Extra Magic Hours - Do these make the parks more or less crowded?

[jenlw]

I have a friend planning a Disney trip this November (week before Thanksgiving). Can you tell me if a park is more or less crowded on Extra Magic Hour days? I'm trying to help her plan out which days she should spend at which parks, and I'm not sure how extra magic hours affect crowds. Also, how does the Christmas Party affect crowds? If they have a ticket to that will the park be really crowded at that time, or should I just avoid the park during the Christmas party? Thanks!

 

[redsbe]

If you read the detailed crowd calendar sites they make the argument that EMHs do impact crowd levels during those days, hence their common advice to avoid and visit another park on those days (which has been our approach for years). The "theory" is that by 1-2 hours after the park opens you have added EMH visitors, with RD crowds, plus the influx of the "regular" guest that tend to arrive by mid day. Yes EMHs (or RD on non-EMHs) can allow you to maximize your attractions via lower waits on major rides in the first 60-90 minutes so there is that value - then many people hop to another park to avoid the masses by noon.

 

[BrianL]

EMH will typically make a park MORE busy that day because the people staying at the resorts will generally choose to spend their day at the park they can have the most time in. However, if you are onsite, then the EMH hours themselves are great. Usually I will pair the EMH with a hopper so I can get away at the busiest times.

The Christmas Party will generally have the opposite effect. For most people that means a 7:00 PM close for the Magic Kingdom, so they will choose a different park that day that they can stay later in.

 

[yaya74]

how about on days when EMH is in the evening instead of in the morning? Will the park get busier in the evening??

 

[Alesia]

how about on days when EMH is in the evening instead of in the morning? Will the park get busier in the evening??

The park will be much busier than the other parks starting about noon.

 

[cjparker0110]

As others have already said, it typically increases attendance. The thing to remember is that not everyone gets hoppers. So people staying at WDW with no hoppers are going to be in that park all day. This is an automatic jump in attendance. It doesn't really matter if it is morning or evening hours. If you have hoppers then you can take advantage of those extra hours by hopping to another park during the busy times. I don't really use hoppers as I have memories of losing many hours of valuable time by jumping from one park to another as a teen/young adult...haha. That said, if I did use hoppers I would probably go to a low crowd park for most of the day and hop over later when the crowds start going down to an evening EMH park. I find extra hours in the evening more beneficial than 1 in the morning. Of course, I now have 4 kids so getting them up, fed and going in the morning can be a chore ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hours! I don't count on early morning for anything.

 

[yaya74]

As others have already said, it typically increases attendance. The thing to remember is that not everyone gets hoppers. So people staying at WDW with no hoppers are going to be in that park all day. This is an automatic jump in attendance. It doesn't really matter if it is morning or evening hours. If you have hoppers then you can take advantage of those extra hours by hopping to another park during the busy times. I don't really use hoppers as I have memories of losing many hours of valuable time by jumping from one park to another as a teen/young adult...haha. That said, if I did use hoppers I would probably go to a low crowd park for most of the day and hop over later when the crowds start going down to an evening EMH park. I find extra hours in the evening more beneficial than 1 in the morning. Of course, I now have 4 kids so getting them up, fed and going in the morning can be a chore ranging from 20 minutes to 2 hours! I don't count on early morning for anything.

thank you! I will only have one evening for Epcot. That morning we will be going to the water parks (kids LOVE water slides)... Then we will go to epcot for dinner and ride rides with FP+ that I get... I plan to go on a night when there is evening EMH at Epcot so we will have time to walk around the world show case if my kids can stay up until 10pm night, instead of leaving the park at 9pm... I hope I have made a good choice...

 

[cjparker0110]

thank you! I will only have one evening for Epcot. That morning we will be going to the water parks (kids LOVE water slides)... Then we will go to epcot for dinner and ride rides with FP+ that I get... I plan to go on a night when there is evening EMH at Epcot so we will have time to walk around the world show case if my kids can stay up until 10pm night, instead of leaving the park at 9pm... I hope I have made a good choice...

That definitely won't give you much time for Epcot. Definitely make sure you look ahead and plan what you want to do in advance. Definitely FP Soarin' as that always has an insane wait as it is...and will probably be much longer now with a new movie...even with the extra screen. That said, World Showcase can take quite a LONG time to walk through. I usually try to do 2 days in Epcot so I can do WS one day and FW another. Good luck!

 

[yaya74]

That definitely won't give you much time for Epcot. Definitely make sure you look ahead and plan what you want to do in advance. Definitely FP Soarin' as that always has an insane wait as it is...and will probably be much longer now with a new movie...even with the extra screen. That said, World Showcase can take quite a LONG time to walk through. I usually try to do 2 days in Epcot so I can do WS one day and FW another. Good luck!

I definitely know one evening is not enough for Epcot.. But my goal is not to ride everything in Epcot... just do SOME run rides (soarin, turtle talk, thing with nemo and friends, and if lucky enough test track), see Baymax, and walk around World Showcase if my kids (8 and 4) can stay up late. With that said, should I go on a night with or without EMH? We will get to Epcot around 4pm.

 

[cjparker0110]

It's kind of a tough call. The crowd level may start to taper off some toward the evening as non-resort guests leave. But it will probably have a large crowd. If you're main plan with WS is to walk around and not really do anything, you may be ok as long as you FP the other stuff that you need to do. Just make sure your FPs are in a logical order so you don't have to criss-cross the park over and over which can seriously cut into your time.