EEMH Smuggler Run Touring Plan - Feedback?

Liners: My trip is coming up late Sept/Early Oct. I origingally planned this trip around the transition from Illuminations to Epcot Forever, then SWGE’s early opening complicated things–in a good way!. Gondolas are an additional bonus!

From what I can gather from the data so far, it looks like if I’d like to get a couple runs in for MFSR (is that going to be the acronym?) during EEMH, the best strategy is going to be rope drop, then a little before 9am? I’m pretty good at being near the start of a rope drop line (and family reluctantly agrees too), so should be good on the first one. Then, it seems the waits drop until just before general opening.

Tricky bit is I’m counting on a couple runs of Star Tours in between those two MFSR runs, so means exiting SWGE and coming back in again all during EEMH. I don’t think that is a big deal.

I’m VERY curious to see how this trip goes with EEMH across all parks. I’m cautiously hopeful it is going to be great for short lines at least in the mornings. I’ve been watching “live” wait times the past couple weeks which have been great. The question is how much to blame Dorian I guess.

will

Ive been obsessively checking wait times and your strategy sounds good. wait times across all eemh parks have been crazy low
of course predicted crowd levels were low and actual crowds even lower. I assume TP factors in wait times during eemh for actual crowd levels. I read on another blog that yes, wait times will surely pick up in october, but eemh should continue to see low wait times during eemh…people don’t want to get up that early

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I am so hopeful that the crowds stay low for those EEMH too.

Me too! Checking WDW wait times has become part of my daily morning ritual!

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As with most WDW mornings, the earlier you get there the better. People are reporting doing every ride in DHS, some rides multiple times, before 9am.

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Thank you all. Sounds like at least the theory is good. Hopefully practice will at least be close. Yes, it would be cool to get essentially everything done by 9am! Given the early start that day, I actually do have our first ever mid-day nap time scheduled. This after nearly a couple decades of going every 3-4 years.

will

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I have gone to EEMH the last 2 days at HS. I did not get there for rope drop either day and still had plenty of time to ride MF 3 times each day. Our strategy was to let the initial rush get thru then ride. On Saturday 9/14 posted wait times were for the most part 30 minutes but we never waited more than 15mins. On Sunday the posted wait time was 40-50 mins but we waited closer to 35 for the one time we used standby. After that we just used single rider, waited about 20 mins.

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galuchies: Thanks for the “on the ground” report! I can only hope the crowds are as nice as you report by the time we get there, but even if the are a little higher, I’d be very happy with those waits even a bit longer.

Given the general consensus on the very initial wait being the longest, I am thinking if we are not near the very head of the rope drop crowd, maybe the backup plan is to go on Star Tours first while that rush percolates through. Only a backup plan though, I still hope we’ll be near the front. We’re at Pop Century, so polling to see when they post the gondola operating hours to ensure they’ll support a “head of the RD line” arrival time. Car is a backup if needed.

will

If you want another “on the ground” report, check out www.easywdw.com. They’ve been going to EEMH almost everyday, at all of the parks, and blogging about it. Here’s there report from one of there trips to DHS this week…

https://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/rope-dropping-slinky-dog-dash-at-disneys-hollywood-studios-during-extra-extra-magic-hours/

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Thanks darkmite2! I must confess my knowledge of websites/blogs isn’t extensive, so didn’t know about that one. There is a lot of good reading there. This is starting to get my hopes up even more! I should be careful. On my list of things to set expectations was if we’d be arriving before sunrise and the pictures clearly answer that question and mornings will keep getting darker until DST ends well after our trip. I’ve experienced sunset on Expedition Everest which I thought was really cool, nice to see pictures of sunrise on Slinky Dog Dash!

will

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Based on your experience, would it be crazy to go directly to TSL and ride those three rides and meet some characters and then head to SWGE?

Not at all. I would do SDD and TSM. Then go to SWGE. Not sure how long the character waits would be.

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This is exactly what I plan on doing. All of TSL rides, TSL characters, Olaf and mickey then do Star Wars…

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Ick, new conflict of interest. It looks like the Skyliner doesn’t start operating until 5:45am. That means no “head of the line” rope dropping if I use the Skyliner. Now, need to decide which is more important, Skyliner or “head of the line”. Not a fun choice.

will

Did you find a schedule anywhere other WDWNT page? I have looked and looked for it anywhere else and find nothing. I found a lot of things that says it will depend on opening times, but that the schedule would be on Disney’s website and MDE when it opened.

suemarie19: Nope, that is all I have found so far. Seems like they should have something official posted somewhere on the Disney site by now (it opens tomorrow), but no luck yet. I’m not a super-sleuther for web searching though (just Google), so it may be there somewhere and I just can’t see it. I arrive tomorrow (29th), so will go ask folk in person the night before to see what the scoop is. I’ll try to post it before going to bed early. Given we have to get up at 4am for 6am rope drop, it needs to be early to bed! :slight_smile:

will

I was watching the day they posted it, and they had a hard time getting it together so it was understandable. I think they heard “dependent on park hours” and made up a potential schedule. I really hope that an official schedule will take things like early breakfasts into account after EEMH is over as well as starting early enough to be there and ready to start at opening times whenever they are. :slight_smile: