EE for MK or day after plan?

[dismom3]

We're doing the day after plan for all parks except the MK. The unofficial guidebook says to never miss EE for MK. I'm starting to doubt this. People have said it's so crowded in the first 30 minutes that they only rode one ride in that hour. I don't know if I should skip it and do the day after for the MK too. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[lentesta]

Hi Dismom3,

Thanks for reading the Unofficial Guide. When are you headed to the parks? We'll be happy to make some recommendations for you.

Sincerely,

Len Testa

 

[dismom3]

July 1-9

 

[Nik's Mom]

I went last year in July and EE was a big mistake for us. The parks were so CROWDED during EE (oops, I mean EMH). Next time we will probably avoid the EMH park.

 

[lentesta]

Thanks dismom3.

A few more questions:

1) Do you plan on visiting more than one park per day?

2) Will you visit any park more than once? If so, which park(s)?

3) Do you have any priority seating reservations already booked?

4) Do you have any activities scheduled besides the Disney theme parks?

5) Are you traveling on July 1 and 9, or are those days completely open for touring the parks?

Thanks again,

Len

 

[goofy4tink]

We use EE/EMH at MK mostly. We find it works for us. We stay there until about 11 or so and then head out to a different park. If you are there really early, you can get a good start on FantasyLand. We've never had too big a problem with lines until about 8:45 or so. Then we just head over to another 'land' and wait for opening.

 

[westjones]

This will be our first July visit, so I don't know what to expect either. We plan to go to EMH on July 7th to Epcot to get in Test Track and hopefully some other rides (not sure I want to try Mission Space, I get motion sickness).

Then we will hang out at Epcot until after lunch/early afternoon. We plan to go back to our room for the afternoon and then head over to MK in the evening and stay for E Ride Night. If you are there during an E Ride night I highly recommend it (from my one experience doing this, which was over spring break). We got to do a lot of rides when we did this before.

I have a feeling it is going to be crowded all the time while we are there (July 5-8). We just plan to 'go with the flow' and enjoy what we can, and take a break in the afternoon to get out of the heat and rest up a bit so we can enjoy the evening time when it is cooler.

DJ

 

[jade1]

We would also like to know a good night for the late opening (is it e tickets?), the only good night we have is Monday night August 2-which is not early entry day for MK but we know Mondays are bad at MK, planning AK or EPCOT in the morning and then head to MK later for Spectro and wishes, then stay until 2:30AM-hope its worth it.

 

[westjones]

Here is a link to the E Ride night dates and some information:

http://www.allearsnet.com/tp/etik.htm

They limit the number of tickets sold, so any of the E Ride nights should be alright as long as it isn't a weekend night.

We were there during spring break, and it was crowded, but it was SO fun watching the fireworks over the castle and then just walking up to a ride while almost everyone else was leaving the park. We all really enjoyed this event last year and we are thrilled it will be offered again while we are there in July.

DJ

 

[crisi]

We don't go in July, but had great luck with EE in October. But we did leave the park fairly early.

How about both? Since nothing else is open you don't have anything to loose but sleep showing up for EE (and being at rope drop at the park you will visit for the rest of the day). If you get two rides in in the hour, you are still two attractions ahead. Then change parks. Next day, go back.

 

[minmate]

I still stand by EMH... despite some concerns about how it's not really beneficial.... but there's some ways to make more out of it. First of all, it's a good idea to get there early so you can be one of the first ones in line. You could also make an early PS (around 7:30/7:45) that you don't plan to actually use, but use it to get into the breakfast line and get in a bit early. I saw people who had PS's but weren't getting in until just a few minutes before everyone else, so I don't know how good this would work but it would at least possibly get you out of waiting in the big crush of a line.

The main idea behind EMH is to go in and get your rides done -- don't dilly dally around with the looking and sightseeing. So if this will be your first time to the MK (or anyone with you) -- you will have to decide if you want to rush down Main St. We always go and ride Buzz/Space first or get FP's for one or the other. Then hit Fantasyland... Tea Cups, Dumbo, etc. If you will be doing e-ride nights, you could probably save Buzz/Space Mtn. for later and do those then.

We usually try to take an afternoon or part of a day BEFORE or AFTER an EMH to have a more leisurely stroll down Main St. and to stop and do the picture taking thing.

We were just at EMH for MK on June 13 (Sunday) and didn't arrive to the MK until about 7:40 am. It was already quite mobbed. We had to get in line for a stroller... We were about 6 people back in line.

Since we'd been at MK the evening before... we really only wanted to do some of the rides in Fantasyland during EMH... We got about three rides in the first hour. We also stood in line to meet TweedleDee & Dum, White Rabbit, rent the strollers and take a few pictures. This time, we got an FP for Philharmagic while standing in line for Dumbo... they are pretty close together so it worked out fine. Right around 9 we were already headed over to Adventureland where the older kids played in the water spray of the Tiki Gods and the rest of our group walked right onto Magic Carpets. We also did Pirates, Goofy's Country Jamboree, back to Philharmagic and Splash Mtn. -- and spent time in the gift shops. By noon, we had done everything we'd hoped to and more and caught the tail end of Cinderella's Surprise Celebration Show as we were heading out of the park.

We were also in a group of 9 -- 4 kids, 5 adults -- that happened not to really move very fast.

IMHO, if you are really interested in doing things in Fantasyland, EMH is a good choice.

On the other hand... we went into MK two evenings before (Friday at 7pm -- an EMH day for MK)and FP was still available for such rides as Peter Pan, Philharmagic (no wait actually), Buzz -- those are the ones I noted. We were able to do 3-4 rides and caught the parade (not from the front row of course) -- and Wishes. We extended that night with e-ride night and had plenty of time to do those rides.

Also, we entered MK in the am on a non-EMH day -- a Tuesday and did notice it didn't seem quite as packed (there had been an e-ride night before) -- and we started on the Adventureland side getting in Jungle Cruise and Pirates with no waits.

I found that using the FP and knowing ahead of time where you are going to start -- starting w/non-FP rides before lines get built up -- seems to beat out the waiting for us. During our trip we didn't wait in any lines longer than 20 minutes. however, FP was really never a walk-on -- there were 10-20 minute waits for those too.