to do or not to do extra magic hours

[bgsnmky]

That is the question.

It is interesting to me that tourguide mike pretty much says to avoid the early and late magic hour parks.

I have been to disney many many times and we always like the magic morning hours especially since the park is not crowded and just the ambience is nice.

I am just wondering if I am wrong in doing this and curious if other people have tried it both ways and can truley tell ot is better to not do them or better to do them

You can read tons of threads on this forum and others where people say to be at the rope drop but not necessarily on magic mornings.

Thanks and looking forward to everyones input

 

[zima-cheryl]

This is just us, but I do like morning emh for the last day we are at the world. We fly out late, so can spend 2/3 of a day there. That extra hour makes a big difference in what all we can do that last day.

 

[Maine-iac]

This is just us, but I do like morning emh for the last day we are at the world. We fly out late, so can spend 2/3 of a day there. That extra hour makes a big difference in what all we can do that last day.

I find that we get so much done during the morning EMH. So because we are doing that we usually do not do the evening EMH unless we plan on sleeping in the next morning.
DH gets to work at 6am every morning and if he gets out of the habit of getting up early is will be so hard for him to get back into it when we get home. Now my 19 year old DS is another thing.

 

[OB1]

Park hopping makes a big difference in this choice. Since we always have hoppers, we can go to a morning EMH, and if it gets to busy, we just hop. Same for the evening. We usually hop to that park late and enjoy the evening.

 

[beccasmom]

We are also WDW veterans and we tend to go to the extra night hours at the MK more than anything. We're not early risers as much as we used to be! And we enjoy the park after dark. It is nice to get out of the sun if visiting in the summer months.....and we still get our Dole Whips no matter what the time!

 

[dzneelvr]

We absolutely LOVE doing EMH in the evenings when we go in June/JulyWith college-age DS and DD, we don't leave the resort until noon and closing down the parks is just awesome And when the kids were little, we did the EMHs in the morning and got right in on the character greetings and FPs. I resist the "one size fits all" advice of either yes or no to EMH as I see both having great advantages depending on your family's preferences.

 

[Robo]

Never attending EMH's because they will be too crowded
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.

Generally speaking:
Expect a PM EMH which BEGINS before 10PM to be much busier than one that BEGINS much later.
Expect the FIRST 90 min. of PM EMH to be much busier than the LAST 90 min. of PM EMH.

Those who have attended PM EMH's and say that "they
are TOO CROWDED" are right... but ONLY for the nights
they may have attended.
I can say, from personal experience, that they CAN be
EMPTY, or FULL or somewhere IN-BETWEEN for attendance,
often within the same week.

We went to PM EMH at AK on a Wed night and PM EMH at MK
on a Sun night (early Spring visit.)
The EMH's were so EMPTY that we could have
stayed on many attractions and ridden around and around.
This included Splash, BTM, and Pirates (and many more) at
MK, and Exp. Everest, Kali, and Dinosaur at AK. And
the crowds during the DAY at these parks were very
LARGE... within the first hour of EMH, they simply
"evaporated."

But, it can change so much (either way), that saying
it was "like X" on a given night, can be meaningless
on another night in the same time-period. So, you
simply don'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.

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.

And, considering that EMH's are FREE to attend...
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're ALL SET for EXTRA FUN!

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[bgsnmky]

Ok...actually you guys are confirming that I am not crazy....as I agree with the posts...we love doing the EMH....

Good advice on the PM ones tho...on knowing later the better.

 

[kschafer]

We did not have park hoppers on our last trip so we avoided the EMH parks. This year we will do hoppers so I am anxious to give EMH a try!

 

[B-Ride]

IMHO, avoid evening hours as the parks are always very crowded. Parents would much rather keep their young kids up way past their bedtime than drag themselves out of bed early. Sad but true.

As for morning, over the years we find AK and DHS work, but MK not so much. As for Epcot, we have given up on early morning hours because we found they held the guests at the entrance until opening and by the time we got into the park we were lucky to get one ride in at Soarin'.

 

[Robo]

As for morning, over the years we find AK and DHS work, but

1- MK not so much.

As for Epcot, we have given up on early morning hours because we found

2- they held the guests at the entrance until opening and by the time we got into the park we were lucky to get one ride in at Soarin'.

1- Any more explanation on MK?

2- Even though there can always be exceptions, my experience is that they usually hold the guests near the Fountain of Nations.

 

[ppan77]

We are morning EMH fans!!! Especially with our kids who are early-risers!! Totally going against TGM's advice and planning our first day at MK that begins with a morning EMH!! Boy did they boo me on those boards for that! But hey, it's late January and the day after a Spectro, so I'm going with my gut that we will be fine! It doesn't hurt to try!!

 

[dacky041208]

Park hopping makes a big difference in this choice. Since we always have hoppers, we can go to a morning EMH, and if it gets to busy, we just hop. Same for the evening. We usually hop to that park late and enjoy the evening.

I think that is key. The morning EMH is great, but it could get really busy a bit later. If I can only go to one park, I would stay away from EMH, but we normally do a park til lunch, then back to the hotel for a break. The EMH's work pretty well for that schedule.

 

[bgsnmky]

I think that is key. The morning EMH is great, but it could get really busy a bit later. If I can only go to one park, I would stay away from EMH, but we normally do a park til lunch, then back to the hotel for a break. The EMH's work pretty well for that schedule.

Interesting about people saying that the park will get busy...I guess I think if you are there for EMH it is just like everyother day that by 9:00 the rest of the world comes in....I guess the idea is that MORE people that are staying in a WDW hotel are at that park..so once the rest of the world comes in than it is more crowded.

we always feel with EMH morning we get so much done and have fast passes for other rides (or the same favorite) rides that the crowd is not that big of a deal.

Loving the thoughts on this thread!

 

[vicki_c]

Just to point out --

TGM does not normally recommend EMHs.

TouringPlans / Unofficial Guide does not normally recommend EMHs.

RideMax does not normally recommend EMHs, and their software only supports EMH mornings at MK, and no others.

So while lots of people have different experiences using them or not, it's pretty standard that the professional touring folks recommend against them.

My own personal EMH experience (which is relatively limited) is that the parks are more crowded on EMH days. What is amazing to me is the resort guests who arrive to the park on an AM EMH after the EMH hour has already ended -- that seems to defeat the whole purpose, but you see it all the time - just check the bus stop for the AM EMH park about 8:45 AM and see all the people just leaving for the EMH park!

We did find the holiday EMHs (so 7 AM) at MK to be fine, but we were out of the park by 1 PM.

 

[JenLynn]

In my mind it sort of depends on what you are hoping to accomplish with the extra magic hours. If you are hoping to do a few rides and then park hop somewhere else, that is different than going to the park with extra magic hour and staying there.

With that said,
we love evening magic hours and take advantage of them for sure. If the morning hours fit with our other plans for the day we will go with it, but we also park hop if it gets too crowded in the park we are in.

 

[mainegal]

I ahve only been at WDW during "value" season in December. The later hours were great, especially since the parks close early in Decmember.

 

[MJAJmom]

We have done early morning EMHs at all the parks and we love them. First of all, my young boys are early risers so we are up anyways. It is not painful for us to get out the door. We also love making an 8am ADR inside the park before a 9am rope drop. If your family does not get up early, then this is much more of a hassle. We will never do late evening EMHs because my boys are in bed.

Second, I love low crowds. We can accomplish so many rides, especially the big ticket items, early in the day. At MK, we head straight for FantasyLand and get most of those rides done early. At Epcot, we get Soarin and TestTrack done. At HS, we get TSM and Muppets done. At AK, we get Safari done. Some rides my kids don't make the height requirement yet.

Every trip, we will plan to do at least 2 parks with early EMHs. MK EMHs on Thurs morning is mandatory. Epcot is my next priority. I only did AK EMHs once, because we like to do Donald's Safari bfast at 8am and we only do AK for 1 day. We just love them!!!

 

[shopn24seven]

I hate early mornings, PERIOD, so I don't them at WDW.
I DO love LATE MAGIC hours. I can get on ANY ride I want, that way.

 

[kris-co]

Maybe it was a fluke, but we love EMH hours in the evening! Spent the day at Hollywood Studios and then went to MK for EMH in Mid September 2009. May be a non busy time, but walked on all the big attractions a gizillion times in a row! Loved it!