On our most recent trip to Disney World, we had the opportunity to try Early Morning Magic at both Hollywood Studios and Magic Kingdom. It was kind of meant to be–we were only doing two part days, and we had already determined which would be Hollywood Studios and which would be Magic Kingdom. And then BAM, Disney offered Early Morning Magic at the correct parks on the correct days. How could we say no to that?
So what exactly is Early Morning Magic? Don’t confuse it with Extra Magic Hours, which are extra park hours open only to those staying at Disney resorts. We were staying in a rental house this time, so Extra Magic Hours did not apply to us. But Early Morning Magic is open to everyone (at least, everyone willing to pay for it). At Magic Kingdom, you are allowed into the park at 7:45am and are walked back to Fantasyland as a group. Then you get until 9am to ride rides in Fantasyland with virtually no wait at all. And you have until 10am to go eat breakfast, which is included in the price of admission to Early Morning Magic. We had breakfast at Pinnoccio’s Village Haus, but it has since moved to Cosmic Ray’s.
We started our day as a group being walked back to Fantasyland by several cast members. The group will “feel” too big to you. THat’s because you are with people who have 8am breakfast reservations at the castle, at Crystal Palace, and at Be Our Guest. On top of that, you also have the people who have 8am appointments at Bibbidi Boppiti. I felt a little annoyed at first that they were letting SO MANY people into Early Morning Magic. At Hollywood Studios the crowd was very small. But then I realized so many of them did not have EMM wristbands on–they were going to other reservations around the park. In reality, by the time we entered Fantasyland and got on our first ride, we really had a fairly small crowd, although it was bigger than at Hollywood Studios.
We headed immediately for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and rode it without a wait.
In fact, we were able to ride Seven Dwarfs Mine Train a total of six times. And we also rode Peter Pan and Winnie the Pooh once each. When we went, those were the only rides available. Now pretty much all of Fantasyland is open (other than Barnstormer and Dumbo) so you have a lot more options. We just rode Mine Train over and over and over again.
Breakfast after all the riding was very good. You can check out the official Disney Website to see what is available here. They continually restocked the buffet tables with food right up until 10am, so you really had plenty of food, even if you rope dropped other rides and came back at 9:45 or so to eat–which is exactly what we did.
We decided to rope drop Big Thunder Mountain. We thought we’d get a head start being so deep in the park already but in reality, they held us and walked us over so we reached Big Thunder at exactly the same time was those entering the park for normal opening. I was really disappointed in this. Allowing the few of us who already paid insane amounts of money for Early Morning Magic to have a 3 minute lead on those just entering at 9am would not affect their wait times at all. By holding us, it created absolute, terrifying chaos when we were shoved into the hoards of people entering and rope dropping Big Thunder. A fifty year old man grabbed me by my shoulders and tried to throw me to the ground, just to get in front of me in line. And I was holding hands with my five year old at the time. Disney really made the wrong decision on this front. I have never been so scared for my physical safety and I was inside a Disney Park. This is just not cool.
I would guess, however, that now that breakfast is served at Cosmic Ray’s, you would have a far easier time rope dropping Space Mountain or Buzz Lightyear because they are letting you into Tomorrowland anyway for breakfast. And that would be the wiser way to go–ride everything in Tomorrowland, ride Dumbo and Barnstormer, and then go back and do breakfast. Save your fast passes for Splash and Big Thunder, and a third ride of your choice.
So was it worth it? Not as much so as Early Morning Magic at Hollywood Studios, honestly. In that park, there are so few rides that lines build up so fast. Even on a low crowd day, you might wait 45-60 minutes per ride in Toy Story Land. Early Morning Magic eliminates those waits and leaves you free to do anything else all day while the crowds fight amongst themselves in Toy Story land. But at Magic Kingdom, there are so many rides available, and so many fast passes available, that it’s not as big of a deal if you get a head start on Fantasyland. The exception is on an especially busy day–we were there Thanksgiving week so it was nice to have Peter Pan, Mine Train, Big Thunder and Splash Mountain all done by 9:30am. The rest of our day was slow paced and easy. We took our time and enjoyed everything.
Other notes are that we were in the very first row of the parking lot because we had to be there so early. And no one works the parking booths that early, so we didn’t have to pay to park. So that was a bit of savings, I guess. And it was nice to not have to wait for the tram at night in the parking lot, because we were in the front row and could walk.