SDMT so sometimes waiting for few minutes before getting on again. All ride photos appeared on MM.
Headed for breakfast at 0835. Asked about vegan options and CMs were most helpful showing allergy book and offered to make oatmeal dish, however i opted for fried potato and veg dish (delicious) and fruit platter.
Just before 9, daughter and I joined princess meet and greet queue whilst husband and son headed for BTM. They did say it was hard to be ahead of stampede heading from main street. Unfortunately this ride was down so headed for Splash and we managed to secure FP for later in day.
Overall definitely worth doing, particularly as we only had one day at MK. Hope this review is helpful to anyone considering booking this

Very helpful! Thanks for posting! I'm trying to decide if we should head to Big Thunder or just stay in Fantasyland. Might do the latter.

 

[tinkerbella16]

UPDATE: Still no booking availability from Sept 30-through Nov. As mentioned earlier, I was obsessively checking every date on Oct/Nov for party of 14 so I would have a heads up when things were starting to book up. As of last Thurs, there was party of 14 availability for every EMM Sun and Tues in Oct and Nov. Then Friday, POOF. Nothing available for any day in Oct and Nov. You can still see the Sundays and Tuesdays highlighted blue (like it's happening), but says no tables are available, even for a party of 1.

Called and spoke to 3 people at Disney:
CM 1: It sold out, every date in Oct and Nov overnight. (doubt it)
CM 2: She can only do booking for EMM through Sept 25, said to try next week.
CM 3 (tech support) - I asked about it being a glitch. She said no, they probably just temporarily closed it to booking. Could not tell me why or when it would open back up.

For people following this thread, does anyone have a current EMM booked in October or November? Did you receive any emails about it?

I will be on EMM watch for Oct and Nov now. So weird that it was bookable from a user-endpoint and then all of a sudden was retracted.

It wouldn't be Disney planning without a little stress, right?

We are booked for November 13th. 7 of us are booked. I did get an email confirmation when I booked it, but that is all. It shows up on MDE.

 

[ninafeliz]

We did EMM on Sunday June 17th, this was our 3rd or 4th time doing this event. We were staying at the BC, we took a Minnie Van over in the morning just to make sure we didn't have any issue with busses. Getting the Minnie Van was no problem, we tried at about 6:40 and got one right away, we were at the MK at abut 7:00 and arrived just as they opened up the bag check lines. We were probably 3-4 families from the front of the line, we got our wrist bands in a few minutes and shortly after they let us tap in, then we waited just before the train station underpass until 7:45. We were a couple of groups back from being the first to walk down main street, but we didn't really power walk or trot, just walked fast. One dad skipped at full speed with super high jumping all the way down main street pushing a double stroller! I thought it was cute, my cynical DH said he was just trying to not get yelled at for running . We stopped for one picture in front of the castle with no wait, then walked back to Fantasyland. We tried something different this year, and first did PP twice with no wait at all and then did Pooh twice with essentially no wait, but there were actually people in front of us. Then we headed over to SDMT. Here is where I was surprised. During our previous EMMs there was literally no wait. We were the only 4 people on the train multiple times, I have pictures of my DS1 and I in the back seat and no one else on the train except my DS2 and DH in the front seat, and pictures of the 4 of us in the back car alone and in the front car alone on the train. This time there was probably a 4-5 min wait for each ride, and every car was running full. We still rode 4 times, once in the middle, twice in the back car and once in the front car (we all agree the back is the best ride, if you want good pictures of just a great view the front is good for that). By our 4th ride there was less wait, maybe only 2 trains. After 4 rides we decided if we wanted to be at the front for getting into Tomorrowland we had better get going, we maybe could have gotten a 5th ride in but figured why chance it. When we walked to toward Tomorrowland we saw the Teacups were running and a ride was just ending, so since it was 8:53 we hopped on for one ride before the park opened. (I'm pretty sure the carrousel had been running as well, it was going but we never went over to see if they were actually loading people onto it or not, I presume they were). They were pretty aggressive about not letting people past certain points over by Tomorrowland, I thought a little oddly so since it was wide open and there was no actual rope or delineation of where you were supposed to stop. For example, after our teacup ride they made you exit on the side by fantasyland even though I don't think that is an actual marked exit, and wouldn't let me make a left to wait for the official park opening time there even though there were other people already waiting there that hadn't ridden. What they did was make us wait for the crowd that was coming down the path to Tomorrowland that passes the Cheshire cat (I think it's called) food kiosk, beside cosmic rays. Then they let us go to Tomorrowland. But that put us pretty far behind the people that went to Tomorrowland via Tomorrowland Terrace, so by the time we got to Space Mountain the line had backed up almost to the peoplemover overhead track. Since we wanted to get to breakfast in time to make a BTMRR FP that ended at 10:25, and we did have a Space Mt FP for a later day, we didn't wait to see how long the actual line would end up being and instead rode Astro Orbiter. This is a guilty pleasure ride of mine! For some reason I really like it, maybe its the iconic views plus nostalgia since my DS5 loved it and we rode it 5 times in a row during the first DAH events, but the stupid loading system takes so long we won't ride it except at times like this. We would have easily had time for Buzz before breakfast, but my DH didn't want to be rushed so we headed over then. And again I was surprised. Perviously the place was almost empty when we ate, this time the ground floor seating was probably 2/3 full and there were decently long lines for the buffet This was from 9:35-10:10 or so. Not terrible, but I'm comparing to no wait at all. Breakfast was the same as always, and I think it's very good. We left breakfast around 10:15, they had taken half of it down but the other half was still up and some Disney CMs (presumably higher ups) were getting their plates before they closed it down. We then did out FP+ for BTMRR, Splash Mt, and the cars and then I had my first real experience at refreshing to get immediate rolling FPs, and I must say I loved it and it worked amazing! Counting the 9 rides we did during EMM we did 16 rides by 1:00, which is usually more than we do in an entire day with our typical touring. We had a great morning, and still love EMM, but I'm wondering if they increased capacity a bit or if it's just different crowd patterns, etc from our previous times. It was still within what we would call very low crowds and short waits, and thus worth it, but the wait on the mine train was nearing what I would consider the top acceptable wait for how this should be and the line between a great event and a just ok one. We've been lucky, we've never had rain and never had a ride down for the event. Mine train did go down a little later in the morning, not long after the park opened, I'm not sure for how long.

 

[KrazeeK120]

We are booked for November 13th. 7 of us are booked. I did get an email confirmation when I booked it, but that is all. It shows up on MDE.

Did you just book?

 

[chiisai]

... We had a great morning, and still love EMM, but I'm wondering if they increased capacity a bit or if it's just different crowd patterns, etc from our previous times. It was still within what we would call very low crowds and short waits, and thus worth it, but the wait on the mine train was nearing what I would consider the top acceptable wait for how this should be and the line between a great event and a just ok one. We've been lucky, we've never had rain and never had a ride down for the event. Mine train did go down a little later in the morning, not long after the park opened, I'm not sure for how long.

Thanks for sharing your experience and comparing it to your prior one. I have a touring plan set up for our EMM morning in August and I recently re-evaluated it and touringplans increased all my 7DMT wait times during EMM to 9-10 minutes, from previously 2-3. I’m wondering if their algorithm has picked up on what you experienced.