Extra Morning Hours - Is it Worth It?

[Chicoine]

I've been to WDW four times now, last being back in 2012....well before the new FP+ system and new attractions in several parks. In the past, I used a planning service called TourGuide Mike and one of the main planning principles he used was to avoid going to parks for Extra Morning Hours. The logic behind it was that everyone staying on site (30,000 hotel rooms) would all be going to that park strictly for that one extra hour of morning access, which would end up crowding up the park and making the extra hour useless by having more people there than would normally be.

I've always used this principle and not go to parks that have extra morning hours, but would go for Extra evening hours when available, and my plans have always been very efficient.

My plan is to continue to avoid parks with EMH's (at least not before early evening) and go to another park to avoid crowds.

I would like your opinion on this approach, and whether or not this concept still is sound advice given the restriction on FP's and addition of insanely popular attractions (FOP, SDD, 7DMT...etc).

 

[Disneypro1]

No, not at all! Always avoid parks with EMH if you can..They WILL be less busy than the ones with EMH. You will get more done and deal with less crowds if you do the parks when they don't have EMH's. We plan that was as advised by L.M. And it is 110% accurate.
Note: Im talking Extra MORNING hours...the evening ones are incredibly "un crowded" unless you are there in a really busy time of year.

 

[Disneypro1]

I've been to WDW four times now, last being back in 2012....well before the new FP+ system and new attractions in several parks. In the past, I used a planning service called TourGuide Mike and one of the main planning principles he used was to avoid going to parks for Extra Morning Hours. The logic behind it was that everyone staying on site (30,000 hotel rooms) would all be going to that park strictly for that one extra hour of morning access, which would end up crowding up the park and making the extra hour useless by having more people there than would normally be.

I've always used this principle and not go to parks that have extra morning hours, but would go for Extra evening hours when available, and my plans have always been very efficient.

My plan is to continue to avoid parks with EMH's (at least not before early evening) and go to another park to avoid crowds.

I would like your opinion on this approach, and whether or not this concept still is sound advice given the restriction on FP's and addition of insanely popular attractions (FOP, SDD, 7DMT...etc).

Yep, and you are 110% correct. Avoiding those parks is the absolute BEST way to avoid crowds. Folks will argue that (in vain) and i say let them. We know what's best!

 

[cakebaker]

The advice was to avoid them IF you stay off site. Some people believe they are worth it for on site guests. I only go to them if we're going to hop out of the park by noon.

 

[GeorgiaHoo]

Depends. If you intend to be at the park for rope drop at EMH then you can accomplish a lot, especially at Magic Kingdom and to a lesser extent Animal Kingdom. For instance, during morning EMH at Magic Kingdom we've been able to ride Space Mountain and Buzz several times, perhaps squeeze in Pooh, and then prior to park open walk over towards Frontier Land to be one of the first in line for Splash Mountain and Big Thunder. We'll then ride Splash, Big Thunder and perhaps Haunted Mansion before 11 a.m., then we can use our fastpasses or just head back to the resort for a break. But if you aren't going to be at the park prior to rope drop then you should probably skip a park with EMH, especially if you don't have fastpasses.

From my perspective it is important to keep in mind that everyone else who has the Internet (i.e., the World) is looking at crowd calendars and asking whether they should or should not attend morning EMH. So the advice that was great 10 years ago, and maybe even 5, isn't particularly great now.

 

[Disneypro1]

The advice was to avoid them IF you stay off site. Some people believe they are worth it for on site guests. I only go to them if we're going to hop out of the park by noon.

Not from LT or LM

 

[cakebaker]

Not from LT or LM

Don't know who or what LT or LM is, but the concensus on this board has always been to avoid EMH if you're off site and the best way to do it is to hop out of the park if you can if you're on site. Most of the websites I read confirm that.

We go to EMH mornings sometimes, but not for headliners. We ride secondary rides, hop from that park to an afternoon or evening park where we schedule fp's. We'll do a emh morning at the MK one day, then do the MK as an evening park with fp+ to ride headliners there another day. It's just how we do it, works for us. If we didn't hop, we'd never do EMH's, morning or evening.

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I think it's worth it! Especially since I remember getting 5 Fantasyland rides done before the non resort guests came in. Two of those five rides, we rode twice!

 

[GoDisney18]

We did EMH at Animal Kingdom last September and were able to ride Kali twice without even having to get off. It can be a good time to get in some favourite ''non headliners".