"The truth" on EMH hours in summer?

[aprincessatlast]

I have learned from the Disney blogging universe... rule number 101 is avoid EMH days. I guess I am a sucker for punishment because I just have a hard time believing it. We are a bit rusty with wdw but used to love emh nights but this was mid 2000's. Is it more crowded well yeah but by how much in summer?

We are going next month and with the updated release of hours I am wondering how much more I can get done in Epcot during the 2 hours of an evening emh? The following EMH night is Wednesday at MK and gives me one additional hour vs the night before. We will be leaving each park around noon each day and not returning until about 7. Our original plan was MK on Tuesday and Wednesday was a fill in day with Epcot.

Is it a crapshoot to see what day would be better or does the old adage of every disney blogger ring true in 2016.....stay away from EMH?

 

[MidgeD79]

We go to WDW in the summer. We ALWAYS use morning EMH. We tried a PM EMH last summer and would not do it again.

 

[kaybird]

We ALWAYS do morning EMH. Our rule of thumb for others, if you are NOT staying onsite, avoid that park. If you are onsite, but don't intend to get there by opening of EMH, avoid that park. If you get there early, you will get more done by 11 am than you will the rest of the day!

 

[georgina]

You will get a lot of opinions. I don't bother with evening EMH at Epcot but like them at MK and studios. But I have park hoppers and hop around a lot. If it is only a difference of one hour (like midnight to 1 AM close) probably doesn't make much difference for MK. I don't do many rides at Epcot. Do you have FP set up already?

 

[AFwifelife]

Morning EMH is awesome. You can get so much done in those first few hours. Evening EMH is definitely more crowded.

 

[disney world dreamer]

we love EMH year round.
i never avoid it.
in fact i tend to plan my days based on which park has EMH in the morning because we enjoy that more that evenings.
i've been in june, july, august, and september among other months and i don't find summer to be any "worse" than other times.

 

[Shanti]

I have learned from the Disney blogging universe... rule number 101 is avoid EMH days. I guess I am a sucker for punishment because I just have a hard time believing it. We are a bit rusty with wdw but used to love emh nights but this was mid 2000's. Is it more crowded well yeah but by how much in summer?

We are going next month and with the updated release of hours I am wondering how much more I can get done in Epcot during the 2 hours of an evening emh? The following EMH night is Wednesday at MK and gives me one additional hour vs the night before. We will be leaving each park around noon each day and not returning until about 7. Our original plan was MK on Tuesday and Wednesday was a fill in day with Epcot.

Is it a crapshoot to see what day would be better or does the old adage of every disney blogger ring true in 2016.....stay away from EMH?

We love both morning and evening EMH in summer. The evening ones are especially nice, as the sun is down. We get so much done during them, it's unbelievable. No FP holding up the lines, only a fraction of the daytime crowd allowed onto attractions- it's great. We did MK EMH after an extremely crowded MK day on July 3rd last year, & almost everything was walk-on during EMH.

The people who should avoid are those who don't use EMH: those staying offsite & those who can't/won't get up early enough/stay up late enough to fully use them.

With the increase in crowds that's occurred over the past few years, EMH are more valuable than ever.

 

[Oswin]

We do not stay away from EMH in the summer. Morning EMH are great because it's cooler and you can get a lot done and leave the park early. When we go to morning EMH at a park, we generally use EMH + the first couple of general admission hours and then are leaving the park with everything we want to get done completed by noon. Night EMH is also great because once the sun goes down you can really get in a lot of great touring at the parks. Last summer, we were able to literally ride every single attraction that was still open during nighttime EMH at MK, during July 4 week. The only people I think should avoid EMH parks are off site guests and people who can't get up early or stay up late to take advantage of EMH.

 

[MeganMango]

Why!? I get it brings in more crowds for people with standard 1 day park tickets (no park hopper), but the EMH are awesome. I always use the EMH then head to another park. But use those "hours" even if that's all the time you're in the park that day. Lines are WAY shorter.

 

[Nohal]

We always do morning EMH. I also work my touring plans around which park has EMH. You can get so much done the first few hours the park is open. We also get park hoppers so its easy for us to switch to another park when it gets crowded at the EMH park.

 

[rpb718]

I have learned from the Disney blogging universe... rule number 101 is avoid EMH days.

I never could understand the "avoid parks with EMH" rule espoused by so many. There is no simple answer whether or not to avoid EMH. It depends on whether you are staying on-site or off-site. It also depends on whether you have park-hoppers or not. And, based on the answers to these questions, it depends on whether you are talking about "EMH hours" as opposed to "EMH days".

It is perfectly fine if staying on-site with a park-hopper ticket to fully use the "EMH hours" for a park but not spend the whole day in that park. It is also fine if staying off-site with no park-hopper ticket to avoid the parks with EMH hours.

 

[HeyIt'sMe]

During our trip this August we are going to try to make it to an Epcot AM EMH. We have never done one in all the years we've been to WDW. What kind of waits are we talking for TT & Soarin' in that first hour? TIA!

 

[DarkPaw]

Had some time to kill and decided to do this:

 

[sharonabe]

EP evening EMH may not be worth it. For one thing, the EMH only gives you until 11:00. Most people can/will stay up that late in the summer. Second, there's just not that much open during the evening EMH to help with the crowds. I don't think anything will be walk on; you'll probably still be in line for at least 20-30 min for the three headliners. 3 x 30 means your evening EMH hours are pretty much gone.

MK evening depends on how late the park is open that night. You said it would only give you one hour, but aren't all evening EMH two hours? So if the park closes at 11:00 or after, those two hours should be great, and that last hour will be even better with lots of walk ons and re-rides. If the park closes at 9 or 10, it'll still be good, but you will have some wait time for the more popular rides. The things that helps here is there are so many things open that it helps spread out the crowds.

 

[bbjunkie]

We always take advantage of EMH; both morning and evening. 1). We always go in the summer, 2). We always stay on property, 3). We always have hoppers. With these three facts in mind, our days go like this... Up in the morning and at the gate for am EMH for whichever lark has them. Do everything with very little wait, eat lunch around noon when it starts to get hot and the park starts getting crowded. Back to the resort for chill-out pool time. Most of the time we eat quick service dinner in the resort before heading back to the evening EMH park where we've booked fast passes at about 6:00. As the evening cools and it gets later, you can get more done because people leave. It's great. We use as many EMH as possible.

 

[TTFNTigger]

Our last day at WDW was this past Wednesday. EMH at MK were 11:00-1:00. We went to see the Star Wars fireworks at HS then jumped on a bus to MK. Got there just in time to see most of the MSEP, then made a beeline to Splash Mountain because we weren't able to ride it for multiple reasons any other time during our trip. We were extremely disappointed, it was not open during EMH that night. Everyone flocked to BTM, we moved on. SDMT was a 40 minute wait by the time we got there. Needless to say the disappointment of Splash Mountain being closed knocked the wind out of our sails. We had also been in the parks since 10 am. Adding to our disappointment was one of my daughters really wanted a balloon and we had debated about it the whole trip and finally gave in to getting one before leaving the park that night. Balloons are not sold during EMH. My advice is if you go to evening EMH, go with the attitude that whatever you get to do is bonus, not with your heart set on doing one particular thing. We had a fabulous trip, but the ending did not live up to our magical expectations- it was our own fault though. A mistake we won't make our next trip.

 

[djc9699]

We did MK evening EMH on Wednesday the 8th and were sorely disappointed in the crowds. We did not find any ride other than the teacups and carousel that did not have at least a 30 minute wait. There was a massive amount of small kids (under 8) in the parks. That was the only EMH we attempted this year. We used to doing evening EMH a lot but they have gotten too crowded. We won't attempt them again. Early mornings are a better use of time I think.

 

[aprincessatlast]

We did MK evening EMH on Wednesday the 8th and were sorely disappointed in the crowds. We did not find any ride other than the teacups and carousel that did not have at least a 30 minute wait. There was a massive amount of small kids (under 8) in the parks. That was the only EMH we attempted this year. We used to doing evening EMH a lot but they have gotten too crowded. We won't attempt them again. Early mornings are a better use of time I think.

Thanks that was informative! I am wondering what it was like the night before with a regular midnight closing versus the 1am closing? Just as crowded or more so? We do not have park hoppers so that affects our decision slightly although I really do not like park hopping.

We would be one of those with under 8 kids at the park until 1am though. I am not necessarily looking for walk ons (although that would be great) but more so just soak up the evening ambiance of Disney.

 

[aretha30]

We go every August and tend to hit the PM EMH. We stick with EP and MK for the most part. We do have PH so we will start at one park in the AM take a break somewhere around 1, go back to a different park around 6. If that park isn't the EMH park we can hop over to it or just stick with the one we are at depending on how we feel or the time. This is one of the reasons why we love hoppers so much, they give us the ultimate in flexibility.

 

[MaybeMaybeline]

Evening EMH at Epcot seems very pointless to me. Visiting Christmas week waits were just as long during EMH as they had been during the day. Yes lighter crowds, but many closed attractions. Everyone is basically there hoping for shorter waits on the headliner attractions which translates to longer waits. If your main goal is just to soak up the atmosphere, you can do this any evening. Have a seat after Illuminations and wait 15 minutes. You'll have the place practically to yourself and no one will rush you out. There is nothing like the World Showcase after the crowd has dumped out.