EMH's on LATE nights - any experiences?

[nhdisnut]

On our next trip in April (Man, I love the fact that WDW posts hours 6 months out now !!!) we are thinking of staying at the MK until 2am (the park closes at 11 but has EMH until 2!). Has anyone stayed this late during an EMH evening? If so, how might the crowds, attraction waits, etc. be? We are also hoping to take advantage of an evening EMH at the Studios - this will take us to 11:30pm.

Any info is much appreciated!!

 

[Joanna71985]

Yes. I've done the MK extra-hours. It was not bad. Although some times are busier then others, April is a good time to go. Also, the times for rides are not long at all. You can get a lot of the popular rides done there.

 

[NotUrsula]

They tend to be quite crowded until around midnight, by which time a lot of folks get discouraged and leave (or maybe turn into pumpkins?!). We found that the final hour was wonderful; nearly all walkons. Early last June, we managed to ride all 3 mountains in just under 30 minutes, ending at SpaceM.

 

[MELSMICE]

I'll second what NotUrsula said. On our last trip a few weeks ago it seemed that the night time EMH's were fairly crowded, however, as it got later the crowds thinned out.

Because EPCOT always closes at 9 p.m. it was pretty crowded the entire time. If the people in your group can stay awake (& pleasant ) that late then I'd say go for it.

We've often had 1/2 our group go back to the resort while the "party" 1/2 stayed late!

 

[DrTomorrow]

Well, since you asked

I have a theory that, although the EMH-PM parks seem much more crowded, the actual wait times for rides & shows is still pretty short. This is based on the fact that, although they don't let non-WDW-resort folks in during EMH-AM, at night they let folks stay in the parks. Even though they can't ride without a wristband, non-WDW-resort people use the EMH-PM for non-ride things like dining, outdoor shows, parades and plain old people-watching. So the parks certainly have more people in them, but ride lines are still shorter.

IMHO - YMMV

 

[kmkja1]

We had a different experience in July. At MK around 1 AM it was still as crowded as it was at noon. We thought this would be a good time to get in Flying Dumbos and the other kiddie rides. Did not work out to well. For us getting to the parks early worked much better. Good Luck!

 

[Amy&Dan]

We had a different experience in July. At MK around 1 AM it was still as crowded as it was at noon. We thought this would be a good time to get in Flying Dumbos and the other kiddie rides. Did not work out to well. For us getting to the parks early worked much better. Good Luck!

I can imagine that would be the case in July especially. Given the fact that it is so hot during the day, many people prefer nights when its cooler. Also the more crowds in general the more crowds at EMH and July is a ver busy month. We did EMH last April and it was fairly crowded but we still got a lot done. Fantasyland didn't seem to clear out as much as I thought it would, Peter Pan still had probably a 45 minute wait at midnight but we rode Pooh and Snow White with almost no wait. Frontierland was much better with no waits on Splash and maybe a 10 minute wait on BTMRR. I like EMH at MK the best, there is more to do so the crowds can disperse more. At MGM everybody just stays back by TOT and RNRC after Fantasmic. I agree with above poster, also plan on getting there early when you can!

 

[dznyacct]

Last March we met friends from home for the MK EMH, which was midnight - 3 am. Our friends usually go to bed very early, so they took a nap in preparation of EMH. We met them at MK at ~ 11:30 pm. The park was still pretty crowded, but after midnight it really started to clear out. We had the BEST time, going on every ride and some even twice . My friend still tells me how much it was worth it to do EMH. Earlier in the day Space Mountain had a 2 1/2 hour wait , we waited maybe 5 minutes. When we were at WDW for our "girls only" trip in June, my 7 yo niece and I did the MK EMH that was 11 - 2. Again, we had a great time with little or no lines. She was a trooper and finally pooped out while waiting in line for the bus. DS, DS's friend (both 16) and I are headed down for 10 days over Spring Break. We are planning on doing all EMH (nights only, we're not morning people !). They are well worth it in my opinion.

 

[disneyjunkie]

I can imagine that would be the case in July especially. Given the fact that it is so hot during the day, many people prefer nights when its cooler. Also the more crowds in general the more crowds at EMH and July is a ver busy month. We did EMH last April and it was fairly crowded but we still got a lot done. Fantasyland didn't seem to clear out as much as I thought it would, Peter Pan still had probably a 45 minute wait at midnight but we rode Pooh and Snow White with almost no wait. Frontierland was much better with no waits on Splash and maybe a 10 minute wait on BTMRR. I like EMH at MK the best, there is more to do so the crowds can disperse more. At MGM everybody just stays back by TOT and RNRC after Fantasmic. I agree with above poster, also plan on getting there early when you can!

My son and I were there the last week of April and we had the same experience.

I love EMH!! I can't wait to stay in the MK until 3.00am during our Easter 2006 trip.

 

[nhdisnut]

Sounds like our plan will work!

Thanks everyone!

 

[Syrreal]

I was there in August for late EMH. Was not bad at all after about the 1st hour. The later it gets, the more people seem to bail. (Mainly because a lot of them were at that park already).

 

[jmsvss]

My only experience with EMH was March 2005. We were there for 5 days. In my trip planning I avoided the EMH parks because of the poor reviews I read. In fact - I did not get the park hopper because I thought it was a waste of money since we would not be doing EMH. However, I changed my mind after we got there. We did do morning EMH at MK - totally awsome. DD had Mickey, Minnie practically to herself. After the obligatory character stops we high-tailed it to Frontier Land for the rope drop and road all 3 mountains in under 30 minutes. We did Epcot evening EMH - by accident. We had a late dinner and as we were leaving realized it was EMH. There was practically no one in the park and absolutely no lines for any ride.
People have obviously had different experiences with EMH. Mine was positive.

 

[Amy&Dan]

I think it depends on the time of year you go and many other variables such as weather. For our trip last January EMH had just started and people were not so used to it and the fact it was a slow time of year and raining made our EMH at MK one night wonderful. We put on slickers got soaked and had the park pretty much to ourselves. Rode BTMRR 4 times without getting off and could have done more but we were sick of it! Then in April it was more crowded and by summer it was packed. I think it is always worth trying but just don't bet the farm it will be like the old E Ride nights which I am sad to say I never got to do but I hear were wonderful. If the park is packed all day it will probably be the same way during EMH.

 

[tomerin]

We had a different experience in July. At MK around 1 AM it was still as crowded as it was at noon. We thought this would be a good time to get in Flying Dumbos and the other kiddie rides. Did not work out to well. For us getting to the parks early worked much better. Good Luck!

i can also verify this . we also made the mistake of a MK EMH late night in july. it was the worst time i ever had at WDW. i never thought i would ever say that! even very late it was still very crowded and very hot. only managed to do a few of the "e-ticket" rides. when peter pan has a wait time of over an hour at 11pm that should have been the tipoff for us to go back to our hotel. made me pine for the old E-Ride nights

april should work out really well for you though. crowds should be manageable and the weather not as hot.

have a great time