Extra Magic Hours -How do you use them?

[disneymyway]

Do you use them to take advantage of extra hours, or do you use them to avoid the park that has them like the plague?

Do you tend to use morning more than evening ones or does it really depend on the park?


I love them for the Magic Kingdom and always take advantage of them but rarely do at the other parks - don't know why! And I never do morning ones.
Hey, we don't have little kids anymore and no one gets up for park openings now!!!:ROFLOL:

What's your EMH strategy?

 

[sbkline]

I'd be game for staying in the park late for EMH, but generally, my wife is a party pooper. She gets tired easily and just wants to go back to the hotel to sleep, so it's mostly AM EMH for us. And as far as rides go, that's probably the best way to get rides in, as you can hop from one ride to the other in that hour.

We did, however, stay for Epcot EMH in April when we met up with Fizzle and his wife, Skeeder. We enjoyed the extra time with them and being in Epcot longer after dark, but my wife and I just barely got a place in line for Soarin' when the wait time was already 35 minutes. But it didn't take long before we saw a huge line behind us, so it's a good thing we got in when we did. Then we were able to do SSE, Grand Fiesta and Maelstrom, but Test Trak was totally backed up. That's the only time we've done pm EMH.

 

[disneymyway]

I'd be game for staying in the park late for EMH, but generally, my wife is a party pooper. She gets tired easily and just wants to go back to the hotel to sleep, so it's mostly AM EMH for us. And as far as rides go, that's probably the best way to get rides in, as you can hop from one ride to the other in that hour.

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That's pretty much what I'm counting on at the MK for evening EMH!!!

They can be crowded at first, but the last hour is pretty thinned out because people (especially people with little ones) get tired!

 

[MousDad]

Do you use them to take advantage of extra hours, or do you use them to avoid the park that has them like the plague?

B for me.

 

[JustPlainBill]

We take advantage of late EMH when we can, but we don't do the early ones, just because we can't get the kids up early enough, from keeping them out late the night before. Our next trip to WDW coming up in 23 days, we're are planning on hitting each park on late EMH when we're there. I like the whole night-time atmosphere, and am more of a night person than a morning one.

 

[DisneyJoe]

We have always been early risers, even on vacation, kids too. Even our teen doesn't mind getting up early on vacation, therefore, we are always up for morning EMH and are there before the park opens on those days.

We usually get sooooooo much done in that first hour, it helps us take the rest of the day at a nice pace.

So far, we have never been to an evening EMH....

 

[imamouse]

Although the morning EMH are only an hour, I can get sooooo much down in the time, so I tend to take advantage of morning EMH. As for evening EMH, it depends. I like to do evening EMH at DAK just to ride EE after dark (so much better IMO) and to see the amazing lighting effects on the ToL and around the park.

I did MK evening EMH this past April until 2 am (went back to the resort for a late afternoon power nap). I was shocked at the number of small children - some in strollers - in the park at 1 am .

 

[xsupaxmanxsfnex]

We planned on using extra magic hours on our last trip for the first time at MK. It was evening and we thought it would be fun (we also thought it wouldn't be crowded). Wow, we were wrong. It was packed all day and especially during the extra hours. I havn't tried morning hours yet but I am hoping that will be a little better.

 

[bgraham34]

The only time I ever use the extra hours is at night at Magic Kingdom. Usually otherwise I avoide the morning parks on those days.

 

[StingraySam]

We almost always use the evening magic hours. We will plan our days to maximize the use of these evenings. Our usual plan for the day is to go to a park in the morning then come back to the resort for a couple hours of R'nR' then head to which ever park has the evening hours or just sleep in the morning of and enjoy the resort until early afternoon then head to the park. Since we are usually there for only 2 or 3 days each time we visit the extra magic hours are a big plus for us.

 

[TLS]

Just a few weeks ago we used both morning and evening EMH's.

In MK, we used the morning and it's amazing what you can get done in an hour. I was with 4 and 6 y/o Niece and Nephew, so Fantasyland was all but conquered in that hour! So if you have young ones, MK AM EMH's let you get a lot done as the majority are hitting the more adult E-Ticket rides.

We also used the evening EMH and Epcot and another evening at MK (till 2AM!?).

 

[Erin_Akey]

Since we go at Christmas a lot, we use them to avoid having to get fast passes for the popular rides. For instance MK has three nights during our trip this year where they are open until 2am. We love it because most people with kiddies are gone to the hotels to sleep and we can ride ride ride with no lines.

We will go have dinner at a resort and then head to MK about 10 or 11 and then we sleep in the next day.

Same for EPCOT and DHS. We have never used them at AK though. And we NEVER use the morning ones. But our youngest is 8 and oldest is 16.

 

[Sassagoula-Rvr]

Usually I go to whatever park opens early then get back to the resort around lunchtime to get out of the heat and away from the crowd. Then usually I spend the evening in the MK I always stay late there.

And yeah last year when MK opened early I rode Splash Mountain 7 times in one hour. I mean you can't beat the lines, Then by the time it opens to the public you can go get in some of the other rides (Fantasyland, HM, POTC) Usually people will head for like Splash, Space, BTMRR, and like to a certain degree POTC and HM

 

[hemloc]

Evening EMH at DHS are a blast... ToT, RnRC and TSM over and over, wheeeeeee !!!

 

[Rockin Roller]

Honestly evening hours are almost useless unless you stay until like 1 am because most of the more popular attractions are still very crowded. The best time I think to hit rides are when the park opens, early magic hours, and when it storms. Now I understand you can't ride the outdoor rides when it storms, but most people usually leave the pakr because of the storm cause they don't understand most storms only last like an hour. When the storms over your first in line. Also I know this gets off topic of magic hours but I think single rider is one of the greatest things ever. If you can't get a fastpass single rider is so much better than standby

 

[hemloc]

Honestly evening hours are almost useless unless you stay until like 1 am because most of the more popular attractions are still very crowded.

That's the whole point of Evening EMH... I've never had to wait for more than a few minutes, and everything is usually walk-on...

 

[Spike-in-Berlin]

We used the evening EMH in the MK and DHS and loved it. To me the EMH are actually one of the main reasons to stay in a disney hotel. It was much less crowded and all major attractions, with very few exceptions like Peter Pan's Flight and its never-never-getting-shorter-lines were accessable in less than 5 minutes. We did BLSS two or three times in a row, did BTMR without any waiting time, the same with JC and after midnight around 1.00 finally had only a 5 minute wait for Peter Pan. There were no morning EMH on the days we were staying on property (Wilderness Logde and Coronado Springs) but we definitely would have used them too. With EMH and FP it's possible to see everything without long waiting times.

 

[ClemsonTigger]

I have always been very happy taking advantage of the morning EMH. You can get a lot done before people sleeping in from evening EMH meander in around 1. You can easily walk on most and then get FP's for the afternoon.

The only time I have used evening EMH is on low park attendance days, then you can really enjoy the "exclusive access" feel

 

[bayoumoon]

I have always been very happy taking advantage of the morning EMH. You can get a lot done before people sleeping in from evening EMH meander in around 1. You can easily walk on most and then get FP's for the afternoon.

The only time I have used evening EMH is on low park attendance days, then you can really enjoy the "exclusive access" feel

Ditto here. This is exactly how we did our first trip in 07 and I'm planning our next trip in Dec to do the same thing. It was really nice in the early am.

 

[Ilovewishes]

I would love to use the EMH more but I have trouble with the DH. He won't get up early enough to do the morning ones (and I would love to go to the parks first thing!) and he very rarely agrees to stay late and do the evening ones. He will occassionally stay for the evening ones for maybe an hour "just to keep you happy with a wristband" but I would love to be there first thing in the morning or last thing at night!