Extra Magic Hours vs. E-Ride

[CFioren317]

I am having some trouble doing searches so I apologize in advance if this has been asked a million times...

I took my son to WDW around July 4th for 10 days back in 2004. It was a great time, even though people said it would be too crowded and too hot. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I bought E-Ride passes to go to MK for 3 hours after the park closed, and we pretty much had the park to ourselves. On that Monday, the 5th, the park was open until 11 pm, then 3 extra hours and we were there until 2 am. We rode SM about 15 times the whole trip.

My question is about the Extra Magic Hours...it looks like it has its pros and cons, but I thought I would get input from the experts.

Pros: More parks; more rides appear to be open; Extra hour in the morning as well

Cons: It's free, so obviously alot more people will be there; only once a week;

Is it easy to get the bracelets? Do they limit them? Do they run out? Do the lines to get them get long or is it best to wait until the last minute when everyone will already have theirs? Or does everybody do that...LOL.

I have read some reviews and they seem to be pretty negative about the Extra Magic Hours Evenings...but the morning hour gets some good reviews. I was wondering what you have experienced with regards to this perk and is it worth it to plan my next trip around the extra evening hours at the parks?

 

[tmt martins]

We were just there ( June 25th - July 2nd ) and we DD & Me hit every EMH but 2 .

The rest of our group hit most of the night Emh's .

Yes it's more crowded then the E-nights but not as bad as the regular hours.

Mk is the worse as everything else closes right at the start of EMH but we still got a lot done and at the end you can just about walk on the Fantisyland rides.

One day we hit 3 parks and a waterpark and got many of our top rides done.

I like the morning as I'm an early riser and that extra hour gets you 2 good rides and and a fastpass before the park opens to regular guest.

The night were just to spend more time in the parks and do our Nighttime favs.and rides we wouldn't normally go on due to crowds.

 

[pkp]

I am having some trouble doing searches so I apologize in advance if this has been asked a million times...

I took my son to WDW around July 4th for 10 days back in 2004. It was a great time, even though people said it would be too crowded and too hot. On Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I bought E-Ride passes to go to MK for 3 hours after the park closed, and we pretty much had the park to ourselves. On that Monday, the 5th, the park was open until 11 pm, then 3 extra hours and we were there until 2 am. We rode SM about 15 times the whole trip.

My question is about the Extra Magic Hours...it looks like it has its pros and cons, but I thought I would get input from the experts.

Pros: More parks; more rides appear to be open; Extra hour in the morning as well

Cons: It's free, so obviously alot more people will be there; only once a week;

Is it easy to get the bracelets? Do they limit them? Do they run out? Do the lines to get them get long or is it best to wait until the last minute when everyone will already have theirs? Or does everybody do that...LOL.

I have read some reviews and they seem to be pretty negative about the Extra Magic Hours Evenings...but the morning hour gets some good reviews. I was wondering what you have experienced with regards to this perk and is it worth it to plan my next trip around the extra evening hours at the parks?

Actually, I'm going for a week next Wednesday. I looked at the calender on the Disney site and apparantly, in the six days we have park tickets, here is how the emh works out:
Morning Evening
MK 20, 25 21,23
Epcot 23 20,25
MGM 21, 24 19
AK 22,26 24

So, you do still get more then one night in a weeks time!

 

[CFioren317]

I see that...I guess it's because you will be there during a more crowded time. I am going from August 22 to the 29th, and they only have one a week scheduled as of now for that time. Maybe they'll add more...or at least I hope they do. We'll be staying at the parks the whole extra 3 hours, so hopefully the last hour will be less crowded.

 

[tmt martins]

Also when we were there they REOPENED the Fastpass machines for Night EMH so get some fastpasses as well if they do that.

 

[BamaFan121s]

The only pro I can see is it's free vs paying for it.

Pretty much, instead of only the people who bought the limited # of e-ride passes accessing the park for 3 extra hours, you have anyone who is a resort guest accessing the park for 3 extra houses. In short...ALOT more people. Trust me, I remember e-rides was almost like you were the only one there...sometimes now, EPCOT in particular, the crowd is just as bad...IMO, worse sometimes because I think some people just wait and come in after regular hours. I really do miss e-ride night.

 

[CFioren317]

I think I will be missing e-ride too...but as far as I remember, it was ONLY for MK, right? So after a couple hours in MGM, I'm thinking that it may be less crowded and we may get a chance to get on Rock n Roller Coaster without much of a wait. I'm still on the fence about whether to bring my 8 year old on it...he likes Space Mountain, but this ride is way faster so I'll see what happens.

 

[pkp]

I think I will be missing e-ride too...but as far as I remember, it was ONLY for MK, right? So after a couple hours in MGM, I'm thinking that it may be less crowded and we may get a chance to get on Rock n Roller Coaster without much of a wait. I'm still on the fence about whether to bring my 8 year old on it...he likes Space Mountain, but this ride is way faster so I'll see what happens.

eh, SM is much rougher, IMO. Even though RNRC is faster, its very smooth. The loops are probably the scariest thing, but I bet he would like it.

 

[527DiSnEyBelle]

About getting into EMH...Im going with my family next month and if we do EMH, how do we get the bracelets to get in? Are they available at the resort or at the park? Do we all have to wait on line to get them or can I just bring all of our resort ID's to where ever I need to and pick bracelets up for all of us?

 

[BamaFan121s]

Yes, there are several places throughout the parks where you stand in a (short) line to get them. Guests must be present to get them and each guest, regardless of age, must have a valid resort id/key. They scan the key on handheld scanners and slap the bracelet on you.