Do you avoid parks with EMH?

[johnnydakota]

It seems like all the crowd calendars I'm seeing always say to just avoid the parks that have EMH but if it's a benefit I get by staying on site, I would want to use it. But I also don't want to have to fight crowds.

I went a few years ago and the EMH were awesome. Granted for my trip this year, it's only an extra hour in the AM or PM and last time I think it was 2 hours, I'm wondering how worth it it would be.

I'll be going August 12-18. I feel like it's one of those iffy times of the year and am expecting pretty big crowds but if only Disney property guests get access to attractions for that extra hour, I'm just wondering if planning on utilizing it is worth it or if I should go with the recommended parks on the few crowd calendars I've looked at.

So how do you guys do it? Do you use your base ticket on a park with EMH or stray away since it seems those parks are supposed to be the busiest?

 

[Robo]

We go to nearly every AM EMH.
If that park gets crowded by 11AM, or so, we take a break and/or HOP to another park.

 

[johnnydakota]

We go to nearly every AM EMH.
If that park gets crowded by 11AM, or so, we take a break and/or HOP to another park.

I've heard that it can be beneficial to use the AM EMH but we will only have base tickets so park hopping isn't an option, unfortunately.

 

[ILovePixieDust]

We avoided the EMH because we did not have park hoppers. I would have liked to try the EMH otherwise but didn't want to get stuck in an overcrowded park.

 

[Mickey's Best Girl]

We have Hoppers and APs in our group so we also hit AM EMH until 11/noon and then move on.

Evening EMH we decide day of. Since they don't clear out the parks for PM EMH we're not as adamant about hitting them.

 

[Shanti]

It seems like all the crowd calendars I'm seeing always say to just avoid the parks that have EMH but if it's a benefit I get by staying on site, I would want to use it. But I also don't want to have to fight crowds.

I went a few years ago and the EMH were awesome. Granted for my trip this year, it's only an extra hour in the AM or PM and last time I think it was 2 hours, I'm wondering how worth it it would be.

I'll be going August 12-18. I feel like it's one of those iffy times of the year and am expecting pretty big crowds but if only Disney property guests get access to attractions for that extra hour, I'm just wondering if planning on utilizing it is worth it or if I should go with the recommended parks on the few crowd calendars I've looked at.

So how do you guys do it? Do you use your base ticket on a park with EMH or stray away since it seems those parks are supposed to be the busiest?

You should only avoid them if staying offsite. Most visitors stay offsite: that's why advice websites say to avoid them. We love them & we don't even park hop. We used AM EMH on Easter weekend at MK and didn't find the park to be overcrowded the rest of the day at all.

 

[johnnydakota]

You should only avoid them if staying offsite. Most visitors stay offsite: that's why advice websites say to avoid them. We love them & we don't even park hop. We used AM EMH on Easter weekend at MK and didn't find the park to be overcrowded the rest of the day at all.

So it's the crowd calendar's nice way of trying to free the park up for the people staying on property? JK

 

[Shanti]

So it's the crowd calendar's nice way of trying to free the park up for the people staying on property? JK

I don't know about that, but I do think certain statements get repeated so often ("EMH parks are overcrowded", "fall has low crowds", "summer is always packed", etc.), that many people take them as gospel without seeing for themselves. You can miss out on some great opportunities by always following conventional wisdom.