Disney World Makes Early Morning Upcharge Option Official

April 6, 2016, 9:41 AM · Walt Disney World this morning officially unveiled the "Disney Early Morning Magic" we told you about last month.

For $69 per adult and $59 per child (ages 3 through 9) — on top of required park admission — you get an hour and 15 minutes of early admission to Fantasyland, where three rides will be open: Seven Dwarfs Mine Train, Peter Pan's Flight and the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. The price also includes a buffet breakfast at the Village Haus, including Mickey waffles, scrambled eggs, pastries, and such.

If you time it right and position yourself well, the early admission also gives you the ability to get a head start in walking to other popular attractions, such as Space Mountain and the Princess Fairytale Hall meet and greet, ahead of other guests entering the park. Tickets are available on Disney's website.

Disney also recently introduced an after-hours upcharge event, if you prefer to extend your day in the parks in the evening rather than the morning. Both events run on days when Extra Magic Hours for Disney's hotel guests are not offered.

Throw in the new preferred parking option, and Disney surveying guests about resort fees in its hotels, and Disney's theme park division clearly is accelerating its efforts to maximize revenue from its customers in advance of opening several new attractions that ought to draw more visitors to the resort, including a Frozen-themed ride in Epcot's Norway pavilion, a new "Soarin'" movie in Epcot's Land pavilion, a Star Wars-themed fireworks show at Disney's Hollywood Studios, the now-delayed Rivers of Light show at Disney's Animal Kingdom and next year's Avatar land in Animal Kingdom. And, of course, new Toy Story and Star Wars lands are on the horizon at the Studios park, too.

Replies (18)

April 6, 2016 at 10:11 AM · For the price, I would expect bacon and sausage, not just scrambled eggs, and I would also expect the entire land to be open, not just three rides.
April 6, 2016 at 12:08 PM · Is this a joke? Just for Fantasy Land? Utter nonsense.
April 6, 2016 at 12:32 PM · The price should include a few extra fastpasses for not including more attractions. And they should give you a nice parting gift.
April 6, 2016 at 1:49 PM · I feel SO BAD for the third shift team members. Imagine how difficult it will be to complete all the needed cleaning and repair that must be done in fewer and fewer hours a week. I predict that before the end of the summer Disney will begin seeing a drop in guest satisfaction scores based on quality and condition of the attractions that are participating in the early opening and late closing events.

Hate to break it to you, but all the Disney Princesses in the world assisted by all the helpful woodland creatures that can be summoned by a song can't take up the slack of the human
custodial and maintenance teams.

April 6, 2016 at 2:46 PM · I like the option but a little to expensive for me to just jump up and do it
April 6, 2016 at 4:29 PM · 172.88.247.221 If you actually go to Disney's web site then you'd learn that the breakfast does include smoked bacon, pork and turkey sausages, cheese and cured meats, and more.

I'm the type of person who is interested in and willing to pay for up-charge experiences with exclusive offerings. However, this is outrageously expensive and there is no way I would consider it.

What I don't understand is the article here states that it is only 1 hour and 15 minutes. However, according to Disney the separate ticketed event takes place on Tuesdays and Saturdays from 7:45 AM to 10:00 AM, which is two hours and 15 minutes.

An hour and 15 minutes for attractions, plus breakfast is not enough time for this price point.

So I guess we can conclude that Magic Kingdom will not be opening at 10:00 am on Tuesdays and Saturdays while this is taking place.

Lastly, Rob McCullough, the 3rd shift crew is finished by the time this event starts. If anything this will give them an extra hour to handle things for the rest of the park.

April 6, 2016 at 5:22 PM · 3 rides, 1hr and a basic breakfast.

A fool and his money....

April 6, 2016 at 5:29 PM · People will pay it...
April 6, 2016 at 7:09 PM · I'd just like to point out that, while expensive, the price of this experience is not that much higher than some of the character meals at the resort (particularly Cinderella's Royal Table), includes a fairly decent breakfast buffet (according to the menu on Disney's site), and allows visitors to clear up at least two Fastpass+ slots for other attractions. Granted, we don't know how many people Disney lets in per day yet...the three rides have a combined capacity of about 3,700 guests per hour, so if the experience was limited to, say, 500, you could potentially get 2 rides on each attraction and enjoy breakfast before the hordes arrive. It's not for everyone, but if I was staying off-site during a busy period and only had one day for Magic Kingdom I'd definitely give this offer some consideration.
April 7, 2016 at 1:37 AM · I am a Disney fan. I love it. This is absolutely a choice for people who want to do it and can afford it. This to me looks a better deal than the night time paid hours. Potentially you can maximise the rest of your day with this - be at Space/Splash for park opening to get another major ride done etc etc. It could work.

But. When is enough enough?

April 7, 2016 at 7:36 AM · It is interesting how similar this is to Universal Orlando's early park admission for it's Harry Potter sections. This was included for resort guests and certain guests of other specific partners of Universal, but I don't believe you could ever buy the early access. You just got into the parks early and the only thing that was open was the Harry Potter attractions and a couple rides you would walk past (Seuss stuff in Islands and Despicable me or Shrek in Studios i believe) depending on the park.

I'm kinda in the boat with Kelly that this is a thing I'd probably buy for my family as it seems valuable to me. Maybe I got a good deal on a hotel room in Orlando that isn't on WDW property and maybe I have my own car or a rental and plan on checking out other things in central Florida (like a grandparent). If the tickets are truely limited then we'd have some awesome quality time and a breakfast to start our day!

Granted, for the price of these tickets, I might have just blown all the savings I made being a Theme Park Insider.

See what I did there? ;)

April 7, 2016 at 7:59 AM · On the surface, the idea of getting a few extra hours in the park is exciting. On the other hand, the basic cost would be $254 for our family before tax. That seems quite extreme for that short of a window.
April 7, 2016 at 11:37 AM · This is a brilliant business move by Disney. Offer the customers another option to enjoy a very popular area of the Magic Kingdom without detracting from the experience of the patrons who are not interested in paying the upcharge - what's not to like about this scenario?
April 7, 2016 at 11:44 AM · @70.114.216.71 it does state the event is 7:45 to 10:00, but as the regular guests arrive at 9:00 meaning only 1hr 15 of exclusive ride time. But as breakfast runs through to 10:00 the event finishes then. Realistically if you are paying for the event you won't want to be eating 9-10am and missing out on rides with short waits.
April 8, 2016 at 10:19 AM · I think this is outrageously priced given that you will only have access to a few rides and a meat-eaters breakfast - with only a couple of hours allotted. That being said, I think if the price were even 25% cheaper, hoards of parkgoers would pay. Perhaps this is crowd control - keeping the fool index at a controllable number.
April 10, 2016 at 6:31 AM · Better be careful Disney or the government will step in and start regulating your fees.
April 10, 2016 at 9:31 AM · 3 rides is not enough, should be more to spread the crowds, what if those 3 rides are packed or heaven forbids one of them breaks down?
April 12, 2016 at 12:41 PM · Calling this a brilliant move is going to far.

For a similar price one can purchase a ticket to the Christmas or Halloween party and get the entire park with minimal wait times, plus added entertainment and free snacks.

What this add-on does is add more incentive to stay off-property. Why pay for over priced, on-property lodging when you can pay for the perks you receive with that lodging. Besides if you're actually going to Magic Mornings and Extra Magic Hours in the evening then you're making a huge error. That's what everyone staying on property does, making the added hours insanely crowded.

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