Morning EMH vs. Evening EMH — Which is the best?

When it comes to your Walt Disney World vacation, there are a lot of benefits to staying on property, but perhaps the best benefit of all is the benefit of getting the Extra Magic Hours.  If you have never stayed on property before at Walt Disney World, the extra magic hours are extra times that a park is open on a given day or night that only Walt Disney World resort guests can utilize.  The key is that only one park a day will have either morning or evening extra magic hours, not all of them, so you should use this as a means to decide which park you want to see on a particular day of your vacation.  If you stay off property, you aren’t allowed to get the extra hours.

When it comes to extra magic hours, the debate rages over which is better — morning extra magic hours, or evening?  In this writers opinion, the evening extra magic hours win hands down! The biggest reason for this for me is that morning extra magic hours are only for one hour early, so if your park opens at 9:00 AM, and it has morning EMH, then it will open at 8:00 AM.  However, if your park has evening EMH, and it closes at 11:00 PM on that particular night, the evening hours will allow the park to stay open until 2:00 AM the next morning!  This is because the evening EMH are for three extra hours, not just one.

The photo at the beginning of this post was taken on the first time that my family had ever experienced evening extra magic hours.  On June 20th, 2010, the Magic Kingdom had evening extra magic hours, so we decided that our daughter was old enough to experience the thrill of that, and we stayed out late.  Little did we know that Mickey and Minnie were going to be paying the park a visit, and we were able to see them while they were riding the Dumbo ride with two very lucky guests!  This picture was taken on June 21st, 2010, at 12:06 AM, during the extra magic hours window.

Obviously, evening extra magic hours are not for everyone.  If you have small children, then it’s a no-brainer that you are going to utilize the morning extra magic hours rather than the evening.  However, if that is not a factor in your decision, give the evening extra magic hours a try.  The park is less crowded, the night weather (even during the middle of summer) is quite enjoyable, and the park you are visiting takes on a special magical vibe that can sometimes be missing when it’s 100 degrees at 3PM and the crowd calendar has the crowd level at 8.0 out of 10!  We had a great time that night, and I look forward to the next time we can enjoy an evening extra magic hour time slot!

The best place to discover what the hours are for Walt Disney World (and also which park has extra magic hours on a given night) is to check out the Disney World Park Hours.

However, this is just this writer’s opinion, so tell me, which do you prefer?

Related articles

• Ride Along with Mickey & Minnie – 39 Days Til Disney! (mydreamsofdisney.com)

Let our friends at Destinations to Travel help you book your next Disney Vacation. They are the preferred Travel Agency of Chip and Company and Disney Addicts, and who we use ourselves.

Get started below for your FREE No Obligation Quote.

Book With our friends at Destinations to Travel

Who is your Travel Agent?(Required)

Let us pick for youEric HilesStacy ReedAbbey JohnsonAlisa SullivanAlli WillisAmanda FolsomAmanda VannAmber BrillhartAmber FisherAmy SieburnAndrea SmithAngela AndersonAngie BaycuraAnna PetrilliAnnabelle DuboseApril StefanskiAshley RamseyBeth ParsonsBetsy SantoroBrandie McQueenBrian BuckleyBridget HatchBryan SchwartzCandice SneedCarrie ButlerCarson DockumCasey BoltCharleen HortonChelsea RoyChelsea WuebkerChris BoyerChristie GrubeChristina FratturaChristina SmithCourtney WhiteCraig YoderDan MercedDanielle NorcrossDarby MouritsenDavid ForrestDeborah AlvaradoEmilee BiegelEmily MorrisFaith HakesGail HatchGreg MatzkerHelen HummerHolly CurryJackie CavistonJaclyn PepitoneJamie SwansonJeanine JordanJeff CallahanJenni MaierJennifer BrownJennifer StephensonJennifer StoessnerJessica HatfieldJessica HuffJessica WunderJoe GuertinJon CarpentierJoseph SliwaJulie McCombJustin BrownKat AttridgeKathryn EberhartKathy AndersonKatie HarrellKatie PrevotKayla CookKelsey SullensKim HelmsKimberly HutchinsonKristi GallagherKyle RamsdenLauren DewlenLeanne MonterLinda DurhamLindsay AckermannLindsey VromanLissette BritoLori HardyMallory MorrisonMandi QuinnMaranda PerkinsMarisa AlvaradoMegan TeismannMeghan BlairMelissa ReedMichele KlineMike BeyerMissy McCormickMisty DickersonNancy CasteelNicole ThorntonPatrick O'ConnorPaul SulPeyton Ward-KubikRaylene CooganRegan OstranderRobbie BulusRobert ThomasSara SolbergSarah McCandlishShanna BrowningShelley BennettShelly MetzStacy CristStacy KrzyminskiStacy SmithStephanie DraganoStephanie FerencStephanie WalshSusannah McCordTara SlusserTerri MillerTiffany DobraskiTiffany DrenkhahnTina FarmerTonya LesiukTracy DaneTroy DuncanVeronica RenteriaVicki FesslerWendy CarllWendy HauserWendy KellehanWendy Shelley

Name(Required)

First Last

Email(Required)

Phone(Required)

Destination(Required)

Walt Disney WorldDisneyland ResortDisney Cruise LineAulani, A Disney Resort and SpaAulani, A Disney Resort and SpaUniversal FloridaUniversal HollywoodRoyal Caribbean, Carnival, Norwegian or other Cruise LineI don't know yet

# of Adults(Required)

# of Children(Required)

Check-in-Date(Required)

MM slash DD slash YYYY

Check-out-Date(Required)

MM slash DD slash YYYY

Comments, Questions or Special Requests

Comments

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

For the BEST in Disney, Universal, Dollywood, and SeaWorld Theme Park News, Entertainment, Merchandise & More follow us on, Facebook, Instagram, and Youtube. Don't forget to check out the Chip and Company Radio Network too!