Are extra magic hours worth it?

[Ashley_Yasmin]

Hi everyone,
I am traveling to Disney in July for two weeks (staying on property) and wondered if the extra magic hours are any good? Do you get on all the rides with ease or are there still long queue's?

Many thanks,
Ashley

 

[Robo]

Hi everyone,
I am traveling to Disney in July for two weeks (staying on property) and wondered if the extra magic hours are any good? Do you get on all the rides with ease or are there still long queue's?

Many thanks,
Ashley

Not all rides are open during EMH.

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!



---------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

[gatormom2tots]

We always do AM EMH and use standby for rides. BUT...we are a family that will be there way before rope drop and then LEAVE before noon as it get packed. We then usually hop to another park in the PM where we use our FPs. We have never found the PM EMHs to be very nearly as effective as the AM ones.

 

[wilkeliza]

We don't schedule going simply because of EMH but use it to our benefit if we happen to be going to that park that day. Case in point we rode frozen in September 6 times with little wait thanks to late night and early morning EMH. The thing is we also waited out a pretty bad storm and illuminations to do it on top of EMH.

 

[Accident]

@Robo pretty much hit all the points to consider...

I wanted to add that morning emh I think is always a good choice if you can get up that early. I personally don't wake up anywhere near when the parks opens normally so I just don't rope drop or morning emh but time to time I do just to see if it's been better than evenings and it's never disappointed when it's early emh. Basically you can an extra hour of the crowd slowly getting larger

I also wanted to say that I don't really shy away from going to an EMH. Many times I'll hop back because we finished a park, aren't ready to call it a night and we go see if we can hit a few more rides or at least just be around the park longer. I pick the parks based on when it works for us, not when emh is happening.

General rule of thumb is friday night - sunday night all the parks are a little more busy normally. Monday add MK to the list, for some reason monday is the day everyone loves to do MK. I more follow that than where emh is.

i've been to emhs that were empty, and ones that were insanely crowded. I've also been to really crowded ones that quickly got empty or at least an hour at the end where it was a little more comfortable.

 

[Dan Murphy]

We go to the non emh parks, preferring lower crowds, less rushing around. Able to get more done with less hassle.

 

[georgina]

I am a fan of EMH, (except at Epcot which I don't bother with). Love morning EMH at MK and AK, love evening at MK and HS. If they ever did away with EMH, I would probably stay off-site more, as we always rent a car anyway.

We don't do Epcot EMH because we don't worry so much about rides there, but spend most of our time in the World Showcase.

 

[Thing2008]

Not all rides are open during EMH.

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!



---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Very good info. I agree it's like rolling dice. Never know

 

[BK2014]

On our December trip the MK had AM EMH from 8-9am on a Friday. In that hour we went from Peter Pan, to Winnie the Pooh, to the Tea Cups, to the PeopleMover and to Buzz Lightyear all in that hour with minimal waits. On a Wednesday at MK with PM EMH from 11pm-1am, it was very crowded that evening leading up to the EMH. But with an efficient use of FP+ we still got a lot done even before the EMH began. By the time the fireworks and castle show were done, we were tapped out so we didn't stay for the EMH. However, there were A LOT of people leaving when the park closed.

 

[stinkpickle]

We always attend morning EMH and hop away. We also hop to evening EMH. Some are better than others, but most are good.

 

[CAS239]

It's a huge benefit of staying on site so I would definitely take part in the EMH. Especially morning EMH.

I would do am EMH then take a break, then partake another part for pm EMH

 

[HopperFan]

We always do the night ones but we would rather sleep in, then close a park down.

 

[Bete]

I'm a total fan of EMH especially the morning ones.

You get more time in the parks and that is never bad. You get to do some of the prime rides before the public enters. You don't have to use FP+ during EMH.

If you plan properly and work your way to the back of the park during EMH mornings then you have about another hour to do rides there before the public catches up with you.

Then use your FP+ and as it gets more crowded go for lunch and relax. Later in the day do lesser rides and shows and those attractions won't be as crowded.

If you prefer the late EMH times then I would make sure to have a nap mid day.

 

[Dr.Mickey]

Here is a story from a first time morning EMH...

We did our first morning EMH 2 days ago at MK (7am before 8am regular opening). We love to sleep in on vacation, but we have decided to do one rope drop each trip. This time we decided to try an EMH, but I totally missed that it was a 7am start until the night before. I thought 8 was pretty reasonable, but 7? Sheesh...

We tried our best, and still only got on the bus at 6:58. At the front of the park at 7:16. Standing at the front of Space Mtn at 7:28. I honestly thought we would get maybe 2 rides in before the Christmas hordes descended.

But I was completely wrong! We rode Space Mtn twice, Winnie the Pooh, Goofy's Barnstormer, Splash, Big Thunder, Splash again, Pirates, and Buzz with no longer than a 5 min wait on any ride. Holy cow! The only real time drain would have been 7D Mine Train (already showing 30 min wait at 7:30), but we had ridden it on Monday. We started our three FP at 10:45 and we stayed until 1:15.

Here are my thoughts:

I think we will try to do this every trip, because the ride time is awesome, even if you don't get there early enough to see the actual rope! But...

There is NO WAY we will do this more than once or twice a trip. We were exhausted by 12:45, and the last 30 min before I could plan our escape got pretty cranky. And I hear everyone talking about hopping to another park that night. But we could not have gone back later that night for fireworks without destroying the next day. My preteen boys were dead asleep by 8:30. And for us, the night shows are our favorite.

I'll add two pics from Thursday. The first was at 7:26. The second was at 7:58.

 

[georgina]

Your experience shows that every family is different and will feel differently about EMH. I have no young children, but I agree I would not do EMH every morning. My last solo trip I went to 8 AM EMH at MK, hopped to HS, then back to MK which closed at 11 PM. I am up by 6 most weekday mornings and getting up early to avoid crowds is not hard for me, plus I could sleep in the next morning.

 

[LadyLion4life]

We took advantage of the AM and PM EMH perks in July. We don't visit often so it's useful for us. AM much more so for my husband and I and us as a family and PM for the kids (18-25 yrs). Our two youngest, 18 and 20 at the time, skipped one of the AM EMH since they wanted to sleep in one day. As others have stated, it really does depend on what works for you.

 

[Lei]

Wow, that's encouraging. I always assume EMH is a crowd puller, therefore not a good idea (never did one, tho). Does it tend to depends on the hours? Probably 7am EMH is less crowded than 8am EMH, because people don't like to wake up that early?

 

[Nancyg56]

Wow, that's encouraging. I always assume EMH is a crowd puller, therefore not a good idea (never did one, tho). Does it tend to depends on the hours? Probably 7am EMH is less crowded than 8am EMH, because people don't like to wake up that early?

Most crowd calendars suggest you stay away from the EMH park of the day but I dont follow that logic. We do not use Morning hours, and only use the evening hours if we happen to stay that late and want to continue (rare for us).
I honestly do not think it is a deal breaker any longer, go to the park for RD or EMH, whichever works for you, and tour with the plan to hit the attractions that tend to build the longest queues first.

 

[Shanti]

Hi everyone,
I am traveling to Disney in July for two weeks (staying on property) and wondered if the extra magic hours are any good? Do you get on all the rides with ease or are there still long queue's?

Many thanks,
Ashley

We have totally found EMH to be worth it. Yes, getting on rides is much easier during EMH. Used them during multiple trips, including July trips, and love them. Huge perk of staying onsite.

 

[Shanti]

Wow, that's encouraging. I always assume EMH is a crowd puller, therefore not a good idea (never did one, tho). Does it tend to depends on the hours? Probably 7am EMH is less crowded than 8am EMH, because people don't like to wake up that early?

In my experience all EMH are valuable in terms of getting on rides, because only a minority of guests stay onsite. In the early evening EMH, even when crowds are still present, only Disney resort guests can get on the actual rides (CMs scan bands at attraction entrances to confirm your resort stay). So it might still look crowded, but getting on rides is easier, & crowds dissipate quickly when there is nothing but shopping left for them to do.

The crowd calendars telling people to avoid EMH parks are not referring to the extra magic hours themselves, but to the peak afternoon times at the EMH parks. I haven't found mid-day crowding on EMH days to be enough of an issue to not attend EMH- in fact, I can't really tell any difference at all. I think visitors are more concerned with their FP+ ressies these days than with EMH, so maybe there was more of an EMH crowding effect in the past than there is now.

Also be aware that crowd calendar writers tend to be locals who don't stay at Disney resorts most times they visit the parks, so they don't tend to factor in the convenience of actually using EMH into their opinions.