How bad are EMH when you’re off property?

[chirurgeon]

I’m pretty sure I won’t be back to Disneyland for a few years so I want this trip to be the Ultimate Christmas trip to Disneyland. How bad are EMH days when you aren’t staying on property? I’m trying to avoid them, but won’t be able to completely. And how do you edit thread titles? Stupid finger hit the wrong button.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

You can't tell the difference after the first hour or two.

Having said that, I usually rope drop at the non-EMH park to get the most bang for my rope drop buck.

Depending when you're going, though, they may offer EMH every day for both parks (they did that last year around Christmas), so that might not be an option for you.

At Disneyland, MM/EMH only includes Fantasyland and Tomorrowland, so if you head left (Adventureland or Frontierland, that whole side of the park), you're hitting it empty.

Hope that helps!

 

[disneymum58]

I have a related question. When DL has a 7 am Magic Morning and you don't have that, what time will they start letting people on to Main Street for a rope drop or are you held at the gate till exactly 8 am?

 

[mom2rtk]

I’m pretty sure I won’t be back to Disneyland for a few years so I want this trip to be the Ultimate Christmas trip to Disneyland. How bad are EMH days when you aren’t staying on property? I’m trying to avoid them, but won’t be able to completely. And how do you edit thread titles? Stupid finger hit the wrong button.

There should be a button in the upper right corner, near where the "watch thread" link is. It's something like "Thread options" I think.

 

[audrianna890]

I have a related question. When DL has a 7 am Magic Morning and you don't have that, what time will they start letting people on to Main Street for a rope drop or are you held at the gate till exactly 8 am?

I think it's 30 minutes prior.

 

[edhmom]

I think it's 30 minutes prior.

I was wondering the same thing for our upcoming trip. We're going to DL on a EMH day but aren't staying onsite.

Suzanne

 

[aymiewilson]

I have a question along this vein! How crowded does Extra Magic Hour at DCA get during a low season? I'm planning a trip where our park days are a Wed-Fri the last week of Jan/first week of Feb 2018. The park hours are only 10 am - 8 pm DCA, 10 am - 9 pm DLP. I was wanting to take advantage of a Morning Magic (we'll be buying 3 day park hoppers) to get an extra hour in at DLP.

I know that the conventional advice is to avoid DCA on its EMH day because the lines will already be so long for RSR (and now I'm assuming for Guardians too). So... is our best bet to just hop over to DCA after we enjoy the 1 hour in DLP? We ARE planning to get MaxPass, so maybe that will help? I'd heard people saying you can reserve your DCA FP once you scan your ticket and enter DLP for Morning Magic Hour, even though DCA wouldn't be open for another hour. Anyone know if that's the case?

 

[smartlabelprint]

I have a question along this vein! How crowded does Extra Magic Hour at DCA get during a low season? I'm planning a trip where our park days are a Wed-Fri the last week of Jan/first week of Feb 2018. The park hours are only 10 am - 8 pm DCA, 10 am - 9 pm DLP. I was wanting to take advantage of a Morning Magic (we'll be buying 3 day park hoppers) to get an extra hour in at DLP.

I know that the conventional advice is to avoid DCA on its EMH day because the lines will already be so long for RSR (and now I'm assuming for Guardians too). So... is our best bet to just hop over to DCA after we enjoy the 1 hour in DLP? We ARE planning to get MaxPass, so maybe that will help? I'd heard people saying you can reserve your DCA FP once you scan your ticket and enter DLP for Morning Magic Hour, even though DCA wouldn't be open for another hour. Anyone know if that's the case?

Yes. You can reserve a fp for either park as soon as you download the mp on your app.

I wouldn't avoid DCA on an emh day. If that's where you want to start-start.

 

[lindyv321]

I have a question along this vein! How crowded does Extra Magic Hour at DCA get during a low season? I'm planning a trip where our park days are a Wed-Fri the last week of Jan/first week of Feb 2018. The park hours are only 10 am - 8 pm DCA, 10 am - 9 pm DLP. I was wanting to take advantage of a Morning Magic (we'll be buying 3 day park hoppers) to get an extra hour in at DLP.

I know that the conventional advice is to avoid DCA on its EMH day because the lines will already be so long for RSR (and now I'm assuming for Guardians too). So... is our best bet to just hop over to DCA after we enjoy the 1 hour in DLP? We ARE planning to get MaxPass, so maybe that will help? I'd heard people saying you can reserve your DCA FP once you scan your ticket and enter DLP for Morning Magic Hour, even though DCA wouldn't be open for another hour. Anyone know if that's the case?

That is exactly what we did last year. We went to EME at DL then hopped to DCA and enjoyed low crowds there since a lot of people were stayed at DL

 

[KatieCharlotte]

My impressions with staying off-site with medium crowds (and every attraction open) -- Both of our DCA days were EMH, so I can't compare, but we found that crowds were actually very low during the first couple hours and manageable throughout the day. On our first day, we were able to get morning RSR fastpasses and then walk on TSMM and all Paradise Pier rides. On the second day, we arrived a little after regular rope drop, signed DD up for the first Avengers Training and got GotG FP for mid morning.

I think my impressions were partly based on the lower crowds and more wide-open spaces generally at DCA versus DL, but I would not stress about avoiding the post-EMH crowds at DCA.

At DL, on the other hand, our MM seemed to be incredibly crowded, and the crowds followed us all morning, despite our efforts to get ahead of the crowds. Every line took 2x or 3x longer than posted. I'm sure there were other factors that increased the crowds on that particular day, but I would second the advice to head toward Adventureland/Frontierland immediately if you rope-drop after a MM.

 

[Linkura]

9am MMs aren't worth it. They are a total zoo.

 

[tzeitel]

I have a question along this vein! How crowded does Extra Magic Hour at DCA get during a low season? I'm planning a trip where our park days are a Wed-Fri the last week of Jan/first week of Feb 2018. The park hours are only 10 am - 8 pm DCA, 10 am - 9 pm DLP. I was wanting to take advantage of a Morning Magic (we'll be buying 3 day park hoppers) to get an extra hour in at DLP.

I know that the conventional advice is to avoid DCA on its EMH day because the lines will already be so long for RSR (and now I'm assuming for Guardians too). So... is our best bet to just hop over to DCA after we enjoy the 1 hour in DLP? We ARE planning to get MaxPass, so maybe that will help? I'd heard people saying you can reserve your DCA FP once you scan your ticket and enter DLP for Morning Magic Hour, even though DCA wouldn't be open for another hour. Anyone know if that's the case?

We have gone to DCA a few times when they have EMH (and we don't), we travel midweek in May and in Oct. It really was not bad at all, there was a small crowd but nothing crazy. Once we got a FP for RSR (not running for it, we dont run ) and then walked back to Soarin' and rode it with a 15 minute wait. Another time we went straight to Soarin' and it was a walk-on (Soarin is really close to where they "hold" you) then went to RSR for the FP.

edit - I found a photo I took on one of the EMH at DCA. Everyone goes to the section closest to Carsland for RSR FP. The rope by Soarin' (on the right) had no one there.

 

[onlyoneash]

I agree, 9 am magic mornings are a nightmare. Plus, there is no off season anymore. Most off season days this year were busier than the summer "on season" days (besides grad nights of course)

My advise is to go on a week that MAY be a bit busier but has full park hours with a full entertainment schedule and less refurbs.

You actually end up getting more done because your earlier magic morning is way less crowded and the ability to stay later is nice AND disneyland will be fully staffed so the lines end up going faster AND less rides are down, so the crowds are dispersed better. My 2 cents.

 

[DisneyJade]

9am MMs aren't worth it. They are a total zoo.

I agree, 9 am magic mornings are a nightmare. Plus, there is no off season anymore. Most off season days this year were busier than the summer "on season" days (besides grad nights of course)

Thank you for this thread. I am glad to know this input in particular, though I'm sad to hear it. We are going at a time when magic morning is likely to be 9 am. We are staying off site so have only one early entry opportunity. Would you recommend just tossing it and going for the alternate park?

 

[Linkura]

Thank you for this thread. I am glad to know this input in particular, though I'm sad to hear it. We are going at a time when magic morning is likely to be 9 am. We are staying off site so have only one early entry opportunity. Would you recommend just tossing it and going for the alternate park?

Probably tbh. You could also just go at regular open and head to the non-MM lands to start.

 

[onlyoneash]

Probably tbh. You could also just go at regular open and head to the non-MM lands to start.

Agree. I know they say "never waste your MM". But this is an exception. There is no way I would ever do a 9am MM again....Unless you hit a day when it is raining or cold, then the park will probably slow no matter what you do.

 

[aymiewilson]

I agree, 9 am magic mornings are a nightmare. Plus, there is no off season anymore. Most off season days this year were busier than the summer "on season" days (besides grad nights of course)

My advise is to go on a week that MAY be a bit busier but has full park hours with a full entertainment schedule and less refurbs.

You actually end up getting more done because your earlier magic morning is way less crowded and the ability to stay later is nice AND disneyland will be fully staffed so the lines end up going faster AND less rides are down, so the crowds are dispersed better. My 2 cents.

Well... I picked the week based on the advice of my fave Disney bloggers They recommend late Jan/early Feb for good weather, low crowds, holiday overlays gone and the Lunar New Year Celebration. I'm not sure WHEN that's happening in 2018 though, so I probably will wait to book the hotel, etc. until that announcement is made.

I figure if we make our park days Wed-Fri, we'll have 2 emptier days and the last day will obviously be more crowded. That does make sense about 9 am magic mornings. I was only considering doing it because it would give us 1 extra hour in the parks on days when they're only open 10-8. But maybe it would be better to just sleep that extra hour.

I'm not THAT concerned about some rides being under refurb, because I'm already planning a return trip in mid-Nov 2018. I've never seen DLP at Christmas, and I wanna hit that up. I know THAT trip will have long hours, minimal refurbs and full entertainment schedules. This early 2018 one I was looking forward to being more relaxed, where we can sleep a bit later and feel okay not hitting EVERY ride and just focusing on ambiance, riding our favorites, etc.

 

[Linkura]

Well... I picked the week based on the advice of my fave Disney bloggers They recommend late Jan/early Feb for good weather, low crowds, holiday overlays gone and the Lunar New Year Celebration. I'm not sure WHEN that's happening in 2018 though, so I probably will wait to book the hotel, etc. until that announcement is made.

If you're talking about Disneytouristblog, they have a lot of good info, but there's a lot that's out of date. Especially when it comes to crowd levels at DLR. It's only really since the 60th that the rules have changed regarding crowds.

 

[aymiewilson]

If you're talking about Disneytouristblog, they have a lot of good info, but there's a lot that's out of date. Especially when it comes to crowd levels at DLR. It's only really since the 60th that the rules have changed regarding crowds.

They've even said that they are seeing crowd patterns changing.

I'll keep an eye on park hours and crowd calendar predictions before we book our hotel. We are somewhat dependent on hotel pricing for the week we choose because my aunt needs to use her Hilton points for the hotel.