Poll: How to optimize EMH for 3-day itinerary?

[dusterbuster]

Hi everyone (sorry in advance for the long post!),

I'm planning a first trip to Disneyland for my two boys (ages 8 and 6) this week. We are planning to stay at the Disneyland Hotel on Wednesday through Saturday (3 nights), and I will be purchasing a 3-day park hopper Southern California resident discounted ticket. I'm currently debating between a Wed/Thurs/Fri itinerary, versus a Thurs/Fri/Sat itinerary, taking advantage of the Extra Magic Hour offered through the hotel, and am having trouble figuring out what would be the "best" itinerary in terms of taking advantage of EMH and trying to minimize wait times and crowds (which I know will be pretty much unavoidable).

Wed/Thurs/Fri itinerary would be California/Disneyland/California based on the EMH schedule.

Thurs/Fri/Sat itinerary would be Disneyland/California/Disneyland schedule based on the EMH schedule.

During this time, the Disneyland park opens at 8am generally, but 7am on an EMH day. The California Adventures park, meanwhile, opens at 9am generally, but at 8am on an EMH day.

I've read that the parks tend to be busier on an EMH/Magic Morning day (with several blogs recommending avoiding parks on EMH days), and one recommended strategy is to go to the EMH park, and then switch over to the other park when the non-EMH park opened. However, because the California Adventures park currently opens later than Disneyland, I'm guessing this strategy will not work as well, since switching to Disneyland after the California Adventures EMH would mean going to Disneyland at 9am, at least an hour after the Disneyland park opened.

Originally, I was thinking a Wed/Thurs/Fri schedule might be preferable for avoiding the weekend crowds (assuming Saturday would be busier), but now I'm thinking a Thurs/Fri/Sat actually might be better because it would still give us the option to visit Disneyland on the Thurs and Sat EMH days, and maybe switch over to California Adventures when it opens at 9am (or a little later in the morning) on those days.

Since this will be the first time my boys have been to the Disneyland parks, it's hard for me to figure out what they would enjoy more, in conjunction with trying to optimize the usage of the EMH feature. Anyways, I figured I should look to the wisdom of the more experienced members on this forum. Thank you in advance for any thoughts/recommendations!

 

[cruisehopeful]

If you are sure you'll be up and ready to hit the parks on the early entry days, I suggest doing the Thurs/Fri/Sat. I was there last weekend and used my early entries a little later. That way, I didn't wait in lines to get into the parks and when I did get into the parks, I was able to go around and do whatever I wanted to do. I did not notice the parks being busier than normal on early entry days. Maybe it just appears that way because when they open at the regular time, there are already a lot of people in the park from the earlier entry. I was still able to get around find for the second hour (the first hour open to the public).

I'd think more about which attractions you want to see in each park. If you want to do more in DL, you'll want the 2 days of early entry there. Also, not sure when you are going, but with so much currently closed over there for Star Wars Land, Adventureland and Tomorrowland get completely botttled up during the day. It isn't unusual to be walking shoulder to shoulder with people the whole time. Being able to get their early to avoid that is very helpful

 

[Karyanne30]

My thought is that using emh on weds and fri at dca is that you could actually get a lot of dca done during those times and then be able to spend more time in Disneyland doing everything there you'd like to do. Saturday's are very busy. I would even see how much upgrading to 4 day would be

 

[dusterbuster]

Thanks for the advice. As a general matter, should I expect Disneyland to be more crowded/difficult to manage than California Adventures outside of the early entry hour? I have this mental image of Disneyland being super packed/unmanageable outside of the early morning hours, in which case maybe the Thurs/Fri/Sat itinerary makes sense so that we can do as much as we can on Thurs and Sat morning at Disneyland during the EMH (and maybe the following hour or two), before switching over to California Adventures.

 

[Nevada Jen]

Only hotel guests get the extra hour at DCA. THat makes a HUGE difference in the EMH crowds at DCA. So arguably, you really don't need two EMH at DCA. But with the age of your boys, they might really like DCA, carsland, Toy Story and California Screamin. It is nice to do EMH at DCA and then head over to DL once the initial line clears. If that is what they are most into, then I would do 2 EMH days at DCA. AT DL, the only things open are tomorrowland and fantasy land. If the boys are not into the fantasyland rides, one day of EMH at DL will be enough. Be aware, EMH will be a lot more crowded there but since fast passes are generally more available at DL than DCA, you will easily be able to hit all the rides you want.

 

[dusterbuster]

Ahh, good tip on focusing what is open during the extra hour at each park. I will go through that with the boys and see if they express a strong preference for the rides available at each park (of course kind of hard to judge since they haven't been there yet, but I can at least gauge their interest on the characters/ride types). We haven't exposed the kids to much Disney stuff yet, except for Cars and Planes movies.

 

[dusterbuster]

So I showed my two boys the list of attractions/rides for the two parks on the Disney website, and my older son (8 yrs old) expressed more interest overall for the rides at Disneyland (Star Wars rides, Indiana Jones, Splash Mountain), but definitely wants to do the Radiator Springs ride and Toy Story Midway Mania at California Adventures.

Assuming we want to spend more time overall at Disneyland, what do you guys think of the Wed/Thurs/Fri option, which would allow us to spend the first couple of hours on Wed and Fri at California Adventures, and then switch over to Disneyland around 10am or so on those days (which are not early entry days for Disneyland, and so hopefully a little less crowded)? It would leave us with only one EMH day for Disneyland (Thursday), which I would probably spend the first half at Disneyland, and then switch over to California Adventures. Overall, I'm thinking this might give us more overall time at Disneyland (per Karyanne30's suggestion), while avoiding a Saturday and spending more time at Disneyland on non-early entry days when the park is hopefully a little less crowded. The complicating factor is the staggered opening times (with Disneyland opening generally an hour earlier), so I'm not sure this strategy makes the most sense. For example, would you guys expect the Fastpasses to have really long return times if we switched over to Disneyland around 10am on Wed/Fri? Anything else I should be thinking about here?

 

[BriannaRuth]

Personally if you want more time in DL, I would just stick with doing DL EMH two days and DCA one.

Don't make it too complicated, but also don't be too stuck on one plan or another. If you feel things are getting too crowded at DL, then head over to DCA after checking the app for wait times and being sure things aren't just as bad there. And vice-versa. We always buy park hoppers but most of the time we don't park hop unless we go to the hotel after lunch for a break and return to a different park afterwards. It's usually just not worth it to us -- after all, if you're all the way back at Splash and you want to go ride something like Screamin' on the other side of DCA, it's a fairly long walk. It seems like it should be short because it's a short walk between the parks, but you have to think point A to point B.

Also, it's one thing going from DL to DCA, but arriving later at DL can get you some pretty long lines. If you go that route, just check first to be sure about wait times to see if it's worth it. Personally I would not waste my less crowded morning time walking when I could be riding, no matter what park I'm in.

You mentioned using one EMH day for DL, spending the first half at DL then switching to DCA. You don't mean you're just going to spend the first half of EMH there, do you -- only 30 minutes. Definitely don't do that; it's not enough time. If you choose to only do one EMH at DL, you should probably stay until 10-11 when the park starts getting crowded IMO.

We always save our last day for "do whatever we missed or absolutely have to do again." So with your plan, I'd do DL EMH first, DCA EMH second, then wait to decide how to spend your 3rd EMH for when you're there.

 

[dusterbuster]

Thanks, BriannaRuth. I do have a tendency to over-complicate things, which is probably readily apparent from my post! LOL. I'm also probably being a bit ambitious on the park hopping idea too, although I was thinking it would be good for my kids to take a break in the middle of the afternoon and head back to the hotel (Disneyland Hotel) to use relax/use the pool before heading back out for dinner. Do you think visiting DL on a Saturday will be noticeably more busy/crazy than a weekday? Based on our itinerary options, spending two EMH days at DL will necessitate a Saturday park visit. If we did that, we probably would only stay until the early/mid-afternoon before heading back home.

 

[gottalovepluto]

On the one hand DL will be busier on a Sat; on the other hand it will open earlier and close later. The earlier the EMH, the less crowded it is & the more you can get done.

ETA: just replaced this section as it looks like Sat would only be half a day...
EMHs aside- are you comparing a full day Wed to half a day Sat? In that case I'd take the full day Wed without a moment's hesitation!

EMH is tricky business. Some EMHs are wonderful- some are total busts. Please be aware of that, rides break, they don't get them running early enough, you just never know how an EMH will go so be ready to roll with the punches of the first 3 rides you try being down because that's how an off day can go. I love EMH, my last trip was the first time I had 4 successful EMHs in a row where every ride I wanted was up and running, all my previous trips we always had at least 1 out of 4 EMHs were a bomb (RSR down, Screamin down, TSMM down... it's a bomb of an EMH when Little Mermaid is the only thing you get done before the park is flooded with people!). So please, please, please don't base your schedule on the EMH benefit, it's a wonderful benefit for sure but the hit/miss ratio is kinda high...

 

[hjgaus]

The rides your son says he would be more interested in at DL such as Star Tours would be open during EMH along with Space Mountain and most of Fantasyland.
Indiana Jones is closed as well as Splash Mountain. Also anybody staying off property with the 1 MM option at DL makes that park slightly busier than CA Park.
California Adventure Park always seems to pay off more for us than DL Park ALTHOUGH as what PP mentioned above ALL few rides opened up early MAY STILL
BREAKDOWN thus end up closed. We are fortunate to stay ON property more than most due to DVC so we mostly take our chance with EMH cuz we HATE long lines!!! Staying at any DLR Hotels to get EMH is the only advantage to AVOIDING MOST long lines UNLESS you are QUICK enough to pull and use many Fast Passes then EMH may not be needed ! Great idea to have input from your family before decision time ! I hope you all still enjoy your time at Disneyland whatever you may decide!!

Have a good day!!

 

[dusterbuster]

Thanks everyone for all the thoughtful comments/insights. A lot of good points to consider. After reading these helpful comments, I'm not surprised that the polling results are about dead even between the two options I listed, since it sounds like there are about equal good reasons to consider either option. I guess that means I can't go wrong (or is it I can't go right?) with either option. Either way, it sounds like I should try to be flexible and adjust as things plays out. My current plan is to drive down to California Adventures early tomorrow morning on Wednesday for the EMH, and then see how things go. I suppose I could do the EMH at California Adventures tomorrow (Wed), and then EMH at Disneyland on Thurs, and decide afterwards whether we want to go to California Adventures again for EMH on Friday, or take the day off and do something else on Friday, and wait for the Saturday EMH at Disneyland.

 

[dusterbuster]

Wow, I just checked the Disneyland app, and as of 7:44am, there is already an 80 minute wait for Hyperspace Mountain, and that is during the EMH/MM early entry hour. 60 minute wait for Peter Pan's Flight. 45 minute wait showing for Star Tours. Yikes. I guess there are a lot of EMH/MM visitors for DL!

 

[dusterbuster]

Funny, as of 9:50am, Hyperspace Mountain is showing a 50 minute wait, and 40 minutes for Peter Pan and and Star Tours, which are shorter times than a couple hours earlier during the EMH/MM hour. Is that usual, i.e., early EMH/MM rush for the first hour on the early opening rides, and then subsiding as the EMH/MM crowd heads to other rides?

 

[Whistlebee]

I would do the 2 Disneyland EMH's if you guys are natural early risers and can be at the gates at about 6:45. You should be able to get a lot done in that first hour. Saturdays are busy but a lot of annual passes are also blocked that day.

 

[agamble]

It's really busy right now, and I don't think which days you go will make much of a difference in crowds. I voted to go Thurs-Saturday (before reading the comments) because I think two EMH at DL would be more valuable for a lot of the reasons mentioned above including the 7AM opening. However, as another poster mentioned if you're debating between a full day on Wednesday and a half day on Saturday I would go with the full day. If you can make it until at least 7PM on Saturday night, then I'd say Saturday is still a good option. But if you're going to leave after lunch, then it would be much better to have the whole day on Wednesday.

I'm assuming you live within a 2-3 hour drive as you have SoCal 3-day passes. Is it easy to get to DCA by 8AM for the EMH tomorrow? Curious then why you would need to head home so early Saturday. Either way, have a great trip and enjoy the time with your boys. Take lots of pictures, and make sure there's a few with you in them .

 

[dusterbuster]

Thanks, agamble. I live in Santa Monica, so should be able to get to DCA by 8am for the EMH tomorrow morning. If we went with the Saturday DL EMH option, we could stay later into the early evening, but I'm thinking my kids probably won't have the stamina to be out in the crowds for the entire day (okay, admittedly I probably won't have the stamina/patience to deal with the crowds all day without a break, I just like to blame it on the kids), and since we'll have to check out of DL hotel Saturday morning, I figured it won't be as convenient to take a break midday and hit the pool, etc. if we go to a park on Saturday. Thus, my thought is that we'll probably want to hit the road by midday on Saturday if we went with that option.

But since we have some flexibility with our schedule, I'm thinking we can try DCA tomorrow, and DL on Thursday, and then decide whether we want to go to DCA on Friday, or take a day off and wait for DL on Saturday, based on our experiences with the EMH at each of the parks. However, if the assigned EMH days were switched between the 2 parks, I think I would lean towards 2 EMH days at DL, and 1 at DCA.

 

[Nevada Jen]

I think your plan above is the best. I honestly think DL EMH is super crowded and not worth it (as you saw from the wait times). DCA EMH will be a ghost town comparatively. And since it is nearly impossible to get a FP for RSR after noon at DCA and there is no FP for TSMM, I think you might want to do two EMH days there for those rides alone. If I can make a suggestion, hit DCA EMH tomorrow (you know you need to check in to the hotel first right?). Go first to Toy Story, then to Soarin then to RSR so that you are hitting RSR at the end of EMH (the line tends to go down then). Ride RSR and then check the fastpass return times and try to time it so you get a fastpass for after dark on RSR (my guess is that is about an hour after park opening). Pull the fastpass and then head over to DL and see how far out the star tours fastpasses are. If it works before your planned nap time, pull that or check the FP return time for Indy, Big Thunder. Hang out at DL until it is so crowded you want to stab someone (1ish?) and then head back to the Hotel. Maybe pack swim suits in the bag you are taking into the park or in an obvious bag you can get back from bell services and swim/hang out at the pool while you wait for your room.

 

[dusterbuster]

Wow, thanks Nevada Jen, that is great advice, and I definitely plan to follow your specific recommendation regarding tomorrow's schedule. As a newbie on visiting Disneyland with kids (last time I visited Disneyland was 17 years ago), it's great to have the benefit of the experience/recommendations from all of you knowledgeable folks here on the forums! I'm making this trip without the Mrs. (who "conveniently" has a work conference this week), so all of these recommendations are especially appreciated since I can use all the help I can get navigating the parks with my 2 boys!

 

[BriannaRuth]

Taking a mid-day break at the hotel is a *really* good idea with kids that age.