Hollywood Studios Morning Extra Magic Hour Strategy
Morning Extra Magic Hour at Disney’s Hollywood Studios is a great way to experience the park’s most popular attractions, including Slinky Dog Dash in Toy Story Land, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and Tower of Terror with short waits. In this post, we’ll share photos from our sunrise morning EMH, plus tips on efficiently getting as much done as possible prior to park opening for regular day guests.
Disney’s Hollywood Studios has been offering a morning Extra Magic Hour starting at 7 a.m. every day from Toy Story Land’s opening through August 25th. As this website is wont to do, we decided to partake in the fun only a few days before this offering would be discontinued, so we could bring a firsthand report to the 8 or so of you who might be able to still take advantage.
In reality, once this limited-run 7 a.m. morning Extra Magic Hour ends, Annual Passholder previews begin select days for the month of September, and regular morning Extra Magic Hour will thereafter be a perpetual thing, it’ll just occur at 8 a.m. on select days. Plus, I really wanted to take photos of Disney’s Hollywood Studios at sunrise, and this post was my excuse to convince Sarah to tag along (and do most of the work). I would say don’t tell her, but the cat’s already out of the bag on that one.
We left our room at 5:50 a.m., and got to the Port Orleans French Quarter bus stop at 5:53 a.m. The bus arrived one minute early (WOO HOO!) and we were off. We arrived at Disney’s Hollywood Studios just before 6:15 a.m., at which time there were less than 20 other guests at the park.
We always get questions about what time buses start running, and the answer is almost always earlier than necessary. If the park opens at 8 a.m., buses are on the prowl by 6 a.m. When the DHS opens at some ungodly hour next year for Galaxy’s Edge, expect buses to be out at an ungodlier hour.
Security opened a few minutes after we arrived, and we were through in short order. Following that, the turnstiles opened at around 6:30 a.m. We were then held towards the end of Hollywood Boulevard until around 6:45 a.m., at which time at announcement played about inviting guests to “play in Andy’s backyard” and Cast Members us to Toy Story Land. There was also a sign pointing towards Jedi Training Academy sign-up.
Morning Extra Magic Hour starting earlier than advertised is a relatively common practice at Walt Disney World for alleviating crowds and potential congestion at the front of the park. The same still happens daily at Animal Kingdom for Pandora. I’d expect this to continue in the short-term at Disney’s Hollywood Studios once the start time of morning EMH shifts to 8 a.m.
We had run of the park for about 15 minutes before sunrise, which is a cool experience. Reminds me of the “old” 24-hour parties that ran for a few years. I’d absolutely love to see those return, but with a bunch of new stuff coming to the parks over each of the next several years, I’m guessing Disney views stunts like that as operational headaches that are not “necessary.”
Anyway, once Cast Members released us, we were on our way to Toy Story Land. Here’s what we managed to get done:
- Slinky Dog Dash (x2)
- Toy Story Meet & Greet
- Alien Swirling Saucers
- Toy Story Mania
- Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster (x2)
- Tower of Terror
Or should I say, that’s what Sarah managed to get done. While Sarah was doing the tough work of riding Slinky Dog Dash, I was running around taking sunrise photos.
This is also the order you should experience these attractions for optimal efficiency during morning EMH at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, cutting out (or adding) repeat attractions depending upon your preferences. Add Star Tours to the end if you want–we ate breakfast instead.
I joined after Slinky Dog Dash, and even at that point, the posted wait for the roller coaster was only 35 minutes (I’m betting the actual wait would’ve been around 15-20. In hindsight, I should’ve joined her for the second ride, as it turns out the best view of sunrise in Disney’s Hollywood Studios is Slinky Dog Dash. Whoops.
I opted to skip it because I really enjoy Slinky Dog Dash with the show lighting and views of the neon illuminating other areas of the park. Totally personal preference, and I certainly wouldn’t turn down a FastPass+ some other time of day (or discourage you from making one then), but if you are only doing it once and have your choice of times, night is absolutely the way to go. Slinky Dog Dash is markedly better at night…unless you have the chance to ride it at sunrise.
Even at the end of the morning Extra Magic Hour, Toy Story Mania, Tower of Terror, and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster were all at or near walk-on status. Slinky Dog Dash is the only ride that had a long posted wait time, at 60 minutes. Granted, this was for a morning Extra Magic Hour starting officially at 7 a.m., so that certainly played a part in many of the other attractions still being walk-ons.
As for the full strategy, you could probably do Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster 3-4 times if you cut the Toy Story meet & greet and/or Alien Swirling Saucers. We noticed that even after the park was officially opened to day guests, waits remained relatively short for both RnRC and Tower of Terror. Presumably this is because day guests are also racing to Toy Story Land to do Slinky Dog Dash first, which isn’t the best of ideas as a long wait has already built at that point.
Going forward, Extra Magic Hour will run from 8 until 9 a.m., and it will also occur during a more popular time of year. Both of those factors, in tandem, should result in larger crowds for morning EMH. Consequently, you can bump up wait times by about 25% across the board. Among attractions, I wouldn’t expect priorities to shift much.
“Everyone” starts their morning in Toy Story Land before moving on to other areas of the park. This will remain the best approach unless you’d prefer to do Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster or Tower or Terror repeatedly as walk-ons. Even then, it’s smart to get a couple of early rides on the Toy Story Land attractions before bouncing back to the front of the park.
“Everyone” will also linger in Toy Story Land for far too long, which is the strategy you’ll want to avoid during morning Extra Magic Hours. Get a few attractions done quickly, and then bounce to other areas of the park while the bulk of crowds continue flocking to Slinky Dog Dash.
What surprised me most about this morning Extra Magic Hour at Disney’s Hollywood Studios was the lack of popularity. Toy Story Land has not been as popular as we expected, but I still did not expect so few people to avail themselves of the opportunity to experience DHS with such low crowds, and at an hour when the weather is actually pleasant. Then again, we also didn’t have to get 2.5 children ready and herd them to the bus stop at the crack of dawn.
By arriving at the start of Extra Magic Hour, you could easily experience all three Toy Story Land attractions, Tower of Terror, Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster, and Star Tours all before 9 a.m. You could probably experience Slinky Dog Dash multiple times, in fact. If you’re a repeat Walt Disney World visitor who isn’t interested in Disney’s Hollywood Studios’ shows, you could be done with this park, walk to Epcot’s International Gateway entrance, and be there right around rope drop.
Ultimately, this post underscores how clutch getting up early can be in accomplishing the must-dos at Disney’s Hollywood Studios now and for the next year. On the other hand, this provides very little long-term value for planning a morning Extra Magic Hour visit to Disney’s Hollywood Studios. Once Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge opens, there will need to be a 4 a.m. morning EMH just so those without FastPasses can get on the two new Star Wars attractions. That might seem super early, but just think of the possibilities in selling overnight up-charge cabana tents in the DHS parking lot!
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Your Thoughts
Have you done morning Extra Magic Hour at Disney’s Hollywood Studios recently? Which rides did you do? Do you agree or disagree with our morning EMH advice or attraction order? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!
at Hollywood Studios if are there early and enter the park at beginning of magic hour, how much can you do before breakfast at 930? Can we get the 3 main attractions in toy story land (slinky dog, toy story mania and alien saucers) before a 9:30 breakfast.
I would expect so. Most people are running to Star Wars Land right now anyways.
We bought tickets for EMH Toy Story Land. It runs from 7:30-9am. I want to also sign my kids up for Jedi Training. Do you know if Jedi Training signups will be available during those extra hours or will we have to wait until the park officially opens? If the latter, should we leave Toy Story Land a little early to ensure spots for Jedi Training?
The hard ticket event you purchased is Early Morning Magic EMM, not Extra Magic Hours EMH which is a perk to those dating onsite. Just an FYI – the acronym and similarity makes it confusing.
It’s 6am and we are waiting for the bus to Hollywood Studios at DoubleTree Suites! The kids are exhausted and we’re not confident a bus will be running this early. Here’s hoping…
We’re on the bus at 6:20!
How do you recommend signing up for Jedi training AND Slinky Dog Dash for Late October dates? Where do we go first!?
I would go to Slinky first, Jedi has had availability until noon/mid-afternoon recently; especially if you’re flexible with what show time you want to participate in.
Hi everyone, do you happen to know whether Tokyo ever has Morning Extra Magic Hour? We’re taking Miss Seven and Miss Eight to Tokyo in January, and it’d be brilliant to get there before the rush! 🙂
Last visited just before Toy Story land opened. Things went smothly and we were inside HS before the opening time of 9am and thought we did so awesome… until I read this article
Also, Love the sunrise picture!
What about a Toy Story Land strategy for non-EMH days? Same? I have planned to hit HS on a non-EMH day thinking the crowds may be less, but I’m second guessing…
So Disney added a little wrench in my plans for my October visit with adding Early Morning Magic on Mondays. Our family won’t be purchasing that, but I’m hoping those that do are done with Toy Story Land by 9 and are eating breakfast so the regular folks can still have decent wait time.
I had the same thing happen to me. I had a whole day at DHS planned on a Monday in October and now that they’ve added the extra magic thing, I don’t know what lines are going to be like 🙁
This is us too. The only two days it worked to visit HS were Wednesday and Monday. I was able to get 2 SDD FPs(one each day) so hoping we can ride TSMM a few times at rope drop both days without too much wait. I’m curious about them actually having an EMH for resort guests during a time they are charging an upcharge for guests to get extra time in the morning. Will they really have both at the same time, even on different days?
I wonder what the best strategy is if you do not go to EMH but get there at park opening at 8 AM? It sounds like it would be best to hit RnR and ToT with no wait… but I wonder how much worse Slinky dog gets if you do those first.
EMH starts at 8am, but the park doesn’t open until 9am. So 8am is the EMH & 9am is opening for the public
I love your blog. It has been such a help in our Disney trips. We will be going back to Disney in January. My son LOVES Pixar especially Toy Story. The time we are there, the EMH is actually in the PM. I Am sure this is because of the Disney marathon being the same day. But being the only day we are there they HS has EMH. How would you suggest a ride strategy got the park. We will be going to HS on Wednesday 1/9 and Sunday 1/13. Of course I will try for fast passes for a tier one for each day but would love to have a strategy to try to ride them more then once.
Hi Tom!
Our trip is in November & I purchased tickets for the Toy Story Land Early Morning Magic. We have to be there by 7am & the fun starts at 7:30am. We are staying at All Star Movies. I am pretty sure the buses will be running that early, so what time should we be at the bus stop, to give us plenty of time without having to rush? It’s an expensive add-on, however with 3 grandkids, I think we need to do it. What are your opinions on the Early Morning Magic?
I appreciate your blogs! You & Sara are awesome!
Hi Tom and Sarah.
We are planning our first trip in December (family of 4) coming from Nova Scotia, and I am struggling on what to pack for clothes and to take into the parks daily.
Pretty much every topic you can imagine is more than likely touched on if you do a term search within the Disney Tourist Blog. I have found so much useful info and I know there is a blog about what to pack. More than 1 actually. Just put packing in the search and you should be able to find it.
Weather can vary greatly as hot as 100 f or 28 f and snowy. You need to be prepared for anything. Pull up several online lists and add winter stuff: coat, gloves, hat, handwarmers, microfleese blanket.
Is that first screenshot from the My Disney Exp app? or another app?
I was wondering the same thing!
That’s a photo of the wait times board at the POFQ bus stop.
Stop telling all my early morning secrets 🙂 I wish every park had 7am EMH hours year round, but especially in the summer, it’s so nice to do the parks before the heat sets in. And sunrise from SDD is nice!
How hot and humid wasbit at that time of morning?
Headed there Sat morning after Halloween Party Fri night. Thanks for the post as it does help us!
That “sunrise over slinky dog” shot! Thanks for getting there before sunrise, so we don’t have to. 😀
Here’s hoping your strategy still applies effectively when were there in early November.
At least it will be easier to make a November Sunrise time than an August one. (And Daylight time ends Nov. 4; I know the “Fall back” deal, but it always confuses me as to which direction that shifts sunrise.)
Best photo in the post and it’s the one Sarah took with her iPhone. Ha!
Haha! I was thinking Sarah must have took it since you said she was the one who was doing the “tough work of riding Slinky Dog”. She nailed that shot! It’s awesome. Even rocked the sun flare!
I think a lot of people are also waiting on visiting DHS until ALL the new attractions are open. Once Star Wars land is 100% complete I expect the DHS crowds to grow.
There are plenty of reviews and stories out on the internet advising people of this.
Oh for sure. I fully expect that ALL wait times at DHS will increase once Galaxy’s Edge opens and attendance will spike by 3-4 million in the first full year.
Just returned from WDW. I wish we had bumped into you two to say hi while we were there! Oh wait a minute, never mind, there’s no way I would’ve been at any of the parks at 7 AM!