Animal Kingdom EMH morning - good or bad idea?

[maui2k5]

We (wife, 2 daughters ages 8 &10) are heading to WDW early this August before SGE opens and I am debating if what I planned for our second morning is a good idea or not at the beginning of our trip.

On day 1 have planned 8am PPO at Garden Grill and the second morning EMH at AK. I am debating if it is a better idea to swap the mornings (I can still get 8:15 res for GG if I swap) or stick with what I have.

Couple of factors to consider: 1) We will be crossing a time zone to get to FL the day befor we visit our first park 2) We will be visiting 9 nights 3) We are staying at the Yacht Club

It has been a couple of years since we last visited so I am a little rusty on what the best plans would be. The main reason I had considered EMH morning at AK is to have an hour with less heat while touring before we leave around noonish for the hotel. That said, will the crowds at AK offset any time savings gain? I will have FPP for Na’Vi and FOP so no rope dropping those rides is needed.

 

[dancergirlsmom]

We have always liked the morning EMH at AK and seem to get a lot done. We generally RD Na'vi and ride Everest and Safari before the park opens. Have FP for FOP later in the day. Just as a matter of interest how will you have a FP for both Na'vi and FOP? I generally make AK one of our last days at the parks so that I can get the FOP FP. This trip we are doing AK DAH so not so worried about it.

 

[SaintsManiac]

We (wife, 2 daughters ages 8 &10) are heading to WDW early this August before SGE opens and I am debating if what I planned for our second morning is a good idea or not at the beginning of our trip.

On day 1 have planned 8am PPO at Garden Grill and the second morning EMH at AK. I am debating if it is a better idea to swap the mornings (I can still get 8:15 res for GG if I swap) or stick with what I have.

Couple of factors to consider: 1) We will be crossing a time zone to get to FL the day befor we visit our first park 2) We will be visiting 9 nights 3) We are staying at the Yacht Club

It has been a couple of years since we last visited so I am a little rusty on what the best plans would be. The main reason I had considered EMH morning at AK is to have an hour with less heat while touring before we leave around noonish for the hotel. That said, will the crowds at AK offset any time savings gain? I will have FPP for Na’Vi and FOP so no rope dropping those rides is needed.

Edit: totally misunderstood this. I blame the new forum.

 

[epcotobsessed]

I think EMH at AK is great *if* you do not rope drop FOP and have a FP for FOP later that morning/day. We go to the right/Dinoland while almost everyone else goes to Pandora and we ride everything with no wait, making our way over to Safari for our first FP about 90 minutes after park open and then FOP for our second or third. Again, this assumes you can get a FOP FP (and they do seem easier to get recently) so I would only rope drop it (EMH or otherwise) if you couldn't get the FP.

 

[maui2k5]

To clarify - we will also be visiting AK on day 8 which is when we will book our FOP fast pass. Not the same day at Na’vi early in the trip.

 

[dbb727]

I would definitely do EMH at AK for the exact reasons you mentioned, a cooler start to the day and it WILL be much less crowded everywhere except FOP. They usually let the Pandora crowd in at least 30min before official opening time, but the rest of rides won’t start until opening so no need to stand in big crowd if you don’t want to be in the run to FOP.

Assuming it’s a 9am regular opening with 8am EMH, I’d want to be there by 7:40. The FOP RD crowd should already be through the gates and it’ll be more leisurely for you to walk through bag check and head straight to EE, Dinoland or whatever. You can even do Navi easily if you want.

Allow at least 40-60min if riding the bus from yacht club(I’m including waiting for the bus then 20-30min ride). If you are coming from central time zone and your kids are early risers than it’s not too terrible to be up at 6am the first few days of your trip, you can always sleep in more or have a rest day mid trip. Enjoy!

 

[maui2k5]

Thanks for al the relies! We will stick with the plan to visit AK for EMH morning.