If you are staying on-site, you are eligible for an exclusive amenity called Extra Magic Hours For Walt Disney World Resort Guests. Each day, at least one Disney park either opens 1 hour early or stays open 2 hours later for Disney Resort guests. The parks vary each day, so make sure you check the park schedule to see which parks will have Extra Magic Hours.
There are over 25,000 resort rooms on Disney World property and because Extra Magic Hours is so heavily advertised to the guests of Disney Resorts, many guests are aware of this perk and take advantage of it. Which means that often these Extra Magic Hours are very crowded. Also guests tend to visit parks that offer Extra Magic Hours even if they aren’t taking advantage of it because they feel like they are getting their money’s worth by visiting that park.
Tips and Advice
- Typically Evening Magic Hours die down about 1 hour before the park closes. If you can make it until the last hour, usually you can walk on everything.
- There are less rides and attractions open during the morning than during the evening. The evening is typically the best one to do.
- If you are going during the summer, Evening Magic Hours are awesome because it isn’t hot!
- If you want to avoid the crowds, the rule of thumb is to visit the park the day after they had Evening Magic Hours. So if Magic Kingdom had Evening Magic Hours on Monday night, you would visit on Tuesday.
- If you aren’t taking using a park’s Morning Extra Magic Hours, don’t go to that park! It is going to be crowded.
- If you have Park Hopper and you are planning on using the Evening Extra Magic Hours, visit a different park during the day and then return to the other park for Extra Magic Hours that evening. Typically a park that has Extra Magic Hours is busy all day long.
- If you aren’t staying on property, don’t go to a park that has Extra Magic Hours that day. Especially not the one that has Early Magic Hours.
My Opinion
Our kids are young so we don’t do Evening Magic Hours with them because they usually go to bed by 9 pm est. Twice we have tried Morning Magic Hours and both times it felt like total chaos plus there is less open during the Morning Magic Hours than the Evening Magic Hours. We also don’t usually get Park Hopper, so we avoid the park that has the Extra Magic Hours because we know it will be busy.
When my husband and I went on our anniversary trip, we did the Evening Magic Hours at the Magic Kingdom and it was AWESOME! Towards the 2nd and 3rd hour, the park was pretty deserted and we were able to walk on almost everything. Plus it is so hot during the summer, so it is nice to be able to take advantage of the darkness.
Your Opinion
Please leave a comment letting us know what your family does!
If you are traveling with little ones, make sure you take advantage of the Rider Switch program.
Learn more about planning your Walt Disney World vacation. Plus overwhelmed with all the planning? Destinations in Florida can help you plan your perfect trip.
Karen says
Extra Magic Hours are the absolute best. My favorite is the late night hours at the Magic Kingdom. We do this everytime we visit. It’s not as hot and you can walk on just about any ride. Last time, my family and I rode Thunder Mountain and Splash Mountain again and again.
Karen says
The only time we used extra magic hours was at Hollywood Studios for the evening hours. (I believe it was 8-11 in March) One thing made it totally worth it, the dance party in the building where they do the Disney Jr. shows. It was so relaxed, you HAD to show your key to the world to get in. My little girl LOVED it. We didn’t know anything about it until we walked past it and my little girl could see in and said look mama Mickey! I glanced over and saw Mickey dancing. We went in and there were no lines or anything just the Fab Five dancing with kids at random. My little girl got to dance with Mickey, Minnie, & Goofy and they literally had her hands dancing around with her to music from the 60’s. When she was dancing with Mickey the music playing was would you be my girl. it was definitely one of the BEST memories from our trip.
Kristin says
I have younger ones, growing up though 2,4,6…we enjoy magic kingdom eve. hrs. we go to the park around lunch time that day so we arent there 14 hrs. straight. Sometimes we go at opening and go back to the hotel noon-5pm then back to the park for the eve. IT is worth doing, you can get right on rides…so great.
Brenda says
We love extra magic hours!!!! Even with little kids we stayed until 3am one night and it is some of the best memories we have of the trip. (One on one attention from characters and riding dumbo ride with no wait and then getting to stay on for a second ride!!) My kids were 11, 6 and 2 and we closed MK down that night! Plus my two year old got to walk around instead of riding in the stroller since it was so quiet! Still can’t believe we stayed that long but we all loved it!!!
Kate says
We took advantage of the MK EMH during our trip in January. We got to the park when it opened in time to see the opening ceremonies, then headed back to Pop so our 2-year old could nap. We were back at the park in time for dinner and stayed until 11:30pm! We loved it – it was cooler (it was HOT that week in January), no crowds and no lines. We were able to walk right up and ride Pan and Pooh!
Michelle says
We never used EMH until recently. DH and I used the evening EMH on a kid-less trip and it was awesome! So last trip, we tried it with the kids. Everyone took a nap except the youngest (9 1/2 at the time). She fell asleep against the trash can outside BTMRR waiting for us to ride . (She didn’t want to ride.) We plan on using evening EMH again on our upcoming June vacation. Hopefully everyone will nap this time. ;-) So far we have only done MK EMH but plan on trying DHS also this trip. When DH and I did MK EMH this past November, the park was open until 3:00 a.m. We closed the park down, actually got kicked off BTMRR at closing time after riding it 10 times in a row!! I wouldn’t even try evening EMH with younger kids, obviously. But in the summer it’s so much nicer once the sun goes down!!
Dawn says
One of my best memories is staying at Magic Kingdom for evening extra magic hours over Easter weekend. My kids were 8 and 11. We were at the park until 3am. We got back to our room and in bed by 4 am. My husband was upset that we were still sleeping at noon, We had a great time, the weather is cooler and the crowds are gone!
Tanya Beakes says
Extra magic hours in the evening at hollywood studios is totally worth it (at least during the value season). They have the dance party in the disney junior building where the kids can dance with the characters. Took our 4 year old daughter to this in january…. Single greatest moment of her life so far lol. After the first hour everyone cleared out and there were less than 20 people left.. A dozen kids or less. Our daughter got so much one on one dancing time with the characters. It was amazing and so so worth it
Mary says
It never occured to me to visit a different park on the day of extra magic hours. We always chose the park that was open longer. I can say it was probably more crowded, however, i didn’t feel the extra magic hours were, even at the begining. We went in April which i understand is a less busy time anyway.
Since we did get the park hopper pass, i think next time we will do a different park than is offering extra magic hours and perhaps go back just for the evening hours.
I too have little kids, but loved that i could take them back to the room with grandma put them to bed, and go back and ride adult rides, some several times in a row even !
Amanda - Destinations in Florida says
When we are making itineraries for guests that are traveling to Walt Disney World, we tend to steer our guests away from the parks that are open for longer and that have the Extra Magic Hours – these tend to be the more crowded parks.
While we recommend that our guests visit the parks that will be lacking in hours the guest will not be losing time to ride the rides as these parks will have lower crowds and will be easier to navigate with shorter wait times for many of the rides!