extra magic hour questions...MANY..lol

[allisonwonderland]

ok..the way i THOUGHT this worked was that the parks would open one hour earlier than normal for resort guests on certain days,,,NOW with what I was reading,,they SEEM to stay open later too?or does it depend on time of year?DH thought that resort guets got in an hour early every morning for every park,,,,,dont think thats right....since I have a UG from 2003,,there is not a lot of info about this since I dont think they were doing EMH in 2003(or I could nor find it in the book) and since we are not going till JUNE..no hours are posted.......ALSO......the books say STAY away from the parks that have this due to crowding,,what do you guys do?oh..thanks!!!!!!!!

 

[princess aurora]

The EMH work for on-site guests allowingthem to enter a park 1 hr earlier than the general public. They are not for all parks and not everyday. There is a list on this board under park hours. There I also read that they are now doing EMH at night up to 3 hrs at some parks. This is the time that is is the most crowded I've heard but have yet to experience.

Your best bet to avoid crowds is go early

 

[ljones]

We took advantage of this at MGM and were able to ride RnRC 2 times inside of an hour

 

[WDSearcher]

Resort guests can access the parks earlier and later than off-site guests on a rotating basis. That is, not every park is open late or early every day. For example, today (Feb 14), Epcot is open one hour early for resort guests. Tomorrow (Feb 15), MGM is open one hour early for resort guests and DAK stays open three hours later for resort guests. Not every park is open early or late every day, so your DH is wrong about that.

They were doing early EMH in 2003 -- they've been doing that for years and years -- but later EMH just started this past May.

As for crowd levels and crowding at EMH times ... you're going in June, so it will be crowded anyway. I say, if you want to go early or late, do so. If you don't ... then don't!

 

[the kabuki]

EMH evenings started in Jan of this year. Each park is open on selected evenings 3 hours past the regular park closing for those guests staying onsite. There is still EMH morning hours on selected days for each park.

Check out www.allearsnet.com for complete info and EMH schedules.
Look under THEME PARKS.

 

[snappy]

I agree with Princess Aurora, go early, get fast passes while you ride standby until the lines get longer, then use your fastpasses. Also, try to get another fastpass as soon as the window opens on your last fastpass.


Also, consider going early or at park opening to the park that had extra magic evening hours the night before. Everyone may just still be in bed.

When we checked in to our resort, they gave us a list of the parks that had EMH in the morning and evening for the time we were there. It also listed the attractions that were open for the EMH times. There were fewer attractions open in the am. Not many open period at Epcot or MGM. Because so few attractions were open, the lines seemed long.

Also, you have to show your resort card to get in to am EMH. For the evening EMH, you have to get a ride bracelet. You can get the bracelet no earlier than 2 hours before regular park closing. There are several locations to get the bracelet at each park. The lines at the location at the front of the parks are usually long. Pick another location if possible. The lines may be shorter after the EMH evening starts. The CM's are only supposed to let guest with bracelets ride the attractions. However, I don't believe guests who are not staying in a Disney resort are required to leave the parks (they can still shop, eat, wander around, etc.), so the parks may seem crowded.


We were still able to use our fast passes from earlier at some rides during evening EMH, but not all. Fast passes were still available for a short while as well at some rides. It varied greatly.