Is Evening EMH until 3:00 am productive during Christmas week?

[Akess]

My family: me, husband, daughter (18), and daughter's friend (17), will be visiting December 15-27. By referring to the 2014 December hours, I see it is a possibility that Magic Kingdom will have evening EMH a day or two during our trip. If available and we were to take advantage of this perk, I was wondering how productive it is and what is the best time to arrive. Understandably, we would take a day off from the parks the following day. Is it worth sacrificing a park day in the middle of our trip to take part in evening EMH?

 

[Alesia]

I wouldn't take the whole day off, maybe just sleep in and head to the parks a little later. We tried to take a day off once and we were miserable. We were in the park by noon.

 

[Figmentmommy]

My family: me, husband, daughter (18), and daughter's friend (17), will be visiting December 15-27. By referring to the 2014 December hours, I see it is a possibility that Magic Kingdom will have evening EMH a day or two during our trip. If available and we were to take advantage of this perk, I was wondering how productive it is and what is the best time to arrive. Understandably, we would take a day off from the parks the following day. Is it worth sacrificing a park day in the middle of our trip to take part in evening EMH?

We've done 2 of these late EMH nights and loved them! Our last one was during our December trip last year (12/13-12/20). They seem to always fall on our arrival day. The first time we arrived around 10pm just in time for Wishes, the crowds subsided quickly and we stayed until 2:30. We did all of Fantasyland and most of Tomorrowland without any lines! My kids rode Space Mountain for the first time at 2am and still talk about it years later. Last December we went to MK around 5:30pm hit a couple of rides- one with our FP then we had dinner at Chef Mickey's and came back after to ride our other 2 FP. We stumbled across the second Electrical Parade in Frontierland and walked right up to the rope the crowds were so low. We stayed that night until about 12:30-1:00 because we had an early ADR the next morning. Also, while of course everyone's touring style is different, we didn't need to take a day off from the parks the next day. The night we stayed the whole time we just slept in a little the next morning and hit the park a little before noon. Since it wasn't an everyday thing it didn't really impact our park time and we had 2 kids 9 & 7 at the time. It might not impact your plans as much as you think! Have a great trip!

 

[Akess]

Thank you both for your input. I currently have 4-5 resort days planned, but that might change to 3-4. This is the longest trip we have ever taken to Disney World. The last trip we took over Thanksgiving week in 2012 we were so exhausted and were really disappointed when we were packing to leave because we realized we didn't enjoy our resort, which we paid a pretty penny for (Wilderness Lodge). We are staying at the Wilderness Lodge again this trip. But since it looks like the parks we had planned on scheduling pre-opening breakfast reservations at, will likely open early anyway (MK and AK), maybe we'll go to AK after lunch, so I don't feel guilty about booking that Tusker House breakfast reservation on the day we plan on going to AK. Thanks again for the advice!

 

[OhThePain]

My wife and I stayed in the parks until a little after 3AM a few years ago. As packed as the parks are during the day, from 2AM-3AM we rarely saw anyone else while just walking around and most lines were very thinned out. I don't know if it was just luck or if that is the norm. We did it on 12/30. We showed up to MK in time for the "practice run" of the NYE Wishes at midnight and stayed for the EMH. I don't know if it was so empty by the third hour of EMH because it was the night before NYE and people rested more that night. We woke up on the earlier side the next morning for a CRT breakfast ADR, but after that went back to our resort, rested, napped and sat by the pool until we headed to EC for NYE at around 4:30. We love walking through the parks when they are empty (an ADR for when the park closes makes for an awesome walk to the gate at night).

 

[MrKnight]

IMHO, late evening EMH is one of the best ways to enjoy MK with minimal crowds, there is something magical about being in the park in the late night hours surrounded by glimmering lights and crowds so light that you can actually hear the themed music throughout the different lands. Not to mention this is the best way to enjoy e-ticket attractions with nominal wait times, one time I was able to ride Splash Mountain THREE TIMES in a row with no wait at 1am!!