How is "Evening Extra Magic Hours"

[mudogs]

Any feedback from those who already participated? Does this really mean MK will be open until 2:00am on it's day the last week of March?

 

[dj2]

we were in AK on 1/16. we were not staying onsite, but didn't realize it was late and stayed in the park until about 6:30 (closed at 5). did not see anyone passing out wristbands, but it was FREEZING and everyone had winter coats on. we were not asked to leave, but we were ready to go. some shops and eateries had closed before we left - the whole park did not stay open late. IF regular closing time is 11 and it's a MK late EMH, then i'd guess the answer is yes, SOME attractions will be open until 2. hope you're not planning on waking early the next morning!

 

[Carrieberry]

We did Ak this last Tuesday and it was great! We walked around an empty park since everyone was in Dinoland ( that is where all the open rides are). Did MK on Wednesday night. It felt empty as well. We did Splash 3 times in a row and then waited 5 minutes for Thunder Mountain. We rode Buzz over and over and my son did Stitch twice. It was great! Dod Epcot Tursday and walked onto TT and MS a couple of times. EMH was awesome!!

 

[gonga]

I have been away for a few months, so please excuse my stupid question.....

Is evening magic hour like e-ride night? Do you have to buy a wristband or is it open to all resort guests?

Thanks

 

[Kuzco]

I have been away for a few months, so please excuse my stupid question.....

Is evening magic hour like e-ride night? Do you have to buy a wristband or is it open to all resort guests?

Thanks

You do need a wristband and those are distributed similarly to E-ride nights. But you do not have to pay. It is open to all WDW Resort Guests!

 

[june@imsarc.com]

Do they have set nights for each park or is it a suprise each night? I'd love to know in order to plan better.

Thanks!

 

[3Mousketeers]

Check out allearsnet.com for EMH parks. I think they also post them on Disney's website. I think they only post a couple months out though and even with that there have been some last minute changes lately to the Feb schedule.

 

[noseybuddy]

So do you have to get your wristband when you enter the park that day, where do you get it?

 

[d96j97]

You do not get it when you enter the park. They will have designated areas (you could ask a CM where) and they hand them out about 2 hours before normal park closing. You have to have a valid ID to get one. It is an AWESOME benefit!!

 

[Kewz1]

You get the wristbands at different places throughout the park but not before two hours before regular closing time. So, if the MK was scheduled to close at 6 you could pick up a band starting at 4pm.

Kristen

 

[Unofficial Fan]

January 19th we participated in the Epcot EMH. It was fairly deserted but still about a 20 minute wait for Test Track. We of course walked right onto Spaceship Eearth. Note that if you are IN the park before EMH they won't "kick you out," but you do need the wristband to go on the rides. This is a nice advantage if you just want to walk around the parks, do some shopping/eating/etc. Of course, many of the areas are closed, but the countries seemed to be open for the most part.

The next night (or night after?? I forget) we did the MGM late EMH as well. Unfortunately Millionaire wasn't one of the attractions open. The wait for the Great Movie Ride was about 25 minutes, which seemed a little long to me. DD wasn't up to ToT or Rockin' Roller Coaster so can't say there.

 

[BibbidyBobbidyBoo]

Eh, so Extra Magic Hours is TECHNICALLY only really a "great" thing for onsite guests if they want to ride rides. Meaning everyone can still stay- you only need the wristband for the rides, so it's only a benefit for onsite guests in the case of riding rides, that's it.
Personally I wish they'd do it like they did e-nights or MNSSHP and such... but I realize that probably is a bigger hassle, require more staff, etc. to clear out the park and then do the EMH. But still.. it could be just as crowded and I've read on other threads about when it's cold and wristbands are covered by jackets- the staff not really checking for wristbands on rides/etc. I think I like morning EMH better (only for resort guests- more controlled since they aren't allowed in yet unless they are onsite resort guests) even though I'm a nightowl and much prefer staying up late than getting up in the morning.

 

[hpsauce]

Hi There!

Thanks to all of you who are reporting on evening EMHs. I have a wristband question. I understand that they are only distributed starting 2 hours before closing. Are they distributed after closing as well? What I want to do is stay at another park until closing, then go to the EMH park, get in using my parkhopper after the stated closing time, and get a wristband once inside.

Has anyone gone to the evening EMH after the official closing time, instead of just staying in the park late?

Thanks so much! Only 11 days to go!
hpsauce

 

[Carrieberry]

As long as you have your id from your resort you can get into the park after regular closing time. We did not arrive at AK until well after the 5pm closing time. We passed a lot of CM's that were getting off work on their way out.

Also, we were not allowed in certain areas of AK without our wristband and at all 3 parks we did evening EMH at (we did not do Studios) we were always asked to show wristbands before getting on rides, coats or not. The parks felt much less crowded and waits were non existant even with the offsite resort guests still lingering.Just not anything for them to do so after the first hour or so they are pretty much cleared out.

 

[swilphil]

Did anyone feel that the morning EMH was less crowded because people were going in the evening instead?

 

[Pea-n-Me]

We were there 1/19 - 1/25. We stayed till almost midnight at Epcot EMH 1/19 and MGM two of the other nights until 10pm. It was chilly but we anticipated that and brought warm clothes and mittens which were only needed one of the nights.

Epcot:
They were giving out wristbands beginning around 6pm at a couple of different locations in the parks. We got ours at the International Gateway area. There was a very small line. You had to show your KTTW card *and your license* and they gave you a wristband. Took only a few minutes. World Showcase still closed at 9pm. We had fastpasses for Test Track but like Unofficial Fan walked easily on Mission Space during Illuminations. Space Goofy was outside. We had a late dinner at Cape May and came back to enjoy the evening later. Very few people still there at closing time.

MGM:
We did EMH on two different nights which was great since it happens to be my favorite park. They were giving out wristbands late in the afternoon in three different locations: by the gas station up front, by RnRC and by the GMR I believe. Same process as above but we did not have to show our licenses here, just our KTTW cards. They did check wristbands each time we went on the rides.

Now the best part: during those two EMH nights we were able to ride RnRC 14 times!!! Sunday night we actually were among the last people on the ride and on our second to last ride had the entire string of cars to ourselves!! It was a special thrill for my twins who at 7 for the first time met the height requirement so that's all they wanted to do and we were happy to oblige since we love it too. (We did most of the other attractions earlier in the days). In between we also rode ToT more than 10 times (lost count). It was a riot! It did get a bit crowded on both those rides right after Fantasmic but within an hour the lines thinned out again. I'm sure the cold weather worked in our favor because some people looked downright uncomfortable because many of them were not dressed for cold weather, LOL.

TIP: remember to get your wristband BEFORE Fantasmic as the lines for them were long after the show and waiting held people up from getting in line for the rides.

TIP: lined jogging suits with turtlenecks worked great for the chilly nights with another jacket to throw on top later and gloves are helpful to have, too.

Animal Kingdom:
We went for the 8am EMH and were disappointed to learn that Dinosaur doesn't open until 9am (or was it 8:45?). Anyway, we really wanted to ride that first so we did bathroom runs and waited for that to open. We then did Dinoland for a while and headed over for Kali River Rapids. We were going to wait until later in the day to ride but I wanted to scope it out since the weather was sunny and actually pretty pleasant. Turns out there was literally no line so we rode KRR three times in a row without even getting off! Because nobody was standing in line when we finished the ride they asked us if we wanted to stay on so we did. Needless to say we were pretty wet but we'd thrown our windbreakers on ahead of time so it wasn't too bad. We still were able to walk around comfortably later on and even ate ice cream right afterward. That was fun and I still can't believe it when I think of some of the times I've stood in that line in the sweltering heat.

The EMH were great and really changed the way we usually do the parks. The other factor was this trip was the first time we got base tickets with no hopping option so that took a little pressure off as well. Instead of running out the door each morning really early to Rambo around we were able to sleep in some days and head over after a leisurely lunch if we knew the park we were going to was open late. Awesome.

One other thing I wanted to mention as a warning for people planning their iteneraries based on published EMHs: they had changed when we arrived so we had to scramble to change all our plans when we got there and we never had a MK EMH night which we were supposed to. So I'd call the resort directly a day or two before arrival to check to see if anything's changed.

Have fun everyone who's going!!

 

[crzy4mk]

Does anyone know if this is long-term? We will be staying off-site in October, and if there are EMH nights I want to be able to plan accordingly. Do they close the parks early (a la MNSSHP) when it is an EMH night, or is it the regular schedule and then the extra time comes after closing?

 

[ms.ojo]

Pea-n-me...great info'n. Thanks!