EMH at night affecting MK crowds wait times (retry) with poll

[mouse in my house]

I recorded the wait times for some popular rides in the MK on Saturday when there were EMH in the evening (12 am to 3 am) versus Sunday which had regular closing hours of 12 am. I know some of us can see similar on touringplans.com, but not everyone has access to it.I also get suspicious that their wait times are always pretty decent.
I couldn't get it to stay in the chart format though so I am trying it a different way. It does indeed look like wait times stayed longer yesterday, (even to midnight and later, waits were long...) than on the next night. That is disappointing because we have enjoyed running around & getting on rides in 10 minutes or less during evening EMH at DW before. Even during July 4th week a few years ago at DL, the crowds tapered off greatly late at night. I used the MDE Disney app and another website for the wait times.
I am trying to decide on our days in May and I am sorry if it turned out messy but thought it might be interesting to someone. We had plans for HS Star Wars Weekends on Friday the 29th bc we figured the local crowds at Star Wars events would be lower on Friday vs Saturday and then we would do MK on Sat the 30th, staying during the EMH until 2 am. Now since MK will be closed on Sun May 31st at 7 p.m. for a corporate event, I am sure guests will be driven to Sat even more than before....thus my dilemma. Based on midnight times last night (which I didn't record-I am sorry, I was in bed reading), long lines may exist well into EMH for popular rides. It looks like waits are worse than I thought. I figured spring break weeks would be similar to early summer waits. Do you think evening EMH is worse than it used to be for some wait times or is it simply a Sat vs. Sun thing? I know this is only one weekend snapshot. I apologize for not doing POTC as it will be closed when we go in May.


Sat 3-21-15 EMH_________ Sun 3-22-15

4:30 pm 8:30 pm_______4:30 pm 8:30 pm
45 min.....35 min_______40 min..... 20 min......Jungle Cruise
80 min.....110 min______70 min.....80 min......7DMT
50 min......20 min_______30 min.....10 min.....Under the Sea
60 min.....60 min________70 min.....60 min.....Peter Pan
80 min....30 min________40 min....40 min.....Splash Mtn
50 min.....45 min_______30 min....20 min.....Buzz Lightyear
80 min.....65 min_______55 min.....50 min....Space Mtn
50 min....30 min_______30 min....15 min......Haunted Mansion
40 min...40 min________40 min....40 min.....Big Thunder Mtn RR

 

[Mukta]

Interesting points.

When EMH was 3 hours, it was always worth it. I would get so much done in that last hour.

Now that it is down to two hours, I have seen longer lines than I would prefer.

I'll be honest with you. I'm not a big fan of the popular rides other than Peter Pan, so I don't keep good track of the coasters.

On my last few trips, I still got 6 or 7 things done during MK EMH, but I did see longer lines than I used to.

 

[CAPTAIN HOOK]

Interesting timings.
One thing you haven't mentioned in your post is local residents. They will be more likely to visit MK (or perhaps any other park) on a Saturday as they have to take Monday's work and school into consideration - thus (perhaps) less park visitors on a Sunday ???

 

[SMS55]

Interesting timings.
One thing you haven't mentioned in your post is local residents. They will be more likely to visit MK (or perhaps any other park) on a Saturday as they have to take Monday's work and school into consideration - thus (perhaps) less park visitors on a Sunday ???

That depends on your child's school schedule. Sometimes there will be a teacher planning day on a Monday and we'll make it a 3 day weekend. We plan around those types of weekends since we only live 3.5 hours away.

 

[seahawk7]

My experience in the last three years I've done EMH at MK is the some rides are closed before the EMH are over, and these are the rides that were listed as staying open. So the access isn't always there. The shops, however, are open.

 

[mouse in my house]

Thanks guys, I looked last night at the wait times and even after 1 a.m., (open til' 2) there was still a 30 minute wait for 7DMT, Peter Pan and Space Mtn but at least Haunted Mansion and POTC FINALLY got down to 10 minutes.

 

[seahawk7]

Thanks guys, I looked last night at the wait times and even after 1 a.m., (open til' 2) there was still a 30 minute wait for 7DMT, Peter Pan and Space Mtn but at least Haunted Mansion and POTC FINALLY got down to 10 minutes.

And sometimes those wait times are inflated.

 

[mouse in my house]

And sometimes those wait times are inflated.

I hope so. We will see. Saturday 3/28 with evening EMH which is spring break I know, at 7 p.m.: 7DMT was 2 hrs 10 min.....Space Mtn was 2 hours.....Peter Pan was 1 hour & 35 min and ...........BTMRR was 1 hour. But as someone said, it could be due to being a Saturday more than EMH. It was only listed as a crowd level 8.5 by a lot of websites. I guess what I am noticing is just the change in crowd levels after 10 p.m. during EMH, which seems to thin out less than it used to. But it sounds like everyone still thinks it is beneficial compared to a regular day so we are doing it. I will report back later.

 

[Philhar-Fanatic]

And sometimes those wait times are inflated

Completely agree with this! It has always been our experience (and we're EMH fans) that it is sometimes more crowded than a reg park closing night until 11:30 to midnight. After that the crowd just seems to disappear and the wait times almost ALWAYS don't reflect that. BTMR will keep a 25 to 30min wait posted and it will literally be a 5 to 10 min at most wait. SM will keep 30 min posted and it will be 10 to 15 min max. Everything else, literally walk on. That's always been our experience mid March.

 

[seahawk7]

Completely agree with this! It has always been our experience (and we're EMH fans) that it is sometimes more crowded than a reg park closing night until 11:30 to midnight. After that the crowd just seems to disappear and the wait times almost ALWAYS don't reflect that. BTMR will keep a 25 to 30min wait posted and it will literally be a 5 to 10 min at most wait. SM will keep 30 min posted and it will be 10 to 15 min max. Everything else, literally walk on. That's always been our experience mid March.

Yeah in late May as well.

 

[Philhar-Fanatic]

You should do this same poll for evening EMH at the other parks. We've never done any except MK. Always been curious if there were enough rides to make it worth while.