marivaid said:
I'm really confused about this too. All the guides I've read, the DIS, and now TGM all say to avoid ALL the EMH.
You've got to remember the goal of those giving the advice : in the case of the sources you cite, the goal is generally to see as many attractions as possible with as little wait. That's a great goal, but it doesn't always apply to 100% of the vacation.
My personal EMH advice is a bit more balanced :
AM EMH's are great *IF* you get there early (before EMH begins), and *IF* you park hop or take a resort break as the day goes on. This is because of the odd but understandable fact that whatever park has EMH morning gets more crowded as the day goes on than it would on a non-EMH morning.
That seems counter-intuitive (I think someone asked this earlier in the thread), but it does make sense. What happens is (as many of us can attest) that people have the best intentions of getting the gang up early for AM EMH, but when they all actually try to get up and do it they just don't make it. This is why the largest crowds form at the entrance on EMH days around 10AM-11AM, when the EMH benefit is long over; people mark that day as their "MK DAY" or their "MGM DAY", and when they don't get up in time they still go because that was their designated day to be there. The best intentions bite them in the behind.
If you really get to an EMH (especially at the MK) early (like, at the turnstyles before they turn them on), you can do almost all the major attractions by lunch, while most people are just wandering into their first or second land. By major attractions, I'm talking : Pirates, Splash, BTM, Haunted Mansion, the Fantasyland dark rides, Space Mountain, and Buzz. It's incredibly easy to hit all of those between 8AM and noon or 1PM if you book it. Then you can relax while everyone else is trying to wait in the worst crowds of the day.
PM EMH is a "mixed bag", as others have said, in terms of ride lines, I'll agree. If that's your sole goal, it may not be the experience you expect. It's pretty unpredicatable, at least early in the evening. I find that especially when you go in the slower periods the parks close achingly early, so I just enjoy being in the park that late. And usually, by the last hour, many people have begun to leave and you can ride super-headliner attractions with little or not wait, repetitively. In the last hour of EMH before I've done things like ride Splash Mountain 5 times in a row, or 6 or 7 trips on RnR.
If you "work" EMH's, you really can use them to your advantage. Crowd levels can be decieving : there can be lots of people around, but that just means there are rides elsewhere in the park where people aren't that are just waiting to be ridden. That's the big advantage of the EMH, both AM and PM, really. The trick is to be where others aren't.
For AM EMH's, that means by the time everyone else is walking in at 9, 10, or 11AM, you are at the opposite end of the park. So even once they start riding in Fantasyland or Tomorrowland, you're already in Frontieerland and Liberty Square, where it remains slower until the new arrivals work their way around.
For PM EMH's, that means hanging out in the back of the parks as it gets later. Splash Mountain is a great example of that - not many people are in that area once 11PM or so hits. You can run back and forth between Splash and BTM on many slower nights at this time while everyone else is heading to the front of the park. At MGM PM EMH, Star Tours is often crazilly crowded when EMH begins because people are deep in the park and it's one of the closest EMH-open attractions. By the end of the night, you can often visit it (and Muppets, when it's open) practically by yourself. Remember : you don't have to be at the exit when they close. You can be at the absolute opposite end of the park (i.e., American Adventure at Epcot) when they close, and take your sweet time getting out. If you are staying on-site, it will give the busses time to clear out to boot.
Like most things, it really depends on how you want to spend your time...I think Robo put it best, though : it's 10PM, where else do you have to be? I'd rather be at least walking around a park, enjoying the atmosphere, even if I'm not doing tons of rides. I don't go to Pleasure Island or any of that, so it's either whatever park is open or the resort room watching TV. I know which one I pick, every time!
NED
