Just Returned. EMH not worth it at MK.

[CharlesandCamilla]

We were at MK for EMH this morning. What a madhouse. People were pushing and shoving. One lady almost got trampled. The lines were horendous. I watched 40 yo men and women shove each other around just to be first in line at BTMRR. Some people were leaving thier teenaged and sometimes younger children in the dust just to be the first to Splash Mountain. It was truly sad to witness.

By 9:30 the park was packed and there were still more Bazilian tour groups flooding in the gate.

 

[LibertyBelle]

I am confused with your post...I am assuming you are reffering to when the park officially opend to all day guests that it got horendous as BTMRR and Splash are not open for EMH??? Early morning (extra magic hours) are Fantasyland and Tomorrowland attractions only, the rest of the park opens to everyone at 9am...

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I'm not understanding the post either. As already said BTMRR and Splash Mountain don't open til 9 or 10 am. At the time MK opens DH and I have already done about 6 rides and I have never had problems getting on Splash on an EE day. It's either because I've picked up a FP or just simply, DH and I have timed it just right to beat the crowds.

 

[April76]

When Frontierland opens in the morning, the guests are "walked" to the attractions by a group of castmembers in order to avoid what you've described. Are you saying they pushed past the castmembers?

I don't doubt that it was busy --- you can always expect large crowds on the weekends and a lot of folks try to beat the heat by coming early in the a.m.

 

[billybaruch1]

Thanks for the information.

But I might hesitate to blame Disney's offering of an extra hour of magic for the behavior you witnessed. I can't believe Disney's EMH is at fault. I'm glad the lady who "almost got trampled" didn't actually get trampled.

The "Bazilian tour groups?" What a nightmare.

Was there any reason that day you could not enjoy yourselves at your Disney resort after 9:30 am or at, I don't know, maybe A DIFFERENT THEME PARK?

 

[CharlesandCamilla]

Sorry about not being clear but on a normal day they open most of the park at once with the rope drop at mainstreet followed by other rope drops. I was speaking about the rope drop at 9 to go to frontierland. The hordes from futureland were ready to go. These were all resort guests from EMH as the off site guests had not been allowed in the park yet.

There was only one CM in front of our group and another trying to hold back the group from fantasyland. They basically ran to keep from getting trampled themselves. And some people were running past them. There was a line of CMs that stopped everyone just before entering the section with splash mountain and BTMRR. One of the older gentlemen announced that what he just saw was unacceptable and that he didn't want to see that again. My DD and I had started out at the front of the crowd (we lined up early because by time we got in at 8:20 the line for space mountain was at least an hour long) and were now pretty far back. As soon as they stepped aside the whole group took off running. That's when the woman almost got trampled.

I'd heard stories like mine before but just like you I was skeptical that a bunch of mature adults would act this way. They should have had more CMs walking each group back instead of the one little girl that they put at each rope.

We didn't go somewhere else because we already had some things set up at CR and GF that afternoon as well as a PS for lunch at CRT. We just stayed away from the insane crowds.

 

[Uncleromulus]

Sort of reminds me of a herd of cattle on the Old Chisum Trail, when they first smell water---.

 

[Schmeck]

Still sounds funny - Tomorrowland is on the opposite side of the park from Frontierland - where would they be lining up? There are so many ways to get to SplM and BTMR - Liberty Square, Fantasyland, and the shortcut through Adventureland. There isn't just one area designated for guests to wait.

 

[meeko_33785]

How were the lines during the actual EMH? I was just wondering because I was planning on doing a half-day at MK soon starting in Fantasyland during EMH and then doing attractions that usually don't have too long of lines later in the mornng (Timekeeper, Barnstormer when it opens, Riverboat, etc.) Anyone think this would be a bad idea. It's strange, I've done the Thurday EMH in the past and I've never seen anything like what you described. Maybe it was just busier because it was on a weekend.

 

[CharlesandCamilla]

It may have just been a fluke morning. It might have been because it was Sunday in July. I don't know.

But if you didn't make it in the first wave to the rides when the ropes dropped, first to tomorrowland and fantasyland and later to frontierland via liberty square, you were looking at about an hour wait for each ride. By the time we got off of BTMRR frontierland was packed.

The one ray of light was that Fantasyland emptied out around 11 and we were able to get in Philharmagic and on the carousel with almost no wait while waiting for our CRT lunch PS.

Schmeck - they were lining up (crowding) at the entrances to liberty square in front of the castle and in fantasyland. I'm not making this up.

 

[disney4us2002]

Not sure why this is surprising to some. Crowds are bigger than even Disney anticipated, emh is talked up to onsite guests and therefore known more than in the past, and since it's soooo hot a lot of people try to do a lot in the morning and swim in the afternoon. Also, the weekend days are always more crowded. Many people do vacations Sat to Sat so Sunday could be the first full day. We must do MK first and I'm sure we're not in the minority, lol.

 

[AladdinsPrincess]

Wow!My husband and I were up there this weekend also and we almost did the EMH - I'm so glad we didn't!

We did Epcot, MGM and Typhoon Lagoon this weekend and the crowds were moderate -not as bad as I would have expected for a weekend in July. However, we went to the MK Saturday night and it was MOBBED! That place gets so much more crowded than anywhere else. I can only handle it at nights during summer weekends!

 

[Schmeck]

CharlesandCamilla - sorry, I didn't mean to make it sound like I thought you were making it up! What I meant was it didn't sound right about the crowding, etc. There are so many ways into that area that to have a huge crowd in one place seemed funny/odd. I wonder how Disney let that happen? They seem to be very well organized with crowd control when we are there!

 

[tkafam]

Originally posted by CharlesandCamilla
It may have just been a fluke morning. It might have been because it was Sunday in July. I don't know.

But if you didn't make it in the first wave to the rides when the ropes dropped, first to tomorrowland and fantasyland and later to frontierland via liberty square, you were looking at about an hour wait for each ride. By the time we got off of BTMRR frontierland was packed.

The one ray of light was that Fantasyland emptied out around 11 and we were able to get in Philharmagic and on the carousel with almost no wait while waiting for our CRT lunch PS.

Schmeck - they were lining up (crowding) at the entrances to liberty square in front of the castle and in fantasyland. I'm not making this up.

I disagree. We were there at MK on the 11th at 8 am and we were able to ride several rides with less than 10 min. wait in Tomorrowland and Fantasyland and we weren't in the first wave of riders. EMH was really worth it to us. We were able to do so much more in 5 hours from 8am-1pm than we could in the late afternoon/evening at MK. We were there in the evening on the 13th and the crowds were HUGE!

 

[clutter]

We were there the same time as CandC and tkafam. And I agree with both! The crowds were really inconsistant. Sometimes there'd be long waits, sometimes we literally walked onto rides. There wasn't a lot of rhyme or reason. But, there were many, many, many foreign tour groups (at least one from Brazil, based on the flag on their tee shirts), and I think if you happened to be in the park when they were there, you felt mobbed. It seemed like the groups all went to the same parks at the same time. You could see none, or you would see ten groups. Never just one or two.

I also think that the information I'd heard here last year, that the week after the 4th has generally lower crowds, tended to be true. That's why the 11th was probably lighter crowds than the 19th. The third week in July is a popular week to go on vacation, and the 19th is the first day for that crowd.

 

[swilphil]

We did EMH on Sunday July 11. We went to Fantasyland and didn't have to wait for more than 5 minutes to get on Dumbo, Pooh and Peter Pan. Then we took a leisurely stroll over to Splash Mountain. I was so glad we did EMH. It started to get noticeably crowded around 10 a.m.

 

[lucysdad]

We went at the end of June and tried to do EMH at MK on a Sunday . It was awful. Between the AKL bus not arriving at the MK until 8:10 (even though we were at the AKL stop at 7:30) and the stroller line (only one CM was selling), we wasted the first half of the hour. We left at 10:00 because we were headed to GF for the Princess Tea Party at 10:30 and we only got on 3 rides the whole tme. I was shocked!! We usually knock off several of the Fantasyland rides during the EMH, usually riding several of them twice in a row. It was so disappointing, I questioned whether it was worth ever going to again.
Lucy's Mom

 

[Chicago526]

I've heard (well, read!) a lot of reports that EMH are no longer worth it unless you are in the park and at the rope drop, and even then, the lines are much longer than in times past.

I've decided that EMH's are not worth it. I just go at normal opening on a non-EMH day and sleep that extra hour! Once I have kids, this may change, but for now I think it will just be easier.