Are magic hours worth it?

[tonybeo]

I have read that magic hours are not worth it since the park with magic hours ends up being more crowded and wait times all the rest of the day are worse than they would have been at that park on another day w/out the magic hours. This seems to make sense to me... but is this only a problem when the park is already at high crowd levels? What if the crowd levels are at 5 or below?

Thanks for any help with this question.

 

[Robo]

I have read that magic hours are not worth it since the park with magic hours ends up being more crowded and wait times all the rest of the day are worse than they would have been at that park on another day w/out the magic hours. This seems to make sense to me... but is this only a problem when the park is already at high crowd levels? What if the crowd levels are at 5 or below?

Thanks for any help with this question.

Never attending EMH's because they will be "too crowded or overly-stressful,"
is like never eating grapes because they will be "too sour."

CAN be that way.
Doesn't HAVE to be that way.

Each EMH experience can be different.

We always go to AM EMH (virtually every day of the trip
that we did not do a PM EMH late the night before)...
never ONCE regretted an AM EMH... they are amazingly
empty and easy to ride the open attractions.
If that park then starts to fill 2 to 3 hours later...
We're happy with "doing" that park for the day and we
can HOP elsewhere or do lunch and take a rest until
later.

PM EMH's are a mixed bag. I've been when they were
"packed"... but on other nights (sometimes within the
same trip), the crowds were basically so low that it
was like "free rides" on all the open attractions.

The rule seems to be, it is far easier for guests to
STAY UP at the end of the day, than it is for them to
GET UP at the start of the day.

Generally speaking:
Expect a PM EMH which begins before 10PM to be much busier than one that begins much later.
Expect the first hour of PM EMH to be busier than the last hour.

Those who have attended PM EMH's and say that "they
are too crowded" are right... but that may have been only on the nights
they have attended.
I can say from personal experience that EMH's CAN be
virtually empty, or overly full... or somewhere in-between for attendance,
often within the same week.

The crowd situation at PM EMH can change so much (either way,)
that saying it was "like X" on a given night, can have little relation
to another night in the same time-period. So, you
simply "won't know unless you go."
It's similar to saying
that you attended on a given night and it rained, so
guests should never go on that night because it will
probably be rainy.

But, it can all boil down to your particular timing.

If you just consider that EMH's are FREE to attend...
You might just take a chance.
If it's too busy, just people-watch... or hit the exit.
(Where ELSE are ya gonna go at 10pm, anyway?)

But, if its not busy... you'll be ALL SET for EXTRA FUN!

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[BigBlueWho]

One of my favorite memories of MK was a PM EMH that went until 3AM. We stood the entire night; low crowd, short ride times.

 

[DVCcurious]

Robo is right.

8AM EMH are typically empty and you can ride with no waits.

9PM, 10PM, 11PM EMH are generally packed and the lines are just as long as normal operating hours: Soarin and TT will be 90+ minutes, TSMM and RnR will be 90+ minutes, Space, Splash, Thunder, Peter Pan, etc will all be 60+ minutes.

12AM 1AM EMH are generally empty especially at the end of the EMH period. So a 1-3AM EMH will be empty from 2-3 and will be light crowds from 1AM to 2AM.

If you can only make it to a park by 9:00 then go to any park except the EMH park as that will be busier than normal. So if 8AM EMH are at Magic Kingdom and you can't get to the bus stop before 8:20, you're better off going to HS, EP, or AK rather than MK.

 

[mesaboy2]

I have read that magic hours are not worth it since the park with magic hours ends up being more crowded and wait times all the rest of the day are worse than they would have been at that park on another day w/out the magic hours. This seems to make sense to me... but is this only a problem when the park is already at high crowd levels? What if the crowd levels are at 5 or below?

Thanks for any help with this question.

My standard advice is the EMH is worth it if you can commit to being there for the entire EMH. If not, for instance you get a late start and won't get to AM EMH until 15-30 minutes after it starts, then avoid EMH. It also helps if you can hop out of that park later in the day when the late-comers start to arrive, but in my opinion not necessary.

 

[Silock]

I think they are absolutely worth it. Especially ones after Wishes at MK. Lots of people just bail after the fireworks.

 

[Grandmatoniko]

Absolutely worth it..we were there in August and MK was open til 3am. We stayed til then and there were no lines at all Kids got a little grumpy after about 1:30 lol but they wanted to stay. I have never done morning hours, we always base our choice on the evening hours.

 

[Bullseye]

Each EMH experience can be different.

We always go to AM EMH (virtually every day of the trip
that we did not do a PM EMH late the night before)...
never ONCE regretted an AM EMH... they are amazingly
empty and easy to ride the open attractions.

This, we always do the AM EMH if we didn't do the PM EMH the night before. Honestly, if you get to the park when it opens and know what you want to ride you can get a lot done in that hour. I really like PM EMH more for just being able to hang out in the parks late at night. If the lines are shorter great, but if not no big deal. It's nice just strolling through the MK or WS late at night.

 

[married2mm]

My favourite perk when onsite is am emh.

I think they're great.

We don't do many pm ones,but the odd occasion we've stayed late at mk-lines didn't really shorten til after 2am-and it was still rather busy.

 

[AliceandAriel]

I have read that magic hours are not worth it since the park with magic hours ends up being more crowded and wait times all the rest of the day are worse than they would have been at that park on another day w/out the magic hours. This seems to make sense to me... but is this only a problem when the park is already at high crowd levels? What if the crowd levels are at 5 or below?

Thanks for any help with this question.

For me and the people I tour with, EMH is worth it, crowds or not. When I stay on-site, I factor that into the cost of my room by the resort, and it makes the park tickets 'less expensive' per hour, if you're that kind of number cruncher.

I've never been at a park with EMH and say, "Jeez, it's too packed here."

Disclosure: I've toured in mid-May and late October/early November, so my experience varies greatly from someone who might tour in July or other peak season spots.

 

[mrsmorrow]

Ugh this is the one thing most stressing me while planning for our late June trip. We've been many times but never during a time when all days are predicted to be a 9. DD's are teens and very flexible and easy going. We will have Ap's so hopping will be a definite. We've always avoided EMH parks with the exception of a few pm ones but I am leaning toward doing as many am EMH as possible. Get in, get stuff done, get out and hang poolside
But DD's do love having a couple late nights so my question is - Do you think pm EMH is more crowded than the last hour or so of a non EMH park? If the choice was go to MK for the 11pm-1am EMH or instead do 10pm-12am, I wonder which would have a smaller crowd. (Although at this point, I am just going with "It will all be crowded, all of the time' )

 

[P00H1010]

As previously stated it does vary. Having said that we have always done every evening EMHs available during our trips. We are not early risers and have never done a morning EMH so I cannot speak for those.

In our experiences we found that wait times have been a lot less during the evening ones compared to regular mid-day wait times. Some attractions will be walk-ons and some will still have a wait but generally a lot shorter.

We have noticed that the evening MK ones seem to have the shortest lines compared to the other parks(atleast when we have attended). We have seen lines from 0 to 15 on average with a few 20s in the mix.

Epcot doesn't have the amount of attractions that MK does so the lines there seem to be a little longer than the MK EMHs. We have seen lines for Soarin' and TT from around 10-30 min while most other attractions seem to be walk-ons.

HS seems to really vary....we have seen ToT at 5 but have also seen it at 25....same with RnRC. TSMM has still had a line no matter when we've gone (still a lot shorter than daytime waits) it seems to be around 45 minutes give or take.

So it does vary but personally we love the evening EMHs

 

[seenellie81]

We personally love extra magic hours. What we usually do is start the day out at the non EMH park because they are less busy during the day. We then take an afternoon break back at the room nap swim eat diner etc. In the evening we head to the EMH park for night time hours. We have found them to be nearly empty practically walking onto each ride and this is during easter break. My favorite memory was my DD 4 at the time running behind my DS 8 through the castle yelling where is my prince charming and trying to catch him to kiss him. It was so empty that we were the only ones walking through. Also that same night DD walked right up to goofy and played peek a boo with his ears covering his eyes. It was too cute. We have so much fun during the late EMH.

 

[karenklo]

Last July on our departure day we had a EMH at the MK in the Am. We were there at RD. WE rode Splash twice (didn't have to get off!), BTMR, POTC, Jungle Cruise, HM, Space M, People mover, and then did the Laugh Factory all before noon! We were out the park by one after lunch and headed home! Love EMH. If we had been staying the day, we would have then hopped elsewhere as it was getting really busy!

 

[Dizzytime]

We love EMH, and it's one of the main reasons we stay at a Disney World resort.
Hope you have a great time!

 

[mrsmorrow]

You are all fantastic! Re-configuring my plans based on EMH's now! Feeling positive!!

 

[mcorey41]

How early can you find out the mh schedule and where do you find it? Thanks!

 

[monkeyknuckler]

EMH in AM are a must for us. We get to rope drop and enjoy an hour with low crowds. Now with FP+, you can make sure that your FP+ ride times are after EMH for the rides you didn't already go on.

 

[4xmom]

We plan our trip around night time EMH. The parks always feel empty and we can go from ride to ride. And I love walking the parks at 1am. We are normally night owls anyway so this is great for us. We do morning ones to but night ones are our favs.

 

[katt789]

I find that EMH in the morning are always a good choice, especially with park hoppers.

You can easily finish all of Fantasy & Tomorrow lands (the only two lands open) in that first hour at Mk, and then "rope drop" Frontier while most others are headed to the ones you've finished.

The parks have been fine, IMO, but they do seem to be a little bit more crowded than usually. If not, park hop to the lowest crowd level park!

Evening hours are a little different, the ones that go super late (ie, MK til 1am or 3am etc) the park is usually crowded from the MSEP/Wishes until around 11pm, I find it clears out then and remains pretty empty from there on in, but that's just my experience!