It looks like Disney is set to offer an event similar to Magic Kingdom’s Early Morning Magic at Hollywood Studios starting on Monday August 1st and continuing on Mondays and Wednesdays through at least the end of September. Full details are available here: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/hollywood-studios/morning-magic.
Ride-wise, only Toy Story Mania and Star Tours are scheduled to be open during the extra hour. Woody/Buzz, Mickey/Minnie, and Olaf will also greet guests.
In addition, a breakfast buffet will be offered at ABC Commissary:
You may remember that most people, this website included, were at least initially sour over the idea of the Magic Kingdom version of this event. But reviews and experiences were overwhelmingly positive, including this review from the first morning: https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/disney-world-early-morning-magic-fantasyland-review-is-it-worth-it/.
This event does perhaps seem like a bigger stretch with just one priority ride operating in Toy Story Mania. At Magic Kingdom, Early Morning Magic saved you from a long, unpleasant walk into the Most Magical Place on Earth, in addition to saving you 70 to 120 minutes in line per ride on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and 50 to 75 minutes per ride on Peter Pan’s Flight. It also set you up nicely to visit Princess Fairytale Hall immediately after, in addition to a couple of other priorities in the area.
At Studios, only those that want to experience Toy Story Mania as many times as physically possible over the course of an hour will likely find much value. And with decreased waits with the increase in capacity, one wonders how much value that is. Looking over wait times since the new Star Wars Galactic Spectacular started and Toy Story remained open through Park close:
Larger: https://www.easywdw.com/reports14/toy_story_waits_post_star_wars.jpg
With posted waits likely exaggerated towards the end of the day most days, there should be a good opportunity to ride Toy Story with short waits if you’re willing to give up seeing the Galactic Spectacular. But even then, each late night cycle would take about 15 minutes even with a short wait as riders disembark the ride and re-enter the building. But assuming each cycle on Toy Story takes eight minutes with a shorter re-ride queue set up, you could probably ride seven times over the course of the morning hour, meet Woody/Buzz (which would save you 30 to 45 minutes in line), and be on your way to Sunset Boulevard for Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster/Tower of Terror or to Great Movie Ride/Star Tours, before visiting breakfast closer to 9:45am.
Some people may find some value in that, though I think a lot of people will look at the slim roster of operating rides and consider this particular event easier to skip without Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror available. I’m just guessing here, but you should be able to achieve something like:
- No rope drop crowd hassle
- Jedi Training Academy Sign-Up Advantage(?)
- 7(?) rides on Toy Story Mania
- 1 Meet and Greet with Woody/Buzz
- Two other priority attractions without much hassle
- Breakfast buffet
It does remain to be seen if those attending the event are able to sign their kids up for Jedi Training early, but that would add some value to those with kids that would like to participate. Even with an 8:15am arrival, you can still wait 30 to 45 minutes in line first thing. It also remains to be seen how long waits are for Toy Story and how long it takes to exit the ride vehicle and get back on.
Epcot is obviously the most logical next step. We’ll see what/when that happens and if this event is popular enough to continue past September.
It’s like Disney saw the initial outrage with the events at MK and said, “oh yeah?? Well what if we make it even more useless and outrageous?”
riddle me this oh great one. how many guests does it take for Disney to break even, make a profit, for this type of thing to be judged a success ?
After 2 goes on TSMM my arm hurts anyway…………
That’s the first thing I thought of when I saw this post!!!
Me too…my favorite ride there, but after twice my arm and wrist are done!
Disney’s digging deep to try to salvage this park as it currently sits……
When would you expect a EPCOT announcement for Early Morning MAgic if any?
Thanks for the heads up. Any idea how late we can arrive for breakfast if we purchase this? I was thinking we’d arrive as close to 10 as possible. Do they clear breakfast items at 10 and kick evryone out or do they stop allowing guest to enter the restaurant at 10?
Possibly the most pointless addition to opening hours yet .
With the 3rd track at TSM now decreasing wait times there I really don’t see any benefits
Really these to rides? No thanks. If the MK one is open in Nov we plan to do that one, but these just does not have the same value IMO. Now if Epcot would do one maybe
LOL are you kidding me? Maybe if Rockin’ Roller Coaster and Tower of Terror were included, MAYBE. But Toy Story waits have been way down since they added the 3rd track and Star Tours already has the shortest ride wait of any attraction at HS. What a joke.
Meanwhile, I am already signed up for EMM at MK during my trip. At least they included the rides with the 2 longest waits in the park for that one.
I agree… if they included Rockin Roller Coaster that maybe would change my mind.
I am fine with this concept but really wish they would give greater notice… I have my DHS day all planned with a PPO breakfast with the goal of signing up for JTA. Of course it’s on one of their two dates that week… ugh. I know we will still be able to sign up for JTA but the line could be a lot longer. Grr!
Same here. I’m SO ANGRY!!! Not sure if I want to try to change my jedi training day. I would have to redo two days of fast passes too. 🙁
Josh, do you think it’s still a good idea to do jedi training that day without getting in early?
I’m sure some will enjoy it. It’s in no way worth it for us.
Exactly what I was scrolling down to post.
WONDERFUL! Now a half-day park will become a 1/3 day park!
I would probably do this for RnRC and ToT but I don’t need to ride TS:MM and ST over and over.
So… when will we know if you can sing up for Jedi Training Academy during this time?
So what is the likely effect on RnR at rope drop? Seems like there is not a ton of places for these folks to disperse to? I understand EMMs haven’t seemed to have a negative effect at MK, but there are significantly more places for participants to spread out to once rope drop happens there…
Just wondering what your thoughts on these early morning events are compared to the morning Extra Magic Hours. If you are eligible, would you be able to accomplish the same amount during EMH? Obviously there’s no breakfast included with EMH but from a touring standpoint I’m just wondering.
Well, morning EMH gives you the 4 best (out of 5 total) rides at HS. This event gives you 2 of the 5 rides.
We really enjoyed a morning at HS with EMH last year. It was crowd level 6 and not recommended, but we had FPs at MK for the evening and decided HS would be a ‘bonus’ morning. It took about 20 minutes to ride TSMM (would probably be quicker now, with the 3rd track open), then we went down and rode RNRC twice and ToT once. The walk to and from ToT and RNRC had very few people, and it was really nice. We made it back to HISTK playground (RIP) just after 9 am. Kids played for a bit with only 10-15 other kids in there, then we did Star Tours twice with no wait. We mucked up the rest of the morning (not worth going into details, but basically we got indecisive, posted wait times shot up while we walked over to rides, and the park got very crowded), but if we had left at 10 am, it would have been a perfect morning. Based on our one experience, I’d highly recommend morning EMH at HS if you can get there on time and have park hoppers.
With this event, you’d probably ride Toy Story a ton, but not much else would appeal to our family. So yeah…. it seems like this event only makes sense as, “Here’s the price to ride Toy Story as much as you want for an hour.”
That’s a really good question.
There needs to be a third ride for this to be valuable. Ridiculous.
SMH, Disney! SMH! Star Tours & TSM!? At least give me TSM & ToT!
This may sound crazy, but I think we are going to do it when we are there in September. We have a little guy who is obsessed with Toy Story and it is always a huge waste to hustle over and give up precious rope drop time to be an early arriver for the Buzz and Woody meet and greet. He’s also an Olaf fan and hasn’t ever met him before. Really, if we can knock out the meet and greets and get our fill of TSMM before the park opens, it might be worth it. We will spend more money than that on crappy character dining buffet food.
You are the type of guest this was made for. Go for it.
Do any of these new Early Morning Magic days change your recommendations for the most recommended parks?
Any idea of how this would affect your theme park touring plan? I planned on going to Hollywood Studios on one of the days that this is offered.
Uh, wut? Ridiculous.
Josh – if it were you, would you do a PPO b’fast on a regular park opening day? Or on a EMM day? Do you think there’d be much of a difference? I’m thinking of MK/BOG but this post reminded me… Thank you.
I don’t have children and I’m okay with never doing TSMM again and I can only do ST once before I start feeling sick – so if it were me – I would change my HS day if at all possible to avoid this happening on the day I’m going because my B-line won’t be to JTA, TSMM or a M&G but it will be directly down Sunset BLVD – as will the rest of the people finishing their 7th trip on TSMM – while it does seem to be geared towards children and those parents with the children – if you’ve already got your JTA, TSMM and ST done as well as met Olaf, Minnie, Buzz and Woody – where are you going next? There are only three more operational rides at the moment – GMR, RnR and ToT ….
I would only not be concerned about attending on one of these days if my first stop was TSMM – because these people should all be done then.
We walked on Star Tours 8 times in a row at rope drop on a pretty busy day in April. I don’t really see this having the same value as MK’s, but Jedi Training is probably a huge consideration to those would be interested. We were able to get my son into JT when he was 12, and they were some of the best pics from that trip. He got to kick Darth Vader’s ass 😀
Monetizing formerly free experiences continues — at least you get some breakkies for your $69…
Stop it!! Too many people are going to start trying Universal and then it will get too crowded. Used to do two weeks at Disney every year. Since Fastpass+ it is down to One week Disney and One week Universal. Starting next year it will be one week Universal, one week (try someplace new). Please let me know when the money grabs are over so I can visit again once Star Wars and Toy story land and Avatar are all done. (I am thinking 2025 sounds about right)
Ummm, let’s see: Regular admission plus 69 dollars for 2 rides only and breakfast, each person!!!! Are they out of their minds???
You can go to HS and ride TSm 2 times , one with fast pass and one stand by pretty easily, at least it has worked for us every time. Star tours is a one and done for us. That leaves Tot and RNR.
I can’t do TSM more than twice also, as my hands won’t take it!
I don’t know what they were thinking with this? But I do bet there will be some people who jump at the chance, just not us that’s for sure!!!
I’m confused… you can get in/check in at 7:45am, and the park normally opens an hour and 15 minutes later, all for $69 per person?
Again color me confused (not understanding it?) but they used to do this it was called “Extra Morning Magic Hours” and it was FREE if you were staying at a Disney resort. What am I missing about this? A “free” all you can eat breakfast that’s worth $70? The ability to get on TSMM one time before the park opens and then stand in line? (I would say pull a fastpass too, but Disney broke that model too)
Wow, screwed me again. I picked my days, made adrs and fast passes waaaay in advance, nowTWO weeks before my trip, this. On my Hollywood studios day, now all of those people will be headed right to rnr and tot, as we are. These last minute changes are getting old.
Next year we will be going somewhere else.
I tried to book this for Wednesday 09/07/16 and the Disney rep said that the schedule has been changed. She said it will only be offered on Mondays. Maybe the schedule change shows lack of interest in the event.