In this post, we review Early Morning Magic — Fantasyland, a ticketed event at Magic Kingdom that allows guests access to select Fantasyland attractions and breakfast before the park opens to regular guests. We cover everything from purchasing tickets to strategy, waits, and breakfast. Read on to learn all about Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic!
Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic Basics
I’ll start with the basics before we move on to my itinerary for the morning. (Sidenote: There used to be a Disney Early Morning Magic event in Toy Story Land, but that has been discontinued since Galaxy’s Edge opened at Hollywood Studios. We won’t be covering that here.)
What is Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic?
Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic is a ticketed event held at Magic Kingdom on select dates that allows guests to access select Fantasyland attractions for about an hour before the regular Magic Kingdom park hours. It also includes breakfast.
Like Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party, Mickey’s Not So Scary Halloween Party, and Magic Kingdom After Hours guests without an event ticket are not allowed in the park during Early Morning Magic. Unlike those events, you also need a standard park ticket to participate in Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic.
Early Morning Magic is also distinct from Magic Kingdom Extra Magic Hours. Extra Magic Hours is a perk offered to Disney hotel guests and select other guests that allows those guests exclusive access to the park on select days before open or after close. Finally, unlike any of these events, Early Morning Magic includes breakfast (more on this below).
The typical schedule for Early Morning Magic is: 7:30AM check-in begins, 7:45AM event begins, 8:00AM breakfast begins, 9:00AM park opens, 10:00AM breakfast ends. Always confirm the schedule when making your booking, as these details are always subject to change.
How much does Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic Cost?
Tickets cost $94.79 per adult (kids $10 less). Park admission for the day is also required, and to my knowledge no Disney World annual passholder or Disney Vacation Club discounts exist.
What rides are open during Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic?
Disney gives a list of attractions on the event website, but here they are: Peter Pan’s Flight, Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, “it’s a small world,” Mad Tea Party, The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Princess Fairytale Hall (typically greetings with Cinderella, Elena, Tiana, and Rapunzel), and Under the Sea. When I visited, the carrousel was also running.
You can read more about the rides of Magic Kingdom here. If you’re traveling with a little one, you’ll also want to read about height requirements at Disney World and the best rides for toddlers at Magic Kingdom. Finally, it’s worth noting that FastPass+ is neither active or necessary during Early Morning Magic.
Breakfast at Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic
Breakfast is included with Early Morning Magic. You should confirm the details on the official event website, but for our visit breakfast was served at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe (between Fantasyland and Tomorrowland) and the included items were: Scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes, pancakes, pastries, cheese and cold cuts, fruit, oatmeal, granola, yogurt, apple and orange juices, coffee and tea. I’ll talk more about the breakfast below.
Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic Dates & Times
Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic dates are announced a few weeks to months in advance and are usually two days a week. You can view the upcoming schedule here.
As noted above, the typical schedule for Early Morning Magic is: 7:30AM check-in begins, 7:45AM event begins, 8:00AM breakfast begins, 9:00AM park opens, 10:00AM breakfast ends. While the event is advertised as 7:45 AM to 10:00 AM, it’s important to break it down into these parts when planning your morning.
Buying Early Morning Magic Tickets
Early Morning Magic is a little awkward to book in that it’s more like booking a dining reservation than purchasing an event ticket. Nonetheless, as with other events you’ll pay the full amount up front at the time of booking. You’ll want to book via the Disney World website.
Tickets cost $94.79 per adult (kids $10 less). I’m not aware of any discounts. In the past the event was refundable, but that does not appear to be the case anymore. As it’s booked as a dining reservation, I don’t see any reason to check discount Disney World ticket brokers for discount tickets, but it never hurts to quickly search.
My Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic Experience
While I think this entire thrilling narrative is worth a read, I get that some of you are just here to see how much you can accomplish in a morning. Here’s what my schedule looked like:
7:15AM Arrive at Transportation and Ticket Center
7:35AM Arrive at Magic Kingdom Gates
7:46AM Allowed Into Park
7:54AM Peter Pan’s Flight
8:01AM “it’s a small world” [Recommend Fairytale Hall instead]
8:20AM Seven Dwarfs Mine Train
8:25AM The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
8:32AM Under the Sea — Journey of the Little Mermaid
8:41AM Mad Tea Party
8:48AM Prince Charming Carrousel
8:58AM Begin Rope Drop Walk to Tomorrowland
9AM Park Opens
9:08AM Space Mountain
9:18AM Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin
9:26AM Breakfast
That’s all six rides listed for the event, plus the carrousel. I didn’t greet any princesses at Fairytale Hall. And you hopefully noticed I included two rides after the park opened that were not a part of the event. Keep reading for more on that.
General Early Morning Magic Strategy
Unlike other ticketed events at Magic Kingdom, Early Morning Magic has a pretty thin attraction lineup. On a perfect day with quick feet, you could probably get everything included done during the event. My day was a little slower than perfect (“it’s a small world” took a long time), so I didn’t get the princess greetings in (truth be told I wasn’t going to do those by myself anyways).
The most important two rides are Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Peter Pan’s Flight. Getting on these rides is actually where the bulk of the value of the event comes from. If you have FastPass+ for these already, you could still do the event and swap those FastPasses for something like Big Thunder, Splash Mountain.
The next most important thing is actually not in the event, it’s regular park rope drop. Besides riding those two rides, you need to be headed to a ride that opens at 9AM. We recommend going to Space Mountain since you could also add in Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin or Astro Orbiter before breakfast from there.
Get breakfast (almost) as late as possible. I wound up going at about 9:30AM and wished I’d gotten one more ride in before it. Breakfast is served until 10AM, and I don’t think they’d kick you out. To be safe, though, it’s best to target 9:45AM rather than accidentally missing it.
My Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic Visit — Arrival & Rides
Guests of Disney hotels should have no problem getting a bus to get them to the park by 7:30AM. I was coming from a Disney Springs hotel, so I had to Uber to Transportation and Ticket Center and then take the resort monorail over—Ferryboat and Express Monorail weren’t running. I checked in and was given a wristband, my third of this trip.
Early Morning Magic guests group with breakfast reservations outside the gate, so this crowd looks bigger than it actually is for the event.
I was a little surprised we weren’t even allowed onto Main Street until 7:46AM. There were conflicting directions about where we were supposed to go, but it turned out we took the Liberty Square bridge (left side of the hub) and then walked into Fantasyland.
I went to Peter Pan’s Flight, gambling that everyone would go to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train first, and I’d let them do that and then visit it myself with no line. I only had one family in front of me, and I boarded Peter Pan’s Flight at 7:54AM with no wait.
After Peter Pan’s Flight, I debated going straight to Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, but decided instead to ride “it’s a small world” while I was there. I want to be very clear—“it’s a small world” is absolutely the lowest priority at this event.
It’s long and is easy to get same-day FastPass+ space for. If you were not me, you would substitute the Fairytale Hall princess greetings for “it’s a small world” here.
With a slow loading experience and the long ride, I was off at about 8:17AM and decided I needed to visit Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. I rode with no wait and with no one else even on my train at 8:20AM.
From there I fit in what I could before 9AM: 8:25AM The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, 8:32AM Under the Sea, 8:41AM Mad Tea Party, and 8:48AM Prince Charming Carrousel.
At 8:55AM I grabbed a spot at the entrance to Tomorrowland from Fantasyland. As I mentioned in the general strategy above, you want to take advantage of this rope drop, or you’re really not getting good value from the event. You could, alternatively, rope drop into Frontierland.
When it was time for rope drop, our group was walked to Space Mountain by a Cast Member, and we merged with the main rope drop group. This is common practice—all routes to a ride will generally be merged so no one has an advantage.
It was still better to be in Fantasyland than in the park hub, though, because this was significantly less crowded and we wound up at the very front of the group coming from the hub.
After boarding Space Mountain at 9:08AM, I tacked on Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin at 9:18AM. I would have had time for one more ride (Tomorrowland Speedway or Astro Orbiter would have been good), but I headed to breakfast.
My Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic Visit — Breakfast
Breakfast was at Cosmic Ray’s Starlight Cafe (in Tomorrowland, adjacent to Fantasyland). There were basically two service stations.
At the counter, you could get a “hot plate” with scrambled eggs, potatoes, pancakes, bacon, and sausage. I asked for a plate with no bacon and sausage and was quickly given one. Plenty of people had other requests—extra bacon, no potatoes, etc. You also got your beverage (orange juice, apple juice, and coffee were the readily available options I saw).
The toppings bar was transformed basically into a continental breakfast self service station. This is where all the fruit, pastries, cheese, cold cuts, oatmeal, and yogurt was.
Everything was unlimited. I put together a pretty decent meal and hung out until 10:15AM. They were serving food until 10AM and there were two families still eating when I left.
Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic Conclusions
As with Magic Kingdom After Hours, which I visited a few nights before, I was impressed with how low crowds were during my event. It’s possible this was due to “off” season, or people being over at Hollywood Studios for Rise of the Resistance opening, which is partly why you should always consult more than one review of an event.
I was also pretty happy with breakfast. It isn’t fancy, but I had a much better meal than when I was at Be Our Guest for breakfast a few days ago. All-you-can-eat is pretty great, and with this pretty basic menu you know exactly what you’re getting.
So just by what it offered, I did enjoy the event, so much that I think I’ll plan to do it again sometime. But let’s get a little more into the details, including price.
Is Magic Kingdom Early Morning Magic Worth It?
I structure this post to answer this question last because hopefully I’ve helped you come to a conclusion about it already. But if not, I’m happy to help a little more.
I paid $94.79 for this event. I’d value that breakfast at a strong $20. A quick service breakfast and coffee is probably more like $17, but I felt like I really filled up. That leaves about $75 of value (per person) to find.
It’s worth mentioning that breakfast can actually be a hinderance, too. If your family would typically have an early breakfast before coming to the park, dedicating 30 minutes (or more) of park time is maybe not ideal.
Breakfast being what it is, let’s talk about how Early Morning Magic impacts your ride strategies and how to value that. To start, keep in mind that with the right Magic Kingdom FastPass+ strategy and a good complementary Magic Kingdom rope drop strategy, you’ll usually be able to put together a wonderful day. You can also get some help with your day via Magic Kingdom Extra Magic Hours.
But there are four ways I find value in this event that you’ll want to consider when evaluating it.
First, you’ll be walking onto Peter Pan’s Flight and Seven Dwarfs Mine Train. Those are tough to get good FastPass+ times for, and they tend to carry long waits throughout the day. I’d throw Fairytale Hall in with these two, too, for most families. If you’re staying at a hotel with Extra Magic Hours (Disney hotels and select other hotels), then you’ll get similar benefit from that perk in this regard.
Second, you’ll cover Fantasyland without worrying about FastPass+ tap / grab / modify. If you’ve ever read our one-day Magic Kingdom plan or any of our trip report days at Magic Kingdom, they follow the same pattern that involves riding Mad Tea Party, Winnie the Pooh, Under the Sea, and “it’s a small world” using FastPass+ in the middle of the day.
If you’re less inclined to keep your face buried in your phone FastPass hunting, or if you just don’t want to learn the details of the FastPass+ system, then this event is a great way to cover a chunk of rides that you’d otherwise wind up waiting 20 to 40 minutes for most days.
Third, a family with only small children would be able to visit Magic Kingdom in a half-day with this event…but do you really want to do that? Personally, I think a great full day at Magic Kingdom is a near perfect theme park experience. You could probably leave by 1PM, but you’d also probably wind up skipping a lot of shows and the nighttime firework show.
Fourth, this event was wonderfully stress free. I’m closing with this because it’s maybe the most amorphous point here, but it really meant something to me.
I do this for a living, so I’m very rarely stressed by a visit to Walt Disney World, by rope drop, or by trying to fit every ride into the day. I routinely book FastPass+ reservations a day in advance, for example.
But this trip had been quite long and—thanks to Rise of the Resistance—filled with 4AM to midnight days and 35,000+ steps each day. By the end, I was probably about as stressed and worn as I Imagine the average guest trying to plan a great family trip is.
And in that regard, this event was really an oasis. I can’t speak to crowds every day (so you should definitely read other reviews), but with the low crowds during my visit, I wasn’t dealing with any pushing/shoving or any long ride waits.
Starting with walking right onto Peter Pan’s Flight (I do think Mine Train may have been a stressor had I started there), I really had a completely peaceful morning thereafter. The straightforward all-you-can-eat breakfast in a pretty empty restaurant was the icing on the cake.
I took me a few days thinking about this review to really figure out why I felt like this event could be worth it, but that’s really it. It cuts the stress of a day at Magic Kingdom probably in half, and it’s just a wonderful way to get the day off to a great start.
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