Extra Magic Hour- Summers

cinnaminny

DIS Veteran
Joined
Oct 18, 2017
Staying in a Disney resort this summer and looking at the hours. I am a person who gets up very early, 4 AM, so I know I can be there on time to get good use of the Extra Magic Hour...as long as I can get my kid going lol

Do most people in the resorts take advantage of this offer in the summer (when the hours are so early)? Getting into the park at 7AM I imagine would be pretty hard to do for some folks. What time do people start lining up for the 7 am opening? Is 6 early enough?
 
We love this early “golden hour.” Not only are many attractions walk-on and you will already have many of your must-do rides done once the masses arrive, you will also be able to tour commando style while the temperature is moderate and to start taking it more slowly when the heat gets really bad, and you can avoid the worst lunch lines by eating early.

We usually visit the parks in early August, one of the busiest times, and my kids appreciate that, due to our savvy planning, they rarely wait more than 30 mins. Because they know that getting up early makes our visits so much more fun, they are both totally committed to get out early with me. We actually train for it by getting up extra early the week before we travel and have an earlier breakfast, just to get used to it. They love it, because it’s become a beloved part of our “park prep” for them and adds to their excited anticipation.

Our typical Disney morning routine is as follows: we grab & put on the clothes and fanny packs we already laid out the night before, speedwalk to the parks while eating our portable breakfasts (usually granola bars or something else that’s simple and easy and that we brought with us from home), and line up. We are rarely at the turnstiles earlier than 30 minutes before opening (though I’ll be doing plenty of research here on the boards to see if SWGE’s crowds will require adjustments of our timing).
 


The 7am ones are great because you're right- not everyone can get their family up and ready for those. Though folks coming from back east and the midwest do have the time change in their favor and are often up early the first couple days anyway. But they're still very useful. Even later EMH at DCA is GREAT! You can do so much. As a PP mentioned, we don't know how SWGE is going to affect things in DL especially this summer though...
 
I have gone many times in August; the 7am EMH is not quite as busy as an 8am one was in both lands. As others have said DCA is great. I usually get in line around a little after 6am and there are few people in line. It does start to build closer to 6:30am. DL has more people attending with the MM tickets included. But of course who knows how SWGE will impact them this summer.
 
Staying in a Disney resort this summer and looking at the hours. I am a person who gets up very early, 4 AM, so I know I can be there on time to get good use of the Extra Magic Hour...as long as I can get my kid going lol

Do most people in the resorts take advantage of this offer in the summer (when the hours are so early)? Getting into the park at 7AM I imagine would be pretty hard to do for some folks. What time do people start lining up for the 7 am opening? Is 6 early enough?

We do! Well, my hubby and I do. We have triplet teenagers (17 years old), so, we tell them, text or call when they leave the room so we can meet up in the parks. We love using it daily and relaxing in the afternoon after an early lunch/late breakfast for a while before going back into the parks.
 


It is the only time I can get my daughter up at 5:30 am without a fight! We get to the main gates at 6:30 for a 7am EMH, or at 6:15 if we are going through Grand Californian, which we will do for our DCA days. You get so much done without lines early in the morning. Then we go back to the room after lunch for a power nap.
 
We do the EMH and it is usually fairly empty. We are always in one of the Disney resorts, and walk over. I figure the locals are stuck in traffic, even the first hour after EMH is pretty sweet. If we are doing Plaza breakfast, we book it as late as we can, like 10:40 or something, and do it after the crowds begin to build. Don't want to waste those golden early hours eating!
 
We usually show up around 630-645 and only had an issue one time (the cameras were down for taking pictures on many machines so it was taking forever). So yes 6 is plenty early enough. And DCA days less people seem to use the early morning but overall I feel like you can always get so much done. DCA you can get atleast 2 of the main rides done (and If you want to do cars then make that a priority we usually do it 2 times or once and a fast pass). DL you’ll either want to do Fantasyland and get pretty much all of it done or do Tomorrowland and complete those rides before the park opens. At DL once the park opens it’s normally nice to jump to Adventureland and beat the lines as people don’t go that way often in the AM.
 

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