Extra Magic Hours with a 6 Year Old

[ksloane]

I am trying to plan which days we are going to do which parks and need some advice. It will be just myself and my daughter (just days from 6 at time of trip).

First Set of Questions. (I'm sure there will be more )
1. I have a list of which days of our trips have the AM hours and the PM hours. My question is at what times exactly do the hours start/end?

2. Are any of you able to take advantage of PM hours with a child as young as mine? Or is there even any reason to? I'm thinking that if we are getting up early for AM hours that she'll be dead by the time the parks close? And wouldn't be able to get up in the morning if we stayed? Am I right?

Thanks in advance. As I'm starting this part of the planning, I'm sure I'll be back with lots more questions over the next few days.

 

[Deb & Bill]

We usually do EMH in the AM at MK, sometimes Epcot, DS and AK. It's one hour before the normal park opening time.

The eveving hours are usually too crowded. These are three hours after normal closing time.

 

[barkley]

we use the emh's to indicated which park to AVOID each day-rather than deal with the crowds we go to another park not having emh that day and find nice light crowds. the one night we went to emh evening at epcot it was insane-rides that had maybe a 10 minute wait earlier in the day had 2 hour waits. i also found it to be a much rowdier crowd-it was overwhealming for my kids.

to stave off exhaustion we do every day in 2 blocks-one in the morning and one in the evening. during the afternoon we are back at the hotel swimming or napping-mostly napping. it refreses us for our evening activities. and i must say, being from a non humid state that in recent weeks has had temps of 108 degrees and better-nothing lays us out flatter energy wise than the heat and humidity of florida. between that and adjuting to the time change-our bodies take a real beating.

 

[Mandy_in_NC]

When we were at WDW in Jan we did the extra magic hours at MK with a 6 year and 8 year old. We stayed at the MK until around 2:30am. We were able to ride just about anything with out a wait. We did rent a stroller for part of the night. We did decide to take the morning off and have lunch with my brother that lives in Fl and we chose to go back to the parks that afternoon. I think me and my DH were more crabby the next day than our kids were. To answer your question yes the EMH at night can be done with a 6 year old. Hope that helps.

 

[laughinplace199]

It depends on the kid. My kids are up at the crack of dawn, so we hit the morning EMH. They'll stay up "late" (until 9:00 or so) once or twice during the trip, but otherwise they go to bed around 8:00. Being up early makes it impossible for them to stay up late.

 

[HRPro]

We broke our day up. Mornings in the park, back to the resort in the afternoon for a swim and nap and then to the park with EMH. She was up until 3 a.m. at the MK we rode Buzz Lightyear 7 times in a row without a wait. We also did all of Fantasyland, the Haunted Mansion, Big Thunder Mountain, the Parade and Fireworks that evening. We ended our night riding the people mover.

DD5 is an early riser, but likes to take her time getting ready in the morning.

MGM has limited attactions open for evening EMHs as does EPCOT. I would do early EMH for MGM, EPCOT & AK.

 

[Rai's Mommy]

My DD6 and I took advantage of the MK extra magic evening hours in May and were in the park until 3:30 a.m. (Rides ended at 3 and then we went into one of the shops and did some quick shopping ) DD is not a morning person so we didn't attempt any of the a.m. EMH.

The evenings are great because you don't have the heat to deal with and a lot of the kiddie rides are pretty empty. I'll definitely do the same our next trip. And, my DD still brags to everybody and anybody about the fact that she stayed up and out until 3:30 a.m. (one of the highlights of her trip )

 

[lisaross]

I have a 4 & 6 year old. I'm planning on doing a MK early morning entry and a MK evening -- but the evening will be on our last night - so its not like i care if the kids are sleepy the next day as we can sleep in and stay by the pool till its time for the airport. I think if you plan an Evening EMH then do a sleep in the next morning!

lisa

 

[ksloane]

Thanks for these great suggestions. I think after knowing some of you do it, we'll just play it by ear. I don't know if she can make 3, but she's stayed up this summer at home until 11 or so (which is very late for her) so who knows. I think I'll just let her tell me when she's ready to go. And wake her early and ask if she wants to get up.