Questions about Extra Magic Hours PM

[mickey mommy]

Hi Everyone! I have two questions......My DH and I are trying to plan out our dinner reservations and have been basing our decisions on which parks are open for the night time extra magic hours. Is this a bad idea? Will these be the parks that draw the most crowds during the day? I'm thinking that maybe they are. Normally, we go to a park in the AM, eat lunch and head back to the hotel for a rest and then head back out again.

Second question - How long do the parks stay open for the Extra Magic Hours? For instance, on Fri June 30, MK is open until 12am and it is scheduled for PM extra magic hours.

Any advice would be GREAT!

 

[TSM1993]

I do know that when I was there Dec 05 they had EMH at parks that were open to 12 and the EMH went to 3 am. I think if I remeber correct EMH morning hours is 1 hour before the park opens and EMH evening hours are 3 hours after park closing.

 

[loopner67]

I was just in WDW in early March. I was pretty worried about going to a park when it had EMH (at night). We went to Magic Kingdom when it had late hours - the park closed at 9pm and was open until midnight. We got there around 7:30 and it was still a little busy, but by 9:30 or so, it wasn't busy at all. We were walking on a ton of rides, especially the long line rides in Fantasyland (people with little kids don't stay up that late???). I think it's a good idea to try out the parks that have the extra hours!

Another tip - Fantasmic (fireworks in MGM) are really hard to get a seat for and there are a few restaurants in MGM that will give you a "deal" with seats for the fireworks. No extra charge, I think. I'm definitely going to be trying this out the next time we go so that we can ensure a seat for Fantasmic and not have to wait 2 hours!

 

[ZoZo]

I was just in WDW in early March. I was pretty worried about going to a park when it had EMH (at night). We went to Magic Kingdom when it had late hours - the park closed at 9pm and was open until midnight. We got there around 7:30 and it was still a little busy, but by 9:30 or so, it wasn't busy at all. We were walking on a ton of rides, especially the long line rides in Fantasyland (people with little kids don't stay up that late???). I think it's a good idea to try out the parks that have the extra hours!

I think things would probably be much different at the end of June, though, once kids are out of school. It will be much, much more crowded everywhere, including the park with EMH. I would expect much larger crowds at an EMH park (unless you're going between midnight and 3:00 a.m.!!!!).

 

[5mickeylovers]

If I'm going to be in one park during the day and want to go to another park in the evening that has EMH, do I have to get to that park 2 hours before it normally closes to get a wristband? Or can I enter the park at whatever time I wish, even if it's after EMH have begun? Thanks alot!

 

[daisyduck123]

If I'm going to be in one park during the day and want to go to another park in the evening that has EMH, do I have to get to that park 2 hours before it normally closes to get a wristband? Or can I enter the park at whatever time I wish, even if it's after EMH have begun? Thanks alot!

You don't have to be at the EMH park early...you can arrive after EMH has begun. We did this in Epcot in January.

 

[shellyfive]

We went to the extra magic in feb last year and we went on splash mnt. at 2 am----very cool!!!

 

[Jules76126]

EMH may be a good idea at some parks but not Epcot. This past March my sister dad and I went to the EMH at Epcot. It was open till Midnight and we thought that we could do both soarin and test track in an hour and go back to the resort. Boy were we wrong. We waited 60 minutes for soarin and over that for test track. The only other ride we did was norway and that was because it was on our way out (we were staying at Beach club). We didnt get back to the resort till about 11:30. In my opinion it wasn't worth the wait when we waited less in the middle of the day for the exact same rides.

 

[justplaingoofy]

We are going in Sept. and I booked our dining around who was NOT having extra magic hours. I was thinking the park is going to be busier than normal. I'm probably wrong...

 

[txtxyeha]

Agree with JPGoofy - scheduling our park visits around avoiding EMHs. At first one of the motivations of staying on-site were the EMHs, but the more we plan the more we buy into the philosophy of zagging while everyone else is zigging.

 

[Thinktinknpixiedust]

i have been pondering that same question myself. I have already made my ADR's to go with EMH.... but I wonder if I should have "zagged" instead. ah... such incredibly horrible choices...