Magic Kingdom Early Entry Strategy Starting at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
Early Entry at Magic Kingdom is a perk for on-site resort hotel guests at Walt Disney World, offering a 30-minute head start on the official park opening crowds. This photo report shares our step-by-step strategy for starting at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and continuing from Fantasyland to Adventureland and Frontierland for regular rope drop.
The first thing you you need to know is that park hours at Magic Kingdom can vary. There are some days when the park opens at 8 am, but those are usually during Party Season (mid-August through December) or on peak season dates. Most of the time from January through early August, Magic Kingdom opens at 9 am. If you somehow have the option of doing Magic Kingdom on an 8 am opening day, you absolutely should–it’s a huge advantage!
Moving from a 9 am opening time to 8 am might seem like a big hassle for an insignificant gain. It’s actually huge and that’s precisely because it’s a hassle. That hour earlier in the morning is a big deal because it shrinks the pool of potential guests who are willing and able to get up early on vacation. When park opening is at 8 am, this means that Early Entry is at 7:30 am. For most Walt Disney World guests, that’s simply too early.
This isn’t just conjecture or speculation. We’ve tested this repeatedly, and it is always the case that an earlier Early Entry is more fruitful because fewer guests can and will take advantage of it. Suffice to say, the 7:30 am Early Entry at Magic Kingdom is a game changer (see that link for strategy), and we highly recommend it on Halloween or Christmas Party dates. Very few guests have the desire and determination to be out their hotel room door by 6:30 am, which is pretty much what’s necessary to arrive at Magic Kingdom in time for the start of Early Entry.
Speaking of being up and out the door early, you’ll want to be up in time to join the TRON Lightcycle Run virtual queue no matter what. This new roller coaster is incredibly popular, and has been running out of boarding groups in seconds (literally) since it opened. See our Strategy Guide for the TRON Lightcycle Run Virtual Queue for tips & tricks to improve your chances of success. It isn’t as easy or straightforward as you might think!
This photo report concerns a day at Magic Kingdom when the park opened to the general public at 9 am, meaning Early Entry began at 8:30 am. I was out the door of our room at All Star Sports by around 7:10 am, which is necessary due to the long commute and unpredictability of transportation. The bus to Magic Kingdom picked me up at 7:20 am and dropped me off at around 7:45 am. My camera bag got flagged for additional screening, delaying the process by about 10 minutes, but I was still on Main Street shortly after 8 am.
It’s a common question, but getting to the parks before Early Entry starts is surprisingly easy. Bus transportation runs well in advance, and most guests simply are not up and out the door before 7:30 am. Monorails and boats are departing every few minutes, and usually are not full at this hour. We’ve found it to be a far more pleasant transportation experience than leaving an hour or two later. My bus from All Star Sports was packed, which is a relatively uncommon experience at that hour. Granted, it was peak season.
Upon reaching the end of Main Street, you’ll see Cast Members with signs direction guests to the right for Early Theme Park Entry. On-site guests head to the right of the East Plaza Garden. There’s a row of Cast Members stationed here to scan MagicBands, MagicMobile, resort room keys, or whatever identification you might have if staying at one of the participating third party hotels.
You can’t access Tomorrowland or Fantasyland until you’ve entered through here. Once you’ve gone through that checkpoint, you’re good to go for the morning. Unlike Extended Evening Hours, MagicBands or room keys are not scanned at each individual attraction.
From there, you proceed on to either the Tomorrowland Bridge or Fantasyland Bridge.
The crowd is always smaller for Tomorrowland. There’s more breathing room here and it’s definitely the more laid back option. By contrast, the Fantasyland Bridge is packed with people. The tables will turn whenever TRON Lightcycle Run switches from using a virtual queue to a standby line.
The mood is also more tense on the Fantasyland side. Guests are revving up their double-wide strollers, preparing to do some serious damage to the ankles of anyone walking too gingerly. The sprint to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a high stakes, eat-or-be-eaten game.
Not really, but the atmosphere does feel tense before the crowd starts moving. Once it does, it’s more like a slow trudge in a sea of humanity. No one is doing anything even resembling running. We call it the “SDMT Shuffle.” Ironic that this is for Fantasyland, as it’s a bit nightmarish.
With that said, I was pleasantly surprised by the Fantasyland crowd on this particular morning. Despite this being a busy day, the bridge wasn’t backed up at all when I arrived at 8:10 am.
That’s probably at least in part because it was a foggy, overcast day…which meant nothing in terms of crowds, but everything in terms of my focus. Normally, I’ll run around the Hub and Cinderella Castle to capture empty-park photos of the sunrise or morning light. Aside from a few obligatory photos for illustrative purposes, my camera was mostly in the bag this particular ugly morning. On the plus side, not waiting in the scorching sun was definitely a better way to start the day!
I hate doing the SDMT Shuffle, and always recommend first-timers or infrequent guests skip it. Our Ride Guide for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train covers alternative options that are superior strategies. The SDMT Shuffle is tense and competitive, and can set a bad tone to start the day.
Despite all of this, I was doing the SDMT Shuffle on this particular day, in part to illustrate why it doesn’t work as well as the alternatives. Anyway, the crowd started shuffling shortly after 8:20 am and I was in line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train before 8:25 am. It’s common for Early Entry to start on-time at Magic Kingdom, and beginning 10 minutes early was likely the result of high crowd levels. Even then, the line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train didn’t start moving until 8:30 am.
Once in line, I was treated to a good reminder of just how stressful the SDMT Shuffle can be. Two parents near me (not pictured in the photos here) got into a heated argument, each blaming the other for how “bad” they had done to end up “so far” back in line. The thing is, this was a pretty good spot. Unless they had been at the very front of the pack to start, they were wrong. They did just fine.
It’s easy to understand how you could have the impression of poor performance, though. The crowd literally shuffles forward, with people mostly preserving their same place in the crowd…up until the line for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train forms. At that point, it’s a total free-for-all, becoming chaotic and overwhelming.
Some people make the mistake of rushing for the entrance, only to realize that the line is forming outside the attraction and winding back towards the teacups and Storybook Circus. They then chase the end of the line, which keeps getting farther away as others fill into it. This can be even more stressful for stroller drivers, I assume.
Once the line started moving, it was smooth sailing. I was on Seven Dwarfs Mine Train by 8:47 am or so.
This amounted to a ~20 minute wait, which is not bad considering that the posted wait time was about 100 minutes more than that a couple hours later. However, this was still the longest wait I had for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train all week long, and I did the attraction a half-dozen times (never using the Lightning Lane). All things considered, a decent-enough option if Seven Dwarfs Mine Train is a must-do and you have (literally) no better options, or want to do it repeatedly during your trip. Still not my recommended approach.
By the time I made it over to Peter Pan’s Flight, it was around 8:55 am and the posted wait time was already 60 minutes.
These posted wait times are almost never accurate, but it was a busy day (and relatively late into Early Entry), so I wasn’t going to just get in line without doing some legwork.
So I headed over to the side of the attraction to see if the line was spilling out of the interactive indoor queue, and it was.
Between this and that Genie+ guests would soon start showing up at the Lightning Lane return, this was a no-go for me. The posted wait time was probably inflated, but not by that much. Given the Lightning Lane to standby ratios I had experienced over the course of this week, my guess is that this was at least a 45 minute wait. Too long for Peter Pan’s Flight.
Instead, I joined the modest crowd that had gathered for rope drop by Columbia Harbour House. This immediately started moving–a few minutes before 9 am.
If you’re heading to Haunted Mansion (bad idea) or Frontierland, this is a good spot for rope drop. It’s less ideal for Adventureland, but my alternative would’ve been doubling back through the hub to approach from Main Street, and I didn’t have time for that. This would have to suffice.
As Jungle Cruise continues to command long waits, there’s been a definite shift in crowd distribution, with more an increasing number of guests heading towards Adventureland. It’s currently the #4 wait at Magic Kingdom (pretty typical), with an average posted standby time of 69 minutes.
Between that high number and the fact that Frontierland is down a headliner while Splash Mountain is reimagined into Tiana’s Bayou Adventure, thereby pushing a disproportionate number of guests to Big Thunder, starting in Adventureland is the obvious option.
Don’t let that long queue fool you; the line was “stacked” outside the attraction because the interior queue had not yet opened. I saw multiple guests see this line and immediately head elsewhere. That’s a mistake.
I ended up being on Jungle Cruise by 9:20 am, which amounted to a wait of just over 20 minutes. (I don’t remember the precise time I arrived, but the queue opened at ~8:59 am.) I forgot to take a photo, but the Jungle Cruise queue was entirely inside the attraction’s front entrance at this point, despite the line being significantly longer.
My next stop was Frontierland.
The above photo is after I got off the attraction, at which point the posted wait time was 60 minutes. My posted wait time was 20 minutes, and my actual wait time was 25 minutes. That 60 minute posted time was likely accurate given the degree to which the queue was full and Lightning Lane returns. The closure of Splash Mountain has definitely had a big impact on crowds back in this corner. I’d probably recommend most people save Big Thunder until night now (it’s better after dark, anyway).
Pirates of the Caribbean was next up–another 20 minute posted wait time at around 10 am.
On less-crowded days, Pirates would still be a walk-on around this time. Instead, I waited pretty close to 20 minutes for the attraction. If I recall correctly, the posted wait was 45 minutes when I exited.
Waits only continued to build from there, with rope drop quickly transitioning to normal crowds. The 10 am to 11 am hour is a good time to knock out things like meet & greets and minor attractions that can have long waits later, like the TTA PeopleMover (my favorite) or Astro Orbiter (objectively better choice).
All told, here’s what I accomplished between 8:30 am and ~10:30 am via Early Entry and regular rope drop at Magic Kingdom:
- Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
- Jungle Cruise
- Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
- Pirates of the Caribbean
- TTA PeopleMover
Nothing necessarily went wrong here, but I do not consider this a good morning at Magic Kingdom or a satisfying use of my time. Keep in mind that this is not just 2 hours–it’s more like 2 hours and 45 minutes. It’s only appropriate to add the 45 minutes in advance that I arrived (but not the transportation time, as that’d be required regardless) and waited around for Early Entry to start.
The other problem here is that, after doing these 4 headliners, every other high-profile attraction had a posted wait time of at least 45 minutes. Many were significantly higher. As a result, following a standby strategy like our 1-Day Magic Kingdom Itinerary, would’ve been an uphill battle until wait times started subsiding in the evening.
This is why we highly recommend using Genie+ at Magic Kingdom. I know I’ve said this countless times, but it bears reiterating. Magic Kingdom is the best park for Genie+ at Walt Disney World, and it is the worst park for Early Entry and rope drop. If you only purchase Genie+ for one day of your entire trip, it should be at Magic Kingdom. (See Best Time-Saving Strategies at Walt Disney World for the ideal options at each of the 4 parks.)
Buying Genie+ also enables you to have a more laid back start to Early Entry at Magic Kingdom. The reason we have done rope drop and Early Entry so many times is because it’s a great time of day in the park. I love the golden light glistening (well, not on this particular day!) on the spotless handrails and reflecting on the freshly-watered flowers, all while the park is relatively quiet and the weather is more pleasant than it’ll be later in the day.
There’s something to be said for simply being there. Enjoying the beauty of a polished park waking up for the morning is truly special, and downright magical. It’s a fantastic time for family photos set against the backdrop of a nearly-empty park, and the memory you have of those will be far superior to that of doing the SDMT Shuffle!
Ultimately, we still recommend taking advantage of Early Entry at Magic Kingdom. Even though it’s the “worst” park for Early Entry from and objective perspective and is more crowded due to the later starting time, it’s still a great time to enjoy the atmosphere of Magic Kingdom and accomplish a few attractions. So long as you avoid the SDMT Shuffle, it’s a great way to start your day in Walt Disney World’s flagship park.
If you’re skipping Genie+ for whatever reason, Early Entry at Magic Kingdom is downright essential. If you follow savvy strategy in Fantasyland or Tomorrowland and pair that with traditional rope drop for Adventureland and Frontierland, you can have a solid start to your morning at Magic Kingdom. Even with high crowd levels, it is possible to accomplish a decent amount and avoid higher wait times later in the day if you simply start early, pace yourself, and stay late. If you want additional strategy for the starting your day at the other three parks, check out our Guide to Early Theme Park Entry at Walt Disney World.
Planning a Walt Disney World trip? Learn about hotels on our Walt Disney World Hotels Reviews page. For where to eat, read our Walt Disney World Restaurant Reviews. To save money on tickets or determine which type to buy, read our Tips for Saving Money on Walt Disney World Tickets post. Our What to Pack for Disney Trips post takes a unique look at clever items to take. For what to do and when to do it, our Walt Disney World Ride Guides will help. For comprehensive advice, the best place to start is our Walt Disney World Trip Planning Guide for everything you need to know!
YOUR THOUGHTS
Thoughts on Early Entry at Magic Kingdom? Have you experienced this 30 minute jumpstart to the day at Magic Kingdom? What’s your preferred approach to Early Entry and traditional park opening/rope drop at Magic Kingdom? How would you have done things differently? Any other feedback on arriving early to the Walt Disney World theme parks? Agree or disagree with our advice or approach? 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!
We believed Tom’s warning about the SDMT Shuffle and zigged to Tomorrowland for our early entry on 4/10. Big kid went to space mountain and little kids walked onto Buzz Lightyear, and we were headed to Adventureland for park open by 9 am. Seeing the wait time in Jungle Cruise climbing past 45 min as we crossed the bridge, we zagged again to walk onto Haunted Mansion followed by a <20 min Thunder Mountain. This left enough time for dumplings and citrus swirl before our 10:40 Genie+ at Peter Pan. We then had a leisurely midday of shows and parade, plus a Tron return time, and picked up our Jungle Cruise and Meet Mickey Genie+ reservations after a very filling supper at Liberty Tree. Truly not bad for a post-Easter week day I would say! Thanks for your recommendations Tom!
Oh! Meant to add: if our little kids hadn’t been so wiped I could easily see how we could have spent the remaining time until fireworks taking advantage of the plummeting wait times at things like Pirates and Little Mermaid, and maybe had a shot at SDMT after fireworks. Maybe my lack of disappointment at missing SDMT is due to us having rode it on a previous trip 2 years ago, but I still feel like we did really well!
O had to!laugh when you described double st riders used asxa,battering ram. There is a,reason why in the Society grid Creative Anachronism call.them “chariots of war.”
Hey Tom, I’m actually excited to be going to MK solo beg of May and I don’t do any coasters so I am hopeful with early entry and hitting Fantasyland headliners first and then heading over to rope drop for Haunted Mansion will work perfect for me. Excited to try it since I am always with others who ride coasters and am helping them strategize and get on what they want to ride. I will be using your method minus trying to get on coasters and feel it will work perfectly!
Stephanie, This used to be the situation (someone please correct me if I’m wrong and my apologies if I am) but Early Entry at Magic Kingdom is limited to Fantasyland and Tomorrowland. Hence one would spend the first half hour at either Fantasyland or Tomorrowland and then wait (if not open) and go through the entrance to Liberty Square (beside the Peter Pan ride) at 9:00 AM when they start letting people into Liberty Square (at regular park opening time).
This is a realistic on-site morning at MK.
A quick note about strollers and 7DMT. Stroller parking can really throw the “shuffle” to the ride queue off. It’s not obvious where to put your stroller in the morning and there isn’t always a cast member there to park it for you. If you are flying solo w young kids who can’t stand on line by themselves, you will lose most of the early advantage trying to find the stroller spot. I recommend ditching the stroller at teacups, scooping the kids up and rejoining the shuffle from there. (Or skip this entirely and do a different ride first.)
I’ve clearly missed it if discussed elsewhere…why is rope-dropping Haunted Mansion a bad idea, Tom?
I wish Disney resort, pass holders, and DVC people, could get more time! Having an extra HOUR vs 1/2 hour for early entry would really help. It really would bring the stress level down!
When we want to ride the SDMT before the end of the night, early entry works best for us. It is a little crazy for sure, but that queue is usually hot and uncomfortable most of the day so knocking it out first thing is worth it. (Plus, it’s a great ride with a great photo to start a fun day.) We usually all go to the back of the queue first (to show the people behind us our whole party is there so they don’t think we have line jumpers later) and then someone will head to the coffee kiosk past the Teacups to get drinks. The timing usually works out really well.
1. That’s actually a fantastic point about the on-ride photo. My end of night ones often make it look like I’m having a miserable time, when in reality, I’m just tired.
2. Also a good tip about sending a runner to grab coffee. I always make a cup in the room while showering and take it to the bus stop with me, but I’m ready for a second cup by that time!
“This photo report shares our step-by-step strategy for starting at Seven Dwarfs Mine Train … Early Entry began at 8:30 am”
No, Tom! That’s how horror movies ramp up, with an obvious mistake! Don’t reopen a camp at Crystal Lake, and don’t go for Seven Dwarfs Mine Train if Early Entry doesn’t start before 8 am! Seriously, thanks for confirming that it still doesn’t work well. Is the link that follows your most recent take on Early Entry at the Magic Kingdom suggestions?
https://www.disneytouristblog.com/magic-kingdom-early-entry-morning-versus-genie-plus/
LOL!
Yeah, that post offers the best/most comprehensive strategy for Early Entry at Magic Kingdom. Obviously, remove Splash Mountain and move up Jungle Cruise; otherwise, it should be solid. (I need to convince Sarah to help me redo that so we have dueling approaches that are confirmed as accurate for 2023.)
Thanks Tom. Really hoping for earlier opening times at MK this summer. Any chance you can write an article or series about strategies for offsite guests? With the plethora of rental homes available, I imagine a lot more families and large parties are visiting from offsite, including my large party later this summer. Early arrival and rope dropping always helps but any other strategies specific to offsite guests, including park-hopping strategies and nighttime spectacular strategies, would be really helpful!
As always, your articles are well-written and chockful of useful tips and insights. Many thanks!!
Your best bet is going to be the standard Walt Disney World itineraries: https://www.disneytouristblog.com/disney-park-itineraries/ I’d also recommend looking at the half-day plans, which I sometimes title as “afternoon arrival” (those can be found via search…assuming it’s working).
Beyond that, I’d definitely recommend Genie+ for MK for the reasons discussed here, and probably Genie+ for DHS. That paired with an afternoon arrival will allow you to get a ton accomplished. Regular strategy should mostly work fine for Animal Kingdom and EPCOT. Good luck!
As mentioned by Tom when rope dropping SDMT, when the rope drops, unless you are at the front of the line, trot towards SDMT but steering to the right to reach the fence. This way you will join the back of the line as it grows from the entrance to SDMT and be in it when it reaches you without having to to race back to catch the end of the line. eg at rope drop people rush to the front entry of SDMT and the end of the line starts building towards the right along the fence from the main entry to SDMT. In that mad moment, as the line builds along the fence I’ve seen people line jump into the queue (I don’t like line jumpers) and this is the only time I’ve seen it happen during this moment and most people are okay with it. If you get into this initial build up you should be good. This is what happens if they don’t let people into the ride right at rope drop and stop them right at the main entry. This is what I do in case they don’t let people into SDMT right away.
Exactly this.
I’d say at least 25% of guests make this mistake when doing the SDMT Shuffle. It’s too bad that there’s no ‘system’ for this attraction like there is Avatar Flight of Passage. That is so much smoother and less-stressful of a process, despite being where almost everyone goes first thing at DAK!
I don’t know what line you were in – but to me early entry for Magic Kingdom is a huge FARCE! My family and I arrived before 8am on March 31 to the main entrance of WDW main entrance. Went through the special line to be scanned proving we were resort guests ONLY to be stopped by a ROPE way before entering Fantasyland on a bridge by the castle. There we waited, no where near any ride, until a rope drop at 8:30. We had to maneuver a stroller around numerous other guests rushing to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. On we went passing the tea cups, Winnie the Pooh and carousel ride running to Peter Pan. Of course we had to park the stroller by the carousel since there was no parking any closer to Peter Pan and Its a Small World. By the time we arrived to Peter Pan at 8:40 there was a 50 MINUTE WAIT! Our stupid Genie + pass had us waiting until 9:45 for Jungle Cruise so off we went to Dumbo and Barnstormer which required a no wait line. As we went on those rides with my 2 year old granddaughter, we quickly changed our Genie + ride to Peter Pan at 11am. Of course by that time our 2 year old was over tired and cranky. Instead my daughter and son-in-law rode Peter Pan as I calmed my granddaughter down and she napped.
Early entry for families with young children is a total waste of energy as well as Genie +. I don’t understand Disney having rope drop before the rides in Fantasyland. In addition buying Genie + and NOT be allowed to ride Peter Pan again early in the evening is ROBBERY! You pay big bucks for this stupid luxury only to be told you can ride ONLY once a day!
Genie+ and resort guest early entry is only good for families with older children where you are not restricted by tired little ones or senior citizen guests. If you have either in your family – relax and just expect to walk around and possibly enjoy a ride here and there. Don’t give Disney any more of your money than absolutely necessary to get into the park. Bring plenty of cold water, cooling towels and food.
“I don’t know what line you were in – but to me early entry for Magic Kingdom is a huge FARCE!”
I’m sorry your day went so badly, but you make it sound like my report was glowing or your experience was completely at odds with mine. As far as Early Entry goes, it sounds pretty similar to me.
Sorry Tom but my frustration over Disney’s system. My remark made it sound as if I didn’t understand your experience at Magic Kingdom. On the contrary – I realize your day didn’t go as planned. I was just confused how you were able to get to the rides prior to 8:30, when our rope dropped at 8:30.
Early Entry is as you explained – a wonderful experience to leisurely walk down Main St. and take in the beauty of the park. However, if guests are there strictly to get on as many rides as possible before regular opening – its not easy and they mosy likely will be disappointed.
I still believe Disney Corp has made a system that sounds great but is a “farce”.
No worries, Joyce! 🙂 Just wanted to make sure we were on the same page and my article didn’t come across as praise for Early Entry at Magic Kingdom, as that was not intended!