Late EMH at MK worth it?

MinnieMom85

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
We were planning on doing a date night with some friends to the MK the week of thanksgiving. We reserved a hotel room on property to get the extra magic hours. I now see that the regular MK hours are until 11pm (for the Tues 11/20 and Wed 11/21). The EMH just gets us from 11pm -1am on Wednesday
the 21st. Is it worth it to keep the hotel reservation for just 2 EMH? We all have APs so there aren't really any rides we are stressing to do but if we could walk onto some things and really enjoy them it might be nice.
 
Are you all actually going to keep going on rides until 1am? I know my wife and I would have a hard time with staying up that late.
 
Absolutely no guarantees that your hours will change, but FWIW last year hours for that Wed before Thanksgiving were eventually changed to a 12am closing with 12-2am EMHs... so just keep an eye out in case they update hours between now and then.

For me, 12-2am EMHs would be worth it. 11-1 is still OK, but they become 'less worth it' for me the earlier they get. MK PM EMHs have always surprised me in how popular the really in fact are with guests... but the later they are, the more natural attrition kicks in if you are in fact planning to use the full EMH time.
 
Thanks!

Are you all actually going to keep going on rides until 1am? I know my wife and I would have a hard time with staying up that late.

We are relatively young enough that I think we could stay up if we were staying busy. AKA getting on rides quickly. But standing in line for a while would get old that late. Plus we have to go home to our families afterwards and be up for thanksgiving the next day.

Absolutely no guarantees that your hours will change, but FWIW last year hours for that Wed before Thanksgiving were eventually changed to a 12am closing with 12-2am EMHs... so just keep an eye out in case they update hours between now and then.

For me, 12-2am EMHs would be worth it. 11-1 is still OK, but they become 'less worth it' for me the earlier they get. MK PM EMHs have always surprised me in how popular the really in fact are with guests... but the later they are, the more natural attrition kicks in if you are in fact planning to use the full EMH time.
Thanks. I will keep an eye out. I think when I planned this trip the park hours were until 10pm which didn't seem "late enough" for us as a date night but now that its open until 11 I'm not sure if its worth the cost of a hotel to stay even later.
 


You won't be able to walk onto headliners during nighttime EMH. There are 100,000 WDW resort guests at any given time, and a large portion of them will go to EMH. Even if it's only 25 percent, that takes away walk-ons. You can get luckier int he last hour of a 2AM EMH, but even then, none of the mountains are walkons.

If that's important, I'd keep an eye out for DAH. It will save you the money of the resort room, and it will be more in line for what you are looking for late at night.
 
We enjoy the atmosphere at MK for late EMH but have never had a lot of luck as far as low wait times for the big attractions. Even well after midnight we have found Mine Train and Space Mtn to have 60 minute waits. We've had a lot more luck with Haunted Mansion, BTMRR and Pirates. Fantasy Land and Tomorrow Land has always been just as crowded or more than a non EMH night just after fireworks.

So if you are expecting complete walk on everywhere you will be disappointed and it's not worth it. If you want to spend some extra time in the park late at night with some walk on but are OK if some of the more popular rides still have pretty substantial wait times then it would be worth it.

We have stayed on and off at pretty much every quality level. We find staying on property to be completely worth it for a whole bunch of reasons but EMH at MK would not factor into the value of staying on property for us.
 
I wouldn't, get a Disney Springs Hotel, Hilton, Holiday Inn, or Wyndham and have date night at Disney Springs, like a 5 min walk.
 


This summer we did evening extra magic hours and had a lot of fun. They were from 11-1. At 10:40 the park was still really busy, but we waited in a 25 minute pooh line. We came out of the ride and were amazed at how the crowd levels dropped off. We didn't try to ride a lot of the bigger rides, but still had a lot of fun. I love being in mk at night, and it was nice being there really late. We walked out of the park at 1:15 am. That was me and my two kids 14 and 10. We were staying at the contemporary, so it was nice walking back and being in our room in 10 minutes. I honestly don't rember how long the waits were, but it was still a lot of fun. We also did late emh at Epcot, dhs and did the after hours party. Love doing late nights.
 
I do recall once being at MK not realizing there were EMH until 1 am. We didn't really have an eye on the time and since we'd slept in late that morning and had spent a couple of hours chilling over dinner we weren't tired (normally we are ready for bed at 10-11 pm). By about 11 pm we noticed just how empty it was so decided to go over the Buzz Lightyear and see how busy it was. We were the only people in line. I think we did it 3-4 times back to back with no one or practically no one else on it. We didn't get back to our room until about 1:30 pm. I would have said we'd never bother to do such late EMH but when the planets aligned that time, it was great. Is it worth it enough to deliberately book a room so you can experience it? Only you can answer that. We always stay on property so it's a moot point for us. The next time we went there were MK EMH to 2 am and had intended to do it but went back to our resort in the early afternoon because it was so hot, spent the afternoon in the pool and went to bed early. But we do like that it's available to us if we feel like it.
 
Tuesday night is EMH at Epcot...although those can be hit and miss as well. Not sure how it'd be during Thanksgiving week.
 
Our experience has been that the later MK is open after HEA, then the better the EMH experience is. You should assume that everyone will be there until after HEA. And, given that you are talking about a Holiday week, it will be very busy. With HEA at 10 o;clock, like it is that week, a 12:00 closing does not gain you much. A 1 o'clock closing, like it is scheduled now is better, but still not optimum. You'll get about an hour of lesser crowds. A 2 o'clock closing, however, is awesome. We've been fortunate to have done those several times in the past, and the hour between 1-2 is pretty much walk-on for everything but Space Mountain and Mine Train. We've even had a situation where we did not even have to get out of the car for several consecutive rides on Big Thunder.
 
We're also considering EMH at MK and Epcot for our upcoming trip. Trying to figure out now if we're interested and not plan to do 8am breakfasts the next morning! :scared:

Are extra FastPass+ available during EMH just like regular park hours? It makes sense that in MK the mountains and other key rides would still have long lines. Any chance we'd have been able to snag a FP for one of these earlier in the day? I understand I can't count on getting on Mine Train, but being able to FP something would help.
 
We're also considering EMH at MK and Epcot for our upcoming trip. Trying to figure out now if we're interested and not plan to do 8am breakfasts the next morning! :scared:

Are extra FastPass+ available during EMH just like regular park hours? It makes sense that in MK the mountains and other key rides would still have long lines. Any chance we'd have been able to snag a FP for one of these earlier in the day? I understand I can't count on getting on Mine Train, but being able to FP something would help.

No, FPs are not available during EMHs.
 
I totally think it’s worth it. Depending on the crowd, you might get some quick moving lines. Should be a little better than during the day. We totally prefer late EMH to early morning. Love we can hang out and enjoy the night instead of rushing to get everything done before they close. Enjoy!
 
I'm sure crowds will vary from third week of October to Thanksgiving week, but we had 10p-12a EMH at Magic Kingdom and were satisfied with what we were able to accomplish and experience during the extra hours. Lines weren't walk-on status, but we weren't waiting an hour for Space Mountain, either. However, if your expectation is 'walk on', then no...probably not worth your time, then.
 
We LOVE late night EMH's. When I asked for a list of what my family wanted to do this year for our WDW vacation, midnight park touring was requested! We've been to EMH's that have lasted 'til 3 and 4 am (those were the days...when it looked like WDW was moving toward 24 hour openings). Love night touring, no hats, sunglasses, or sunscreen.

BUT, we rope drop a different park that morning and we go back to the room and nap mid-day and we don't plan to rope drop anywhere the next morning.

If you're going, embrace it and use the entire time. If your fickle or think your group will peter out at 10 pm anyway, avoid it like the plague, no since in being in a busier park to not wait until the fun starts. If you avoid it, I recommend you rope drop that same park the morning AFTER a very late night, those guests will not likely return to the same park the next morning, and most certainly won't be there at opening.
 
I wouldn't, get a Disney Springs Hotel, Hilton, Holiday Inn, or Wyndham and have date night at Disney Springs, like a 5 min walk.


FYI, to others reading the thread, these hotels are now offering EMH access too (for a limited time, but may get extended). So, this suggestion alone wouldn't exclude anyone who want to enjoy EMH from doing so. I think the intent of the post suggests trading a night EMH for an evening at the springs and a short walk back to your room.
 
We went this past July 11:00 to 1:00 am and the later it gets crowds become less. The first hour was still crowded but by midnight crowds really started thinning out.
 

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