New Magic Kingdom Welcome Show & Main Street Opening UPDATE: Page 15 - Post #281

Just FWIW, both times I've done EMM (July and November, before the current opening procedure), we were let in at 7:40/7:41 respectively (I checked my camera time stamps to be sure). I'm sure that has varied from day to day but that was our experience. Also curious to see what it's like now.
 
? Guests were allowed in before 8:00, most all are reporting they are allowing guests in at 7:45-7:50, so you are in the park and ready to hit a ride by 8:00

SO if you are the first one allowed in at the turnstiles at 7:50 (which most people reported) and have to do the slow walk with the CM's up Main St to your favorite ride, you are getting on a ride at 8am. Non-resort guests get in just 25min later to do all the Main St stuff and are about a 2min walk to most rides at 8:55am.

And so far just saying you are a resort guest at the rope off hubs grants you access. No one is checking bands inside the park. Once non resort guests learn about that here, will they start trying to get by? proves yes.

Maybe it all works fine but we shall see. MK was my favorite AM EMH because lines didn't really increase until about 9:30. Once word spreads that non-resort fuests
We


You must move faster than we do! If we waited until 8:30 to arrive, SDMT would have an hour long wait during EMH. PP wouldn't fare much better. And no matter what we rode, by the time we got to the ride and rode it, the 30 minutes would be virtually gone.

We pretty much decided EMH's aren't worth it period after this trip and it had little to do with the new opening. There are so many resort guests now that it gets crowded fast, just with resort guests. Within 10 minutes of EMH starting the line to SDMT was way out into the walkway. I suspect those in line at that point were going to spend their entire hour in line. It serves it's purpose for less popular rides, but we find we can ride those later in the day without much wait. Add in the non resort guests and by 10am, it's madhouse. That doesn't seem to happen on non-EMH days.

We never go on any rides in EMH that have long entrance
We


You must move faster than we do! If we waited until 8:30 to arrive, SDMT would have an hour long wait during EMH. PP wouldn't fare much better. And no matter what we rode, by the time we got to the ride and rode it, the 30 minutes would be virtually gone.

We pretty much decided EMH's aren't worth it period after this trip and it had little to do with the new opening. There are so many resort guests now that it gets crowded fast, just with resort guests. Within 10 minutes of EMH starting the line to SDMT was way out into the walkway. I suspect those in line at that point were going to spend their entire hour in line. It serves it's purpose for less popular rides, but we find we can ride those later in the day without much wait. Add in the non resort guests and by 10am, it's madhouse. That doesn't seem to happen on non-EMH days.

We are the opposite. We love MK AM EMH (not a fan of PM EMH unless they are after 11pm)

We rarely rope drop Pirates, Splash, or Space. Waste too much time at EMH so we FP those on a different day if we can't get on them. We have different strategies for various rope drops but we tend to do the rides that are quick to get in and out of but tend to have long waits (Peter, Pooh, Buzz, TM,) By the time 9pm hits, we are usually have hit two worlds and are towards the back of the park so that the 9am guests will take about 20-30 more minutes to get to as they do their march down Main Street. Last time we were there on Spring Break and we were the first few rows in at rope drop and were able to split and Anna/Elsa for younger while olders did SDMT, then we did Pooh, Barnstormer (3x in a row without getting off) Buzz, Speedway and then crossed the hub to Liberty (a little before opening and it was still empty) and did Peter, HM and then TM. At this point it was close to 9:30am and we still walked on Splash, Pirates, Carpets and waited about 20min for Jungle. We love AM EMH. We are usually out of the park by 12-1pm for lunch/swim and then hit up another park in the late afternoon/early evening with 3 fast passes ready to go.
 
I understand there is a new welcome show. Do they play the welcome song at all- like as you are waiting for the show? Or after? I love hearing that song.
 




I currently have CP ADR at 8:05 on 2-26. We planned the following...eat, 9:00-speedway,astrology orbiter,people mover,monsters ink, then 1st FP for buzz at 10:35. I feel this would have worked before the changes. Now it seems like we may be stuck behind everyone that will have accumulated on main street while we were eating. I'm not going to get into the previously mentioned non-gareentee perks. But that was why we got the ADR. Even though we weren't planning popular rides early. So, do you think this is doable? Or would we be better off canceling CP so we can get closer to the ropes. Or does it not matter because of what we want to ride. I feel that we can still get ok castle pics before.
 
We did EMH this morning and it was a mess in places but I can see their plan (just wish they had explained it)

We arrived close to 7 am - via monorail (were scanned at TTC). We lined up for the bag check - security people were not yet out we just all stood in line. Then they had a meeting for a bit and finally were ready to go - went through bag check and the scanner then lined up at the turnstiles..... and waited. Around 7:30 they let us scan our MB and go in

that's when things got interesting... they let a bunch of us in (which I was expecting ) to walk down Main Street- so we're strolling down Main Street taking pictures etc and a security guard comes up and tells us very nicely that there was a mistake and they should not have let us (and everyone in front of us) in yet... and she asked us to head back towards the entrance (but we could take our time). We went back taking our time and then before we had made it back they let the rest of the mass of humanity in so we turned around and walked back towards the castle. Got down to the Hub and stood in front of the castle expecting some kind of Welcome something (in our experience they did at least something for morning EMH) the CM told us the Welcome Show would be at 9. OK so asked if we could go through the castle when things opened up to get to Fantasy Land - nope - we were told you can go over via Liberty Bridge....OK went over there and was told that was only for the breakfast people. So went to stand by (what we call) Merida Bridge and realized that they had that blocked off in 2 places - where we were in the Hub and further on. We had to walk back a bit and (with what appeared to be the rest of the planet) go through a funnel type area to get our Magic Bands scanned again) Once we did that we could wait at the "actual" rope.

I can see what they are doing - they appear to let everyone in and then the EMH folks can go through the funneling area to get their MB scanned and then (when the time is right) on to FL and TL while the rest of the 'non-resort' guests hang out / wait in the Hub and Main street. It makes sense but was confusing this morning with no signs or people telling you where to go.

Also I had planned our morning to be a character morning via @kennythepirate character locator - the times are now sadly "off" during the EMH timeframe for certain characters. Alice was supposed to be out at 8 :20 am but she was finishing her set at that point. And Mary Poppins should have been out in the fireworks area at 8:20 but she wasn't out there because, of course that was where the non-resort people were - we looked for Mary by the Carousel but couldn't find her so not sure if she is out early. Figured out that their schedules are now different because they have to be in the morning show at 8:55 am so the 8:20 start time is out the window (or so it appears). Not sure if Tinker Bell who normally opens for EMH (as I recall) was open we didn't make it back that way. Also other characters (Snow White, and Minnie as I recall) should have been out near the front of the park for EMH but I bet they weren't due to the incoming non- resort guests... We did ask CMs but they just didn't know where/ what was going on with the characters today.

so that's my report from MK EMH I'm sure they will make it all work but this morning wasn't the smooth operation we were expecting.
 
I currently have CP ADR at 8:05 on 2-26. We planned the following...eat, 9:00-speedway,astrology orbiter,people mover,monsters ink, then 1st FP for buzz at 10:35. I feel this would have worked before the changes. Now it seems like we may be stuck behind everyone that will have accumulated on main street while we were eating. I'm not going to get into the previously mentioned non-gareentee perks. But that was why we got the ADR. Even though we weren't planning popular rides early. So, do you think this is doable? Or would we be better off canceling CP so we can get closer to the ropes. Or does it not matter because of what we want to ride. I feel that we can still get ok castle pics before.

I haven't experienced the new opening (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night) and I think with those attractions you should be fine to keep your CP breakfast. :rolleyes1
 
We did EMH this morning and it was a mess in places but I can see their plan (just wish they had explained it)

We arrived close to 7 am - via monorail (were scanned at TTC). We lined up for the bag check - security people were not yet out we just all stood in line. Then they had a meeting for a bit and finally were ready to go - went through bag check and the scanner then lined up at the turnstiles..... and waited. Around 7:30 they let us scan our MB and go in

that's when things got interesting... they let a bunch of us in (which I was expecting ) to walk down Main Street- so we're strolling down Main Street taking pictures etc and a security guard comes up and tells us very nicely that there was a mistake and they should not have let us (and everyone in front of us) in yet... and she asked us to head back towards the entrance (but we could take our time). We went back taking our time and then before we had made it back they let the rest of the mass of humanity in so we turned around and walked back towards the castle. Got down to the Hub and stood in front of the castle expecting some kind of Welcome something (in our experience they did at least something for morning EMH) the CM told us the Welcome Show would be at 9. OK so asked if we could go through the castle when things opened up to get to Fantasy Land - nope - we were told you can go over via Liberty Bridge....OK went over there and was told that was only for the breakfast people. So went to stand by (what we call) Merida Bridge and realized that they had that blocked off in 2 places - where we were in the Hub and further on. We had to walk back a bit and (with what appeared to be the rest of the planet) go through a funnel type area to get our Magic Bands scanned again) Once we did that we could wait at the "actual" rope.

I can see what they are doing - they appear to let everyone in and then the EMH folks can go through the funneling area to get their MB scanned and then (when the time is right) on to FL and TL while the rest of the 'non-resort' guests hang out / wait in the Hub and Main street. It makes sense but was confusing this morning with no signs or people telling you where to go.

Also I had planned our morning to be a character morning via @kennythepirate character locator - the times are now sadly "off" during the EMH timeframe for certain characters. Alice was supposed to be out at 8 :20 am but she was finishing her set at that point. And Mary Poppins should have been out in the fireworks area at 8:20 but she wasn't out there because, of course that was where the non-resort people were - we looked for Mary by the Carousel but couldn't find her so not sure if she is out early. Figured out that their schedules are now different because they have to be in the morning show at 8:55 am so the 8:20 start time is out the window (or so it appears). Not sure if Tinker Bell who normally opens for EMH (as I recall) was open we didn't make it back that way. Also other characters (Snow White, and Minnie as I recall) should have been out near the front of the park for EMH but I bet they weren't due to the incoming non- resort guests... We did ask CMs but they just didn't know where/ what was going on with the characters today.

so that's my report from MK EMH I'm sure they will make it all work but this morning wasn't the smooth operation we were expecting.
Thank you for the report!
 
SO if you are the first one allowed in at the turnstiles at 7:50 (which most people reported) and have to do the slow walk with the CM's up Main St to your favorite ride, you are getting on a ride at 8am. Non-resort guests get in just 25min later to do all the Main St stuff and are about a 2min walk to most rides at 8:55am
Where you have it wrong is there is no slow walk of guests now. Not up Main St
 
We did EMH this morning and it was a mess in places but I can see their plan (just wish they had explained it)

We arrived close to 7 am - via monorail (were scanned at TTC). We lined up for the bag check - security people were not yet out we just all stood in line. Then they had a meeting for a bit and finally were ready to go - went through bag check and the scanner then lined up at the turnstiles..... and waited. Around 7:30 they let us scan our MB and go in

that's when things got interesting... they let a bunch of us in (which I was expecting ) to walk down Main Street- so we're strolling down Main Street taking pictures etc and a security guard comes up and tells us very nicely that there was a mistake and they should not have let us (and everyone in front of us) in yet... and she asked us to head back towards the entrance (but we could take our time). We went back taking our time and then before we had made it back they let the rest of the mass of humanity in so we turned around and walked back towards the castle. Got down to the Hub and stood in front of the castle expecting some kind of Welcome something (in our experience they did at least something for morning EMH) the CM told us the Welcome Show would be at 9. OK so asked if we could go through the castle when things opened up to get to Fantasy Land - nope - we were told you can go over via Liberty Bridge....OK went over there and was told that was only for the breakfast people. So went to stand by (what we call) Merida Bridge and realized that they had that blocked off in 2 places - where we were in the Hub and further on. We had to walk back a bit and (with what appeared to be the rest of the planet) go through a funnel type area to get our Magic Bands scanned again) Once we did that we could wait at the "actual" rope.

I can see what they are doing - they appear to let everyone in and then the EMH folks can go through the funneling area to get their MB scanned and then (when the time is right) on to FL and TL while the rest of the 'non-resort' guests hang out / wait in the Hub and Main street. It makes sense but was confusing this morning with no signs or people telling you where to go.

Also I had planned our morning to be a character morning via @kennythepirate character locator - the times are now sadly "off" during the EMH timeframe for certain characters. Alice was supposed to be out at 8 :20 am but she was finishing her set at that point. And Mary Poppins should have been out in the fireworks area at 8:20 but she wasn't out there because, of course that was where the non-resort people were - we looked for Mary by the Carousel but couldn't find her so not sure if she is out early. Figured out that their schedules are now different because they have to be in the morning show at 8:55 am so the 8:20 start time is out the window (or so it appears). Not sure if Tinker Bell who normally opens for EMH (as I recall) was open we didn't make it back that way. Also other characters (Snow White, and Minnie as I recall) should have been out near the front of the park for EMH but I bet they weren't due to the incoming non- resort guests... We did ask CMs but they just didn't know where/ what was going on with the characters today.

so that's my report from MK EMH I'm sure they will make it all work but this morning wasn't the smooth operation we were expecting.
We had a similar experience yesterday morning. I just wanted to add that we met Mickey and then Tink with pretty much no wait at EMH. It was just after 8 by the time we made it through the turnstiles.
 
I can say I am not impressed with this new procedure. There were substantial more people by park opening. I found rides much busier than before. Main Street very crowded in comparison. Lots of photopass photographers available. The welcome show really not comparable and IMO not worth it.
 
Hi! Just wondering if anyone has had a PPO ADR at BOG since the new rope drop/welcome show started? Can anyone report on whether they were still able to ride 7DMT one or more times before official park opening and thus before the rope drop crowd arrived? Thanks!!
 
Hi! Just wondering if anyone has had a PPO ADR at BOG since the new rope drop/welcome show started? Can anyone report on whether they were still able to ride 7DMT one or more times before official park opening and thus before the rope drop crowd arrived? Thanks!!
This is from the Welcome Show thread:


"We had a PPO reservation for BoG this morning - here's how it went.

When we checked in at the front of the park, we were given a piece of paper with a map of Main Street/Fantasyland on it and location indicators for BoG, CRT, and our second check-in point (to the left of the castle). We were let in with everyone else in line (incl. EMM) at 7:45 on the dot. We had originally planned on heading straight to BoG, but we noticed that the area in front of the castle was pretty much empty and the PP photographer closest to the castle only had one group in line. Everyone else had either stayed back on Main Street or gone ahead to breakfast.

After getting some pictures, we headed to the left and a CM checked our breakfast paper. BoG was pretty empty the whole time we were there, as opposed to how packed it was on the same Tuesday last year at the same time. At about 8:35, we went to 7DMT where there was a short line along the fence before you make the right turn to the ride (there was a CM there to hold people back).

We heard two announcements for the castle show ("in just five minutes" and "in just a few minutes") and at 8:45, they let us in to the 7DMT standby queue. By the time we got off, everyone else had already been let in and the line was long, as expected.

I don't think the new morning show affected our PPO "perks" in any way. If anything, the park felt less busy because everyone dispersed quickly."

Merging you to that thread.
 
Regarding the MS breakfast offerings:

Unless I'm missing something, I'm disappointed there isn't any place to have a more, shall we say, "boring" breakfast. For those that have to watch carbs for one reason or another, there isn't much to have on MS for breakfast (without a PPO ADR).
 
Regarding the MS breakfast offerings:

Unless I'm missing something, I'm disappointed there isn't any place to have a more, shall we say, "boring" breakfast. For those that have to watch carbs for one reason or another, there isn't much to have on MS for breakfast (without a PPO ADR).
There's cereal and milk at The Plaza ice cream parlor and yogurt and fruit cups at Starbucks.
 
Regarding the MS breakfast offerings:

Unless I'm missing something, I'm disappointed there isn't any place to have a more, shall we say, "boring" breakfast. For those that have to watch carbs for one reason or another, there isn't much to have on MS for breakfast (without a PPO ADR).

That they don't have a lot of low carb menu items for quick service is nothing new. I've been on a low carb diet for several months now but I have the luxury of throwing caution to the wind on vacation, some don't.
 

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