Late Park Entry Review

[DisChap2002]

Just returned from WDW on Sunday.
Heres my review of the Late Park Entry for WDW Guests.

The Late Park Entry was supposed to do the same as the early entry for WDW guest, but on the whole I felt it was a out & out failure. Guests had to have a wrist label attached to beneift from the late stayover.

The first late park entry was MGM we went to. The parks official closure was 10pm but they were letting people into the 10.30pm Fantasmic show anyway. So as a result after the show finished there were lots of non guests wandering about well into midnight instead of going home as they should have.
This still made the park packed. Also Disney should have only allowed wrist label wearers to enter the rides only, but we noted lots of non wrist labels being let onto the rides.
There were only 4 rides open that night & the ride waits were 75 mins. Basically the whole night was a sham.

Then we stayed over at AK and again lots of nonwrist wearers and not enough rides. Wait times 60 mins.

Gave up at Epcot after MGM & AK sham.

Tried MK & this time it worked. lots of rides open (12+rides) & non wrists wearers were returned away at the ride entrance. Hence the park started to empty when the non guests knew they were waisting there time.
A good night was had by all. Home to All Stars at 2.30am.

The Late Entry fails because....
1. How does Disney round up the non wrist Lable wearers and throw them out.
2. No entrance to non guests for 10.30pm Fantasmic.
3. Not enough rides open at MGM & AK.
4. Disney allowing non wrist label wearers onto rides.

My advise is only go to MK late night and get your sleep instead folks.

In my eyes Disney have failed for the first time.
Bring back more early entry.

Anyone else had this problem. Hope this helps anyone.
Bob

[highlander447]

thanks for the tip:beer:

[loadsapixiedust]

What a shame this isn't working as it should. I don't think it was ever the intention to make offsite guests leave the parks, but they shouldn't have been allowed to ride or enter the park after the official closing time. Perhaps you were just unlucky as I have read on another forum that the rule is strictly enforced, no wristband=no rides.

[BCKloon]

Interesting read :thumb:

[Elouise]

They were very strict when we were there ( end if April till 15th May)

[Alba20]

We tried the evening extra magic hours at MK last week and I did notice a few people wandering around without wrist bands after the fireworks, but when they tried to get onto rides they were turned away.

There were some people who I believe were not entitled to wristbands but tried to enter the rides, when the CM's advised them they needed a wrist band they were sometimes downright rude in return.

It's a shame it doesn't seem to work as well at the other parks, it's a good perk.

Alba
:jump:

[KittyKat]

Our experience of MK was that the EMH only really worked for the last hour and a half or so. Prior to that I saw many people queuing without wristbands and as Bob says the crowds were just as heavy for quite some time after normal closing.

However for the last part of the evening we got loads done although by this time we had difficulty getting refreshments as most places were closed.

Kitty

[lemontropics]

We tried the evening Extra Magic hours at Magic Kingdom, Epcot and MGM and in my opinion the parks seemed to be very crowded with very long waits for certain rides.

We couldn't get onto Rock'n Rollercoaster at MGM as the wait was 75 minutes and the Fastpass machines were not in use. The crowds at that part of MGM was unbelievable with people coming out of the Fantasmic show.

At Epcot we only managed to get on to Soarin' five minutes before the Park was due to close (with a Fast pass)- again because of the massive crowds.

I would avoid these Evening Extra magic hours in future as the wait was less during normal park hours. There were too many people and too few rides open. I managed to get more done during normal park hours.

However, we did manage to ride on Big Thunder mountain (with a 5 minute wait) during Wishes and it was great with all those fireworks going off during the ride!!

[Esther_Lee]

Are you able to eat in the parks and go shopping when there is late park entry if you do not have a wrist band?

[DisChap2002]

Yes thanks KittyKat, that does remind me and I forgot to add.
Additionally the Park guide stated at MK that there were two food areas open til 2am.
1 was Peckos Bills. Carnt remember the other one.
We planned to do some of the park and then go for late supper at about 1am. Due to this fact we had a very small tea.
But when we got to Peckos Bills at 1.12am it was just closing and refused to serve us anything.
As a result we went to bed hungry as the all stars food area had shut when we returned.

Disney is not playing the game right are they!!!!

[Heffalump]

We've planned in several EMH nights for July but will see how it goes when we're there. If it is the case that there are lots of non-disney resort guests riding without bands or if the rides queues are too long then we will just leave. We did do an "e-ride" night once in 2002 at MK and there were no problems then, so we're hoping that it will be run in the same way.

Anyone else experienced problems? Or successes?

[Esther_Lee]

Are you able to eat in the parks and go shopping when there is late park entry if you do not have a wrist band?

[TracyK]

We had a great experience of EMH in all the parks. They were checking wristbands carefully.

Tracy