Early or Late Magic Hours?

[cakepk]

Heading to Disney next week. My family (8yr old and 4yr old) are early risers and I planned on taking advantage of early magic hours. We did not do the park hopper option so will be doing just one park a day. Are parks more crowded on early magic hour days or late magic hour days or about the same? Thinking of potentially changing days to be at parks when there are no early/late magic hours. Any thoughts would be great.

 

[PoohsFan1]

When we were there during Spring Break in March we did both evening and morning EMH. We basically planned our days around them. To us, the morning EMH were very nice to go to. We would wake up really early and get there for rope drop and was able to ride rides (especially the bigger ones) a couple times before the regular opening time. As for the evening EMH, the parks seemed to be crowded once it started, but as the time went by the crowds were less and less. One night we were at MK til 3a.m. and by that time it felt like we had the whole park to ourselves. I would definately take advantage of both EMH, I know that a lot of people on here do not care for them and puts a hex on them, but for us we love it.

 

[dacky041208]

When we were there during Spring Break in March we did both evening and morning EMH. We basically planned our days around them. To us, the morning EMH were very nice to go to. We would wake up really early and get there for rope drop and was able to ride rides (especially the bigger ones) a couple times before the regular opening time. As for the evening EMH, the parks seemed to be crowded once it started, but as the time went by the crowds were less and less. One night we were at MK til 3a.m. and by that time it felt like we had the whole park to ourselves. I would definately take advantage of both EMH, I know that a lot of people on here do not care for them and puts a hex on them, but for us we love it.

That's a great plan (as long as you have the engery), but the OP doesn't have hoppers. And the EMH draws a lot of people to the parks on those days. If I didn't have hoppers, I probably wouldn't go to the EMH parks.

 

[Zippa D Doodah]

Heading to Disney next week. My family (8yr old and 4yr old) are early risers and I planned on taking advantage of early magic hours. We did not do the park hopper option so will be doing just one park a day. Are parks more crowded on early magic hour days or late magic hour days or about the same? Thinking of potentially changing days to be at parks when there are no early/late magic hours. Any thoughts would be great.

My family doesn't hop either. We're headed out on our next trip in about an hour. Parks that have early EMHs do get more crowded. We always plan to avoid whichever park is having an early EMH. Combined with some other strategies, it's a plan that has worked for us.

 

[I'mNoPrince]

I'm a big supporter of EMH both early and late and hit almost everyone.

But as has been stated as you don't have hoppers i would avoid them for the most part. Maximise the rest of the parks and make sure your there before opening.

 

[insoin]

From what I can tell when I have been there the AM EMH are usually less crowded. People do not want to get up early on vacation. Getting little kids up early does not always work out.

However; with that said, my family actually likes the PM EMH. Just seems we can get more done in three hours than one.

We do not park hop much when we go, so this time we are not getting the Hopping option. Hopefully that will work out. But since my stay splits over two months, and with the 90 + 10 ADR thing, we will not know for sure what parks will have EMH and just have to guess when making our ADRs for the part of the vacation in the second month. I see this may cause us needing to hop, if so we will add it when we get down there.

 

[tinawv]

Because you don't have the park hopper option, I would select another park to visit on Early MH. Early MH works great if you can get there at rope drop and leave around noon for another park, as the parks really tend to get crowded at around 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. We like the Evening MH for the non park hopper option. The park begins crowded, but if you can stay until closing you can usually hop on the rides with very little wait time.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I am not sure how much this will help but my family and I always try to visit the parks when they are having Morning Extra Magic Hour. The reason is we can get a head start on the popular attractions with little or not waiting time. We can also get a head start on getting the better return times Fast Passes and before they run out of them for that day. Two examples of attractions where it's best to be there for Morning Extra Magic Hour is Soarin and Toy Story Mania, because the return times will go up fast and they could run out of them very fast.

 

[captinhookedondisney]

I like the Early Extra Magic Hours, less crowded. Late is more crowded but longer, so both are good in their own sense.

What I love about the morning extra magic hours is, you make ADR during them. You still get to see the Opening!! and you will be finished with break fast around opening time to still catch some attractions be for big lines

 

[naf917]

We like the EMH. We still try to get to the park for rope drop and then head back to the hotel for a break and a nap. Then we head back for dinner and enjoy the EMH at the park.

 

[beccasmom]

We like the late hours better; after years of early morning wake-up calls, we tend to enjoy sleeping in. And there are less families at that time with younger kids - in our experience, that is! - after midnight, it is much easier to walk around. It was kind of cool to be entering the Haunted Mansion at midnight on our last trip!

 

[Doingitagain]

If popular rides run out of Fast Passes earlier in the day, do they start issuing Fast Passes again for evening EMH?

 

[islandchick779]

Without park hoppers, I'd avoid the early EMH parks if possible, but definitely take advantage of the evening EMH parks.

We always hop from the morning EMH park to a different park, and always take a mid-day break and go to the evening EMH parks (with the exception of AK because 1 hour extra doesn't seem like a good reason to go).

The parks with morning EMH always seem to be really crowded by mid-day so we leave or avoid them.

 

[MonorailNate]

Personally, if I did not have park hoppers, I would not go to a park that has MEMH or EEMH. The parks that have EMH's will get very crowded during the day, especially MEMH days. We love to do EMH's but we always leave and go to a different park later in the day after Morning EMH's or go to another park before evening EMH's.