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

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Wanted to share my recent booking story. We have been checking several times daily for 4 on Nov 18th. 2 became available a few days ago so I booked those. 2 more became available today . I tried to book those for the rest of my party but the site would not allow me to as I already had a reservation at that time. I took the chance of cancelling to try and get all 4 on the same reservation. It took about 10 minutes for a party of 4 to be available. When I tried to click the available time NOTHING would happen. I went in and out of the page 6 times and the same thing. Showed available but nothing happened when trying to book. I called. The CM was confused, tried to tell me that EMM was not on Sundays. I corrected her and then she could find not find any availability on her end and was very confused. I kept trying while she tried to figure it out and then all of a sudden it worked! So, I guess moral of the story is ... keep trying? This will be our 2nd time doing this great event and are thrilled to get at on the 18th as that will be a very busy day. We are traveling with my then 11 month old baby. I did not book for her which I assume will be fine.

Many times, right click on the available time, open in a new window/tab will bring up the booking window
 
We did the EMM on 8/28 and WOW! It was our 1st time and def will not be our last. Any time that is offered while we are there I would book that again. Totally worth the money to us. It was myself, my husband and our 4 year old son who has high functioning autism. He has a disability pass but this was even better for avoiding lines or waits, especially for his favorite ride, the Winnie the Pooh one. We rode that one 5x in a row. We also rode the 7 dwarfs coaster 3x and Peter Pan 1x before hitting the breakfast buffet (I found the food to be "meh" but my husband enjoyed the meats and my son likes the cinnamon sticky bun thingies. I'd still pay for this just for the rides so the food is bonus). We finished eating around 9:10am and then went over to Big Thunder and rode that, followed by Splash with very short waits. It was a very good morning! We're coming back in December for my son's 5th birthday and I've booked the EMM at Hollywood Studios and am hoping they add dates to MK.
 
We did the EMM on 8/28 and WOW! It was our 1st time and def will not be our last. Any time that is offered while we are there I would book that again. Totally worth the money to us. It was myself, my husband and our 4 year old son who has high functioning autism. He has a disability pass but this was even better for avoiding lines or waits, especially for his favorite ride, the Winnie the Pooh one. We rode that one 5x in a row. We also rode the 7 dwarfs coaster 3x and Peter Pan 1x before hitting the breakfast buffet (I found the food to be "meh" but my husband enjoyed the meats and my son likes the cinnamon sticky bun thingies. I'd still pay for this just for the rides so the food is bonus). We finished eating around 9:10am and then went over to Big Thunder and rode that, followed by Splash with very short waits. It was a very good morning! We're coming back in December for my son's 5th birthday and I've booked the EMM at Hollywood Studios and am hoping they add dates to MK.
We’ve done it 3 times and feel the same way. Already booked TSL EMM as well. I highly recommend sending an email to Disney telling them how much you enjoyed it and that you hope they add dates in December. I have done it and I’m still holding out hope they may add it. Last year they didn’t offer it in November or December, but there are a few dates in November this year, so I think there may be some hope at least for the Tuesday’s.
 
Has anyone gone to Enchanted tales at park opening after EMM? Did it work out good? Do they make you wait for a full group? We have never done it and didn’t know it works. Thanks!
 


Has anyone gone to Enchanted tales at park opening after EMM? Did it work out good? Do they make you wait for a full group? We have never done it and didn’t know it works. Thanks!
We got it as our 9-10 FP and went at 10:05 using the grace period. It worked out very well for us. Had literally a 2 minute wait before we went in. We did Haunted Mansion and then Small World right at opening with no waits, then went to eat breakfast. Enchanted Tales takes a long time so I didn't want to waste that much time at park opening.
 
Has anyone gone to Enchanted tales at park opening after EMM? Did it work out good? Do they make you wait for a full group? We have never done it and didn’t know it works. Thanks!

I've read on the DIS (therefore it must be true) that they can wait until they have a full audience to take the first group in. If that is true, and combined with the length of this attraction, it hasn't been at the top of my list to try right at rope drop. I like @MIAMouseketeer's advice, that would work well with our style.
 


I've read on the DIS (therefore it must be true) that they can wait until they have a full audience to take the first group in. If that is true, and combined with the length of this attraction, it hasn't been at the top of my list to try right at rope drop. I like @MIAMouseketeer's advice, that would work well with our style.
Everytime we have gone they have done this. We have waited 10 minutes in FP line because we JUST missed the group. Same thing goes for Haunted Mansion. We waited 5 minutes in the queue before being let in. We ended up being the first ones on the ride that morning, but it was already 9:10 by the time we got on the actual ride.
 
I went to EMM with my family (DW, DS8, DS4) on Tues 8/7. It turned out to be a blast and totally worth the money in my opinion.

We scheduled the EMM on our departure day, so our plan was to be in the park until noon. We had been in MK three other times during our 5-day trip and already ridden everything we wanted to at least once, so for EMM we focused on riding our favorites. Already having ridden PP and WTP this trip and only one ride of SDMT under our belts, we chose to focus the time before 9:00 solely on SDMT.

At 7:45 they unleashed the crowd that seemed pretty large to me. Our plan was for me and DS8 to fast walk to SDMT while my wife and DS4 (in the stroller) would come at a more leisurely pace. Me and DS8 would ride once or twice before joining up with the rest of the family.

I was very proud of DS8 for keeping up with me at the start of the event. There were other people that were moving faster than us but to our surprise they appeared to be headed to BOG. DS8 and I were shocked that we were the first two on the ride! I think there were only two others on the train with us at that point. As it turned out, DW and DS4 were only two minutes behind us so they rode in between our first two rides.

In total DS8 and I rode SDMT 13 times (!!!), DS4 12, and DW 7. We loved the ride so much and there are so many fine details throughout that it never got old to us. Taking different pictures for the PhotoPass was also highly entertaining. For more than half of the rides there was absolutely zero wait time. I would say that after about the first two rides the queue started filling to the point that they closed off the shortcut at the mine entrance and we had to walk all the way back to the FP entrance. As you can see from our PhotoPass timestamps, we never waited more than 10 minutes in line.

7:51 (DS8 and me)
7:53 (DW and DS4)
7:57 (DS8 and me)
8:04 (family all together)
8:14
8:22
8:28
8:32
8:38 (DW last ride)
8:43
8:47
8:50
8:54
8:59

At around 8:30 the crowd died down again to the point that they opened up the shortcut again outside the mine entrance. One thing I thought was entertaining was that they measured DS4 about every other time to make sure he was tall enough. I would have thought either the CM would remember him after 12 rides or at least he should be measured each time. I guess if your child is within a few inches of the height requirement you have about a 50:50 chance of them actually being measured.

After our last ride at SDMT we walked onto SplMtn with less than a 10 minute wait. It was nice to go on this ride to cool down after an already busy morning. After the ride we walked at a much slower pace back to PVH at 9:40 and had a nice breakfast. Then it was FP for BTMR, People Mover (one of DS4 favorites), and two FP SpcMtn rides for DS8 and me while DW and DS4 shopped. Honestly, we could have squeezed another FP and/or another ride or two but it was actually nice to be relaxed at the park for the last few hours of our trip.

I can’t think of how our trip could have ended on a more positive note than with going to EMM. Thanks to everyone on this board for providing so much information on this event, which encouraged me and my family to give it a try. We will definitely be repeat customers! Hopefully, I have been able to add a little bit more details in case there are others reading that may be on the fence. On the flight home I asked DS4 why he wasn’t tired like the rest of us. He said it was because he got a lot of energy from all the rides on the mine train! We definitely had a blast and sincerely hope you do too.

Best regards,
Scott Hezlep

I love the DISboards. You learned from the boards, and I am learning from you and others. I'm doing my EMM in November. Can't wait. Thanks for sharing.
 
We did EMM on 8/21 (DH, DD7 and DS2). We found it fantastic and a good value. We really found that it helped us get a bunch of the popular rides done with early and the breakfast was better then I was expecting.

They let us in right at 7:45am. We did stop at Starbucks on our way in and we were their first customer so only took 5 mins top. DH and DD went to 7DMT and rode 2x, one train all to themselves. DS and I did WTP 2x while we waited. We then headed over to 7DMT to wait for them, they were filming something that morning so there were extra people and equipment there and watched while we waited for DD and DH.

Then DH and I switched and DD and I rode 7DMT 2 more times, while the boys went back on WTP 2 times. We then did the carousel and Peter Pan and it was 8:57. We lined up to enter the park and headed over to Splash Mountain.

I picked Splash since my DD had a pirates league appt later that morning. I wouldn't advise this as a normal strategy since it took forever. I haven't rode this in forever so not sure if this is the normal but we were backed-up at each ramp. It took us 25 mins for one ride (including a 7 min wait). We only got the 1 ride in and then headed back for the breakfast. If we do this again, we probably would head to space mountain.

We got to breakfast at around 9:40. We found the food selection was a good variety and were able to go up at least twice for food before we notice them starting to break down the buffet.

We did the EMM on 8/28 and WOW! It was our 1st time and def will not be our last. Any time that is offered while we are there I would book that again. Totally worth the money to us. It was myself, my husband and our 4 year old son who has high functioning autism. He has a disability pass but this was even better for avoiding lines or waits, especially for his favorite ride, the Winnie the Pooh one. We rode that one 5x in a row. We also rode the 7 dwarfs coaster 3x and Peter Pan 1x before hitting the breakfast buffet (I found the food to be "meh" but my husband enjoyed the meats and my son likes the cinnamon sticky bun thingies. I'd still pay for this just for the rides so the food is bonus). We finished eating around 9:10am and then went over to Big Thunder and rode that, followed by Splash with very short waits. It was a very good morning! We're coming back in December for my son's 5th birthday and I've booked the EMM at Hollywood Studios and am hoping they add dates to MK.

Thank you both for stopping by to share your experiences with us! Links to your posts have been added to Post #3. :-)
 
Eating breakfast now. Here’s the recap:

We left the Contemporary at 7:10 and arrived at the MK gates at 7:30 by walking. Got checked in and they let us in at 7:43. We rode Pan at 7:50 then went to ride Pooh at 7:57. Got on Mine Train right at 8:03 and waited 3 minutes for the first ride. It was walk on after that. My husband and I rode 6 times and my daughter 7 times. (I had to take a bathroom break and my husband left his sunglasses on a train lol).

We were then held at Pan until the fireworks went off. We headed to Big Thunder and rode it twice. It was still walk on, but we were hungry.

Breakfast is so good. Food still coming out fresh now.

This event is the best thing we’ve ever done. We had a bit of a rough time yesterday and now we are rejuvenated.

I hope this helps! We are headed to HM after we eat. :)

Also want to say my kid really surprised me this trip. She loves BTMRR now. So happy we can all ride together now.
 
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We were also at EMM this morning.

It was a rocky start, only because we had magicband issues. This was our first park day (arrived yesterday). After we checked in and got our bracelets, we all scanned our magicbands at the entrance and my son’s did not work. They had to flag down a guest services CM, who spent several minutes trying to figure things out until he gave up and told is we had to go the guest services window because he wasn’t able to fix whatever the issue was. At this point, it was about 7:35, we had to walk over to GS which had a line... so we were not happy. It turned out to be an issue with the actual band, and the department who could fix the issue didn’t open until 8! They ended up transferring his admission to a hard ticket in the meantime. A CM really should have walked us in at this point, but instead we had to wait in line to scan into the park again! We were obviously a few minutes late to enter by this point, which was really disappointing...

BUT the event itself was great. We still managed to do Peter Pan 4 times and Mine Train 7 times. Everything was a walk-on for us. My kids were thrilled. It was hot and our kids slow us down so at 9, we decided to stay nearby for Haunted Mansion, then head to breakfast. When we left breakfast around 10:15, one side of the buffet was actually still out with food.

We had FP for Thunder, Splash and Pirates next, so we headed that way. It was my son’s first time being tall enough for Thunder and Splash, so that made the day better. :)
 
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We did EMM on Sunday August 26th, staying offsite. It was our first park day (DW, DS14, DD5). We arrived at the parking lot at 6:40 and drove right through, so we saved $22 on parking. We got there early to ensure there were no issues getting from TTC to MK. We were the 2nd car in the lot. Walked to security and waited behind the other couple that was there. Security opened at 6:50. Made it on the first monorail of the day, the resort line which boarded at 7AM (they were actually upset that security let us through before 7). Stopped at Poly and GF. There were a few dozen people at the gates when we got there. Checked in and got our wrist bands. They let us into the park at 7:45.

We walked on Peter Pan first. We grabbed a sweet roll and some juice and then walked on Pooh. Rode 7DMT 3 times in a row. Twice we could use the bypass, but once we had to go out and back in. 3 times in a row was enough for us. Went back and rode Peter Pan again. DD wanted to ride the carousel, so we all did that. We could see the opening show through the castle. So 7 rides total. We could have done more, but we didn't want to rush around.

We headed over to ride Space Mountain, where a nice cast member helped us cut through the crazy rope drop crowd heading to 7DMT. Waited maybe 5 minutes for Space, then headed back for breakfast around 9:30. We all enjoyed the food and had our fill, including picky eater DD and DS with multiple food allergies. We sat by the Small World windows and watched the boats go by. And we didn't need to eat anything until dinner time.

Then we rode Small World (9 rides total by 10 AM) before we used our first FP+ (Splash, Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder). Then we spent a relaxing day going on rides with shorter waits or getting additional FP+. Never waited more than 15 minutes for anything. Finally left around 8:30PM (after walking only 9.5 miles). It was a great start to our vacation and we will definitely do it again.
 
We did EMM on Sunday August 26th, staying offsite. It was our first park day (DW, DS14, DD5). We arrived at the parking lot at 6:40 and drove right through, so we saved $22 on parking. We got there early to ensure there were no issues getting from TTC to MK. We were the 2nd car in the lot. Walked to security and waited behind the other couple that was there. Security opened at 6:50. Made it on the first monorail of the day, the resort line which boarded at 7AM (they were actually upset that security let us through before 7). Stopped at Poly and GF. There were a few dozen people at the gates when we got there. Checked in and got our wrist bands. They let us into the park at 7:45.

We walked on Peter Pan first. We grabbed a sweet roll and some juice and then walked on Pooh. Rode 7DMT 3 times in a row. Twice we could use the bypass, but once we had to go out and back in. 3 times in a row was enough for us. Went back and rode Peter Pan again. DD wanted to ride the carousel, so we all did that. We could see the opening show through the castle. So 7 rides total. We could have done more, but we didn't want to rush around.

We headed over to ride Space Mountain, where a nice cast member helped us cut through the crazy rope drop crowd heading to 7DMT. Waited maybe 5 minutes for Space, then headed back for breakfast around 9:30. We all enjoyed the food and had our fill, including picky eater DD and DS with multiple food allergies. We sat by the Small World windows and watched the boats go by. And we didn't need to eat anything until dinner time.

Then we rode Small World (9 rides total by 10 AM) before we used our first FP+ (Splash, Jungle Cruise, Big Thunder). Then we spent a relaxing day going on rides with shorter waits or getting additional FP+. Never waited more than 15 minutes for anything. Finally left around 8:30PM (after walking only 9.5 miles). It was a great start to our vacation and we will definitely do it again.

Wow, that sounds like a great day! I have EMM booked at the beginning of October. I hope it goes as well!!
 
We are booked for EMM on 10/23, and reading these experiences makes me happy that we invested in the package. Thanks to everyone for all of your insight and stories!::MickeyMo
 
This is just me speculating here....

Disney announced Dec-March Disney After Hours dates this AM. In the event details, it notes "*Please be aware that Peter Pan's Flight will be closed on January 7, January 17 and January 24 in 2019."

That 'could' mean it's going to be closed for refurb in Jan and that 'could' be one of the reasons we haven't seen any MK EMM dates added.

Just something to watch!
 
This is just me speculating here....

Disney announced Dec-March Disney After Hours dates this AM. In the event details, it notes "*Please be aware that Peter Pan's Flight will be closed on January 7, January 17 and January 24 in 2019."

That 'could' mean it's going to be closed for refurb in Jan and that 'could' be one of the reasons we haven't seen any MK EMM dates added.

Just something to watch!
True, but doesn’t explain December. I’m still holding out hope that they add in at least a few Tuesdays in December.
 
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