Extra Magic Hours or Extra Tragic Hours?

[Saralyn]

Also a lot of what I have read is that if you want to truly take advantage of the EMH, then you should "AVOID" the parks with EMH on the day they are offered as they tend to be busier with folks taking "Advantage" of it, however the other parks then tend to have lesser crowds, thus shorter lines. THEN the day after a park had EMH is the day to visit it, because many folks don't do the same park 2 days in a row (so lesser crowds) AND they are probably visiting a different park with EMH that day.

So while EMH may be an advantage for some to Go to the parks, it might be a bigger advantage to avoid the EMH parks that day. Either way, I don't stay on property because of EMH. It is nice, however, to know that if we wanted to take advantage of it we could. We stay on Property (at Fort Wilderness) for other conveniences, mostly location and transportation.

I agree 100%. Since we are not going to be there at rope drop to use the morning EMH, I make sure to avoid the park that has them that day since morning EMH just means that the lines get longer earlier.

 

[TheFuriFamily]

We are about to take our very first family vacation and we're headed to WDW! We're staying at AKL and I'm especially interested in the EMH (though we didn't stay on property for this, it will certainly help with my early risers!!!

 

[peg110]

We are about to take our very first family vacation and we're headed to WDW! We're staying at AKL and I'm especially interested in the EMH (though we didn't stay on property for this, it will certainly help with my early risers!!!

If you can take advantage of it, Kudo's for you. Like I said in an earlier post, however, I don't think you should have an expectation of smaller crowds. I think the expectation should be longer hours to enjoy the park (either earlier start time or later closing time).

 

[xipetotec]

This morning my article "Extra Magic Hours or Extra Tragic Hours?" was published on The DIS! I noticed a lot of comments were suggesting that I was being negative etc. and I thought a discussion here on the boards would allow people to understand where I am coming from! I am an annual passholder from Southern Illinois and tour the parks several times a year. I have always loved EMH and worked my way around the parks to take full advantage of these hours. My last trip,in September 2014, I realized that EMH were changing in a way I did not like. As stated in my article, Anna & Elsa changed the morning operations at Magic Kingdom. This made my morning EMH...less magical. The lines to get your MagicBands scanned were also quite long for popular attractions due to the cast members having to scan each and every guest's band. It took 30+ seconds for the iPhone's to read the bands and determine if the guest was staying on Disney property. After a while of waiting at SDMT one CM decided it was taking too much time and completely stopped scanning all together and allowed everyone onto the ride without being scanned. I completely understand why this CM was getting frustrated and made that decision, however, it sort of rubbed me the wrong way. If there are guests staying on Disney property, they should recieve the EMH perk. This means guests not staying on property should not be able to have access to this perk. This was the night "Extra Tragic" came to mind. I hope they have figured out a more efficient way to scan MB's for my next trip in May. This went on nearly everyday of our trip that we visited during EMH. Keep in mind this was mid to the end of September (lighter crowds for WDW). This was also a 2 week long vacation, so I had plenty of time to feel out the situation. Will I continue to visit during EMH? OF COURSE! My main point was that you shouldn't expect the parks to be empty for Extra Magic Hours. Questions, comments etc. I would love to hear your input! Thanks!

We plan everything around EMH.

That is to say we avoid parks with MORNING EMH as we find they get very crowded.

BUT we also make sure to attend parks with EVENING EMH because we *love* the parks at night. So the more night, the better.

 

[daphnehdz108]

It made a big difference for our April trip. We went to MK early and left around 2 to hang out at the resort. We went back later and stayed late. We were able to catch Wishes and ride our favorites a second time with little wait time in the evening.

 

[MidgeD79]

Our entire trip is based on morning emh and we use them every day that they are available. Not only do we find the crowds much smaller, it is the coolest part of the day during the summer.

 

[joannamet]

We stay on property for the magic and convenience but we stick to our own schedule for park visits. We've never used EMH and never regretted it.

That said, you make some valid points and I appreciate your observations.

 

[wdw4lif]

We don't stay onsite for EMH, and honestly, we've only done EMH one time and didn't even stay for very long (it was awhile ago, though). This trip, however, we're taking advantage of it. They're both evening EMH so MK is open until midnight and Epcot open until 11pm. We're only doing 2 days/2 parks at WDW so we're taking advantage of it. Will we stay the entire time? That's yet to be determined depending on how it's going and how tired we are. For a normal week long vacation there, we probably wouldn't pay much attention or plan our trip around EMH.

 

[Luv0fDisney]

There are many benefits to staying on property and I think EMH are sometimes not worth it due to the crowds.
The other benefits of staying on property is that you don't have to worry about your luggage and you don't have to rent a rental car to get to and from the parks.