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.
lol. We ran into PVH to get a snack, rode PP one more time, and at 9 headed to ride HM. Originally we planned BTMRR and HM but we werent feeling running back to BTMRR and back in the heat so we stuck to just HM and then to breakfast and then we started on our FP. All in all a great morning.
