Early entry or not?

[MomofTMK]

Our vacation is 8/8 - 8/15. Our last trip we took advantage of all of the early opening days and it seemed to work well. This time I am wondering however, if we should take the advice of one of the "guides" and go to a different park than the one that has the early opening where the crowds are possibly not as large. Does anyone who has tried the guide's suggestion have an opinion on this. Have you found there to be a noticeable difference or does it not really matter?

 

[pixie36]

Bump.

I am wondering the same thing when I'm going 9/24-10/1. So far I'm planning on going to MGM EMH evening hours. The other days were going to parks that do not have EMH hours AM or PM. I'm hoping that the guides are correct and that it wont be as crowded at the non EMH resorts.

 

[blueeyez]

I'm wondering this too. We're going 9/11-9/17. Is EMH AM really necessary during the value season?

 

[disney queen]

we take advantage of EMH~so much can be accomplished in this hour. after the park opens to the general public, then hop to another park. works for us!

 

[leighmidd]

We always make sure to avoid parks that are early entry that day. Even though the extra time in the morning is great, the massive crowds in the afternoon are not. We've gone the past two years at a very crowded time (the week of Christmas) and have experienced NO CROWDS. I believe we've achieved this due to our plan of avoiding early entry parks. Hope this helps!

 

[dizenthusiast]

My impression is that with the huge capacity of the value resorts that have been added to WDW in recent years, the EMH program is not nearly the benefit that it used to be several years ago. The crowds are such that this thing is now more of a "penalty" than a "perk," especially during the busier seasons of the year (IMO).

I think a much better approach is to avoid the EMH parks.

As Disney Queen says, you can hit the morning EMH park, then hop someplace else, but I guess I don't see the advantage of doing that (with all respect to DQ). When you hop, you can't get any FastPasses for later in the day at the EMH park (because you won't be there), and when you hop someplace else, you're at a distinct disadvantage with FP there too, since you weren't able to collect any FP's at that park during the morning hours.

You could hop to Epcot only to find the FP's for Soarin' to be already gone, for example.

It seems to me like you can get as much or more done by avoiding the EMH park, and have the added benefit of not having to get up that extra hour earlier!

 

[ReggieB]

We are up early anyhow (thank you my sweetie cutie DS4) so morning EMH's are always great for us. I did find that in May that the parks got a lot busier than we were used to, but we usually go when it's a bit quieter at the end of October, so that's probably why it seemed more crowded. If you plan on staying the whole day at the park, it might probably be best to skip the EMH park (morning or evening time EMH) I've read many posts from other DIS members that have had great things to say about the evening EMH's during the slower months.

 

[MomofTMK]

In the "Unofficial Guide" it is suggested that you visit the park that had the early opening the day before. I'm not sure how well this works but think we might give it a try. Of course if everyone takes the same advice it won't matter very much!

 

[DemonLlama]

We swore by EMH in past trips, but after this last December, we will be taking the avoid-the-EMH-park route from now on. Word is out and people flock to the park in droves. We got there 45 minutes before early opening and were in the crush. Didn't get nearly the number of rides done in that hour as we had in 2000 and 2002. With the capacity of the resorts and the heavy promotion of EMH, tens of thousands are encouraged toward and funneled to that park. Not worth it anymore, at least to us.

 

[lorli]

We have gone at the end of August and avoided EMH parks and we had no problems. In fact we have planned our end of August trip for this year and avoided EMH parks again. We are there all day and all night and the few extra minutes sleep is much needed especially for our DD (4).

 

[dizenthusiast]

In the "Unofficial Guide" it is suggested that you visit the park that had the early opening the day before. I'm not sure how well this works but think we might give it a try. Of course if everyone takes the same advice it won't matter very much!

I think the better approach now is to visit the park that had the LATE NIGHT EMH the day before, especially if you can get there by opening time. (I don't think the evening EMH was in effect at the time the UG went to press.)