Kenny the Pirate crowd recommendation-VS-EMH days

[terrilt]

We are in the early stages of planning for our AKL stay Nov.25-Dec.9 with 10day BASE tickets & 2 day Park Hopper tickets (to be able to do the FREE dining). We had planned on taking advantage of the EMH days & hitting up the parks on their EMH days (and plan our ADR then too). BUT, we just noticed that KENNY THE PIRATE's CROWD CALENDAR is opposite of the EMH days. His site seems to recommend/be green on days that aren't EMH days. What do you all recommend? Do you attend on EMH days? Or avoid the EMH days & go to the parks that aren't EMH? We will not be Park Hopping. Thanks!!

 

[ChasingLeslie]

I follow Kenny's calendars and avoid EMH parks.

 

[SpaceMonkey35]

I usually don't go to EMH parks. I've had good luck doing it that way so I stick to that. Plus with all the hopping around now, crowds are everywhere

 

[IrishNYC]

We don't go to MK on days that have early EMH. For the others we generally don't care, but I was also avoiding AM EMH for Epcot this trip, and wanting AM EMH at DHS, and at AK.

Everyone has their reasons why they do or don't go to EMH parks, you're there long enough that you should do what YOU want, not what everyone else does.

 

[chiisai]

We go on morning emh days if we plan to be there 30 min before emh open. We leave the park around midday. The extra hour in the morning is fantastic.

We don't go to parks with evening emh.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

We went to AK on an EMH day that were knew were not going to be up for but it was the best day for other reasons. It was very busy in the morning when we got there at 9:30 but then really cleared out mid afternoon. That could be because it was AK (may feel it's a half day park), it could have been because we had some rain showers in the early afternoon, or it could have been because it was busy in the morning and everyone with hoppers left. Whatever the reason, it made for a very pleasant late afternoon with basically walk on rides for everything except the safari. YMMV. Especially after Pandora opens.

We went to Epcot on an evening EMHs day and had moderate crowds all day, did WS in the afternoon, and were able to get 4th+ FPs for TT, Soarin, and illuminations (after RDing TT and Soarin and having an FEA prebooked FP). Then we used the EMHs to get the lower tier rides that we skipped during the day as walk ons (Figment, Nemo, Crush, etc). It ended up working very well for us but if we had been trying to get Soarin and TT in EMHs it would not have really reduced waits that much (I think they were in the 25 to 35 min range).

Those were our experiences this time for what it's worth.

 

[sharonabe]

We are in the early stages of planning for our AKL stay Nov.25-Dec.9 with 10day BASE tickets & 2 day Park Hopper tickets (to be able to do the FREE dining). We had planned on taking advantage of the EMH days & hitting up the parks on their EMH days (and plan our ADR then too). BUT, we just noticed that KENNY THE PIRATE's CROWD CALENDAR is opposite of the EMH days. His site seems to recommend/be green on days that aren't EMH days. What do you all recommend? Do you attend on EMH days? Or avoid the EMH days & go to the parks that aren't EMH? We will not be Park Hopping. Thanks!!

Are you not going to use your 2-day park hopper tickets? And may I ask, did you already have the 10-day base tickets before you booked free dining?

 

[Cinderella94]

We love EMH days. We have hoppers, though. We always do the morning EMH's and then leave by the afternoon. Whether or not we do the PM EMH park depends on where we have dinner that night.

 

[Shanti]

We are in the early stages of planning for our AKL stay Nov.25-Dec.9 with 10day BASE tickets & 2 day Park Hopper tickets (to be able to do the FREE dining). We had planned on taking advantage of the EMH days & hitting up the parks on their EMH days (and plan our ADR then too). BUT, we just noticed that KENNY THE PIRATE's CROWD CALENDAR is opposite of the EMH days. His site seems to recommend/be green on days that aren't EMH days. What do you all recommend? Do you attend on EMH days? Or avoid the EMH days & go to the parks that aren't EMH? We will not be Park Hopping. Thanks!!

Avoiding EMH is the strategy for those staying off-site. We stay onsite & use them whenever we can. They help a great deal in terms of getting those must-do rides in without a long wait.

I haven't found the EMH parks to be massively overcrowded mid-day, btw. That's a bit of an urban legend spread by those who never use EMH. These days it seems that guests are more concerned with their FP+ ressies than EMH, so perhaps that's why EMH doesn't have the impact on crowds that it might have once had.

 

[SaintsManiac]

If KtP's calendar is correct there will be AM EMH on our first day, which we had MK planned. It's also a party day. I am not changing my plan because of 1 hour. We'll take advantage of the EMH. I don't change what we really want to do because of crowd calendars.

 

[LSUfan4444]

What do you all recommend?

For the lowest crowds avoid parks with morning EMH. If you want to go to parks with PM EMH, the later you are there the better and best if you are only there when other parks are closed. Generally speaking, other parks will be less crowded but if other parks are closed, the hours are truly "extra".

 

[IrishNYC]

If KtP's calendar is correct there will be AM EMH on our first day, which we had MK planned. It's also a party day. I am not changing my plan because of 1 hour. We'll take advantage of the EMH. I don't change what we really want to do because of crowd calendars.

Party days tend to make the park less crowded anyway, so it probably negates the "extras" brought in by EMH.

 

[SaintsManiac]

Party days tend to make the park less crowded anyway, so it probably negates the "extras" brought in by EMH.

That's exactly how I see it. We went on a party day last time and it was the perfect MK day.

 

[terrilt]

Are you not going to use your 2-day park hopper tickets? And may I ask, did you already have the 10-day base tickets before you booked free dining?

We had the 10Day base tickets - got them in March at the old ticket prices for a GREAT deal on MapleLeaf. Then the FREE Dining came out a couple weeks ago and in order to get it, you had to have Hopper Tickets, so we purchased 2 Day Hopper Tickets to make us eligible for FREE Dining (our trip price went down $700 - our TA rebooked us). We will use the 2 Day Hopper Tickets now that we have them, but we had planned on taking 2 Days off and spend those days at the Resort/etc.

 

[sharonabe]

We had the 10Day base tickets - got them in March at the old ticket prices for a GREAT deal on MapleLeaf. Then the FREE Dining came out a couple weeks ago and in order to get it, you had to have Hopper Tickets, so we purchased 2 Day Hopper Tickets to make us eligible for FREE Dining (our trip price went down $700 - our TA rebooked us). We will use the 2 Day Hopper Tickets now that we have them, but we had planned on taking 2 Days off and spend those days at the Resort/etc.

You could just hold on to the 2-day PH tickets and use them toward your next trip. But if you decide to use them, why not plan to hop for those two days? Go to MK during the day on one of the party days, then hop to another park for the evening. Take advantage of one of the early or late EMH days at a park that makes sense to your desired attractions. Do the early and hop to a more recommended park or start at one and hop to the late EMH. If you do this, you'll need to make sure the correct ticket is prioritized for that day. You don't want to use the hopper and not hop or use the base ticket and not be able to hop.

 

[terrilt]

You could just hold on to the 2-day PH tickets and use them toward your next trip. But if you decide to use them, why not plan to hop for those two days? Go to MK during the day on one of the party days, then hop to another park for the evening. Take advantage of one of the early or late EMH days at a park that makes sense to your desired attractions. Do the early and hop to a more recommended park or start at one and hop to the late EMH. If you do this, you'll need to make sure the correct ticket is prioritized for that day. You don't want to use the hopper and not hop or use the base ticket and not be able to hop.

Nice Idea . . . Thank YOU. We won't be going back most likely. We haven't been in 17yrs and we are 50 . . . we don't generally repeat vacations . . . too much to see in this world to do a repeat (for us anyway) . . . we still want to see so much more in this country and in Europe. Your hopping idea sounds good.

 

[Love Tink]

Avoiding EMH is the strategy for those staying off-site. We stay onsite & use them whenever we can. They help a great deal in terms of getting those must-do rides in without a long wait.

I haven't found the EMH parks to be massively overcrowded mid-day, btw. That's a bit of an urban legend spread by those who never use EMH. These days it seems that guests are more concerned with their FP+ ressies than EMH, so perhaps that's why EMH doesn't have the impact on crowds that it might have once had.

Avoiding EMH is also a strategy for lots of people who stay on site. The parks are more crowded on days when they have EMH. That is shown by wait-time data, which is not an urban legend.

 

[terrilt]

Avoiding EMH is also a strategy for lots of people who stay on site. The parks are more crowded on days when they have EMH. That is shown by wait-time data, which is not an urban legend.

YES - that's what I saw on Kenny the Pirate - that an extra large number of resort guests go to the EMH park . . . add that large resort guest number to the outside guests, then the park is even more crowded than the other parks... guess that's why KTP recommends other parks, not the EMH park.

 

[Hatwriter456]

We are thinking of going to the park with the EMH and then park hopping to another park - but the transportation time between parks might change our minds.

 

[PrincessWithABlaster]

Avoiding EMH is also a strategy for lots of people who stay on site. The parks are more crowded on days when they have EMH. That is shown by wait-time data, which is not an urban legend.

It may be a general rule of thumb but it's not always true. Last week the Epcot Thurs AM EMH was the least crowded park that day based on TPs historical numbers. We went to Epcot on Tues with PM EMH and it was subjectively one of our more pleasant days and only DHS was lower that day according to historicals.