Does anyone NOT take advantage of EMH?

[tidoublegger]

Hi, we're staying onsite for the 1st time ever and I am so used to avoiding parks with the EMH because we've always stayed offsite. I just made my ADR's and based upon the current schedule of EMH for each park, I tried to plan our trip to avoid these parks.

Is this a mistake? Am I crazy to NOT to take advantage of the EMH? We wouldn't be doing the evening hours with a 7 year old anyway. Is it worth it to take advantage of the morning EMH?

 

[Twende]

Our last trip we were so tired that there was no way we were getting up early. I think it was because we had some much older people in our group, nearing 90 years old!

Normally we get up early and enjoy the extra time. When that park gets too busy for the day we hop to a different park.

 

[MareSINY]

We did EMH for the first time on our last trip. It was nice getting into the park early and getting to ride several rides with no lines before the crowds started entering. We could definitely tell when 9am rolled around though, the crowds definitely started picking up. I wish they'd try extending the EMH in the morning to 1 1/2 - 2 hours, because a lot of us travelers come with small kids who we can't keep up that late. We left MK by around 11:00 that morning, it was also our last day in the park, so we didn't want to totally wear ourselves out in the heat. But we did get to ride several rides before heading out that morning.

 

[dixiedizfan]

We're able to get so much done during morning EMH at MK; definitely worth it!

 

[eeyoreiscool]

We did for some and didn't for others. It mainly depended on how everyone felt at the time. If the kids wanted to sleep late, we let them and enjoyed the peace.

 

[Allison]

We avoid them also. It's hard enough getting my crew up for the 9 am opening. We wouldn't make it an hour earlier.

 

[honeymo78]

We generally don't do the morning one but will sometimes do the night one for MK. We never seem to have a problem getting on the rides we like in the morning after opening so for us getting up super early to eat breakfast and getting to a park by 8 seems like a waste of an hour for us.

 

[dizenthusiast]

I personally like to intentionally avoid the EMH parks. I'm surprised at how uncrowded the MK is the morning after it's evening EMH. Plenty of time to get on the rides at the normal opening time, and no need to park-hop out to someplace else later in the day, because the EMH crowds aren't there.

 

[Claudia Kellenberger]

If you are all the kind of people that getting up early comes NATURAL to you, then I would do EMH.

But if any one of you are NATURAL born sleepy heads that struggle to be fully awake, then I would NOT do the morning EMH.

The last thing you would need on vacation is to go against your natural body clock. That makes for grumpy people.

For me - I refuse to even use an alarm clock, and I always have avoided the parks that have the morning extra hours. I have always stayed on-site.

 

[riu girl]

We are not planning on doing any EMH since I can't see us being up that early. Also not planning on doing any night time ones since it means the kids will be up so late. We are planning on getting to parks at park opening and staying till late afternoon. Then back to resort until next day. We are going to go at a relaxing pace and do 3 parks over 7 days.

 

[WaltD4Me]

It depends on when you are going.

If you are going during Thanksgiving or during Christmas week, EMH is probably a good idea, if you are going during a slower time, like the week before or after Thanksgiving or early December, EMH is not a must and if you and your family are not early birds, you don't HAVE to knock yourself out to get there early. We went early December and never made an EMH, but still saw and did everything and never even needed an FP.

I've never done EMH or made it to a park at opening...I am just NOT a morning person, but I always go during slow times so it's never been a problem. If I were going during a peak week I'd make the extra effort.

Alot of people SWEAR by early EMH, but with a little planning you can sleep in a little and still get short wait times, but alot depends on when you are going.

 

[GarrettJD]

We did EMH a few times for our first trip, and have avoided it since. We're always up and ready for park opening every day, but the EMH days get too crowded too quickly to make the extra hour in the morning worthwile.

Our strategy is to visit the park that had the EMH morning or evening the day afterwards. All the WDW resort guests that visited the park on the EMH day are less likely to visit it again the next day. We've had nothing but success with this. I remember one trip in June when we hit MGM at opening-- we were the only two people on the bus, and the bus line for Epcot (the EMH park) was jammed full. Also, it was already 8:20 or so by then-- these people had already missed the first, best part of EMH!

 

[fanofdisney]

We don't use them, either. I don't like getting up too early on vacation- I do enough of that at home LOL. My personal thoughts are also that EMH may attract more people, making the park more crowded. So you are not crazy.

 

[sandraB]

I think the EMH is good if you want to Park hop, but if you are doing one park, we avoid the EMH.

We used that strategy last year, and walked onto most rides!

By the time the park was getting crowded, we were gone, or we just avoided the EMH park altogether.

Hope that helps!

 

[digskat]

this was our first time at a WDW resort. We did the EMH in the evening twice this trip. Once at MGM and again at MK (we hopped from AK earlier in the day to MK to watch parade etc. We did not find the crowds to be to large and the kids thought it was great being there soo late and riding some of the rides in the dark (ages 5 and 8); we had a mid afternoon break at the hotel and dinner at the hotel. I say try it out for one of your days and if you find it too busy then don't bother the rest of your trip. Take Care and Good luck in your decision making. We used it because it is one of the perks of staying on site TTFN Kat

 

[Eeyore2003]

Whenever we have gone with our kids or other people, I've planned in EMH. For this coming vacation, even though I'd like to do allot, I'm using the "between EMH" days for parks and getting up that hour later. I'm just not in the mood to rush around at 6 in the morning (earlier than I get up on a normal day at home!!!) on this vacation. I will still get to the park about 1/2 hour to 45 minutes prior to opening to be in the front of the regular opening line and take a little advantage there, but that will still give me that extra sleep-in hour.

I AM taking advantage of AK night time EMH to do AK. From what I've read, it seems to be the best night time one, and the majority of people say it works well. So we are going to try to get to AK for Mickey's Jingle Jungle parade at 3 and then stay for night time EMH until 8. May work, may not, ?????.

We're going the week before Thanksgiving week, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will work. When it's just DH and myself, we avoid EMH parks and get up when we want, but then we could care less about what rides we do or not. We just enjoy relaxing and getting away from it all.

 

[JDarling]

We usually go during the ultimate off season, so we find that we don't need them to see and do all on our agenda. We might use them one day this trip, but I don't see us getting up early during our first vacation in TWO YEARS when we get up at 5am every day...

 

[cobbler]

We have never done EMH. Trying to get my family ready to go and at the park for EMH is near impossible. I would have an easier time hijacking the monorail

 

[speakupjc]

We avoid the EMH parks as they are generally more crowded on that day.

 

[Sarahsal]

We have always avoided the EMH or EE park in the past, and it always seemed to work-we always visited a park the day after EMH. However, this last Easter, MK was open for EMH at 7 am every day we were there. We were there for rope drop twice, and it was wonderful. The best was the night after an evening EMH-the park had only been closed for 4 hours, I think. Even though it was Easter week, it was empty for almost 2 hours. It was great.