Magic Hours - use or avoid?

[HappyGrape]

I was looking at historic crowds on tourinplans blog and I noticed that during the 14 days I was looking it EMH had no impact, according to their measurements to the crowd levels on most days or had +- 1 difference. This is end of June/July

Do you use or avoid EMH? Did you on your last trip and what was your experience? What are your strategies to make most of them if you use them

So - use or avoid? Great or bad idea?

 

[Moliphino]

I like the evening ones and avoid parks with the morning ones (I'm so not a morning person).

 

[sheriberman]

I think the evening ones are super beneficial if you want to sleep in which would cause you to miss the "quiet" hours in the morning.

 

[Skily]

I am not a morning person, and like the evening ones.

 

[tlmadden73]

I don't really try and plan my days around the EMH, but I've had two times when they've coincided with my plans. I find it morning EMH great with young children.
Mornings are cooler.

1 - Morning EMH at MK. (August 2015)
My son was 3, and travelling with his grandparents and my sister-in-law's family. I got my family and the grandparents up, to the Pop Century Buses and pulling into MK as the welcome show was ending near 8:00 AM. The other family (with two girls age 2 and 4) opted not to go to EMH as they wanted to sleep in.
We got a lot done in that first hour (several rides in Tomorrowland, including the slow loading Speedway and had time for some nice Photo Pass shots on Main Street.).

That was a fun morning .. cool .. empty and great memories despite the early morning. The other family didn't get on as much that day at MK due to a late start and a huge Thunderstorm at lunch that drove us back to the hotels for an afternoon break.

2 - Morning EMH at DHS. (March 2017)
This one was rather disappointing simply due to the current state of the park. We got there early so some of the other boys in our group could get in line for Jedi Training signup. Because we weren't crammed up to the turnstiles when the park opened, they spent most of that first hour standing in line for that. What a waste. My son, (being only 4) thought the idea of facing Vader to be too scary so we opted on rides instead. Walked on Star Tours and then still had a 30 minute wait for Toy Story Midway Mania.
DHS simply doesn't have enough RIDE attractions to make the EMH worth it (at least until the two new lands open) as everyone just hits those 5 (now 4) rides. Because we had hoppers, we took advantage of the early morning and hopped over to MK after touring the Launch Bay and seeing a show or two.

Since I like to get to the parks at Rope Drop anyway (you can just get way more done in the first 1-2 hours of park opening than in the next 3-4 hours, morning EMH just makes sense. You can save fast passes for those big rides for later in the afternoon or even in another park.

 

[evilqueenmindy]

I like morning EMH for magic kingdom and will probably use it for AK on our trip at the end of the month. We are not commando style park people, so if we do a morning EMH, we go back to the resort after lunch and chill by the pool or whatever.
Evening EMH at MK is my fave, I love the park at night, and it tends to clear out near the end.

 

[Micca]

If Morning EMH works for you I'd say it's worthwhile. The park may well become packed so that's when you hop or do something else like the resort or Disney Springs.

 

[Nohal]

We are early risers so morning EMH works for us.

 

[Spencer Wright]

Due to the high number of people who attend, I generally avoid them in the morning; even though I am an early riser. However, one exception to this would be AK. We went to a couple last trip, and as a result of Pandora opening, the rest of the park remains deserted for a while.

 

[Delirium]

Always do evening magic hours at MK. Hop over after spending the day at a different park.

 

[WDW*Fan]

Morning EMH worked great at AK over Labor Day. Arrived to bag check at 6:45 and headed straight to FOP. Was done with FOP at 8:03 and was able to ride Navi, Primeveal Whirl, and Everest before entering the safari line at 9.

I tried to do evening EMH at MK in early May and it was crazy crowded. We ended up leaving so we could go to sleep earlier and hit a rope drop the next morning.

I think it really varies but I do think you can do a lot in that morning hour, but only if you get to the park well before opening

 

[Piglet001]

This will be our first time staying on site. Initially didn't really consider EMH but now am planning on trying MK am EMH and possibly Epcot.

 

[jsebsirois]

We used to take advantage of every evening EMH before we were parents Now, with young kids, we avoid any EMH : our experiences on two different trips this year was a total disaster : very long wait to get in the bus, long lines to get in the park, only a few rides working...

 

[Spencer Wright]

We used to take advantage of every evening EMH before we were parents Now, with young kids, we avoid any EMH : our experiences on two different trips this year was a total disaster : very long wait to get in the bus, long lines to get in the park, only a few rides working...

I've never traveled with young kids, but this reflects my experiences exactly. The one advantage EMH do pose if they can often empty other parks a substantial amount.

 

[tnolan]

When a friend and I decided to use evening magic hours in early May at MK, it turned out to be a waste. Our original plan was to get dinner and watch the Happily Ever After fireworks, after the main crowds left after regular closing times. We then found out that there were only 2 places open to eat (Casey's Corner and Cosmic Ray's), and decided on Casey's because it was close to where we wanted to wait for the fireworks. We spent just about the whole 2 hours waiting on line at Casey's and getting our food, and ended up just getting glimpses of the fireworks. So be advised!

 

[Spencer Wright]

When a friend and I decided to use evening magic hours in early May at MK, it turned out to be a waste. Our original plan was to get dinner and watch the Happily Ever After fireworks, after the main crowds left after regular closing times. We then found out that there were only 2 places open to eat (Casey's Corner and Cosmic Ray's), and decided on Casey's because it was close to where we wanted to wait for the fireworks. We spent just about the whole 2 hours waiting on line at Casey's and getting our food, and ended up just getting glimpses of the fireworks. So be advised!

That is precisely why I generally do not like them! We were gonna go to one at MK in the evening last year but most rides had at least 60 minute waits, so we went to Epcot and had a wonderful time instead.

 

[HappyGrape]

I had a look at 11 weeks of historic crowd levels for this summer from June to mid August on touringplans and 1 week of the dibb and that's what it looks like to me


Epcot EMH Thursdays- some impact, EEH Tuesdays have impact
MK EMH Friday - no impact, MK EEH Wednesday big impact
AK EMH Saturday some impact, AK EMH Monday bigger impact
HS small impact - not clear from historic crowd levels at least to me

If you have park hopper tickets, I see no reason not to try evening hours but else I would avoid.
I plan to use the morning hours in each park but have recommended day planned as main touring day
it was interesting to see MK EMH being the lowest of the weekdays

 

[CAS239]

You're paying for emh by staying on site. If you have a park hopper, you should definitely take advantage of them. If you don't have park hoppers, I would avoid

 

[Elle23]

I actually decided to try to go to the parks with EMH on the next trip to get some more hours in (no hoppers).

Every crowd site I have looked at has all the park days I selected highlighted red with something like "Danger! Danger!" written by it.

It can't be that bad, can it?

I really don't want to have to start shuffling days again. I have already had to cancel and reschedule all my ADRs once.

 

[mamamelody2]

We have a hard time with early mornings, but I know you can get a lot done during them, so we have done it a few times and it worked well.
Evening EMH has not really worked for us because we had small children with us and they were done/wanted to go to the resort and swim.
This November just DH and I are going and we WILL see what evening EMH is all about! LOL.