Avoid parks with Extra Magic Hours?

[madelyn]

Our travel dates are Jul 19-30 but we only plan to be in the parks for 4 days Jul 20-25. The other 2 families we are going with will be in the parks an extra day, Jul 20-26. My husband's friend just returned and said that they discovered the parks w/ extra hours were the most crowded so they avoided those. Should we try the same strategy? We are on-site but the other families are staying off-site. We have hoppers but they do not. There will be 7 adults and 8 kids: 14, 13, 11, 10, 9, 8, 6 and 1. Any suggestions? We have 4 ADRs that will be affected since I was previously planning to be in the park with the evening Extra Magic Hours but the other families only have 1 ADR affected. Any advice?

 

[srwarden1928]

It will be more important for the others who do not have hoppers OR EMH privileges to avoid the EMH parks. All the experts tend to recommend avoiding the EMH parks, assuming you dont hop around, which I definately dont. If your family wants to stay with the others, you may want to avoid those parks as well. Or go JUST to the EMH and meet the others at rope drop at their park.

 

[Alias#3]

If you have park hopper tickets and don't need to spend the entire day with the other people, NEVER skip the morning EMH's. You can accomplish so much during the first few hours that it's really a waste to not take advantage of them.

Be there at rope drop and get everyting in that you can before the crowds build, Then hop to another park and meet up with your friends.

But make sure you have some type of plan for which attractions you plan to visit when you get there for the morning EMH.

 

[avamadison]

My family use to wake up early and rush to EMHs and then realized how silly it is because it is so crowded. Everyone was doing the same thing. We think that EMHs in the evening might be a little less crowded but still not worth it.

Avoid them and enjoy the parks that are not haveing the EMHs. Less people means less lines and more rides!

 

[madelyn]

Seems to be a united recommendation here...hopefully I can change some of my ADRs tomorrow.....

 

[Shir Kahn]

I actually plan our days according to what parks have the evening EMHs. We love evening EMH and have found that we get to go on a lot more rides during this time than most other times. It really depends on whether you can stay the whole 3 extra hours or not I guess.

 

[madelyn]

Shir Kahn, my original plan was to be in whatever park had the extra evening hours. What time of the year do you usually visit?

 

[WDWTiki]

Hello,

My family and I try to avoid going to the EMH for either the morning or the evening because it's a little bit over crowded. The mornings are a little bit quieter than the evenings, but that's because by 8:00am most people will just be either getting up or eating a nice breakfast. So, in my honest opinion, i'd rather eat a nice breakfast than go to a EMH in the morning.

Evenings are/can be horribly crowded. More people are awake, and more people want to ride the rides at nighttime. I personally choose to avoid the EMH evenings at all costs. But again, that's just me. I'd prefer not to get squished by people.

 

[Shir Kahn]

We usually go during spring break and middle/late summer due to DW working for a school division here.

 

[aengus]

I usually find the morning EMH worth it, much to accomplish I think in the morning.

Defiintely agree with the masses though, find the evening EMH to be just too crowded usually

 

[Dan Murphy]

I tend to prefer the park/s with the low crowd levels, so that's where I go for the day and night. I don't do commando, prefer relaxing vacation.

 

[amygirl27]

I actually plan our days according to what parks have the evening EMHs. We love evening EMH and have found that we get to go on a lot more rides during this time than most other times. It really depends on whether you can stay the whole 3 extra hours or not I guess.

Exactly the same answer I'd give. We always avoid the parks with Morning EMH because we like to sleep in so we never make good use. The evenings hours are great though. We almost always stay for the full three hours and we get to ride tons of rides those evenings.

 

[KatMark]

My DH and I (and our kids when they traveled with us) always did the extra magic hours--both morning and evening each day it was offered during our trip. On every occasion with the exception of the evening extra magic hours at the Magic Kingdom last year (the day before Labor Day), we have never had a problem with long lines during the extra magic hours. I would say that over half of the time we have stayed at that park the entire day. We have park hopped in the past, but not as often as we have stayed.

 

[thepwa]

Avoid an EMH? Not if I'm on site. That's why Im on site!

I have had trips with other family members who chose to stay off site, and they had to adjust their schedules for me, or I just went on my merry way without them.

 

[bmalonef45]

We've done evening EMH and during the first hour or so its kind of crowded but if you have the stamina to wait it out the park empties nicely at lease the time we've gone and it becomes a nice change from the normal hours craziness. Especially at MK.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

We used to do EMHs, but now not so much. I like a nice relaxing style of park touring, which typically precludes EMHs. Other parks tend to be much less crowded. Though I've enjoyed some evening EMHs in the past, I can't tell the difference between the last hour of evening EMH in MK and the last hour before closing (supposing you're riding and not watching parade or Wishes).

I gravitate toward a park with longer hours, but without EMH.

As this thread shows, there are wildly different ways of handling (or avoiding) EMHs.

 

[luvchip]

l

 

[sbell111]

We love EMHs. We try to hit as many evening EMHS as we can. We sometimes take advantage of early ones, but my wife is a sleeper, so plans change...

 

[dacky041208]

Well, the evening emhs can be all over the place. I have found 2 things interesting about the morning ones though.

1-There are a ton of people who will not wake up early on their vacation, making the first hour or so of morning EMH very valuable.

2-There are also a ton of people who go to the park that had morning EMH, even if they don't get there until 11 or 12. This confuses me, as I would never go to the early EMH park unless I had the extra hour benefit.


That usually makes that park fill up quicker, but that first hour or two can be awesome. If you have hoppers, I'd do the morning EMH unless you were out a little late the night before.

 

[secretpantssam]

I always love the the Extra Magic Hours. I love using my park hopper as much as possible, so sometimes I'll just head to a park for the evening extra magic hours after other parks have closed. If I can spend any extra time in the parks...I take it!