extra magic hours -not so magical!

[korzmom]

was anyone at MGM on july 19,06.. it was their extra magic hours evening and I swear I think they were over the limit on how many people can fit into that park. also, they must have screwed up on the fast passes for the day too, because people were still using fast pass after hours...but the machines were closed. the performance of fantasmic was messed up also, the 9:00 was sold out so we went to the 10:00 show and there were atleast 5 mistakes..(you know you've seen it too much when you can pick out all the mistakes) i"m not a big fan of the extra magic hours,I think they need to change something there...like make everyone leave and then if you have a key card you can get back in, because nobody leaves even those without the wrist bands..me and my dh were so discusted with the over crowdedness and the linetimes we were ready to sell our dvc..we did learn a lesson though- no more extra magic hours for us,atleast not in the summer..and we'll never go in july again either.
but we still LOVE DISNEY!

 

[RadioNate]

I was there that night! I totally agree with you. It was THE WORST. I was so disappointed. I know it is July but it was UNREAL crowded!

I used to work at DMGM and that was the worst I have ever seen that park. I'm talking New Year's Eve, 4th of July's, Christmas break, Easter break, summers...worse than that, just horrible!

We waited nearly an hour for the 1030 Fantasmic and still got some of the last seats on that far (facing the stage) left side. The majority of the people at that show did NOT have wristbands and the park was supposed to be closed at 9!

We got to the 9 show at 830 to find it completely standing room only. So we waited for the 1030 show. We had fast passes for RNR so we rode that and then headed to the 1030 Fantasmic line. It was a complete mess. Our friends didn't wait and as they were leaving they said the line was almost to the BAH. That was about 15 min before the show started.

After the 1030 showing RNR still had a 2 hour wait!

We tried to do stuff after the show but waits were really long so we just headed to the hotel. The bus lines were bad but they were double loading busses and getting people out of there asap.

ETA - I video taped Fantasmic so I'll have to go back and look for errors. The show definitely seemed 'off' to me but I don't remember anything specific. It was such a frustrating night for us that I don't think I just sat back, relaxed and watched the show. I was upset our friends left after I waited so long just so they could see the show. DH was upset with the crowds, DS was tired and bored since we waited so long. I'll watch it tonight if I have time!

 

[punkin]

Do they do a second Fantasmic show after the park closes only for emh guests? I thought they did the shows and then closed the park for non-resort guests. I'm confused and since I'm planning an MGM EMH in August I need to get unconfused quickly. Help.

 

[RadioNate]

I just checked my trip notes. The park hours were 9am-10pm with evening extra magic hours. The 1030 Fantasmic was during the extra magic hour therefor it was supposed to be for resort guests with wristbands.

That isnt' what happened at all! No one had wristbands. As far as I could tell (and our friend who were still in the part not in Fantasmic or the Fantasmic line) no one left. We stayed in the park until about midnight and we saw many people w/out wristbands going on rides (the big attractions still had massive lines) and no one was doing anything about it.

It was unusually bad the 19th. I don't know what happened but it was horrid.

 

[poohandwendy]

OMG, I can't believe someone posted about this. We were there too. When we went up to ride RnR, we were turned away and told that the ride was broken down but I don't remember what time it was. (we had tried to get fastpasses earlier, but they were LONG gone and there was a 2 hour wait)

And the lines to get a bus back to POFQ were SUPER long. I think we waited for about 45 minutes for a bus. It was crazy.

 

[poohandwendy]

LOL, I wish I would have known you all were there, it would have been cool to meet up.

 

[poohandwendy]

OMG, radionate, I just noticed that you were staying at POFQ too! We were there from the 17th-20th (building 6, 3rd floor)

 

[poohandwendy]

See, now I am not sure if I am confusing our bus wait with Epcot...the one day there was incredible lightning and it struck right by me and my DH in world showcase. I think that was the night we waited a super long time for a bus. I can't recall which night was the emh for epcot...maybe tuesday?

We park hopped so much, I can't remember and I was lax with my notes after our second day. I do remember that Animal Kingdom was super busy when we went...wed and thursday mornings.

 

[Fantasmic303]

I'm glad to hear others felt the same way we did!! We were at WDW from July 16-July 26, and my mom definitely believes that our first day at the Studios (the 19th) was the worst (crowd-wise) of the entire trip. It felt out of control, and Fantasmic! at 10:30 was RIDICULOUS. We were in the mob that was supposed to be a line, and it was a great lesson in how NOT to control a crowd!! We got in line fairly early too (an hour or so before the show), and we, too, "just" made it in. We were sitting in the second or third to last section on the left, not too far from the top.

We left after the show wondering how it was possible that no one has gotten seriously injured in the crowds on Sunset, considering that practically everyone in the park is down that area for one reason or another at the same time (ToT, RnRC, and two Fantasmic show crowds all overlapping).

 

[Laz]

As a lover of the old "E nights," I can tell you that EMH is a big Joke. However, I have been to MGM EMH and I always thought anyone was allowed to the late Fantasmic show? As far as FPs, I remember from last year that they close the machines and reopened them for EMH. People got in line for FPs and waited for them to open. They went VERY fast! What was interesting was that while RNR was very packed, Tower of Terror had no more than a 10 minute wait all night.

One plus about EMH is that fact that at least the parks are open! I have to plan now and just go with the flow.

 

[punkin]

OK. How do you find out if there will be a second fantasmic show if the Disney calendar only lists shows up until closing?

 

[Fantasmic303]

The second Fantasmic show was offered on NON-EMH nights as well, which is confusing. I don't think it's reserved for only Resort guests, even on EMH nights.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Doncha just love evening EMH?

 

[RadioNate]

OMG, I can't believe someone posted about this. We were there too. When we went up to ride RnR, we were turned away and told that the ride was broken down but I don't remember what time it was. (we had tried to get fastpasses earlier, but they were LONG gone and there was a 2 hour wait)

And the lines to get a bus back to POFQ were SUPER long. I think we waited for about 45 minutes for a bus. It was crazy.

We were at POFQ too! Ha - now I see your post. We were in BLDG 3, 2nd floor.

The bus lines were bad until they started loading 2 busses at once.

Luckily everyone in the bus lines were super nice unlike the cranky people waiting for Fantasmic.

The lightning strike day wasn't Wednesday. I was either Monday or Tuesday. I wanna say Monday. My trip notes are bad too! We were on RNR when it struck and the ride was shut down so we got re-admitts which we used on Wednesday between Fantasmic's.

All and all I didn't think the crowds were too horrible. There were long lines (we were there the 15-22) hour plus for most of the E-tickets, but we got fast passes so we didn't have too many issues.

We spent a lot of time at the pool.

What I thought was bad was the water parks. 45min waits for slides, jam packed wave pools, over crowded lazy rivers....both water parks were bad.

 

[Breezy_Carol]

Doncha just love evening EMH?

Not really.

We went to EMH at EPCOT in January, after schools were back in session. The lines were too long for us to do any of the major rides. It was a big disappointment.

 

[Towncrier]

We did EMH at Epcot last year during our summer vacation. What a joke. The lines for Soarin and Test Track were even longer during EMH than they were during the day. And all of the shops in the World Showcase closed at 9PM. Very little "magic" in those extra hours that we were allowed to spend at the park.

Needless to say, we didn't bother with EMH during our summer vacation this year.

 

[poohandwendy]

We were at POFQ too! Ha - now I see your post. We were in BLDG 3, 2nd floor.

The bus lines were bad until they started loading 2 busses at once.

Luckily everyone in the bus lines were super nice unlike the cranky people waiting for Fantasmic.

The lightning strike day wasn't Wednesday. I was either Monday or Tuesday. I wanna say Monday. My trip notes are bad too! We were on RNR when it struck and the ride was shut down so we got re-admitts which we used on Wednesday between Fantasmic's.

All and all I didn't think the crowds were too horrible. There were long lines (we were there the 15-22) hour plus for most of the E-tickets, but we got fast passes so we didn't have too many issues.

We spent a lot of time at the pool.

What I thought was bad was the water parks. 45min waits for slides, jam packed wave pools, over crowded lazy rivers....both water parks were bad.

Ok, when you were in line for the buses, was everyone in the line cheering each time a bus stopped for Port Orleans? If so, it was the same day...it was hilarious, people were soooooo happy when the bus driver would change the sign and it would say POFQ/R...for some reason, our line seemed to be the longest that day.

Wish I would have known you were there too! I didn't find out we were going until the day before we left, it was a 20th anniversary surprise trip from my DH.

 

[poohandwendy]

Oh, and I wanted to add...we were soooo lucky with the weather that week (mon-thur)! It kept threatening rain, but never really happened.

We didn't do the water parks this trip, but even though there were heavy crowds at times, we had a blast...just the two of us.

 

[punkin]

I'm going to do evening EMH for the first time this trip. I really hope what you guys experienced was a fluke. I have an MGM, AK, and Epcot evening planned. wish me luck.

 

[RadioNate]

The real rainy, lightning strike day was Monday. I went back and looked at my photos.

Our schedule was
Sat night -MK
Sunday - Epcot/MK for Spectro/Wishes
Monday - DMGM then it rained so we just napped and hung out at the hotel
Tuesday - AK/Typhoon Lagoon then we went to Epcot for dinner
Wednesday - MK/DMGM for Fantasmic, the miserably crowded night
Thursday - Blizzard Beach/ Jellyrolls at night
Friday - DTD/Epcot for Illuminations

We were with another couple and together we had 2 little boys. Hunter, Cole and Justin. I just give their names because we were always screaming at them in the bus lines and at the pool.

What a cool surprise trip.

All and all I wasn't happy with either the morning or evening EMH.