Extra Magic Hours

[Andy Lou & Meg]

When planning this years trip we did so before park hours were released.

We have now discovered that we are scheduled to be in some parks during EMH

We are currently going to be in

Animal Kingdom on 22 Aug - Early Magic Hours
Will be there at park opening and staying for most of the day

Magic Kingdom on 23 Aug - Late Magic Hours
Will be there after lunch

Epcot on 28 Aug - Late Magic Hours (Future World)
DD BDay Will be there from park opening until the fireworks (at least)

Animal Kingdom on 29 Aug - Late Magic Hours
Will be there after lunch

As a avid reader of Brits and Unoffical guide they say aviod but also TGM says we should always use them.

My question is how bad are they really? Should I change my park days? We will be going to MK and Epcot on other days but these are our only trips to MK

Any opinons or experience on this? Any help would be appreciated.

 

[binkytell]

we tried all emh last year, morning & evening, and the
only one i wouldnt do again is hollywood studios evening emh

it was crazy, we left an didnt do any rides, but all the
rest were great, mk is so spread out you dont feel the crowds,
by the end of emh most rides are walk on

go with wot you have planned, everyone feels different, some people like
emh some dont

 

[Andy Lou & Meg]

**Bumping up** just in case anybody else has other opinions.

 

[orangetiggs]

i always aim to use morning magic hours but dont tend to use the evening ones as its very busy

Ths year we will do morning ones to help me out being 5 month pregnant with twins so we can have afternoons at the hotel

 

[EvertonCJ]

Are you staying on Disney or off site? We stay on Disney and try to avoid the EMH if we can. We have visited Epcot before to eat at one of the restaurants during an evening EMH and the wait for the main rides was over 180 minutes. The early EMH are not as bad if you are staying at Disney and can get into the parks early, but if staying off site I would personally avoid them.

 

[Andy Lou & Meg]

We are staying onsite at POFQ.

 

[disneyholic family]

the morning ones are good to use if you get there before park opening (before extra magic opening) and plan on only staying for about 3 hours then go some place else...
but if you don't want to get to the park that early, then don't go to the emh morning park...go to a non-emh park instead...
we never get to the parks that early any more....we gave up commando style a few years ago...so we avoid the EMH parks at all costs...

we only happened into an evening EMH once, by mistake.....
we wanted to see wishes again before we leave..
so we headed to the MK right before the parade....
there were soooooooooooooooo many people in the park....i hadn't thought to look if it was EMH....

we only stayed for the parade and wishes.....there were a LOT LOT LOT LOT LOT of people there ...
i can't imagine what the rides were like...

 

[EvertonCJ]

I agree with disneyholic family in that the morning EMH are fine if you arrive early. The only problems I can see you having is when you arrive at the AK and MK after lunch. I would imagine alot of the fast passes would have gone by then so you could end up with some long queues.

 

[tubtruck]

Bring back the E ride nights IMHO. The last time we went on an e-ride night was in the Magic Kingdom I think was in 2002. It was the same as EMH but the difference was you had to pay $15 each for the wristband. The crowds were way way lighter than at EMH because of the small charge and so you got on far more rides and I had a far more enjoyable time.

As for extra magic hours at Hollywood studios, I would advise anyone not to bother unless they want to stand queueing for hours for a couple of rides. The night time EMH are something that I feel Disney really need to work at or try to do in a different way as at the moment they are often the busiest time of the park opening hours and many people leave feeling disappointed and feeling as though they should not have bothered.

 

[gbrchill]

Another voice for making use of the morning EMH, if you are morning people. Then be prepared to leave the park if it gets too busy. Don't go to the morning EMH park if you are arriving late.

Evening EMH is probably worth doing once - just for the experience of staying up late. However, the crowds can be heavy.

Chris

 

[Miss Mo]

Last time we were there we used EMH at MK and Epcot in the evenings and they were great - I loved doing some of the MK rides in the dark, made them so different. Not being a morning person we never got near the am EMH. This year, however, we have a toddler with us and long lies are sadly an old friend I miss dearly, we totally plan to do the am EMH to let us do a couple of the baby swap rides, then hang out on kiddy stuff and head back to the hotel pool in the afternoons. We'll be on a much slower pace than our last trip though and not trying to get everything done this time.

mo x