How do you use Extra Magic Hours

[Cyrano]

In past trips we have always followed the advice to stay well way from parks that have EMH since we stayed off-site.

Now that we are having our first trip onsite at OKW we are wondering if this should change?

How does EMH mornings and EMH evenings influence which parks you tour?

By the way this is for a end of June, beginning July trip to WDW?

 

[disneyholic family]

we always stay onsite, but we still avoid EMH, both morning and evening.

 

[General Panic]

We do mostly try and make use of the early morning access and work our days round which park opens early.

Never yet managed to stay awake long enough to use an evening one...yet.

This years trip i think we're just going to try early admission to AK and DHS for the popular rides in those 2 parks.

 

[orangetiggs]

Always use morning magic hours, last year didnt do evening ones as girls were a bit too young, maybe use them this year as we are a large group with hopefully some baby sitters!

 

[Nubbedy]

During our first week (when we are still waking early) we try to get all our rides etc done at least once so we aim for EMHs whenever possible. We stay in a park from 8am til about 1-2pm then return to the hotel for a swim etc, before returning to a park about 5-6pm. Don't do evening EMHs as the kids get too tired. During the second week, we are revisiting favourite rides, so are more chilled and then don't aim for EMH, but would not deliberately avoid them.

 

[jen_uk]

We use the morning EMH, its a good chance to do rides before the crowds build up. We go to MK EMH in the evening as in the summer it lasts till 2am and so quietens down a lot, we have never made it past midnight though! We have tried EMH in the eves at EPCOT and AK and both were heaving and not worth it.

 

[DISWolves]

Like others, we tend to do morning EMH and leave the park just after midday, for a few hours chill out time in the pool before heading off for our evening ADR.
Saying that I do have a picture of the clock in Main Street, showing 3:25 in the morning, but this was a one off!

 

[MrsSparrow..]

In the same situation as you. The family have always stayed off-site but this year will be first on-site. I'm set on the idea that we will still avoid EMH but maybe 'park hop' and visit the parks with EMH during EMH only and leave straight after.

I'm hoping this strategy will work as I can't stand the business of parks with EMH. Especially in the height of summer.

 

[irenep]

we always do the EMH in the mornings of the first week and then leave early afternoon to head back to the resort. Usually then relax or swim or go shopping before heading out for dinner or to a resort or non EMH park in the evening.
Have never yet managed to do an evening EMH as I can't cope with the jet-lag and much prefer to get up early to take advantage of the quieter times.

 

[steve_rob]

Our last trip was also our first on-site after years of off-site stays and we had the same dilemma. In the end we decided not to use the extra hours, morning or evening and I don't think we missed out.

All the guides we see about EMH's seem to suggest that as long as you're someone who always gets to the park for opening (which we are), then you can get easily just as much done without them, and if you are going to use them, then use park hopping to make sure you spend the rest of the day in another park which will be less crowded.

Now as we tend not to park hop, feeling that too much time is wasted travelling between parks (usually we don't even buy hopping tickets), it made sense just to stick to our usual plans and avoid the EMH's and try to pick what the guides were saying should be the least crowded park each day instead.

The only one I might be tempted to do would be a morning EMH in Hollywood Studios, and that's just for Toy Story Mania. Even then, by getting there for opening, we got FP's for 10:15 and then queued in the regular line for just 20 minutes, so it wasn't that bad.

 

[cooks]

We nearly always avoid as its always really busy every time we have tried.

Cooks

 

[Tinkerbellgal]

We've used both, the early morning EMH when I was a younger and when I didn't want to still be up at 1/2 in the morning, but on our last trip we did an evening EMH and managed to stay until park closing, and I think it's worth it. We got tons of things done in the evening EMH that we usually wouldn't have done. I think it just depends what rides etc you want to do while you are there.

 

[~Piglet~]

We've used the morning EMH's in our previous trips (both in May) and use the time to do our 'must do' rides of the day it's nice to go into a park before a build up of crowds, although we are always up and out early every day come to think of it, who want's to lie in when you're at Disney?!

 

[Cyrano]

Thanks folks seems like the consensus is towards EMH mornings in the first week.
I think we might give that a try.

 

[ChipnDaleRule]

I have found this site http://www.easywdw.com/calendar/may-2012-disney-world-crowd-calendar/ a great tool in planning our park visits

 

[wideeyes]

We do the Early ones, and found them useful, especially at MK. However never done a Evening one as they are usually to late for my daughter. We did go to epcot on an late one (but didn't end up staying for the extra hours) and it was packed as we were leaving.

 

[stephensmum]

Tend to do am ones the first week or so. DS likes the evening one at MK, we usually do it once, but it is very crowded so we tend to go around midnight. This year going to try what Wayne & gang do, which is to go late & stay late, we'd have a lay in the next day though.

 

[izzie-wizzie]

I found evening EMH in both DHS and MK to be exceptionally busy and this is where we encountered the most crouds when we were away Sept/October last year.

I do love the atmosphere in both parks late night though so I think next time we go, if we do go to parks for evening EMH it will be for atmosphere only as the queues were crazy!

 

[chmurf]

definitely go for morning EMH and arrive at least 30 minutes prior to opening time.
Most guests will be reluctant to get up early, especially if there has been evening EMH the night before. Loads of guests will also have character breakfast and such, hence they wont be in lines for rides. So your morning extra hour will enable to you to do much more while the crowds will hit the park at around 10am

Avoid evening EMH at (almost) all costs.
Simple guest psychology : EMH = more time in the park, hence I can have table service for dinner and still enjoy the park after the meal. Overall the evening EMH theme park will be more crowded from the start of the afternoon and until quite late in the evening. Plus kids will not last that long anyway.

So my basic strategy (granted that you have the hopper option) is either to go to a morning EMH park and enjoy it as much as I can, or go to a non EMH park and leave by noon if that park has evening EMH that day and hop to another park, since EMHs at night will draw more guest to the EMH park starting in the afternoon.

There is one way you can take advantage of evening EMHs ... it's by avoiding them and going to that specific park very early the next day.
Those who have stayed up late and done the EMH will want to sleep longer, and most of them will most likely want to go to a different park the next day.

 

[UKDEB]

On the whole we tend to avoid them even when we're staying onsite, but there have been exceptions. There's certainly an argument for attending the morning ones during the first few days when you'll be awake at the crack of dawn, but only if you think you'll be disciplined enough to hop to another park once the crowds start to build up. For me, it's too bitty. I don't mind visiting a park during the morning and another for the evening after a break, but I'm sure I wouldn't feel ready to move on mid-morning.

We attended an evening EMH at AK because it gave us a rare opportunity to tour after dark. An hour-long storm early on emptied the park and our patience meant we had it virtually to ourselves. It was magical and we got some fantastic photos. Parts of the park were closed off, though, and that's one of the downsides to EMH's in general. Are they offering them at AK at the moment? Not sure that they are, which is a real shame.

We've attended both evening and morning EMHs at MK and Epcot. The morning EMH at MK because we had an ADR at Crystal Palace for our daughter's birthday, the evening one because we had a one-night stay at GF for mine and thought we'd take advantage. The Epcot forays were both against our will when we were visiting with friends. The only one I enjoyed was the MK evening one and that was actually an E-Ride Night (in the days before evening EMHs when numbers were limited to 5,000). I would consider one of the 3am MK ones, but I'd arrive late and stay until the bitter end. If you think you might be flagging by 11pm, you'll just experience a packed park and be leaving with the hordes. The other times, the parks were mobbed. I've never seen crowds like it. We staked out our place for IllumiNations very early, so had a spot next to the railing, but the crowds were 10 deep behind us.