Emh

[soos]

Today is the day I found this forum, and I am overwhelmed! Now that I have figured out what EMH stands for, how do you find out which parks have"EE" on which days? I am planning essentially my first trip to Disney in April and I am still very clueless. I went once, but it was 15 yrs ago.
thanks for the help!

 

[cleo]

Welcome to the DIS, soos!! We're so glad you joined us.

Here is a link to Extra Magic Hour information: EMH

If you go to the DIS home page, you'll find more information than any one person can assimilate, and the boards are an excellent resource for all of your more specific questions. You'll feel like a Disney Pro by the time your travel dates arrive.

 

[soos]

thank you! I am bleary eyed from surfing all the information. I guess I will be avoiding the parks with EE since we are staying outside the Park!!
Thanks again....

 

[Micca]

You're catching on already Welcome to the Dis, Soos

 

[WilliamsMom]

Hello,

I know exactly how you feel. W just got back 2/22 and I found the day to day strategic planning to be stressful and
overwhelming. Here is my advice...

1. Get to the parks when they open or earlier.
2. Follow the Unofficial Guide touring plans. I took the mini plans to the park with us and my skeptical husband found out how well they worked. We saw all our "must sees" and avoided lines even during President's week.
3. Don't go crazy making priority seating reservations for meals. These boards made me feel like if I didn't have PS every day I'd be waiting forever to eat. I made 2 reservations and otherwise we ate counter service or walked in to several sit down restaurants with no more than a 10 minute wait.
4. Take water bottles or OJ into the parks as well as snacks. It saves $ plus gives everyone an energy boost at a much needed moment. Or if the line is long keeps the kiddies happy.
5. Take a break around 2 or 3pm and head back to the hotel for a break or swim. Then head back to the parks for an evening event. We did 3 evening events (Fantasmic at MGM,
Spectromagic & Wishes (Light parade and Fireworks at MK) and Illuminations at Epcot. My favorites were the first two if you can't make all three.

Hope this is helpful. My son is 8 years old and my husband & I just returned from a magical week! Of course my son's favorite times were simply playing in the pool!

 

[lentesta]

Hi WilliamsMom,

Glad to hear the touring plans worked for you. Which plans did you follow in each park?

Sincerely,

Len

 

[soos]

I just ordered the unofficial guide online. popular concensus seems to be it is definately worth it. I am travelling with my DH (boy I learned the lingo fast!) and 14 yo DD. Naturally I have to do all the preliminary planning, but I have told them both I will need their input at some point. Apparently visiting WDW is one of the few vacations that you DON'T want to "play by ear". We have only booked one PS- for the Rose and Crown, to watch illuminations (7:30), but now I am getting the idea that the food is not all that great, so I am not sure. My DH says we must eat at Emerils one night, since he has been there and loves it. Since we all want to go to Universal, thats ok.
My next debate revolves around tickets. We may not have more than 2 days at WDW, so I debated 2 one day passes, but that is very limiting. I think it depends on if I can come up with a 3 day hopper (Avis?) and how much it is.
Thanks for all the input so far!! seems to be my new hobby, checking this site every day!!

 

[Efastpitch]

bump

 

[MaryKatesMom]

I just got the 2004 Unofficial Guide for Valentines day. It is an upgrade from the 2002. I love the touring plan's. My sister is going in March and I'm trying to convince her to follow them also.

You'll notice everywhere in the parks are people with maps out wasting precious time deciding where to go. Not so with the touring plan! You move from one attraction to the other at your own pace. (Nowhere does it say to run ) freeing you up to enjoy the park.

I usually am by myself with my two DD's and I don't want to be distracted from keeping an eye on them so if I have down where I'm going that is just one less thing to worry about.

Hope I explained why I love those plans!!

 

[WilliamsMom]

I used the 2004 guide. I used the one day touring plan for each park except MK. For MK we used the two day plan although I thought day 2 looked more fun so we did that as day one. For day 2 we inserted my son's favorites from day 1 which were Splash and Big Thunder. He really wanted to ride Buzz again but we didn't make it there because we left around 3pm in order to come back for Spectro and Wishes.

It really is the best advice to take an afternoon break. The only park we didn't was AK.

Like I said in previous posts due to the success of the guide we only waited in line 15-20 minutes with our longest wait at Mickey's Philharmonic for 40 minutes and this was during President's Week.

Thanks Len for all your work in producing the guide.

 

[tinkie]

And so another addiction begins!!!!

I love these boards!!!! DH thinks I'm for all of the time I spend here, but once you get the bug, you can't help it! Welcome

 

[lentesta]

Thanks WilliamsMom and MaryKatesMom. We're constantly working on ways to improve the plans, so if there's ever anything we can help with, let me know.

Sincerely,

Len Testa