Extra Magic Hours!!! WOW...

[imwithgoofy]

Hey, just back from WDW

We had the pleasure of trying the Extra Magic Hours at Magic Kingdom, MGM,
and Epcot.

Magic Kingdom was open until 2AM and it was JAMMED (as late as 1am) when we left!

MGM was open until 1am - Rock n Rollercoaster and Tower of Terror was OVERPACKED. It looked like any summer time midday/too many people crowd.

There are a few attractions open...not all
What's NOT open - Beauty and Beast, Extreme Stunt Show, Indiana Jones, Playhouse Disney, Millionaire, Backlot Tour, Fantasmic

Epcot was open until midnight.
The World Showcase was open, of course, as well as Mission Space and Test Track and Soarin.


This seems like a great idea at the time, so we decided to try the extra magic hours. WOW...we thought a lot of disney guests with kiddies would leave, as might the people who don't like to stay up late, etc...

Well, needless to say, we won't do that again! I'll stick with my original plan and do the early morning hour instead.

It was too crowded, dare I say more crowded than the day time summer crowd.

Anyone else have this August experience?

A side note, one early day (1-3pm) our son rode Rock n Roller coaster 3X in a row in about 25 minutes and Tower of Terror 4X.

We will pass on the extra magic hours during the summer months.

 

[KimWDW]

Did you try any of the morning ones? I'm wondering if they are as bad as the nighttime.

 

[imwithgoofy]

The morning extra magic hour is wonderful! We love it!

They have made changes, each park is open early ONE day a week.

They mornings are the best, remember though, everything is not open early,

but still no problems it beats the night time hands down.

 

[imwithgoofy]

How do others feel about the 3 extra magic hours at night?

 

[RyMickey]

We just got back, too, and did 4 EMH evenings.

Evening 1 - Last Friday in July (the 29th, I think) - thought it was pretty good. Got a FastPass for Space Mountain and was able to ride Splash and Big Thunder with less than a 10 minute wait (could've easily done them again but passed). Did Buzz and Stitch and a couple Fantasyland rides. The place wasn't empty, but if you planned on doing smaller things, it was well worth it. I mean, who really wants to wait in line for Snow White, Pooh, Haunted Mansion, and stuff like that. It was good for small stuff.

Evening 2 at MK - However, the following Friday, the place was jammed. Waits for Splash and Big Thunder were 20 and 30 respectively. Space Mountain was 60 (we got a FastPass for this). Still, the smaller stuff had minimal waits (although Buzz was 25). If this was our first experience with EMHs, though, it might have turned us off. Then again, if you focus on smaller stuff, you could easily finish Fantasyland and Adventureland in an EMH night.

EMH pm at Epcot - Soarin' had a long line, so we skipped that. Got a FastPass for Test Track (although normal line when we did it was only 20 minutes -- very minimal for TT). Did Mission: Space (and could've done it multiple times - there was no wait at all). Did Spaceship Earth, Malestrom, Living Seas (was great to have a Turtle Talk with Crush with minimal people -- there was great interaction with the kids in the front).

EMH pm at AK - Wanted to see this park with the lights on. Got everything done that could've been done in this park except we didn't see the nighttime Lion King show. No waits (although Dinosaur broke down while we were waiting in line so we had to wait a little longer there, but it wasn't because of crowds).

So, overall, I liked EMH pm's - but you may just have to plan on going to the one at MK and not seeing the big things, but instead focusing on the smaller attractions available.

 

[tynesntx]

we just got back! It was our first trip! It was awesome! we were there aug 7-13th..
I was afraid because most of the parks we picked were on late emh days.
we had no problems with emh. we walked on to most rides all week. we did not wait for any ride more than 20 min, during the rain storms we went back to our room and rested. then back to the park. we did get to most of the parks by opening time. on mon. at mk. we had finished all of fantasy land by 10:30 and then did space mountain and all of towmorrow land by 3pm. by the time emh hours came, we really did not need them. we found that to be the case most of the week.
we did epcot on thurs and that was the most crowded of the whole week. fast passes for soarin and test track sold out by 1pm. we were able to do test track and mission space twice, soarin only once. we were also able to get a table at the cantina san angel for illuminations.
it was very hot, but not unbearable. the worst heat was at animal kingdom
(not our favorite park) no breeze at all!!!!
loved seeing fantasmic on Sun. for the 10:30 show!!!!
If we get to go back, i would do this week again, FL schools started on the 8th so I think that helped greatly!!!
Meal plan is also awesome!!!!!! loved it!!!!!

tynesntx

 

[jessieroo]

We always do the early mornings, before they were even called emh. I would imagine that during the summer more people will give give up afternoons in the heat & sun for the night time.

 

[cindyfan]

What worked best for us was to go to the park the morning after they have EMH at night!
We went in June, and the eveing EMH were so crowded it was just nuts!!
I am just wondering what it will be like in the slower months.

 

[joece]

WE WENT TO EVENING EMH EVERY NIGHT FROM 7/29 TO 8/5!

THE WRONG TIMES WERE DISPLAYED! SPACE MOUNTAIN DISPLAYED 60 MINUTES BUT THERE WAS 5 MINUTE WAIT!

Rnr and ToT had wrong wait times displayed both at 70 minutes! We waited 5 minutes for both!

WE NEVER USED FASTPASS DURING EVENING EMH!

MUCH LARGER WAIT TIMES WERE DISPLAYED THAN ACTUAL!

 

[MainStUSA]

Tower of Terror and Rockin were packed but the best thing to do is get to those rides while fantasmic is playing because as soon as the shows over forget it you cant get on anything