Are Extra Magic Hours too crowded to be worth it?

[Suzanne74]

I always recommend going on rides with quick que and ride times. If you have young kids, you can knock out all of Fantasyland.

If you are truly in front of the line going into FL then A&E is first and then SWMT. Others with quick turn around that get very busy mid morning are Peter Pan, Pooh, Speedway, Barnstormer and Buzz. We usually get to Space by the end of magic hour.

What we avoid during morning EMH because the waits are not too long mid morning or the que is too long.

Dumbo (my kids want to play inside so we go later)
Tea Cups
People Mover
Laugh Factory
Stitch
Small World
Philharmagic
Mermaid
Meet n greets

We FP+ Thunder and Splash noon-2pm and get lunch before at LTT around 11:30.

Then we take the train back to the front and take a pool/nap break until 6pm and come back to do Adventureland, HM, parade in Liberty Square and Wishes.

What rides do you guys reccomend doing asap when arriving at EMH at each park?

 

[DisneyTasha]

Yes, you are right. We do get park hoppers. I guess if you only have a single park per day, EMH makes sense.

We didn't do park hoppers, and that's exactly why we avoided EMH. We couldn't leave and go to another park when the bigger crowds were there. Even though we stayed on property, it made more sense for us to visit lighter-crowd parks on those days.

Also, I've been told that the tour groups almost always go to a park with EMH. Does anyone know if this is true? Especially the evening EMH.

 

[g-dad66]

We have generally avoided EMH days, but with advent of FP+ and FP reservations occurring as early as 9:00 park opening time, we found the 9:00-10:00 time frame during our November trip to no longer be as golden as it once was. So in order to maximize headliner rides, we chose to do morning EMH every single day of our trip 2 weeks ago, and it paid off for us. (But our style is to finish the day early, so by the time the crowds were massive in the early afternoon, we were done with the park and spent the rest of the day swimming, eating, relaxing, and getting to bed early for a pre-dawn start the next day!)

 

[tinawv]

Its because during the EMH you have more resort guests than any other park, but no offsite guests making for very light crowds. Once the offsite guests that don't even pay attention to EMH arrive it makes for an extra crowded park since most resort guests won't be hopping.

This is true, but reading other posts a great deal of on-site guests with hoppers will travel to another park when it starts to get crowded. This should balance the crowd levels somewhat.

 

[Lanie]

Another AM EMH lover here! It's usually EMH park, lunch/pm pool break and hop to another park. But if you're not there at EMH opening I would say avoid them.

I seem to find evening EMH extra crowded until the last hour. If you are a night owl then it might be worth your time.