How important is it to avoid the EMH park if you don't have EMH privileges?

[jessicadisneygirl]

I am trying to decide what day to go to DCA and I am concerned that if we try to do it all in one day we won't be able if we choose an EMH day like Wednesday and we are behind the crowds by an hour. How important is avoiding the park with early hours if you cant get in early?

Here is my dilemma. We are bringing two preschoolers the first week of May. We have a four day non-park hopper pass. Even the older child is not super into thrill rides and ToT is scheduled down during our visit anyway. The husband and I would like to do California Screamin as a child swap but its not totally required. So basically we are hitting Carsland and seeing WoC as our two top priorities in DCA, and would like to do all the secondary rides and play areas and potentially Disney Jr Live.

Best case scenario, we use one day of our pass at DCA and the other 3 at DL. We are visiting Tues - Fri. We do have one magic morning for DL that we want to use right away on Tuesday. We also want to be in DL on Friday hoping for fireworks. That leaves either Wed or Thurs for DCA. If I was sure I could get it all done in one day I would just go Thurs to avoid the early hour crowds (if this is a thing, help me here). But I'm not sure we can finish it all in one day so should I hit DCA on Wed to leave Thurs open as our second day just in case, even though it will put us in the position of entering the park at rope drop to a full Carsland?

I havent been to DL since the year DCA opened so this is all new to me.

 

[Niltiac]

I don't think it will be a huge deal either way you choose to do it. Early entry in DCA is only for guests of the three disney hotels, so it's not a huge crowd, and RSR has FP so you don't need to wait in the standby line. The other rides in cars land don't get crazy long lines. So I think you'll be fine going on Wednesday, but I also think you can accomplish everything you mentioned on Thursday if you want to go that route (unless anything goes down for a significant part of the day). I would probably lean toward Wednesday but not because I don't think you'll finish everything in one day, but just in case you like DCA more than you thought you would and want to spend a second day there. I think we spend more time in DCA even though we like more rides in DL, simply for the atmosphere.

 

[agamble]

People are often saying it doesn't matter. And I think it doesn't matter as much as it does at WDW, but I think it still matters. Generally speaking even those who park hop don't normally park hop in the first three hours. The first three hours are the most productive hours. So the park will be more busy the first three hours on a Wednesday with EE than on a Thursday without.

Take these numbers for what they're worth as it's only a snapshot. On Monday morning DCA opened at 10AM with an EE at 9AM. DL opened at 10AM no EE. The average wait time at 10:15 over all rides at DCA was about 11 minutes, but it was only 7 minutes at DL. RSR was already posting a 60 minute wait. On Tuesday the average wait time at 10:15 was 10 minutes at DCA (not a huge difference from Monday), but it was 17 minutes at DL (big difference). The posted wait time for RSR was 45 minutes. Overall the average wait time for the entire day (by my numbers) for Monday with EE was 20 minutes. On Tuesday with no EE the average wait was only 15 minutes.

So will it break your day? Probably not, especially since your must do rides are FP. Will it make a difference? Yes, it will. Consider if you wait on average 5-10 minutes less per ride how many more rides you could do in one day.

 

[azdisneylover]

I say be there right when DCA opens on NON EE day. You can get on CA Screaming while the other parent takes the kids on King Titan's carousel next to CA Screaming. Your children will like TSMM too. It is a very fun ride. RR is fun, but waiting in a line isn't. I would suggest hitting the pier rides, then one parent grab fast passes to RR while the other takes the kids onto Little Mermaid, then either ride Mermaid again, or depending on what time your fast passes are for, hit the other rides in Carsland.

 

[Skyegirl1999]

People are often saying it doesn't matter. And I think it doesn't matter as much as it does at WDW, but I think it still matters. Generally speaking even those who park hop don't normally park hop in the first three hours. The first three hours are the most productive hours. So the park will be more busy the first three hours on a Wednesday with EE than on a Thursday without.

Take these numbers for what they're worth as it's only a snapshot. On Monday morning DCA opened at 10AM with an EE at 9AM. DL opened at 10AM no EE. The average wait time at 10:15 over all rides at DCA was about 11 minutes, but it was only 7 minutes at DL. RSR was already posting a 60 minute wait. On Tuesday the average wait time at 10:15 was 10 minutes at DCA (not a huge difference from Monday), but it was 17 minutes at DL (big difference). The posted wait time for RSR was 45 minutes. Overall the average wait time for the entire day (by my numbers) for Monday with EE was 20 minutes. On Tuesday with no EE the average wait was only 15 minutes.

So will it break your day? Probably not, especially since your must do rides are FP. Will it make a difference? Yes, it will. Consider if you wait on average 5-10 minutes less per ride how many more rides you could do in one day.

For what it's worth, in my experience, the app-posted wait times are wildly inaccurate during the first 30-40 minutes the park is open. I've started really paying attention (and I'm there at rope drop about once a week on average), and the app will say 10 minutes for what turns out to be a 40-minute wait quite frequently. By about 45 minutes after the park opens, the times get closer to real life.

OP, I've found that avoiding the EE park is helpful, but for what you're describing wanting to do in DCA, you'd be fine either way.

 

[Nevada Jen]

I also don't think it matters as much to avoid DCA on EMH morning if you don't have it. So few people have it and they have already had the park to themselves for an hour. During EMH at DCA, we skip RSR but hit every other ride we want multiple times. Like my hubby and son ride CA Screamin 5 times one EMH and still hit toy story a couple of times and were in line for Soarin before the park opened. I think a lot depends how tall your preschoolers are. Do they hit the mark for RSR and Soarin? Because that will make it a full day park.

 

[ehrawn]

One other factor to consider is what the normal Park hours are. In general, you will have lower crowds in the early hours. For example. EE from 0700-0800 won't draw as many people as EE from 0900-1000

 

[scrapshappen]

The major disadvantage I see to doing DCA on a EMH morning is you are missing out on rope drop at DL on a non MM/EMH morning. We have found rides like the ever popular Peter Pan to be easier to get on at rope drop than during MM/EMH. Just some food for thought.