Extra Magic Hours -are they being replaced?

hsc3boys

Mouseketeer
Joined
Aug 10, 2013
Is it my imagination or have the amount of EMH decreased over the years?

I’m sure we used to have access to far more evening EMH in the past and they seemed to be later. This last June/July we didn’t seem to be in the parks at night on EMH very often at all.

It also seems that the Park Hours change right up to the last couple of weeks, we’ll after I have planned my Fast passes and ADR.

So would I be correct in assuming they are replacing EMH with the ticketed events? It does seem they are trying to charge ridiculous amounts for more and more these days. EMH in the evening was always a big plus for us staying on site and then joining DVC.
 
They started cutting the length of EMH several years ago and then yes, they have reduced the number of nights in the past couple of years or so. And yes, they have slowly been trying paid night extra hours and expanding into parks other than MK where they started in addition to adding more special event parties nights for MNSSHP and MVMCP. If you want to be park commando and have the same potential hours in a single park as you did just a few years ago you might have to buy 2 park entries for the day now vs 1.
 
As of right now, there are no EMH scheduled at DHS for the week I am at WDW next month, but EMM is available one day. It seems that there are more morning EMH at AK and MK than in the past, but if I’m staying on property for a week, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect at least one EMH day at DHS. Isn’t that supposed to be one of the perks of staying onsite? There is no way I would pay for early access to a park, especially DHS!
 
As of right now, there are no EMH scheduled at DHS for the week I am at WDW next month, but EMM is available one day. It seems that there are more morning EMH at AK and MK than in the past, but if I’m staying on property for a week, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect at least one EMH day at DHS. Isn’t that supposed to be one of the perks of staying onsite? There is no way I would pay for early access to a park, especially DHS!

I have no idea if this is the case, but they had AM EMH at DHS for pretty much the entire summer due to Toy Story Land opening. Maybe they are just taking a break? They did add some when we were there the other week. I purposely was trying to avoid them and had some plans in specific parks and they ended up adding them much later.
 


As of right now there is EMH at DHS for my March visit. So maybe they are just taking a break.
 
I believe DHS and AK only have AM EMH, only Epcot and MK have evening EMH. It does bother me that what was once a perk of staying on site, is now gone from 2 parks:(. The parks just seem more magical at night and we love to use PM EMH, but I refuse to pay $500 for the 4 of us to get what once was free.
 
I’m sure PM EMH at DHS will be back (at least on a limited basis) once Star Wars Land opens. They will need to incentivize people to stay on site. I’m sure DAH will be available as well.
 


EMH used to be one of the biggest perks to staying on site.

With 60+ length of stay FP booking for on site guests, they don't need EMH as much to justify the higher price of WDW rooms. They partly replaced an expensive perk (for them) with a free perk.

To make things worse, with the building of new resorts combined with a decrease in the frequency of EMH, a greater number of guests attend any given EMH day, resulting in a decreasing of the quality of the experience.
 
EMH used to be one of the biggest perks to staying on site.

With 60+ length of stay FP booking for on site guests, they don't need EMH as much to justify the higher price of WDW rooms. They partly replaced an expensive perk (for them) with a free perk.

To make things worse, with the building of new resorts combined with a decrease in the frequency of EMH, a greater number of guests attend any given EMH day, resulting in a decreasing of the quality of the experience.

To add to this, since they regularly are at capacity with their resorts, there is less incentive for them to offer any type of perk. As long as the rooms are filled, why offer a perk that costs them money? Now, when/if resorts aren't filling to capacity, they may be more enticed to add more resort only perks.
 
To add to this, since they regularly are at capacity with their resorts, there is less incentive for them to offer any type of perk. As long as the rooms are filled, why offer a perk that costs them money? Now, when/if resorts aren't filling to capacity, they may be more enticed to add more resort only perks.

I’m actually surprised they have kept EMH as long as they have. EMH started around 2004 when attendance was down and they were having trouble filling the resorts. When they started it I thought it would be a short term perk. I was wrong!

We stayed on site long before EMH were introduced and would have chosen to stay onsite if EMH never were introduced for lots of other reasons.

We enjoyed many late EMH nights. They were a great perk and they have definitely cut back. With 2 toddlers now, we wouldn’t use the late night EMH anyways, but I always enjoyed them.

Before EMH started, extra night hours used to be ticketed (E-ride nights) and they were so cheap (we’re talking $10-$12 for 3 hours of extra MK time.) Quite the difference compared to ticketed after hours events now!
 
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I don't think EMH are ever going away because they are a resort marketing pitch more than anything else, even if they rarely deliver what people think they should. With four parks and AM and PM availability, I don't think you'll see any park have more than one of each a week. But I do feel pretty strongly that in a week-long stay, you'll have access to at least one EMH at each park.

So, while I agree that the numbers and frequency of MK EMHs has diminished, I think the overall availability has increased. But most people seem to only think of MK EMHs as the ones that count, it can easily seem the total numbers of EMH has dwindled.

It's also important to remember that there are, at any given time, about 100,000 guests onsite at WDW. So when they do have MK EMHs, they can often feel as crowded as a regular day.
 
We are going the end of January for 12 days. HS has no early morning or late evening extra hours. Is that normal?
 
I’m actually surprised they have kept EMH as long as they have. EMH started around 2004 when attendance was down and they were having trouble filling the resorts. When they started it I thought it would be a short term perk. I was wrong!

We stayed on site long before EMH were introduced and would have chosen to stay onsite if EMH never were introduced for lots of other reasons.

We enjoyed many late EMH nights. They were a great perk and they have definitely cut back. With 2 toddlers now, we wouldn’t use the late night EMH anyways, but I always enjoyed them.

Before EMH started, extra night hours used to be ticketed (E-ride nights) and they were so cheap (we’re talking $10-$12 for 3 hours of extra MK time.) Quite the difference compared to ticketed after hours events now!
Actually it’s been around longer than that. It used to be called early entry and was when a park opened an hour and a half early. They did away with them and started doing character caravan which was character meet and greets at the resorts. People were not happy and started canceling their reservations. Disney quickly reversed that decision and started what is now known as EMH with morning and night events. I personally do not like the evening events because there are more people than there are doing the day. However, we do like the morning ones.
 
We are going the end of January for 12 days. HS has no early morning or late evening extra hours. Is that normal?
What are your dates? HS has AM EMH on Sunday, Jan. 20 and Friday, Feb. 1 (we'll be there that morning!)
 
I’m very disappointed, being a night owl, we never make the am EMH put PM ones were great for us, love the parks at night and a lot of the younger children had gone to bed, so we found it less crowded. I can only see EMH at night for Epcot and MK when we go late May. When AK had them it was Fab.
For me it’s one of the best perks of staying on site as you can spend time in the resort in the afternoon and then head out refreshed in the evening. I have no intention of paying the ridiculous amount for a family of four to have what was previously a free perk. I’m a DVC member and this has left a bitter taste in my mouth as Disney is charging more and more for every little thing they can squeeze out of us.
 
As of right now, there are no EMH scheduled at DHS for the week I am at WDW next month, but EMM is available one day. It seems that there are more morning EMH at AK and MK than in the past, but if I’m staying on property for a week, I don’t think it’s unreasonable to expect at least one EMH day at DHS. Isn’t that supposed to be one of the perks of staying onsite? There is no way I would pay for early access to a park, especially DHS!

The six days I was there in November didn't have any MK EMH, though they did have one EMM. It was a bit of a bummer, but we still had a good time.

I tend to regard the early closings for parties as a gift for those who go to MK during the day, as the crowds are definitely lower. We went to MK on a day it closed early, and while it wasn't empty, it was far more enjoyable than the days MK was open longer. We don't particularly care about fireworks, though, so getting to go on a lot of rides during the morning and afternoon is preferable to a day of gridlock so we can watch the night show.
 

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