Extra Magic Hours

Let’s get this out of the way… I’m excited whenever I get something for nothing. A free sample in the supermarket will have me smiling for most of the day so you can imagine my level of ecstasy when I can get something free from Disney. Well, “free” is probably a bit too strong a word but there are some benefits that come with staying at a Walt Disney World resort.

I’ve taken advantage of Disney’s Magical Express, resort/park transportation, free parking, charging meals and merchandise to my room, and having my purchases delivered to my resort—all free of charge. These are all benefits currently available to Disney’s on-site resort guests.

If you’re at all familiar with Universal Studios Florida, then you’re aware that their resort hotel guests receive a different kind of benefit—a “Front of the Line” pass that’s good for attractions at both of their parks: Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure. With that pass, you are able to use a Fastpass-like queue on each attraction.

That is certainly a wonderful advantage to staying on-site at Universal and I’ve heard many people ask why Disney doesn’t offer an equivalent for its resort guests. Because I stay exclusively on-site as a Disney Vacation Club member, I could benefit tremendously from a perk like that. However, I am strongly opposed to it, or anything else that sets up a “class system” for attraction queues. Yes, I know Disney has Fastpass but that’s available to all guests, not just those that paid an additional fee or ponied up the bucks to stay on-site. Anyone with park admission can take advantage of the Fastpass system. I fear that once you start down that road, the next step will be three entrances to every attraction with a different cost based upon wait time. Or maybe a different queue based on whether you’re in a Value, Moderate or Deluxe resort. I never want to see that happen.

Disney guests do have one additional perk, called Extra Magic Hours. This offers Disney’s resort guests access to one of the four major theme parks before the park opens or after it closes to the public. Sounds too good to be true, doesn’t it? But… if it’s such a wonderful benefit, why do so many people avoid it or question its value?

To better understand, let’s look back at how this benefit for on-site guests got started, how it evolved and how it might be best utilized today.

Early Entry, Surprise Mornings and the Character Caravan

I’m a bit fuzzy on the actual dates but I can recall taking advantage of a feature called Early Entry in the 1990s. This prior version of Extra Magic Hours, for a while called “Surprise Mornings,” was a bit simpler than today’s offering. While we’re on the subject, just what was so surprising about Surprise Mornings? We knew in advance when they were scheduled. But I digress… back to Early Entry.

Each day, Disney resort guests could get early entry to one of the four major theme parks: Magic Kingdom, Epcot, Disney-MGM Studios (now Disney’s Hollywood Studios) and Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Early Entry meant opening the park one-hour earlier so if, for example, Epcot’s official opening time was 9:00am, a resort guest would be allowed into the park at 8:00am and have the run of the place for a full hour before the rest of the riffraff were let in. There were only a handful of attractions running during that hour but still, it was a nice benefit for those staying on-site.

During this period, Disney offered an additional extended-hours event, called E-Ride Night, although this was a separately ticketed event (read that as an additional cost.) E-Ride night took place in the Magic Kingdom and offered only eight attractions: Big Thunder Mountain Railroad, Buzz Lightyear’s Space Ranger Spin, the Haunted Mansion, the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, Mickey’s PhilharMagic, Peter Pan’s Flight, Space Mountain and Splash Mountain.

E-Ride was limited to about 5,000 guests, so for that one-time charge, you could enjoy three hours in an almost empty park. If riding attractions multiple times in rapid-fire order was your thing, E-Ride was for you. I never had much interest in E-Ride and, to be honest, I was (and still am) averse to these extra cost, hard ticket events and yes, I’m including the Halloween and Christmas parties as well as the shorter-lived Pirate and Princess parties. They represent another way for Disney to dip into our pockets a bit more but what really upsets me is that they take park time away from the other guests. If I hold a Magic Your Way 7-day ticket, and I visit during a week in November, the Magic Kingdom will close early on three or four evenings to accommodate Mickey’s Very Merry Christmas Party. That’s three or four evenings I won’t have a shot to see the nighttime parade or fireworks. Does it devalue my pass? Certainly. If I own an Annual Pass there are many more early closings like this over the year. But I digress yet again… we were supposed to be talking about Extra Magic Hours.

I’m a morning person so Early Entry was right up my alley. The schedule for Early Entry was staggered so you might have Magic Kingdom open early on Monday, Epcot on Tuesday, and so on. Like many folks, we would plan our weekly schedule to take advantage of these Early Entry mornings whenever possible.

Then, in October 2001, something very strange happened. Disney announced they were cancelling Early Entry (or Surprise Mornings.) The reason given was that too few resort guests took advantage of it to be cost-effective, especially during the off-season. At least that’s what they told us. They did say that Early Entry might be made available in the future, during peak attendance periods but for all practical purposes, it had been canceled.

Early Entry / Surprise Mornings would be replaced by the Character Caravan. Each morning, a bus would pull up in front of several resorts where a number of characters would enter the resort lobby for a meet and greet with the guests. From Disney’s announcement:

“The Caravan visits each Disney hotel (according to the schedule) to see guests off as they begin their day. Characters will not be at every resort every day, the schedule alternates, so be sure and check at your resort.”

The few times I saw the Caravan, somewhere between two and four characters would show up and they were not always the same. I can recall a lot of the online community complaining about the loss of Early Entry, with Disney responding that the change was made due to guest preference. Their surveys had determined that guests preferred more character interaction to early park openings. I was uncertain why they couldn’t do both and, as the story shakes out… they could.

By October 2002, Disney had apparently heard enough complaining about the demise of Early Entry and they announced Extra Magic Hours. It began as an identical system to Early Entry but quickly evolved into a system of extra hours that would be available before the park opened in the morning and… wait for it… up to three hours in the evening, after the park closed to regular guests.

Extra Magic Hours

When I first read about Extra Magic Hours, I was beyond pleased. Disney had already ramped up character “meet-and-greets” in the parks and now they were giving something to us, their paying guests, just because we asked for it. Slap my face and color me happy! This was a great deal for early risers (like me) but also provided something for the night owls (like the rest of the world). I couldn’t wait to try this but I have to admit to being more than a bit unsure of exactly how many people would take advantage of these perks. Would it be similar to the past usage of Early Entry? Or would the evening Extra Magic Hours bring 100,000 people descending on the Magic Kingdom?

My personal experience has shown very little difference between morning Extra Magic Hours and the previous Early Entry. The parks are not crowded during that morning hour and it’s very possible to get multiple attractions in—even multiple rides on your favorites. Keep in mind that not every attraction is available during Extra Magic Hours (see the current list below) but the more popular rides are open.

My advice is to take advantage of morning Extra Magic Hours and go hard for the first 60-90 minutes. You’ll be able to get a lot done. An interesting thing happens after the first hour or so—the park starts to get crowded. If you think about it, it makes sense. You attract x number of people to the Magic Kingdom, at 8:00am, for morning Extra Magic Hours. Now a portion of those folks may have come to the Magic Kingdom anyway but some percentage is there just because of the extra hour. At 9:00-9:30, another large group, the group that had planned to come to Magic Kingdom anyway, begins to enter the park. By 10:00am, the park is crowded, more crowded that it would have been on a non-Extra Magic Hours morning. My advice is to take a break for a late breakfast somewhere, then park hop somewhere else.

So… I’m a fan of morning Extra Magic Hours—what about the evening version? Not so much. In my limited experience, evening Extra Magic Hours can be very crowded. All your regular guests are there, plus all those folks coming for the extra hours… and they tend to get there well before the extra hours begin, making for an over-crowded park. It’s not my cup of tea but I’ve heard if you can stick around, the park tends to empty during the last hour of operation. By that time, I’m usually in my Dr. Denton’s and tucked away safely in my room.

Let’s summarize… Remember that not every attraction will be operating during Extra Magic Hours. Here’s a list that I believe is current (but you should always check with Disney to be safe):

Disney’s Hollywood Studios

Disney’s Animal Kingdom

Keep in mind that you probably won’t be seeing any Fastpass distribution machines operating during Extra Magic Hours. One nice benefit if you’re in Epcot is that the World Showcase restaurants are open longer.

If you find that Extra magic Hours are not for you, one strategy that often works is to hit a park in the morning that had evening Extra Magic Hours the preceding day. There are certainly no guarantees but those parks tend to be a little less busy.

The last piece of advice I’ll offer is to check and re-check with Disney frequently. Check the parks schedule six months in advance when you’re in planning mode. Check it again a few weeks before your trip begins to pick up any changes. Check it again upon arrival and during your stay for any last minute adjustments that might have been made. It beats finding out at 8:00am at the park entrance that it doesn’t open until 9:00.

For the official information on Extra Magic Hours, visit Disney’s EMH page. For park hours and Extra Magic Hours schedules, visit Disney’s Park Hours page.

Those are my opinions. How do you feel about Extra Magic Hours?