Strongly Disagree with Comments about EMH at Night

[*NikkiBell*]

I just listened to the brief discussion of nighttime EMH. I strongly disagree with the comments made and wanted to share our experiences. Because of my profession, we can typically visit the World during the peak seasons. This results in our using EMH to avoid wait times and the crowds. This results in the Magic Kingdom EMH being from midnight to 3 a.m. and the other parks closing very late as well. We rarely experience anything but walk-ons for the attractions. We usually hit the majority of park attractions during this time and sleep in, swim, shop, or visit the non-EMH attractions during the day. This has been our "plan of attack" for several years and has always worked. The only time we saw a difference was with Soarin' at Epcot where the wait was one hour. Everything else has been five min. or less.

 

[Cherinva]

I just listened to the brief discussion of nighttime EMH. I strongly disagree with the comments made and wanted to share our experiences. Because of my profession, we can typically visit the World during the peak seasons. This results in our using EMH to avoid wait times and the crowds. This results in the Magic Kingdom EMH being from midnight to 3 a.m. and the other parks closing very late as well. We rarely experience anything but walk-ons for the attractions. We usually hit the majority of park attractions during this time and sleep in, swim, shop, or visit the non-EMH attractions during the day. This has been our "plan of attack" for several years and has always worked. The only time we saw a difference was with Soarin' at Epcot where the wait was one hour. Everything else has been five min. or less.

Nikkibell...I have to agree with you on this...it's worked the same with us on a couple of trips...one of them being spring break week. I love the evening EMH.

 

[Justin Jett]

Does Nikkibell ever agree with anyone?

 

[*NikkiBell*]

Hey now, Skip. Your bad taste in music has nothing to do with this. Rofl

 

[dpuck1998]

Hey now, Skip. Your bad taste in music has nothing to do with this. Rofl

Or in college football teams

 

[NC Belle]

NC Beast and I like late emh, however we usually go to WDW at the "slow" times.

 

[__disneygirl]

I agree! What they spoke about on the podcast has just not been my experience at all. I love the extra magic hours. I have never done one in the morning but I plan to next month. The evening ones have always worked out perfectly for me, especially at Epcot which was kind of deserted. This was in October during F&W too, so I was surprised. One of my favorite things to do in WDW is to stroll around MK just checking out the little things, and I find EMH is perfect for this. It's less crowded in my experience. Just like anything else I guess it depends on the day.

 

[USAswimmer626]

We use EMH evening hours at Epcot a lot in order to take full advantage of the World Showcase cast members (that sounds kinda pervy...). Haha, I mean when the cast members don't have long lines or annoying guests to tend to, you can often strike up a really interesting conversation with them.

 

[Justin Jett]

Or in college football teams

It is great to be a Florida Gator!

 

[ericafny]

I just listened to the brief discussion of nighttime EMH. I strongly disagree with the comments made and wanted to share our experiences. Because of my profession, we can typically visit the World during the peak seasons. This results in our using EMH to avoid wait times and the crowds. This results in the Magic Kingdom EMH being from midnight to 3 a.m. and the other parks closing very late as well. We rarely experience anything but walk-ons for the attractions. We usually hit the majority of park attractions during this time and sleep in, swim, shop, or visit the non-EMH attractions during the day. This has been our "plan of attack" for several years and has always worked. The only time we saw a difference was with Soarin' at Epcot where the wait was one hour. Everything else has been five min. or less.

I haven't listened to above mentioned discussion yet but I agree with you Nikki. My fiance and I also only can go during peak times (summer) and we usually take advantage of EMH (except AK, I don't like being there at night!). We have had the same experience as you with there being little to no wait for most attractions. I think one time we had to wait the most was for Test Track and that was not very long (45 min) in comparison to other wait times during the day (70-90 min).

 

[WaltD4Me]

I haven't listened to above mentioned discussion yet but I agree with you Nikki. My fiance and I also only can go during peak times (summer) and we usually take advantage of EMH (except AK, I don't like being there at night!). We have had the same experience as you with there being little to no wait for most attractions. I think one time we had to wait the most was for Test Track and that was not very long (45 min) in comparison to other wait times during the day (70-90 min).

I love AK at night! We did an evening EMH there and it was great. Everest was a walk-on, we did it 3 times in a row with no wait. I also thought the park itself was pretty at night and COOLER. A big plus there, it is not surface of the sun hot in AK at night.

I've also done DHS evening EMH and thought it was great. TSM wait went down to 10 minutes and it was very un-crowded. The Dance party at Playhouse Disney was alot of fun and Terror of Tower had no wait and was very cool to do at night.

 

[mrzrich]

I really think the reason David's students hit a very busy EMH at MK was that there are currently LOTS and LOTS of students there right now. Many Senior Class trips and the like were at the All Stars where we stayed this weekend. I think packs of young adults are more likely to stay till 2 AM than the average tourist.

We too usually love MK evening EMH.

 

[DavidandLeahZ]

I was the one that made the comments.

I was basing my comments on our experiences over the past week or so.

The night MK was open until 3:00am...there were 90 - 120 standby lines for all of the big-ticket rides. Granted, we left around 2:00am, but that was b/c we didn't feel like waiting that long. The standby line for Space Mountain was VERY long, but they did open up FP. We saw them taking the tarps off the FP machines while we were on the TTA. By the time we got off and went to them (10 minutes later at most) the return time was already after 2:00.

That does not mean things wouldn't be different at different times of year, but waits were VERY long.

As a previous poster mentioned, it is very possible this was due to the guests in attendance being primarily HS and college students; guests who may be more likely to stay in the parks late.

Regardless - we've used EMH MANY times in the past - and morning has ALWAYS been more beneficial than evenings (with the exception of AK). Different strokes for different folks, especially depending on what attractions you want to ride during EMH.

 

[DavidandLeahZ]

I really think the reason David's students hit a very busy EMH at MK was that there are currently LOTS and LOTS of students there right now. Many Senior Class trips and the like were at the All Stars where we stayed this weekend. I think packs of young adults are more likely to stay till 2 AM than the average tourist.

We too usually love MK evening EMH.

Agreed....we did see tons of teens at that time.

 

[websitekid]

In response to all of those nonbelievers; here's a point to ponder.

I'm a milkshake advocate; and usually have to time my milkshake indulgences so I don't get stuck in line at BK. Now, most days I go at 3 because kids are in classes and I don't get stuck in long lines. However; that doesn't mean that ANYTIME someone gets a milkshake at three there won't be a wait, it just means that usually 3 is a good time to get milkshakes.

Now that we know about my milkshake infatuation; last week the EMH were very crowded. In fact, not only did they have EMH until 3:00 at the Magic kingdom, but they also extended regular hours twice in the three other days we were at the MK (unplanned extensions, might I add).
Not all attractions were busy, but since it was spring break there were MANY high school groups there, as well as a large number of families with middle aged students. The younger age groups are usually the ones who take advantage of EMH's, and since there was a large number of younger students or children there, there was a larger than normal number of people in the parks.

In fact, one night the MK was so crowded that the disney cast had to use Class B evacuations to get people out of the park (at 12:00, even though the park was open until 3:00!!). For those of you who don't know, Disney has 3 evacuation techniques to allow people to leave the park most comfortably. Class A is using normal exits; Class B uses backstage exits for when the parks are entirely too crowded to function normally with a large influx of people after a parade or fireworks; and Class C is for when a catastrophe hits and people must evacuate immediately.

Long story short, the parks were very crowded.

 

[DavidandLeahZ]

Websitekid - I forgot about that! When we showed up around 11:30 - 12:00 for EMH, they routed us behind the Confectionary through to Tomorrowland....DURING extra magic hours...it was packed.

 

[IDoBelieveinFairies!]

We love to be able to attend these magical HOURS! Good times Last time we used this feature my daughters were like robots getting on Splash Mountain at the Magic Kingdom!

Sometimes kids get a bit tired, as well as Grandma but we are so thrilled that Disney allows this!

We also do the Mickey's Very Merry Christmas Party and we had great success with that one too,, Grandma once again got a little tired at the end but we loved it.

 

[Jitzy]

I have to agree with the podcast! We have never had good luck with the evening EMH. Maybe we should be more patient and stick around further into the hours, though. The non-resort guests may still be in lines, increasing the wait times through the first hour.

 

[LeahZ]

I'm a milkshake advocate

Me too.

 

[k5jm]

EMH does have a great purpose in the evenings!! It is great when everyone goes in the Evenings for EMH, because the next morning, the park that had the EMH the night before is practically empty. It is crowd control for the following day. That is how you take advantage of EMH. If you do not like the rules to a game, make up a new game.

And why would anyone want to ride all those rides when you can take beautiful pictures?