A few days late but wanted to report my experience. We did EEMH at MK on the first day (8/29)
Contempo Cafe didn't open until 6am, but the little coffee kiosk on the first floor opened crazy early. Doesn't help for mug refills, but could get a bakery item or buy coffee before your trip to the park.
We were traveling with kids ages 7, 5, 5, 5, 5, 3 so we were moving slowly between rides, having to re-park strollers, and not picking things in the correct order of priority.
6:42am this was the entire crowd waiting to get into MK
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6:45 let through train station
6:53 PP photos. All photographers had lines maybe 1-2 families deep
6:57 We were at the back of the pack waiting to RD Tomorrowland with this crowd ahead of us
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6:58 Here's what the bridge to Fantasyland looked like
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7:03 In line for Space
7:07 Boarded
7:17 Tomorrowland Crowd
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7:18 In line for Speedway
7:23 In vehicle
7:30 In line for Buzz
7:31 Boarded
7:38 Walked straight onto Peoplemover, our crew were the only folks we saw on any of the ride vehicles
7:56 Crowd for Welcome Show
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8:00 Delay while some of our group went for coffee and muffins
8:09 In line BTMRR
8:13 Boarded
8:22 Splash down, kids don't want to do PotC, decide to do Magic Carpets while we wait for adult who had to be 2nd rider for BTMRR
8:32 on Carpets, longest wait of the morning because they kept letting more groups get into empty cars rather than just cutting the line and sending us up. Wait worth it for the kids as Aladdin and Jasmine were on the ride with us.
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8:37 In line Jungle Cruise
8:39 Boarded, see while on boat the Splash posting a wait
Kids all insist they don't want to do Splash, even those tall enough. Our friends take the kids to do SotMK while Hubby and I ride alone
8:56 In line Splash
9:00 Boarded
9:02 View of Frontierland crowds from Splash
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9:16 Off of splash, need a BR break and to meet back up with crew doing SotMK. Since they're in Liberty Square and kids want to meet Mary Poppins, opt to hit breezeway restrooms and line up for Mary's 9:30am set.
PP went down and our FP anytimed while we were waiting for Mary. Did some FP adjusting.
9:32 First family to visit with Mary. Nice, long visit, still only 2-3 families in line behind us when we finished at 9:37
9:43 In line HM
9:49 Boarded
Sunscreen break in shady part of HM exit
10:06 In line Small World
10:08 Boarded
Break to get strollers from Rapunzel, hit restrooms
10:31 In line Barnstormer
10:38 Boarded
10:46 In line UtS
10:49 Boarded
11:03 Hungry half in line for Cinna Roll at Gaston's, other half in line to meet Gaston (we had met in Feb but other family hadn't)
11:10 Friends meet Gaston, find us finishing up cinna roll, all take another restroom break
11:23 PP photo Lumiere magic shot
11:28 FP tap for 7DMT
11:34 Boarded
11:47 In line Monsters Inc
12:07pm Show started
Friends head to 1:05 CRT ADR.
12:43 Pick up Pecos Bill mobile order, demolish food like crazy people who have been running on fumes all morning
1:05 Aloha Aisle mobile order pick up
1:10 Sunshine Tree Terrace citrus swirl
Stopped to enjoy both iced treats on black rocks by Sunshine Tree Terrace
1:27 In line Philharmagic
1:52 FP tap for Enchanted Tales. One child doubled tapped, burning her PP anytime. CM told us to visit Guest Experience team after show to get it restored
1:57 In first show room
After show, rain starting. Hubby to cover strollers parked by castle while I take double-tapper to Guest Experience team. Rain gets heavy and we shelter in Sir Mickey
2:23 Kids do the photo studio in Sir Mickey to wait out storm as no one is waiting Really cute set up, girls loved it, but they all look like sweaty messes!
Friends running long at CRT, still only on main courses. We're running out of park time, so we opt to use PP anytime without them
2:41 FP tap for PP. Line very backed up but unsurprising given the length of downtime.
2:54 Boarded
3:04 In play area for Dumbo. Ride was a walk on, but kids wanted the play area, not the ride
3:18 Goodbye to friends, walk down to Tomorrowland
3:26 FP tap for Space
3:33 Boarded
Head to Main St for sundaes before leaving
3:49 Treats acquired and rapidly demolished
4:00 Walking back to Contemporary to catch 4:30 sad bus
This was the most incredible MK day ever! When they announced EEMH, we added a park ticket and a night at the Contemporary specifically to see how much one could accomplish starting MK at 7am when everyone else was at the opening of SW:GE. Our experience was even better than anything we could have hoped for. The park felt completely deserted until at least 10:30. When things did pick up, it went from seeming like an after hours event to low, early morning crowd levels.
Even the low posted waits were higher than reality. Most of our delay from entering a line to boarding was little legs walking slowly through queues. HM was posted at 15 minutes, so we thought we'd have time to sunscreen, and we ended up walking directly into the next opening of the stretching room. UtS was also posted 15 but we walked straight through to our shells. Had we been traveling with an older group who had different priorities, we could have easily done Space, BTMRR, and Splash back-to-back multiple times before meeting resistance. When we got off of Space and saw how dead the line still was, the adults tried to convince the kids to go again, but they wanted to drive the race cars. Same deal after Buzz- the adults were angling for Space again but the kids wanted Peoplemover.
FWIW, we didn't do much refreshing because there simply wasn't a need for FP throughout the morning. However, we started the morning with PP, 7DMT, and WtP passes. Between PP anytiming and the kids passing on WtP (we had done on our
MNSSHP night) we were able to pick up Enchanted Tales at 1:10 and Space at 2:15, both for parties of 5, with very little effort.
I'm sure the EEMH crowds will pick up as September turns to October, but I would HIGHLY recommend going through the effort of dragging yourself out of bed early at least one morning just for the experience of touring Magic Kingdom as the sun rises.
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ABSOLUTELY NO THANK YOU!!! At one point with the hype, it was looking like we'd have to miss SWGE altogether because we weren't willing to go off no sleep - or put our kids through that - and we were ticked at Disney for the sheer ridiculousness of a 6 am Magic Hour!! But now I've come to terms with it. It looks like we should be able to get in with the virtual queue and with crowd levels dying down by afternoon.
