Here is our EMM report from today, Sunday February 4.
We had a group of 3 and had been unable to secure tickets for months. However, as yesterday was the 1 day cancellation deadline, we were able to get 3 tickets through the website!! We checked in around 7:20am and were the first ones waiting to enter the park on the far left side.
First, a small negative, and then all the rest is positive. People with the EMM bracelets are lumped in with the Prior to Park Opening (PPO) breakfast crowds. As a result, when there is a delay for one group, it affects the EMM bracelet holders. Rather than being let in at 7:45am, no one entered the park until 7:56am. I know that 11 minutes may seem like whining to some, but you are paying a lot of money for 75 minutes of crowd free riding, and if they open 11 minutes late, they just took around 15% of your time away.
Besides that one negative, the experience was a splurge and very worth it. We have a special needs kid who loves Pooh. So, we were able to ride Peter Pan x2, 7DMT x2, and Pooh about 7 or 8 times before rope drop. At Pooh and Peter Pan, there were times when the CMs allowed you to bypass the queue to ride again, if no one was coming up in the line. We then positioned ourselves to go to Tomorrow land at 9:00 to hit Space Mountain.
Around 9:30am, we needed some energy and went to breakfast at Pinocchio Haus. Good buffet with plenty of breakfast meats and selection of pastries and fruit. It did not feel crowded at all in the restaurant.
I agree with assessments on here that the EMM felt like a group of 200 people. The CMs strictly enforced the wrist band rule and would not allow anyone who had finished breakfast early to enter Fantasyland before 8:55am. There was a long line of people from Beauty and the Beast ready to go on 7DMT and they were allowed in the standby line around 8:55am.
At $70 per person, it was a considerable investment, and not one we will or can do often. But, it made our Pooh lovers day!
I am curious if other EMM participants have experienced delays entering the park