Are extra magic hours worth it?

[annadreamsofdisneyworld]

We only do the PM extra hours events. We refuse to get up and suffer (cuz it is suffering for us) a super early morning while on vacation. It's just not that important to us.
Staying up past midnight-easy peasy. We don't have little kids with us, it works.

Nothing worse than hearing an alarm go off at 6am and have to get up and get ready. Even though it's for Disney, it's still miserable.
When we had kids with us and that schedule worked better, sure. But now that we have a choice--we are never doing that again!

I totally agree. If I didn't have kids I would do the late hours, but my kids are 2 and 4. Fortunately when I'm at Disney World I'm so excited that I wake up early on my own.

 

[hello starshine]

Not picking on you, but to me that's just something I don't understand or see value in. Waiting in what is basically a "line" for 45 minutes just so you can get on one more ride than the person who shows up right when the park opens. Isn't that the same as just waiting in line 45 minutes for that ride without showing up extra early?

For us it's more than one ride, we're hoping to do FOP than Na'vi and be able to see Pandora with a reduced amount of people. It'll probably let us get in line on the safari too, something that we normally skip unless we are there at park opening. I can never find multiple hours to wait in long lines during the day without having to give up other things but waking up early & doing the wait before the park opens allows us to get around this. It's definitely a personal preference but we'll always choose needing to wake up super early vs. waiting in 1 hour+ lines during the day.

YES, even with EMH, you need to be at the gates at least 30 min before and 45 is better insurance if you want to be toward the front of the EMH crowd.

Thanks! I had been planning on an hour before hand but this is a little better lol.

 

[RolloTomasi]

I'm not a morning person (and I'm certainly not going to be a morning person on vacation) so the PM extra hours suit me better. It also helps that I don't do EMH for the rides, really. I'll hop on a few that have low waits, but ideally I like going for the atmosphere. I've gotten some great pictures in the parks just walking around and taking everything in at my own pace. One of the highlights every trip is when I set up in the hub as the night is winding down, people watching, listening to the music and waiting for the kiss goodnight.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I totally agree. If I didn't have kids I would do the late hours, but my kids are 2 and 4. Fortunately when I'm at Disney World I'm so excited that I wake up early on my own.

Those kids might surprise you. My fondest Disney memory is chasing my then 3 year old daughter back to the entrance of Space Mountain moments before midnight with her screaming One More Time Daddy all the way.

 

[fiasco32]

For me, it depends on how long you're going to be at WDW. If I'm there for a few nights only, I'm going to take advantage of EMH.

For 5-6 days or more? I'm avoiding parks with EMH because I know our schedule is flexible enough to be more strategic.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Another alternate strategy that hasn't been mentioned yet is hopping in to a park later in the day that had EMH morning. A lot of the early arriving guests will get done with that park early.

The last time we tried this at MK, we found long lines of traffic leaving the park when we arrived about 8 pm. We were able to hit 16 rides before the park closed at midnight, all without any FPs.

 

[robinmy]

It's been a few years since I've been to Disney World. I'm thinking about going again in either January or February of 2020 and I have some questions about EMH.

First, I was looking at a calendar for this month (January 2019) and trying to see what the parks hours are and which parks have EMH on certain days. I didn't see any PM EMH hours listed. Do they not have PM hours in January and February, or am I just not seeing it?

Also, how do the parks handle closing the rides? If the park closes at 9:00 PM and we are in a long line at 8:45, do they just cut us off and send us away? Do they make sure everyone in line gets on the ride? Just curious as to how they handle this.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Also, how do the parks handle closing the rides? If the park closes at 9:00 PM and we are in a long line at 8:45, do they just cut us off and send us away? Do they make sure everyone in line gets on the ride? Just curious as to how they handle this.

As long as you are in line before closing time you will allowed to ride. Just don't be too late, they do close the line right on time. And they also have processes in place to make the lines appear longer than they really are to discourage late riders.

 

[Klayfish]

For us it's more than one ride, we're hoping to do FOP than Na'vi and be able to see Pandora with a reduced amount of people. It'll probably let us get in line on the safari too, something that we normally skip unless we are there at park opening. I can never find multiple hours to wait in long lines during the day without having to give up other things but waking up early & doing the wait before the park opens allows us to get around this. It's definitely a personal preference but we'll always choose needing to wake up super early vs. waiting in 1 hour+ lines during the day.

But it is just one ride. Let's say the park opens at 8am. Person A shows up at the gates at 7:15am. Person B shows up right at 8:00am. The gates open at 8:00am sharp. Person A is at the front of the line and gets in and goes right to the ride of their choice. They walk to it, get on, ride it and get off. It's now probably 8:10am, maybe 8:15am, give or take. By that time, person B is now through the tap point and in the park, just like person A. So it really is just one ride if we're talking about showing up 45-60 minutes early vs. showing up right when the gates open.

Yes, if you're talking about showing up far after park open, it's more than one ride. But as I've said before, IMO, if you are good with the FP+ system you can get as much done as the rope drop person even if you show up at 11:00am.

If you're an early riser by nature, then absolutely it makes sense. When our kids were little they never slept late, so we did rope drop often (but always aimed to be there right at park open, never too much before). Now that they like to sleep some, it's definitely not for us anymore, especially with FP+ being as good as it is.

 

[Bete]

I'm a great fan of EMHs with mornings being my favorite. In August with the heat starting early it's a very good strategy. If we get our fastpasses for the prime attractions like we want beforehand then early extra mornings can be quite fun. We especially try to get our fastpasses done early, too; so, we can then get extra fastpasses. You can accomplish a lot more going early especially if you work your way to the back of the park before the park opens to general public. By lunch time we take a break in the park for eating.

Sometimes, we take an afternoon break because we've accomplished so much and then go to another park for the evening.

 

[SaintsManiac]

But it is just one ride. Let's say the park opens at 8am. Person A shows up at the gates at 7:15am. Person B shows up right at 8:00am. The gates open at 8:00am sharp. Person A is at the front of the line and gets in and goes right to the ride of their choice. They walk to it, get on, ride it and get off. It's now probably 8:10am, maybe 8:15am, give or take. By that time, person B is now through the tap point and in the park, just like person A. So it really is just one ride if we're talking about showing up 45-60 minutes early vs. showing up right when the gates open.

Yes, if you're talking about showing up far after park open, it's more than one ride. But as I've said before, IMO, if you are good with the FP+ system you can get as much done as the rope drop person even if you show up at 11:00am.

If you're an early riser by nature, then absolutely it makes sense. When our kids were little they never slept late, so we did rope drop often (but always aimed to be there right at park open, never too much before). Now that they like to sleep some, it's definitely not for us anymore, especially with FP+ being as good as it is.

Getting there an hour before rope drop makes sense because that is an hour that doesn't eat into park time.

I'm lucky enough to go to WDW often, so I don't care about rope dropping anymore. If you're on a once every 5 years trip you would want as much time as possible. SDD and FoP waits jump to 60 minutes when the gates open up. Yes, those early birds waited an hour, too, but it was BEFORE the park was open for business.

 

[sharonabe]

But it is just one ride. Let's say the park opens at 8am. Person A shows up at the gates at 7:15am. Person B shows up right at 8:00am. The gates open at 8:00am sharp. Person A is at the front of the line and gets in and goes right to the ride of their choice. They walk to it, get on, ride it and get off. It's now probably 8:10am, maybe 8:15am, give or take. By that time, person B is now through the tap point and in the park, just like person A. So it really is just one ride if we're talking about showing up 45-60 minutes early vs. showing up right when the gates open.

But you're comparing apples to oranges. The ONLY parks I advised to get to early were AK and HS and ONLY if they wanted to do FoP or TSL rides. Right now, both of those parks are regularly opening 15-30 min (sometimes even more) BEFORE said 8:00 a.m. opening. So those that are already there are getting in and riding more than one ride before Person B even gets to the park. AND the headliners at these two parks have one hour or more waits all throughout the day, so if Person B wants to ride them without a FP+, they will be standing in that long line while Person A rides two or three MORE rides that Person B won't have time to do.

 

[siren0119]

It's been a few years since I've been to Disney World. I'm thinking about going again in either January or February of 2020 and I have some questions about EMH.

First, I was looking at a calendar for this month (January 2019) and trying to see what the parks hours are and which parks have EMH on certain days. I didn't see any PM EMH hours listed. Do they not have PM hours in January and February, or am I just not seeing it?

Also, how do the parks handle closing the rides? If the park closes at 9:00 PM and we are in a long line at 8:45, do they just cut us off and send us away? Do they make sure everyone in line gets on the ride? Just curious as to how they handle this.

EMH can vary based on season and attendance, so yeah there may not be Evening hours in the slow times.

As far as closing rides, they will stop letting people get in line once it reaches a point that the last folks in line will be riding at or just after park close. If they let you in line, you will get to ride It's pretty cool to ride tall rides when the park is mostly empty! Also, if you are in the park a little late, they have a "no man left behind" policy, there will ALWAYS be a bus back to a resort until the very last guest is out of the park.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

As far as closing rides, they will stop letting people get in line once it reaches a point that the last folks in line will be riding at or just after park close. .

This is incorrect. They don't close the lines early except for very rare occasions like after hours special events and those are publicized well in advance.

If you're there before closing time, you can get in line and will be allowed to ride no matter how long the line is. Most of the waits for the attractions are very short right at closing time, but headliners like FoP may have a 20-30 minute wait.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Getting there an hour before rope drop makes sense because that is an hour that doesn't eat into park time.

I'm lucky enough to go to WDW often, so I don't care about rope dropping anymore. If you're on a once every 5 years trip you would want as much time as possible. SDD and FoP waits jump to 60 minutes when the gates open up. Yes, those early birds waited an hour, too, but it was BEFORE the park was open for business.

Or you could wait until close to closing time and hop in line. Neither option takes up any park time, but the evening wait is generally much shorter and less crowded. I checked Slinky Dog yesterday just for an example, and the actual wait about a half hour before close was 34 minutes. There weren't any actual waits posted after that, but it's very likely that the line became shorter in that last half hour.

I think I would rather just walk up and get in a short line, rather than fighting through the crowd in the morning and still have a longer wait.

 

[Disneypro1]

100% no not worth it. As a matter of fact. If you go to a given park on a non emh day, it will be less busy. We always schedule parks on on non emh days. This is often advised on many planning pod casts and sites also. The emh just adds to the crowds. We almost always do say magic kingdom on Tuesday Wednesday and Friday. Which most yeas is no emh days. This could change so always check the calendar.

 

[rdaky]

We like the morning ones. The evening are hit or miss. We did an evening EMH at MK a few months ago and it was just too crowded. The lines didn't thin out until well over an hour into it. The issue is that all of the regular guests can get into the line seconds before the line closes to EMH only. The evening isn't bad if you can stick it out, but don't think that you will be walking right onto rides as soon as the park closes.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

100% no not worth it. As a matter of fact. If you go to a given park on a non emh day, it will be less busy. We always schedule parks on on non emh days. This is often advised on many planning pod casts and sites also. The emh just adds to the crowds. We almost always do say magic kingdom on Tuesday Wednesday and Friday. Which most yeas is no emh days. This could change so always check the calendar.

If you aren't going to park hop then sure, but if you get to morning EMH at rope drop you can get more done than a regular rope drop, and just about everyone recommends showing up for rope drop. And evening EMH at MK's are often pretty great. Of course, the EMH parks can be busier in the middle of the day, so if you are staying the entire then maybe consider skipping EMH. But I've never noticed a EMH day to be busier than a non-EMH day in any event--as far as I can tell, every day is just about equally busy.

Good discussion that's similar to my experience - https://www.disneytouristblog.com/extra-magic-hours-pros-cons/

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

I'm with Klayfish on this one. There have been a lot of recent reports of 20 minute actual waits for FoP near the end of the evening. That strategy doesn't take up any park time either and also avoids the stress that seems to come with the early morning crowds.

Maybe someday when the kids are teenagers. Right now they get up at 6-6:30 on normal weekends and the latest they have stayed up (which is at Disney) is 10. And no matter how late we put them to bed they still get up early. My DS6 was so tired at 10 pm last trip that he was falling asleep standing up on the bus (we didn't have seats and it was a pretty difficult situation actually - not one I want to repeat).

We also don't usually do stressful RDs. We do Navi (easy and stress free), Frontierland (deserted and awesome), Tomorrowland (more people but not stressful). But we stay onsite and have week long trips so we can prebook FPs for the headliners. That doesn't work for everyone either. Everyone has to pick what works for them.

If it were just me and DH, we'd do RD to close and use both strategies (and have a lovely pool day in the middle to recover).

 

[SaintsManiac]

Or you could wait until close to closing time and hop in line. Neither option takes up any park time, but the evening wait is generally much shorter and less crowded. I checked Slinky Dog yesterday just for an example, and the actual wait about a half hour before close was 34 minutes. There weren't any actual waits posted after that, but it's very likely that the line became shorter in that last half hour.

I think I would rather just walk up and get in a short line, rather than fighting through the crowd in the morning and still have a longer wait.

That doesn’t work for people with little kids who can’t stay up late.