EMH Evening Hours

[estnh]

We just got back from 7 nights/8 days at WDW, and it was the first time we had a chance to use the evening EMH's. First of all, let me preface my remarks by stating that the parks were very busy all week. That being said, we were very disappointed with the evening version of EMH.

At the MK, it remained so busy that lines for the major attractions were pretty much the same as they were during the day, but with no fastpasses. At Epcot, everyone just lined up at Test Track, so the lines there were about an hour long there. We didn't bother with MGM or AK evening hours.

They were enforcing the wristband rule VERY diligently, but it didn't seem to minimize the lines.

The morning version of EMH still worked very well--many people like to sleep in on vacation, and those that get up early reap the rewards!

 

[pplasky]

Thanks for the post. Seems to me that unless you have small kids, this would be a great option, making it busier than early EMH. I purposely avoided late EMH parks for our upcoming trip with the exception of EPCOT, and after reading your post, glad I did.

 

[momsgoofy]

Well, after doing some math...which I absolutely hate math...I figure there are approximately 30,000 on-property resort rooms available and assuming they are all booked with one person that is 30,000 people who are eligible for EMH. Now, we all know that the likely-hood of only one person per room is practically none, so assuming there are 3 guests per room then that means there would be 90,000 resort guests eligible for EMH!

So, no wonder it doesn't work as well in the evenings like the old E-nights that resort guests purchased...if memory serves me correctly, with E-nights, only a very limited number of tickets were available to on-property resort guests....something like 5000? The last time we were able to do this was 1999 so my memory could be wrong on the number.

In any case it's no wonder that the parks are so much more crowded at EMH than at E-nights. But, I'm a brave soul and am willing to give it a go...if it's too much, then we will just head back to the room or to DTD.

 

[Susiesnowflake]

I prefer the morning EMH myself. It has always worked well for us. We too find the evening one very crowded. I also don't like that they have limited food availability. It seemed especially noticeable at AK.

 

[GOOFYFREEK]

You have 30,000 disney rooms and another 6000 downtown disney rooms that are eligible too. So take that # times 3 (108,000). So figure half the rides as normal park hours or worse yet Epcot and MGM have very few rides open. Makes for some long waits. But if you can visit the morning ones they are totally worth it.

 

[Feelin' Goofy]

I was wondering if fastpass was available for the evening EMH?

 

[cindyfan]

I have not had the opportunity to use the evening EMH yet, so can't give an opinion. I plan to when we go in June.

But as for early EMH.....here are my thoughts....
MK is well worth it!! You can get in there and hit most things in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and then be one of the first to head over to Fronteerland. There are enough attractions open early at MK that the crowds are spread out.
MGM....NOT worth it! the only things open are TOT and RnRC...and unless you can run down the street to be the first one on....not worth it.
AK....NOT worth it. same thing....only a couple attractions open, so you are better off being one of the first to arrive on a regular day when the crowds will spread out more.
Epcot...I don't think it really makes much of a difference. We've done EMH and been there at opening on non-EMH days and it was about the same.

At least for the evening EMH there are more attractions open. So we are willing to try it for MK and MGM.

 

[Princess Wannabe]

Our family just returned late last night from an 8-day trip to WDW, and I am in 100% agreement with the first post.

1. It was more crowded at the parks than we had anticipated...whether this was due to the Spring Break in the northeast part of the country, or people squeezing in a trip before the "BIG" celebration in early May, I don't know...

2. With that said, we found that getting to the parks EARLY was definitely to our advantage. We got more rides done in the first 2 hours of park opening (whether standard opening, or early EMH) than at any other time during the day. I can't repeat this enough - GO EARLY, GO EARLY, GO EARLY!!!

3. Epcot EMH - Yes, fastpasses are available for the few rides that are open during Epcot late EMH. They will not "open" the fastpass machines, though, until the official start of Late EMH.

To our disappointment, Soarin' is NOT one of the rides that is open late. By the time Illuminations was over, and we hot-footed it over to Test Track, it was 9:15 pm. We grabbed a fast pass, which was good at 10:00 pm. The stand-by line at that time (9:15) was already up to 35 minutes.

We found we could walk right on Mission Space - there was no wait at all - all night - for this ride. We rode Mission Space, and then walked back to Test Track - about 9:35 pm or so.

We debated about riding single-rider line in TT, but the posted wait time for single riders was now up to 35 minutes and stand-by was now up to 45 minutes. We just sat on a bench and waited until 10:00 pm, and then went through the Fast Pass line. To our surprise (and disappointment), there was NO line for single-riders...in other words, the 35-minute wait time posted outside was obviously dead wrong. A few straggler single-riders walked in, and were put in the line ahead of us in the Fastpass line! If we had known this, we would have rode single-rider as well.

By the time we got off Test Track, it was close to 10:20; the Fastpasses were gone for the rest of the evening, and the standby line was now at 60 minutes.

Considering that the other rides available at Epcot for late EMH were Honey, I Shrunk..., Ellen's Energy Adventure, Spaceship Earth, and the 2 rides in the World Showcase, we thought late night was a joke. The park is too spread out to enjoy late hours.

GO EARLY! Enjoy the early EMH!!!

 

[Mady/Sophiemom]

We just got home this AM.
We only used the EMH, both early and late at MK. early hours went as expected for us- Rode Dumbo 2 times, carousel, Pooh, tea cups, buzz, indy speedway and were in line at Stitch at 9 when the park opened.

We however thought we got a lot done at the late hours. We arrived at MK at 7:15, got our wristbands with no line at the front of the park. Went straight to the castle to watch Cinderellabration. We rode Goofy's barnstormer, and went through toontown fair, as well as waiting for autographs/photos,Then rode the train to Splash mountain. Also rode Pirates, Thunder Mountain x2, magic carpet x2, jungle cruise, haunted mansion, Space mountian, buzz, and astro orbitor. We even stopped for fireworks at 10. We started walking to the exit at 12:30 am.

We were going to do Epcot late, but had already rode most everything we wanted to there, so we decided to go back to the resort and swim.

Didn't even consider MGM, or AK hours.

 

[cdrom610]

a few questions about EMH..

1. getting a wristband for EMH evenings is free right? (assuming im a resort guest)
2. is there a limit on the number of wristbands they give out? or is every resort guest guaranteed one as long as they go pick it up?
3. how long are the EMH.. i know in the morning its only an hour.. but in the evening, about how many more hours do you get.. and what time would you have to be out of the park then?

thanks!

 

[Mady/Sophiemom]

a few questions about EMH..

1. getting a wristband for EMH evenings is free right? (assuming im a resort guest)
2. is there a limit on the number of wristbands they give out? or is every resort guest guaranteed one as long as they go pick it up?
3. how long are the EMH.. i know in the morning its only an hour.. but in the evening, about how many more hours do you get.. and what time would you have to be out of the park then?

thanks!

Wristbands are free to resort guests, but you do have to show your ticket, and they put the wristband on you.

Don't know if there is a limit.

one hour in the AM, 3 hours in the PM.

Hope that helps. Have a great trip.

 

[MaryKatesMom]

I've never been a fan of Evening EMH. They are too crowded and the ride's open too few to be worth the effort. Arriving early even on non-EMH mornings is still a better deal.

 

[dkrause716]

So is this the way it will be from now on? Evening EMH instead of E night? I know they did EMH last spring but during the summer went back to E night at MK during the summer. DH and I were going to send our two teens to E night. EMH just sounds like a big hassle.

 

[amshowers]

I guess we were posting threads about EMH at the same time,but it seems we have very different versions of EMH. I think because we did'nt show up till amost an hour after EMH started that it was'nt busy.

 

[mybgirl]

I guess we were posting threads about EMH at the same time,but it seems we have very different versions of EMH. I think because we did'nt show up till amost an hour after EMH started that it was'nt busy.

We will be resort guest's in JUNE. Can you get in the park after EMH night's start ?


thank you and GOD BLESS

MARY

 

[FutureAshleyDukes]

We will be resort guest's in JUNE. Can you get in the park after EMH night's start ?


thank you and GOD BLESS

MARY

I was wondering the same thing. We will be on our Illuminations cruise and then plan to enter Epcot after for EMH that evening.

 

[kirbsam]

You can enter park anytime during emh and pick up your wristband. For example, if the parks regular hours close at 9, you can enter at 930, 10, 11 and pick up your wristband.

 

[mybgirl]

You can enter park anytime during emh and pick up your wristband. For example, if the parks regular hours close at 9, you can enter at 930, 10, 11 and pick up your wristband.

I ask a CM and they said must be in before park closed,



So happy to hear this info for you .


TAKE CARE AND GOD BLESS

MARY

 

[JudithM]

I was wondering if fastpass was available for the evening EMH?

We used the evening EMH at the Studios & at MK recently & fastpass was being used. We found these extra three hours to be well worth it for us to do attractions.

 

[ReggieB]

I have a DS4, who wakes up on the dot of 6 every morning. He is a pretty active kid (big understatement) so afternoon naps (and even quiet times!) are pretty much a pipe dream. The morning EMH's are great for us, it's not like we wouldn't have been up anyway...

Last visit we caught all the fireworks, plus a MNSSHP...huge mistake, the poor thing was just so sleep confused! I think he had the equivelent of jet-lag! We nearly missed a PS at Chef Mickey's because my DH and DS were just worn out from such late nights! Evening EMH's are just not for us, which is a shame, but at least that puts 3 less guests there...I can see why it's going to be more crowded than people might expect, especially during busier times. I think it would be MK that would suffer the most.