Today, we are going to take a look at one of Walt Disney Land’s more popular upcharge options. Fantasyland Early Morning Magic is offered 2 days a week (typically Sundays and Tuesdays), and allows paying guests to enter Fantasyland 75 mintues earlier than regular day guests.
Originally, only 3 attractions were offered during Early Morning Magic. Those attractions were Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan’s Flight and The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh. Now, most of Fantasyland is open, with the exception of Storybook Circus and Mickey’s Philharmagic. Prince Charming’s Carousel is not advertised by Disney for the event but it was running on the morning I was there.
The event costs $69, plus tax, per person so you are basically paying about a dollar per minute. With the event starting promptly at 7:45 am, I wanted to arrive at the Magic Kingdom parking lot plenty early to give myself plenty of time to get across Seven Seas Lagoon.
I parked my car right around 6:45 am and there were just a handful of cars in the lot at that point.
While its nice having a crowd free Ticket and Transportation Center, getting across the Lagoon can be painful this early in the morning.
The express monorail was not running yet and the Resort Monorail waited for long periods of time at each stop. Looking back, the ferry is probably your best bet.
In all, it took me about 35 minutes to get to the MK entrance via the Resort Monorail.
Upon arrival, check in for EMM is on the left, while dining reservations is on the right.
At 7:20, there isn’t too much of a crowd in front of the train station.
There area a decent amount of people already waiting for EMM entry though. My guess is that most arrived via Disney resort transportation (or walked from the Contemporary).
By 7:35 its getting pretty crowded. At 7:45, just before we are allowed to enter, there isn’t much standing space left.
The Main Street Vehicles were out which is a nice touch.
The initial crowd heading down Main Street is quite large between folks heading to EMM and those headed to breakfast. This will die down pretty quick so if you want to try and get some low traffic photos you can hang out a few minutes in Town Square. Keep in mind you will be sacrificing ride time to do so.
I decided to spend some time with Roy and Minnie while things quieted down. The “Partners” statue gets most of the love, but I actually like this one of better. Roy doesn’t get enough credit for the role he played in the Disney Parks, especially WDW.
What started as a cloudy morning when I parked, became a beautiful golden light as the clouds cleared and the sun continued to rise.
I didn’t want to waste too much time, so around 7:50 I started heading up Main Street.
Things are pretty quiet along the pathways as I arrive in Fantasyland.
I started off with a ride on Peter Pan’s Flight. This and 7DMT are by far the biggest selling points of the event as they carry the longest waits throughout the regular operating hours.
We entered via the Fastpass line and had about a 5 minute wait to board.
After my 1st ride there was nobody in the queue so I decide to ride again with no wait.
Small World had nobody on line but I recommend waiting until the end of the event to ride because of it’s long duration.
I next decided to head over to 7DMT.
The Princess Meet and Greets are open but I skipped them because it would be just a little bit awkward meeting them by myself.
Mine Train had a 20 minute wait posted which is more than I was hoping for.
The line was backed up to right when you first enter the vault. Luckily it moves very fast since there are no fastpasses taking up capacity.
I ended up waiting just about 12 minutes.
During the ride, disaster almost occurred for me. The clip on my camera bag came loose and my 24-70 mm lens came flying out onto the coaster floor to a large thud! I was able to grab it and miraculously it was not damaged. I did notice later however that both of my spare camera batteries had come out as well which I didn’t notice at the time.
The wait was still posted at 20 minutes when I exited the ride so I elected to head to the other attractions in the land. I wouldn’t blame you for taking multiple rides on Mine Train if you prefer either.
I elected to ride The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. There was no wait to ride, however they were using the regular queue instead of the fastpass entrance which would have been easier. That’s definitely a nit pick though.
I guess I felt like punishing myself because I decided to go for a literal spin on Mad Tea Party.
As you can see, I was apparently the only one dumb enough to do so.
As Easy WDW would say, “What a life”.
This lone cast member is responsible for keeping folks out of Storybook Circus during the event.
Not much going on at Journey of the Little Mermaid. The beautiful castle and queue is more impressive than the ride itself in my opinion.
The Ursula animatronic is awesome though!
Heading back towards the castle, this is a rare opportunity to get some photos of the Gaston fountain without any other people in the shot.
By this point it was around 8:50 am. Folks who had breakfast at Be Our Guest had already formed a decently long line outside 7DMT, but were not allowed to enter before 9:00. They still get the jump on the regular day guest rope droppers though.
I could have headed to Small World before park opening if I chose, however I was hungry so I headed over to the events included breakfast which is served at Cosmic Rays Starlight Cafe.
The breakfast includes a platter of traditional breakfast items, as well as a toppings bar, fresh fruit and pastries.
To my surprise, almost nobody was seated in the Sonny Eclipse room which is just bonkers to me.
Below, right at 9:00 you can look out the window see the rope drop mob scene heading to 7DMT. If you look real closely I think you can see Josh elbowing his way to the front.
In summary, there is definitely decent value to be found in Fantasyland’s Early Morning Magic. Its certainly not cheap (as a mentioned, about a dollar a minute per person), however it can save you hours of time in line during normal operating hours. Being to ride 7DMT with minimal waits, and the rest of Fantsyland with no waits, all before official opening will pretty much guarantee you and efficient day at the World’s busiest theme park!
We will follow up with part 2 of this post in a day or so to show some of what we were able to accomplish on a fairly busy day, having already gotten Fantasyland out of the way pre-opening.
Until then, thanks for reading and bye for now!
WDW Therapy: A Disney State of Mind 
love the photos of Roy and Minnie!
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Thanks! Its such a great statue!
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