DHS EMM vs MK EMM

[FallsChurchDad]

If you were picking just one, which one would you do?

We are going in August. The plan is for it to be a relaxing trip, so I think we would only want to do one extra-early morning.

Our trip will be two parents plus boys who will be 8, 5 and almost 2. The 8 and 5 year old both like fast rides. They've done Mine Train (both rode it 13 times during an EMM in January 2018, and they never got tired of it), but we haven't been since TSL opened. But overall, my sense was that MK is still a bit better in terms of short lines during EMM.

What does everyone think? Especially would love to hear from people who have done both.

 

[rteetz]

I haven't done either but I may stick with MK because you get more attractions for the money vs. DHS.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I haven't done either but I may stick with MK because you get more attractions for the money vs. DHS.

This!

 

[wareagle57]

I would go with DHS if you have a shorter trip because Slinky is a much harder to get FP than 7DMT or Peter Pan. I also would much rather ride Slinky multiple times plus AS2 and TSMM than anything offered in MK. Then head to ToT and RnR and have an entire day to spend in another park. But that's just my preference. I've never done either. I could never see myself paying for the MK one though.

 

[evlaina]

We did both in December. My husband and I both agreed that MK was a WAY better experience and more worth it to us. There are so many more rides and we just enjoy them more than the TSL rides. It was our first trip and we preferred 7DMT over SDD, we don't get the hype. I would try for a SDD fastpass and you can easily walk on TSMM and AlienSS at rope drop. The best part of the TSL EMM is LEAVING the area at 8:50 and seeing the mass of crowds and you're heading the opposite direction!

I can't speak for the food, because we already had breakfast booked elsewhere both mornings so we didn't eat at all during EMM!

 

[abuck75]

I personally would much rather do Toy Story Land as avoiding that regular RD provides much more benefit. I would also say that we've rode 7DMT so many times in comparison, that getting multiple rides on Slinky is the priority.

 

[WaterLinds]

We did both on our trip over the last two weeks. We enjoyed them both but I’d give a slight edge to DHS—however, it does depend on your ride priorities/interests, overall schedule, etc.

DHS is really still a half day park for my family right now, with most of that time being stuff in TSL, so being able to knock that out quickly and get back to the pool to relax was great for us. We also could save our FPs for night because e rope dropped the few other things we we interested in. The food for us was also a bit better at DHS (having choices for the hot entrees makes a big difference, although MK is more standard breakfast fare so if you have picky eaters they might prefer that? My kids liked both.)

MK has more rides to choose from, and my littlest loves the carousel so that might have been his favourite. Many of those MK rides are old classics, which are fun, but not things I would want to ride over and over again—my oldest (almost 8) especially was more than done with PP and Pooh after one ride on each, but SDD and TSM he would ride all day.MK can certainly set you up to knock out 1-2 other big rides before breakfast and get a big jump there.

We found the organization and service level at DHS just a bit higher, possibly because I think there are fewer tickets sold. Our MK day felt oversold, and breakfast in particular suffered for it. There were also long waits for several rides that morning, although we had pretty good timing and didn’t get stuck in most lines.

Both are great events (except for the off days when a ride is down or there’s bad weather, of course), so I’m sure you’d be happy with either!

 

[DisneyMomma930]

I’m so glad you posted this question. I’ve been wrestling with the same question and was leaning towards just booking both if I couldn’t decide. We too are going in August with 3 kids- 16,9,2. I’m thinking maybe doing EMM at DHS because it would eliminate the need to do RD there and it would get multiple rides on SDD without long waits. We have 3 days set aside for MK so we can easily get the other rides done. I was leaning toward doing EMM at MK though because it has more rides for the 2 year old but then I realize with all of our visits we could easily get PP done multiple times with FP+ and I’m thinking that will be her favorite

Let us know what you decide!

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Seeing as DHS EMM (at least the Toy Story Land version) will probably end for the foreseeable future (if not forever) 8/29 - and that you haven’t done TSL yet - I’d probably vote DHS EMM.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

Seeing as DHS EMM (at least the Toy Story Land version) will probably end for the foreseeable future (if not forever) 8/29 - and that you haven’t done TSL yet - I’d probably vote DHS EMM.

Is it ending because of SWGE. Will that replace it when all the rides come online?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

Is it ending because of SWGE. Will that replace it when all the rides come online?

TBD of course, but I ‘assume’ there will be an extended period of pre-9am park openings once SWGE opens, which will make EMM-style events impossible to offer, at least in their current form. I suspect if it does eventually return it will be a new format involving SWGE, but major TBD on that one too.

 

[FallsChurchDad]

These responses are all helpful. I think we are now leaning DHS (even though MK EMM might be "better" in a straight-up comparison), for many of the reasons described above - we've never done TSL and DHS EMM should make it a lot more pleasant, we did MK EMM 1.5 years ago, we should be able to get FPs for Mine Train, TSL at rope drop seems awful, and DHS EMM will probably not exist much longer in its current form.

 

[WaterLinds]

TSL at rope drop seems awful

That is the truth! It’s such a small entry area, and the crowds are absurd. If you don’t do the EMM then I’d say evenings would probably be a better bet than RD (TSM or AS2 at RD would be ok, but you’d still have to fight through the giant crowd to get there). We had a communication/scheduling/small person potty trip snafu that kept us in TSL as the crowds entered and it was crazy to watch. The cast members who had led them in all high fived each other and said “we survived” after it was over. And they stressed to those of us watching that while it seemed crazy, this was nothing compared to some days.

Your big kid might like ToT or RNRC too? And doing EMM can get you on one or both of those very quickly in the morning—even with the above snafu we got one in without much wait before breakfast, both would have been possible if we’d stuck to the plan.

 

[JoJoL]

We did TSL EMM in January. I enjoyed being able to really look around and see all of the wonderful theming details in the land without crowds of people everywhere. The short lines for the rides were great too! It was our first time seeing TSL and it was magical seeing it at EMM.