Just returned from WDW - EMH was a joke!

[cooldisneymom]

Thanks Dopey Sharon!

 

[CharlesandCamilla]

I have read some about the "official" opening times. Fact is and has always been that if the crowds get too large before the posted park opening time they will open early. I don't know if they've let the crowds get too large in the past to give on site guest the run of the park. I can imagine though if enough off site guests decide to show up early that could ruin it for the on site guests. I have never read anywhere that having that whole hour is written in stone for onsite guests.

 

[Plan Man]

EMH is terrific!!!!!!

I agree with many of you that EMH does increasse the overall crowds for the day and yes some people get in even though they are not on site guests.

You have to use EMH as a perk that has benefits and drawbacks.

The benefit is that you do in fact get to ride some of the rides with little or no wait early in the day.

The drawback - more people are at the park for the day because there are a lot of people who don't understand there is an early entry and they come to the park as non on-site guests. Put all of this together and you end up with more than the average attendance becuase you have extra in site guests and the normal non on-site guests. this just makes sense.

so you need to arrive for early entry and do as much as you can KNOWING the crowds will sooner or later grow very large. You have to leave when the crowds get to the point that is too much for you and go to another park. It is nothing to get mad about or be uspset about it is just the way it is.

If you think it is worth it to ride a few rides eithout waits use early entry. it you like to sleep in and do less in a day don't use early entry.

we like to use early entry - leave and go to another park. I know we do and see more than many others. Just plan it out and have some flexibility adn good back up plans.

 

[Treasure]

We only made it to EMH once our whole trip (MK). To us, it wasn't worth getting up so early. We were so tired! We did ride Space Mountain and Buzz Lightyear 3 times, the little cars and teacups, then ran out of things to do because everything else we wanted to do wasn't open until 10:00! We had already done BTMRR and SM, HM, PotC and Fantasyland the day before... bad planning, I guess!

 

[kramer_clan]

I have scheduled us to visit the parks that had early entry on the day BEFORE. We have a large group with some small children. I can't see us getting to the parks on time for early entry every morning.

We would rather not rush it.

We are dancing here since we leave toward Florida next Friday!! Check in BWV on Sunday June 20th!!

Vicki

 

[tjkraz]

The advice I always give to people is to use or ignore EMH depending upon your normal schedule--particularly if you have young children. Our kiddies (3 and 1) are usually not up until 7:30-8:00am. (And you better believe it's 8am or later after a day or two at Disney).

I wouldn't dream of setting an alarm for 6:30 just to get everyone dressed, fed and out the door in time for EHM. That's just begging for cranky temper-tantrums later in the day.

And, as always, the best idea is to completely avoid the EMH park on a given day if you won't be there at 8am. We've never run into crowds that I felt were abnormally large for the time of year of the visit.

 

[dijid]

My general rule of thumb is to use EMH only during non-peak times. We were there early May this year and EMH worked great for us. But last year when we were there during Memorial Week, we avoided the EMH park after two overly crowded mornings. (Took us almost 30 minutes just to get into AK one morning lines were sooooo long!)

Also, if you only do EMH parks, you miss out on the opening ceremonies at the parks. Our kids love those and we try to get there early just to see them.

 

[forgetyourtroubles!]

Maybe during high attendance periods, more people make the effort to "beat the crowds" and EMH is the obvious thing to do. We've had EMH work great for us in the past, but it was a lower attendance time.

 

[Oh Kay!]

I have to agree with the OP. We were there from May 26 to 31. We went to MK on Thursday morning for EMH, and it was a madhouse. By 8:30 the wait for some Fantasyland rides were already 40 minutes. Actually, the crowd thinned out around 9:30, then built up again 10:30. I guess a lot of people head straight to Fantasyland then move away to other places or breakfast PS. That experience made us skip AK on Friday.

On our previous trips, I planned the trip around EMH. Not anymore. I plan to let my family sleep in the morning. It's just not worth the aggrevation anymore.

This was our third Memorial weekend trip, and the EMH crowds weren't this bad before. Otherwise, I thought the overall crowd level was very comparable to last year's. Perhaps more people are aware of EMH and plan accordingly?

 

[sharonk]

I just wanted to clarify that in the past, we have done what many of you recommend...we go to the EMH park for a few hours and then leave for another park after a few hours when it gets crowded.

This past visit, the EMH park was mobbed in the first 15 - 30 minutes, so we only got to ride 1 or 2 rides without long lines.

On past trips for us, this was never the case...usually during the whole hour we could ride with very little wait.

Sharon

 

[flyball]

For all of the posters who are speculating that EMH is suddenly becoming more popular than it was in recent years, maybe it's because it was suspended from 2001 to 2002. Maybe people weren't aware that it had been reinstated following the period during which it had been eliminated and, therefore, people weren't using it as much.

We tend to mix it up a bit, but last trip (August 2003) we avoided the EMH parks for the most part. As we progress through our vacation, it gets more and more difficult to get up so early! I agree with a previous poster that there aren't many attractions open to justify the loss of sleep and the fatigue that you inevitably feel later in the day.

 

[daisylove]

Anyone recently done emh at EPCOT. We are going next week. My DD5 really just wants to ride TT and Spaceship Earth. I was thinking that if we do EMH then she could do that and get a fast pass for later while they are still available. Then she could go back and see characters opening ceremony (they do that right?) Do you think that it will be ridiculous at TT. I do not want to take off running as soon as we get in the park but now I am worried that the crowd will be unreasonable. help!