EMH worth it?

[marriedmarylander]

If you left and returned to the same park, what does that mean it may be closed? Full? Do parks get full?

 

[oogieboogie]

Parks can close if they're full to capacity. These typically only happen during the extreme holidays, like Christmas & New Years Eve. Other than that I think you'll be fine.

As far as park hopping goes, we don't like to stay in one park the whole day. We like to break up the day and move from one park to the next. We've done all 4 parks in one day before spending a couple hours here, a couple hours there.

The EMH that we usually do is MK, because it has the most rides open during EMH. In the morning EMH we can get all lands done by 11:30 or 12:00pm at which point the crowds start to come in. Then we get out, eat lunch at one of the resorts, back to the hotel for a nap/swim, then to another park for the evening.

Since usually we go during value season, we need to do EMH in order to maximize the times we're in the park. When the park hours are shortened, it makes no sense to waste time by standing in line. EMH lets us go on the rides we want with short wait times or no wait times at all. For example, on morning EMHs at MK, we head to Buzz Lightyear first. Well, we can do 5-6 rides back to back before we even see a line forming. It's the greatest thing.

 

[marriedmarylander]

Is there a webpage that shows the average wait times for popular rides during certain times of the year? I found the site (TouringPlans) that shows in general the crowds at the parks - which is only a 3 for all the days we will be there... that site also said to avoid EMH days (maybe they were mainly talking to the non-resort guests who can't take advantage?).

 

[ladydancer]

This trip I plan on going to the park that had the xtra evening hrs. the night before. My thought is everyone is either still in bed early in the morning and they just did that park the night before so they will go to another park.

 

[MAACdisney]

every since my family and i have learned about EMH we go all the time! its totally worth it and there are barely any waits!!!

 

[nataliesdaddy]

Is there a webpage that shows the average wait times for popular rides during certain times of the year? I found the site (TouringPlans) that shows in general the crowds at the parks - which is only a 3 for all the days we will be there... that site also said to avoid EMH days (maybe they were mainly talking to the non-resort guests who can't take advantage?).

Yeah I thought that the "avoid EMH park" was meant for only non resort guests. But then I bought the "unofficial guide" and from what I read it is pretty clear it is speaking to both resort and non resort guests ... that both should avoid EMH. Because once the gates open for the general public on an EMH morning you get a double whammy...first there are more resort guests in the park and then there is the onslaught of non resort guests. So the remainder of the day is overcrowded in contrast and the remainder of the day is less productive then going to another non EMH parjk that will have a more even crowd flow for the day.

That being said, we have doen EMH mornings in the past and I thought it a good resort perk. This year we are going to try the Unofficial Guide advice and see how it works.

Assuming we still get to do this vacation - looks like we may not

 

[marriedmarylander]

Assuming we still get to do this vacation - looks like we may not

I hope you still get to go!

 

[nataliesdaddy]

I hope you still get to go!

thanks -

 

[goofy4tink]

We always try t do the EMH in MK and sometimes in MGM and Epcot. AK isn't such a big deal for us. The evening hrs are going to be terrific I think. We tried to get one E-night in per summer trip.

We do park hop though. We hit the EMH park, stay there until lunch-time and then head back to our resort and swim. Then back to a different park late afternoon/early evening. But, we found that this works for us since we have been to WDW many times now and we know what we want to do the most. Some days we just amble around and don't mind so much what we get to do. But for those of you that are traveling to WDW for the first time, I think most would agree that you are better off staying in one park for the majority of the day.

 

[mybgirl]

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.

MY DS AND I HOPE DO THE SAME

TAKE CARE

MARY

 

[Nuts4DVC]

I have always done EMH mornings and the worked like a charm! BUT, during busy times the book says to avoid those perks like the plague! They all sleep in during the holidays and come in like droves around 11am, making the park VERY crowded. This year during our holiday trip we are avoiding EMH parks in the morning and not doing the parks that have EMH mornings. I will let ya know how it goes!

 

[megrod74]

We have not yet tried the evening EMH's. We use the morning EMH all the time. However, if you cannot get there close to park opening, don't go to the park with morning EMH. The same goes for the park with evening EMH - if you don't plan to stay for that, avoid that park that day. IMO, if you aren't going to park hop, then avoid the park with EMH (am or pm) for that day. You don't want to get stuck there and have it be too crowded for your tastes.

Have fun!

 

[marriedmarylander]

You have a point about the park hopping. We chose not to get park hopping. Yeah it's $35 more dollars or something like that, but we figured we can do one park each day rather than hop to one than the other and do the same ones the next day. We are fine with being in one place.

I'm curious to see actually how crowded the parks with EMH will be during mid-May. I heard crowds are still pretty light during this time anyway. Plus we've been to places with a big crowd and waited in line for 3 hours each ride , so if the park isn't like that we'll be okay...

Anyone have feedback about going to AK with an extra morning hour? Would it be good to go and get the safari done in the morning or as long as we get there at park opening on a normal day we should be okay. I just want to see some animal and not ride thought it and see nothing ...

 

[oogieboogie]

It seems the animals are more active in the morning or late afternoon when it's not so hot out. So, I would do morning EMH at AK for the safari.

Mid-May isn't a very crowded time to go. We went last year around May 15-20th and we never waited more than 20 minutes for any ride. Combine that with Fastpasses and you'll be set. I would never wait more than 30 minutes for any ride. That's the good thing about Fastpasses.

Since you're not doing park hoppers, I would go in to the morning EMH park then get out during mid-day and eat lunch outside of the park - eat at one of the resorts. Then you can go back in to the same park later and you'd avoid the mad crush of people waiting to eat lunch at the same time.

 

[CLEO Z]

As I look through the posts it seems as though there are two categories of responses:

A. Used EMHs and love them. OR
B. Unofficial Guide says to avoid them and we are going to try it.

No one seems to be saying that they agree with the UnGuide based upon experience. I particularly enjoy EMH at MK (both AM and PM). Like many others I do EMH parks in the AM, then lunch and rest/swim and then hop to another park. Of course we go in July when it is insane to stand in the heat of the afternoon in a packed park. In '00 my 10 yr old niece and I did E-Night (now EMH PM) at MK and loooooooved it.

Another consideration is whether you are with preschoolers/young elementary age kids. MGM doesn't look worth the early AM bc we won't be doing ToT or RRRC. Check the open attractions lists b4 making up your mind.

 

[marriedmarylander]

Thanks guys. Since we are just two adults the EMH at MK isn't for us. Due to our scheduling - I wish we had more time we are going to do MGM on arrival day. If we don't have enough time and need to go back, we'll go back after we went to a water park. I guess I am worrying about this too much considering during the time we go it shouldn't be that crowded - 30 minutes for a ride really is not that long and manageable.

Technically we have 1-day left from an old ticket which is a park hopper. The only time we'll use it if we end up going to MGM twice... and I guess then we won't really be hopping Oh well. Maybe I should just save the ticket and upgrade my ticket to one more day (which only cost a couple extra bucks).

 

[GarrettJD]

WE usually avoid the EMH as we go during June. Our usual plan is to do whichever park has EMH the day after. We did this last year-- we went to Disney-MGM the day after a morning EMH. We got to the bus stop about 8:00 and we were the only two on our bus over to Disney-MGM, while there were about 50 people waiting for the bus to the EMH park. This seemed crazy to us, as they had already missed the first part of EMH anyway!

We haven't done any evening EMHs yet, but we plan on doing at least the MK one on our upcoming trip just to try it out.