12:00 - 3:00 AM Extra Magic Hours?

[Shawn]

We are going to be at Disney World Dec 17-24th this year. I notice that the Magic Kingdom has Extra Magic hours from 12:00 - 3:00 AM on Monday morning. Does anyone have any experience with such a middle of the night EM hours? Is this correct or is it a misprint? How crowded is it? Is it worth doing the EM hours in the middle of the night and sleeping in the next day?
The calendar with the info is at:

http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/calendars/

-Shawn

 

[adminjedi]

We do EMs to 3AM quite often, but that is during the summer. I don't recall parks staying open that late in the winter.
We find that it may be busy the first hour and then the crowd really thins.

 

[KAT4DISNEY]

Yes, I'd say that info is correct.

We've done a couple of 2AM EMH's. One was this past Nov. In general it's a very good time to do rides although you might be surprised at how many people are there until the last couple of hours! The only bad part is that transportation is greatly reduced by closing time and you will most likely be on a bus that is stopping at multiple resorts to get you back "home".

 

[Shawn]

thanks folks ....

 

[Sammie]

We have done them many times during the summer. Have no idea what the crowds will be that week, but they stayed busy until the last hour during the summer. If you stay until they close it will be close to 4am but the time you are in bed.

During the summer the weather is wonderful that time of night, early morning, I would think the week of Christmas it is going to be getting chilly.

 

[JAG107]

Bring a jacket. We did it one year during presidents weekend, was surprisingly busy til after 1 or 1:30, then the lines went away and you could do just about anything.

 

[aan1701]

I did it last Oct. by 1:30 the pl;ace was empty. I got on like 10 rides in the last hour in a half. I wasd at AKL so it was a stright shot back to the resort with no other stops. as a matter of fact I was the only one on the bus.

 

[bobbiwoz]

We go to the MK on December 30, for the fireworks and then we leave and it isn't a mass exodus! That's one of the days that the MK is open unitl 3AM, and it seems that most people stay at least for a bit.

 

[Brownieone]

We'll be there from Dec 27-Jan 1 and plan to do these hours in moderation.

Pros: 1. Empty park; 2. More rides.

Cons: 1. Much colder...last year I thought was brutal; 2. Screw up our sleep schedule and prevent us from hitting parks early in AM when crowds are also less (but it is daylight).

We tend to avoid the parks when we don't do the Magic Hours in the afternoons, when it is crowded.

 

[MinnieGi]

If you have teens, I think it will work great...however in Dec. it could be very chilly!!!

I'll tell you though I thought late night EMH was more crowded than a standard closing with no EMH. For instance DD and I went over to MK and walked through the gates right at 9:00 pm with a midnight closing. We walked on many rides and others were little wait. This was during T-day week when during the day and early evening the parks were packed. In comparison earlier that same week DD was just begging to do the MK EMH so the two of us went over around 11:00 and the park was still so packed. We left about 1:00 am and it was still very crowded. Now I guess if you stay for the full tilt till 3:00 am it does get empty. But we had way better luck going later on a regular night. We also have great luck being there for rd - we're way ahead of the crowd!!