EMH at MK Yay or Nay??

[shaycamp21]

Normally I avoid EMH like the plague, have never done them however we are only spending 3 days at WDW (staying at CSR) before our cruise and only plan on one park day at MK. We have two possible choices to do that day (we arrive the Thurs evening and depart Sun ) Fri, Aug 11 which has EMH (am) or Sat Aug 12-- neither day is recommended (both are red days). We will be travelling with just our youngest daughter who's 6 so that's why we chose MK. Our plan is to go at rope drop do as much as we can and take a break after lunch and go back for the Fireworks (maybe parade). We have been many times and this is her 5th trip so there isn't anything we must see or do for us. Would we get more done going on the Fri EMH morning or should we avoid it and go on the Sat? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

 

[LaBelleVie]

We've never done them before either, but we're planning on doing morning EMH at MK next month. Crowd calendars aren't always accurate, and I'm hoping that maybe people will avoid MK because it's predicted to be crowded. Either way, I figure we should take advantage of EMH at least once just to see if it works out in our favor.

If the calendar recommends avoiding both days, I'd do the EMH day. If nothing else, it gets you an extra hour in the parks without the offsite guests, and I figure people are probably less likely to show up for morning EMH than evening EMH.

 

[disneyAndi14]

We are fans of the morning EMH we get so many attractions in before the crowds start arriving. We are able to hit headliners and head over to Adventure land and Frontier land at 0900 when all the RD people are heading to Fantasyland.

 

[barbliny]

We do almost all the EMH - morning usually works out great, evening is hit or miss, the later night EMH starts the more successful it usually is.

We split our days - park A in the am, break, park B in the evening - so EMH park is one side of the day and we pick a park without for the other end of the day.

One thing we do for evening EMH is ropedrop a park in the morning without fastpasses and schedule fastpasses for the night EMH park for the 3 hours before EMH starts - so, even if EMH is crowded it feels more successful because we insured we got on 3 headliners with the FP

 

[Robo]

If a PM EMH begins at 11PM or later at MK... go for it.

 

[madzy]

We always avoid the parks that have EMH but on our last trip, which was in March, March 17 to be exact, MK had EMH at 7 am. So to avoid spring break crowds we decided it would be a good idea to go then. It was the best decision we made. We rode so much before our fast passes started, which was around 10 a.m. We stopped for lunch about 11:30, finished up with our fast passes. I was able to get a 4th for Dumbo at 2ish but we were ready to go back to rest. We did head back to MK about 6:00 and were able to get a fast passes for Winnie the Pooh and Pirates, which we had rode earlier in the day. If you can wake up and get out I would go during EMH.

 

[kmv]

Always do EMH at MK. We get so much done the first hour and 15 minutes (takes about 15 minutes for regular crowd to get to back of park).

 

[iheartjuppy]

We're big fans of AM EMH - we're generally rope drop people anyways, leaving the parks before dinnertime. It will depend on your touring style and your daughter's ride priorities. On our last trip, we went to AM EMH and it was perfect because my kids' ride priorities were different than the older kids and adults. They were 3 and 6 at the time and we headed right to fantasyland where they were able to walk on to the first ride of dumbo and stay on for three back-to-back rides, then over to the Great Goofini (Barnstormer) for three or four back-to-back rides. They rode the Ariel ride, Small World, Peter Pan, rode the carousel and met Cinderella and Rapunzel (they were together that trip, Anna & Elsa were still meeting at MK too) all before the park opened. We already had FP+ for Seven Dwarfs so we didn't do that during EMH, but it was amazing how much we were able to knock out without feeling rushed! There will certainly be some things with crazy lines (that same day, when we walked by the princess M&G at Fairytale Hall, it was less than 15 minutes after they started letting people in for EMH and the Anna & Elsa wait time already said 300 minutes!)

 

[CAS239]

I would take part in the AM EMH if you're taking a midday break and coming back. On the other hand I would prefer the late EMH if it's really late, like 12-2am close. You're staying onsite so I would definitely take part in some type of EMH

And you mentioned coming back later for fireworks and maybe parade, keep in mind there's no night parade and it's only Festival of Fantasy during the early afternoon.

 

[AtlantaDisneyDreamer]

If a PM EMH begins at 11PM or later at MK... go for it.

The late night EMH are my absolute favorite. That is another reason I love going in July. That seems to be the time when they offer the most late night EMH.

The OP has a six year old, though, and it is unlikely she will make it to the late EMH. I have two kids and they are completely done by about 10:30. I can only make late night EMH when I leave the kids at the resort with mom or my husband, or when I go solo (which I am planning to do soon ).

 

[Bullseye]

Take advantage of EMH on Friday. Get in as much in as you can. You're only there for a few days before your cruise. Great way to start the trip!

 

[mousegear]

Even during midst of spring break crowd, we got most ride finished by 10:30~11am with morning 7am EMH at MK. I think you should take advantage of it. Yes, you will see the crowd growing really big by 10am but that's when you should use FP+. Take afternoon breaks and enjoy the night. Don't forget to get extra FP for the night for another ride when you are finished with your initial 3.

 

[shaycamp21]

Thanks for all the tips everyone. You've all convinced me to do the EMH the Friday am at least we can get some touring done before the crowds arrive. Then Sat we can just relax and hang out at the resort before our cruise.

 

[Tigger1965]

We've done them once and while the park is quite busy during the day....it is lovely to experience the smaller crowds at night.

 

[Shanti]

Normally I avoid EMH like the plague, have never done them however we are only spending 3 days at WDW (staying at CSR) before our cruise and only plan on one park day at MK. We have two possible choices to do that day (we arrive the Thurs evening and depart Sun ) Fri, Aug 11 which has EMH (am) or Sat Aug 12-- neither day is recommended (both are red days). We will be travelling with just our youngest daughter who's 6 so that's why we chose MK. Our plan is to go at rope drop do as much as we can and take a break after lunch and go back for the Fireworks (maybe parade). We have been many times and this is her 5th trip so there isn't anything we must see or do for us. Would we get more done going on the Fri EMH morning or should we avoid it and go on the Sat? Any thoughts would be much appreciated.

Use the EMH. They're golden, especially at MK.

 

[Davey Jones II]

Thanks for all the tips everyone. You've all convinced me to do the EMH the Friday am at least we can get some touring done before the crowds arrive. Then Sat we can just relax and hang out at the resort before our cruise.

You'll have plenty of time to relax on your cruise. On Saturday, I would hit the parks!

 

[willmccready]

I love AM EMH. We worked it out where we have 4 park days with AM EMH in a row for our trip in a few weeks. We have young kids and at up early anyway

 

[GoldenLiz]

EMH is great, because you can get a lot done in that first hour. One time we were able to do 7D, Space Mountain, Peter Pan, and 2 other rides just in that time!

 

[jvz82]

We did MK twice on our last trip on EMH (am) days. We hadn't planned it that way on purpose, but we were there over Christmas and they added extra EMH days to MK at the last minute so we just rolled with it, since we already had all our plans made. It was a super busy time of year obviously, but we had a great tour plan and we didn't wait in line more than 20-25 minutes for anything. We got there right at RD, hit the rides hard, had our first FP around 10:30 right when the crowds were starting to pick up. Ate an early lunch at 11, went on a couple more FP rides, headed back to the resort for about 4 hours to nap and rest, returned at dinner, and then just spent the evening doing some of the less popular rides/low wait time rides (Carousel, Dumbo, Mickey's Philharmonic, etc). But with EMH in the morning, we got sooo much done even before lunch that we didn't feel much pressure in the evening.