Park Hours

[JessicaW1234]

I am looking for August 2018 park hours and know they are not posted yet. Wondering if anyone who has been tracking this knows if the trend has been that the EMH in each park is historically on the same day(s) as it has been in the past? (Knowing the Hours themselves are subject to change)

Trying to figure out ADRs and base that off which parks we anticipate we'll be going to.

Would it be better to use August 2017 or recent park calendars to make an educated guess? Anyone have a link to the best source for this?

 

[Robo]

EMH can frequently change.

A guess is a guess.
Frankly, I'd not worry about EMH, one way or the other.

 

[kniquy]

Trying to figure out ADRs and base that off which parks we anticipate we'll be going to.

Your best bet is to book a couple of ADR at different parks and then just cancel what you don't need as the park hours are released. Park hours will change as you get closer to your trip -- so even for my upcoming April trip they are essentially the same hours that were posted initially, but a month or so our from the trip they will finalize the hours. They even suggest checking show times and park hours a week or so before your trip because they can change them.

I would look back at what august 2017 were to get some sort of idea, but don't bank on them really being the same.

 

[JessicaW1234]

EMH can frequently change.

A guess is a guess.
Frankly, I'd not worry about EMH, one way or the other.

We use the morning EMH and it would be the deciding factor what park we go to on a particular day. That's really what I would like to find out, especially MK

 

[Robo]

We use the morning EMH and it would be the deciding factor what park we go to on a particular day. That's really what I would like to find out, especially MK

That's a noble cause, but there's no way to know what will be the final case until your trip dates get closer.

Disney no longer cares that they allow (some would say, "nearly require") guests to book ADRs 6 months in advance... but they don't post specific hours and events that early, anymore.

So, that's why I said, "A guess is a guess."
You can certainly guess, and you may very well be correct.
Disney just doesn't help very much.

 

[JessicaW1234]

We use the morning EMH and it would be the deciding factor what park we go to on a particular day. That's really what I would like to find out

That's a noble cause, but there's no way to know what will be the final case until your trip dates get closer.

Disney no longer cares that they allow (some would say, "nearly require") guests to book ADRs 6 months in advance... but they don't post specific hours and events that early, anymore.

So, that's why I said, "A guess is a guess."
You can certainly guess, and you may very well be correct.
Disney just doesn't help very much.

That's disappointing. I see the July calendar is not yet up on the DIS. When will that come out?
Have the days that EMH are held on at each park changed that much?

 

[GADisneyDad14]

I am looking for August 2018 park hours and know they are not posted yet. Wondering if anyone who has been tracking this knows if the trend has been that the EMH in each park is historically on the same day(s) as it has been in the past? (Knowing the Hours themselves are subject to change)

Trying to figure out ADRs and base that off which parks we anticipate we'll be going to.

Would it be better to use August 2017 or recent park calendars to make an educated guess? Anyone have a link to the best source for this?

If this were me, I’d probably be eyeballing both just to see trends. But like PPs have said, it’s more just educated guesses than anything else. Note last summer had Pandora, this summer will have Toy Story Land... so lots of things in play than can make patterns hard to triangulate into something useful.

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

I am looking for August 2018 park hours and know they are not posted yet. Wondering if anyone who has been tracking this knows if the trend has been that the EMH in each park is historically on the same day(s) as it has been in the past? (Knowing the Hours themselves are subject to change)

Trying to figure out ADRs and base that off which parks we anticipate we'll be going to.

Would it be better to use August 2017 or recent park calendars to make an educated guess? Anyone have a link to the best source for this?

We are in the same boat -- and to my planning, EMH are VERY important. I don't understand anyone saying to ignore them when they'e central to planning for some of us!

Here's what I can say after looking into this...

1) I looked up EMH on Disney's online calendar for the weeks preceding our Aug18 trip to find the trend. With the exception of 4th of July weekend, they are following a set pattern:


2) I compared this to 2017, and these exactly match what we experienced when we were in WDW Aug17. One exception: they added PM EMH to AK every night in Aug17, in addition to the above table.

So while it's true that these things can always change and sometimes do (I don't agree that they "frequently change", though), this seems like a decent bet to me and I'm using it to plan.

ETA: In my experience planning 22ish trips over the past 13+ years, Disney is more likely to ADD more EMH than take away or switch -- though switches do sometimes happen. I wouldn't be surprised if they added some HS late EMH after TSL opens, for instance. But it's ALL TBD until you're on your trip!

 

[gatorlisa]

While it's true there is no guarantee of what EMH will be, and they are subject to change, the current EMH offerings have been as they are for at least the last 18 months to two years (minus the evening EMH that used to be on the schedule for HS). If it were me, I'd go based on the current EMH offerings, but also not get too upset if they change prior to a trip 8 months from now.

 

[JessicaW1234]

We are in the same boat -- and to my planning, EMH are VERY important. I don't understand anyone saying to ignore them when they'e central to planning for some of us!

Here's what I can say after looking into this...

1) I looked up EMH on Disney's online calendar for the weeks preceding our Aug18 trip to find the trend. With the exception of 4th of July weekend, they are following a set pattern:
View attachment 298191

2) I compared this to 2017, and these exactly match what we experienced when we were in WDW Aug17. One exception: they added PM EMH to AK every night in Aug17, in addition to the above table.

So while it's true that these things can always change and sometimes do (I don't agree that they "frequently change", though), this seems like a decent bet to me and I'm using it to plan.

ETA: In my experience planning 22ish trips over the past 13+ years, Disney is more likely to ADD more EMH than take away or switch -- though switches do sometimes happen. I wouldn't be surprised if they added some HS late EMH after TSL opens, for instance. But it's ALL TBD until you're on your trip!

Thank you very much! This is what I was looking for

 

[MickeyMinnieMom]

Thank you very much! This is what I was looking for

Very happy to help!

 

[JessicaW1234]

While it's true there is no guarantee of what EMH will be, and they are subject to change, the current EMH offerings have been as they are for at least the last 18 months to two years (minus the evening EMH that used to be on the schedule for HS). If it were me, I'd go based on the current EMH offerings, but also not get too upset if they change prior to a trip 8 months from now.

Thank you- very helpful

 

[pens4821]

While it's true there is no guarantee of what EMH will be, and they are subject to change, the current EMH offerings have been as they are for at least the last 18 months to two years (minus the evening EMH that used to be on the schedule for HS). If it were me, I'd go based on the current EMH offerings, but also not get too upset if they change prior to a trip 8 months from now.

Agree with this. The EMH are the same as they were when we went in February of 2016 (as mentioned, minus HS PM EMH). We are going late August, and are planning for them to be the same (if not, we'll just tweak our plans a bit). Yeah, they can change here and there, but they have stayed the same the majority of the time for 2 years.

 

[Zipears Fan]

I had the same questions as OP here. Very helpful comments throughout by everyone. That said, I cannot remember a time in the 30+ Disney trips I've planned that ADRs will need to be made without first knowing what parks have EMHs and what don't. It's a well documented inverse relationship between crowds and parks with EMHs. Unfortunately, we make ADRs in 3 weeks and all of July hours havent even been posted.