MK open until 2am...what's it like?

Ozzygirl

Mouseketeer
Joined
Jan 27, 2014
So the MK is open from 12-2am for EMH the Saturday I'm there and was wondering if anyone has been in the park for those EMH. Is it pretty empty? I imagine it's pretty much walk on for all rides right?

I'm thinking of taking an afternoon/early evening nap, eating a late dinner and heading in around 11pm or so...what do you all think?? :confused3
 
Somewhat empty. There are always diehard visitors staying till the very. Last October, I was in the park until 1am. Lines for popular stuff still 30-40 minutes (like A&E meet, 7DMT). Big Thunder was 5 minutes.

I was surprised by the number of little kids/families still there.

In your case it is Saturday night, so expect a lot of local, AP-holding teens/twenty somethings.
 
We arrived on a Saturday night in mid November with EMH until 2:00 pm. We had dinner reservations at 9:00 pm and headed over to MK around 10:45 pm. From 10:45 pm to 2:00 am, we almost walked on every ride. It was great! Do it!
 
I'd say go for it....I went during Halloween and you'd think that the lines would be long. They were not. Walk on for everything.......I would do it. How often do you get the chance to walk in at 2300 to stay until 0200?
 


I've been there when the place was still busy at 1 a.m.

And yeah, I don't get why parents keep their little ones out that late.
 
Definitely hard to predict. We've seen it pretty crowded late into the night/morning, but my daughter and I stayed in MK until 1:00 a few nights ago, and we had virtual walk-ons (or extremely short waits) for everything other than 7DMT, which stood firm at 50 minutes or so until the bitter end. A few rides claimed a 15 to 20 minute wait, but were still pretty much walk-ons. This was on the Sunday before MLK Monday, and the park had been ridiculously packed/crowded all day, so I was pretty surprised at how dead it was from roughly 11:00 on. We covered lots of ground in just a couple of hours...definitely worth staying.
 
One of my favorite memories was from 3 years ago during EMH till 2 am. My friend and I went to the Monsters Inc Laugh Floor, and the show got a little "adult." The jokes were a little more PG-13. It was a lot of fun!
 


...I don't get why parents keep their little ones out that late.

It's vacation...the usual bedtime rules don't apply! We have two daughters, now 10 and 12. Our 12-year old has always had the ability since her first trip at age 5 to stay awake until late at night if the MK was still open and available to her...while our 10-year old turns into a monster at roughly 8:37 each night, so one of us usually has to take her back to the room by 9:00 or 10:00. A couple of times on our trip over this past long weekend, the whole family escaped the crowds and napped in the late afternoon, trying to ensure we had some energy for late night once the ridiculous crowds thinned out...but not the youngest. She is allergic to napping, apparently. So although the rest of us were ready to attack the MK at around 10:30 or 11:00, she was out...so one of us stayed back with her while the other went out for some wonderful bonding time with the older one.
 
I'm planning this for march! My friend and I were planning a day trip to Epcot for Flower and Garden, but then I saw that MK has EMH until 2AM so we're heading that way after Illuminations!

How long do you guys think it might take to get from Epcot to MK? We want to get there by 10PM.

Also, are FP+ not available to book during evening EMH?
 
I think the later it gets, the more magical it gets. I love p.m. extra magic hours. I highly suggest going!
 
Its amazing! Its one of the reasons we stay onsite! Most rides are walkons. It just feels like you have the whole park to yourself. I cant wait for our April EMH
 
Yeah, the crowd changes a little that late, and it's kind of cool! It is just a tad more adult, but in that adults being goofy and having a good time. It's also full of die-hards and regulars. Like, in the Haunted Mansion that late, I've had almost the entire crowd reciting the stretching room sequence, which would normally be annoying, but, well, just go with it.

I need to do Laugh Floor that late, haha! I heard Enchanted Tales can be funny when it's all adults, but when I tried there were still a lot of kids there.
 
I've only done EMH until 2am once and it was Labour Day weekend. It was still quite busy from 1am - 2am (didn't really see any real decrease after 11pm). I waited about 45 minutes for Space Mountain at 1:30.
 
I've been there when the place was still busy at 1 a.m.

And yeah, I don't get why parents keep their little ones out that late.

Because some kids are night owls. My kids aren't morning people. They can sleep until 12 pm with no problems and stay up until 2-3 am. :confused3
 
Most rides are walk-ons! It is fairly empty with a light breeze! We love it at least once on any trip we do!
 
I've been there when the place was still busy at 1 a.m.

And yeah, I don't get why parents keep their little ones out that late.

Probably because they want to....


As for the question, we went to EMH from 11-1 in Sept. After close it was empty. We did POTC. Did it again. Got stuck on it for 20 mins. And still had time for some of Fantasyland! We met Ariel in her grotto at like 12:59 and it was glorious! It was our first time in MK and magical was exactly the right word!

Ariel was great with my kids and me as I cried meeting her. She has been my favorite since I was FOUR!!!!!

7DMT was still an hour wait though.
 
We're planning this for our last night when we go in April. Epcot during the day, Akershus for dinner then either straight to MK or we'll hang out at Epcot for a bit longer - depends whether we caught Wishes and MSEP on one of our previous days at MK.

We will regret it when we have to get up at 7 to head to the airport though :)
 
The lines aren't bad. Some rides do have a wait (Peter Pan's Flight). Most however move very quickly. The park isn't very crowded at all. And since it is cooler out, waiting isn't really that bad.
 
The only thing better than MK till 2 am is MK till 3 am.

There are far more strollers out that late than you would expect.
 

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