Extra Magic Hours NOT so “Extra”

[Wendy May Hall]

When we brought our daughter to Disney back in May 2009, it seemed like there were Extra Magic Hours every night and they ran until 12:00 or 1:00 a.m., Now, you have to pay extra for an After Hours event to take advantage of Extra time in the parks. We have done several After Hours parties and they are awesome, the park is practically empty, it’s great!!! But, is it too much to ask to give Disney Resort guests some Extra Magic Hours?? So, imagine my delight when I saw that Epcot was having Extra Magic Hours for tonight from 10:00 pm to 12:00 am!!! Well, sadly, it was more like 10:00 to whenever they decided to close and kick you out of the Park!! For example, Soarin’ closed at 11:20, Living with the Land closed earlier than that. None of the snack carts were open after about 11:15. The Monorail wasn’t running when we left the Park around 11:40. Guess what was open? Mouse Gears!!! Oh yes, they made sure to keep the gift shops open so we had no choice but to go in the ONE remaining open attraction. Don’t get me wrong, we had a great, memorable night, but it was a little disenchanting to expect to close down the park at 12:00 and be kicked out early.

 

[Ned Lostmore]

.

 

[Bjkandma]

Thank you for pointing this out. Our trip is next week and like you, we were planning on staying at park for rides until 12. I remember when EMH had longer evening hours too.

This is very disappointing to me. Was World Showcase closed as well? I know last year, during EMH they were open for them.

 

[Wendy May Hall]

Thank you for pointing this out. Our trip is next week and like you, we were planning on staying at park for rides until 12. I remember when EMH had longer evening hours too.

This is very disappointing to me. Was World Showcase closed as well? I know last year, during EMH they were open for them.

World was sort of open, after the fireworks show, the gift shops and restaurants started closing and the cast members were locking doors and taking out trash while we were ordering food at the QS place in Japan (it was only about 9:30) - a lot of the cast members we ran into were not happy to be there

Thank you for pointing this out. Our trip is next week and like you, we were planning on staying at park for rides until 12. I remember when EMH had longer evening hours too.

This is very disappointing to me. Was World Showcase closed as well? I know last year, during EMH they were open for them.

 

[Bjkandma]

Thank you. That's just so sad to me. Everyone spends thousands of dollars for vacations, and yet get less and less for our money.

 

[ChimneyJim]

I was there tonight. I was under the impression the park closed at 9 and EMH was 9-11. Directly after Illuminations they were scanning bands to enter The Land.

 

[Delphinidae]

EMH was 9-11, not midnight. We were there tonight too. Midnight would have been nice but we were there till then anyway waiting on our bus lol :/

I do wish that more of WS stayed open for EMH, and definitely more snack carts.

 

[AMusicLifeForMe]

Extra Magic Hours was from 9-11 at EPCOT. This would make sense why everything you said was closed after 11. MouseGears is always open one hour longer than the scheduled closing time. So, with EMH going until 11, the closing time for MouseGears would be midnight.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Also just FYI, per the weekly Times Guide (http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/p/weekly-walt-disney-world-times-guides.html?m=1) the Epcot monorail closed at 11:30pm last night (its relatively normal closing time on a Epcot PM EMH night).

 

[Alesia]

@Wendy May Hall, you were mistaken about the time. As others have pointed out EMH was from 9 to 11. It sounds like some of the attractions were actually open later than they should have been.

 

[Robo]

MouseGears is always open one hour longer than the scheduled closing time. So, with EMH going until 11, the closing time for MouseGears would be midnight.

Sorry, but that's not a given on PM EMH nights.
Mousegear may be open past closing time of PM EMH, but not necessarily so.
(And, not likely by an hour, regardless.)

At all parks, the traditional "late shopping" can be curtailed at closing time on PM EMH nights.

 

[Liljo22]

Well that backfired on the OP.

 

[Wendy May Hall]

My Disney Experience stated 10:00 to 12:00, perhaps it was an app issue, oh well...I still think they should offer more EMH...

 

[Liljo22]

My Disney Experience stated 10:00 to 12:00, perhaps it was an app issue, oh well...I still think they should offer more EMH...

MK is tonight from 10-12am. May be you saw that one?

 

[Wendy May Hall]

MK is tonight from 10-12am. May be you saw that one?

Maybe, I could have sworn I saw Epcot, it was the whole reason we went to Epcot yesterday, but it’s all good - my post was meant to complain a little about the park closing early (evidently I was mistaken about that), but also that I just wish they had more and longer EMH. We are going to head to MK later and enjoy the EMH there

 

[Wendy May Hall]

Also just FYI, per the weekly Times Guide (http://www.orlandoparksnews.com/p/weekly-walt-disney-world-times-guides.html?m=1) the Epcot monorail closed at 11:30pm last night (its relatively normal closing time on a Epcot PM EMH night).

Thanks, I never check the times guide, I am so used to the MDE app!!! Do you know if the monorail and bus times on the MDE app???

 

[Master Fastpasser]

Its no secret and not new news that Disney has cut back A LOT on EMH.
It used to be that one park had AM EMH and one park had PM EMH daily.
In 2012 the PM EMH was cut from 3 hours to 2.
You speak of midnight.... that's still possible. I'm talking about the days when it was until 3am.
Since then EMH in general has dropped off in favor of pay to play events like EMM and DAH.

I'm not a fan of the changes but it is what it is for me at least because I still enjoy going to WDW.

BTW your theory falls apart when you look at a calendar and yesterday Epcot closed at 9apm with EMH of 9pm-11pm.
So be dang happy you were kicked out of Soarin' at 11:20pm and not earlier!

 

[Wendy May Hall]

Its no secret and not new news that Disney has cut back A LOT on EMH.
It used to be that one park had AM EMH and one park had PM EMH daily.
In 2012 the PM EMH was cut from 3 hours to 2.
Since then EMH in general has dropped off in favore of pay to play events like EMM and DAH.
I'm not a fan of the changes but it is what it is for me at least because I still enjoy going to WDW.

Completely agree!!!!!! I love Disney, not sure what it would take for me to stop coming

 

[Chickinvic]

I'm not a fan of the After Hours hard ticket events.

I am. I don't stay on property, so I love the fact they are having the parties. I would rather just go to parties than bother buying regular park tickets considering the crowds these days. There seems to me that there are plenty of extra hours for resort guests - not sure what OP was talking about? Resort guests get unfair advantage in WDW in my opinion. I think fastpasses should be available at the same time to all guests. Nothing good is left by 30 days out (really don't want to debate with people who think it is fun to refresh an app all day in the parks - I do not agree).

I have no issue with resort guests getting their extra hours since they should have some advantages, but I totally resent the unfair fastpass practices that Disney has in place.

 

[Madame]

I am. I don't stay on property, so I love the fact they are having the parties. I would rather just go to parties than bother buying regular park tickets considering the crowds these days. There seems to me that there are plenty of extra hours for resort guests - not sure what OP was talking about? Resort guests get unfair advantage in WDW in my opinion. I think fastpasses should be available at the same time to all guests. Nothing good is left by 30 days out (really don't want to debate with people who think it is fun to refresh an app all day in the parks - I do not agree).

I have no issue with resort guests getting their extra hours since they should have some advantages, but I totally resent the unfair fastpass practices that Disney has in place.

They have to fill their overpriced resorts somehow. I personally think under 3s should be charged admission (the amount of space their stuff takes up? Yeah.) and no FPs should be available to non resort guests. We don’t always get what we want