on previous trips we've always steered clear of the parks that had the extra magic morning & evening hours...now that the kids are a bit older, and can manage an evening that lasts a bit longer I'm wondering if we should try one of the evening extra magic hours. Are these evenings fun? Looks like a limited # of attractions are open, depending on the park.

For those of you who take advantage of this, do you find it a different experience doing these rides in the dark?

Thanks {23 days and counting! }
Les

I'm interested to see responses as well! I am thinking of doing the Animal Kingdom PM EMH. I have done the AM EMH at Animal Kingdom, and it worked out well for me.

On our last trip in Dec. 2006, we took advantage of AK evening hours because we had never seen AK in the dark. We enjoyed it - not crowded - we got to ride Mt. Everest with hardly any wait and see the Tree of Life lit up.

On another evening we took advantage of MK into the wee hours and had a great time. At first it was crowded but as it got closer to mid-night the crowd thinned out. My son got to ride Buzz lightyear over and over, and we rode a few other rides all in one hour.

I'm sure it depends on the time of year - we were there mid Dec. and enjoyed having the extra time at night. We rarely to never take advantage of the morning hours.

I almost never take advantage of the evening hours, but often take advantage of the morning ones. I do hope to get to see AK in the evening on some trip soon, since I have been in all the other parks after dark.

Epcot evening hours seem really crowded to me - that might be because they are on Friday, though, too.

The worst thing you can do is what we did at AK last visit. We went on EMH-AM day, but arrived at the normal opening time. Things just lined up that we were running later than planned, but it was more crowded then Disney expected, too (they ran out of Safari FPs before EE FPs!)

I will do EMH both AM and PM on some of my Disney park days if I want a fuller day (my visits are typically 1-3 park days and EMH just extends the magic for me). I have found that it is a bit easier to get on the rides you want particularily during the AM EMH and later in the PM EMH. I agree that evening EMH's at Epcot are busy but that park can handle a lot of people - evening EMH's though at DS were VERY crowded though TOT was less busy than RNRR (huge waits - longer than during normal park hours).

I am (as many mentioned) looking forward to a few dark hours (though not EMH) at AK in about a week! Have never seen that park in the dark!

We experienced different outcomes depending on what time of year we went. During the off season, early or evening MH's were very reasonable and a lot of fun. We loved the evening hours as there is nothing like being one of the last ones out of the park.

However....
During our last trip in August, EMH's were horrible. We believe it was because it was so darn hot that people got going before it got too hot or came out after the sun came down.

We love EMH and do them as often as possible!

The only one I would stay away from is PM Epcot EMH as it draws so many more people that the park has more people than normal for the full duration.

Morning EMH is best at AK and our fav PM EMH is MK.

This week we are doing evening EMH at MK on December 30th.... the park is open to 1am and if the EMH is the full three hours we will be there until 4am!!!

I'm a huge fan of EMH! Evening usually works out best for me as I'm rarely up early enough to catch AM EMH and if you don't hit that right on, you really get caught in the flood of people coming in at the normal time... :( Evening EMH is great, I like to be one of the last people out of the park, that's when you get all the best pictures, get that last ride on your favorite attraction with very little wait, have the best CM interactions, grab the best midnight snacks to bring back to your room and do the best souvenir shopping without being trampled by angry hordes of shoppers! (pay attention to when places close, though, because you don't want to be doing the "Oh please let me in! I really need to buy just this one thing!" dance at the door of a shop... CM's never believe it [they see that crud every night] and poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency for them! Even if they do decide to be extra nice, it doesn't change that it's rude to keep somebody at work later than they're supposed to be...)

My family does EMH almost every night when we go. Surprisingly, for the past 3 years, magic kingdom had EMH on our last day, which was great. Me and my brother would always ride all of our favorite rides until two in the morning. of course, i like riding the rides better during the day but the short lines recover for that, and all of our favorite rides are on the list, so we dont worry. its great in the evening, but i have never actaully done it in the morning. i was planing on doing the DHS EMH in the morning this time around.

it seems that if you can pull off getting to the am park BEFORE the part opens you can actually do quite a few of the "big" rides before the ds enter. if you can;t get there early avoid that park.

the evening hours are a bit more tricky. the biggest problem is that the parks are already filled with people and lines are already formed. so the EMH time doesn;t really begin until those lines get shorter. if you can hang with the later times it's a fun experience.

i'm all for trying to get any advantage and the EMH are a great bonus to staying on property. i just think the am hours are the best.

wow! thanks for the ideas and thoughts! I think we might skip the Epcot late hours, only because we usually do Illuminations and enjoy the park after dark - but we've seen it in the dark so many times that I'm not sure it would be any different!

MK & AK in the dark &/or the rides in the dark sound like something our boys would get a real kick outta of. I think we will give it a try -

Just a little add on question: What are the best rides that are different at night?

My favorites at MK are Big Thunder and Splash--I love the view from Splash at night with everything in the park below you lit up! At Epcot, I guess I'd say Test Track, just cause I can't think of anything else that has much of an outdoor portion, and at MGM I'd say Tower, maybe? Never actually done that at night, but I imagine the view would be great... Something to try for next time. :D Anybody else have night time favorites?

A year or so ago my then 3 year old daughter and I were riding Dumbo just as wishes started..... I can not tell you how beautiful that was. One of my best Disney memories with her to date. I do agree that Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain are amazing at night. We never miss that during EMH at MK. We are going Jan. 1-8 so SM will be closed.:crying:
Also, the Indiana Jones show at DHS is really awesome at night. We saw it just past dusk and everything seemed amplified in the dark.:p

In regards to AK, I try to steer clear of that park about 2 times a day: When it's light out, and when it's dark out.

I love doing the PM EMH at the 3 other parks, mainly Epcot. Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever done AM EMH! I try to get to each park around regular opening, most of the time. Guess I'm too lazy to get up even earlier. :p

I have done MK evening EMH and when about 11:30 pm hit we were all so tired that we just couldn't stay up any longer (we had hit an AM EMH that day and had been at the parks non stop all day.) I'm hoping a mid day nap or trip to the pool will make evening EMH easier. I love the parks when they are all lit up at night, especially main street!

If your children are of an age where they will enjoy multiple rides in Fantasyland at MK this can be achieved in a most relaxed manner during morning EMH. I would use it for this again to enable us to concentrate on the rest of the park with this done.

I think we might skip the Epcot late hours, only because we usually do Illuminations and enjoy the park after dark - but we've seen it in the dark so many times that I'm not sure it would be any different!

This was exactly my problem with Epcot evening EMH a few weeks ago. I really love the vibe of the almost closed park after IllumiNations - I'll stay there for as long as an hour & 1/2. But with evening EMH there were bunches of other people crowding up MY park!

Morning EMH works really well for me at the MK. Most of Tomorrowland and Fantasyland are open then, and I get to ride rides that I wouldn't ever wait in line for, like the Astro Orbiter, the Speedway, and the FL dark rides. Morning EMH doesn't work as well for me in any of the other parks, as the rides open early aren't the ones that I want to ride.

With waits last week over three hours for Space Mountain and over an hour for Peter Pan and Space Ranger Spin, had it not been for the evening EMH we would have never been on some of the rides.

The park closed at 1am on Sunday December 30th and was open to 4am with EMH. From 1am to 3am we walked on every ride we wanted at MK. We cover more in two hours during EMH than we did in the twelve hours earlier in the same day!!!

Epcot stunk during our entire trip and we never did go on Soarin' or Spaceship Earth.

I printed out the calendar for our upcoming June trip and I want to make sure I am correct in thinking that when it says MK will close at 11:00 pm, on the EMH days, we can stay until 2:00 am? The wording says "up to 3 hours later" but is it always 3 hours - just want to make sure I plan the days correctly. And also, what is the latest time you can enter the parks on the EMH days - if we were at AK on one day and then wanted to go to MK for the EMH. Thanks so much for all the info to those of us that don't get to the world, but once a decade or so! Last trip: Honeymoon in August 1996 - next trip: Family of 4, June 8-June 20th!

You can enter during the EMH time, so if the park is open until 11, and there's EMH that evening, you can enter probably up until about 1:30am. I've never heard of them being less than 3 hours, I think the 'up to' is a CYA thing in case something happens on Disney's end.

BUT, you do need park hoppers to be able to do what you mentioned (go to AK then hop to MK for EMHs). It's not like the hard-ticketed events where you can get into the parks just on the ticket without having park hoppers.

Thank you Drince88! We will have the whole thing - 10 day hopper and water park passes so it shouldn't be a problem. Getting the kids to rest good during the (hot) day so we can take full advantage of the evening hours might be the bigger issue, but we'll try! Thanks again for the info - I know I'm still 4 1/2 months away but I'm thinking disney all the time and can't wait for this trip - I'm sure I'll have more and more questions as I get closer.

I have never done AM EMH can't get up early enough!! But I love PM extra Magic Hours. Last Aug 07 we rode Space MTN, Splash MTN x3, Laugh Floor, IndyCars, Carosel Of Progress, Buzz, Stitch in about 3 hours! Gotta Love it. The little kids were back @ Pop w/ Grandma, 10 & 14 yo were able to stay up late!

I have never done AM EMH can't get up early enough!!

I really do understand people who don't want to get up early while on vacation. But that just makes the parks all that less crowded for me! I can ride to my heart's content with very small lines all morning. Then, late morning when the crowd really start pouring in, I'm off to lunch and back to my hotel for a nice nap. And with that nap I don't need quite as much sleep at night, so I can get up early the next morning and do it all again!

We went to MK AM EMH (did you get all that??!!) on the very first day of our very first Disney trip. Our plan was to head straight for Dumbo. However, we got side tracked by the White Rabbit in front of the teacups. Then the coolest thing happened. Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum came over to us and "asked" if our 4 year old son could ride with them on the teacups! They took his hand and led him through the turnstyle, and actually got on the ride with him! It was so much fun!

For a first trip, the morning EMH was the most awesome way to start. We were at the MK entrance before the opening and Mickey came on the loudspeaker and did a countdown. The look on my son's face was priceless! That little bit of suspense made it a perfect start to the day.

We went to MK AM EMH (did you get all that??!!) on the very first day of our very first Disney trip. Our plan was to head straight for Dumbo.

I did this with my DD and got her on Dumbo first! She will, whatever else she forgots of her childhood, always remember that. If you can manage EMH am at MK with little ones they can have a really good time in Fantasyland and Tomorrowland and be at Toontown first when it opens so it's quiet here too. I highly recommend this strategy to anyone with little ones.