"Extended Evening Hours"

[Taylor'sMom]

Curious on what everyone's thoughts are if/how the "Extended Evening Hours" for deluxe resort guests will impact parks.

I know Robo use to have a stock answer on how EMH affected crowds. But this perk is a lot less guests that qualify, so I'm guessing there won't be a noticeable crowd affect?

We will NOT be staying deluxe but do have planned a MK day on a Wednesday (predicted MK to have the extended hours that day). I know we won't be able to get on rides after the normal park closing time... but curious if we coild get some extra evening park time if we are just wandering and/or shopping? I know time will tell... just wondering out loud...

 

[cakebaker]

Curious on what everyone's thoughts are if/how the "Extended Evening Hours" for deluxe resort guests will impact parks.

I know Robo use to have a stock answer on how EMH affected crowds. But this perk is a lot less guests that qualify, so I'm guessing there won't be a noticeable crowd affect?

We will NOT be staying deluxe but do have planned a MK day on a Wednesday (predicted MK to have the extended hours that day). I know we won't be able to get on rides after the normal park closing time... but curious if we coild get some extra evening park time if we are just wandering and/or shopping? I know time will tell... just wondering out loud...

Historically they have not made day guests leave the parks for emh's in the evening but you will not be allowed in the shops or the rides. Basically, all you could do is walk around. While there are fewer guests, it's still many many thousands and since it's 2 hrs and more limited, I expect it to be much more popular. We haven't done emh's in years because it was too crowded, but we would most definitely do them now and I suspect there are a lot of others who feel the same way. We would stay deluxe or dvc and I would only go to the MK for the EMH because of crowds.

 

[Marionnette]

Curious on what everyone's thoughts are if/how the "Extended Evening Hours" for deluxe resort guests will impact parks.

I know Robo use to have a stock answer on how EMH affected crowds. But this perk is a lot less guests that qualify, so I'm guessing there won't be a noticeable crowd affect?

We will NOT be staying deluxe but do have planned a MK day on a Wednesday (predicted MK to have the extended hours that day). I know we won't be able to get on rides after the normal park closing time... but curious if we coild get some extra evening park time if we are just wandering and/or shopping? I know time will tell... just wondering out loud...

This is just my take on it. You may see a slightly larger crowd during the day coming from the number of Deluxe guests who do not have hopper tickets.

You will definitely see larger crowds in the hub just before and during fireworks because of Deluxe guest with hoppers entering the park for EEH.

You may see queues being cut off earlier than park closing. If rumors about Lightning Pass and the Genie app turn out to be true, standby lines for headliners like 7DMTR will be capped when they reach an undisclosed length and then guests enter a virtual queue in order to join a physical queue. That could mean that standby queues close to daytime guests, with no option to join a VQ, well before official park closing to allow those lines to clear out before EEH begin. In other words, no more jumping into a queue one minute before park closing anymore, even on non-EEH nights.

Making purchased after official park closing may be limited to those non-Deluxe guests already inside a store at official park closing. But my feeling is that Disney isn't going to pass up the opportunity to sell you another pair of Mickey Ears.

What they might do to keep crowds down is to prevent guests from entering any of the lands from the hub unless they are Deluxe guests. They are doing that for Boo Bash. If that happens, then walking around and drinking in the atmosphere will be limited to non-Deluxe guests who are outside of the hub at the bewitching hour (park close).

 

[cakebaker]

Making purchased after official park closing may be limited to those non-Deluxe guests already inside a store at official park closing. But my feeling is that Disney isn't going to pass up the opportunity to sell you another pair of Mickey Ears.

What they might do to keep crowds down is to prevent guests from entering any of the lands from the hub unless they are Deluxe guests. They are doing that for Boo Bash. If that happens, then walking around and drinking in the atmosphere will be limited to non-Deluxe guests who are outside of the hub at the bewitching hour (park close).

Assuming there is no new FP system, Disney has never closed rides before official closing time and I can't imagine they ever would. You would be allowed to get in line right up to closing. With the Genie system, all bets are off, but I still don't think they'd shut down a standby line with no more reason than it's close to closing time. Also assuming they run EMH's as they always have, if you're in the store before closing, they won't throw you out , although they may encourage you to leave if you just hang inside for an extended period of time. You would be at least allowed to finish your shopping and check out. They never stationed CM's at the hub checking to see if you're a valid guest of EMH. They do for hard ticket events like BooBash, After Hours, and other parties, not for EMH's.

From the time we've done them (and haven't consistently for a while), non valid guests seemed to leave rather quickly. There's nothing to do and really, if you have kids, do you want to constantly have to tell them that they can't ride things when everyone else is? Or shop or eat ....Just doesn't sound like a lot of fun to me.

 

[Taylor'sMom]

Our party is 3 adults... and I just enjoy the atmosphere. Not sure we WILL linger, was just curious about what others thought about crowds.
Will be interesting to see how roll-out of the Genie may impact the ability to get in a line a minute before closing.

 

[EPCOT-O.G.]

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You may see queues being cut off earlier than park closing. If rumors about Lightning Pass and the Genie app turn out to be true, standby lines for headliners like 7DMTR will be capped when they reach an undisclosed length and then guests enter a virtual queue in order to join a physical queue. That could mean that standby queues close to daytime guests, with no option to join a VQ, well before official park closing to allow those lines to clear out before EEH begin. In other words, no more jumping into a queue one minute before park closing anymore, even on non-EEH nights.

Uhh, this would be terrible. I am wondering how they are going to balance all these competing lines - FP+, VQ, Standby, DAS - but it never occurred to me they’d do away with the “in line a minute before close and you can still ride!” rule. Though, since the chief goal these days is to squeeze out as much monetization from their customers, then you could see now that rule incentivizes someone to keep their money and just get in line an hour later. I really hope this doesn’t happen.

 

[buzz1fan]

Does everyone think around christmas December 22- magic kingdom will continue the Wednesday extra hours for deluxe? With the holiday parties Sunday / Tuesday , not sure if I should change my park reservation now to Monday. We are there Sunday- Thursday wanted to end with magic kingdom but don’t want to go a night we can’t stay later

 

[Cynner]

Does everyone think around Christmas December 22- magic kingdom will continue the Wednesday extra hours for deluxe? With the holiday parties Sunday / Tuesday , not sure if I should change my park reservation now to Monday. We are there Sunday- Thursday wanted to end with magic kingdom but don’t want to go a night we can’t stay later

The parks are open SO late for that week, but they still will probably want to give the Deluxe guests some sort of extra benefit. But Wed is not one of the holidays, so there's a chance. Looking back at some of the historical dates, they did extra hours on Dec 30 in MK, but not any other time between Christmas and NYE. They did extended hours at HS and EP though. But realize, those EMH are from Midnight until 2am! The crowds drop SERIOUSLY that late at night.

I've done EMH at MK for the holidays before - and remember swimming upstream through the packed bodies from the hub to get into Tomorrowland. It was insane. (Learned much better places to stand to get deeper into the park afterwards since).
The younger kids and their families all pretty much leave and I find it's some of the best times to do the non-thrill rides as they are walk ons.
We will be at the very first two EEHs for Oct 4 and 6 and will report back.

 

[Marionnette]

Does everyone think around christmas December 22- magic kingdom will continue the Wednesday extra hours for deluxe? With the holiday parties Sunday / Tuesday , not sure if I should change my park reservation now to Monday. We are there Sunday- Thursday wanted to end with magic kingdom but don’t want to go a night we can’t stay later

Well, Boo Bash nights aren't changing the extra hours schedule. But Christmas is traditionally extremely busy and typically includes later nights anyway. I wouldn't be surprised if they were to suspend the deluxe extra hours for the week but I hope they don't.

 

[maryj11]

Oh great I have Monday a park reservation for Epcot and Wednesday for MK. Not sure I want to go with extra crowds.
Do you think with just deluxe resorts it will be crowded?

 

[buzz1fan]

I wish they would announce so we can play what works best for all of us!

 

[maryj11]

I wish they would announce so we can play what works best for all of us!

They have Mondays for Epcot and Wednesdays for MK.

 

[buzz1fan]

I wasn’t sure if that will change week of Christmas - it will be nice for me to see the official schedule

 

[maryj11]

I wasn’t sure if that will change week of Christmas - it will be nice for me to see the official schedule

Oh okay. Yes who knows what they will do the week of Christmas.

 

[JakeAZ]

Oh great I have Monday a park reservation for Epcot and Wednesday for MK. Not sure I want to go with extra crowds.
Do you think with just deluxe resorts it will be crowded?

IMO I don't think these extra hours, for Deluxe only, will cause any problems with daytime attendance.

 

[maryj11]

IMO I don't think these extra hours, for Deluxe only, will cause any problems with daytime attendance.

I hope your right

 

[JakeAZ]

I hope your right

The only thing I could see would be the final hour or two where Deluxe, that weren't already there, would hop over.

 

[gharter]

Doubt it will change much as you have to put the later hours around the Christmas After Hours event.

 

[twincruisers]

I’m almost guaranteed to hop over to Epcot EEH for the last dessert run of the night.

 

[maryj11]

Doubt it will change much as you have to put the later hours around the Christmas After Hours event.

True the only days without after hours is Monday and Wednesday for MK when we go. Monday’s are always busy at MK so that leaves Wednesday for MK. Not much of a choice left to pick a day that’s not crowded.