Dealing with summer crowds and sun

[junedis]

My family is planning a June 2008 trip to DisneyWorld. My children are usually late risers. Is there any sense to arriving in mid afternoon to stay into the extra magic (evening) hours or is it absolutely necessary to do the morning extra magic hours? Thanks so much for any imput!

[bjlaac]

We have always found it to be the hottest and most crowded during the early afternoon and usually return to the resort for lunch and swimming.

There are a couple of thoughts about the extended hours in the morning. We have usually gone to another park while the "early" park filled up.

As far as the evening extended hours, it is nice to be there for extra time, but if the park is crowded it usually stays that way.

In summary the early morning is best IMHO

Enjoy

[NotaGeek]

My family is planning a June 2008 trip to DisneyWorld. My children are usually late risers. Is there any sense to arriving in mid afternoon to stay into the extra magic (evening) hours or is it absolutely necessary to do the morning extra magic hours? Thanks so much for any imput!

We have always found it to be the hottest and most crowded during the early afternoon and usually return to the resort for lunch and swimming.

There are a couple of thoughts about the extended hours in the morning. We have usually gone to another park while the "early" park filled up.

As far as the evening extended hours, it is nice to be there for extra time, but if the park is crowded it usually stays that way.

In summary the early morning is best IMHO

Enjoy

to INTERCOT junedis!

Extended Magic Hours are a WDW function ... you guys landed in the Disneyland (California) threads, and they only offer "Early Entry" ... not quite the same thing. I am gonna scoot this over to the Vacation Planning forum for WDW ... you are sure to get some great hints from our East Coasters that are more in-the-know. Hold on, here we go!

[AuntDJ]

I took my 8 yr old niece last June (2006) and normally she will sleep as long as you let her or at least 9-9:30...

I woke her everyday by 7:30 and she did fine. I was worried she would get grumpy eventually, but she never did....

However, by the end of the week the pics of her in the morning, her eyes are puffy and you can tell she is tired!

DJ

[KylesMom]

My children are usually late risers. Is there any sense to arriving in mid afternoon to stay into the extra magic (evening) hours or is it absolutely necessary to do the morning extra magic hours?

You didn't mention how old your children are. This may have a distinct bearing on your ability to enjoy evening EMH.

We usually get up early for park opening with DS, 9. We take advantage of both regular park hours and morning EMH.

We are able to take advantage of lower lines, and we also begin gathering Fast Passes for later morning when lines begin to grow. We've found, for the most part, that by 2 pm the parks are very crowded, lines are very long, FP return times are into the evening and the heat begins to take its toll on everyone.

If you decide to go to the parks mid-afternoon, I'm afraid your family may be shot before evening extra hours begin (10pm or after in June for MK, Epcot & DHS). The heat, humidity and crowds can be pretty intense during the summer months.

We usually return to our hotel for a few hours in the afternoon to swim, rest, enjoy the resort, etcetera, then return to the parks in the early evening. I will also offer this - EMH can be VERY crowded during the summer months! Unless you can stay until the wee hours of the morning, we have found that they are just too crowded to enjoy the parks. We saw average wait times for the E-ticket attractions at 120 minutes, and rides such as PotC were always 45 minutes to an hour until after midnight at MK.

One last thing - WELCOME to Intercot!!!

[DizneyRox]

The key to enjoying the parks in the summer has nothing to do with the hours. It's all about staying hydrated!

Evening Extra Magic Hours are really not fun, and it's worse at MK. I once tried an EMH at MK, normal park closing was at 11pm I think, it didn't clear out until about 1am or so. It was unbearable at 11pm, seemed to get worse until about 12:30 before you could move around a little. I didn't even attempt a ride that night until 1am.

Other parks aren't that bad, but in general, the park that has EMH on any given day is more crowded than when it doesn't have EMH. People without park hopping tend to visit that park and stay to tke advantage of more hours. Morning EMH isn't so bad, but if a park has Evening EMH stay away.

[junedis]

Thank you for your input. I wil take your advice!!

You didn't mention how old your children are. This may have a distinct bearing on your ability to enjoy evening EMH.

We usually get up early for park opening with DS, 9. We take advantage of both regular park hours and morning EMH.

We are able to take advantage of lower lines, and we also begin gathering Fast Passes for later morning when lines begin to grow. We've found, for the most part, that by 2 pm the parks are very crowded, lines are very long, FP return times are into the evening and the heat begins to take its toll on everyone.

If you decide to go to the parks mid-afternoon, I'm afraid your family may be shot before evening extra hours begin (10pm or after in June for MK, Epcot & DHS). The heat, humidity and crowds can be pretty intense during the summer months.

We usually return to our hotel for a few hours in the afternoon to swim, rest, enjoy the resort, etcetera, then return to the parks in the early evening. I will also offer this - EMH can be VERY crowded during the summer months! Unless you can stay until the wee hours of the morning, we have found that they are just too crowded to enjoy the parks. We saw average wait times for the E-ticket attractions at 120 minutes, and rides such as PotC were always 45 minutes to an hour until after midnight at MK.

One last thing - WELCOME to Intercot!!!

[tomorrowschild]

We go the first 2 weeks in July- so it so very hot and crowded (but we are used to it). If your children are up for it definately do the night EMHs. We have always enjoyed the evening EMHs more, because we like to sleep in. (if your kids are old enough to handle it)
Here are some tips for evening EMH's in the summer:

- EPCOT has a great "feel" to it at night. We love to do WS at night (very quiet)- but not sure if your kids would enjoy it.
- Sometimes they give out fastpasses during EMH's - check at Soar'n (be there a few minutes before the EMH starts.
- MGM- avoid TT and RnR (if you can) because they are always soooo busy. Hit them later in the night. Do things like Muppets, Star Tours, etc they are always sooooooo quiet.

Be prepared for the crowds to be heavy at the beginning of the night- but as the night goes on it does quiet down some.

[krorx]

Early is best and I found my kids were always eager to get up and get going knowing they had the parks to look forward to. EMH are crowded, packed in the evenings. If you hit there first thing, you can often get the most popular rides done within and hour or two then shop, eat, head back to your resort to rest and swim and then go back out in the evenings to face the crowds again.