Extra Magic Hours- question

[Miramar]

When the parks offer Extra Magic hours in the evening and if those hours are supposed to be for people staying at Disney Resorts only, how does that work as far as people staying elsewhere? I don't see how they can ensure that all those people have left the park. Which brings me to my real question-- are the evening extra magic hours worth it in terms of having fewer crowds in the parks?
Also, on the Disney website it lists which parks have Extra hours during our dates but it does not state what exactly those hours will be. The morning ones are easy to figure out-- the park will open an hour early, but for the evening ones it just says that the parks can be open UP TO 3 hours after the normal closing time. In other people's experience, do they usually stay open the full 3 hours or do they sometimes close before that-- only staying open an additional 1-2 hrs? We will be there in early November . . . Thank you

 

[duckfish]

Disney scans the resort ID cards of guests and gives out wristbands to ID resort guests and then they check the bands after closing before the guest can board a ride. When we were there in April each park was open 3 hours after closing.

 

[Rudegrle]

There are stations set up all around the park, that will be having an EMH night, that pass out wristbands and swipe your hotel room key/pass to ensure you are a WDW resort guest. The attractions that are open during the evening are only open to people who have a wrist band. I saw no problems w/ people trying to sneek EMH that were not staying on property.

Before we left we were able to view the actual EMH hours online, but it was pretty simple - either 1 hour before opening or 3 hours after closing - but this was in Feb. There are times guides for the EMH at your Hotel too!

 

[DisneyFan06]

I have some questions about this too. Like how does it work? I am planning on doing Extra Magic Hours, but like I am not sure how they work.

 

[LauraAnn630]

I think you can stay and shop or take pictures but you cant ride.

If it wasnt for the late hours at MK we would of never got to ride all the rides.

My question is... Can you make reservations for breakfast at 8:00am if you are not staying on site? If the park opens to the public at 9:00am

 

[LadyZolt]

DisneyFan06: It works like this -- you stay at a Disney resort and that qualifies you to get into EMH. The parks list when they're doing EMH (at the DisneyWorld.com web site), whether it's morning or night. If morning, the park opens an hour early. You just show up and show them your Key to the World card (resort room key and park ticket), and you get in. At night, they start putting wrists bands on people who are staying at Disney resorts. They start about 2 hours before scheduled closing, but if you arrive after official closing, they still let you in. Only listed attractions are open during EMH (which ones are found at the DisneyWorld.com web site, too), and during night EMH, they check to make sure you have the wrist band in order to get on the attraction. Hope that helps!

LauraAnn: If you have a breakfast ressie before park's official opening, when you get there, they usually announce for people who are doing breakfast and they let those people in. We saw this happen last week at Animal Kingdom. Park opened at 9, and they let people in who had ressies at the Breakfastosaurus before the park opened.

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)

 

[jackmac]

One other thought on EMH. If you want to go on rides, go during the fireworks shows. Most of the crowds are watching the show and the lines for the rides are less.