With my DW and 2 DS (mature 7 and immature 5) on 1/28/19 I’m thinking of doing the EMM at HS starting at 7am and the After Hours at MK 8-11pm. Would include a long break between the 2 parks for approx. 6 hours. Night before would be spent at the hotel and next two mornings could be late mornings. Am I crazy? Do I run the risk of wearing out my two young kids early in the week? What say you wise sages?
How do you think everyone will hold up till midnight after an early morning? (If you stay till close of DAH and by the time it takes you to get back to the resort/get ready for bed, etc.) Would anyone nap during your break? Would you be worn out already from prior plans? I’m not sure my kids could take both, but you know yours best!
I think only you know how to estimate the stamina of your kids. I have no kids, so I have no first hand experience from which to draw…
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My kids wouldn’t make it, nor would I, as the kids would murder me and bury my body at the mere suggestion of something like this.
Shoot, I don’t know if I could make it solo without kids. But you can always give it a go…it may work beautifully for your family! My kids won’t nap, so we shoot for about 10am at the parks and stay until 9-10pm. Works for our crew. (Kids who travel with us are 12, 14, and 16. I tried to take my 19 yr old, but he complained and was a jerk the whole week, so yeah. He only went to the park 3 out of 7 days, and two of those days I had to threaten him to go)
My husband would revoke my Disney pass if I even suggested this to him.
But that’s my family. Everyone is different!
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I wouldn’t do it with my kids. They could do either early or late but would have a hard time doing both. They also wouldn’t nap during a rest time. Maybe your kids would handle it better if they were able to sleep.
For me it would be enough money to spend on top of the park ticket that I would feel like I had to keep us there to get our money’s worth. If I booked DAH (that doesn’t need a park ticket), I would sleep in late before hand and maybe do a non-park thing before going into the event.
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At our house, for our family, there’s no way I’d even consider spending that money for those time frames. It sounds good on paper, for adults. Our kid would be miserable at dah after an emm. Not worth it for the aftermath for us. not worth it at all. Vacations are not for paying extra to be miserable.
As an adult, I wouldn’t be able to do it. I think my kids would handle it better than I could!
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I wouldn’t do that to myself, my DH or my kids. There would be some major grumpiness all day.
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We could barely get tolunch at a regular arrival time… my kids are younger tho but DH abd I were spent too! But you know your kids best!
Shout out to my Ddil, who insisted on our 3 trips w grands so far, that the kiddos should all have their regular sleep patterns undisturbed. One exception on trip this October was MNSSHP night, where we stayed til around 11:15.
But the difference was this year the littles & cousins were 6 7 7 8. We all slept in the next morning, tho our kiddos idea of sleeping in is waking 7am vs 6am haha.
Not sure how your 5yr old would fare during a very late night, returning to hotel around 1 am or so. But if you think he’d be ok, why not do the EMM one day and the MK after hours another?
I’m the resident cheapskate around these parts. But I still don’t get the value of EMM for HS. We got there 1 hour b4 9am, entered TSL 8:45. Rode SDD by 9:05, AS2 by 9:15.
We had an FPP for another SDD that night, which was cool in the dark with all the lights. Able to ride TSMM just b4 close (line was 30mins or so around 9:20, so skipped then). 
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All good feedback so far. Leaning against it. What would likely happen is that morning EMM would go fine. Break would be long but kids wouldn’t want to nap because they want to swim. Within an hour into DAH DW and DS5 start getting cranky and go home. DS 7 soldiers on with me for another hour but breaks down an hour before close. As my DW tries to remind me, it’s not the staying up late but all the time on their feet all day that will kill them. So a lot of money with low probability of staying to enjoy the entire event.
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I think this sounds like the voice of reason winning out over FOMO!
I’m cheap, too, BUT counterpoint:
SDD 4 x
TSMM 4 x
AS2 2x
RocknCoaster 2x
Tower of tower 2x
And then Shrimp n Grits / Avocado toast and Egg, Chickin Strips and Warm Donuts
Piles of fresh fruit, pastries, cereal, coffee and juices, all before 10am? Worth it to me. Surprisingly, the shrimp n grits was WAY better than I expected, and so were the chicken strips with donuts. The avocado toast was decent, but the egg included was cooked to death. We didn’t try the charcuterie plate. I’d say that EMM at Hollyweird is almost a bargain IF the rides have interest to you. The breakfast spread cannot be discounted either, (in terms of Disney food prices,) you have to count it in. As AJ at DFB said - some of the food at the EMM is better than you can get at quite a few TS places.
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Thanks. Will definitely keep the EMM at HS. My kids will really like those rides. But will likely skip the DAH at MK that same night. Unless someone wants to talk me back into it. YOLO!
I wouldn’t do both EMM and DAH in the same day. But I will say that we loved DAH at MK.
In December we have a really long day planned with similar hours. We will be at Epcot by 7:30am for a pre-rope drop Garden Grill, and will end the evening with 10pm-1am Disney After Hours. No breaks (except for dinner ADR and the drive between Epcot and MK), but I am going with other adults and we are used to these long hours. I am sleeping in the next morning though since I am guessing it will be 2am before I get to bed. I would consider doing this plan (or yours) with my teens, but never when they were 5 and 7. They would have been miserable, which would have made me miserable too. 
I would save After Hours for when they are older, or for an adult only trip.
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