July 3rd EMH 10pm - midnight at MK - go late?

[micheledb49]

On July 3rd we plan to do Epcot in the morning and then spend most of the day at the pool. If we arrive at MK around 8pm or 9pm on July 3rd...
1. Do you think we'll have any problem getting in? Not sure if parks get to capacity on 7/3.
2. We will be focused on the little kid rides (Winnie the Pooh, Magic Carpets, Dumbo). Will these still have really high wait times since it's a holiday weekend even though it's later in the night?

We don't usually do MK at night so I'd like to go so we can see it all lit up. I thought maybe with the EMH it would be an okay time to go, but since it's a holiday weekend, I'm not sure.

 

[Oswin]

Last year, it was actually really manageable on July 3 for EMH. We had low or reasonable waits on just about everything we tried getting on. The reason for this is that thunderstorms caused the delay of the July 4 fireworks that were shown on July 3 at MK and the park cleared out some because of that, and then the rain continued and more people left right after the fireworks were over. The park didn't reach capacity that day, though. I would NOT arrive at 8-9 pm however, because you will have a really hard time getting down main street because that is where everyone will be gathered to watch the special July 4 fireworks that are shown that night and it will feel insanely crowded trying to make your way down main street to get to one of the other parts of the park. I would also expect them to expand the actual closing time from 10pm to around what it was last year - hopefully somewhere around 1am. The EMH on July 3 last year was from 1-3 am.

 

[micheledb49]

Thanks Oswin! Good point about Main Street. Do you remember last year when they announced all the holiday extended hours? They have all the parks closing so early, so I guessed they would expand them but it makes it hard to plan since they are not showing them.