Starlight Parade when Deluxe hours are at another Park

[PinkPixel]

Hey! Trying to decide which night to catch Starlight parade. What is the consensus on how deluxe evening hours affect attendance at MK? My options are Monday night with extra hours at Epcot, or Wed night with extra hours at AK. Halloween party in between on Tuesday. Also, are deluxe hours overly crowded and not worth it if we decided to go to one. Thanks!

 

[Mle8308]

I can't really speak to Starlight as I have not been in the MK since it debuted. For extra evening hours, I think the one to keep/not miss, would be the MK. We did not find the Epcot extra hours to be very useful because there is so much that is closed, it didn't really help. Regular guests are able to get in line up until park close, so for the more popular rides, there were still long lines at closing (especially for Remy, Frozen, and Guardians), so the wait was still about 45 minutes. If you don't mind missing Harmonious and getting in line then, you might do better. The second hour was an improvement, but because the first hour was basically waiting for one attraction, we were able to do 2 more attractions in the second hour. There is a lot more open at the MK, so it seemed a better use of the 2 hours. AK is probably the one I'd skip. So much is closed there now too, I think if you went either for EMH in the morning or late afternoon on a non evening EMH day, you weld probably get as much done. Enjoy Starlight (and consensus is the second parade is less crowded), I'm looking forward to seeing it in a few weeks!

 

[gottalovepluto]

Both of those nights will be crowded because of the party pushing people away from Tues. I might pick Mon in the hopes Deluxe folks gravitate towards EP.
But, I would not hold out any expectation that will lead to a noticeable drop in crowds. That is a small subset of guests.

Fwiw most consistent Starlight crowd tip is to see the late parade.

 

[scrappinginontario]

I can't really speak to Starlight as I have not been in the MK since it debuted. For extra evening hours, I think the one to keep/not miss, would be the MK. We did not find the Epcot extra hours to be very useful because there is so much that is closed, it didn't really help. Regular guests are able to get in line up until park close, so for the more popular rides, there were still long lines at closing (especially for Remy, Frozen, and Guardians), so the wait was still about 45 minutes. If you don't mind missing Harmonious and getting in line then, you might do better. The second hour was an improvement, but because the first hour was basically waiting for one attraction, we were able to do 2 more attractions in the second hour. There is a lot more open at the MK, so it seemed a better use of the 2 hours. AK is probably the one I'd skip. So much is closed there now too, I think if you went either for EMH in the morning or late afternoon on a non evening EMH day, you weld probably get as much done. Enjoy Starlight (and consensus is the second parade is less crowded), I'm looking forward to seeing it in a few weeks!

Next week begins party season so there are not any EEH in the MK. OP is asking about EEH in Epcot and AK and how that might affect crowds in the MK.

@PinkPixel, I would agree with @gottalovepluto that I don't feel there will be any noticeable difference in the crowds in the MK whether there are/are not EEH offered at other parks.

The non-party evenings in MK will be markedly busier due to the limited nights guests can visit the MK for Starlight and Happily Ever After. This was a consistent trend even before Starlight began.

We plan to go to the late parade to hopefully decrease the crowds a bit but honestly are fully prepared for the MK to be extremely busy on all non-party nights.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We were at Epcot extended hours last Monday and were able to ride Frozen once and Guardians twice after Harmonious ended. That didn’t seem too bad.

We didn’t go for extended hours at AK as that park is less busy from 4-6 on a regular day than it is from 6-8 for EEH.

For MK, we hit the early parade as we’ve got a good viewing spot that never requires more than a few minutes wait. Then we try to knock out a headliner or two after the fireworks when everyone else is leaving.

 

[PinkPixel]

We were at Epcot extended hours last Monday and were able to ride Frozen once and Guardians twice after Harmonious ended. That didn’t seem too bad.

We didn’t go for extended hours at AK as that park is less busy from 4-6 on a regular day than it is from 6-8 for EEH.

For MK, we hit the early parade as we’ve got a good viewing spot that never requires more than a few minutes wait. Then we try to knock out a headliner or two after the fireworks when everyone else is leaving.

Please DM the parade spot that worked for starlight if possible, I won’t put on blast! Going with a 6 and 9 year old, we don’t mind camping out the curb for an hour but hoping be more laidback and casual this time.

 

[PinkPixel]

We were at Epcot extended hours last Monday and were able to ride Frozen once and Guardians twice after Harmonious ended. That didn’t seem too bad.

We didn’t go for extended hours at AK as that park is less busy from 4-6 on a regular day than it is from 6-8 for EEH.

For MK, we hit the early parade as we’ve got a good viewing spot that never requires more than a few minutes wait. Then we try to knock out a headliner or two after the fireworks when everyone else is leaving.

Thanks for the heads up. It won’t be dark enough to see pandora, which is something we’ve been wanting to check off. So maybe another time

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Please DM the parade spot that worked for starlight if possible, I won’t put on blast! Going with a 6 and 9 year old, we don’t mind camping out the curb for an hour but hoping be more laidback and casual this time.

The parade viewing spot is one of those “sworn to secrecy” things, just like in Meet the Parents. You can find good last minute spots though just by waiting for the crosswalks to close as the parade approaches.

I’d rather share how we got three rides on Tower of Terror out of one set of Lightening Lanes from a different attraction but Scrappy might toss me out of here for that one.