Why avoid EMH?

[COscrapper]

So, extra magic hours are supposed to be great for getting in rides with less crowds, right? So why do I see some people mention avoiding parks that have EMH? Does the whole thing sort of backfire and parks with EMH get OVERcrowded? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose?

 

[Robo]

So, extra magic hours are supposed to be great for getting in rides with less crowds, right? So why do I see some people mention avoiding parks that have EMH? Does the whole thing sort of backfire and parks with EMH get OVERcrowded? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose?

Never attending EMH's because they will be "too crowded or overly-stressful,"
is like never eating grapes because they will be "too sour."

CAN be that way.
Doesn't HAVE to be that way.

Each EMH experience can be different.

We always go to AM EMH (virtually every day of the trip
that we did not do a PM EMH late the night before)...
never ONCE regretted an AM EMH... they are amazingly
empty and easy to ride the open attractions.
If that park then starts to fill 2 to 3 hours later...
We're happy with "doing" that park for the day and we
can HOP elsewhere or do lunch and take a rest until
later.

PM EMH's are a mixed bag. I've been when they were
"packed"... but on other nights (sometimes within the
same trip), the crowds were basically so low that it
was like "free rides" on all the open attractions.

The rule seems to be, it is far easier for guests to
STAY UP at the end of the day, than it is for them to
GET UP at the start of the day.

Generally speaking:
Expect a PM EMH which begins before 10PM to be much busier than one that begins much later.

Expect the first hour of PM EMH to be busier than the last hour.


Those who have attended PM EMH's and say that "they
are too crowded" are right... but that may have been only on the nights
they have attended.

I can say from personal experience that EMH's CAN be
virtually empty, or overly full... or somewhere in-between for attendance,
often within the same week.

The crowd situation at PM EMH can change so much (either way,)
that saying it was "like X" on a given night, can have little relation
to another night in the same time-period. So, you
simply "won't know unless you go."
It's similar to saying
that you attended on a given night and it rained, so
guests should never go on that night because it will
probably be rainy.

But, it can all boil down to your particular timing.

If you just consider that EMH's are FREE to attend...
You might just take a chance.
If it's too busy, just people-watch... or hit the exit.
(Where ELSE are ya gonna go at 10pm, anyway?)

But, if its not busy... you'll be ALL SET for EXTRA FUN!



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[Dan Murphy]

We avoid emh, preferring the lower crowd parks. We get more accomplished without rushing. I like to feel we are on vacation, not a mission. The emh parks are good, pulling a lot of guests to them, leaving the other parks with lower crowds.

 

[JaimeK]

We don't get park hoppers so we don't have the option to hop to another park after EMH when it gets crowded.
Plus, sleeping later and still enjoying the relative quiet at park opening. It's pretty easy to get everyone ready for a 9am opening. 8am is another story.

 

[Ursula's Apprentice]

The rule seems to be, it is far easier for guests to
STAY UP at the end of the day, than it is for them to
GET UP at the start of the day.

Objects in motion tend to stay in motion, whereas objects at rest tend to stay at rest...

 

[bc7ate9]

We love the PM EMH at MK. We always have Park Hoppers so we visit other parks during the day and get to the park late. They usually let us ride things like Buzz and Dumbo over and over again.

 

[dprincessmom]

We love EMH hours (especially evening hours during the summer). For us the experiences have always been wonderful. I think I have read where the trend is to avoid the parks with EMH because some feel Disney is telling visitors where to go with the hours and so that can drive crowds up at that park. I don't necessarily avoid the EMH park hours, but now that we have gone at least once a year for the past few years, I don't schedule all of our days around the hours. We do try and get evening EMH a couple times during our trips.

 

[alicat8]

We always did emh before kids. Now we can't get out that early or stay out that late, so it's better for us to avoid. We don't park hop now either-that used to be a major emh win, but it's too much for us with little ones. We'll get back to them some day!

 

[ajwolfe]

We always do the pm EMHs and sometimes the am. We always get park hoppers so we are able to hop over the to pm EMH park later in the day if we choose. We've never really had an issue with it being overly crowded and honestly those pm EMHs are our favorite times in the park.

 

[monkyby87]

Robo said it best, I have never, ever regretted an AM EMH. No matter how "busy" it seems like the AM EMH are, every ride was still very minimal wait. The only reason I see to avoid AM EMH is because you're tired. Trying to avoid crowds I don't think is good enough reason. For me at least

 

[Micca]

Morning EMH is wonderful if everyone in your party can get on-board with the idea of getting up early, getting the heck out of the room, and off to the park. What Robo said is absolutely true, you'll do more in the first 2-3 hours of a morning EMH than you will during the entire rest of the day (depending on crowd levels.) It's been a long time since we've done a late-night EMH, we're usually finished with park touring by dinner time.

I'm a recovering commando tourist and we just don't get up early any longer, so we pick a non EMH park and head there. We're also at the point where we visit WDW with enough frequency that we don't feel like we have to do "everything" on every trip. If the lines are too long, or we're getting tired, we'll just save it for next time. Not everyone has that luxury though, so I certainly understand why folks do the EMH and stay from RD to park close.

Next trip will be our first with our toddler DGD's. We know that if they get pressured to get up too early, or stay up too late, there will meltdowns for the duration.
We'll be letting them decide the course of the day.

 

[wdw4rfam]

Morning ones are great- sometimes. The way I see it, we all have to plan our days 180 days ahead now. So if people have no hoppers, they tend to pick the EMH park to maximize their time in each park. So they pick that one. Morning hours tend to be less busy, because although planning on going sounds great, most people end up skipping it because they can't see to get up in time. But they come later, so makes the park more crowded overall because ADRs may make them still go to that park. But evening hours, have all those people who were there all day because they planned on it, plus all those that were at all 3 other parks that closed early that have hoppers that want to keep going. We have stayed or hopped to MK for evening hours a few times, and I swear it was more crowded than during the day. Especially when it's the 10-1am, because the night owls have nowhere else to go. We tried this past trip to hop over for evening EMH at MK and ended up leaving because it was just too crowded.

 

[bumbershoot]

(sorry robo, messed up the quote using my cell.)

If that park then starts to fill 2 to 3 hours later...
We're happy with "doing" that park for the day and we
can HOP elsewhere or do lunch and take a rest until
later.




The rule seems to be, it is far easier for guests to
STAY UP at the end of the day, than it is for them to
GET UP at the start of the day.

First paragraph. That's exactly where Robo and I differ. I'm not willing to hop that early in the day. Or even if I am, the family isn't. So we go elsewhere that day.

Second paragraph is true especially when dealing with our time difference. DS and I have a very hard time with jet lag. BUT we don't much care for Wishes or Illuminations or even Fanrasmic, so the big nighttime draws just aren't there to be there late. Yes we could zig while people zag but we've already done that by being at the non EMH park.


Now, at Disneyland if we have early entrance we don't miss it! And when at Universal it's the same. But WDW gets too overwhelming for us, and hopping before we feel we are DONE irritates us. So we let y'all have the EMH park.

 

[COscrapper]

We are just starting to think about a Fall 2016 trip, and all this planning is already getting to me! I am a megaplanner by nature, but having to plan which day at which park, ADRs, etc. so far in advance seems to border on crazytown, even for me! We are NOT regulars (live in Ohio) so this will probably be a once-in-a-lifetime trip for our boys (6 and 10). We are not Disney people, but when we lived in CO we took our older son (then 4) to DisneyLAND just cuz we found a great deal, and we were so surprised what a great time we had. LOVED the fastpass system (the original one at the time) and were thrilled to not have to stand in line as much as my husband and I remembered doing as kids. This new system seems more complicated with all the advance reservations...?

HOWEVER - and back to the point - the longest wait we had, hands down, was on Day 1 Disneyland. We got there for EMH early in the morning and there was already a crowd waiting to get in. When they opened the gates, we made a beeline for Peter Pan's ride (per my months of research on what to do first), and when we got back there the line was SO LONG, I questioned if we should even do it then, but I had no basis for comparison and thought I should just stick with what I had learned online haha...we spent a GOOD hour in that line, sucked our Disney excitement right out of us ha ha....looking back, that probably was not the best thing to do.

 

[Accident]

So, extra magic hours are supposed to be great for getting in rides with less crowds, right? So why do I see some people mention avoiding parks that have EMH? Does the whole thing sort of backfire and parks with EMH get OVERcrowded? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose?

It's a perk for the million people staying on property to have more time in the parks.. or in other words, EVERYONE on property who has never tried the park when it's not EMH thinks it's somethign special and they have more time in the parks. They just create longer wait times and higher crowds, especially if they are on friday or saturday.

EDIT: I see you mention disneyland in other replies, I do not know the crowd impact outside of WDW

 

[dfb]

So, extra magic hours are supposed to be great for getting in rides with less crowds, right? So why do I see some people mention avoiding parks that have EMH? Does the whole thing sort of backfire and parks with EMH get OVERcrowded? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose?

Some people say avoid EMH because the parks with EMH supposedly draw the largest crowds for the day. Maybe true or not???

As PPs have said, we like the AM EMH. Low crowds & good ride access. We stay in that park until it gets too crowded. Under the FP+ rule we usually EMH AM and FP+ rides at another park mid / late day.

PM EMH I have found many times still crowded for rides. The very late PM EMH thin out pretty good. We use PM EMH for mostly extra walk around time, catch a late parade/ fireworks, etc depending on park and entertainment.

 

[KimK2006]

We love morning EMH. You can get SO much done! We usually stay through at least lunch, head back to the room for a break and head to a different park.

We have found evening EMH really crowded. As mentioned above, I am sure the crowds would thin out if we waited it out until the later part of the evening. We opt to head back to room to get in bed for an early start the next day. Most guest prefer to stay up late rather than get up early. Although we are not normally early risers, we get out of bed early to beat the sleepy heads!

 

[Bullseye]

We plan our park days around EMH. Love the morning ones for getting lots of rides in. The evening ones we enjoy because we love being in the parks late at night.

 

[PSUGuy]

Up until 2005 we were EMH, actually, Early Entry, commando style tourers. In 2005 we went the first 10 days of the year, arriving on NY Day. By the 3rd day the place was a ghost town, there was no need for EMS, actually as I recall Jan 2 2005 was the very first EMH and it was evening in MGM, we saw Osborne for the first, and next to last, time. That trip we'd hit a non-EMH park at rope drop making use of both kinds of Fast Passes, get our fill and hop to WS, every day. That worked out so well, including giving better sleep, we just stuck to it.

Bill From PA

 

[nicolej92]

In my experience, people have all intention of staying for EMH during the day, but when their 5 year old gets cranky around 8 or 9, they head out. We always do the EMH at night... so worth it! We usually buy the hopper and hop to the EMH park at night when the hours start.