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

[mekay1012]

We went today (6/12). I think it was worth it. We were let in a little before 7:30. We were walking off our first sdd ride at 7:33. We walked over to tsm and rode that twice. We headed back to sdd around 8:15 and rode it 3 more times (done around 8:45). We could have ridden another time but decided to go do a picture instead. We saw Woody right 7:30 but then he was gone by 7:45 and we never saw him out again (they told us he was doing a photo shoot for his movie premier. We never saw Jessie but we didn’t look for her. We got in line for Buzz as the masses were coming with only one or 2 families in front of us. As we were walking out the line for sdd was all the way out to Voyage of the little mermaid and people were still getting in line. I thought the breakfast was good. Nothing special, but it was good.

 

[Ruth B]

Hi. We are doing this in Aug with our 5 and 11 year old. We tend to use a buggy for our 5 year old as she gets tired in the park.
What is the best way to do this with a buggy. We would aim to hit SD first.

Would it be best to leave the buggy and head to the right as we enter.

Any advice would be great

Many thanks

 

[princessebird]

Would it be best to leave the buggy and head to the right as we enter.

We didn't have a stroller, but there was an official looking CM who went into the crowd at the arches and was explicitly telling folks with strollers NOT to go left upon entering the land if they wanted to do SDD. She said "you will lose your spot in line if you do that" and told everyone to keep to the right and there would be other CMs helping them take the strollers. We went to SDD first, and plenty of strollers stayed to the right, and at some point, they went off to the left very slightly and entered back in the line, but it didn't look easy. That point in the line was a bit of a kerfuffle. If you could manage the morning without the buggy, it would likely be easier.

 

[Smrtalec33]

Hi. We are doing this in Aug with our 5 and 11 year old. We tend to use a buggy for our 5 year old as she gets tired in the park.
What is the best way to do this with a buggy. We would aim to hit SD first.

Would it be best to leave the buggy and head to the right as we enter.

Any advice would be great

Many thanks

I used a stroller for my six-year-old for our recent trip, but the only time I did not use one was for this early morning magic. It just didn’t seem worth the trouble. My recommendation would be just to skip it for this event, and if you are staying at the park, getting it after breakfast.

 

[Kdunmire6]

Went to book online EMM at TSL for 6/26 and the next few weeks are booked solid. I called to see if a CM could see anything different and they said it's a very popular event. I realize you can cancel up to a day before. But has anyone had any experience in booking it last minute? I'm wondering if we should just not worry about and go with a different plan.

 

[Alison S]

Went to book online EMM at TSL for 6/26 and the next few weeks are booked solid. I called to see if a CM could see anything different and they said it's a very popular event. I realize you can cancel up to a day before. But has anyone had any experience in booking it last minute? I'm wondering if we should just not worry about and go with a different plan.

You should just keep checking multiple times a day. People are always changing their plans.

 

[mekay1012]

You should just keep checking multiple times a day. People are always changing their plans.

We went yesterday and it was originally sold out. I think they opened up more spots closer to the day of.

 

[disneyfan150]

How early are you actually able to enter the park for EMM lately?

 

[mekay1012]

How early are you actually able to enter the park for EMM lately?

I think we got in around 6:45 or so.

 

[tookydo]

I'm curious about TOT right at rope drop with a FP. Our plan is to head to RNR from EMM then go to TOT. I have a 9am FP for TOT, then head back for breakfast. I also have a FP for RNR later in the afternoon. That way I figured we were covered if either of them was down at park opening.

We did the event on the 12th. Our plan was to rope drop ToT before heading to breakfast. We joined the masses at about 8:50. Let me preface by saying we were 2 adults and 3 teenagers. We sort of weaved our way through the gift shop on the left which put us near the front of the crowd but at 9:00 we were held until the main crowd was even to us. That’s when I lost our 3 teenagers. Once at the restrooms just before the right turn to ToT, there was a rope a crossed the walkway with one small opening. It was the mother of all bottlenecks essentially pushing a mass of people to a single file line. My friend and I watched as the wait time went to 45 and we weren’t far back from the rope. We never made it to the opening in the rope. We bailed when it hit 90 minutes as we knew at that point we’d miss breakfast. My teenagers were able to ride and arrived at breakfast about 20 minutes after we did. My son said they had to do a lot of “bobbing and weaving” to get to the rope entrance. If I did the event again, I would not attempt to rope drop ToT or RnR.

 

[captaindavidhook]

Will they not be offering during labor day weekend? Is it because the opening of star wars galaxy edge? Boo if so lol

 

[elgerber]

Will they not be offering during labor day weekend? Is it because the opening of star wars galaxy edge? Boo if so lol

HS already opens at 6 am on Labor Day weekend, so there would not be a time for the EMM.

 

[captaindavidhook]

HS already opens at 6 am on Labor Day weekend, so there would not be a time for the EMM.

That makes sense , so toy story land will b open....I wonder what the lines will b like for sdd

 

[snoopboop]

We did this on Wednesday, June 12. Walked in to the park at 7:03am, arrived at the Backlot Express at 7:09, walked in to Toy Story Land at 7:35, got right in line for Slinky, and didn't board until 7:57. :-( We headed to TSM next and rode that twice, and by that time it was 8:30. Wanting to RD either ToT or RnRC, we headed out of Toy Story Land, and unfortunately were apparently given some inaccurate directions by a Cast Member, as we stood with the general RD crowd while we watched (what appeared to be) other EMM guests walking in a separate group towards those attractions.

So... one ride on SDD with a 20+ minute wait, two rides on TSM, and a failed rope drop... I would NOT do this again. :-(

 

[mekay1012]

We did this on Wednesday, June 12. Walked in to the park at 7:03am, arrived at the Backlot Express at 7:09, walked in to Toy Story Land at 7:35, got right in line for Slinky, and didn't board until 7:57. :-( We headed to TSM next and rode that twice, and by that time it was 8:30. Wanting to RD either ToT or RnRC, we headed out of Toy Story Land, and unfortunately were apparently given some inaccurate directions by a Cast Member, as we stood with the general RD crowd while we watched (what appeared to be) other EMM guests walking in a separate group towards those attractions.

So... one ride on SDD with a 20+ minute wait, two rides on TSM, and a failed rope drop... I would NOT do this again. :-(

We were there that same morning. We were at the front of the crowd and we’re walking off of sdd at 7:33. We then rode tsm twice and went back to sdd around 8:15. We waited about 20 minutes for that second ride, but after that, the line dropped to about 10 minutes.

 

[snoopboop]

We were there that same morning. We were at the front of the crowd and we’re walking off of sdd at 7:33. We then rode tsm twice and went back to sdd around 8:15. We waited about 20 minutes for that second ride, but after that, the line dropped to about 10 minutes.

I'm fully aware that we just had the bad luck of the draw with our timing (arrival at the park was dictated by resort transportation, and we grabbed a few cold items from the restaurant - totally skipped the hot items as we wanted to eat quickly and get to the land)... Somehow our timing was all off and I get that, but I guess my feeling is that for the money one pays for this event, it shouldn't matter WHAT your timing is - you should never have to spend over 20 minutes (that's over 1/4 of the total time for the event) in line for one ride. I have no idea whether there were technical issues or whether speculation that they've upped the number of tickets for the event is correct - whatever it is, our experience with this event was not a positive one.

 

[Ferrentinos]

We have this booked for the end of August - right before SGE opens - my DH will be the only one to ride SDD - should he ride the other two rides with myself and DD8 first and then head to SDD or is it best for him to ride SDD first? It seems like people report lower waits later into EMM for SDD - DD8 and I will ride the other two rides and do the character meets - as long as we can do each ride once and meet the characters I know we'll be happy - I just would hate for DH to spend the majority of the time in line for SDD as we went last fall during AM EMH and he spent the entire hour waiting for SDD as it was down during most of EMH. He was super bummed because he didn't get to ride either of the other two rides during EMH.

 

[tarak]

Here now. Things were great until just now. SDD is down and they’re evacuating the ride. We were just about to ride for the second time. If it hadn’t broken down, we would have ridden SDD twice and TSMM once in the first 45 minutes. I’m not wanting to be a jerk about it because it’s not the cast members fault, but I plan to ask for FPS to make up for it if it doesn’t come back online during our time here.

ETA: we’re told our wristbands will work as FP until 10:30. That’s fair assuming the ride goes up at some point, although it won’t work for some folks who have other plans. We still haven’t had breakfast, since that runs until 10. Going on midway mania now.

 

[NJlauren]

I’m really debating if I’m keeping this or not.

It’s early which originally when planning this trip I didn’t think was an issue, but now they have been sleeping later. But I want early morning because of the heat.

Then with all the reviews lately maybe it better to just get a FP for SDD, especially since I’ve got a baby that we will need to have one parents waiting with for most rides.... I’m having a big struggle with this.

 

[tarak]

Update - slinky dog is back up and our bands are good until noon, I believe for the whole area and not just SDD. We’re heading over for breakfast and then will come back and ride until the teenagers finally wake up and join us.