EMH, Crowd Calendars and planning advice needed!

[Holstar]

Hello guys!

So... we're coming up to our 180 days, and as we're starting to look at where we want to eat and what activities we want to do, I need to start planning park days.

I've spent today looking at various crowd calendars - WDWMagic general calendar is out (I can't find an August breakdown) but I've mainly been using the Undercover Tourist Crowd Calendar.

One of the key bits of advice I was given when I started planning was to make sure we use the EMH - but, when comparing the Advance Park Hours (http://media.disneywebcontent.com/St...lendar_aug.pdf - thanks tink18!) to the Undercover Tourist Crowd Calendar for August (http://www.undercovertourist.com/pl...disney-world-crowds-calendar_august-2013.html) most days with EMH are days they don't recommend visiting the parks due to high crowd levels.

I know this isn't all that surprising, that high crowds probably go hand in hand with EMH, but how do you guys work out what's best to do on which day?

Help!

Hollie x

 

[scoobydooby]

I assume you're staying on site. We like morning EMH. So long as you are first in the park, in my experience they keep you ahead of the wave until about 1pm. We usually bail a morning EMH park then for the hotel and go to a none EMH park for the evening. It is important to know how to use that first hour though. Have fun planning

 

[Mrdudecool]

We're the same. We always find the morning EMH are always more productive than an evening. People are more likely to stay in the parks or go to a park with EMH if they are already up and about than get up an hour earlier to go into the parks.

In the morning you need to make sure you know what to do though. Make sure to go to the popular attractions and get a fastpass. If you go to HS for example, go to Toy Story and get a fastpass and standby. Thats what we do. You'll be surprised that in the hour for EMH, by the time normal park opening comes around, you will be looking at least a 12pm fastpass return for Toy Story. We have been before and within the hour the fastpass return was 3pm. They go so fast.

In short, do the popular attractions in the morning. Even if a wait is 40-60 minutes, do it as then when normal park opening comes around you've done the most popular. Then you can shoot off to the others which normally have shorter lines as the majority do the popular attractions first.

 

[gcoolie]

Check out www.easywdw.com. Josh has a crowd calendar and lots of detailed explanations about planning your days. We used it for our December 2012 trip and it was great! I think he generally advises against parks with EMH because they get so crowded. His site is definitely worth some browsing time.

 

[orangetiggs]

I found when planning with the trael agent calender that when they came out on the disney website some of the emh had changed so bear that in mind too

 

[bex7583]

on one of my threads about how emh hours work, somebody added a link for a august disney timetable with all the show times /parades and emh

 

[Elise79]

We have always enjoyed EMH - yes they can be busy however we don't very often spend all day in one park.

AM EMH we get there early and leave around lunch.

PM EMH will go to after dinner - more for atmosphere than to ride attractions especially MK. Although at DHS EMH once we rode RnR about 10 times between me & Dh as DD had fallen asleep in her stroller and we took advantage of no lines!

 

[bex7583]

Hello guys!

So... we're coming up to our 180 days, and as we're starting to look at where we want to eat and what activities we want to do, I need to start planning park days.

I've spent today looking at various crowd calendars - WDWMagic general calendar is out (I can't find an August breakdown) but I've mainly been using the Undercover Tourist Crowd Calendar.

One of the key bits of advice I was given when I started planning was to make sure we use the EMH - but, when comparing the Advance Park Hours (http://media.disneywebcontent.com/St...lendar_aug.pdf - thanks tink18!) to the Undercover Tourist Crowd Calendar for August (http://www.undercovertourist.com/pl...disney-world-crowds-calendar_august-2013.html) most days with EMH are days they don't recommend visiting the parks due to high crowd levels.

I know this isn't all that surprising, that high crowds probably go hand in hand with EMH, but how do you guys work out what's best to do on which day?

Help!

Hollie x

hiya how is your planning going ? i have found another calender http://www.disneyparksplanning.com/2013/01/walt-disney-world-crowd-calendars_24.html

however it does seem to say the total opposite to the undercover tourist calender but its emh schedule do match the disney schedule etc


hope your planning is going well my head is mashed !! so much info and soo much to try fit in xxx

 

[chmurf]

most days with EMH are days they don't recommend visiting the parks due to high crowd levels.

The reason why an EMH park is not recommanded is very simple.

The touringplans and planning sites are designed for the general public.
Resort guests are an exception

for guests not staying on site, they don't have access to EMH, which means that by the time they enter the park, there will already be a crowd and lines.

So an EMH park is definitely a park to avoid when you're not staying onsite.

Now, for onsite guests, the EMH park is a double edged sword.

If you stay onsite and are unable to be at the park before the start of the EMH, you lose the benefit of the EMH, so it's a park to avoid
And, by noon the crowd will begin to be large, because you'll find day guests and resorts/EMH guests at the same time. So a larger crowd

doing morning EMH often requires to be flexible and to hop to another park for the afternoon/evening. So it's also a not recommanded park because the planning sites are also designed for the general public who has US Magic Your Way tickets often without hopper option.

hope you better understand why an EMH park is "not recommended" on planning sites

If you can arrive early (well before the start of the EMH) and if you are willing to hop by mid-day, then the EMH is a must do. If not, then avoid it.

 

[Disneynutinlondon]

Over the years we've been during the busiest times of the year .... Easter, Xmas and the summer and TBH we take absolutely no notice of crowd calenders or touring plans.

We have always stayed onsite so taken advantage of the morning EMH and stayed in the park till about lunchtime. Then we've gone back to the hotel for some pool downtime or headed out for some shopping. We always have a TS evening meal so I try and make our ADR for the park that has night time EMH and then we stay in that park till we head back to the hotel for bed.

We've done this since the boys were little, 5 and 7, and this routine worked just as well for us on out last trip and they are now 14 and 16. We make good use of our fast passes during the morning and found that the night time sessions are more relaxed so we just go with the flow.

As PP have said those planning sites are really for people who are not staying onsite.

 

[MichelinMan]

We have never been a rope-drop sort of family, so EMH are normally out for us. I haven't planned on using any this year (although DS is starting to grow up, and is working out he can get more rides done if he wakes up early - I'll believe it when I see it, because he likes to see the fireworks every night too!).

So touring plans and crowd calendars will be more important for us, even though we are staying onsite.

I have a subscription to Touring Plans - they didn't fail us last time we went in 94, so hoping they work out as well for us again.

 

[mollies_mum]

We have never been a rope-drop sort of family, so EMH are normally out for us. I haven't planned on using any this year (although DS is starting to grow up, and is working out he can get more rides done if he wakes up early - I'll believe it when I see it, because he likes to see the fireworks every night too!).

So touring plans and crowd calendars will be more important for us, even though we are staying onsite.

I have a subscription to Touring Plans - they didn't fail us last time we went in 94, so hoping they work out as well for us again.

Touring plans really worked for us last time too and we also were staying on site. I found that morning EMH were great but evening EMH were a bit of a nightmare as they were really busy

 

[MrRomance]

Taking advantage of EMH is always recommended for on-site guests, but as a PP said, most touring plans/crowd calendars do not recommend parks with EMH because it attracts a lot of on-site guests who once they get to the park for EMH stay for the day.

We try to make the best of all options. We usually go for EMH and get a lot of the top rides done. Once the park starts to get busy, we hop to a quieter park! If you don't mind park hopping, it's a great way to make the most of the EMH but still avoid big crowds.