Should I avoid extra magic hour?

[JaxCon]

We are not staying on site so we won't have extra magic on our October trip. Should I avoid those parks those nights? I assume they will get crowded before the park closes?

 

[justplaingoofy]

We are leaving Sunday.. yippee

We are staying off property this time, and we are avoiding parks with extra magic hours. We are all packed, and no where to go (atleast for another 32hrs) Figured we'd better be ready incase Goofy calls and wants us to come earlier! :thewave:

 

[ReneeA]

I would avoid those parks like the plague if you aren't staying onsite. They were absolutely a nightmare for about 2 hours before close, and we were there during a downtime. Otherwise, we didn't wait in a line longer than 15 minutes while we were there.

 

[mkymouse4ever]

We stayed onsite, planned to do EMH at nite and in the am too, BUT quickly learned getting to "see" the nite or try out the ??less crowds?? was WRONG. We changed our whole plan, including dinning ressies last minute etc.. . Do not go to the emh parks. Especially if you do not plan to do emh. A good idea is to go to the park the next day, following the emh. Everyone has just been there.

mky

 

[engle]

How about daytime with nighttime EMH? I am headed there in 2 days...yippee!!...and plan to do some parks in the daytime that have evening EMH's. Will that be bad too?

 

[RachaelRol]

Avoid them... Too many people....

 

[MareSINY]

Are the EMH at AK just as bad? I thought I read that AK is usually empty during EMH. I had thought about going there during EMH, since it's an earlier evening and the kids should be ok.

 

[lovethattink]

If you don't have passes that allow hopping, I'd avoid them.

 

[swilphil]

I'd avoid EMH parks for the entire day, unless it's evening EMH and you want to go to that park for just a couple of hours at opening before hoping to another park. We did this frequently with MK. The best strategy is to follow the Day After Approach. Go to each park the day after it has had its EMH. It works really well.

For those staying on site, I highly recommend morning EMH and then hopping to another park around lunch time. This works especially well at MK.

 

[chloesmommi]

If you are already in a park on Extra Magic Night, how do they know the difference if you are a WDW resort guest or not? Do they give out wristbands or some other kind of identifyer?

 

[daretodream]

We just returned. We found the all parks are best in AM. MK was crazy during its evening EMH. We left early. Epcot was great during its evening EMH. DD10 walked on Soarin 2 times. Of course this was during Illuminations. She preferred riding!!! We got to MGM around 8:45 on the AM EMH and everything was very quiet. Hope this helps!!

 

[QuickGold]

In a recent podcast last week of WDW Today, we talked all about Extra Magic Hours, including whether or not you should go to it or avoid it: http://wdwtoday.com/article.php?story=20050919195755602

 

[DisneyMommyMichelle]

We will be using the EMH just to shop and walk around since i am Pregnant and DD is only going to be 9mo. DH said he probably won't try the rides, should we still avoid EMH?

 

[wendypooh]

To the OP. YES, they give out bracelets to ONSITE guest, you must show your resort ID, I believe 2 hours prior to closing and get your bracelet. They DO require that you show your ID, so anyone, even guest without it will not get a wristband. Last year, we actually saw someone trying to get on a ride, without the bracelet, and the CM escorted them out.

I do have to say also, it was CROWDED...... much more than during the day. We will skip EMH on our next trip.