Do you seek out or avoid parks with EMH?

[kwdw]

I like morning EMH at MK because you can get Fantasyland done without waits. I can't typically stay up late enough to enjoy evening EMHs, but again, I find they have the most value at MK, especially in the second hour of them. But if I'm not going to stay late, I avoid the park with evening EMH because they are usually crowded.

Going to try morning EMH at EPCOT for the first time this upcoming year. With FEA and the tiered FP+, I'm hoping that's a good choice, but I do not know yet!

 

[Klayfish]

When we're scheduling out our trip so we can get our FP+, we don't look to see what parks have EMH, so we're totally oblivious to it either way. Hasn't really been an issue for us.

 

[tlmadden73]

I usually just see if they happen to correspond to my original plan .. and if they do .. I plan to take advantage of those hours.

I don't purposely try and go to a park BECAUSE it has EMH.

Last trip .. it worked out . our MK day was a morning EMH and we got there at 8:00 am and had a wonderful first hour. We probably got more rides in the first 90 minutes then we did the rest of the day before lunch.

This upcoming trip? It happens to correspond with our DHS day and we have a group of boys that will want to do Jedi Training .. so getting there early will help getting in line for that (and hitting TSMM and Star Tours without a Fast Pass). BECAUSE it corresponded with one of our day, we decided to get "throwaway" rooms for that night so we could take advantage of the EMH (on top of the other perks of getting a throwaway room)

My son (4 1/2) seems a little too scared to confront a Sith .. even with his older friends there .. but we will still take advantage of the EMH just to get most of the park done (that you can get down with a 4 year old and infant) and then hop over to MK.

I personally don't think it is a "desired" perk (or even widely used) perk except among the "returning veterans (those who go on yearly trips)" that want to maximize their day.

What I mean is . I don't think EMH helps a lot of guests make the onsite/offsite call. It just happens to be a nice perk if you already chose to stay onsite.

I bet a lot of first time visitors don't even know the perk exists.

I bet a lot of families scoff at the idea of getting to the parks an extra hour early while on vacation and I bet a lot of families with young kids simply can't take advantage of the extra night hours.

I feel that these morning "magic" hours and the now returning evening "magic" hours will gradually replace EMH and they will offer some other perk to resort guests to replace.

My personal opinion is that a "4th fast pass" perk would be a more desirable perk to people and that would push people to stay onsite more than simply EMH does.

 

[TexasKiwiPrincess]

We avoid. Mostly because of the design for FP+, though. Hate the 1-park limitation on reservations. So...sometimes we may venture to EPCOT in the evening for EMH to catch Soarin' or Test Track, but for all others we skip it.

I agree the 1-park limitation can be frustrating. When the kiddos are old enough to hop with little hassle, I would take advantage of EMH in the morning and plan all fast passes at the park we would hop to in the afternoon.

 

[Jennytoon]

We look for morning EMH days, except in MK.

Usually we spend no more than 3-5 hrs in parks per day when we are there (but we don't take rest days).

Most commonly we will go to an EMH park at 8, enjoy the first hour, then the second hour, then leave around 10:30 - 11 when the crowds start getting big. We'll hit another park (or sometimes the same park) in the late afternoon / evening after the crowds have died down some with FP+ (we'll make all three in this park to start with) and a dinner reservation.

We don't usually do morning EMH in MK because we are usually there in August, and I've pretty much sworn never to set foot in the park before 4 PM when it has started to cool down ever again. OK, maybe not never, but you get the idea ... I don't understand how people can say that AK is the hottest park all the time, at least it has SHADE!

 

[loves to dive]

I don't do one or the other, I just go to the park I want to go to and if it's too busy for my comfort, I hop to a different one. I do enjoy the evening ones and if I know one is happening I will hop over for it.

 

[jcarwash]

I like to follow the easywdw crowd calendars, which historically would recommend avoiding parks with EMH. And, I prefer to purchase base tickets, no hopping, so daily park choice is important to me.

But easywdw's guidance is changing; I just read this today: "The fact is that the Extra Magic Hours schedule is no longer a substantial driver of crowds in the FastPass+ era. And if you are eligible for Extra Magic Hours, there are circumstances where you may want to take advantage of them if you are able. And there are other times where you probably do want to avoid them."

From this article on renewed/updated crowd calendar analysis: http://www.easywdw.com/easy/blog/ja...d-a-brief-introduction-to-crowd-calendar-2-1/

 

[dreiwhit]

We avoid morning EMH. Rope drop figures in our strategy, and going to a park with morning EMH makes our strategy worthless.

 

[MouseBucks6]

I was wondering the same thing....

Have a rather spontaneous solo trip planned for 3/5-10 so I can hit both Flower and Garden and a MK After Hours event. Two of the days that I'm there, 3/7 and 3/8, Epcot and MK each have a 2-hour night EMH. I think they're both 9-11p. I was thinking, from past experience as an off-site visitor, that once the fireworks go off, it's a mad rush for the gates for a good portion of the crowds. I was thinking the night time EMH would be relatively quiet. I did some research on Google today and saw a few recommendations of "do not go! it's a zoo!" - basically

Currently, I was planning on being in each of those parks the day when they had the night EMH since most of the time we stay off-resort so it's not an option. I've never done any kind of EMH, which is also why the MK After Hours event seemed a bit extra appealing to me. I'm more of a night owl, so that, coupled with my initial thinking of it maybe being quieter due to night time EMH instead of morning seemed like a good idea. When I'm there with the rest of the group and we stay off-site, we do our best to avoid any parks with EMH. So, now I'm doubting my plans a bit, and I'm able to set up my FPs Wed. morning.

Any insight would be most appreciated!

I've found that being solo makes it much easier to move around no matter the crowds. It's much easier to be flexible than with the rest of the family/friends. I took full advantage of the EMH on my last solo trip.

 

[revdon64]

We used to avoid them, but that strategy is in flux. On our next trip it's likely that we'll hit early morning EMH, midday rest and hop elsewhere in the evening.

 

[Trap]

we all ways use early morning EMH never use the late night ones

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We did a few last trip and really enjoyed them. We can't all of them everyday. Shutting down a park at 1 am and then being up for 8 am EMH RD isn't going to work for us.

If they fit into our schedule we work them in. We really enjoy AM EMH at the MK, it's our favorite.

 

[markb681]

Avoid them like the plaque...I go the opposite direction everyone else goes!

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

We like to hop into a park later in the day that had morning EMH. Here's an example of what were able to accomplish at MK on a recent summer evening from 8 pm - midnight with no FP+. Bumper to bumper traffic was leaving the park when we arrived at 8 pm.

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
Mine Train (10 min wait right a closing time)
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the parade and fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.

 

[dprincessmom]

We are more likely to seek out the evening EMH at park than morning but we are up for anything. In the heat of summer we usually do AM EMH, leave park lunch time, back for swim/rest/ac, then different park if there are PM EMH. Like others have said, they can be a great help but sometimes not so much. Go with what works for your touring style.

 

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

Morning EMH? We avoid it. I like following the crowd calendars because I have found they are correct most of the time and they usually suggest avoiding the morning EMH park and we have found that to be successful. I like to go to a park the day after it offered EMH.

Sometimes we might go to an evening EMH park just because I love to be in a park late at night.

 

[wilkeliza]

Neither. I plan my flow of days based on what I think I'll want. For example a 4 day trip, Arrival day MK or Epcot, day after arrival AK since it'll be an easy Park, DHS, then Epcot/MK). If those days happen to be EMH cool if not no biggie. We also will mix stuff around based on ADRs we really want and were able to get or FP+ we really wanted and were able to get.

 

[mikedoyleblogger]

I know I have the minority opinion, but I don't avoid EMH at all. I love taking advantage of it at Magic Kingdom, either in the morning or the evening, love it in the evening at Epcot, and definitely don't base my plans around fear of EMH crowds. EMH or not, you can get an immense amount done if you show up at the parks at rope job, no fast passes required. And if you're showing up in the afternoon, even at an EMH park, all you need to do is schedule your day's fast passes for that afternoon in that park, and you have a wonderful head start. I think the people who choose to avoid EMH parks the most are people who don't strategically schedule their fast passes, people who like to show up in the morning before noon but well after rope drop when the rest of the crowds are already getting to the parks, or people who refuse to use park hoppers--which were the greatest get out of EMH crowds free tools before FP+.

 

[nursejackie]

We follow the early EMH as we go in December (10th to 26th) and we can fly around the most popular attractions before the bigger crowds arrive and then we use our fastpasses after that. What is frustrating is the EMH park hours often change at short notice when we may have booked PPO ADR on non EMH days and then they go and change/add to them, which we still find frustrating.

 

[nicolej92]

I used to avoid them, but on a recent trip, we did them for MK on Christmas Day and now I think I will seek them out. We got SO much stuff done in that extra hour. I was surprised.