Time is a major commodity while on a Walt Disney World vacation. So what better “extra” can Disney offer its on-site guests than more time?!

Understanding Disney's Extra Magic Hours

Yep! As a guest staying in one of the on-property Disney World resorts, you can gain extra time in whichever theme park is holding an Extra Magic Hour (EMH) that day, just by showing your Keys to the World resort key card.

About six months ahead of time, Disney’s calendar will show the park times and events, including any EMHs scheduled on a given day.

What’s the difference between a “morning” and “evening” Extra Magic Hour?

With morning Extra Magic Hour, the park opens one hour prior to regular park opening. And only resort guests can be in the park! So, for example, if the Magic Kingdom has park opening for non-resort guests set at 9AM, resort guests can enter the park beginning at 8AM as long as they can present their resort key card at the turnstile. And you can get A LOT done in that hour before the crowds begin to build.

With evening Extra Magic Hour, the park remains open to resort guests for up to three hours past the regular closing time to non-resort guests. Seriously! It’s hard to believe, but, if Epcot closes at 9PM to non-resort guests, you can stay in the park until midnight. And if the The Studios is open until midnight for non-resort guests — and it does do this on some busy summer nights! — you can stay until 3AM! Imagine… going on rides at three o’clock in the morning!!

(As long as you enter the ride line before the park officially closes for EMH, you get to ride.)

During the evening, each guest may be asked to show their Keys To The World resort key card at the entrance to each ride line they get in, so be prepared to have them at the ready. This is a great reason to have a clear plastic card holder like the PassPorter PassHolder pouch!

With one of these handy-dandy pouches, you just point to the pouch when you’re asked to show your KTTW card– without any fiddling with wallets or bags or passing out keys to the group, etc.

And it’s not just the theme parks that give resort guests additional time to play. During select times of the year (usually the peak weeks of summer) the water parks get into the EMH action.

What’s open during Extra Magic Hour?

Now, it’s important to understand that not everything in the parks will be open during Extra Magic Hours. While the major rides are generally open during EMH, not all are — you really have to check Disney’s “open attractions” listing for EMHs.

Additionally, most restaurants and stores will be closed during EMH, though there will be some venues and carts open to grab a drink or a souvenir.

“But I’ve heard that some people don’t recommend Extra Magic Hours”

 The crowd predictor calendars (like Touringplans.com) and some people who’ve not found EMHs worthwhile will tell you not to bother with them. I disagree… respectfully. The crowd calendars make their recommendations based on the “lowest common denominator” of a non-hopper ticket. But, if you can hop, EMHs are a whole ‘nother ballgame. You don’t have to be stuck in a busy park because your hopper ticket lets you hop to another, less busy park. Even if you lose travel time, you have that flexibility… so I say “try it!”

See, I tend to be an early riser anyway, so it’s no hardship for me to get up an hour early for morning EMHs. But I do so with a plan!

1. We nosh bagels and granola as we get ready in the morning. Supplemented with drinks from the resort’s food court, we’re nourished and ready to go by the time we head to the bus, with no need to waste precious time trying to find food when we could be riding rides!
2. I know what’s open for that extra hour and roughly how I’ll approach my extra hour, ride-by-ride. This way, I can “knock out” the rides whose lines will grow exponentially longer later that day.
3. I plan for a late-seating Advanced Dining Reservation (ADR) somewhere. That way, when the crowds build about an hour after regular park opening, I get to “zig” when the crowds are “zagging!” In fact, we usually leave the EMH park pretty quickly, as the crowds can get craaaazy busy. (But we have park hoppers and just go back to the resort to rest or head out to a park that the crowd predictor calendars have as being a “best park” crowd-wise.)

Evening Extra Magic Hours are harder to gauge. Sometimes, they are fairly empty. And sometimes, you feel like you’re walking shoulder-to-shoulder with other tired, sweaty guests, and that can be frustrating — especially when there’s not alot open in that park for those three hours. Now, I do find that the crowds begin to thin after the first hour or so, but I’m sometimes too tired of getting jostled by other guests to wait that long. Really, my advice would be to try it for a night early on in your vacation and then readjust your plans as you figure out what the EMH crowds are for your week, and how well you like them.

In my book, Extra Magic Hours are one of the best perqs of being an on-site Disney resort guest.