Avoiding extra magic hour parks - Discuss

[Rosebud123]

I would use them if I was going at a super busy time and the park opened at 7:00. That might be the one time I'd buy park hoppers and do morning EMH! I don't think many people are willing to get up that early, so you could have 2-3 solid hours and then leave.

 

[cakebaker]

Like a lot of other people, we go to both morning and evening EMH- hopping out of the morning park super early- and waiting until the evening to head to the emh evening parks. We don't do them all, but we rarely skip an evening EMH at the MK.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

We take a pass on the morning EMHs. Maybe if we visited during intensely crowded times it would be necessary to take advantage.

 

[MainMom]

We have done both, but only with hoppers. If we have hoppers we don't do EMH every morning. We like to take breaks whether we do EMH or not. This next trip we are only doing 1 EMH and it's on our first full day because that's how it worked out. Since I am traveling with 10 other people I didn't think I could get them up for many of those during the week. We do have hoppers since we are staying at BWV.

 

[mummabear]

We avoid parks with a morning EMH because it is too early for us but head to parks with a PM EMH

 

[larryz]

Early EMH doesn't have the non-resort people just hanging around clogging up the streets and stores...

 

[Dan Murphy]

Yes, we avoid the emh parks. We prefer low crowds over high crowds, more relaxing. Park opening at non emh parks works well.

 

[bmalonef45]

Agree with others. We have never used EMH in the morning but we tend to hop over to MK when they have late hours as that is our favorite time in the park. The older my kids get the better we like it. They may start out crowded but after the second parade you're usually able to walk on almost any ride in the park. Always like ending our trips that way if we can.

 

[Deanie1]

I like to visit the park that had EMH the day before. I rarely hop from one park to another as it takes a lot of time, waiting for buses. I may hop from MK to Epcot but that is usually it. I don't usually do evening hrs because I always rope drop.

 

[texasroni75]

Our last few trips have been in the Fall when park hours are fairly short. We typically skip the parks that have morning EMH, but hop over to the parks with evening EMH to take advantage of the longer park hours on those days. We will just hop over there for dinner/dessert and the fireworks. So, we've already done rides all day elsewhere so we don't care if it's crowded.

 

[jmillertime]

Great discussion. I think I plan on skipping future morning EMH. We don't normally buy the park hopper pass so were in one park all day and morning EMH seems to put more people in that park during the busier times of the year.

 

[petitephlox]

Bumping this thread up since I have questions about EMH.
We're going the last week in october (so I'm guessing MK EMH will be slightly different than now due to MNSSHP).
I'm getting the sense to absolutely avoid epcot EMH (and DHS, which we're not going to). It seems like going on an AK EMH day is ok, not horribly crowded?
We're planning MK over 2 days and don't think we can avoid EMH hours at least one day. We're not doing park hoppers, but plan to do rope drop. Dd is 4 so we won't be doing most of the biggest crowd draws (probably only PP), but I bet she'll want to do jungle cruise and pooh multiple times.
Would we be ok going on a MK EMH morning day? After the morning EMH, is it just too insane to even do things like dumbo or mad hatters tea party?

 

[Dan Murphy]

I think I plan on skipping future morning EMH.

Good choice.

 

[Dan Murphy]

jungle cruise

Not open for emh, only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.

 

[TeamSy]

We don't even pay attention to them. We just look at regular theme park hours/ADRs/days that work for US and go based off that. We don't worry about the extra hour here or there, or crowds. It's gonna be crowded no matter what. We just do our thing and it works every time. Although, we do have a soft spot when it comes to hitting magic kingdom until 2am. It is really magical then, and although we don't spend the whole day there (our rule of thumb is to stay away from MK on the weekends), we can't resist some late night MK EMH when they're until 2am!

 

[petitephlox]

Not open for emh, only Fantasyland and Tomorrowland.

Thanks! Do EMH affect the crowds/waits for these other rides/attractions later in the day?

 

[petitephlox]

We don't even pay attention to them. We just look at regular theme park hours/ADRs/days that work for US and go based off that. We don't worry about the extra hour here or there, or crowds. It's gonna be crowded no matter what. We just do our thing and it works every time. Although, we do have a soft spot when it comes to hitting magic kingdom until 2am. It is really magical then, and although we don't spend the whole day there (our rule of thumb is to stay away from MK on the weekends), we can't resist some late night MK EMH when they're until 2am!

Thanks! Can't wait until dd is old enough for late night MK!

 

[beachfan]

We are early risers and get a lot done on EMH days. We don't park hop but usually head back to the hotel. We return for the evening events. That being said, we have been to Disney many times and don't mind if we are unable to do everything. I could quote just about everything from every ride or show and am never surprised by the ending of It's Tough to be a BuG!! Beachfan

 

[DVCcurious]

We often find that the park that is most crowded during the morning ends up being the least crowded in the evening. People tend to get hot, tired, grumpy or whatever and leave early.

We like to hop to the park that had morning EMH 3-4 hours before closing time and hit the attractions with minimal waits. We've often seen bumper to bumper traffic leaving MK at around 8 pm on a morning EMH day.

You are right, particularly with AK. Animal Kingdom has the absolute lowest crowds from 3pm-7pm (typical 7PM close) on an EMH day. Everything is walk on with the exception of Kali if it's a hot day out. But Safari, Everest, DINOSAUR, etc are all walk ons, especially from 5-7.

When we have an AK day we arrive about 2:00PM and do Tough to be a bug, dinoland, Nemo, then Lion King, Safari, Everest, DINOSAUR and then circle back for more Everest or whatever else we want to do. We typically use our FP+ for our morning park which is usually HS and we rope drop Toy Story, then FP+ Toy Story and then do whatever until it's time to go to AK.

 

[StudentoftheWorld]

I enjoy the early EMH. When planned properly, it is easy to get 3-4 rides in, or multiple rides on one attraction with little wait.

Night EMH are another story. They are so crowded and, in my last few trips, wait times are as long as during the day. Night EMH can be fun for the ambiance, but don't expect to get much done.