Extra Magic Hours - yay or nay?

[lily2521]

Trying to plan out our upcoming trip. We'll be there May 17-21. This is only our 2nd time there and last time we only had 2 short days, so we're new to the Disney planning.

We will have 5 full days there, so we are planning 3 park days at MK, Animal, and Epcot. Not much at Hollywood is for us so we're going to skip that one this time. We are getting a 4 day pass, we'll either visit another park on the extra day, or take a day off and make it a pool day. We also want to do a day at Sea World.

My question is, because we’re only planning 3 days, I’m trying to decide if scheduling around the EMH is worth it or not? Magic Kingdom of course is at the top of our list, but their extra hours aren’t offered until the last day we’re there. So I know we’ll be going to MK on a day that doesn’t offer the extra hours because I don't want to wait until our last day there to go to MK, and if we do decide go back to a certain park on our extra day I'm guessing it would be MK.

Based on the dates we're going too, the extra hours are only morning hours, so I'm not sure if it's worth the extra morning hour or not? It's not peak season, so I'm wondering if avoiding the parks with the extra hours might be a better strategy crowd-wise, or would the extra morning hour be worth it for us? And...what time would we have to wake up to get transport to the park in time for the extra opening hour? We're early risers, but not exactly early and rush out the door risers if that makes sense.

But, wondering if I should schedule Epcot and AK around the extra hours, or not worry about the extra hours, and just go on the days that seem to fit our schedule best, maybe avoiding the extra hours, and possibly avoiding bigger crowds?

Any advice here helps, as you can tell I'm rambling. Just trying to strategize as best we can.

 

[Bob P]

Hi and to the DIS!

If you do a search on this board you will find many threads on this topic. Here is one:

http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=3265032&highlight=extra+magic+hours


Suffice it to say that this is a topic where DIS-ers are split. Some people (including our family) love them, and others will avoid them. I don't think you'll get a consensus, but enjoy your trip!

 

[lily2521]

Hi and to the DIS!

If you do a search on this board you will find many threads on this topic.


Suffice it to say that this is a topic where DIS-ers are split. Some people (including our family) love them, and others will avoid them. I don't think you'll get a consensus, but enjoy your trip!

Thanks for linking that post - very helpful! Our travel agent is trying to schedule everything Around EMH’s, but I’m not fully convinced that's best for us - Especially with MK’s extra hours being our last day. I know for sure we’ll have to do MK on a non-extra hours day based on our schedule alone. It’s Epcot and AK I’m trying to decide on.

 

[lily2521]

One more question, how do I know what park is recommended for each day we're there, based on crowds? I've seen some people here mention a 'recommended park for each day' but I don't know how to find that information? That's something I would probably like to take into consideration. Thanks!

 

[kataEbi]

One more question, how do I know what park is recommended for each day we're there, based on crowds? I've seen some people here mention a 'recommended park for each day' but I don't know how to find that information? That's something I would probably like to take into consideration. Thanks!

Again here, you'll find split thoughts on which crowd calendar is best... as well as whether or not to take the recommended or not as well. Hah..

Here are links to the May calendars at EasyWDW and UndercoverTourist, two of the more popular options.

http://www.easywdw.com/category/calendar/05-may-2015-crowd-calendar/

https://www.undercovertourist.com/orlando/crowd-calendar/may-2015/#calendar

---Side opinion note:
That time is between a pair or StarWars weekends, so as much as I do like HS.. if the fam isnt into HS and/or StarWars, you're probably alright skipping it that time of year.

 

[lily2521]

Again here, you'll find split thoughts on which crowd calendar is best... as well as whether or not to take the recommended or not as well. Hah..

Here are links to the May calendars at EasyWDW and UndercoverTourist, two of the more popular options.

---Side opinion note:
That time is between a pair or StarWars weekends, so as much as I do like HS.. if the fam isnt into HS and/or StarWars, you're probably alright skipping it that time of year.

Thanks for the links - very helpful!

Not StarWars fans, so this only confirms we're okay skipping HS. We went last time, and after about 3-4 hours found there just wasn't much there for us. Daughter can't do Rockin Rollercoaster, Tower of Terror is a big nope, can't pay me to go on that one. The Disney Junior stuff was cute, but didn't take much of our day. Highlight was Toy Story ride for us

 

[kwdw]

While I LOVE morning EMH at MK, I don't plan my trips around EMH in the morning at AK or EPCOT.

At both AK and EPCOT - as long as I have a few key FPs+ (Safari at AK and Soarin at EPCOT, I do TT single rider)- arrival time doesn't seem to matter much for me. Now - you can't do everything in one day at either of those parks - so the extra time might be nice - but I don't think in terms of line waiting time the EMH is that helpful.

I do like EMH in the morning at MK - but IMO - if you are going to do that - you HAVE to be there before rope drop for EMH to really take advantage of the couple of quieter hours you'll have in the morning. And you need a rough plan going into it. You can typically ride several rides over in Fantasyland without a wait during EMH in the morning. Then - hit other key rides in the park later in the day as it gets busy with your FPs+.

I agree it's hard to leave MK until your last day, though!

 

[lily2521]

While I LOVE morning EMH at MK, I don't plan my trips around EMH in the morning at AK or EPCOT.

At both AK and EPCOT - as long as I have a few key FPs+ (Safari at AK and Soarin at EPCOT, I do TT single rider)- arrival time doesn't seem to matter much for me. Now - you can't do everything in one day at either of those parks - so the extra time might be nice - but I don't think in terms of line waiting time the EMH is that helpful.

I do like EMH in the morning at MK - but IMO - if you are going to do that - you HAVE to be there before rope drop for EMH to really take advantage of the couple of quieter hours you'll have in the morning. And you need a rough plan going into it. You can typically ride several rides over in Fantasyland without a wait during EMH in the morning. Then - hit other key rides in the park later in the day as it gets busy with your FPs+.

I agree it's hard to leave MK until your last day, though!

Since MK's EMH's are on our last day, we could use our free day to do MK earlier in the week on a non-early day, and go again on our last day to take advantage of the early hours and hit up anything we missed the first time - I just planned that out as I typed it, perfect!

 

[Julylady]

It sounds like you might have smaller kids with you. When I have traveled with teens, the evening EMHs worked well for us. We would take a longer afternoon break and then close down the parks. This plan worked particularly well in the summer to avoid the mid day heat.

However, with grade school kids in tow, we find it better to avoid EMH for all parks except the Magic Kingdom (morning). The extra hour of sleep in the morning is important to overall stamina for a whole week of touring. Kids sleep until 7:30am, dress/breakfast, leave for park at 8:30am to make 9am rope drop. We take breaks most days and then stay at the parks until about 9pm. We are back in hotel and in bed by 10:30pm. This touring plan allows us all to get a full 8 hours of sleep each night!

The exception is the Magic Kingdom. We always try to make at least one morning EMH for rides in Fantasyland.

 

[lily2521]

It sounds like you might have smaller kids with you. When I have traveled with teens, the evening EMHs worked well for us. We would take a longer afternoon break and then close down the parks. This plan worked particularly well in the summer to avoid the mid day heat.

However, with grade school kids in tow, we find it better to avoid EMH for all parks except the Magic Kingdom (morning). The extra hour of sleep in the morning is important to overall stamina for a whole week of touring. Kids sleep until 7:30am, dress/breakfast, leave for park at 8:30am to make 9am rope drop. We take breaks most days and then stay at the parks until about 9pm. We are back in hotel and in bed by 10:30pm. This touring plan allows us all to get a full 8 hours of sleep each night!

The exception is the Magic Kingdom. We always try to make at least one morning EMH for rides in Fantasyland.

Correct, grade-schoolers. And we're not doing the hopper, so we'll do 1 park per day, open-close with a possible break depending on how the day goes. Plus I noticed for the days we're there, the only EMH's are mornings with the exception of HS which we aren't planning on doing anyway. So maybe based on what I'm seeing here we'll do MK 2 days, 1 of them being the EMH day, and the rest we'll avoid the EMH's.

 

[nighttowll]

I think the first thing to figure out is are you ok with getting up really early. Here is an estimate of how early you would need to get up to make rope drop for an EMH day.

9:00 – regular opening
8:00 – EMH official opening
7:45 – Park unofficially opens
7:15 -7:45 – Arrive, walk from bus entrance, go through security, bag check, enter park
6:30-7:30 – Travel time to park on bus
6:15-7:00 – Leave room, walk to bus stop, wait for bus
5:15 -6:30 – Get up and ready, eat breakfast

If regular opening is 9:00. EMH will officially start at 8:00, but I’d plan on them letting you in closer to 7:45. This means you want to be there by 7:30 if not earlier. I usually shoot for 30-45 minutes before park opening, and then when we are running late we actually make it by official opening. This would put you arriving at 7:15-7:30. To do that, I’d try to be out the door heading to the bus stop no later than 6:30 to give myself an hour total travel time. 15 minutes to get to and from the bus stops. 15 to wait for the bus. 30 minutes for the actual ride. These are average times. It may take you or less or more time. Sometimes it may take 30+ minutes alone for the bus you need to come by. On the other hand, your room could be beside the bus stop, the bus could come just as you walk up, and the park could only be 15 minutes away. I’d look at travel times from hotel to park before you plan how early to get up. Now, let’s add about an hour to get dressed and ready and have breakfast, and that puts you getting up about 5:15-5:30. This is for an 8:00am EMH. For a 7:00am EMH, you would need to get up even earlier.

Will it always take that long? No. If you were staying at a hotel within walking or monorail distance of a park, you planned on eating breakfast in the parks, and you are a person who gets up and ready fast, you could wake up at 7:00, throw on some clothes, and easily be at the park before 8. Also, having a car will cut down on travel time as well, allowing you to sleep a little later. Only you know how long it will take to get everybody up and going in the morning.

Now, if you think you all can handle getting up in the morning, than I would say that EMH in the morning are worth it. I know it only seems like one hour, but you would be surprised how much you can get done in that hour. In the past with some planning, I have easily been able to do 6-10 rides in the first hour alone. Later in the day, without a FP, I would have been looking at only doing 1-4 of those same rides in the same hour. I can normally do about the same number of rides in the morning before 11:00 as I can do the entire rest of the day.

However, when it comes to evening EMH, I don’t feel you really get the same benefit. More people take advantage of those because staying out late is easy when you are sleeping in on vacation. Evening hours always seem more crowded to me with average to long lines until you get past midnight as most families don't tend to leave until between 10-12. I have definately not seen the walk-on benefit I find in the morning.

Another factor to take into consideration is the specific park and which attractions are open during EMH. Not all attractions are open, so if the attractions that are open don’t appeal to your family, then it may not be worth going at all. Also, some parks only have a few attractions open; whereas, others have many more. To me, MK is always worth EMH because so much is open, and it is such a large park to begin with that any extra time is appreciated and usually needed. However, at some of the other parks, I don’t always find the EMH as useful because there aren’t enough attractions open that I really want to see or that I couldn’t do on a none EMH day to begin with.

 

[lily2521]

I think the first thing to figure out is are you ok with getting up really early. Here is an estimate of how early you would need to get up to make rope drop for an EMH day.

9:00 – regular opening
8:00 – EMH official opening
7:45 – Park unofficially opens
7:15 -7:45 – Arrive, walk from bus entrance, go through security, bag check, enter park
6:30-7:30 – Travel time to park on bus
6:15-7:00 – Leave room, walk to bus stop, wait for bus
5:15 -6:30 – Get up and ready, eat breakfast

Based on this alone it makes me realize that yep, the extra hours might not be for us. I don't want to be waking up a kid who will in turn be tired later because they didn't get enough sleep. Plus, for us to get up and out the door in an hour, with breakfast is probably unrealistic. We will have our car there, but we might still be using Disney transportation system regardless.

 

[nighttowll]

Remember, it is only an estimate. Lots of people will report getting up later and still making EMH. You don't have to arrive before the park officially opens either. It is just what I suggest. You could get there 10 after if you wanted.

The best way to see how early you need to actually get up is to do the math yourself.

Welcome to Disney Algebra.

E - (A+B+C+D) = Wake up time

A = time to get ready
B = time to and from bus stops (estimate 10 minutes)
C = time spent waiting for bus (estimate 15 minutes)
D = time spent traveling to the park from your hotel (there are guide books and websites that list the exact travel time for you)
E = *time you want to arrive at the park

* If you want to be at the front of the crowd, plan 45 to 60 min early. There by actual opening, plan 30 to 15 min early. There right at or after opening time, plan 15 before to 0 min. Also, when deciding keep in mind that it will take about 10-15 mins to get through security / bag check, the gates, and to your first attraction. So if you arrive at the parks at 8:15, you probably won't get to your first ride until closer to 8:30. If they opened the park early, you may have just missed an hour worth of touring, and there may already be lines for some of the super popular attractions like Soarin' and TSM. But that is a worst case scenario. I've arrived right at or after park opening before and still managed walk-ons to under 10 minutes waits for most attractions. It is really only those major headliners you need to worry about like A&E. If you are trying for those you need to be first in line at rope drop, for everything else, it doesn't really matter.

 

[JennyDrake]

I always for YES for morning EMH as you can get so much done. Evening EMH is mixed bag. They can be very crowded, but also offer extended hours to enjoy.