EMH or low crowd days?

[TeamH5]

Do you plan your days around EMH or low crowd predictions for that park?

Looking at our Dec trip, the 'green' days on the crowd predictors are not coinciding with EMH days, prob for good reason. Lol

What do you do? My husband is not a crowd person so I'm thinking plan around low crowd predictions.. But then again, Dec 10-17 is low crowds all around, and he survived an Aug trip a couple years ago (But those crowds I think we're even lower as that was a value season we went at, this time will be considered moderate, at least as far as resort prices go.)

Help me decide, as this week is when our ADR times open up. Not planning to many, but want to at least get H&V, Tusker house and possibly Boma(not same day as Tusker House).

 

[Delirium]

Both. We get park hoppers. Spend the day at the low crowd park, and hop elsewhere for the night, which is often the EMH park.

 

[TeamH5]

We plan on getting Oark hoppers as well, just not sure we'll use them. Didn't last time (for us there's no price difference, we use SALUTE tix) but want it just in case..

Last time though I think we planned to many ADR's so I felt like we had to stay in that particular park all day. Lol maybe this time..

If we do EMH, it would be morning as we have a 2 yr old that won't take to late EMH very well.

 

[Farps]

Do Morning EMH then when that park starts to get crowded hop to a preferred park to use your FP+ in.

 

[ciera321]

We used to do EMH every morning they were available, on every trip. Then we decided to try a our luck with the crowd calendar on Josh's site, and have never gone back. We've been following Josh's advice for about 9 trips now, and I'm amazed at how accurate he is. There's been talk that the crowd calendars don't really do much good anymore, but I totally disagree. We just got back May 28, and by using his plans, we never waited more than 15 minutes for anything!

 

[Dan Murphy]

We always use Josh's advice. We're not commando park touring people. We prefer low crowds to high crowds.

 

[beck00]

We used EMHs the first go-round, and now go with Josh's prediction calendars as well. We use park hoppers on each trip now too, so we can move around more freely and don't feel stuck. We do enjoy the evening EMH, when the kids can hang.

 

[Shanti]

Do you plan your days around EMH or low crowd predictions for that park?

Looking at our Dec trip, the 'green' days on the crowd predictors are not coinciding with EMH days, prob for good reason. Lol

What do you do? My husband is not a crowd person so I'm thinking plan around low crowd predictions.. But then again, Dec 10-17 is low crowds all around, and he survived an Aug trip a couple years ago (But those crowds I think we're even lower as that was a value season we went at, this time will be considered moderate, at least as far as resort prices go.)

Help me decide, as this week is when our ADR times open up. Not planning to many, but want to at least get H&V, Tusker house and possibly Boma(not same day as Tusker House).

We find Extra Magic Hours more useful, as long as you actually show up early enough/stay late enough to make full use of them. There's nothing that compares to the reduced number of people allowed on the rides, combined with no FastPass to slow the lines down.

Park hopper tickets can help, but even without them I prefer EMH to spending all day at a "recommended park", as we can get so much done between EMH & FP+, that any increased crowds just don't matter. EMH also provide a "low-crowd cushion" at one end of the day, making it easier to take a break at the resort mid-day.

Where did you get the idea that December 10th - 17th would be "low crowds all around"? I think you might be in for a surprise when you arrive.

 

[pewing]

We used to do EMH every morning they were available, on every trip. Then we decided to try a our luck with the crowd calendar on Josh's site, and have never gone back. We've been following Josh's advice for about 9 trips now, and I'm amazed at how accurate he is. There's been talk that the crowd calendars don't really do much good anymore, but I totally disagree. We just got back May 28, and by using his plans, we never waited more than 15 minutes for anything!

Josh? Who is this Josh that you speak of?

 

[SoCalMike44]

Josh? Who is this Josh that you speak of?

http://www.easywdw.com/easy/

 

[ZoZo]

Do Morning EMH then when that park starts to get crowded hop to a preferred park to use your FP+ in.

I agree!

 

[pewing]

So what about if the EMH are at night? If we go by Josh's recommendations...can we hit those parks at the end of the day? Or will the crowds just get worse as the day goes on?

 

[TeamH5]

We find Extra Magic Hours more useful, as long as you actually show up early enough/stay late enough to make full use of them. There's nothing that compares to the reduced number of people allowed on the rides, combined with no FastPass to slow the lines down.

Park hopper tickets can help, but even without them I prefer EMH to spending all day at a "recommended park", as we can get so much done between EMH & FP+, that any increased crowds just don't matter. EMH also provide a "low-crowd cushion" at one end of the day, making it easier to take a break at the resort mid-day.

Where did you get the idea that December 10th - 17th would be "low crowds all around"? I think you might be in for a surprise when you arrive.

Several of the sites, including Josh's up there (easyWDW) have a low to moderate crowd rating. The beginning of our trip is all 3/10 on the predictor scale. The worse it gets is a 6/10 on the 17th, which we won't be in the parks that day as its departure day.

 

[Aliceacc]

The lower crowd days tend to be the day AFTER EMH.

I decided a few trips ago that it worked out better for us to get the extra hour of sleep and go to the lower crowd park. We get as much done over the course of a morning, and my kids are much happier.

 

[Shanti]

Several of the sites, including Josh's up there (easyWDW) have a low to moderate crowd rating. The beginning of our trip is all 3/10 on the predictor scale. The worse it gets is a 6/10 on the 17th, which we won't be in the parks that day as its departure day.

I would be wary about taking that at face value. WDW is much more crowded year-round than it was even five years ago, and many crowd calendars still put labels like "3" on certain days, and when people later complain that those days were quite crowded, they say things like, "a 3 in 2016 is not the same thing as a 3 in 2012", or "a 3 in December is not the same thing as a 3 in January". Just be aware that it might not be as rosy as you think. Hope it is, though. Have fun!

 

[Moonwolf]

My brother and I did EMH and went pretty much from open to close everyday on out last trip. But we're young with no kids with us so we could stay out for the full time. And the extra hours made up for some slightly higher crowds in the afternoon. If you don't think you'll be able to have the energy to take advantage of the extra time EMH will give then choosing the lower crowd parks may be more beneficial.

 

[WhitneyMB]

I've always thought about using Josh's (easywdw) recommendation. But he doesn't update/publish it soon enough. If we need to make ADR's 6 months out, and he only has his crowd calculator out 4 months ahead of time, it's impossible to use it for planning purposes

 

[NH-to-FL]

Early in our Disney life when we stayed on site we would always use the morning extra magic hour. The only park where it was a bit less then helpful for us grownups was in MK when only Fantasyland was open. As we transitioned to staying off site we switched over to easyWDW recommendations. If you are morning people and don't mind getting up early during vacation then EMH gives you one extra hour before the crowds show up late morning.