Extra Magic Hours

[cmurph1624]

My family an I are going down to WDW the end of May and I was wondering about the Extra Magic Hours. Should we avoid the parks on the days that they have the Magic Hours. I'm wondering if the parks would be pretty empty in the morning, I'm thinking not to many people would want to get up that early to be at the park. I also have younger kids so I don't think staying up till 11 will be an option.

[Summer Sun]

Extra Magic Hours are great for resort guest to experience the parks before actual day-guests get to play. Morning EMHs especially at Magic Kingdom are great for kids.

[Chrissy&Tayen]

i like the extra hours!! we went in july so it was always crowded so i didnt notice..LOL

[CRAZY4WDW]

I have never done this,, it sounds cool! We never stay on site... I wish there was a way to do it for outsiders!

[wdw4us2]

The morning EMH is better than the evenings, IMHO - especially in the Magic Kingdom. Make sure you arrive before the parks open to get the most out of the EMH.

[trickster]

With coming over from the UK and the Hotel we use at DTD, we don't get to use EMHs either!

[disneydame2004]

to DWT, cmurph1624!

The park with morning EMH will be more crowded as the morning goes on (from all the EMH people staying in that park plus regular guests coming in). If you are staying on property and have park-hopper passes, we've found the best way to use the morning hours is to arrive before the EMH starts, stay at the park until it starts getting crowded, and then hop somewhere else.
Evening EMH at Animal Kingdom means it's open until 8 p.m. or so - not all that late for kids. Depending on the park and the time of year, those 3 extra hours could be ending as early as 8 or as late as 3 a.m.! The later you stay, the emptier it gets, because more of the families with kids head back to the resorts earlier. The park with evening EMH will tend to get crowded later in the afternoon through closing.

[TiNkErBeLL87]

We got back a couple weeks ago and found since our trip 2 years ago, evening EMH are not worth it and were way too crowded (excluding magic kingdom because there are so many more attractions open) instead for example when Epcot was open 9 to midnight for EMH we went to Magic Kingdom instead which was also open until midnight and it was the least crowded park experience of our entire trip

[eyeinthesky]

i like the extra hours!! we went in july so it was always crowded so i didnt notice..LOL

You're so right. If the parks are in fact more crowded on EMH days, it might only mean the difference of a 45 minute wait rather than a 60 minute wait. Are you really going to feel the difference? Both are very long times to stand in line.

[eyeinthesky]

I've done both the a.m. and p.m. EMH and I f ind the mornings to be less crowded. I think this is because people tend to stay out late and don't want to get up early. Also, many people do character breakfasts or regular breakfasts or even have to get the little ones up and dressed. The p.m. EMH can have wait times just as long as during the day.

One tip i can offer is that if you're going to the a.m. EMH at the MK, try to get in even before the gates open. Last time I was there, in Aug., we walked straight through one opened turnstyle which was opened only for the Cinderella Castle character breakfast guests and special guided tours. No one stopped us and we weren't going to either. We had Main St. all to ourselves and just waited until the rest of the park opened. By then, we were miles ahead of everyone else and were first on Space mtn.

[eyeinthesky]

Does anyone know if they still offer the E-Ride nights? The one where you paid extra to stay in the park later? I don't remember that being offered last time I was there but I was happy to go to bed early anyway (we went "commando style", as Lou says). I used to love it because no one seemed to know about it or weren't willing to pay extra. In the middle of July, we would walk right on to Pirates w/o any wait. In fact, I only knew of it because a friend who was in the college program told me about it. It wasn't really advertised.

[cmurph1624]

(excluding magic kingdom because there are so many more attractions open)

With the extra hours are all the rides not open? If not does anyone have a list of the open rides?

[disneydame2004]

No, they don't offer e-ride nights anymore. The evening EMH replaced them.

There is a list of the rides on http://disneyworld.disney.go.com/wdw...MagicHoursPage Scroll down, it's near the bottom.

[Thumper10]

We love the EMH--our last trip in Sept of '06 we took advantage of the evening EMH---they were great---every ride at the MK was walk on except for PPF---it may be more crowded than this while you're there but I still say go for the EMH!