Extra Magic Hours Opinions

[Pearle1]

Hello all - not sure if I am posting in the right section - but here goes - I am looking for feedback or opinions on what you all think of the EMH. I have never stayed on site before and am so excited about my upcoming trip Nov9th - Nov 16th. How do you think the EMH are at that time of year and do you like to use them??

Our flight got changed to later in the day which means we probably will not arrive until after 4pm Sunday Nov 9th. I see that MK has EMH that night and am thinking of going after we check in. Any thoughts on EMH evenings on a Sunday at MK - any feedback is much appreciated!! Thanks! :>)

Kristy

 

[CapnJacksGirl]

I think it makes it way more crowded, so I avoid EMH, but if you're just going to pop in when you arrive and aren't trying to accomplish a certain number of things, give it a try! It is kind of cool to be at MK late at night. Evening EMH doesn't seem to be as bad as morning EMH anyway. You couldn't get me to do morning EMH on a bet!

 

[KJ Luvs Pluto]

And I have loved the morning EMH's. We get so much done and it doesn't seem crowded at all - of course this is in the slower season. By the time the crowds get there, we have done the things that lines build for later in the day and we can slow down and take our time for the rest of the day.

 

[briarrose]

I have to disagree with the other poster. I think late EMH are very crowded. We tried doing the evening hours at MGM studios and the lines were an hour long and during the day that had been 20 minutes. Early morning are nice if you get there when the park opens. We have done Space mountain numerous times in the first hour and primeval whirl we had to ourselves while my Dh was getting fast passses for Everest. We didn't even have to get off the ride. The Cm just asked again? AK may not have been early hours for that.

 

[travelin' tigger]

Hello all - not sure if I am posting in the right section - but here goes - I am looking for feedback or opinions on what you all think of the EMH. I have never stayed on site before and am so excited about my upcoming trip Nov9th - Nov 16th. How do you think the EMH are at that time of year and do you like to use them??

We will also be there Nov. 8-16th!! I'm a big fan of morning EMHs - I get so much accomplished before the gates are opened to outside guests. We get there right at rope drop and usually leave that park just before lunch when the crowds really pour in. Not a fan of night EMHs - usually find them just too crowded!!

Here's our EMH plans:
Sunday night: will check out late EMH at MK since it's our 1st day on property. Want to catch Wishes at 9pm and the later Spectro at 10. If we find it too crowded after, we'll just head back to the room.
Monday morning: Definitely doing AK EMH at 8am. There's also a night EMH at DHS, but I think we'll just save that for the next morning.
Tuesday morning: Will be at DHS at 8am and heading straight to Toy Story Mania to finally get on it. Will stay there until our lunch at Prime-Time.
Wednesday night: Plan to do AK EMH from 5-8pm. Love this park at night and hoping it's not too crowded!!
Friday night: Plan to check out Epcot but won't stay too late as I'm attending the Super Soap Weekend early the next morning.

We'll be at OKW until Friday, then off property. Let me know if you're interested in meeting up!!

 

[Mushamagic]

I agree that morning EMH are the best. They started giving out extra fastpasses during the evening EMH last time we were at Hollywood Studios so that kept us from standing in line at Rockin Roller Coaster for an hour. MK handles EMH evenings a little better than the other parks so go for it and have fun.

 

[khertz]

We really didn't take full advantage of the morning EMH, and usually got there about a half an hour into it. We did to the evening EMH at MK one night and found it to be very low crowds, and we rode everything numerous times (except Peter Pan, that was the only ride with a long wait all night). We did go at a very slow time though (1st week in October), so that probably had a lot to do with it. I'd imagine going at a busier time of year would mean there were more people in resorts trying to take advantage of the extra time in the parks, making them more crowded.

 

[HGD24]

DH and I did night time EMH's at both MK and Epcot last year in mid-May. MK was not busy at all. We walked on every ride. Epcot had long waits for the usual, Soarin' and Test Track, but other than that, the park seemed somewhat empty.

 

[Nie0214]

I went Sept 5-9th, and the parks themselves weren't busy for most of my stay.

I would advocate Morning EMH though. We went to a few, and being there right when the gates open meant we got everything done quickly! We did all of Fantasy Land in 45 minutes! (That includes watching Philharmagic which is a 10 minute show!) It was a blast. We left around 11AM to hang out at the hotel / Downtown Disney and people were crowding in because that's when they were waking up / done with breakfast etc.

The EMH Morning for AK, we did the Safari and Expedition Everest 4 times, saw the exhibits and we strolled around the rest of the time.

If you aren't a morning person, you'll probably hate it. I set our room alarm clock to 6:30-7AM during most of our stay.

 

[thepwa]

I would not miss an EMH if at all possible. For one thing, I feel like one of the big reasons I stay on property is to have this kind of access, so to not do it is, to me, a waste.

Morning EHS's are essential and the better of the two. Nighttime EMH's can be croweded, yes, but we still get a ton of things done.

 

[kimsuenew]

Hello all - not sure if I am posting in the right section - but here goes - I am looking for feedback or opinions on what you all think of the EMH. I have never stayed on site before and am so excited about my upcoming trip Nov9th - Nov 16th. How do you think the EMH are at that time of year and do you like to use them??

Our flight got changed to later in the day which means we probably will not arrive until after 4pm Sunday Nov 9th. I see that MK has EMH that night and am thinking of going after we check in. Any thoughts on EMH evenings on a Sunday at MK - any feedback is much appreciated!! Thanks! :>)

Kristy

Last year was our first trip and I planned according to the EMH hours daily with the exception of two days only. Never again! It seemed that everyone else had the same idea as we did and it was quite busy!

We just got back from trip number two this week, and never went to a EMH (am or pm)! It was much better!

We do not have "park hoppers"... perhaps if you did have them, spent the day at a non EMH park and then went to the EMH park after your park closed it would not be bad.

Whichever way you choose to plan, we hope that your trip is absolutely magical!

 

[Big Kid]

We went in early November 2006 and used morning EMH at Hollywood Studios (then Disney-MGM Studios) to ride Tower of Terror three times and Rock 'n' Roller Coaster twice in the first hour with no lines in the beginning and only five-minute lines by the end. The park did fill up by lunchtime and the queues for those two thrillers grew to at least an hour.

It seemed to us that many people who plan to go to morning EMH parks don't actually get there in time to take advantage of it. If we found ourselves heading out of the hotel unable to make the whole hour of morning EMH, I would switch to a different park.

We tried an evening EMH at Epcot after a morning in the MK, and found it to be too crowded to truly enjoy.

Have a great trip!

 

[luvmikids]

leaving in 17 days! We plan on using EMH for am not pm. Hope the crowds won't be too bad during our trip

 

[mfd25wife]

I love both the am and pm ones. I was't sure how it worked, but figured out the wristband thing quickly. Find out where they are giving them out and get in line a little early. We were able to get on rides quicker since so many waited until right before the park "closed" to get them. I have an autoimmune disease and I get sick if I get too hot for too long. I like going to the am EMH and then going to my resort for early afternoon to swim or rest. Then we go back to eat and enjoy the EMH at the park later. By doing it this way, I don't get sick and don't feel like I wasted my tickets.

 

[rt2dz]

There are a few theories on EMH. One says they bring crowds to the parks they are offered at. I agree with that in the AM hours. Lots of people forego the hopper option so those staying onsite have to go to the park all day for the EMH and then when other guests come in the parks get crowded. Guests without the hopper option who want to use the PM EMH have to do the same thing. However, guests with small children tend to not do the PM hopper hours as long, if at all, in a lot of cases, so they skip that park that day and then there are people who avoid EMH parks because of the crowds.

If you hop out mid-morning, I don’t think AM hours crowds are a big deal. Even less of a big deal if you do PM hours since it is 3 hours long and only onsite guests who are willing to stay up later. I also don’t think they are necessary during slower periods of time, like the beginning of November.

Personally, I’m not an AM EMH person. It seems like a lot of work to get there early for just one hour. I do find the PM hours to be really worth it since it is so much longer.

BTW, they have been testing doing away with the wrist band and check your room key at every ride.

 

[blondietink]

We always try to attend both EMH's whenever we can. However, with the new policy about not issuing wristbands at the evening EMH's I suspect that it will get very crowded. I hope I am wrong. For morning EMH's you have to show your resort ID to get into the park, so it should still be slow. We can sometimes get on 3 or 4 big rides before the park opens to regular guests so it is really worth getting up early.

 

[Sorahana]

From working there, EMH traffic varies depending on what time of the year you go.
During the slow months, its pretty quiet at EMHs. During the busy months, it does feel more crowded during EMH then during the day at times.

We did the room key trial at our ride once when I was working. It was so much harder then just checking for wristbands. Because a lot of people didn't have their room keys on them and it slowed the lines down a bit too. Also we didn't know that Swan and Dolphin room keys were different looking then the other WDW Resort keys. (They gave us room key guide cards the first time we tried to do it thank goodness).

I personally like wristbands better, but then the con of them is making sure you get one before EMH starts and the people distributing them are gone =(.

As for AM vs PM EMH, I like PM EMH better. We've (meaning the family) probably only done AM EMH once or twice, we usually like going to PM (at Hollywood Studios mainly) when we go.

AM EMH is good for families with younger kids. PM is good for families with kids a little older/kids that can stay up later.

 

[seadd67]

Were all for the EMH were there at the morining emh rope drops and at night(we try ) close out the night emh.We see it as another oppertunity to take in as much Disney as possiple. Crowded ya It Is and the Morining seems a bit easyer to get to at frist. Its really how much you can take of the crowads? Its WDW your not just going to escape the crowads have fun

 

[nnapoles]

We went this past Friday night to Epcot and it was great. No lines, not crowded and great weather it was perfect !!! We could even enjoy the Food and Wine festival it was not crowded at all. I wish I could go back Getting home sick

 

[HansLeuschner]

We used the morning EMH a couple of times and tried a few others, but by the time we got going, had breakfast, it was normal park opening time.

We've never done the evening EMH. Both my wife and daughter (2yrs once and 4yrs another time) are asleep by that time.

To me it seems EMH in the evening are prefect for teenagers. (although I have no experience to back that up)