Something I just don't get about EMH

[meganbear]

Okay, the people staying in the restorts are supposed to be the only ones allowed to do the EMH. Lets say that at least half of them have no intention of getting up early enough to do EMH. So I just can't understand why EMH days would be so crowded. If I weren't staying at the restorts or didn't want to get up early, I would definitely do a non-EMH park, wouldn't that be the smart thing to do? So I just don't get it---why does the crowds get so bad later on in the day??? It just doesn't make sense to me.

 

[jennymouse]

Not everyone does research like we do and they just don't know.

 

[tassie42]

hi meganbear! i don't understand this either. they say the parks get really crowded after 11 or 12:00. Why would people wait till then to enter an ehm park? we are going april 1-5 and we are going to try an ehm at mk so we'll see how it goes!

 

[meganbear]

Not everyone does research like we do and they just don't know.

Oh how true!!! I'm SO addicted to this place and I just can't seem to get enough info!!!!

And tassie, I'm not going until May 9, so PLEASE when you come back let me know---okay?!?!?

 

[ibleedblue]

Originally posted by tassie42
they say the parks get really crowded after 11 or 12:00. Why would people wait till then to enter an ehm park?

Of all the times I've stayed on site, I've never taken advantage of an ehm park and I'll walk into any of them at 11 or 12 without checking to see which is emh. I'm on vacation and that means I sleep as late as I want!! I don't want to take a week off work and go back to work more tired than when I left. Disney will be there, I'll be back if I don't see it all. Plus, I need lots and lots and lots of beauty rest!!

 

[nowellsl]

They really aren't crowded during the actual "hour", it's not until the regular entry time crowds show up that it gets kind of crowded. Then add the late morning sleep-late crowd and it gets packed. Thats why a lot of people only go to the early entry park first thing and leave when it gets crowded.

 

[meganbear]

I completely understand why some people don't take advantage of EMH, I just don't understand why the EMH parks get so busy later in the day. Like I said, if I wasn't going to take advantage of it, I would definitely go to another park since I would feel like the people that did do the EMH would have a big jump on me. So I'm not asking WHY people don't take advantage of it, I just can't get why those days would get so crowded---just doesn't make sense to me. Maybe I'm just slow!

 

[NotUrsula]

I can't document this myself, but I seem to remember reading that there tends to be a pattern in the way most people circulate from day to day among the major parks. Apparently, most people have their first full day on Monday, and the most common thing that people do is go to the MK on the first day. There is kind of a lemming factor at work, I think, and it all revolves around the event schedule at the MK. If there are fireworks &/or a night parade at MK, that day *will* be crowded, and if that day is also an EMH day, onsite people who might have come in later in the day will come in the morning and stay until closing.

Even though you can "hop" to more than one park each day if you have a PH, most people actually don't. They pick one park and spend the entire day there. Now that the evening hours are shorter, they are going to gravitate to whichever park has the longest hours on a given day (except for the above-mentioned MK factors, of course.)

I have one other theory, also sort of a lemming thing. I have a theory that LOTS of offsite people simply follow other cars when they arrive on property, because they don't have a concrete plan for where they want to be that day. If a lot of cars are heading somewhere, I think that the undecided will follow, and through inertia, will stay pretty much wherever they end up.

 

[princesstommi]

My theory - I think that most people do spend the majority of the day in one park, especially the morning/afternoon to see the parade. So, when you have a whole lot of people showing up early (EMH) and staying to see the parade, and then add the normal show-up-at opening-time people who stay for the parade.

I could be wrong though.

 

[cindy21494]

I agree with princesstommi. I think the park gets crowded later because you have the EMH people there already and then you get the regular time people coming in. Also, some people don't plan a much as the rest of us. They just go to what park they feel like at the time.

I personally try to go to a park that doesn't have EMH.

 

[XStAnt]

If Disney has about 15,000 resort guests and only half go to the EMH park that day, then you'll get an increase of about 7500 guests that day. In theory that could be a noticeable difference.

In reality I don't think it results in an increase that big. If 15,000 guests are staying in the resorts on a particular day and they did not have any EMH, we can assume the resort crowds would tend to spread out fairly evenly among the parks. (I know some parks have higher attendance than others, but statistically we'll assume an even distribution). This means about 4,000 guests per park. If the EMH park gets 7500 on an EMH day, then it only results in about 3500 more guests. I would think the parks could easily absorb that number without a problem.

Personally, I don't think it makes sense to park hop on EMH days. It takes about an hour to leave one park, wait for the bus/monorail or walk to car, travel to the second park, and enter the second park to begin touring. How much longer are the lines in the EMH park--10-15 minutes? You'd have to get on 4-6 more rides at the other park than you could at the EMH park to make a difference.

(Of course, park hopping does make sense if you want to take an afternoon break and go swimming, take a nap, eat lunch outside the park, etc. This scenario only applies to people leaving the EMH and going directly to another park because of the "higher" crowd levels at the EMH park.)

Unfortunately, Disney is very secretive with attendance info. We don't know average park attendance, capacity levels, number of guests taking advantage of EMH, and the amount of increase in attendance in the EMH park. So everything is speculative and anecdotal.

 

[BrerMama]

Here's my theory on why it gets more crowded as the day goes on: Although they don't make it to EMH, a lot of resort guests still go to the EMH park. Because they haven't planned, many don't realize that the other parks are actually less crowded. They think, "Oh look, Disney gave us a nice little schedule of where we should go each day." So like cows following each other to feed, they follow the list and go to EMH parks on EMH days, even if they don't want to ruin their vacation by getting up early. They end up ruining their vacations by waiting in long lines instead.

 

[BrerMama]

I forgot to add that you also have to figure in all those non-planning offsite people who have no idea what EMH means and are just going to any old park whenever they want.

 

[ThwTwinsMom]

meganbear,

This is oversimplified, but think of it like this...

Say you have an equal number of guests that randomly choose that park each day. Now, add in all the people that target that park because it is EMH.

So, you start at 8:00 am with the EMH people.
At 9:00 am you add in non-EMH people that are early risers.
By 11:00 am, you add in the late risers and people who drive straight to the park for the day.
Voila! More crowded than usual. 11:00 am becomes the magic number because the early risers are still there, and the later risers have arrived. Make sense?

 

[caron960]

I usually avoid that particular park that day. I think the extra hour in the morning is negated by the crowds later on. Or maybe you can only do that park half a day and another one later on.

 

[NotUrsula]

Out of curiousity, I just did some math, and it looks like WDW currently has slightly over 26,300 onsite lodging units available, counting S/D.

If you figure that each has a avg. capacity of 4 people, that's a maximum of around 131,500 possible onsite guests in a given day, if all of the current resorts were at capacity. If the resorts are at 75% capacity, that's still well over 78,000 people.
If only 25% of them do the EMH park, that would be still be nearly 20,000 people headed for the park of the day.

I have heard that the maximum capacity of MK is somewhere around 100K; I can't prove that, but it's what I've heard.

 

[kda]

My theories:

I've had many friends with small kids who stayed off site and didn't get to the park until 11 AM. It's not convenient for them to go back for an afternoon nap, so they sleep in and get a late, leisurely start, and plan to stay for as long as they can.

There's no way of knowing how many people buy 1-day tickets and they can't park hop if it starts to get crowded.

Ask people going for their first or second trip if they plan to park hop. There's so much for them to see and do (and they don't realize that other parks might be less crowded) so they stay in one place.

 

[arizonacolbys]

We always take advantage of EMH at MK, AK & MGM. It's just my hubby & me, so we get up & go. We can get our favorite rides/attractions done early at each park & really feel like we get a lot accomplished. We generally leave any park we go to sometime between 11 am - 1 or 2 pm for a nice break. We love to get in a swim or take a nap & get refreshed for our afternoon/evening plans.

We usually try a different park the 2nd half of the day for a change of scenery. We find that this works really well for us & we get away from the busy EMH park later in the day.

 

[litlpixie]

I love all the theories, especially the one about the herd of cows (LOL) Whatever the reason people do what they do, it doesnt matter me, I do EMH and I'm proud of it, but (and here's the key) I "get the heck out of Dodge" by 11:30am and go do something else. I cant even imagine what the MK is like when your shoulder to shoulder w/ 10's of thousands of other people) the thought makes me shudder!!