EPCOT extended evening hours- worth it?

[Nutmeg2016]

I've heard mixed reviews about EPCOT extended evening hours (vs. almost entirely rave reviews of Magic Kingdom's, which we're definitely doing).

Any pros/cons from folks who have done them recently? Our kids are 7 and 10, so they're on the younger side for a late night unless it's really worth our while. E.g. there's no way they can do opening until 11 PM, so we'd either need to take a break in the middle of the day (which will be time-consuming going to/from WL) or arrive in the afternoon.

Thank you!

 

[AussieFan8]

We loved it. We went in the late afternoon, toured World Showcase, then did rides during the extended evening hours. We were the only people on Nemo and Spaceship Earth. This was Thanksgiving week. So much open space to walk around was a nice break during a busy week.

 

[Nutmeg2016]

We loved it. We went in the late afternoon, toured World Showcase, then did rides during the extended evening hours. We were the only people on Nemo and Spaceship Earth. This was Thanksgiving week. So much open space to walk around was a nice break during a busy week.

Thanks so much, great to hear that you had a positive experience! Riding Spaceship Earth solo certainly sounds memorable .

Did you make it onto a few of the headliners that normally have crazy waits, e.g. Frozen, Test Track, or Remy? If so, did you have to wait long?

 

[AussieFan8]

Thanks so much, great to hear that you had a positive experience! Riding Spaceship Earth solo certainly sounds memorable .

Did you make it onto a few of the headliners that normally have crazy waits, e.g. Frozen, Test Track, or Remy? If so, did you have to wait long?

Remy wasn’t part of it when we went. We didn’t do Test Track but did Frozen around 11:15 if I remember correctly. It was about a 15 minute wait. Soarin’ had no wait at about 10:30.

 

[cheshiregoofy22]

We went on January 31st just to ride Remy. Made what I think was a mistake - watching Harmonius first from Mexico and then (what felt like) swimming upstream after it ended…there were many, many folks in the line getting in the last ride before the 9:00 pm closing. Cast members didn’t start checking wristbands/tickets (at the entrance to the inside portion of the queue) until we’d waited maybe 25-30 minutes. Despite what seems like rather slow loading of the ride vehicles, we did get to ride twice before the 11 pm cutoff, so not too bad! I think if we’d been in the former future world, we’d have managed many more rides on those attractions, even with the mighty maze of walls!

 

[Delirium]

I would think to maximize it, you would want to start at Frozen, work your way to Test Track / Mission Space, then Spaceship Earth, and finally to Soarin / Nemo / Figment (if it's even part of it). Hard to see being able to get Remy in there due to the distance spent walking from attraction to attraction. But, if you finish Soarin and have 30 minutes left, by all means skip Nemo and Figment.

If Remy is the priority, start with Spaceship Earth, do Soarin / Nemo / Figment, and then Remy. Of course, that leaves out Frozen, Test Track, & Mission Space.

The worst thing to do would be going to Remy first. The line should be shorter as the night gets later.

 

[Nutmeg2016]

Big thanks for the tips, everyone! If we stay for EEH, we'll clearly need to prioritize (e.g. we'll probably just drop Remy, I don't think the kids will miss it. . )

 

[SaraSpringsIsHome]

We did the extra hours last week and for us it was totally worth it. We started with Test Track at 8:45 and it was basically a walk on. We got in line for Frozen right after 9 and it was a walk on. Then we headed around world showcase while harmonious was finishing and rode Remy with a minimal wait. We were heading back to BWV around 9:45

YMMV, but we got 3 headliners knocked out in an hour!

 

[bluedolphin32]

We will be using EEH on Labor Day, so I can't share my experience yet. The bad reviews I have read seem to be by people who thought World Showcase would be open and were disappointed that it wasn't. I hope we can get 2-3 rides in after fireworks. We fly into MCO that morning so I hope those extra hours help us get more rides in with an afternoon arrival.