Just back and MGM Extra magic Eve hours are a joke!

[Michael623]

I am an early riser every day and have taken advantage of Extra magic morning hours several times and loved it. Practically had the place to myself. Being on vacation my wife and I decided that we'd sleep in and give the Extra Magic Evening hours a shot. I figure since we're staying on-site why not take advantage of all of the perks. I saw that once the EMH started they resumed giving fast passes which was my first tip off that this might not be the benifit that the morning hours are. So we opted to get a fast pass for TOT (our window opened in 20 minutes, not too bad) and head over to RNR. The posted stand by wait was 50 minutes. We were in the park earlier in the day and at the busiest time of day the stand by was 60 minutes. I figured they just hadn't reset the wait time maybe to scare off guests without wristbands. We waited 25 minutes and didn't get a quarter of the way through the outside portion of the line. The wait was at least 90 minutes, probably more. Although we had waited this long I convinced my wife that we should just skip out and use our TOT fast passes and after some convincing we left. The posted wait for TOT was 40 minutes but we had fastpasses so we'd be ok right? Wrong! With the fast passes it took 35 minutes to get through to the ride. Once again I have to estimate that the stand by wait was 75+ minutes. The longest wait I saw during the day was 60 minutes. At this point I was tired and cranky so we decided we'd catch the great movie ride and head back to OKW. The posted wait was 60 minutes and the line was outside of the theater, again longer than any line I had seen all day, we skipped it. So on the surface the EMH seems like a legitimate benefit but it just gives you an opportunity to stay up late and wait in the longest lines of the day. To be fair I didn't take advantage of any other EMH eve hours so I can't report on any others but the EMHs at MGM are a complete waste of time. Besides that my trip was great.

 

[becka]

I am sorry to hear that EMH did not work for you. I can see where EMH might not be as great a perk for those of us who always took advantage of the hour early entry in the mornings. I would think that many more people would take advantage of extended evening hours because they are already in the park. Lots of people do not like to wake up early on vacation which is why the early morning hours were always so great. At least they have both morning and evening EMH so those of us who like to get a jump start on the crowds still have an option.

 

[Michael623]

Oh don't misunderstand me, I have used EMH morning hours and loved it. In fact it is a huge benefit. I once went to MK for EMH morning and rode IASW, Pooh, Peter Pan, Snow white and Philharmagic before the off site guest had even hit the turnstiles. It was just the Evening hours at MGM that were a joke.

 

[sanapunk]

They don't have a limited number of wristbands system anymore do they? Because during the 25th anniversary, we used EMH at magic kingdom, and got on all the rides with a 5 minute wait, even splash mountain! I assume this is because they only sold i think either 1 or 5 thousand of the wristbands.

 

[valeriekc]

The problem with the extra evening hours is the park not the setup.
MGM really doesn't have enough repeat attractions to withstand a big crowd.
So anytime MGM gets crowded all the people cram into the end of Sunset Blvd and wait around on TOT & RNR.
Most of the people have already been on the other attractions by then and then aren't really that exciting that you would feel compelled to ride them again. I have heard a similiar problem with EPCOT in that during extra evening there is not enough open.
Just my 2 cents.

 

[Michael623]

I agree. In addition all the other parks were closed by 9 so for the people who like to stay up late there is only 1 option. Perhaps if they had EMH at 2 parks it would distribute the crowds a bit better. But I'm sure that comes down to a cost issue which I can respect.

 

[valeriekc]

They don't have a limited number of wristbands system anymore do they? Because during the 25th anniversary, we used EMH at magic kingdom, and got on all the rides with a 5 minute wait, even splash mountain! I assume this is because they only sold i think either 1 or 5 thousand of the wristbands.

Yes the limit the amount of (free/included) wristbands to the number of guests staying on property. So with WDW having over 25,000 rooms on property and (low average) estimate 2 people staying per rooom. There is the potential for 50,000 guests.
But if you remember E-ticket that would be only 10% (5000) is how many they used to limit the E-tickets nights to at the MK. I remember going to E-ticket nights when there was not even close to that number of guests..sigh.
Makes me long for the "good ole days"

 

[Pea-n-Me]

Yikes! I don't blame you for being disappointed.

Our experience on our January trip was that in two evening EMHs at MGM we were able to ride RnR a total of 14 times (first time our twins were tall enough to ride so they wanted to keep going on, LOL) and ToT 10 so they worked out well for us.

 

[Michael623]

You're comparing apples to oranges. I've gone in January and had a 5 minute wait for TOT at noon. The park was crowded to begin with and got even worse after 8:30. Don't forget that several states were out of school.

 

[disney junky]

I'm curious just how crowded the parks were to begin with Michael? Did the crowds seem to increase as the evening progressed? It's certainly feasible that people will head to the EMH parks from all the other parks with the hopes of riding a number of rides a number of times. As this is the first year of this system, I will be curious how it plays out as the peak season arrives this summer.

 

[Pea-n-Me]

You're comparing apples to oranges. I've gone in January and had a 5 minute wait for TOT at noon. The park was crowded to begin with and got even worse after 8:30. Don't forget that several states were out of school.

Understood. Just saying it worked for us.

 

[Michael623]

Oh yes, it got busier. People were flooding in starting at about 7pm in fact after fantasmic it seemed like there were as many people coming into the park as there were leaving. I could see this being a disaster in the summer although the hours at all of the other parks are longer then.

 

[mommystieg]

I am wondering how the evening EMH will affect the second Fantasmic! in June. We usually go to the late show to avoid the crowds and the long wait but I noticed that the only nights they have a second F! scheduled are the evening EMH nights...

 

[madge]

Oh yes, it got busier. People were flooding in starting at about 7pm in fact after fantasmic it seemed like there were as many people coming into the park as there were leaving. I could see this being a disaster in the summer although the hours at all of the other parks are longer then.

we found the exact same thing to be true at the Magic Kingdom last Wednesday for the PM Extra Magic Hours.....there were definitely as many people coming in as were leaving. We were extremely disappointed--the crowds were HUGE at the MK that night. Worse than any other time on the trip.

 

[disney junky]

Birnbaums has always suggested avoiding parks on EMH days when they were just in the morning. Perhaps that will be the strategy for evenings as well.

 

[GoofyHusker]

We were wondering how the MGM evening EMH were. That was one of the only EMH we didn't take advantage of during our trip on 4/3-4/9. Having awakened that morning at 4am for our 5:45 flight, we didn't even stay to the regular closing time.

The EMH at AK was great. The only ride that had any wait was the KRR and that died down within probably an hour. In the last hour, we were able to ride KRR continuously without even having to exit the raft.

I'll agree with madge about MK being pretty packed on Wed night. We thought it started to die down though after about an hour and a half. We didn't try Splash or Thunder mountain, though, so those might have still been busy.

A late afternoon storm cleared out Epcot, so it was pretty empty for the evening EMH when we were there.

 

[DisneyWisher]

The EMH at AK was great. The only ride that had any wait was the KRR and that died down within probably an hour. In the last hour, we were able to ride KRR continuously without even having to exit the raft.

Was that morning or evening? We arrive Sunday, staying at AKL, and thats AK evening EMH. What rides were opened?

I miss E-ride nights. I think the crowd level was lower because it cost extra. To me it was worth it but I can see how a family of 5 might not like paying the extra $60.

 

[ksjayhawkfan]

I am wondering how the evening EMH will affect the second Fantasmic! in June. We usually go to the late show to avoid the crowds and the long wait but I noticed that the only nights they have a second F! scheduled are the evening EMH nights...

We are going in June also and the schedule my TA sent says they have Fantasmic! for 2 shows per night on 5 of the 6 nights we will be there. Did I get the wrong information? And if so where might I find the correct times?