EMH worth it?

[marriedmarylander]

I read somewhere (probably here) that when a park has an extra morning hour it gets more crowded than usual and there wasn't a real benefit to going for that extra one hour. Is it the same in the evenings as well? I'm just wondering - is it best to take advantage of the EMH for all the parks we can or just not even bother with it? Does it depend on what day of the week the EMH falls on as well?

 

[meandthree]

My daughter and I went for the Morning Extra Magic Hour at MK a week ago and loved it. We were able to be completely through Fantasyland riding all of the rides and out of the park by 10:00. The boys decided to sleep in. Boy were they sorry they did that!

 

[EsmeraldaX]

When we went in the AMs back in Dec. we loved it. We got on a lot of the big rides during that time with no real wait.

I can't wait for the evening ones. We're planning to do as many as possible.

 

[sixbitslocum]

I agree. Take advantage of them when possible. The only time we get the kids on Dumbo is during the EMH, and we do that first. If you get Dumbo in first, you can easily finish the rest of Fantasyland in another hour or so. We usually stay and do an early lunch, then back to the hotel for a nap or swim and hit another park by mid afternoon. We are in and out by noon and enjoy one of the lesser crowded parks later.

Besides, there's nothing better than walking down a freshly washed Main Street early in the morning.

 

[jswalker1981]

Is the EMH included in the annual pass?

 

[newholidayx2]

DS13 & I are doing some late nights, some reg nights, no early morns but once to ea park at opening
I have a reg morn opening planned for ea park (figure thats early enough to try to get DS out the door! and its only for an hr so we're avoiding those parks that day)
then I have all parks late nights figured in at least once ea park (twice for AK) I know the late nights can change as we get closer to I'll reshuffle as necessary.
then i have all the parks (except AK) planned for their reg closings

only doing 1/2 day parks - when we're there in the morn the only time we're returning to a park at night is 1 of the AK nights
when we're at the parks at night we'll do the pools (Pop, WL, BCV, Poly & BW) during the days

 

[jimmalru80]

We take advantage of it whenever we can. It works for us.

 

[ILoveWDW2003]

Is the EMH included in the annual pass?

EMH is a benefit for ALL on-site Disney resort guests, it doesn't matter which ticket you have.

 

[marriedmarylander]

Does it matter sometimes what day of the week it is as well? Like if an EMH is on a weekend would it be way too crowded?

Currently we are going from 5/16 to 5/22 (Monday to Sunday)
These are the EMH for our trip:

M 5/16 - only morning EMH and we will arrive around noon, so no good
Tu 5/17 - MGM EMH morning
W 5/18 - MK EMH evening
Th 5/19 - Epcot EMH evening
F 5/20 - MK EMH morning
Sa 5/21 - AK EMH morning

I was thinking of taking advantage of the Epcot evening, but I'm not sure about the other days. A lot of people seem to like to hop a lot... but why not just stay in one place and get it all done in a day rather than do a half day here and there? I know that MK shows the spectro parade on tues and fri that week, not wed the day of the evening EMH. And most people say just do AK on a weekday rather than saturday despite the EMH.

Out of the ones I listed which do you think are best to take advantage and which can be skipped ?

 

[marriedmarylander]

Who got through MK in 1 hour? That's all you spent there?

If you do a 1/2 day in the park does that mean you do several 1/2 days in the same park or do you just do 1/2 in the park and that's it?

What are the benefits of doing 1/2 days and splitting it up rather than do it all the same day?

Like why do for example: MK & MGM in day 1, then AK and MK in day 2, then Epcot & MGM in day 3, etc... why not just do MK in Day 1, MGM in Day 2, AK in Day 3, etc... Maybe it's just me , and don't get me wrong I do have energy but I don't see the efficiency if switching all the time...

I guess I also don't see the point in going to the park at 8AM, doing stuff for only 1-2 hours and leaving to take a nap, then going back to the same park at 4Pm and saying all night... Maybe it's different with kids since they need a break??? I mean if you ride the bus, why not just sleep in and go to the park at noon and stay all night... ok it's crowded in mid-day but at least you dont' have to stop the day, go back to the hotel, then come back out again.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I think what happens is SO many resort guests start their day at one park due to EMH, and then regular guests come in at opening, so the park fills quickly. It's wise to park hop on those days instead - do EMH at the park being featured, then when the park starts to swell due to the resort guests and regular guests, then just hop to another park. A lot of resort guests will stay at that EMH park all day long, so it gets more crowded.

You can get A LOT done at EMH's before the park opens to other guests, I would def make a plan to hit it then hop to another park if things get unbearably crowded - the other parks often aren't as crowded as normal since so many resort guests will be at the EMH park =)

 

[marriedmarylander]

We're poor .. can't afford hopper tickets

Only have 1 day hopper left from previous ticket...

Also how much hopping do people usually do? Do you hop everyday or just a couple times during your trip?

Since this is the first time as a couple and as "grown ups" out of college, would it be safe just for us to do one thing at a time??? That way next time we go at some point in the future we'll have a better idea?

I was thinking of doing Epcot the entire day and doing the evening extra hours.
I wasn'tn going to do MK evening hours because on that night they don't have spectro... we'll do that another night and wnot' feel like doing two nights of MK. As for mornings I'm not sure... as adults we dont know about MK early hour, and I heard AK saturday morning hour isn't worth it and we might as well just go another day... Oh and MGM has an early hour Tuesday but we aren't sur eif that's worth it either since MGM is smaller park... I guess we could do ToT quicker though.

 

[nataliesdaddy]

We usually do early entry. But this year we are going to try the Unofficial guide advice and avoid early entry. Instead we have reservations for breakfast in the park (MK) before it opens on non EMH mornings. But seeing this thread has me concerned. Normally like the rest of the posters here I would say for sure do early entry. WE get a ton done by being first in with little to no crowd for the first hour and then light crowds for the next hour - then we get out of there by 2 o'clock at the latest.

But we have never done it any other way. So this year we are showing up early to non EMH parks to see how that works. We will still be first in line, just not for EMH.

I would liek to hear the experiences of others who avoid the EMH per the Unofficial guide's instructions.

ANyone?

 

[Leota]

We have always taken advantage of the early morning hours for several reasons.
A.) We usually travel off season & the hours are shorter. EE gave us extra Park time.
B.) You can get alot done in the early hour
C.) Our Internal alarm clocks still go off early, even on vacation. Since we're up, we might as well play!

I'm looking forward to the evening hours. We loved E-Nights & did as many as we could during our past vacations when they were available.


We hop for several reasons.
A.) The Park we are at gets crowded.
B.) Change of experience. Each Park has a different feel, sometimes it's nice to blend them.
C.) We get an urge to do a certain attraction in a different Park.
D.) Eating is better at some Parks than others, so we will hop to have dinner.
E.) Off season, the Parks all close early but Epcot. So we'd do days in those, nights at Epcot.

 

[zurgswife]

We're poor .. can't afford hopper tickets

Only have 1 day hopper left from previous ticket...

Also how much hopping do people usually do? Do you hop everyday or just a couple times during your trip?

Since this is the first time as a couple and as "grown ups" out of college, would it be safe just for us to do one thing at a time??? That way next time we go at some point in the future we'll have a better idea?

I was thinking of doing Epcot the entire day and doing the evening extra hours.
I wasn'tn going to do MK evening hours because on that night they don't have spectro... we'll do that another night and wnot' feel like doing two nights of MK. As for mornings I'm not sure... as adults we dont know about MK early hour, and I heard AK saturday morning hour isn't worth it and we might as well just go another day... Oh and MGM has an early hour Tuesday but we aren't sur eif that's worth it either since MGM is smaller park... I guess we could do ToT quicker though.

I enjoy hopping because I can....depending on the time of year you go hopping is a great advantage because MK can get very very crowded...In times like this we hit MK at EMH and just as the really big crowds hit 12pm we leave for lunch and a swim and the later in the afternoon go to Epcot or MGM.

We are headed to WDW next week for Easter. If you went that time of year without a hopper you might run into trouble if you entired a park and left then tried to return to the same park and it was closed...you would not be able to enter a different park because you didn't have a hopper option...and the hopper option is only like $35 not too much extra money for most folks...

 

[zurgswife]

Who got through MK in 1 hour? That's all you spent there?

If you do a 1/2 day in the park does that mean you do several 1/2 days in the same park or do you just do 1/2 in the park and that's it?

What are the benefits of doing 1/2 days and splitting it up rather than do it all the same day?

Like why do for example: MK & MGM in day 1, then AK and MK in day 2, then Epcot & MGM in day 3, etc... why not just do MK in Day 1, MGM in Day 2, AK in Day 3, etc... Maybe it's just me , and don't get me wrong I do have energy but I don't see the efficiency if switching all the time...

I guess I also don't see the point in going to the park at 8AM, doing stuff for only 1-2 hours and leaving to take a nap, then going back to the same park at 4Pm and saying all night... Maybe it's different with kids since they need a break??? I mean if you ride the bus, why not just sleep in and go to the park at noon and stay all night... ok it's crowded in mid-day but at least you dont' have to stop the day, go back to the hotel, then come back out again.

WE do it because I enjoy a break to swim at the pool or do some shopping. MK gets very crowded after 12pm most days so we do it in the early AM then head back to the Boardwalk for lunch and go to MGM or Epcot for the afternoon...If it is MGM or Epcot that has EMH we also do it so we don't have to have huge waits for ToT, RnRC or Test Track, MS.

 

[Luckymommyx2]

We plan to take advantage of both early mornings and extra evening hours! I think it's probably most important to us to utilize it in MK. I'm anxious to try the extra evening hours since this will be a first for us!

 

[mhingher]

We did all the evening EMH except for AK on our trip 3/5-3/12. Although the crowds were low and we really got to do most of what we wanted during the day, we really enjoyed it and I would definitely recommend it. I'm sure it's much better in the more crowded times when the lines are longer during the day (we never had to wait more than 20 minutes!)

 

[jtdl]

We tried the EMH evening at MK and it was extremely crowded. We were able to ride Aladdin's Carpet, Haunted Mansion, TeaCups and Pirates during the 3 hours! We returned to MK the next day, which was not EMH, and the crowd was about the same as it was the EMH hours. We were there Feb 6- 12 and the entire place was very crowded. I would say if you're going during a busy period (or a slow period which turns out to be extremely busy!) stay away from the EMH parks. If you go during an uncrowded time, maybe the EMH would work out better.

 

[EsmeraldaX]

We're poor .. can't afford hopper tickets

Only have 1 day hopper left from previous ticket...

Also how much hopping do people usually do? Do you hop everyday or just a couple times during your trip?

Since this is the first time as a couple and as "grown ups" out of college, would it be safe just for us to do one thing at a time??? That way next time we go at some point in the future we'll have a better idea?

Just curious, by not getting a park hopper ticket, do you mean you will be buying 1 day tickets to each park/each day? If so, that might be more costly in the long run.