Do the regular operating hours of the Magic Kingdom seem not quite long enough for you? What would you do with an extra hour or two in the park? If you’re staying at a Disney resort, you can take advantage of the Extra Magic Hours. But what if you’re a local, staying off property, or the extra magic hours just don’t line up with your availability? Well now Disney has an answer for you, of sorts – the early morning magic ticket.
Guests with an Early Morning Magic ticket will be among the first to enter the Magic Kingdom where they will have access to three popular Fantasyland attractions: Peter Pan’s Flight, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, and The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The ticket also includes a breakfast at Pinocchio Village Haus which will feature seasonal fruits, fresh-baked pastries, scrambled eggs, veggie frittata, smoked bacon, pork and turkey sausages, waffles and much more.
Disney says this will only be available to a “very limited” number of guests. What that means, they don’t specifically say, but lines will probably be very short. Guests who book the package can enter the Magic Kingdom at 7:45AM and will be directed straight to Fantasyland. The park opens to regular guests around 9AM, which means that after the walk down Main Street and through Cinderella Castle, you really only have about an hour in Fantasyland with limited company. The breakfast starts at 8:30 and runs until 10:00AM.
The price for this deal is $59 for children and $69 for adults (plus tax). Regular admission to the park is also required. Right now its only offered on Tuesdays and Saturdays starting April 26th. These days do not replace any existing Extra Magic Hours, so Disney isn’t really taking away from anything here.
The question is, what sort of value does this ticket provide a Magic Kingdom guest? You are getting a meal out of it. So that counts for something. There could be unannounced benefits, like character meet and greets, but don’t count on that. So you’re really paying something like an extra $40 for access to 3 rides for an hour.
On the other hand, if you play your cards right, show up right at rope drop, and walk quickly to Fantasyland you’ll definitely get access to those same three rides as part of your regular park admission. Throw in a Fastpass+ for Peter Pan or Winnie the Pooh and you’ll have pretty much the same experience.
My advice, skip this Early Morning Magic and make some of your own with the $59 you save at a character buffet somewhere. Walt Disney World isn’t about the rides, it’s about the experiences you have together.
But it would provide access to 7 Dwarfs, right? And that’s the hardest fast pass to get. If you couldn’t get the fast pass, this would be a way to ride with minimal lines if it was important to your family.
So John, do you think this is a sign of what you mentioned before? Namely that Disney is trying to milk every dollar it can out of it’s US parks because of poor results overseas. Sure seems like that.
[[Walt Disney World isn’t about the rides, it’s about the experiences you have together.]]
Biggest difference between WDW and Disneyland Resort management, IMHO, is that the former agrees in full with that statement, where the latter recognizes that the magical experiences people want are far and away about the rides.
I can’t imagine spending that kind of money on 75 minutes of early entry for 3 minor (albeit popular) rides and breakfast. For my family, the cost would be $374 plus tax. Anyone who pays that is a nutter.
As long as Disney isn’t taking anything away from the people who DON’T pay the extra money, I don’t see a problem with this. If park hours are unaffected and Extra Magic Hours remain the same for resort guests, Disney can open parks early or keep them open late for anyone willing to cough of insane amounts of money for a handful of attractions and some food.
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