DHS/Toy Story Land "Early Morning Magic" (EMM) FAQ & Discussion

[Lease257]

Hi there! We went to EMM on Wednesday 10/17. Just wanted to give me report I’ll put a cliff notes version at the bottom! I didn’t think this would be as long as it turned out!

It was myself and my DD8. This was our 7th day at Disney so we were dragging a bit. My daughter was pretty sick of getting up early so I knew that getting there at 7 was out of the question. We were also going to do a 4 park in 1 day day (spoiler- we did it!). However, I was still hoping to at least be through the gates by 7:30.
When I woke up I was keeping an eye on the bus wait times just to make sure buses were in fact arriving. We are staying at Caribbean beach. I saw one pop-up right at 6:30 so I thought we wouldn’t have any issues. Unfortunately after that it just said “every
20 minutes” we went to the bus top around 7. Buses for magic kingdom had wait times but HS still didn’t. When the bus for MK arrived I asked if they knew if a bus was coming. They were wonderful and called dispatch for me. A bus was leaving HS for CBR right then.
Boarded our bus at 7:19 at park at 7:30 through gate at 7:40. Person who checked us in said the rides would be opening in 5 minutes and I could either eat or go ride. One of the CM’S directing traffic outside the ABC said she recommended we ride first and made sure to let us know the crowds would be let in at 8:45.
Straight to TSM AT 7:45 was a walk on. Off ride by 7:55. The ride did seem to stall a few times. Twice the games popped up with 0 points. That was a bit annoying, especially since I knew we already lost some ride time.
Went to SDD posted wait of 15 minutes we waited 10 minutes. Walked around to ride again waited 10 minutes again, went to Alien’s just had to wait for the previous ride to stop basically a walk on.
My daughter didn’t want to do SDD again so we went to TSM walk on again. When we were getting off it was 8:45. The CM asked if we wanted to ride again. Of course! We stayed in the same car and rode again. Off around 8:52. Walked out to a mass of people!

We wanted to ride RRC so headed that way. Stopped to get Toy Story entrance phot pass. It’s hidden behind the RD line for SDD but there wasn’t a wait.
Got to RRC at 9:04 posted 15 minute wait but was a walk on. The preschool wasn’t even going. Boarded at 9:10 was off at 9:15. When we left posted wait was 20 but I’m guessing actual was 10.
My daughter hates ToT so we didn’t go on. I looked at the wait time though, it was 5minutes at 9:18. I would guess you could easily do both at least once if not twice. Especially if you head over there right at 8:45.

Headed to breakfast at 9:25 ordered! Got pastries and sat by 9:32. Food was good. I got the chicken and donuts DD got the scrambled eggs and tots. She ate probably 3 or 4 pastries too! I also ordered the charcuterie tray at the same time as our meals without any problems. It was ok. I think most people would like it. I’m not fan of spicy meat, the salmon was yummy.

I did enjoy this but I felt a bit rushed to get in as much as we could during a short time. I’m guessing if I’d arrived earlier I probably wouldn’t feel rushed. My daughter seemed to enjoy it too. If it was any more expensive I wouldn’t think it a good value. Comparing this to some of our dinner costs, we definitely got more for our money here! Lines for characters were just as long as during the day. We didn’t have any interest in meeting characters

I’d also recommended driving or getting a taxi/Uber. Waiting for the bus really killed us.

We headed to Epcot after. Word of advice DO NOT TAKE THE WALKWAY. With the construction it took me 30 minutes to walk there. I was so thankful I had a stroller and that my parents weren’t with me. We never would have made it otherwise. With the heat and the distance I was exhausted by the time I got to Epcot. Mommy definitely earned that beer!

Quick summary:
TSM x3, SDD x2, Aliens x1
7:19 caught bus at CBR at park 7:30
7:40 through gate
7:45 TSM off at 7:55am
7:58 SDD off at 8:10
8:11 SDD off at 8:23
8:26 aliens off at 8:31
8:33 TSM done at 8:45 CM let us stay on
8:52 off of TSM
8:55 TSL entry photo pass no wait
9:04 RRC out of building at 9:15 (we waited for our pictures to show up but they never did)
9:25 breakfast

You were off the ride at 8:52 and rope drop people were there already? That doesn’t seem fair.

 

[ENJDisneyFan]

You were off the ride at 8:52 and rope drop people were there already? That doesn’t seem fair.

EMM technically ends at 8:45am

 

[Lease257]

EMM technically ends at 8:45am

Really? Ugh. That’s not a lot of time for the cost. We are booked for feb 25. I’m def keeping an eye on reports to see if we will for real keep the tickets.

 

[kat_lh]

Feeling pretty annoyed about these 10 minutes waits for SDD. I was hoping this would be more like the AP events or MK EMM.

We had waits for our first three rides on SDMT when we did our MK EMM. The walk ons are the last 20 minutes of the event - about the same as the TSL.

 

[kat_lh]

Really? Ugh. That’s not a lot of time for the cost. We are booked for feb 25. I’m def keeping an eye on reports to see if we will for real keep the tickets.

It’s basically the same time as MK EMM. That event starts at 7:45 but you literally aren’t allowing into MK until then (in our case, it was 7:47) and then you have to walk back to Fantasyland.

 

[mini mouse 2]

We're schedule for Feb 18th! Looking forward to it but will keep an eye out for trends in people's reports that may indicate that WDW is overselling the event.

I'm also February 18! Christmas present for my kids...shhh it's a secret!

 

[maiapapaya]

I'm also February 18! Christmas present for my kids...shhh it's a secret!

Same here - we're going in March and our girls are getting an invitation for a special "play date" in TSL as part of their Christmas gift - they're 13 and 16 and will love it! LOL

 

[Allison Evans Payment]

Same here - we're going in March and our girls are getting an invitation for a special "play date" in TSL as part of their Christmas gift - they're 13 and 16 and will love it! LOL

Our trip is a Christmas Surprise too!!! I cannot wait!!

 

[detroitdad]

I'm also February 18! Christmas present for my kids...shhh it's a secret!

Well ours isn't a Christmas present but the trip is still a surprise. It will be my wife and 17 yr old son. I love the fact that he still loves Disney. We have 4 children and have DVC and have been going to the parks for years. 3 of the kids still enjoy it but my oldest son who is 21 has had his fill. Now DCL--that's another story. We all love to cruise.

 

[Planner2012]

We attended this event Oct15th. It was DD15, DS12, my mom & myself. We had to wait longer for the bus to HS than planned so got our wristbands at 7am and headed over to breakfast. ABC commissary was pretty busy when we arrived. The food was okay. No problems getting the chicken finger breakfast without maple syrup. We ate & headed over to TSL. I think they started letting people in around 7:20, but we didn't make it there until 7:30. Rode TSMM, then SDD with 20min wait, then Aliens, tried to ride TSMM again but it was down, rode SDD twice more, TSMM was back up so rode it. Rope drop crowd arrived when we were riding TSMM, so the line for SDD was to the entrance of TSL by that point. We did not meet any characters, but lines seemed long for some.
Left the park & got a bus to AK as we had fastpasses for FOP.
Glad we did EMM as we really like TSMM & kids wanted to ride SDD. Didn't get as much accomplished as we had hoped, but family was tired that day and with the heat we just took it easy.

 

[Jasperann]

No problems getting the chicken finger breakfast without maple syrup.

for sharing this!! My son will eat it now!! Yay!

And what you got done sounds great to me. I will be happy with that amount of stuff. Granted I would be SO excited for more, but even 3x SDD, 2x TSMM, and 1x Aliens will be find for me.

 

[disneyworldsk]

We attended this event Oct15th. It was DD15, DS12, my mom & myself. We had to wait longer for the bus to HS than planned so got our wristbands at 7am and headed over to breakfast. ABC commissary was pretty busy when we arrived. The food was okay. No problems getting the chicken finger breakfast without maple syrup. We ate & headed over to TSL. I think they started letting people in around 7:20, but we didn't make it there until 7:30. Rode TSMM, then SDD with 20min wait, then Aliens, tried to ride TSMM again but it was down, rode SDD twice more, TSMM was back up so rode it. Rope drop crowd arrived when we were riding TSMM, so the line for SDD was to the entrance of TSL by that point. We did not meet any characters, but lines seemed long for some.
Left the park & got a bus to AK as we had fastpasses for FOP.
Glad we did EMM as we really like TSMM & kids wanted to ride SDD. Didn't get as much accomplished as we had hoped, but family was tired that day and with the heat we just took it easy.

What resort did you stay in please?

 

[Planner2012]

What resort did you stay in please?

We were at the Polynesian

 

[GADisneyDad14]

FYI, with credit to @Wish Upon A Starbucks for pointing this out, it looks like they added the Monday and Wednesday of Thanksgiving week to the DHS EMM calendar. Will update Post #2 shortly.

 

[eileenwarren]

It appears the EMM for TSL on 11/26 is sold out. Do you think any other availability will open up for that time

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Also 12/24 and 12/31 added.

 

[ninafeliz]

Also 12/24 and 12/32 added.

Is 12/32 a date they invented to make more money around the holidays??

But thanks, I will head off to book it now if I can make it work into our schedule!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Is 12/32 a date they invented to make more money around the holidays??

But thanks, I will head off to book it now if I can make it work into our schedule!

Lol, opps! Long week.

 

[ninafeliz]

Booked for 4 on 12/31! Wasn’t going to go to the parks that day since we aren’t staying somewhere we can walk to a park, but thinking we can get in and get out before the traffic chaos hits! Yay!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

It appears the EMM for TSL on 11/26 is sold out. Do you think any other availability will open up for that time

That's a date where both time slots has been open, so that indicates to me it's full. BUT - Disney just added 11/19 & 11/21 dates. You MAY get some folks who had booked 11/26 but 11/21 might work better in their schedules (if their trips are that long) so you may see some movement.

Even without that, there is a 1 day cancellation policy and people tinker plans all the time, so I'd check every once in awhile.

Good luck.