Extra Magic Hours

[trouttigger]

We are staying at Pop Century in January. There seems to be some general advice to avoid the park with the EMH thing.

But if you are staying on property, does this advice still hold true? It seems to me that if you can really get there the hour early, you may be able to ride all the high demand rides then.

TIA,

 

[Debi]

My personal opinion is that the morning EMH is a great thing! Crowds are very low during that extra hour, and you're able to tour a lot of the park with minimal wait times. I've never done the evening EMH, so I can't comment on that. Can anyone with evening EMH experience comment?

 

[TheWog]

We went in November 2006, which was a slow time and really enjoyed the evening EMH. We didn't do any morning hours. We found the waits real short, like Everest, we just had to wait for the train to return to get on, Thunder Mtn, we rode around 4 times before we had to get off. It was a great time. it may depend on time of year. January should be a quieter time as well, so I would say do it, but that is just my experience. We plan on going to EMH in April when we are there.

 

[tzolkin]

We went to the morning EMHs and found that we were able to do all of our must-see attractions with little or no waits. The park started to get busy and the lines started to build by about 11:00. We then headed back to the hotel to eat and nap and then went to a different park around 5:00. If you have the park hoppers, I would definitely suggest doing EMHs. But if you don't it may be very crowded to stay in that one park all day.

 

[Hotelsox]

It's AMAZING how much difference an hour can make... highly recomended.

 

[tracirae1105]

We usually avoid the parks with the Early extra hours for fear of dealing with the early morning crowds staying in the park all day and making it crowded, but love going to Epcot and MK for the Evening hours.

 

[pepe of ohio]

Hey, it's one of the perks of staying on property so why not use them? We always go, both morning and evening, even if it's for an hour. Not much else to do as the other parks are closed, evening hours that is. The last 2 hours are the best, just before closing and strolling thru the parks is fantastic. Morning hou is great too, kind of congested at the gate but once they let people in and the crowd disperses, it's like you're all alone in the park say till around 11 am when the majority of guests finally make it to the rear of the park.

I can never understand why people avoid these just because some guide book such says to avoid parks with EMH's. We never use a guide or plan and always have a great time, see everything and never wait in lines. Best deal is go and see, doesn't cost you a cent if you're staying on property.

 

[SpectroMax]

We never get up for Morning EMH b/c we're always exhausted from the Evening EMH the night before. That being said, we avoid the Early EMH park every day, but we go to evening EMH every nigt. Last year we were ther the week of June 20th and found the best time to do anything all week was the evening EMHs!

 

[trouttigger]

For us, getting to a park by 8 am sounds stressful.

But I'm thinking 3 more hours in the evening might be worth scheduling for.

Any more thoughts on this?

 

[letthewookiewin]

My family is a bunch of night owls, so the early EMH's are too hard for us. On our trip that we are planning for May we are planning on at least doing the morning EMH for DHS so that we can get to TSM fist thing.

 

[BradyBz12]

We use evening EMH all the time. We just got back from a 3 week trip, and have taken 3 other 2 week trips in early December in recent years. Our past experience was that EEMH were terrific and we enjoyed how the atmosphere of the park was so different at night.

However things have changed in recent months. Before then, the policy was that Disney resort guests got wristbands for EEMH, so that CMs could tell who was actually "supposed" to be there and who was allowed to do rides/attractions. While there wasn't a hard and fast effort to kick off-site guests out of the parks, you generally had to show your wristband to ride anything.

Now the wristbands are gone and you have to show your KTTW card on every ride/attraction you want to do. Not such a biggie on it's own, except now it seems that Disney is actually encouraging off-site guests to stay in the parks during EEMH to eat/shop. While they technically can't do any rides/attractions (and they're being fairly strict about this from what we saw) it does mean a lot more people in the parks than we've seen in the past. And forget those "whole store to yourself" shopping trips along Main St. in MK.

Another downside of the new system is that it's hosing up ride lines because either people don't know they need to have their KTTW cards out to be checked and have to go searching for them at the queue entrance, or CMs are having to explain to off-site guests that it's EEMH and they can't ride.

So.....
Bottom line is that once this little snafu gets cleared up, I'm hopefully EEMH will go back to normal and be the fun time it always was!

Oh, but one more thing. Understand that not everything stays open for EEMH. Pretty much all the big attractions do (which is great - when do you ever see Peter Pan or Snow White as walk-ons?!). Also food choices are very limited in most of the parks, with many of the retaurants/CS locations closing up at "park close".

 

[LittleMissMagic]

I don't get very much out of evening EMH, but morning EMH is fabulous. We've gotten the most done in our morning EMH at MK. They only open Fantasyland and Tomorrowland for EMH, so once the park officially opens, you can still have early-arrival benefits in Frontierland and Adventureland.

However, if you aren't going to make early EMH, definitely avoid the park. We made the mistake of getting to AK at regular opening time, though it opened an hour earlier for EMH, and the park was miserably crowded.

 

[KatMark]

We do both morning and evening every trip. It is amazing what we can get done in that hour in the morning; the evening we may not get as much done as far as rides, but we use that time to go to shows and go through the shops, etc., if the lines for the rides are too long.

 

[MommyBryn]

We've always done evening EMH since they started...never has there been a night where it felt busy. VERY worth it. Oftentimes we just ride the same ride over and over again because there's virtually NO lines! We've never done morning EMH though.

 

[stacy2197]

EEMH are nice in the summer just because it is so much cooler at night.

 

[rx2755]

EMMH and EMEH are a great perk (have not been since they eliminated the wristbands, they were still in use in August) and we have used both. On our last trip in August '08 we did both. The night that MK was open to 12 then had 3 hours EMEH.... well by 2 am we were just walking through all of Splash Mountains que (running actually, LOL) to get on twice then over BTMR next door for a couple times in a row... We even went to them 2 years ago when we were there this week (right after Christmas) even though there are people that would "never " do that. Call me crazy but I love a good crowd In January I would highly recomend going, like it has been said ... 'what a great perk'.. a reward for staying on property!!!! Have Fun..

 

[thepwa]

We use AM and PM EMH. It is the main reason we stay on-site. For us, it is the top time-saving touring strategy.

Since we normally go in the summer, we usually go to the park with EMH in the AM, then head to another park after the first couple of hours.

PM's can get a little crowded initially, but thin out the later it gets.

 

[patbri]

Just got back today. We arrived on the 25th and took advantage of EMH on both ends. One night the 'cousins', 7 people between the ages of 13 and 26 went to Magic Kingdom from midnight to 3 AM. They said it was great - maybe 10 minute waits at Space Mt, etc. They said at first it was a little crowded but then thinned out. They had to show their resort card for every ride. We did the morning hours at every park and evening at MK, DHS and Epcot. I can't imagine doing it any other way during this time of the year.

Patti

 

[hmkenn0]

I think that EMH use should all depend on your family. If you are stressing everyone out to get up at 7am to get to the 8am open then its not worth it. Likewise, if you are taking a whiney, tired three year old who normally goes to bed at 8 through the park at 10pm then it is equally not worth it (clearly speaking from experience ) . If you have young kids I find the MEMH the best because they usually wake up early. Also the EEMH on early closes (like a 5pm AK or 8pm MK) can be great b/c they are not too late for small ones either. One of the favorite things that we discovered during EMHs is the character greeting spots in some of the parks (specifically the one in the breezway from the park entrance towards SOARIN') is open with little to no wiat. One of my biggest pet peeves at Disney is standing in line to meet characters. They seem unorganized and long compared to the attractions so I liked the EMH opportunities.

 

[*Valdez*]

DH and I love EMH. We get up early for the morning, head to the resort for a laid back afternoon then off to another park for evening EMH. It is great to not wait forever for rides. We have been there at 3am and it is a nice time. You can see all your fave rides in no time. Napping midday is best because parks are most crowded and in summer the hottest point of the day.