MK and EPCOT - different at night?

[MichiganDVC]

On a different post, I was responding to the concept of Avatarland at AK at night. I was about to write about parks during the day and at night, but thought I would bring it to my own thread:

Does anyone else consider Magic Kingdom to be actually two different parks? the daytime park and the nighttime park? Same with Epcot...

Whenever I get to MK at rope drop (its rare) and get to experience the 9am park, everything I do is a completely different experience than when I get there at 7pm and stay til close. Even riding the same rides are different: Jungle Cruise, Dumbo, BTMRR, WedWay PM, Railroad etc... Different meals, different paths, different goals. Different park!

 

[Bellamouse]

I have never been to MK at night (EVER!), so this year I told DH that I want to see MK at night! Never saw Wishes from inside the park and have never seen the parade at night. I am betting it will be a very different experience.

We don't have kids, so we only typically do a half day at MK, and always the morning/early afternoon half....

 

[jrtoastyman]

MK is 100% a different park at night -- I greatly prefer it at night, actually. Big Thunder Mountain is a dramatically better ride at night, too!

EPCOT is a bit weird for me, because I just realized that I pretty much always spend the evenings there in WS. Don't know that I've ever spent any meaningful time in FW during the evening, apart from passing through and maybe riding SE on the way out. For that reason, I kinda think of EPCOT day and night as being different -- daytime is FW, nighttime is WS.

 

[ibcrazie4dizney]

never really thought about it. we are one of those families that gets there for rope drop and stays til closing. so we see day and night. I think what I like most about mk at night(other than not as hot!) is seeing all the lights. somehow they make it seem even more magical to me. jungle cruise and haunted mansion seem aliitle scarier at night. same with epcot, just love seeing everything lit up.feel like evenings are more of a stroll and relaxed compared to hustling days. years ago, when we bought our house, I sat out back and looked into the woods that are behind my fenced in yard. there were a lot of lightening bugs flickering in the trees. I was so excited, I told my non=Disney fan of a husband, it is magical just like Disney!! he didn't; get it, but I enjoy it every summer.

 

[dwheaton]

Definitely. MK is different because rides like Splash, Jungle Cruise, and BTMRR feel like different experiences. For EPCOT, I just love walking around there at night. If I lived in Orlando, the one place that I could visit without doing any rides and not grow tired of would be EPCOT. Part of it is the wide spaces; you can actually breathe there, and that's refreshing when you're hitting the end of a park day.

 

[excitedfamof4]

Hubby and I LOVE Epcot at night! I think it had something to do with the frozen margaritas in Mexico! Maybe we will have to pull ourselves away from there next time to see MK at night! I am sure it is beautiful!

 

[BlueStarryHat]

I find Epcot to be very dark at night. No, I don't mean dark because it's nighttime, I mean dark as in the lighting is not very good. For this reason I don't spend lots of time there at night unless I'm there for dinner.

The MK at night I love. I love Main Street after dark with all the lights on the buildings.

 

[shyjade]

Yes!! I LOVE the parks at night, even though we are a "rope drop" family. Maybe that's why it seems more special? I'm sad we never got to experience AK at night before they discontinued PM EMH's.

Along those lines, I once read how different the Jungle Cruise was at night, so we gave it a try last year. Wow! I have to say the ride is so much better at night!

My "goal" for our next trip is to experience more of Disney at night. Who knows, we may end up becoming more nighttime Disney than RD Disney!

 

[RedHeadedFairy]

MK is 100% a different park at night -- I greatly prefer it at night, actually. Big Thunder Mountain is a dramatically better ride at night, too!

I definitely agree - we love BTMRR at night so much that we almost don't enjoy it half as much during the day. I think everything looks & feels different in MK after dark.

 

[nansmama]

We prefer both parks at night. And we only ride BTMRR at night now... it's way better!! The People Mover is AWESOME in the nighttime too.

 

[momof2n2]

We are also a rope-drop-to-closing family. I don't consider them different parks really. And while I love the Light parade and WISHES! I do not like touring in the dark at all. I'm 100% sure it's because we have lots of young kids and I worry about getting separated! In fact, one year we went in November 2007 and we were at EPCOT the first day. I was NOT prepared for how dark it was (like PP states-it seemed really dark). We ended up leaving. I only had four kids at the time but I was tres nervous!!!

 

[kalamazoo]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who finds EPCOT (especially WS) too dark at night. I'd swear it was not always like that. Cost saving measures? I find it hard to enjoy at night because I am always having to pay much more attention to where I'm walking and keeping track of my party.

MK is different in the dark too but in a fun way like pp's have mentioned. Definitely worth experiencing day and night. Love BTMRR at night and extra special with Wishes happening in the distance.

 

[WVParkfan]

All four parks are different between day and night. We park hop every day so we do each park at least once at rope drop during our visit, and we do the late night at each park at least once per visit.

Animal Kingdom at night was VERY different than during the day. It was a lot of fun, but Epcot is definitely my favorite nighttime park.

 

[MichiganDVC]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who finds EPCOT (especially WS) too dark at night. I'd swear it was not always like that. Cost saving measures? I find it hard to enjoy at night because I am always having to pay much more attention to where I'm walking and keeping track of my party..

This got me to thinking, because I'm always in WS at night.... what do I do when it's too dark? I buy those light-up necklaces from the carts and force my family/friends to wear them! Seriously, during F&W, when it was really crowded and dark, I could see my family from one country away!