extra magic hours are they "worth" it?

[rjn1976]

Reading through some of the other posts the extra magic hours seem to be very busy. The unofficial guide even advises against going to the park that has the EMH on that day. One of the reasons we thought about staying "on-site" was to get the benefit of the EMH. I'm now wondering whether this is worthwhile or not? i.e. Are the EMH's so busy that it nullifies the benefit? Or should we go to a different park that day?

Thoughts most welcome.

P.S. We have five days at Disney at the end of July 2005.

 

[maleficent_man]

I imagine those with EMH in the morning (i.e. those with an actual extra magic hour) are busier for the duration of the day. I have been working on the basis of those parks will be busy but it will have an effect which is perhaps beyond the benefit of one hour in the morning. For the nighttime ones I have been working on the premise of it not being as bad an effect as in the morning plus it is for three hours. I won' know for sure until I try it myself but I can understand your concern.

Nick

 

[Celestine]

If you are on site, use EMH & then go to a different park.

EMH is good at MK if you have little ones as you can knock off most of fantasyland in that first hour, especially if Dumbo is do or die! At MGM you can pretty much do all 4 EMH attractions, but at AK the queue for kilimanjaro safaris was still about 15mins & we were there for opening & headed straight there. In part this is because there is only limited attractions open & it takes a while for the ride to get running to capacity. We also encountered numerous stops which were due to traffic etc. At Epcot it would be useful to knoeck off the headliner rides, especially if Soarin' is as busy as predicted. If you are off site, avoid the EMH park like the plague - try hitting the park that had EMH the day before. I've no idea about evening EMH as I've not been since this was introduced.

 

[Hilary]

extra magic hours are they "worth" it?

Yes, yes, yes!
The guide books normally recommend avoiding EMH parks if you can not take advantage of the EMH because, as Nick says, they tend to stay busy for the day. However, if you can use EMH and do all the big rides during that time, hop to another park for the rest of the day to avoid the crowds that will stay in the EMH park.

If your time in WDW is at the beginning of your trip, you'll find yourself awake early for the first few days, and EMH is the ideal way to spend those early hours! We haven't had a chance to try the evening EMH hours yet, but plan to do so in July when we visit.

 

[rjn1976]

For the nighttime ones I have been working on the premise of it not being as bad an effect as in the morning plus it is for three hours.

Yeah, that was my hope too, but reading through some of the posts on the "theme parks and strageties" board people seem to be saying that the evening extra magic hours are even busier than am EMH and normal daytime too.

 

[carolfoy]

I was wondering about this too as its my first year staying on site I thought that EMH was a brilliant idea now I'm not so sure, hopefully the 'too busy' reports have only been appertaining to those times that so far have been extra busy anyway ie easter hols, I'm still hoping its going to be better come november when crowds have eased off a bit anyway

 

[mdacko]

i have a dumb question....does EMH cost money if youre staying on site? last time we stayed on site (02) i feel like i had to purchase the wristband for extra evening hours, but i cant find anything on the DW site about it costing money now.

thanks

 

[Celestine]

mdacko - EMH is free, you just need your resort ID & valid theme park ticket, I think yuou are confusing this with Eride night which you paid for separately

 

[mdacko]

^^ youre right, thats what i was thinking of.

thanks for your help!

 

[Frances999]

I have read that the morning EMH are worth doing, but it is the 3 hour evening ones which are busiest. You can get so much done by getting to the park for opening or for the start of the morning EMH. With all the major attractions out of the way, plus a few fastpasses under your belt, it allows for less queueing and more rides! The crowds don't significantly build up until about 10am.