BAAADDDDD Experience with EMH

[harleys mom]

We are on our way home from Disney. We attempted to go to MK on Friday night. I will never do that again... It was awful...it was so crowded and there were huge waits for everything. We only ended up riding one ride. Space Moutain showed a 1 hour wait and after an 1 1/2 we got out of line and had just gotten out of the tunnel and still had atleast and hour wait....

 

[sjs314]

From everything I have read about pmEMH at MK the crowds do not clear out until 12am or later if the park is open until 3am. I know I have been there when MK was only open till 12 or 1am with EMH and I have avoided MK just for the reason that I thought it would be too crowded.
Standing in line more than an hour for anything is just crazy, sorry it ruined your night

 

[Belle83]

We went to MK EMH a few weeks ago. It was a Sunday night, the EMH were 12 am to 3 am. There were still crowds until about 1:30 a.m., and then everyone left and we walked on to everything.

Sorry you had a bad experience

 

[Melmac]

To be honest, I have not really had any good luck with PM EMH at MK or DHS. We go at low season and so the parks are only open until about 10 or 11 pm but they are always really crowded and lines tend to extremely long. I have much better luck at AM EMH.

 

[aidtrismommy]

PM EMH is not making the best use of your time IMO. AM EMH is probably the best chance you will get at walking onto most rides for at least a good 2-3 hours. We never do evening EMH. Early to bed, early to rise.

 

[TisBit]

To be honest, I have not really had any good luck with PM EMH at MK or DHS. We go at low season and so the parks are only open until about 10 or 11 pm but they are always really crowded and lines tend to extremely long. I have much better luck at AM EMH.

I completely agree. Last summer we even stayed until 3 am and the lines were still 20-25 minutes for Space Mountain, etc. Evening EMH's are very crowded, I think a LOT of on site guests have taken to the evening EMH's and you can pretty much expect the crowds to be moderate at best. To make it worse, the last few hours of regular operating hours are horrendous, before all the off site guests leave and the on site guests are hopping over to that park!

 

[santadog]

The ONLY time I have had luck with MK EMHs at night is in April, when it was raining ALL day, and didn't let up until about 10 PM.
The park was open until midnight, so I had the kiddo take a nap from 4-8 PM, ate at the resort, and arrived at the park just as Wishes was ending.
We waited about 40 min for Space Mountain, and after that everything was a walk on. They let her ride stuff repeatedly without even getting out of her chair.

The best time we had, no doubt about it.

Conversely, we had an abysmal experience with PM Epcot EMH - Magic Kingdom was closed early for Grad Night, and they were having the Cheerleader convention. So everything was packed - we did the Living Seas, and packed it in for the night.

 

[mskayjay]

We do evening EMH every time we go and we love it. Crowds are way down and you pretty much walk on as many times as you want. We travel off-season to begin with so that makes a huge difference....

 

[KatyTheFairyPrincess]

The only time we did evening EMH was on our last night and we wanted to be tired the next day for the flight home. Worked great! Loved walking around practically on our own.
Can't see it ever working for us otherwise, we are RD people so we leave at park close (10/11 usually) and sleep.

 

[2Tiggies]

We went to MK EMH a few weeks ago. It was a Sunday night, the EMH were 12 am to 3 am. There were still crowds until about 1:30 a.m., and then everyone left and we walked on to everything.

Sorry you had a bad experience

This is how we know EMH at MK. You have to stick it out to the end and then it is really worth it for the real late ones. We saw the flip side in action in October when the hours are not as extended and people DID stay to the veyr end and drew the conclusion that we did better in the crowded season with the later hours as fewer people stuck it out to the last hour.

I have a picture of my then 6 year old DD with Mickey, Minnie and Pluto behind the castle. They were just standing there all near to each other and the place was deserted. When she went to Mickey, Minnie and Pluto came and joined them and they interacted with her and played around for a good 10 minutes. It was about 2.30 am or later by that stage and the park was spooky quiet. Oh and it was the Friday after Easter so still very busy season.

 

[howlongtillsummer?]

Aww bless. Cute image

 

[Agri]

It really depends on the weather and the day.

I would never have high expectations for an EMH night on a weekend - everybody and their brother is going to be at the park on a Friday and will want to stay out as late as possible. The same thing happens at DHS, too.

Once the weather starts to get chilly, EMH are the place to be because a lot of people don't want to be out in chilly weather in Florida. They'll be out in full force when the sun is out. =)

If its Sunday night, you'll likely be in luck by around 10/11 if not earlier just because of the timing. Sunday is usually a travel day so people can be back to work on Monday - for both locals and travellers. Even if Sunday is their last day, they'll be satisfied with a few extra rides at night and heading back to the hotel to get enough rest for the next day - and to pack.

EMH are really the worst for predicting crowds. Sometimes they'll be really great, other times they'll be just plain awful. I really disagree with the planning sites, though, to avoid them at all costs. It really depends on a lot of factors, but I've had enough good experiences that I wouldn't want to completely dismiss the possibility of really enjoying the extra time in a park.

 

[2Tiggies]

Aww bless. Cute image

I found the pics This made that particular evening's EMH so worthwhile!

Apologies for image quality - I didn't have my decent camera with me that night

 

[AwesomeAg]

We are on our way home from Disney. We attempted to go to MK on Friday night. I will never do that again... It was awful...it was so crowded and there were huge waits for everything. We only ended up riding one ride. Space Moutain showed a 1 hour wait and after an 1 1/2 we got out of line and had just gotten out of the tunnel and still had atleast and hour wait....

We were there on Friday as well. I think the problem was really that the huge thunderstorm came through earlier in the evening shutting down a lot of the rides. Since Space Mountain (the line and the ride) is indoors many people flocked to it and it became backed up. Then when the first parade was canceled at 9pm a lot of people stayed for the 11pm parade. And then after that a lot of people stuck around for late hours to make up for the couple hours where most of the park was closed for the weather...

However, we were also there the Friday before. It didn't rain that day. And we stayed until 3am. By 1am or so the lines were pretty much non-existent. I think the longest we waited was for the Astro-oribitor and that line was about 20 minutes. It was also pre-1am. But during those three extra hours we rode most of the rides in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland and then we hit the Jungle Cruise, Pirates of the Caribbean and had pictures with the princesses and Mickey and Minnie in the town theater.

Comparing the two Fridays I actually think that the lines were shorter on the 17th compared to the prior Friday night. A LOT of people left when the storm came through.

Next time instead of waiting in line for a ride that has a fast pass, get the fast pass and go ride something else first... They had the fast pass machines up and running for those EMHs. They just start the times for the fast pass at 12:40pm, instead of midnight.

 

[kellydizfan]

I haven't been where there have been huge waits at EMH. I guess I have been lucky in that respect. We will see how it is when we go the end of August with Free Dining.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Yes- we discovered a few trips ago to avoid the park that has PM EMH. The people that don't have hoppers will go to the park with the EMH thinking that they are getting the best value. The people that are at Animal Kingdom that closes early, will hop over there, and face it, by midnight you have the possibility that EVERYONE staying on property could be there. We have seen the line for space mountain at noon tuesday-25 minutes to thursday- 75 minutes because they had EMH till midnight.

 

[ekraxa]

FWIW - we did MK EMH on Friday, June 10th and it was fabulous!

There were still some crowds until about 1am but we did Splash Mountain then walked onto Jungle Cruise using a Fastpass from earlier in the day.

We headed to Tomorrowland and rode rides there until 2:30 in the morning. Walked right onto everything.

The park felt empty and it was a magical experience to be there with so few people. We spent some time with a Photopass photographer and got some fun shots of our last moments in WDW.

 

[butterfly71076]

We were there last year over Memorial Day weekend and had nothing but fun at MK's pm EMH. The park was open until 3am and right after Wishes, the park emptied. We walked on to everything, starting at the Haunted Mansion, all the way around to Buzz Lightyear. It was great! The only thing I didn't like ws that most of the drink/food stands were closed and you needed to back to Main St to get something to drink. And it was still so humid, even at 1am! So sorry some of you have had such a bad time at EMH

 

[sissy_ib]

I was there in July 09 and last October. Both times I did late EMH at MK and had a blast. Yes it took about an hour after the park closed for the crowds to get really thin but it was so worth it.

 

[grandmadebby2]

Sorry to hear it was a bad experience for you. Hope the rest of your trip was great.