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Disneyland Paris => Disneyland Paris News & Rumours => Topic started by: MouseLivesOn on October 24, 2010, 04:04:28 PM

Title: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: MouseLivesOn on October 24, 2010, 04:04:28 PM
I have read many recommendations for EMH ....

We are booked for 24-27 Jan 2011, which I understand is off-peak.
Given that we should not have long queues at rides, do you think it's still worth waking up for EMH?

Thanks in advance!
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: smurfy74 on October 24, 2010, 10:37:43 PM
i think this should be in trip planning so one of the mods will prob move it.
EMH are great if only for the great photo ops you will get
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: never2old on October 25, 2010, 09:26:25 AM
We always get up for the EMH, even when it's quiet. If anything, it means you can do the rides a few times without any queuing (particulary Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear and Space Mountain).
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: RockNRoller on October 25, 2010, 10:45:10 AM
Its always worth getting up for EMH, yes you can ride over and over some of the more popular rides with no queue but I would recommend it for the chance to take photo's without the crowds. Some of my fave photo's are of a deserted main street or town square.
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: dagobert on October 25, 2010, 11:06:49 AM
I have different feelings about the EMH. First there are only a few rides open in Fantasyland and Discoveryland. This year in February we used them every day, just because the park opened at 10 o'clock  and closed at 6pm. So the park was only open for 8 hours it was nice to have an extra hour in the park.

I don't know if there are more rides open during the warmer times and during the high seasons of the year, butwe were a little bit disappointed that there were just a few rides open. If I remember correctly in Discoveryland SM, Buzz and Orbitron were open, while Peter Pan, Dumbo, Tea Cups and the Carousel were open in Fantasyland. Maybe that changed and the other dark rides are also open now.

Like RockNRoller said, you should use the time for pictures.

Make sure that you look on schedule, because at DLRP not all attractions are open the whole day. Some open later and some close earlier than others. So it can happen that you stand in front of a closed attraction you haven't experienced yet. That's one of the worst things that DLRP is doing.
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: Topcat401965P on October 25, 2010, 12:06:12 PM
I think extra magic hours are a good benefit to hotel residents but they only open limited rides which is very disappointed. The whole park should be opened.

Personally, i prefer the extra magic hours in the evening, after the park is closed to everyone else.

In florida, they do this on selected days and works brilliantly. Come on France!!!
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: sebassah on October 25, 2010, 02:46:16 PM
Quote from: "Topcat401965P"I think extra magic hours are a good benefit to hotel residents but they only open limited rides which is very disappointed. The whole park should be opened.

Personally, i prefer the extra magic hours in the evening, after the park is closed to everyone else.

In florida, they do this on selected days and works brilliantly. Come on France!!!

Loved to walk around at MK (WDW) between 1 and 3 AM! great magical experience! As for Paris I think the EMH works fine, its great to get a jump start at Buzz and SM:II. However the last weekend I was there we did Startours, Buzz, SMII, Captian EO without EMH in 65 minutes all together...
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: dagobert on October 25, 2010, 04:18:13 PM
Quote from: "sebassah"
Quote from: "Topcat401965P"I think extra magic hours are a good benefit to hotel residents but they only open limited rides which is very disappointed. The whole park should be opened.

Personally, i prefer the extra magic hours in the evening, after the park is closed to everyone else.

In florida, they do this on selected days and works brilliantly. Come on France!!!

Loved to walk around at MK (WDW) between 1 and 3 AM! great magical experience! As for Paris I think the EMH works fine, its great to get a jump start at Buzz and SM:II. However the last weekend I was there we did Startours, Buzz, SMII, Captian EO without EMH in 65 minutes all together...

The EMH at WDW were great, especially the ones after the parks closed. Everything was illuminated. DLRP also did EMH in the evening some years ago. Unfortunately they stopped doing it.
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: Martyn on October 25, 2010, 09:24:22 PM
Quote from: "MouseLivesOn"I have read many recommendations for EMH ....

We are booked for 24-27 Jan 2011, which I understand is off-peak.
Given that we should not have long queues at rides, do you think it's still worth waking up for EMH?

Thanks in advance!

We go every January, and we're actually going to be there when you're there :P

Anywho, I feel its pointless having extra hours when the park is so quite, especially when they run the rides on minimum capacity. For example, last year during the extra hours, they ran Space Mountain on one train, so the queue was about 30mins during the extra hours, however when the park officially opened, they added more trains, and the queue never went longer than 10mins..... :?

So to answer your question, its not worth it really. But if you're already up and ready, go for it, at the end of the day, its still an extra hour in the park, whethe you ride or not.
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: dagobert on October 26, 2010, 10:04:55 AM
Quote from: "Martyn"
Quote from: "MouseLivesOn"I have read many recommendations for EMH ....

We are booked for 24-27 Jan 2011, which I understand is off-peak.
Given that we should not have long queues at rides, do you think it's still worth waking up for EMH?

Thanks in advance!

We go every January, and we're actually going to be there when you're there :P

Anywho, I feel its pointless having extra hours when the park is so quite, especially when they run the rides on minimum capacity. For example, last year during the extra hours, they ran Space Mountain on one train, so the queue was about 30mins during the extra hours, however when the park officially opened, they added more trains, and the queue never went longer than 10mins..... :?

So to answer your question, its not worth it really. But if you're already up and ready, go for it, at the end of the day, its still an extra hour in the park, whethe you ride or not.

Maybe Disney should rethink their EMH. They try to cut cost everywhere. During off season Disney should give up the EMH and instead open ALL attractions at park opening and close ALL attractions when the park closes. So no staggered opening hours for the rides and no complaining from visitors.

During summer and Christmas and maybe on weekends Disney still should offer the EMH to hotel guests.

It would also be great if Disney would do the EMH in the evening again. Disney should use the studios for EMH in the evening. It's a smaller park than DLP and so I think it is less expensive to operate. Unfortunately there is no restaurant for a nice dinner.
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: sebassah on October 26, 2010, 10:18:35 AM
Quote from: "dagobert"During summer and Christmas and maybe on weekends Disney still should offer the EMH to hotel guests.

It would also be great if Disney would do the EMH in the evening again. Disney should use the studios for EMH in the evening. It's a smaller park than DLP and so I think it is less expensive to operate. Unfortunately there is no restaurant for a nice dinner.

With diner options in Village, Studio 1, Backlot and Rendevous des stars it might be doable to have EMH in Studio's, and gotta say it would be great. I mean what is cooler than trying to keep your food in on an early morning, after breakfast, Tower of Terror ride!
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: Martyn on October 28, 2010, 09:10:59 PM
How can they do it in the evenings though? Tell everyone who's not staying in a hotel to leave? And go around ask for passes off of everyone?lol

However I do agree that they definitely need EMH in the Studio's, after all, its the Studios that has the lowest capacity rides (Crush, RC etc...).
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: Owain on October 29, 2010, 02:18:23 AM
Quote from: "Martyn"How can they do it in the evenings though? Tell everyone who's not staying in a hotel to leave? And go around ask for passes off of everyone?lol

However I do agree that they definitely need EMH in the Studio's, after all, its the Studios that has the lowest capacity rides (Crush, RC etc...).

I think they do it like they do with special events, wristbands. Cast member infront of each attractions checking and also roping of lands with wristband checks.

They do this in the morning for emh when they let normal people in before 10. Cast members are checking hotel passes at entrances to fantasyland and discoveryland.
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: dagobert on October 29, 2010, 07:55:21 AM
Quote from: "Owain"
Quote from: "Martyn"How can they do it in the evenings though? Tell everyone who's not staying in a hotel to leave? And go around ask for passes off of everyone?lol

However I do agree that they definitely need EMH in the Studio's, after all, its the Studios that has the lowest capacity rides (Crush, RC etc...).

I think they do it like they do with special events, wristbands. Cast member infront of each attractions checking and also roping of lands with wristband checks.

They do this in the morning for emh when they let normal people in before 10. Cast members are checking hotel passes at entrances to fantasyland and discoveryland.

That's how they did it back in 2006. In WDW they use the same system. If you don't have a wristband you are not allowed to queue for the attraction.
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: lynny on October 30, 2010, 08:07:21 PM
the last 3 years we went to EMH while staying in the empire state club room HNY which was fantastic as we had vip fastpasses too.so we used the fastpass que and did the rides that were open about 3 times each it was great but this year fastpass wasnt open till 10.30 so we couldn't use the vip fastpass and as we didnt know this and entered the park about 8.30 the que for buzz was like 30min.didn't bother with EMH after that........agree its good for pics though and should be great at off peak times. :roll:
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: lauramumof3 on October 31, 2010, 09:36:40 PM
i like extra hours just to take in the atmosphere when noones around its lovely.
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: sebassah on October 31, 2010, 11:14:47 PM
When I was working at WDW we had EMH guests seperated by regular guests by asking them for their 'Key's of the World' aka roomkeys. Every guest had to show their roomkey to get in line for an attraction.

Regular guests were not asked to leave the park but to have diner an shop! Something like this could so work at DLRP, but it would mean that the roomkeys should also be the park entrance keys.

Since DLRP is a 3 or 4 day max vacation destination the costs of handing out these keys (one for each resort guest) would be to expensive. An average trip to WDW (including resort hotel) is 6 to 7 days.
Title: Re: Extra Magic Hours
Post by: andrewuk on November 10, 2010, 09:29:09 PM
I would much rather have the whole park open to everyone at 9 than parts of two lands only open to some people from 8 until 10. But then again Fantasyland is probably the part of DLP that interests me the least (although I love storybook land, that won't ever open for EMH!) so its probably just my opinion. Nearly everyone else seems to love EMH, I think its just an easy way for management to save money.