EMH actually needed?

[BeckWhy]

Ok, so for the basic trend in EMH it kind of looks like we might not be able to use them. But I want your opinions first, especially anyone whose actually been there.

The plan is we are going first week of Dec. There are specific rides at each park I want to do, and if there's time left over we may do others. Also this will be more relaxed, sleep in until 10 or so, etc. And this trip I will probably get the Dining Plan with our package, so there will be one table service dinner a night.

I'm gonna list the rides at the parks that I wanna go on.

Magic Kingdom:
Space Mountain
Splash Mountain
Big Thunder Mountain Railroad
Haunted Mansion
It's A Small World
Peter Pan's Flight
Jungle Cruise
Pirates of the Caribbean
Mickey's PhilharMagic
Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin
Carousel of Progress (assuming it's open)
Stitch's Great Escape

Epcot:
Spaceship Earth
Living with the Land
Journey into Imagination with Figment
Honey I Shrunk the Audience
Test Track
Mission: Space
Universe of Energy
Maelstrom
Body Wars (assuming it's open)
(Also wanna spend time at Innoventions)

Disney Studios:
Rock'n'Roller Coaster
Tower of Terror (if I can work up the guts to do it)
The Great Movie Ride
MuppetVision 3d
Lights, Motors, Action
Backlot Tour
Indiana Jones
Star Tours

Animal Kingdom:
It's Tough to Be a Bug
Festival of the Lion King
Kilimanjaro Safaris
Expedition Everest (yeah we're not going to 2006)
Kali River Rapids
Dinosaur
Primeval Whirl

Also I would like to be able to watch the firework shows at the end of the evening. Based on the rides I wanna ride and the park hours (well what they have been in the past), do you think we will need to do the EMH at night or not?

 

[jlaspoq]

Just giving you a BUMP in hopes you'll get some feedback. My thought would be that early December may not be that busy, but you may need EMH for the extra park hours if they're closing early during that time.

 

[wilderness01]

Early December last year was busy.

 

[DebbieB]

I was there last year Dec 4 to 10, I didn't find it that busy. Weekends were more crowded but weekdays were OK. Not as bad as late April last year or previous October trips we did. We made use of fastpass for the more popular rides like Space Mountain. RnR and ToT were about 15-20 minute standby waits during the week.

 

[Disneycrazymom]

That is our favorite week to go! We did use EMH for MK and MGM just to give us more time as the parks will close early (around 7). We road ToT and RnR MANY times during the first hour 2 years ago. We also did all of FL and TLat MK in the first hour. Be sure you get a Park Hopper so that you can hop over to Epcot in the evening as it will be open until 9. That's what we did every night. I wish we could still go then but DS is in Middle school now and no way could he make up a weeks worth of work!

 

[Bella2000]

Many of your rides are EMH rides. Have you considered the new EMH evening vs. morning one if you want to tour later? I wonder though whether they will have them since you will be competing with special events like MVMCP.

We always go early December. Every year we see more people touring off season. I have found that the fast pass or any new or reopened rides seem to still queue up quickly. When we went to Epcot later Test Track had lines and the Fast Pass time was early evening or late in teh afternoon. I always use EMH for Magic Kingdom especially Fantasyland area, and Buzz especially if I only have one day to visit MK. I also use touring plans whether I go off season or not and I've had fantastic experiences with them whether we are up at the crack of dawn or sleep in.

 

[BeckWhy]

do you think we will need to do the EMH at night or not?

My question was based on EMH at night. Not morning. We are not waking up early to go to the parks.

But statistically speaking this is what the EMH at night looks like:
Sun = Disney Studios
Mon = none
Tues = Animal Kingdom
Wed = Magic Kingdom
Thu = Epcot
Fri = none
Sat = none

We will either arrive on Wednesday or Thursday. There for our itinerary will look something like this
Wed/Thu - Arrive
Thu/Fri - Park
Fri/Sat - Park
Sat/Sun - Day Off (other stuff not theme parks)
Sun/Mon - Park
Mon/Tues - Park
Tues/Wed - Leave

There for let's put it into persepective. If we arrive on Wed, We can do EMH at Epcot on Thurs, EMH at the Studios on Sun and thats it. If we arrive on Thurs, we can do EMH at Animal Kingdom on Tuesday, but that's it.

Based on the EMH schedule that is out now (and I understand it CAN change, and I HOPE that it does to fit our schedule), but it doesn't leave much EMH night hours open to us. That's why I'm curious if we can get all we want done without the EMH.

I went with my sister in Jan of 2004. We were there for the EMH in the morning and got a chance to ride every ride. But I am not sure that if we (my boyfriend and I) go that we will have time to ride all our favorite rides without EMH at night. Get what I'm saying?