Magic Kingdom opens at 8 am on days when the park closes early for particular occasions. We got down to decide what we may accomplish throughout 7:30 am Early Entry and share the step-by-step outcomes on this picture report. (Up to date February 14, 2023.)
There are a selection of dates all year long when Magic Kingdom closes early and strikes ahead official park opening to eight am consequently. The largest causes are for Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion and Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Occasion, which can run from mid-August 2023 via just a few days earlier than Christmas. Presently, there’s additionally After Hours at Magic Kingdom via March 2023, with a powerful risk of extra occasion nights being added through the summer time season.
Though shifting from a 9 am opening time to eight am might sound vital, it’s truly enormous. For these of you haven’t adopted our posts about park hours and Early Entry on the different parks, every additional hour within the morning is a giant deal as a result of it shrinks the pool of potential friends who’re keen and capable of rise up early on trip….
When park opening is at 9 am, there are a ton of individuals benefiting from 8:30 am Early Entry as a result of it’s comparatively straightforward to be out the door and to Magic Kingdom by that point. It’s a special story completely when shifting that ahead by an hour–particularly for the households with young children to whom Magic Kingdom and its Fantasyland headliners most enchantment.
This isn’t simply conjecture or hypothesis. We’ve seen precisely this situation play out on the different 3 parks, the place Early Entry all over the place else is a lot extra productive as a result of fewer friends can and can make the most of it. As soon as EPCOT and Disney’s Hollywood Studios moved their opening instances as much as 8:30 am, that was a game-changer for Early Entry. Over at Animal Kingdom, the perk has all the time been nice because of that just about absurd begin time.
There’s additionally previous precedent at Magic Kingdom. The halcyon days of Further, Further Magic Hours beginning at 7 am through the preliminary launch of Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge have been gloriously uncrowded. Ditto the times round Christmas, New Yr’s Eve, Easter, and different assorted peak season dates when Magic Kingdom used to open earlier than dawn to assist with crowds.
It’s the identical story time and again–early opening, decrease crowds. Most individuals don’t rise up this early on what’s purported to be a “trip.” Easy as that.
Our regular suggestion is to reach at the very least half-hour earlier than the beginning of Early Entry, which is usually adequate for Magic Kingdom. On this explicit day, I walked over from Grand Floridian and arrived on the turnstiles simply earlier than 7 am–they opened a couple of minutes later.
Upon reaching the tip of Predominant Avenue, you’ll see Forged Members with indicators path friends to the precise for Early Theme Park Entry. This works precisely the identical as morning Further Magic Hours, if you happen to bear in mind these. Anybody can proceed to Cinderella Fortress or the common rope drop places exterior Liberty Sq. and Adventureland. I all the time prefer to go get an empty park shot of the Hub.
There’s a row of Forged Members stationed by the East Plaza Gardens to scan MagicBands, MagicMobile, resort room keys, or no matter identification you may need if staying at one of many taking part third social gathering motels.
You may’t entry Tomorrowland or Fantasyland till you’ve entered via right here. When you’ve finished that, you’re good to go for the morning–in contrast to Prolonged Night Hours, MagicBands or room keys are usually not scanned at every particular person attraction. From there, you proceed on to both the Tomorrowland Bridge or Fantasyland Bridge.
The group is all the time smaller for Tomorrowland. That is “much less true” with the 7:30 am begin time for Early Entry–there’s a distinction, however it’s not practically as pronounced. We often “joke” that Fantasyland friends are revving up their double-wide strollers, getting ready to do some critical injury to the ankles of anybody strolling too gingerly. The dash to Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare is a excessive stakes, eat-or-be-eaten recreation.
We did Early Entry at Magic Kingdom previous to this social gathering day on a traditional weekend day. I ought to’ve performed “rely the strollers” on the 2 days. Regardless, I can say with utmost certainty that there have been far fewer (at the same time as a proportionate measure of the smaller crowd) on the 7:30 am day. Once more, that is doubtless a matter of households with young children having a more durable time attending to Magic Kingdom at this hour.
With quarter-hour till the beginning of Early Entry, I headed to huddled crowd gathered exterior Cheshire Cafe. It was right here that I had just a few moments to dig deep and replicate upon the sage knowledge of the celebrated thinker Connor4Real: by no means say by no means once more.
It was only some brief weeks in the past when I doubled-down on my recommendation imploring you to “skip the SDMT Shuffle,” calling it uncomfortable and unsightly. I went on to say my experience, saying we’ve finished Early Entry and cord drop dozens of instances at Magic Kingdom within the final two years, and “you gained’t persuade me Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare is one of the best ways to start out the day.”
This morning, I used to be starting with Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare, satisfied it was one of the best ways to start out the day.
In my protection, the breathless “warnings” and imploring you to keep away from Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare nonetheless apply on regular days when Magic Kingdom opens at 9 am, closes at 10 or 11 pm, and has common crowd ranges. Nothing has modified there–it is best to save Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare till the tip of the night time for the shortest wait.
The important thing distinctions listed below are the sooner opening and closing instances, plus the decrease crowd ranges all through everything of the day. In brief, much less competitors and an absence of higher alternate options may make an outcome-determine distinction–that’s what I used to be right here on at the present time to check.
In any case, I shouldn’t have been so steadfast in my statements that it’s all the time a foul thought to be a part of the SDMT Shuffle. Often will not be all the time. There are exceptions to any rule, and it is best to all the time contemplate your private circumstances, priorities, yada yada yada. The purpose is that I’m not infallible.
Anyway, with out Sarah right here to assist me check optimum approaches, I used to be by myself to seize images and do the ride-riding.
Simply as another day, the SDMT Shuffle came about, however it was faster shifting and fewer aggressive.
Nonetheless chaotic with the road rapidly forming in a poorly-organized, amorphous vogue exterior the attraction earlier than narrowing because it headed into the queue correct–very like the Haunted Mansion line popping out of the Stretching Room.
I used to be previous the marquee and into the correct line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare at 7:34 am.
My precise wait time was 12 minutes, which most likely would’ve been 15-20 minutes if I took a leisurely tempo and was on the very again of the small crowd. Not unhealthy, irrespective of the way you slice issues. It additionally helps that the solar was nonetheless low within the sky, so the outside queue was bearable.
With the solar flittering via the bushes and fantastically facet lighting buildings in Fantasyland, I attempted to take images on the experience. That was largely a spectacular failure–dozens of images which can be both out of focus, have arms prominently within the body, or each. Oh nicely, can’t win ’em all!
Subsequent up was Peter Pan’s Flight, the place I entered the road at 7:53 am.
The individuals within the picture above have been debating aloud whether or not they need to do it, with the lady skeptical that the wait time was truly 45 minutes.
She was appropriate.
The precise wait time for Peter Pan’s Flight was 10 minutes; I used to be on by 8:03 am and off at 8:07 am.
The posted wait time was nonetheless 45 minutes, which was very clearly nonetheless incorrect. I’m guessing I may’ve finished it once more with an precise wait time underneath quarter-hour.
I seen a number of friends balking at this persevering with on for “shorter” strains, which was doubtless additional exacerbating the discrepancy between the posted and precise wait time. When virtually every part else is 5-10 minutes, individuals aren’t going to go for the 45 minute lengthy attraction, even whether it is Peter Pan’s Flight. (And even when the signal is incorrect–most individuals wouldn’t know that this couldn’t probably be proper.)
I’d usually move on Jungle Cruise and head straight to the mountains of the frontier.
Given the low crowds and early time, I made a decision to offer it a shot. The posted wait time was quarter-hour, and my precise wait time was nonetheless lengthy it took me to stroll via the mostly-empty queue. I used to be off earlier than 8:25 am.
Following that, I lower via Adventureland and headed again to the Wild West, which was a veritable ghost city. Becoming.
If I have been going for comfort or fewer steps, I might’ve knocked out Pirates of the Caribbean first. Nevertheless, I didn’t have Genie+ at the present time, and wished to perform as many excessive profile sights as doable to keep away from slow-moving standby strains.
I’m undecided if Splash Mountain had a delayed opening and I obtained fortunate, or if it actually was nonetheless biking empty logs. Judging by crowds, my guess is definitely the latter. Posted wait time was quarter-hour; precise wait time was walk-on.
(As of 2023, Splash Mountain is now closed to be remodeled into Tiana’s Bayou Journey. The reimagined experience is slated to reopen in Late 2024.)
Subsequent up was Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad, which was completely overwhelmed by the colossal crowd. Ghost friends, in fact.
Posted wait time was 5 minutes; precise wait time was about that.
At this level, rope drop was kind of over and Magic Kingdom was transitioning to ‘regular morning on an uncrowded day.’
I’ll be again with every part that encompassed through standby strains, together with repeating a number of of those sights (related for these of you who are usually not eligible for Early Entry).
All advised, right here’s what I achieved between 7:30 am and ~9 am through Early Entry and cord drop at Magic Kingdom:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Jungle Cruise
- Splash Mountain
- Massive Thunder Mountain Railroad
Going by posted wait time knowledge, these sights ought to’ve taken me 326 minutes in whole. That quantity might be truly extra like 200 minutes. So, I’d say 120 minutes (including my arrival time to the overall) minus picture time and having fun with dawn in Magic Kingdom was nicely value it.
Often, I finish these Early Entry reviews with a comparability to Genie+ on the identical or a similarly-situated day. Nevertheless, I not too long ago coated this in My Day at Magic Kingdom Utilizing Genie+ on a Occasion Evening.
Whereas it’s true that I did accomplish greater than this through Genie+ throughout a celebration day at Magic Kingdom, the conclusion of that submit already “spoiled” the evaluation right here–that Genie+ will not be crucial at Magic Kingdom through the daytime hours previous to Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion. The “why” of that can develop into crystal clear as soon as we get to the ‘regular day’ portion of this go to.
In the end, we extremely advocate benefiting from Early Entry at Magic Kingdom on days when Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Occasion, Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Occasion, or different occasions are being held. For one factor, that is going to be the one strategy to effectively expertise Seven Dwarfs Mine Prepare on these days, since leaping in line on the finish of the night time isn’t a risk these dates.
For one more factor, the 7:30 am begin time coupled with the decrease crowd ranges at Magic Kingdom through the daytime hours of social gathering nights makes Early Entry and cord drop much more advantageous than regular. For those who use savvy technique for Fantasyland throughout Early Entry and pair that with conventional rope drop for Frontierland and Adventureland, you’ll be able to have a strong begin to your morning at Magic Kingdom. Even with the 6 pm closing, it’s doable to perform a full day’s value of Magic Kingdom sights with out shopping for Genie+ or Particular person Lightning Lane entry. Now that’s spectacular effectivity
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YOUR THOUGHTS
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