Should we use Extra Magic Hours? Yes or no?

[Kara19840]

Hi, we are going to WDW and staying at Art of Animation for the last two weeks of August. It's the first time for my family and I want to get the most out of it. I am in early planning stages and want to know if I should plan our park days in line with Extra Magic Hours or not.

I have read lots of threads and comments and I am now confused, should we avoid the park with Extra Magic Hours because it will be extra busy the whole day or do we go there anyway because everyone is now avoiding the parks with the Extra Magic Hours?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Kara

 

[MrInfinity]

We love EMH mornings. I would use them!

Some people do argue that they are busier the rest of the day, but I believe this is not really the case. Basically, the theory that some ppl put forth is that this is Disney's way of telling guests where to go, so people follow that, and they're busier. When really what happens is most guests (the 95% of guests who do little to no planning and do not use forums or crowd planners) do not pay attention, nor schedule their trips with such attention to detail, thus it really has very little impact. On the flip side, offsite guests who are optimizing their days, will AVOID these parks. Because they'd get no rope drop time whatsoever, there is no reason for them to go on this one day, when they can go any of the other 6 days and be better off. Thus, you've got more resort guests going, but more offsite guests avoiding the park. This makes EMH a net of a great time to go. We get so much done during this time I would not miss them if you are morning people and would enjoy or are otherwise prone to getting up and going. --- This is the main deciding factor when I recommend for or against them. If people are get-up-and-goers, then use EMH. If not, and you wouldn't get there early, then pick another day.

Also keep in mind no matter how much planning you do, Disney can mix up the EMH days a couple weeks before your trip, so really there is some randomness involved.

 

[Accident]

There is no real good answer to this. It sounds like a perk but there is a LOT of resort guests who all see it as a way to have more time in the park. You do get that but more often than not, especially on a friday or saturday evening EMH is swamped and lines will be a little longer. It can be helpful for a limited time trip if your trying to get in all the different parades and fireworks.

We generally have a short must do list for each trip and we line up when we're in the parks based on that. We don't specifically avoid emh but we have done the parks with both to know the difference. Generally early in the trip is more of our do the rides where a second trip in the same park will be more enjoying the place, snacks and parades. That second trip during EMH generally helps if your goal is not the rides.

I will say this, my favorite trip had a couple days where the parks were just opened later and not EMH. They were wonderful with crowds and seeing things and this is when I started to do EMH less.

 

[Robo]

Never attending EMH's because they will be "too crowded or overly-stressful,"

is like never eating grapes because they will be "too sour."



CAN be that way.

Doesn't HAVE to be that way.



Each EMH experience can be different.



We always go to AM EMH (virtually every day of the trip

that we did not do a PM EMH late the night before)...

never ONCE regretted an AM EMH... they are amazingly

empty and easy to ride the open attractions.

If that park then starts to fill 2 to 3 hours later...

We're happy with "doing" that park for the day and we

can HOP elsewhere or do lunch and take a rest until

later.



PM EMH's are a mixed bag. I've been when they were

"packed"... but on other nights (sometimes within the

same trip), the crowds were basically so low that it

was like "free rides" on all the open attractions.



The rule seems to be, it is far easier for guests to

STAY UP at the end of the day, than it is for them to

GET UP at the start of the day.



Generally speaking:

Expect a PM EMH which begins before 10PM to be much busier than one that begins much later.

Expect the first hour of PM EMH to be busier than the last hour.



Those who have attended PM EMH's and say that "they

are too crowded" are right... but that may have been only on the nights

they have attended.

I can say from personal experience that EMH's CAN be

virtually empty, or overly full... or somewhere in-between for attendance,

often within the same week.



The crowd situation at PM EMH can change so much (either way,)

that saying it was "like X" on a given night, can have little relation

to another night in the same time-period. So, you

simply "won't know unless you go."

It's similar to saying

that you attended on a given night and it rained, so

guests should never go on that night because it will

probably be rainy.



But, it can all boil down to your particular timing.



If you just consider that EMH's are FREE to attend...

You might just take a chance.

If it's too busy, just people-watch... or hit the exit.

(Where ELSE are ya gonna go at 10pm, anyway?)



But, if its not busy... you'll be ALL SET for EXTRA FUN!



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[Megsmachine]

We typically avoid EMH hours. They are typically (almost always) the most crowded parks. If you are in the planning stages I would go to easywdw.com and follow Josh's advice on when the best, Least crowded park days will be. It's already going to be very hot and busy in August, why make not try to at least go on the least crowded days? Plus if you are going for 2 weeks, which is awesome! With good panning you will get the most out of WDW without being exhausted and miserable. Good luck!

 

[kaybird]

We never miss a morning EMH. Less people will get up for rope drop, even if they intend to. If we have park hoppers, we are even more likely to take advantage.

 

[Alesia]

It's actually pretty simple. If you don't have park hoppers, avoid the park with EMH. If you do have park hoppers, go to the park with morning EMH and then hop to a less busy park around lunch time. Or, if you're night owls, go to the less busy park in the morning, and then hop to the park with PM EMH around dinner time.

 

[LSUfan4444]

Hi, we are going to WDW and staying at Art of Animation for the last two weeks of August. It's the first time for my family and I want to get the most out of it. I am in early planning stages and want to know if I should plan our park days in line with Extra Magic Hours or not.

I have read lots of threads and comments and I am now confused, should we avoid the park with Extra Magic Hours because it will be extra busy the whole day or do we go there anyway because everyone is now avoiding the parks with the Extra Magic Hours?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Kara

For the most part I avoid morning EMH. if I do use morning EMH, I leave that park by 11 am. P.M. EMH aren't bad, but I usually only use them if no other parks are open. Basically, I use them as "extra".

If MK has p.m. EMH till midnight, I'll spend my day at Epcot, then after Epcot closes I will make my way over to MK when every other park is closed.

I do not spend my day in a park that has PM or AM EMH and if I didn't have hoppers (which I don't consider an option for us) I would avoid EMH parks all together

 

[MHSweb79]

It's actually pretty simple. If you don't have park hoppers, avoid the park with EMH. If you do have park hoppers, go to the park with morning EMH and then hop to a less busy park around lunch time. Or, if you're night owls, go to the less busy park in the morning, and then hop to the park with PM EMH around dinner time.

I would agree with this advice 100%. If you want to avoid EMH crowd without hopping, a good strategy is to head to the park that had EMH the day before- there will usually be a significant difference in the crowd level.

 

[lubob]

We enjoy extra magic hours at night. My family gets a lot done not to mention the park looks beautiful at night all light up.

 

[tinawv]

I know I'm probably missing something here, but if people don't get up early for early magic hours why is it more crowded later in the day? They have already missed the advantages of getting up early. I can see the reverse for evening magic hours because people could sleep in and because the park is open later.

 

[Kara19840]

From what I have read people create their plan based on the EMH then even if they get up late or are slow at getting started and miss the EMH they go to that park anyway just because that's what was on their plan for the day.

 

[BudgieMama]

We didn't use any on our first trip, and are planning for selective use on our next trip... for example, there are morning EMH at Animal Kingdom on our first day. We'll be up super early due to the time difference, so it makes sense to make use of that time for us. (We'll stay until we're tired, and are planning two further days at AK to catch Rivers of Light and generally enjoy the park, so we don't have to push too hard)

Other days, we'll avoid the EMH parks because we don't want to be up early/stay our late. We go with what works for us!

 

[jimjenkids]

we tend to go to Disney w hen it is very busy-Xmas time...that being said, we have never done the early hours but we do love the extra hours at night. the parks tend to have everyone leaving and we have been able to walk on to most of the rides.

 

[Alesia]

I know I'm probably missing something here, but if people don't get up early for early magic hours why is it more crowded later in the day? They have already missed the advantages of getting up early. I can see the reverse for evening magic hours because people could sleep in and because the park is open later.

Because EMH is basically just suggestive marketing. Most people don't put nearly as much thought into their plans as the people here do.

 

[sunsetbeachgal]

I always think the advice of the various touring plan recommendations to avoid EMH parks is geared towards those staying off site, in which case I would avoid parks with early EMH like the plague!! We stay on site most of the time, and gear our touring plans around using the EMH, mostly the morning ones as we are early risers and think the extra hour really gives us a good jump on the crowds for the morning.

 

[tlmadden73]

I used the EMH hour for the morning at MK and loved it. We got quite a few rides done while it was cool, the park was pretty empty (all rides, except for Tomorrowland Speedway) were pretty much walk-ons and I didn't feel bad taking an afternoon break because of all we got done in the morning.

 

[ConnecticutNonna]

Love early EMH!!! I agree with @Robo...
It doesn't seem like very many folks take advantage of the "early" EMH. We found the parks more empty on those days than when we go at RD other days.
We've found late night EMH gets better the later it is... Quite busy the first portion of the late night hours with much longer wait times.
This is just our experience...

 

[monkyby87]

Once again Robo has summed it up pretty well I feel like. The morning EMH are fantastic. If you don't plan on utilizing the EMH though you may want to avoid that park, as you'll run into the normal crowd plus the EMH crowd. I've never NOT taken advantage of an EMH (a double negative I know), and despite the crowds always had a good time.

 

[GBBTomorrow]

My family of five typically avoids EMH. In the mornings, we'd prefer the extra hour of sleep or time to get in a run before we get ready for the day. The way we use evening EMH has worked for us consistently for years: we look at whatever park had evening EMH the night before, and that's where we go at rope drop the next morning. We find the parks that had EMH the night before seem to have lighter crowds. I don't have any scientific evidence for this, but it has been our experience.