Extra Magic Evening Hours - How crowded?

[meuseman]

I also noticed that on 6/5 MGM EMH was not very strict on the bracelet issue. EMH started at 10 and at 11, the wait at RnRC was 45 and ToT was 30.

 

[rmontgo892]

I also noticed that on 6/5 MGM EMH was not very strict on the bracelet issue. EMH started at 10 and at 11, the wait at RnRC was 45 and ToT was 30.

Do you think THAT is what's going on??? What do I know but you'd think with e-ticket offered to everyone(wasn't it for all hoppers) it would be about even with EMH for resort guests only??

I have to say a couple of e-nights we attended were busy but NOT like some of you all are reporting with EMH evenings??

Were e-tickets only for 5,000 or some cut off #? Wonder what the evening EMH are showing for attendance?

I may try one night and be prepared to leave.

What's up with not checking wrist bands. There always have to be some to beat the system I guess.

 

[shatzjsl]

At MK on Wed. we had to show our resort ID to get EMH bracelets. We were in Epcot on Thursday (no intention of staying for EMH) and I saw a CM just handing them out without asking for resort ID. I checked the end of the line to see if someone was checking them there but they weren't so it looked like anyone could get one at Epcot.

 

[Amy&Dan]

We are going Sept. 12-17, a traditionally "lighter" crowd time in the parks. I wonder how this will affect the evening EMH? Any guesses?

I can tell you that when we went in late January/early Feb. EMH at MK was wonderful. The weather was kind of bad that night so that helped, however the lower crowds in general had to be a factor. EMH at MK in late April was a different story. Much more crowded, I can only imagine what its like right now. You should be in good shape and may not even feel the need to do EMH if the daytime crowds are low enough. Also found both in January and April EMH at MGM was a nightmare; they have so few attractions there that TOT and RNRC are lonnnnng lines! Epcot isn't so great either, I wish they would also keep the World Showcase open.

 

[disneyholic family]

Yes, e-ticket nights had a cut off . They only sold a limited number of tickets, but I don't know how many that was. Plus they had 2 a week (now they only have one evening EMH at the MK).

Yes, morning EMH should be good, but we don't use them because we no longer get up that early when at WDW (after 30 years and 40+ trips, I figure we're allowed to get there in time for regular opening but not early opening).

I guess we'll try the AK evening EMH since people say that's good (and maybe it will be less hot at that time - AK is broiling hot by noon - we never stay there past noon).

We will definitely avoid the other 3 evening EMH though. I'm very glad I asked because we were definitely planning on them.

I think WDW is going to have to go back to the drawing board on this one. They're going to end up angering people who've stayed onsite especially to use those evening hours.

 

[seetheworld]

When we were there in April the Extra Magic Evenings were sooooo crowded. It was awful and we will never do them again. I sure miss the E-ticket nights!

 

[crazyj4488]

I tried this once at EPCOT for an evening and it was pretty stacked. I was there when the parks were very quiet too. People at the resorts really take advantage of this....my rule of thumb...avoid any park with any kind of EMH and goto a park on the day after it's EMH evening.

 

[Ellen aka Snow White]

We just returned yesterday and even my kids thought late night hours were a waste. That being so, we still had to try it at the different parks. We were able to accomplish a little but not like early entry.

We did have to show our resort pass to get the bracelet and the few things we got on, they were checking bracelets and turning away people without one.
We perfer the early entry days - it seems that we are always in front of the crowd instead of mixed into it.

 

[dvcgirl]

Dalton 5,

Traditionally, you wouldn't even need EMH evenings in September because the parks are blissfully empty. However, this year may prove different with the room/tix/food package deal that Disney is offering. Still though, they only sell a certain number of those packages and so hopefully it won't be too crowded. I can't imagine that EMH in September would be too crowded, nothing like it's been recently.

I'm even surprised at how crowded the EMH evenings have been in traditionally "not packed" May and early June. But attendance for the theme parks in Orlando is up 12% this year (Disney may be even higher, but they don't release their numbers). I'm thinking that the EMH parks this summer will be a nightmare....and a waste of time.

 

[disneyholic family]

I'm sure they had the best of intentions when they came up with the idea, but as it's turned out, they're going to have to scrap this program and come up with something else. Too much badwill is resulting from what i'm sure they thought was a good idea. They probably just thought it was a nice extension of the eticket nights and didn't think through the differences and the consequences.

 

[dvcgirl]

Beth,

I wonder if/when they will scrap EMH though. If they do, I don't think they'll do it before the end of the 18 month long "year" celebration. I remember thinking right away that it would be crowded during peak times. I didn't expect EMH nights to be so crowded during traditional off-peak times.

I do really think that there is a decent percentage of folks out there who are not spending the extra $$ for the hopping option. Also, it's much more appealing to have extra hours in the evening than it is to have to get up at the crack of dawn for the early hour. Those two factors, plus attendance being up spelled out disaster for EMH evenings I'm afraid.

I do think that Disney savvy people like yourself can use EMH evenings to your advantage by hitting the park that had it the evening before. The non-hoppers will move onto another park and provided it's not a weekend, you'll enjoy a less crowded park.

 

[disneyholic family]

they'll scrap it when they institute the new FP system that is supposedly in the planning stages. Which i guess will be a bit of a wait.

All this talk about increasing attendance is making me nervous. We've had to schedule our trips in the summer for the past 6 years, but though it's been crowded, it was never unbearable (i should point out that we never stay in any park past 1 in the afternoon). But in just about every post I've read, there is talk about a major increase in attendance. Any increase in what we experienced last year, would not be a good thing.

 

[ciera321]

We did all 4 park's evening EMH May 26- June 4 and the only one we really enjoyed (due to crowd size) was AK. It was so wonderful to have that park so empty and get all the attractions done with no waiting. The safari was especially nice, because the driver took it very slow and paused a few times so we could enjoy the animals up close. I am assuming this was done because there was so rush to move crowds thru like during the day...At Soarin, they did reopen the fastpass machines at 9pm., but the lines for a fastpass machines were unbelievably long, and standby was 90 minutes. We just decided to get to the parks at opening time and ride/fastpass all that we could, then enjoy our evenings at our resort...

 

[letterdavidman]

I'm wondering what the crowds will be like both for EMH evenings and in general for when DW and I are going the last full week of August. The first few times I went to WDW ('80, '83, and '88) I went with my parents on my summer vacation in, I think, late June (as my parents refused to let me miss any school for something as "frivolous" as a vacation ), so, needless to say, I was used to waiting a half hour, forty five minutes for an attraction. But then I went with DW (her first trip) a couple of years ago in October and man! were the crowds noticeably lighter! I loved it.

So I wonder what the crowds will be like this late August? I know the Florida kids'll be back in school, but it'll also still be summer, as opposed to early fall, so who knows? I was really hepped up about experiencing evening EMH, especially after reading accounts of the old e-ride nights, but I guess they're just two different animals.

 

[disneyholic family]

so that's unanimous - avoid all evening EMH except for AK....sounds good...
and in the morning go to the park that had EMH the evening before...

i'll let you know how it works out...
We're locked in for one of our mornings, when we have our Segway tour reservations....and one friday morning when it will be business and not pleasure..
but other than that, we're open to schedule, which is what i will do right now...

which is good,....i might even be able to figure out where we should make our PS reservations.....I don't usually know that until the night before..

 

[Galenamom]

I have always been a huge believer in taking advantage of the extra hour in the morning and was so excited about the extra hours in the evenings, thinking it would be so wonderful. What a let down! At the Magic Kingdom last week, the waits for Splash Mountain and big Thunder Mountain were 65 minutes each at midnight. The park was packed!

At Epcot, we were at the entrance to Future World when Illuminations ended. We zoomed over to Test Track and got a fast pass (yes, they were giving out fast passes!) to return at 10PM, then went over to Mission Space and walked on (the ride then broke down and we had a delay of 10 minutes, but that was unrelated to EMH). Then we went back to do Test Track and ended up waiting about 35 minutes in the fast pass line. After that, we gave up and went back to the hotel.

My advice is do the mornings and skip the nights.

 

[clutter]

Yep. We did an EMH at MGM in late January, and it was wonderful. We walked back and forth between ToT and RnR, riding each about 4 or5 times. Last week was awful! We missed AK (got there just as a huge-sounding thunderstorm was gearing up), passed on Epcot (at 7pm standby for Soarin was 130 minutes), and MGM and MK were just miserable. I was thinking how easy it would be for someone to get a wrist band, if you had friends on-site. In fact, although they check for a resort id, I don't know that they check the dates.

Bring back the E-ride nights!!

 

[stonecreekboys]

We just got back yesterday. Found Epcot's EMH to be the most crowded, and MK to be moderately crowded. Still, with Fast Pass it was all manageable. Splash MTn and BTMR only had 20 minute waits, non FP. The signs said 30, but the wait was 20 to get through the entire ride. We had a great experience. No one goes to Disney expecting to avoid crowds entirely. Enjoy!

 

[disneyholic family]

We just got back yesterday. Found Epcot's EMH to be the most crowded, and MK to be moderately crowded. Still, with Fast Pass it was all manageable. Splash MTn and BTMR only had 20 minute waits, non FP. The signs said 30, but the wait was 20 to get through the entire ride. We had a great experience. No one goes to Disney expecting to avoid crowds entirely. Enjoy!

At 1 in the morning, yes I do expect to avoid lines. When they had e-ticket nights last summer (from 11 to 2 in the morning), there was no line at all for anything. That's what I expect. If there's a half hour wait at 1 in the morning, that's not a perk of staying onsite, that's punishment.

 

[goofy4tink]

If you give people something for no charge, they will always take advantage of it.....hence the huge wait times. When you had to pay $12 to stay in MK an extra 3 hours, there were only about 5,000 wrist bands printed. If there had been more people clamoring for more wrist bands, you can bet Disney would have made them up. So, now...we have extra hours for no charge, but huge lines. And of course people will shop/eat if the lines are too long. Disney wins. If you are riding BTMRR 5 times in a row, then hoofing it over to HM and riding that several times in a row and then over to Space Mt for a few more turns...well, obviously you are not shopping. You will most likely get your fill of riding the biggies and then go back to your resort, shoppingbag-less.
With the EMH Disney gets a slew more people in the parks (all of them vs just MK) and they spend much more than the previous $12 a head got them. Sure they have more overhead but they had that anyway with the pay extra hours.

So, I figure they will keep this system intact until Nov '06. Then maybe do a variation of it. Maybe pay for extra hours in all the parks. Sure hope so...I loved the E-nights.