Extra Magic Hours or Extra Tragic Hours?

peg110 said:

Also a lot of what I have read is that if you want to truly take advantage of the EMH, then you should "AVOID" the parks with EMH on the day they are offered as they tend to be busier with folks taking "Advantage" of it, however the other parks then tend to have lesser crowds, thus shorter lines. THEN the day after a park had EMH is the day to visit it, because many folks don't do the same park 2 days in a row (so lesser crowds) AND they are probably visiting a different park with EMH that day.

So while EMH may be an advantage for some to Go to the parks, it might be a bigger advantage to avoid the EMH parks that day. Either way, I don't stay on property because of EMH. It is nice, however, to know that if we wanted to take advantage of it we could. We stay on Property (at Fort Wilderness) for other conveniences, mostly location and transportation.

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TheFuriFamily said:

We are about to take our very first family vacation and we're headed to WDW! We're staying at AKL and I'm especially interested in the EMH (though we didn't stay on property for this, it will certainly help with my early risers!!!

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paigenevan3 said:

This morning my article "Extra Magic Hours or Extra Tragic Hours?" was published on The DIS! I noticed a lot of comments were suggesting that I was being negative etc. and I thought a discussion here on the boards would allow people to understand where I am coming from! I am an annual passholder from Southern Illinois and tour the parks several times a year. I have always loved EMH and worked my way around the parks to take full advantage of these hours. My last trip,in September 2014, I realized that EMH were changing in a way I did not like. As stated in my article, Anna & Elsa changed the morning operations at Magic Kingdom. This made my morning EMH...less magical. The lines to get your MagicBands scanned were also quite long for popular attractions due to the cast members having to scan each and every guest's band. It took 30+ seconds for the iPhone's to read the bands and determine if the guest was staying on Disney property. After a while of waiting at SDMT one CM decided it was taking too much time and completely stopped scanning all together and allowed everyone onto the ride without being scanned. I completely understand why this CM was getting frustrated and made that decision, however, it sort of rubbed me the wrong way. If there are guests staying on Disney property, they should recieve the EMH perk. This means guests not staying on property should not be able to have access to this perk. This was the night "Extra Tragic" came to mind. I hope they have figured out a more efficient way to scan MB's for my next trip in May. This went on nearly everyday of our trip that we visited during EMH. Keep in mind this was mid to the end of September (lighter crowds for WDW). This was also a 2 week long vacation, so I had plenty of time to feel out the situation. Will I continue to visit during EMH? OF COURSE! My main point was that you shouldn't expect the parks to be empty for Extra Magic Hours. Questions, comments etc. I would love to hear your input! Thanks!

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