When to Leave for MM?

[Purerockfury1]

We have magic morning for one of our days through our 5 day park hopper (I think that’s what it’s called?). If the park regularly opens at 9:00, and we can get into Disneyland at 8:00, what would be a good time to leave the Candy Cane Inn and head over?

It’s been ten years since I’ve been to Disneyland and security was much different then. Not sure what to except and how long it’ll take us to enter. Thanks!

 

[chickapin parterre]

line for Magic Morning operates the same way as any gate opening experience, you want to be in line 40 mins before opening. What has happened since your last visit is the crime prevention photography. They will snap a photo of each person in your party to align with their ticket on your very first day. Then the rest of the days they will align your ticket with the photo displayed in the hand held machine....cumbersome?.....so a result 95% of the time the gates open early onto a rope drop to help with the crowd entering the gates. The early trickle by gate to be the only ones standing in front of the castle for the classic family photo with no one in the background is very rare occurrence. As a result, you will wait behind the rope at the castle and tomorrowland on MM and on main street with days that have no "t"s. so now, there are two masses of folks lined up, at the gate and at the rope.....so where do you want to be standing in those masses of folks early in the morning.

 

[Sue M]

line for Magic Morning operates the same way as any gate opening experience, you want to be in line 40 mins before opening. What has happened since your last visit is the crime prevention photography. They will snap a photo of each person in your party to align with their ticket on your very first day. Then the rest of the days they will align your ticket with the photo displayed in the hand held machine....cumbersome?.....so a result 95% of the time the gates open early onto a rope drop to help with the crowd entering the gates. The early trickle by gate to be the only ones standing in front of the castle for the classic family photo with no one in the background is very rare occurrence. As a result, you will wait behind the rope at the castle and tomorrowland on MM and on main street with days that have no "t"s. so now, there are two masses of folks lined up, at the gate and at the rope.....so where do you want to be standing in those masses of folks early in the morning.

I wondered why they take photo. What kind of crime is it preventing? I think it works much faster than the WDW finger scan, esp if your behind a family with kids who can’t get the scan to work.

We get to the gates 45-60 min before opening.

 

[chickapin parterre]

Disneyland is a urban visitor destination....so many criminals were buying 5 day or longer tickets, then selling the individual days at a profit.

 

[mickeyfan0805]

We get to the gates 45-60 min before opening.

I'm a DL neophyte, so help me out...What is the real gain here? If you spend 45 minutes sitting at the gate before it opens for MM (I'm anticipating this might be as early at 7a when we are there in June), is it really making THAT much of a difference in the resulting wait times? If you showed up 20 minutes before, would you really spend an extra 30 minutes waiting? I'm just wondering if there is a real payoff to getting out that early - especially if you anticipate full days at the parks.

 

[chickapin parterre]

I'm a DL neophyte, so help me out...What is the real gain here? If you spend 45 minutes sitting at the gate before it opens for MM (I'm anticipating this might be as early at 7a when we are there in June), is it really making THAT much of a difference in the resulting wait times? If you showed up 20 minutes before, would you really spend an extra 30 minutes waiting? I'm just wondering if there is a real payoff to getting out that early - especially if you anticipate full days at the parks.

ZERO GAIN !!!!!!!

But that crisp morning air, all those happy faces with McD breakfast sandwhiches and starbucks steaming in the morning air, brings more joy than arriving at 20 mins and all those folks hustling and bustlinig......outside of the Disneyland gates.. (is there magic outside of those gates ??????)...it is all about where you want to spend your 45 mins waiting. Everyone waits 45 mins or more to board Peter Pan, when I arrive at 45 mins before gate to rope drop and board Peter Pan 10 mins later, i have waited that 55 mins, but it was happy mins. So if you show up at 20 mins before, and 35 mins for Peter Pan, it works out all the same, but Peter Pan chains are the worse in the entire resort!!!!!!

 

[Sue M]

I'm a DL neophyte, so help me out...What is the real gain here? If you spend 45 minutes sitting at the gate before it opens for MM (I'm anticipating this might be as early at 7a when we are there in June), is it really making THAT much of a difference in the resulting wait times? If you showed up 20 minutes before, would you really spend an extra 30 minutes waiting? I'm just wondering if there is a real payoff to getting out that early - especially if you anticipate full days at the parks.

The pay off imo is that you get in the park before the hordes so can do more rides before wait time gets up there.
I was toward the front of the queue and looking back at queue around 6:30, then 6:45 I could see a big difference. So those in the end will get less rides during the EMH hour.
I’m new to DL, but it’s the same at wdw. Get to the gate early for more rides. It’s amazing how much you can knock off in that hour.

 

[HydroGuy]

I'm a DL neophyte, so help me out...What is the real gain here? If you spend 45 minutes sitting at the gate before it opens for MM (I'm anticipating this might be as early at 7a when we are there in June), is it really making THAT much of a difference in the resulting wait times? If you showed up 20 minutes before, would you really spend an extra 30 minutes waiting? I'm just wondering if there is a real payoff to getting out that early - especially if you anticipate full days at the parks.

As others have said, the idea is not to reduce overall wait time. For folks who value time inside DLR parks, time outside the gates when the parks are closed is less valuable than time when inside the parks. So waiting outside in a line uses less valuable time in order to save more valuable time for inside the park.

 

[HydroGuy]

We have magic morning for one of our days through our 5 day park hopper (I think that’s what it’s called?). If the park regularly opens at 9:00, and we can get into Disneyland at 8:00, what would be a good time to leave the Candy Cane Inn and head over?

It’s been ten years since I’ve been to Disneyland and security was much different then. Not sure what to except and how long it’ll take us to enter. Thanks!

On MM days, CCI will run their buses starting at 30 minutes before MM. By the time you get off the bus and to security, it will be 20 minutes before MM starts.

line for Magic Morning operates the same way as any gate opening experience, you want to be in line 40 mins before opening.

I agree with this. And you can see being in line at the DL turnstile 40 minutes before MM starts cannot happen using the CCI bus.

Thus you will need to walk from CCI or Uber. Ideally, if walking you would leave CCI at 7AM by foot, arrive at security by 7:10AM, be through security and in line at the DL turnstile at 7:20AM. See? 40 minutes early! Easy to say. Harder to do!

 

[marikoj]

What about the corresponding time for a 7 am MM? Leave the hotel by 6? Or is it possible less people do the peak MM and it's not as much of a rush? I can't imagine many people make it to the 7am rope drop. Of course there's the east coast families... or the families with small kids who wake up early... or the people like us who don't want to miss a minute. Never mind

 

[mickeyfan0805]

As others have said, the idea is not to reduce overall wait time. For folks who value time inside DLR parks, time outside the gates when the parks are closed is less valuable than time when inside the parks. So waiting outside in a line uses less valuable time in order to save more valuable time for inside the park.

This was my guess (and is very much how I view the WDW experience). Thanks for the response - very helpful.

 

[HydroGuy]

What about the corresponding time for a 7 am MM? Leave the hotel by 6? Or is it possible less people do the peak MM and it's not as much of a rush? I can't imagine many people make it to the 7am rope drop. Of course there's the east coast families... or the families with small kids who wake up early... or the people like us who don't want to miss a minute. Never mind

Pretty much... leave by 6AM.

There are probably a lower percentage of people using MM/EMH when at 7AM. But when a 7AM MM/EMH happens, that means parks are maxed out on hours and crowds are at max. So there are more total people trying to use MM/EMH.

 

[tarheelalum]

I'm a DL neophyte, so help me out...What is the real gain here? If you spend 45 minutes sitting at the gate before it opens for MM (I'm anticipating this might be as early at 7a when we are there in June), is it really making THAT much of a difference in the resulting wait times? If you showed up 20 minutes before, would you really spend an extra 30 minutes waiting? I'm just wondering if there is a real payoff to getting out that early - especially if you anticipate full days at the parks.

If you show up 60 minutes before you are likely to be the very 1st person on ______. If your like me and show up 15 or 20 minutes before you are 10 seconds behind the person who gets there first when they drop the rope inside disneyland. And I will probably have to wait a few minutes to ride ______. But to me that extra time in bed and my trip by Starbucks before I get there is worth not being first to me. But your mileage my vary.