Crowd levels on a Summer night

[Raya]

Checking the crowd calendars for a trip I see that the park is at a 8 out of 10. However, park hours go from 9am until midnight, or 9am until 3am with EMH. We need to avoid sun anyway, so I'm thinking of staying at the resort pool until dinner (5pm-ish) and heading into the park for a TS meal followed by touring from 6pm until midnight or later. How are the crowds in the evening? Any ideas what the waits would be like?

 

[sharonabe]

The later it gets, the emptier it gets. If you can make it to that 3 a.m. close, you'll be one of the only ones left in the park! Just be sure you plan a late morning for the day after. Also, MK is the only one that has those late hours. HS may have a late EMH that takes it to midnight, and that last hour there will be a good one. EP's late EMH is not as good as it ends at 11:00 and most people can stay up that late. AK doesn't have late EMH at all.

 

[Lucius Best]

During a crowd level 8 day, I think lines would still be long around midnight. But on a 3am EMH night, crowds probably won't thin out until after 1am, with shortest lines during the last hour. It's a good plan if you are dedicated to staying up all the way until 3am. There are plenty of good restaurants for dinner around the monorail resorts, then you can have your 3 FP+ at 6pm/7pm/8pm.

 

[Alesia]

The fact that there is EMH will make the park considerably more crowded than it would be otherwise.

 

[isaboo]

We're changing our strategy this year! We've been two years in a row and it was go go go from daybreak to late night. This year we're only doing one morning (MK) and the rest of the time we're going to relax at the resort for most of the day then close down the parks at night.

 

[mom2rtk]

Some EMH nights stay busy right up until close. The later the EMH though, the better your odds of finding some empty park time in the last hour or so. If you don't plan to actually max out the EMH, I would suggest avoiding that park that day.

We're going on a busy EMH night in a few weeks. But we're planning on staying until the bitter end and hoping for the best.

 

[bluezy]

We go to Disney in June and we often spend a late (non-emh) night or two at MK during our stay. We usually take a late afternoon break and then head back to the park after dinner. We've found the lines decrease quite a bit during the evenings. Hitting rides during parades and fireworks is a really good strategy -- we've had 10 minute waits on Splash, Big Thunder, and The Haunted Mansion during that time. And only slightly longer waits at Space Mountain and Peter Pan. And by that time of the night, Pirates and several other rides have been walk-ons (so sad that Pirates will be closed for our upcoming trip. )

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Here's an example of what we were able to accomplish from 8 pm to midnight early last summer on a crowd level 8 day. No FP+. Non-EMH night.

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
Mine Train (10 min wait right a closing time)
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the parade and fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.

The most important fact to remember is that posted wait times are often greatly exaggerated at night.

 

[Disfan1968]

I was going to say the same thing as the Ox. In my two evening EMH experiences at MK I found that once MSEP started, people began staking out their spots for that parade and staying through Wishes. I found ride wait times really were favorable on EMH nights from around 9:00 PM on. The park from 1:00 PM to 9:00 PM was wicked busy/crowded.

 

[BuzzinDownToDisney]

On a busy August 2am EMH night we found MK was absolutely slammed till around 11:30. After that the majority of the park was walk on. We waited almost an hour for BTMRR around 10:30, then rode it 3x in a half hour after 1am.

 

[Disfan1968]

On a busy August 2am EMH night we found MK was absolutely slammed till around 11:30. After that the majority of the park was walk on. We waited almost an hour for BTMRR around 10:30, then rode it 3x in a half hour after 1am.

Maybe I don't run into this because my wife and I are happy to ride Haunted Mansion 30 times in a row.

 

[wdwrich]

I believe evening EMH is now two hours long, so if the regular closing time is midnight, EMH would last until 2am.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I believe evening EMH is now two hours long, so if the regular closing time is midnight, EMH would last until 2am.

Regular close is often at 1 am on summer EMH nights. Being in the park at 3 am is pretty slick, but it does make for a late start the next day.

 

[gunderda]

I can not even imagine being in the the park that late. I am just thankful that as of right now MK is closing at midnight the day we're going. I'm going to have a tough time staying for that! But I told my parents that even if i say I want to leave, DO NOT LET ME. lol