AK morning EMH - worth it if skipping Pandora?

[emilyrachael]

We're heading to MK at the end of January. I'm debating which day to make our AK day. Is it worth hitting the morning EMH at AK or does that just make the park more crowded that day? I know the advice used to be to skip EMH parks to avoid crowds, but I've also heard that's changing? We aren't that interested in Pandora, so we'd probably head to EE and Dinosaur, and then over to KS. I thought I saw on another thread that KS isn't always open for EMH. We're early risers, so getting up early isn't an issue - I'm more interested in missing crowds. Thanks!

 

[gharter]

We did that our last trip. We had a FP for FoP so wasn't worried about that.
We got there about 30 minutes before EMH started.
The crowd mainly went to FoP. Nearly walk on for Navi. Then walked over to dinosaur, no wait. Walked over to EE, rode 3 times. Then walked to Safari. It isn't open for EMH usually, but we we one of the first in line and no wait
For us, it was wort doing EMH without FoP.
Didn't really notice the park being any more crowded than usual.

 

[chris benton]

If you have hoppers, or plan to do less "crowded" things after EMH / later in the day at AK, I'd be very confident in having a great day. Make sure the stuff you want to do is open during EMH. You'll probably get to walk on Everest several times. For my last AK am emh, we waited for FOP for 20 minutes, walked onto Navi, then bee lined to Everest for 2 front rows, then to Dinosaur. I don't think Dino was open during EMH, but we were able to walk on 2 or three times, no issue.

If you do go to Am EMH, remember to get there early to maximize your time. Most people TRY to get there on time, but life happens. I'd suggest making it a point to get there 30 minutes before emh starts to get situated. Most of the herd will head to Pandora. My guess is that Everest will be a ghost town for a while, since it's a bigger "more thrilling" ride that not everyone will do, so if the safari is open, that might be the best choice for your first attraction.

We are early risers, and we also use hoppers, so, we always go to am emh, then leave. An emh park will probably be more crowded because resort guests will plan to be at that park to take part of the "benefit" but if they do not have hoppers, they will need to stay in that park along with the other guests that cannot take part in the benefit. The guests that do arrive on time to take part in the benefit will have an opportunity to do some attractions with low wait times before the masses show up. The guests that plan to take part in the benefit, but don't get there in time...grrrr that happened to me once a few years back. The disney bus service got me good...grrrrrr.

My opinion is that am emh is great, however:
You have to get there early and ready
You shouldn't spend time waiting in lines that detract from your time that you could have spent more wisely.

So, basically, we always do am emh, then hop to a less crowded park, but we plan it out. If we did not have hoppers, then we'd still do am emh, then devise a plan to do our fastpasses and lesser tier attractions / shows when the park should be busy.

 

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

We're heading to MK at the end of January. I'm debating which day to make our AK day. Is it worth hitting the morning EMH at AK or does that just make the park more crowded that day? I know the advice used to be to skip EMH parks to avoid crowds, but I've also heard that's changing? We aren't that interested in Pandora, so we'd probably head to EE and Dinosaur, and then over to KS. I thought I saw on another thread that KS isn't always open for EMH. We're early risers, so getting up early isn't an issue - I'm more interested in missing crowds. Thanks!

I pretty much had plans to skip Pandora on my last trip had I not had a FP. It was going to be Dinosaur, EE, and KJS during EMH. But day of I decided "I bet Navi River will be walk on" and it was. So hit that and then went with the plan. Dinosaur was only still a 10 minute wait (posted but really only included the pre-show), EE was down unfortunately but back up later during when I had my FP. Instead of EE we did Tough to Be a Bug as KJS was "only" a 30 minute wait. When we got out, KJS had posted a 45 minute wait but we got in line just as the park opened to the rest of the crowds. Even with FP officially starting, the line was moving fairly continually and probably didn't wait more than 15, maybe 20 minutes.

If you don't take a detour into Pandora and stop for any shows, I foresee even lower wait times than what I experienced if you utilize EMH.

 

[Ermise]

We went to EMH and headed to EE first since we had a fastpass for FOP later in the day. We rode 5 times without any wait then headed over to Dinoland and did Primeval Whirl and Dinosaur before using our first fastpass at Kiliminjaro Safaris around 9:30am. It was definitely worth it. We love EE and rode another 5 times just before close without much wait. We then hustled across the park to make sure we were in line for Navi before 9pm. We made it with a couple minutes to spare and had a 20 minute wait. We have always used the full day there getting a lot done at open and close and having a pretty relaxed middle of the day.

 

[MrsDuck]

We always skip Pandora on EMH days because we love hitting the safari, Dinosaur, and EE without crowds!

 

[CastAStone]

It'll free up the rest of your day to just explore Disney's best park for exploring. So yes.

 

[YawningDodo]

Agreed with @CastAStone !

For most of the parks I would say yes to this kind of question, with the caveat that you'll want to hop to a different park after the quiet part of the morning is over since yes, crowds will be overall heavier during the midday and evening times on an EMH day. At AK, though, if you're the type of visitor who's interested in stopping and smelling the roses, I'd consider doing this even if you don't have park hoppers and will be there all day--the caveat there is just that you should expect to invest your afternoon time in general exploration rather than in rides. Animal Kingdom was where I went most frequently on my days off as a cast member because I could spend hours on the wildlife trails; sometimes there will be cast members who work with the animals standing nearby to answer questions, and you can have great conversations with them. Memorably, one year there was a professional intern doing a months-long gorilla behavioral study and she had a lot of interesting info to share.

 

[emilyrachael]

Thanks for all of the replies! I love the idea of getting rides in during the morning and then some exploring in the afternoon. With 2 young kids, I wouldn't be staying until close either way, and the extra magic hour would allow us to get more in before the little one needs to nap.