Extra Magic Hour Question

[stormi65]

We are going to WDW in late July and wondering if the crowds will be some great if doing the extra magic hour, especially in the morning is worth it? We are supposing we could bounce in the park in the morning and then high tail it out at mid day. A guide book I am reading suggests to AVOID going into a park that is ofering extra magic hours on that day because of the enormous crowds.


Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[Robo]

We are going to WDW in late July and wondering if the crowds will be some great if doing the extra magic hour, especially in the morning is worth it? We are supposing we could bounce in the park in the morning and then high tail it out at mid day. A guide book I am reading suggests to AVOID going into a park that is ofering extra magic hours on that day because of the enormous crowds.


Any thoughts or suggestions?

Each EMH experience can be different.

I always go to AM EMH (virtually every day of the trip
that we did not do a PM EMH late the night before)...
never ONCE regretted an AM EMH... they are amazingly
empty and easy to ride the open attractions.
If that park THEN starts to fill 2 to 3 hours later...
Were happy with "doing" that park for the day and we
can HOP elsewhere or do lunch and take a rest until
later.

PM EMH's are a mixed bag. I've been when they were
PACKED... but on other nights (sometimes within the
same trip), the crowds were basically so low that it
was like "free rides" on all the open attractions.

Those who have attended PM EMH's and say that "they
are TOO CROWDED" are right... but ONLY for the nights
they may have attended.
I can say, from personal experience, that they CAN be
EMPTY, or FULL or somewhere IN-BETWEEN for attendance,
often within the same week.

On our most recent late-April trip from WDW,
we went to PM EMH at AK on a Wed night and PM EMH at MK
on a Sun night.
The EMH's were so EMPTY that we could have stayed on many attractions and ridden around and around.
This included Splash, BTM, and Pirates (and many more) at
MK, and Exp. Everest, Kali, and Dinosaur at AK. And
the crowds during the DAY at these parks were very
LARGE... within the first hour of EMH, they simply
"evaporated."

But, it can change so much (either way), that saying
it was "like X" on a given night, can be meaningless
on another night in the same time-period. So, you
simply don't KNOW unless you go. Its similar to saying
that you attended on a given night and it rained, so
guests should never go on that night because it will
probably be rainy.

The rule seems to be, it is far easier for guests to
STAY UP at the end of the day, than it is for them to
GET UP at the start of the day.

But, considering EMH's are FREE to attend... if its
busy, just people-watch or hit the exit (where ELSE
are ya gonna go at 10pm, anyway?)
But if its not busy... you're ALL SET for EXTRA FUN!

 

[Deb & Bill]

EMH in the morning is a good thing. Crowds are less and you can do lots of attractions multiple times. I did Buzz Lightyear four times in a row before the line really got long and even then it was only 15 minutes.

By 11AM, lines are getting very long and crowds are swarming into the park. That's about the time we leave.

Evening EMH is a different story. Crowds can get bad (not usually so bad at AK, though), especially at MK. But if you stay until the end, it starts to empty out a bit.

 

[3rd star on theright]

During our Trip last July, we only did one PM EMH, and sent almost the whole time in line for Soarin...

But The morning EMH was great for us.

The best was going on every ride in Tomorrow land before the park opened to others. We had Fast passes for Stitch but ended up giving them to another family.

Worst part is the getting up.

We did AM EMH at MGM and only went on one ride but we stoped and sat at staring rolls for Muffins and coffee/juice.

It is such a differnt feeling being in the park when it is near empty. It is relaxing.

Dennis

 

[Robo]

During our Trip last July, we only did one PM EMH, and sent almost the whole time in line for Soarin...

But The morning EMH was great for us.

The best was going on every ride in Tomorrow land before the park opened to others. We had Fast passes for Stitch but ended up giving them to another family.

Worst part is the getting up.

We did AM EMH at MGM and only went on one ride but we stoped and sat at staring rolls for Muffins and coffee/juice.

It is such a differnt feeling being in the park when it is near empty. It is relaxing.

Dennis

to posting on the DISboards!!

 

[Max Rebo]

My experience having visited WDW June 4-9 was that the parks were pretty much going to be swamped by 11 a.m., EMH or not.

By utilizing EMH, you get an extra hour of prime touring in before the masses arrive. Morning EMH were a winner for us.

Question for Robo: Do you have that response saved in another document so you can simply paste it in every time this question comes up?

 

[Bev J]

Morning EMH are great if you want to get an early start and get lots of the bigger rides done before lines get crazy! Plus only resort guests are in the parks using this option.
Evening EMH- forget it....the parks are so crowded. The Fastpass's are gone so you will spend alot of time waiting in a line. People who are not resort guests stay in the parks making it even more crowded.
Our experience with Epcot this week was that even though it was after 9:30 CM's were still letting everyone into the rides did not matter if you had the bracelet or not. MGM was very crowded and even though there were 2 Fantasmic, when it let out the park was wall to wall.
Go to a park that does not have late EMH and you will be better off....

Bev

 

[Howellsy]

We went in August last year, and the PM EMH were very badly crowded - every resort guest seemed to have crowded into Magic Kingdom on one of the nights!
The AM EMH were very good though; MGM was espeically good

 

[loganmoore]

I say definately go in the morning, we went to Magic Kingdom one morning and rode, haunted mansion, space mountain, big thunder mountain railroad twice, all in about an hour.

 

[Robo]

I say definately go in the morning, we went to Magic Kingdom one morning and rode, haunted mansion, space mountain, big thunder mountain railroad twice, all in about an hour.

Just to clarify.

The only attractions open for EMH (Extra Magic Hours) at MK are the ones in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland (and for Little Ones EMH, just Fantasyland.)

But, I agree, that even on a regualar (non-EMH) morning... the earlier, the better.

 

[loganmoore]

I'm sorry if my post was confusing or misleading, I can see how it would be after re-reading it. What I meant was that we went on a morning when it was NOT an EMH and we were able to ride all of these very quickly, now granted we may have just hit it on a good day, but it was during sprink break. So I figured that a morning EMH would be the way to go.

 

[Robo]

Question for Robo: Do you have that response saved in another document so you can simply paste it in every time this question comes up?

I've been waiting for someone to ask me this question.

Yes, its my "How EMH Works" document.

I have many such "canned" responses.

They are written and revised over the course of many, many posts... and questions and answer interactions.

Every time I would post an answer about a general subject (in this case, EMH) I might get a further question about something that was not spelled out in my first answer.
So, I'd revise and add that info to my "canned" response on the subject.
After a while these L-O-N-G responses become so complete that they address nearly every question about the subject that has come up on these boards.

I also figure if these same QUESTIONS get asked, over-and-over, I could simply RESPOND to each new one in kind.

It might make for some boring reading for the old pros on the boards (you can always skip by when you see one,) but the newbies can read all the info that the "former-newbies" helped create.

 

[Max Rebo]

It might make for some boring reading for the old pros on the boards (you can always skip by when you see one,) but the newbies can read all the info that the "former-newbies" helped create.

As a semi-former-newbie, I can say that I've always appreciated your many helpful answers.

 

[Robo]

As a semi-former-newbie, I can say that I've always appreciated your many helpful answers.

Why, thank you for saying so!!

 

[stormi65]

Thank you for all the responses. We have never been to WDW in July before. Am trying to maximize our experiences as much as possible.

 

[loganmoore]

Robo,

I've got to say that I admire your patience and appreciate you doing this. I am sure that it becomes a very mundane task. I am a member of a Christmas lighting forum, and I have been for almost 9 years. About 2 years ago when the Wizards in Winter video appeared on the internet. The traffic to the forum increased greatly, we had a flood of newbies and many issues came from the influx of new members. Mainly the old timers such as my self, getting their feathers ruffled by someone who was overly aggressive and didn't know exactly what they were talking about YET.

Thanks Again

 

[DisneyJen0504]

Like many of the previous posters, we take advantage of the morning emh, leave the park at noon for a midday break, then back to a non emh park for the evening.

 

[Bojo]

On previous trips, we have taken advantage of EMH morning hours and found them to be worthwhile. However, on our most recent trip we found that the morning EMH parks were very crowded as opposed to the light crowds at the other parks (remember YMMV). I agree that the evening EMH parks are very, very crowded and try to avoid them.

 

[sunee]

I prefer morning EMHs to evening ones. But they are getting harder and harder for me to work in.

I pretty much end up not using this perk now and am thinking about staying offsite in slower months.