Extra Magic Hours vs. non-EMH park?

[jillandvaughn]

We have always planned our park visits according to which has extra magic hours that day. We've always felt it worked very well, but have noticed that some planners recommend going to a non-Extra Magic Hour park, as the majority of hotel guests do as we do, and those are the parks that become the most crowded for the day.
Any opinions out there? (laughed out loud as I typed that !)

 

[Robo]

We have always planned our park visits according to which has extra magic hours that day. We've always felt it worked very well, but have noticed that some planners recommend going to a non-Extra Magic Hour park, as the majority of hotel guests do as we do, and those are the parks that become the most crowded for the day.
Any opinions out there? (laughed out loud as I typed that !)

We always do AM EMH.
If that park begins to fill up a couple of hours later, we "Hop" to another park.

 

[Moonwolf]

I say to going to the EMH park or not depends on the family if it's worth it.

Most planning sites don't recommend it because they are trying to give the best option for the largest number of people. A larger majority of guests are off-site they won't be able to take advantage of EMH. It also wouldn't be worth it for those that are eligible but can't wake up for an early rope drop during early EMH or can't stay up for the late night EMH.

Personally my last few times visiting I've stayed on-site and went from park open to close. We love going to EMH parks. We hit rides during the mornings and evenings and use FP+ and do high capacity attractions during the busiest parts of the day. I know EMH are not for everyone but if you can make them work for you then go ahead and enjoy the extra hours.

 

[Mikie]

We are not good at getting ourselves out of bed on vacation (or any time) and never used to get hoppers. Therefore we avoided EMH parks and felt the crowd levels at other parks matched the tour guide planner predictions. If we were earlier risers OR could stay out to the end of night EMH (we'll be trying on our next trip!) AND have hoppers to give us flexibility, I'd totally go against the guides and head to the EMH park.

 

[strat68]

If we do EMH we would plan to hit rope drop while making FP+ reservations at a second park to which we will hop. Best of both worlds. Not sure we'll ever get up that early though. With FP+ we don't plan on always hitting rope drop (sleep in) or go later after we've done something else like Disney Springs or Kennedy Space Center.

 

[loves to dive]

I go against all recommendations and just go to whatever park I'm in the mood for. If it's morning EMH and I'm up, I might go to that. I always have hoppers, which makes it easier to go on the fly.

 

[tlmadden73]

I'd say the only reason to avoid a park on EMH days is if you aren't going to utilize them. Sure, it may be more crowded during the day, but doesn't using the EMH (and all you can get done during that time) make up for it?

 

[Skywise]

At its best EMH will give you 2-3 more rides and less if they're far apart from each other (EG Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean) (obviously more if you're doing Dumbo or the teacups but I'm thinking the bigger rides. )

Generally EMH goes to the bottom of my list for planning unless I'm seriously packing the schedule for a newbie to hit as many rides as possible or if I'm trying to do something like breakfast at MK where that can affect timing/crowds (in that case I'm not "using" the EMH but I'm aware of when it's happening to hit a better window for breakfast timing or if I absolutely want to get into the park before it's officially open.)

The only time I REALLY like to use it is when I'm by myself and trying to squeeze in one last space mountain and get some night photography in a (mostly) empty park.

 

[Robo]

At its best EMH will give you 2-3 more rides and less if they're far apart from each other (EG Space Mountain and Pirates of the Caribbean) (obviously more if you're doing Dumbo or the teacups but I'm thinking the bigger rides. )

(Pirates of the Caribbean is not an AM EMH attraction.)

Most guests can ride a LOT of attractions during AM EMH.
We have been able to ride 4-6 Fantasyland attractions, plus 3-4 Tomorrowland attractions DURING the AM EMH, and we can keep going for about the first hour of regular hours time.
(When Pirates of the Caribbean IS open.)

 

[Silvermist999]

On our first few trips we avoided the EMH (AM or PM) based on crowd calendars. However, on our last trip we decided to check out MK during a PM EMH (last night of our trip) and we really enjoyed it, it wasn't that crowded to us, in fact it seemed like the opposite. It also helped that we got in on the soft opening for SDMT that night too, lol. I wouldn't do AM EMH because we barely make it for rope drop on regular days, but we are looking forward to PM EMH this upcoming trip.