EMH Park Strategy

[LMA712014]

Newbie strategy question here!

All four parks have early morning hours during the course of our stay, and since we’re early risers embracing them seems like a no brainer!

Our little people are only 2 and 4 so they meet none of the height requirements for the majority of the highly in demand rides (and I’m not a huge ride fan to begin with so it doesn’t hurt my feelings either! Haha)

With that being said, does it make sense to plan our days around the EMH hours? Or should we plan more so to avoid those parks?

In my head I envision us rope dropping a park, leaving around early afternoon to head back to the resort for a break and then returning to a park later in the evening. We do have the park hopper.

 

[wisblue]

IMHO, when you have hoppers taking advantage of AM EMH is the way to go.

 

[LMA712014]

IMHO, when you have hoppers taking advantage of AM EMH is the way to go.

That was totally my thought (and I’d imagine we could get quite a bit done those first few hours) but I wasn’t sure if there was some drastic downside I was missing.

 

[w84no1]

We always rope drop EMH and head back to the room by lunch to eat and nap, sometimes go to the pool. Then we head back to the parks around 4.

 

[Krandor]

That was totally my thought (and I’d imagine we could get quite a bit done those first few hours) but I wasn’t sure if there was some drastic downside I was missing.

The only downside is a lot of times the park with EMH is going to be more crowded overall that day however since you have hoppers you can leave and go to another park if it starts to get too crowded.

 

[chris benton]

Since you're not a fan of rides, find a list of what attractions are open during emh, and if that's what you'd like to do, then go.

OR go, if you're going to be up, to just soak in the ambience with lower crowds. Maybe you'll get to be first in line for some of the attractions you'd like to do if they are not open during emh.

 

[LMA712014]

Since you're not a fan of rides, find a list of what attractions are open during emh, and if that's what you'd like to do, then go.

OR go, if you're going to be up, to just soak in the ambience with lower crowds. Maybe you'll get to be first in line for some of the attractions you'd like to do if they are not open during emh.

I’m such a list maker - my To Do list for this morning is to make a note of what’s open during EMH (after reading yesterday about the Safari not being open ‘til 8am! That would’ve messed up my plan haha)

 

[jwolfpack]

We've traveled with kids those ages several times, and we always do AM EMH when we have park hopper tickets. Our kids are up early anyway, so we hit the parks for EMH, take a break after lunch, and typically park hop to a different park in the late afternoon / evening.

I'm going to assume your 4 year old will be 40 inches and can ride some, but not all of the "bigger" rides...

Here's what has worked for us by park during AM EMH:

Magic Kingdom - Peter Pan or Mine Train first (not both as a line will build). Then, make the loop around Fantasyland - Little Mermaid, Barnstormer, Dumbo, tea cups, Pooh. Then, try to knock out Tomorrowland Speedway and Buzz Lightyear if lines haven't built too much. By this time, the park will be open. We'll typically schedule our FP for ~9:30, 10:30, and 11:30 and would likely pick Peter Pan or Mine Train (whichever we didn't do at start of EMH), Enchanted Tales with Belle, and Small World or Haunted Mansion. This plan gets you through most of Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Liberty Square all before lunch.

Epcot - If you can get Frozen FP, I'd head to Soarin' first during EMH. While over there, you can ride Living with the Land and Nemo during EMH. Character Spot and Spaceship Earth are also open during EMH I believe. I'd schedule your FP for Frozen around 10:30 and then have lunch somewhere in World Showcase. If you don't have Frozen fans, you can easily (IMO) tour Epcot during EMH without FP and instead schedule your FP for that day at your afternoon park.

Hollywood Studios - A lot depends on if Toy Story Land is open during your trip? If its not going to be open, I'd say that with small children, you don't necessarily need to go for EMH if you need a morning "off" from getting organized super early. If your 4 year old is interested in Jedi Training, you may consider doing a PPO breakfast at Hollywood & Vine on a non-EMH morning instead in order to simplify sign-ups.

Animal Kingdom - this is my least favorite park and we've skipped it the last couple of trips, but the last time we went (pre-Pandora), we did Safari and Dinoland during EMH. I remember we actually had trouble filling the time between EMH and the first Nemo show when my kids were really little because not a whole lot appealed to them at that park.

Hope this helps! I love AM EMH!

 

[LMA712014]

We've traveled with kids those ages several times, and we always do AM EMH when we have park hopper tickets. Our kids are up early anyway, so we hit the parks for EMH, take a break after lunch, and typically park hop to a different park in the late afternoon / evening.

I'm going to assume your 4 year old will be 40 inches and can ride some, but not all of the "bigger" rides...

Here's what has worked for us by park during AM EMH:

Magic Kingdom - Peter Pan or Mine Train first (not both as a line will build). Then, make the loop around Fantasyland - Little Mermaid, Barnstormer, Dumbo, tea cups, Pooh. Then, try to knock out Tomorrowland Speedway and Buzz Lightyear if lines haven't built too much. By this time, the park will be open. We'll typically schedule our FP for ~9:30, 10:30, and 11:30 and would likely pick Peter Pan or Mine Train (whichever we didn't do at start of EMH), Enchanted Tales with Belle, and Small World or Haunted Mansion. This plan gets you through most of Fantasyland, Tomorrowland, and Liberty Square all before lunch.

Epcot - If you can get Frozen FP, I'd head to Soarin' first during EMH. While over there, you can ride Living with the Land and Nemo during EMH. Character Spot and Spaceship Earth are also open during EMH I believe. I'd schedule your FP for Frozen around 10:30 and then have lunch somewhere in World Showcase. If you don't have Frozen fans, you can easily (IMO) tour Epcot during EMH without FP and instead schedule your FP for that day at your afternoon park.

Hollywood Studios - A lot depends on if Toy Story Land is open during your trip? If its not going to be open, I'd say that with small children, you don't necessarily need to go for EMH if you need a morning "off" from getting organized super early. If your 4 year old is interested in Jedi Training, you may consider doing a PPO breakfast at Hollywood & Vine on a non-EMH morning instead in order to simplify sign-ups.

Animal Kingdom - this is my least favorite park and we've skipped it the last couple of trips, but the last time we went (pre-Pandora), we did Safari and Dinoland during EMH. I remember we actually had trouble filling the time between EMH and the first Nemo show when my kids were really little because not a whole lot appealed to them at that park.

Hope this helps! I love AM EMH!

This is actually super helpful! I had an idea of what was more popular and where we should head but this definitely helps.

Our 4 year old is actually around 38” so she won’t hit the height requirement! Petite children ahoy! But it narrows our options (which is actually marginally helpful first trip haha).

Thank you so much! We actually leave this weekend so no Toy Story Land sadly! But we will be able to do the things we wanted to at HS in a half day (and we will probably embrace the EMH anyways since it’s the first day we’re at the parks)