Disappointing extra magic hour

[bumbershoot]

We're doing our first onsite stay at DW next year. Is EMH there better?

NO.

People generally urge morning EMH *only* if you have hopper tickets and will hop OUT of the EMH park about an hour after normal park opening. Those of us who do both WDW and DL often avoid EMH entirely at WDW, but will ALWAYS do the early entries at DLR. DLR is sooooo much better in many of our opinions.

Ialmost never hit EMH at WDW. Mainly b/c they offer so relatively few nowadays, and also because we're west coasters and the mornings are already early enough. We've hit maybe one later night one, and honestly it wasn't that great because we were tired, DH was a little younger and easily spooked, and I just don't see that well at night (thanks, Lasik!). And if we stay up one night we have to sleep in the next day, and that rarely is something we all want to do.

 

[hawkfam]

Last summer when we when to DCA we didn't have park hoppers and were staying off-site so we got there early for rope drop on a non-EMH day. TSMM, Soarin' and RSR were all closed to begin the day. Thankfully TSMM opened about 15 minutes after park open but talk about a plan killer when you get there early for rope drop.

 

[tdhickey]

I've had some great ones (mostly) and some total disappointments. One does wonder how a ride starts the day broken down though, that always bugged me.

 

[AustinTink]

My husband's theory is they understaff the rides during EMH. When the full crew shows up the ride magically starts working.

 

[bcla]

I've had some great ones (mostly) and some total disappointments. One does wonder how a ride starts the day broken down though, that always bugged me.

I'm guessing they have to go through ride safety checks after shutting them down for the previous day. If something comes up, they may have to run through all the safety checks again until OK. I mean - I've been on a plane ready to leave the gate or even take off, and either we waited as something was fixed or returned to the gate.

I suppose the last thing they want is for the state to shut down a ride if someone is injured or due to ignoring protocol.

 

[twodogs]

My husband's theory is they understaff the rides during EMH. When the full crew shows up the ride magically starts working.

I agree with you 100%. Two years ago we were on our first trip to DLR, and went to Autopia. Our kids had ridden it the day before, and wanted to ride it again. They only had a few loading bays open to get in the cars during EMH, and the CM were dealing with long lines even during EMH because many rides were closed for refurb due to them getting ready for the 60th anniversary. The lines moved painfully slowly, and I asked the CM about it when we got to the boarding area. He said they run a skeleton crew during EMH, and then the full crew arrives at park opening. Sure enough, they opened the ride up fully at park opening with full staffing, and the lines starting moving quickly. It is frustrating to pay for the advantage of EMH and then have DLR short-staff it to the point that you spend half of your extra hour waiting for one ride.

 

[5forMickey]

Sorry. You had a bad experience that does make for a frustrating day.

We love early entry...... I think it is the only way to go but we are naturally early riser, in fact for us we still get to sleep in 2 hours longer than normal. I just love the somewhat quietness of the park even if we don't get a lot of rides done. I can remember times when we have done space mountain 6 or 7 times in a row with no wait. There have been a few times when things were working well and it was a bit of a bummer.

 

[Ragtime109]

Sorry to hear you had bad luck with EMH. It is a nice perk when all goes well, although I am not a fan of being up that early. I much prefer the evening extra hours offered at WDW.

 

[tdhickey]

My husband's theory is they understaff the rides during EMH. When the full crew shows up the ride magically starts working.

Probably some truth to this, I mean of course for EMH they staff to expected demand which is very low. Likely minimal repair engineers on staff, so if say two things break it's gonna cause issues and delays. It's too bad though because they are making a poor impression on the people spending the most money with them by staying on site.

 

[bcla]

Probably some truth to this, I mean of course for EMH they staff to expected demand which is very low. Likely minimal repair engineers on staff, so if say two things break it's gonna cause issues and delays. It's too bad though because they are making a poor impression on the people spending the most money with them by staying on site.

I would think early morning is when they make sure they have ride maintenance staff ready. That's when they go through the ride checks. However, that might be when they have problems associated with bringing up a ride.

 

[CherylGonz]

Thanks for letting me vent. I did some laundry and now I'm going to nap before a long bubble bath. Then it's back to the parks for our dinner reservation and hopefully some good luck with the lines. Did I mention it's HOT here right now? Calgon take me away.

We just got back yesterday and yes it was hot and humid. We did our one early morning and we didn't make it into the park until 7:20 because it seemed we always picked the line that everyone needed a picture taken. We were also there early to line up. Peter Pan was already 30 min and Alice wasn't working. Super frustrating so I feel your pain.

 

[larie21]

We had the same experience with our EMH at DL. We were first in line at the turnstiles & went straight to Peter Pan....which was down. Matterhorn, Snow White & Mr. Toad were also down for a good part of the magic hour. Frustrating. We still got to ride several rides though. It seemed like a number of rides at DL & DCA were down a lot during our visit.

As for WDW, we rarely bother with morning EMHs, but evening EMHs esp at MK are awesome! We have always been able to walk on just about everything in those 2 late hours.

 

[bcla]

We had the same experience with our EMH at DL. We were first in line at the turnstiles & went straight to Peter Pan....which was down. Matterhorn, Snow White & Mr. Toad were also down for a good part of the magic hour. Frustrating. We still got to ride several rides though. It seemed like a number of rides at DL & DCA were down a lot during our visit.

As for WDW, we rarely bother with morning EMHs, but evening EMHs esp at MK are awesome! We have always been able to walk on just about everything in those 2 late hours.

We arrived late one night and wife didn't want to go but rather go to sleep in our hotel room. That meant losing quite a bit of time, where my kid and I didn't arrive until about 10:15 PM in the garage. After adding a day to my 4-day PH (we used 3 days the previous week and returned to use the rest and add a day) we got in the turnstiles at about 10:26. That late at night we managed to just go from ride to ride with minimal lines. Closing time was midnight, and we managed to ride the teacups, IASW, Pirates, Snow White, Dumbo, and Mr Toad until just before closing. Two of them were 15 minute rides, so along with walking we spent little time in lines. If we just centered on Fantasyland we might have been able to get in a lot of dark rides.

The only ride with a big line was Peter Pan, which we got into before closing. That line took over a half hour, including time when they cycled through all the ride vehicles without passengers. I figured it made sense to get in line just before closing, and use short lines until then.

 

[Sagginit]

I had a terrible experience myself with EMH when I went in Nov. so I feel your pain. We got in to find they had so few rides open lines for each of them was 30 min or longer within a few minutes of eMH starting and after RD some of the other rides weren't open either. We actually had better luck with lines in the afternoon or late night if we skipped parades or WOC.

I have had much better luck at EMH in WDW.

 

[danceanddisney2010]

We are literally are such night owls that EMH is never possible, but we were going to try and give it a go on our upcoming trip! I remember doing an EMH a few years back and it was really nice actually ... lots accomplished. Unfortunately, that was like 5 years ago so I am sure things have changed quite a bit. Good to know that TSMM is not always up and functioning since that is a MAJOR reason why were going to try and hit the parks early

 

[mmmears]

It's really disappointing to read all of this. Part of why we will pay the $$$ to stay with Disney is for the early mornings. If they are taking away some of what that is worth, then is it worth it to pay a premium to stay with them?

 

[daneenm]

We just got back and had great luck with EMH. In fact between EMH and fast pass, we did not wait more than 20 minutes for any ride over 3 days. We did everything we wanted and most more than once.

 

[Astylla]

It's really disappointing to read all of this. Part of why we will pay the $$$ to stay with Disney is for the early mornings. If they are taking away some of what that is worth, then is it worth it to pay a premium to stay with them?

Worth is relative and personal really. EMH alone IMO is NOT why we stay onsite when we do , we stay onsite because we love the immersion and it feels like "home" to us , the DLH specifically. EMH is a perk and I view it as such. While it's completely understandable to be disappointed if things aren't open or working immediately, I think going into it just for that hour can set a sour mood if it doesn't go perfect.

We stay onsite for the convience , the resort itself , the rooms , the amenities, etc. The extra hour can be negligible because as AP holders we often do only weekend trips and just do rope drop at the non EMH park and get SO much done it sometimes rivals having EMH. And sometimes getting up that early can be harder than we think. We're just 2 adults and we have missed a few lol.

It's my personal feeling that with a game plan , not necessarily every detail planned out , just prioritized everyone can have a magical time with or without EMH.

 

[Sparkly]

At WDW which I've only ever been to, I ignore the early EMH (because no way am I getting out of bed earlier then 8am on holiday, missing rides be dammed. I have FPs.) but love the late night MK ones. Super magical and you can ride a ton of stuff. We rode Buzz Lightyear over and over again one time at gone 1 in the morning.

 

[whoever]

I too question why Peter is NEVER ready for EMH (Usually the same with RSR and TSMM). Seriously. The other attractions are always up, just not those ones. If you knew you consistently have issues, have the CMs get there 15 minutes earlier (what are we talking, $20-50 across the CMs for those attractions for an extra 15 minutes) and have the darn attractions open and ready when you say they will be.