How Crowded Have the Evening EMH Been?

[Tigger&Belle]

My DD and I will be at WDW in 9 days, but who's counting????

How crowded have the evening EMH been? We plan on going to all but the AK EMH. When I went this time last year I think I only went to MGM for EMH and it was fairly crowded considering how cold it was.

 

[nluvwithmickey]

Never been to EMH evenings. I was hoping to try them out next week in hopes of low crowds. I was really looking forward to giving them a try.


Anyone can answer?

 

[eblack0409]

I would love to know this too...DH and I will be celebrating our 1st Anniversary at WDW in May, and would like to get as many park hours in as possible, but I really don't want to have to fight my way onto rides or even around the parks....

How crowded are EMHs?

 

[momto2]

We just got back last night. Friday night was EMH at Epcot. We were hoping for a few times on Soarin'. At 11:20 at night (the park closed at midnight) there was still a 40 minute wait for Soarin'. I really don't think the crowds were down. However, in nine days, things could be different. We have found in the past at MK EMH, the last hour is usually pretty good with reasonable lines.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Thanks Momto2!

I read on another thread that this last week has been fairly busy overall so hopefully crowds will be a lot slower when I'm there.

How were crowds during the day? Amazing that there was a 40 minute wait for Soarin' so late at night.

 

[Amy&Dan]

I think that EMH at Epcot is always a disappointment because there isn't enough to do so even minimal crowds will seem heavy once they all exit from World Showcase into Future World. Ditto with MGM, since their regular hours end with Fantasmic usually and then everybody exits right smack dab near TOT and RNRC which is what everybody is there late to do anyway. I do like EMH at MK however because there is more to do so even large crowds just disperse more. My experience doing EMH in January, April, October and December 2005 are that Fantasyland is the most crowded at first. Even as late as midnight you can still have a 40 minute wait at Peter Pan and Dumbo for instance. Small World is usually much better because it is such fastloading ride. Tomorrowland also seems to stay crowded for much of the EMH time frame. So we have learned to start our EMH time doing Frontierland and Adventureland. We generally are able to ride Splash Mountain with no wait (I would imagine this does not hold true in the hotter summer months however) as well as no waits on Pirates and maybe a short 10-15 minute wait on Big Thunder Mountain. Then towards the latter part of the evening we head back into Fantasyland abd Tomorrowland and find that much of the crowd has departed. After all small children can only take so much right? I will tell you that on December 30 my family did the EMH at MK from 1:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m and it was wonderful! We rode Peter Pan at 3:00 o'clock in the morning if you can believe that and could have ridden it again without getting off if they would have told us just a split second sooner. At around 2:30 we did Indy Speedway, again, just walking on the ride. At 3:58 we sped through the que of Space Mountain and were some of the last people to get on it.

I think doing EMH is like everthing else you do at WDW, you have to go with an open minded attitude of "lets see what we can do" and go from there. It can still be very crowded at first but it does start to die down especially for those later ones. But after several attempts we no longer mess with MGM or Epcot's EMH's. Also, we don't go to any EMH park during the day but come in after EMH has already started and we have had a break. And to the OP I would think that in 9 days you should have some good, uncrowded days and nights except maybe for MLK weekend (I think your visit may overlap that weekend maybe?).

 

[Tigger&Belle]

Hmmm, now I'm wondering if we should reevaluate and skip the Epcot EMH. We'll probably still go to MGM since it's our first night and it's our favorite park, but I don't know that I want to go to Epcot if it's going to be too crowded to even ride anything without a long wait. Also, when we're going to be there Test Track will be closed, so that means even longer lines for the other rides.

 

[Amy&Dan]

Hmmm, now I'm wondering if we should reevaluate and skip the Epcot EMH. We'll probably still go to MGM since it's our first night and it's our favorite park, but I don't know that I want to go to Epcot if it's going to be too crowded to even ride anything without a long wait. Also, when we're going to be there Test Track will be closed, so that means even longer lines for the other rides.

Yes you might want to rethink this one! When we did EMH last February in Epcot, Test Track was down for most of the evening and my husband won't do Mission Space so our options were limited (this was pre Soarin). Now with Test Track definitely down for your visit, I would think Soarin would be even a longer line than usual. And while we were somewhat disappointed that TOT and RNRC never thinned out during EMH we still had fun seeing Voyage of the Little Mermaid and a few other things in that area plus shopping and just enjoying the atmosphere of MGM.

 

[Straitlover]

I was at the evening EMH at MGM on Sun 12/11. We went mainly to see the Osborne Lights. It was crowded right at the front, but that was because it was just starting so there were a lot of people leaving the park. Once you got up to where the tip board was, it was great! We never made it over to ToT or RnRC because we were coming back the next day and we were tired. We hung out at the hat for a little bit because they had a stage set up w/ a DJ and a dance area (don't know if they do this all the time or if it was just for the holidays). There were a few characters out for authographs, too. Crowds were non-existant. Then we headed over to the Lights. It was a little more crowded, but not much. We took the long way back around by Muppets, and it was basically empty there, too. We did do Muppets so we wouldn't need to do it the next day. A show started right before we got there, so we had to wait a few minutes. When we got in, I believe the theater was at most a third full. We were even able to sit in the middle of the row w/ no problems. We had moved down when we came in but moved back since it was so empty.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

I'm happy to be in MGM just to soak up the atmosphere even if it's crowded. Hopefully I can go on ToT a couple times and maybe catch a show or 2. Are the street performers out during EMH at MGM?

 

[dep7418]

This might not be the right place to ask this question but here goes; shoud a person stay away from the parks that are offering EMH if they are not able to take advantage of it. We are staying off disney from 03-01-06 to 03-08-06. I was thinking the parks that offer it are busier than nomal...this will be our first trip with our 6yo daughter..

thanks

 

[Tigger&Belle]

This might not be the right place to ask this question but here goes; shoud a person stay away from the parks that are offering EMH if they are not able to take advantage of it. We are staying off disney from 03-01-06 to 03-08-06. I was thinking the parks that offer it are busier than nomal...this will be our first trip with our 6yo daughter..

thanks

I would only go to the EMH park if I was going to take advantage of the extra hours. If you're not able to or don't choose to, I would suggest going to a different park that day. That's always been true, but even more so now since not all tickets are hopper tickets and people are less able to hop from park to park.

 

[striker3636]

We found that going to the parks on EMH days were busier, especially after 11 am. Based on this and what we've read, we plan to avoid EMH days if we can. We went to AK on one, not realizing, and it was sooooo busy! And this was "low season". Our kids are 4 & 6, and I don't plan to stay til the wee hours with them!

 

[Skroops]

I'm happy to be in MGM just to soak up the atmosphere even if it's crowded. Hopefully I can go on ToT a couple times and maybe catch a show or 2. Are the street performers out during EMH at MGM?

We went at the end of November, and though the crowds were low generally, the EMH really called everyone out from the resorts! It was pretty crowded for the EMH, but seriously, where else would we go? It was awesome to be out and enjoy the late night park! We didn't ride very many rides but we hung out and enjoyed the atmosphere. As long as you don't expect too much, you'll have a great time!

I forgot to look for the street performers at MGM during EMH!