Are Extra Magic Hours too crowded to be worth it?

[fairytalelover]

I'm just wondering if it gets very crowded during magic hours to be worth getting up extra early for?

 

[Robo]

My wife and I love the morning EMH's.

We go nearly every morning when there is one
available.

But, she always warns me to NOT TELL EVERYONE about how
fun and easy the AM EMH's are, because then the early
parks will be too BUSY for us to enjoy.

But, I always tell HER not to worry.

Most folks simply will NOT get up early on vacation!
Nothing will change their minds.

So I am here to say,
"THANK YOU" to all of the sleepy-heads...

They make my AM EMH's about the best, most private and
carefree times we ever have at the parks!

And I know I won't be seeing them coming in until,
oh, 10:30-11:00am, when I'm on my way Park-Hopping OUT of that park!

 

[wdwjeffc37]

We always take advantage of the EMHs. Morning and evening. We also always have Park Hopper tickets to be able to hop when we feel the park is getting too crowded for our liking. We're all for extra time in the parks. Cheers.

 

[emsstacey]

I almost didn't do the EMHs our last trip and they were amazing... no waits at all. I wouldn't hesitate to go during EMH's again!

 

[scoobydooby]

I love early EMH and dislike evening ones enormously. For the early ones you can always get all headliners done before most people arrive and then still stay ahead of the crowd with a good plan for a few hours. I'd leave that park after lunch though because by then the crowd level has been negatively affected. For me, evening EMH are only good if you can stay upbeat for the last full hour and I never can. I'm more of a morning person. I agree with a previous poster. God love those sleepy heads

 

[WendyLou]

Agree! Love the am ones.

I love early EMH and dislike evening ones enormously. For the early ones you can always get all headliners done before most people arrive and then still stay ahead of the crowd with a good plan for a few hours. I'd leave that park after lunch though because by then the crowd level has been negatively affected. For me, evening EMH are only good if you can stay upbeat for the last full hour and I never can. I'm more of a morning person. I agree with a previous poster. God love those sleepy heads

 

[fairytalelover]

Thank you for the answers. Here is a follow up question: does the park that has the magic hours tend to get crowded throughout the day? So should go to the EMH then leave to another park later on?

 

[Doug M]

Generally the park with EMH is busier than normal so most sites dont recommend it. If you like to get up early I would catch the early extra hour and leave the park late morning for a less crowded park. We love the late EMH especially later in vacation after we find getting up more difficult. MK late hours are our favorite, typically it is several hours, and after the first bonus hour it really clears out and you can ride any ride with little or no wait.

 

[mggeary]

While the AM EMH hour is nice, it's not worth the extra crowds for the rest of the day or the hastle of park hopping, IMO. If you are going to do AM EMH, MK > AK > DHS > Epcot. There just not enough open in Epcot, particularly for little ones, and the rush to Soarin/Test Track is a little worse. MK AM EMH when coupled with a hard ticket party day is a great combo if you don't care to stay late. Best of all worlds are the when they extend opening to 8am on nonEMH day.

 

[mellyf]

My husband and I love morning EMH....we usually park hopped by 11 at the latest. We haven't been to WDW in a couple of years so maybe things have changed, but the few hours in the morning at the EMH park were totally worth it to us.

 

[buttercup14]

I find morning EMH to be really great, but yes more crowded later in the day, so normally I leave after 2/3 hours and hop to another park. The one time I tried evening EMH it we really crowded and not worth it

 

[Dan Murphy]

I prefer lower crowds, easier touring. I visit the parks without emh.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We like to close out the park that had morning EMH. We find that folks that got up really early will eventually get hot and tired and head out early, leaving the park wide open for the night owls.

So "thank you" early risers for clearing out and making my touring plans work that much better.

We like evening EMH at MK and DHS. Not so much at Epcot. AK doesn't need it as it clears out by 4 pm or so anyway.

 

[tinawv]

I don't quite understand why the morning EMH's are always more crowded later in the day. If people don't take advantage of it, why do more people head there later in the day? They have already missed the advantage to the morning EMH's.

 

[dansdad]

I don't quite understand why the morning EMH's are always more crowded later in the day. If people don't take advantage of it, why do more people head there later in the day? They have already missed the advantage to the morning EMH's.

Because so many people really have every intention of making it to the early EMH so they plan their entire day at that park, ADRs and FP+ etc. When they realize they're not going to make it they figure it's too much of a hassle to change their day around. Plus the whole rest of their trip was planned around them being at this park on this day so to change would mess up everything going forward.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

The absolute best time to tour a park is morning EMH. For example, last May we were at Animal Kingdom around 730 for an 8AM EMH and were literally some of the first people in the park. We rode Safari, then Everest twice, then walked the trails with zero wait and very little crowds. By 10AM we had completed a ton of stuff we wanted to do and left by 11 or so (when it was getting really crowded) to head over to Epcot for lunch. EMH for DHS or Epcot might not be as good because there are fewer rides but I absolutely recommend it.

 

[prune1977]

Well I have a different point of view than most I guess. We used to love morning EMH but the last few trips we've noticed their was a big increase when we were there to the pt our last trip i initially scheduled parks that didn't have them and it worked out great as we don't ever do park hoppers.

 

[rwdavis2]

Given the nature of FP+ we will try an early EMH then hop to the park where we have the FP+ reservations.

 

[fairytalelover]

So it looks like we may take advantage of the early morning magic hours more than the evening ones. We get pooped early!

 

[scoopmorgan]

I'm just wondering if it gets very crowded during magic hours to be worth getting up extra early for?

I am one of those planners, and I study everything Disney before a trip. Looking at various crowd calendars and both EMH and LMH opportunities, it seemed advantageous to avoid the EMH. I would rather spend the day in a less crowded environment, and when the data settled there were "slow" days at the parks that did not offer EMH. Staying late is another thing. I am an energizer bunny at Disney. I love the night life!