As your Disney trip approaches, you will start thinking about FastPasses and which rides are on your family’s must-ride list. When you start to look at that list and the FastPass+ availability you may start wondering how you are going to do all of it – and enjoy everything else the parks have to offer.
May we suggest Disney’s Early Morning Magic as a solution to your conundrum!
What is Early Morning Magic?
This is a separately ticketed (hard-ticket), extra fee event. Early Morning Magic gives you admission to the parks before the park opens and select rides are open. It also includes breakfast. The event is limited in capacity – basically meaning the rides and attractions that are open are pretty much walk-on rides.
OK, I’m interested… Give me more information on Early Morning Magic.
Early Morning Magic takes place in two parks right now, Magic Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.
Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic Details
During the Magic Kingdom’s Early Morning Magic, you get to enter the park at 7:45 a.m., before the park opens, to enjoy limited-to-no-lines for select attractions – and people-free photos if you’re a photographer! Select dates are available through mid-September. Be sure to check the Disney website for dates during your vacation.
Attractions and rides that are open during Magic Kingdom’s Early Morning Magic are:
- The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Peter Pan’s Flight
- Princess Fairytale Hall
- “it’s a small world”
- Mad Tea Party
- Under the Sea ~ Journey of the Little Mermaid
Breakfast at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe includes:
- Scrambled eggs
- Smoked bacon
- Sausage
- Breakfast potatoes
- Pancakes
- Freshly baked pastries
- Cheese and cured meats
- Seasonal fruit
- Oatmeal
- Granola
- Yogurt
- Assorted juices
- Coffee and teas
Disney’s Hollywood Studios Early Morning Magic Details
With Hollywood Studios’ Early Morning Magic, you get to enter the park at 7:30 a.m., before the park opens, to enjoy limited-to-no-lines for the new Toy Story Land attractions and meet and greets – and again, people-free photos! Select dates are available through August. Be sure to check the Disney website for dates during your vacation.
Attractions and rides that are open during Hollywood Studios’ Early Morning Magic are:
- Slinky Dog Dash
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Toy Story Mania!
- Opportunities to meet Buzz, Woody and Jessie
Breakfast at a select quick-service dining location outside of Toy Story Land includes:
- Continental buffet with yogurt, fruit, pastries and assorted cereal
- Plus your choice of a main dish such as avocado toast or fried chicken served with a tasty cronut.
This sounds too good to be true – are there any disadvantages?
There is one. The Early Morning Magic program in both parks does intersect with “regular” park opening hours. Though the program runs from either 7:30 or 7:45 until 10 a.m., the parks open at 9 a.m., meaning you only have 1.5 or 1.25 hours crowd-free. We recommend enjoying the attractions and rides during this crowd-free time, and when the park opens to all guests going to your private breakfast, which is included with your Early Morning Magic fee.
Our Family is More Night Owl than Early Bird, is there an Alternative to Early Morning Magic?
If staying up late is more your thing then Disney’s After Hours may be for you. After Hours is currently available in the Magic Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Animal Kingdom through early April. Be sure to stay tuned to AllEars.net for updates on future dates for After Hours.
Have you participated in Early Morning Magic or After Hours? Be sure to leave your review and read other readers’ reviews of the programs in our Rate and Review section.
Remember! When you’re in Disney tag us @allearsnet in your photos!
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Is this paid content from Disney? If not, you should have mentioned current pricing or provided a link to it.
Hi Scott,
We do link to our Early Morning Magic pages and Disney’s, as well, throughout the post. Here’s the link for Disney’s site: https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/dining/early-morning-magic/
Current pricing is $79 for adults, $69 for children 3-9 (plus tax). Hope this helps.
WDW becomes more expensive by the day. Basically, I need to buy each member of my family a daily park pass and then I also need to pay extra for each person to either go to Fantasyland or Toy Story early in the morning. That is an extra $296.00 plus tax for a family of four (Dad, Mom and 2 kids). If you do both, $592.00 plus tax. That sounds great for a family on a budget.
Isn’t it nice of them to offer an extra ticket to go with your already expensive ticket just so you will be able to actually get on the popular rides due to overcrowding in the parks? This is also called Extra Magic Hours and is free if you’re paying ridiculous prices to stay on property, so pretty much this is just an $80 breakfast to lure in the suckers who are paying a third of the price for a nicer room off property. Extra Magic Hours open to the public, creating more of a mess. Disney’s going to make you give them your money no matter what.
It’s a complete ripoff and is going to actually make smart people start to look elsewhere for their family vacations.