Here is my review of EMM from 11/14 - sorry I'm a little late, wanted to wait until I was home and had some more time. This thread was insanely helpful in putting together my game plan and knowing what to expect so thanks to all!! In case you don't want to read all the details below, overall - I thought the event was really really great and worth the expense if you can swing it. I did not think it was overly crowded - although I was prepared in advance for a larger crowd due to reading some of the earlier posts. Below is a detailed timeline - I used the pictures on my phone to rebuild it.
6:30am - Picked up by Mears (reserved in advance, paid $14 for all 6 of us including 2 carseats). Totally worth it not to have to deal with stress of bus being late.
6:46am - Took pictures outside the front gate, got checked in, got bracelets, and through security in 8 minutes
6:54am - Pictures on Hollywood Blvd.
7:00am - ABC Commissary (everyone grabbed fruit, pastries, coffees, and a bathroom break)
7:15am - Joined the crowd waiting to be let into the land
7:20am - Was walked back into TSL. While we were waiting, the Cast Members were yelling out that Andy was still playing with Slinky Dog and he was not ready yet. This led to a little bit of yelling from some people misunderstanding and thinking that SDD was down. I really think this was just their way of trying to get people not to go their first - but I'm not sure. We decided to risk it and go wait there anyway. They let people get in line and let people onto the ride right at 7:30am. You could have rode the other rides right away (before 7:30). The characters were not out yet when we walked by at 7:20am.
7:36am - Exited the line for SDD (so about 10-12 minutes from when we got to queue until we were off the ride). I think going straight to SDD is the key to not waiting in the 20-25 minute waits that people were reporting. Also, this only cut into 6 minutes of actual event time.
7:40am - Got in line for Jessie & Woody since people said early in the event would be the shortest lines. This was definitely true - the line got longer and longer as the event went on.
7:50am - Met Jessie & Woody so only a 10 minute wait (they interact a lot so even though only a few families in front of us - it does go slow).
7:54am - Got in line for Buzz.
8:06am - He took a break right as we were the next people in line (bummer!) so we actually waited longer for him than we did for W&J.
8:10am - Got in line for TSMM - never stopped walking until we got onto the ride and they let us through the FP queue so it was nice and quick
8:20am - Walking out of exit for TSMM
8:26am - AS2 - walk on
8:30am - 1/2 of the group rode SDD again and the other 1/2 rode TSMM again - about a 15 minute wait for SDD
8:50am - Exited the land - we were about 30 seconds too late unfortunately and ran smack into the RD crowd. It surprisingly wasn't hard to pass them as we stayed to the ride and they stayed to their right for the most part. Seeing the RD crowd is what made the rest of my family thank me for booking this event - I don't think you can believe it until you see it. Just so so soo many people that never seem to stop coming. So thankful to have gotten to enjoy the land for the first time with zero crowd.
9:00am - Our group split up after this: My DH and parents went to ride RnR and ToT and were done with both by 9:30 - zero waits for either of them. I took the 2 kids over to get in the Jedi Training line. This was the one bummer as my DS wanted to ride ToT but the Jedi training line was so long, we wouldn't have had time to make it all the way up there. Took us a full 30 minutes to get through it but we somehow snagged the last spot for the 11:40am show - which I thought was really early considering how many people were in line before us.
9:30am - We then split up again, 4 people rode Star Tours with a 10 minute posted wait and I took DD to Meet Olaf with a 10 minute wait.
9:45am - ABC Commisary, zero line for the hot breakfast and it was starting to empty out in there. We tried just about everything and some people got 2 entrees and we asked for fountain beverages. They still were serving food shortly after 10am and had the buffett lines opened. Everyone was really happy with their meals and we felt that we got 2 meals out of it since we had pastries and fruit earlier.
Summary: SDD (2X), AS2 (1), TSMM (1), Met Jessie, Woody, and Buzz. Our kids were 4 and 2 so I definitely think more rides would have been doable with older, faster moving kids. We also could have gotten one more ride in before leaving the land but were anxious to get a few things done before breakfast. Sorry for being long-winded - I hope it helps someone planning!
We attended the 14th as well and had a very similar morning. I agree that they were saying Slinky Dog was down just to get people not to go there first. We were on the ride in less than 10 minutes from the gate and although I was nervous starting there first after the announcement that is was down, it was the right move. In total we ended up doing 2 SDD (could have done more, but it was enough at such an early hour), 1 AS2, 1 TSMM and the Jessie Woody meet (the longest wait of the morning at about 20 minutes, this line goes SLOW, and we were almost cut off for their break). We actually left the area with about 10 to 15 minutes left of the event, but it was the first morning of our trip and we were tired and hungry. Didn't deal with the RD crowd, but saw them waiting and were soooo happy not to be part of that. Food was ok at best, I liked my chilaquiles (minus the "chorizo", I love chorizo and this was not that) but the rest of the fam did not like the "fried chicken" and donuts. The pastries were good though and it was an easy meal on a busy day. When we left, the place was packed, so I was happy we left a few minutes early to get breakfast out of the way, and enjoy the other rides with little wait. My take-away is that that the amount of people there that morning is about max, anymore and the event wouldn't be worth it. There were a lot more people than expected. If nothing changes and it doesn't get more busy we would do it again in a heartbeat. We attended the MK EMM on our last day and it was infinitely better. More rides than we needed on the Mine Train (longest wait was less than 5 minutes), first riders on Space Mountain, decent breakfast buffet. I am bummed they are adding more rides (and most likely a lot more people).