EMH Days

[mocame]

I know that some people will avoid a park on days they are having EMH because of the crowds.

My question is...Is the park crowded the WHOLE day or just during the EMH hours? We usually avoid parks that have EMH but this upcoming trip, we have 2 or 3 days where we will be at a park in the morning and the park is having evening EMHs or we will be in a park in the evening when the EMH hours are in the morning.

We are going the beginning of May. How busy will it be during the opposite end of the day from the EMH? Should we rearrange our schedule to avoid the EMH park altogether on those days? As you probably guessed, we have park hoppers.

 

[Alesia]

Morning EMH is not busy, but that park will be the busiest park by late morning and will stay busy all day.

If you will be there for rope drop, go to the park with morning EMH and then hop to another park in the early afternoon.

If you are not going to make it for rope drop, avoid the park with morning EMH.

If you are night owls, go to a park without EMH in the morning and then hop to the park with evening EMH later.

Spending the evening in a park that had morning EMH is a bad idea.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Spending the evening in a park that had morning EMH is a bad idea.

Many people believe that this is a bad idea but that's not necessarily the case. Parks that had morning EMH tend to be the busiest during the day but can be the best option for late night touring. The reason is that the early arriving guests will tire out before the day is complete, while the later arriving guests will become frustrated by the larger than average crowds and leave early also.

This can leave the park wide open for some really short lines during those precious last few hours of operation. Here's just an example of what we were able to accomplish from 8 pm to midnight on a recent crowd level 8 summer evening that happened to be an EMH morning. We found bumper to bumper traffic leaving the park when we were arriving at 8 pm:

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
Mine Train (10 min wait right a closing time)
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the parade and fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.

 

[LinderInWonderland]

I am a "break in the middle of the day" type, so EMH worked great for me. I don't have issues getting up early or staying out late as long as I get a nap in.

 

[Gina Starr]

I am working on planning my schedule too. We are going in January and quickly approaching the 60 day mark for fast pass. We are staying on site so originally planned to go to the parks with the emh. After more research a lot of people say to avoid the emh parks but then again a ton of people say to ignore that advice and it's not really any busier. I'm thinking of just sticking with our original plan. We do have a few adr's so I don't want to try and rearrange those.

 

[mullysisters]

I always go second or third week of May and I have always gone to EMH morning and evening. I find them to be lowest crowds (morning more so) and most enjoyable. This goes against all the touring plans, I know, but it has worked beautifully for me for five trips. I use park hopper too and bounce out of the EMH (morning) park when the crowds arrive.

 

[Hootch]

I am working on planning my schedule too. We are going in January and quickly approaching the 60 day mark for fast pass. We are staying on site so originally planned to go to the parks with the emh. After more research a lot of people say to avoid the emh parks but then again a ton of people say to ignore that advice and it's not really any busier. I'm thinking of just sticking with our original plan. We do have a few adr's so I don't want to try and rearrange those.

If you have park hoppers, AM EMH will get you on more attractions in a shorter period of time. We hit rope drop and head back to the resort a little after lunch. We hit a different park in the afternoon. One that is recommended for lower crowds.

PHs can be expensive. Not evryone gets them. In that case the "best" strategy is to go to parks that had AM or PM EMH hours the night before. The www.easywdw.com site follows this strategy making the non- PH easy to follow.

We used various strategies for which park to schedule FPs. Since we wanted to do Kali River Rapids in hot weather, we scheduled FP for DAK. Same with Epcot with TT and Soarin'. The MK is by far the easiest park to get additional FPs for.

 

[DisneySOS]

I had the same thing happen with our May trip. I've almost always followed Josh's advice and have avoided EMH. I only have 4 days (no hoppers) and was planning on DHS, MK, EP then day 4 guys were going to DHS (hopefully it will be SWW) & gals a 2nd day at MK. Now unless we go to a park with an EMH we will have to do a park back to back - first world problems, I know!
I just can't make a decision. I'm thinking stick with my plan and then PM EMH at MK will work well for my kids & then do our best with AM EMH at Epcot the next day even though there's no way we will hit RD.
I get to make ADRs in 2 weeks and I'm driving myself crazy.