When to arrive at MK when you are staying for late EMH?

[maryj11]

I'm still trying to figure out a plan for our evening EMH 12:00am-2:00am. What plans do you make when your planning on attending evening EMH at MK?
Do you sleep in that morning or go to the park and go back to the resort to rest before EMH? Or do you just arrive in the evening?

 

[calablovedisney]

We have done this 2 ways. We either go to another park in the morning(maybe DTD) or just stay at the resort. When we plan to be out after midnight we usually do a little pool time and then take a nap. We go into the park after, or for, dinner. I always plan to sleep in the next day. This year we plan to be at MK on July 3rd until 3 a.m., sleep and relax the next day and head to Epcot in the late afternoon on the 4th. We might stay for EMH til midnight there if we have enough energy left. July 5th is another sleep in day for sure. Not heading back to a park until the afternoon. We will be trying to nap on the 3rd and the 4th in the afternoon.
We have a blast at these late night EMH now that my kid are old enough to handle it.

 

[mickeyfanachey1999]

We never miss evening EMH at MK. Our plan usually goes like this:
Get to AK around 11:00 for a Safari, EE and Dinosaur
Grab Yak and Yeti QS lunch
Head back to OKW
DW showers and changes...i shower and change...DS4 lays down...DS13 does whatever
Head back to MK at around 6 or maybe as late as 7 and stay until DW can't go anymore.

 

[minnie mum]

We still hit the park at RD for the low(er) crowd park touring. Head back to the resort sometime after lunch to avoid the afternoon heat and higher crowds. Then have dinner and back to the park for the rest of the night.

 

[Lucius Best]

I wouldn't want to miss two park mornings in a row. If I'm going to be out until 2am, I won't be hitting rope drop 7 hours later. So I definitely want to do a park rope drop in the morning of the late EMH. After lunch we'll lounge/nap by the pool, hit a monorail resort for early dinner, then go to MK, intending to stay all the way to the end to hit the shortest lines.

 

[kwdw]

I've done it both ways:

1) Up early, hit the park for a couple hours, back to room to rest, return around 4 - 7 pm.
2) Sleep in, chill out at resort, get to park between 2-6 pm.

Both strategies work - depending on your day before and day after plans. I've tried doing RD to 2am - I can't personally make it that long..... Too old, too out of shape!

 

[maryj11]

Thanks all ! Right now we have a 12:30 pm BOG lunch reservation. It is my girls favorite restaurant for lunch because she loves the turkey sandwiches.
I'm not sure what time to arrive and not be tired for EMH. I was thinking arrive at MK at 10:00 do a couple rides or fastpasses , eat, maybe a few more rides, then back to the resort to rest until about 5:30. We have a BOG dinner at 6:40. I know 2 BOG reservations in one day . But she wants lunch and I want to try dinner and neither one of us will change our minds
I'm not sure if I should schedule all fastpasses in the morning or do them in the evening? How would you plan it with our situation with the dining reservations?

 

[Lucius Best]

If you can get to MK for 8:45am rope drop, then you can ride a lot of rides the first hour with short waits, and won't really need FP in the morning, and you can book your 3 FP+ for after dinner.

Note that lunch might not be quick. You'll be able to check in for lunch at 12:25pm. When we did BOG lunch last month, we ended up waiting 5 minutes outside, then 25 minutes inside to order at the kiosks. You might want to look into pre-ordering, that might save you a chunk of time. Maybe done with BOG at 1:30pm and leave right away, might not get back to resort until 2:30pm. Only leaves about 3 hours rest time before you have to go back, depends on what resort you're staying at, that's not quite as much time as I'd want... I would like your plan if your ADRs were an hour further apart, but I know how difficult they are to get.

With those BOG ADRs, the other option would be to sleep late, get to park for your BOG lunch ADR. That would mean less travel back-and-forth, but also means you're in the park during the hot and crowded afternoon, but then once you use your 3 FP+ you can get more.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We are staying 10 nights. We arrive Wednesday and MK PM EMH is that Saturday.

We will be doing MK on arrival day and staying until it closes. Thursday is an early breakfast ADR and then to Epcot for rope drop, midday break and hop to MK and close the park. Friday is pre park opening BBB ADR, midday break and then PM EMH at Epcot.

After 3 straight days of getting up early and staying out late we will be sleeping in and doing pool time that Saturday for PM EMH at MK. We have Plaza ADR for 625. I plan to leave the Poly around 5-530 and head to MK.

The next day is our full rest day with no park. Just pool and resort time.

I know some people don't want to miss too many RD days but we are doing a bit of both this trip. Our arrival day at MK, 4 rope drop days (one at each park) and 3 days of sleeping in, starting late and staying through PM EMH. Also two full rest days thrown in there.

 

[maryj11]

If you can get to MK for 8:45am rope drop, then you can ride a lot of rides the first hour with short waits, and won't really need FP in the morning, and you can book your 3 FP+ for after dinner.

Note that lunch might not be quick. You'll be able to check in for lunch at 12:25pm. When we did BOG lunch last month, we ended up waiting 5 minutes outside, then 25 minutes inside to order at the kiosks. You might want to look into pre-ordering, that might save you a chunk of time. Maybe done with BOG at 1:30pm and leave right away, might not get back to resort until 2:30pm. Only leaves about 3 hours rest time before you have to go back, depends on what resort you're staying at, that's not quite as much time as I'd want... I would like your plan if your ADRs were an hour further apart, but I know how difficult they are to get.

With those BOG ADRs, the other option would be to sleep late, get to park for your BOG lunch ADR. That would mean less travel back-and-forth, but also means you're in the park during the hot and crowded afternoon, but then once you use your 3 FP+ you can get more.

We are staying at the Grand Floridian so it is not far from MK. I guess that is a plus ! The thing I worry about is if we get there early and I know we will going back to the resort to rest, but I cannot take naps in the day. I worry about being to tired to make it through EMH. I really want to make it through without getting tired. We love the parks at night !

 

[scrapquitler]

Last month when we wanted to stay for EMH at MK from midnight -2am, we arrived at the park around 9 am (not for rope drop, I think the park opened at 8) and stayed in the park for a while, had lunch, used our 3 FP+ and headed back to the room around 3PM to rest. We took a nap, had dinner and went back to the park around 7:30 PM and stayed until shortly after 2am.

We rode all the rides we wanted to with virtually no wait on any of them (maybe 15 minutes for 7DMT and Peter Pan, but mostly walk on everywhere else). It was a long day, but worth it.

I'm still trying to figure out a plan for our evening EMH 12:00am-2:00am. What plans do you make when your planning on attending evening EMH at MK?
Do you sleep in that morning or go to the park and go back to the resort to rest before EMH? Or do you just arrive in the evening?

 

[dprincessmom]

I'm still trying to figure out a plan for our evening EMH 12:00am-2:00am. What plans do you make when your planning on attending evening EMH at MK?
Do you sleep in that morning or go to the park and go back to the resort to rest before EMH? Or do you just arrive in the evening?

We rope drop that morning and hit Tomorrowland, Adventureland and Frontierland. Head back to the resort at lunch. Lunch, pool and a nap is required or we don't go back that night.
We try and make it back to the park between 6 and 7, hope the Train for a ride over to Fantasyland and then make our way thru the rides there. You can usually get in a couple of re-rides if you want as well.

 

[disneyeveryyear]

When DD and I are at WDW without DH and DS, we love to do MK EMH, usually until 3:00 a.m. What we do is get up early and hit RD at whatever is the recommended park for the day. Stay at the park through lunch. We then head back to the resort and take a LOOOONG nap (last time was 4 hours). We were then at MK for a 7:00 PM ADR at the Plaza Restaurant which is fairly quick so we were into the park and on rides by about 8:00 p.m.

We got into our last line, 7DMT at about 2:50 a.m. and were strolling out of the park about 3:15 a.m. It was about 4:00 by the time we made it back to the resort, cleaned up and climbed into bed. I think I slept until about 11:00 a.m. and she was even later, but we had afternoon FP+s on the next day, so it worked great for us.

We are both night-owls and love the nighttime EMH.

Unfortunately it doesn't work when DH is with us.

 

[maryj11]

When DD and I are at WDW without DH and DS, we love to do MK EMH, usually until 3:00 a.m. What we do is get up early and hit RD at whatever is the recommended park for the day. Stay at the park through lunch. We then head back to the resort and take a LOOOONG nap (last time was 4 hours). We were then at MK for a 7:00 PM ADR at the Plaza Restaurant which is fairly quick so we were into the park and on rides by about 8:00 p.m.

We got into our last line, 7DMT at about 2:50 a.m. and were strolling out of the park about 3:15 a.m. It was about 4:00 by the time we made it back to the resort, cleaned up and climbed into bed. I think I slept until about 11:00 a.m. and she was even later, but we had afternoon FP+s on the next day, so it worked great for us.

We are both night-owls and love the nighttime EMH.

Unfortunately it doesn't work when DH is with us.

I look forward to it being just us two! So much easier to do what we want lol. I will think about getting to MK at rope drop, I'm not sure if we can take a nap at the resort but we can try . I cant wait for EMH until 2:00am we have never done it before !
How long was most of your wait times during EMH?

 

[dprincessmom]

Even if you can't get a nap, REST. Cool air conditioning, low/no lights. We are not nappers at anywhere other than WDW! We used to have to call them "rests" because DD was too big for naps at 5 We would tell her we were going back for a rest and if we didn't rest we couldn't go back to the parks that night. Typically 5 minutes back in the room and she is out. If I find I can't sleep I will read a few pages of my book and maybe go take a nice relaxing bath, even if I can't sleep this is enough to recharge my batteries. We love EMH at MK.

There will be a mass exit after Wishes, so make certain you are on the side of Main Street that you want to be on (or better yet, no where near there). Typically waits start out at 20 minutes or so during EMH and then get shorter as the night goes on (in our experience). There will be a couple of rides that have longer waits but those are going to be few. Also, wait times will be inflated so keep that in mind.

 

[maryj11]

Even if you can't get a nap, REST. Cool air conditioning, low/no lights. We are not nappers at anywhere other than WDW! We used to have to call them "rests" because DD was too big for naps at 5 We would tell her we were going back for a rest and if we didn't rest we couldn't go back to the parks that night. Typically 5 minutes back in the room and she is out. If I find I can't sleep I will read a few pages of my book and maybe go take a nice relaxing bath, even if I can't sleep this is enough to recharge my batteries. We love EMH at MK.

There will be a mass exit after Wishes, so make certain you are on the side of Main Street that you want to be on (or better yet, no where near there). Typically waits start out at 20 minutes or so during EMH and then get shorter as the night goes on (in our experience). There will be a couple of rides that have longer waits but those are going to be few. Also, wait times will be inflated so keep that in mind.

Thanks for the advice. We may have a problem with being away from the crowds exiting after Wishes because we have a dessert party booked. So can we slip out the back of the party into Tomorrowland?

 

[dprincessmom]

Yes that is perfect - you can slip out the backside of the dessert party and into Tomorrowland. You can also linger at the party (or you could when we went) to get some of the rush out of the way. MK EMH are our favorite.

 

[PlutoTheDog89]

We'll usually sleep in the morning of, and plan on sleeping in the next day. We go for 8-10 days, so we have some "wiggle room" to sleep in.

The MK late-night EMH is usually the Friday after Christmas. This year, Christmas is ON a Friday

Anyway... We'll normally sleep in a little on a Friday. By sleeping in, I mean "sleeping in" on Disney terms. We get up around 9am, rather than 6:30am or 7am. This is late for us. We'll do another park in the morning and into the afternoon, head back to the hotel to rest, and then do dinner and Magic Kingdom.

Last year, we decided to enjoy vacation as much as we enjoyed the parks. We got some R&R in when we can - and tried not to stretch ourselves too thin. We were with another family, so we tried to show them everything without wearing them out. On the day of the EMH, we slept in and hung out at the resort most of the day. Around 3pm, we went to EPCOT. We had an ADR at Teppan Edo, so we booked FP+ for Spaceship Earth, Soarin' and the character meet-and-greet. We redeemed our FP+s and then went to dinner at Teppan Edo at 7-7:30. We finished up around 9pm and went back to the hotel to change. We were going to go straight to the park, but it was supposed to get a little chilly, so we decided to change. It didn't get chilly - it got warmer. But we changed into comfortable sweats and the kids boarded the bus to MK, while the parents stayed behind.

We got to MK around 11pm - which seemed to be the perfect time. We grabbed a coffee from Starbucks and watched the Electrical Parade. The park usually clears out a bit after the last parade and/or last fireworks show. Disney actually had a parade at 12am (if I remember correctly) last year... which was really interesting.

Most families head there for one day or with kids, so they pull a marathon day and cap it off with the first showing of the parade and/or fireworks.. so you'll see a drop off after that. Then, you have the people who chose to watch the fireworks and go on the rides during the parade (or vice versa.) They stick around for the last parade/fireworks show. Then they clear out. Some people usually stick around for the EMH, with some leaving by 1am. In our case, the EMH went until 3am. That 1:30-3am (or 2am, in your case) is money. Between 1am and 2am, you'll be able to walk on the Goofy Coaster (we're big kids,) it'll be around a 10-minute wait for Thunder Mountain, Space MAY be around a 30 minute wait (at most.) Those are estimates based on my Christmas trips. The last hour or half hour is fun because the park is almost empty. You have the diehards walking around, but in the area connecting Adventureland to Frontierland, you can go long stretches without seeing anyone. It's very eery near the Haunted Mansion.. Best of all, though, is that you can get up close and personal with the castle and the Mickey & Walt statue. Main Street won't be EMPTY, but empty enough to grab some great pictures. Nothing beats an empty MK in the early morning, but seeing Main Street all lit up (especially during Christmas) and having clear access to the statue offers some AWESOME photos.

 

[maryj11]

We'll usually sleep in the morning of, and plan on sleeping in the next day. We go for 8-10 days, so we have some "wiggle room" to sleep in.

The MK late-night EMH is usually the Friday after Christmas. This year, Christmas is ON a Friday

Anyway... We'll normally sleep in a little on a Friday. By sleeping in, I mean "sleeping in" on Disney terms. We get up around 9am, rather than 6:30am or 7am. This is late for us. We'll do another park in the morning and into the afternoon, head back to the hotel to rest, and then do dinner and Magic Kingdom.

Last year, we decided to enjoy vacation as much as we enjoyed the parks. We got some R&R in when we can - and tried not to stretch ourselves too thin. We were with another family, so we tried to show them everything without wearing them out. On the day of the EMH, we slept in and hung out at the resort most of the day. Around 3pm, we went to EPCOT. We had an ADR at Teppan Edo, so we booked FP+ for Spaceship Earth, Soarin' and the character meet-and-greet. We redeemed our FP+s and then went to dinner at Teppan Edo at 7-7:30. We finished up around 9pm and went back to the hotel to change. We were going to go straight to the park, but it was supposed to get a little chilly, so we decided to change. It didn't get chilly - it got warmer. But we changed into comfortable sweats and the kids boarded the bus to MK, while the parents stayed behind.

We got to MK around 11pm - which seemed to be the perfect time. We grabbed a coffee from Starbucks and watched the Electrical Parade. The park usually clears out a bit after the last parade and/or last fireworks show. Disney actually had a parade at 12am (if I remember correctly) last year... which was really interesting.

Most families head there for one day or with kids, so they pull a marathon day and cap it off with the first showing of the parade and/or fireworks.. so you'll see a drop off after that. Then, you have the people who chose to watch the fireworks and go on the rides during the parade (or vice versa.) They stick around for the last parade/fireworks show. Then they clear out. Some people usually stick around for the EMH, with some leaving by 1am. In our case, the EMH went until 3am. That 1:30-3am (or 2am, in your case) is money. Between 1am and 2am, you'll be able to walk on the Goofy Coaster (we're big kids,) it'll be around a 10-minute wait for Thunder Mountain, Space MAY be around a 30 minute wait (at most.) Those are estimates based on my Christmas trips. The last hour or half hour is fun because the park is almost empty. You have the diehards walking around, but in the area connecting Adventureland to Frontierland, you can go long stretches without seeing anyone. It's very eery near the Haunted Mansion.. Best of all, though, is that you can get up close and personal with the castle and the Mickey & Walt statue. Main Street won't be EMPTY, but empty enough to grab some great pictures. Nothing beats an empty MK in the early morning, but seeing Main Street all lit up (especially during Christmas) and having clear access to the statue offers some AWESOME photos.

The last hour or so sounds awesome !!