To EMH, or Not to EMH, That Is the Question...

[mammoth_fan]

When we went to DW in July 2001, I planned for us to go to the EMH park every day. It seemed to be OK, I don't remember huge crowds or wondering why we were bothering with EMH.

We're going back in August . Please give me your reasons why you take advantage of EMH or avoid EMH like the plague .

Thanks!!

 

[WDWguru]

We do morning EMH but not evening EMH. People do not want to get up early on vacation and have to make an extra effort to be at the early EMH, while they don't for the evening EMH. In our experience, you can knock out a TON before the 11 am crowds hit by going to early EMH but the evening ones are typically pretty crowded.

With the new ticket options a lot of folks aren't paying for hopping, so any park with either EMH will tend to be more crowded overall that day than other parks in general, but not enough to make it worth skipping the morning, imho. If you have hoppers, go to early EMH and then hop to another park around lunch. Another alternative we've used is to visit the park that had EMH the evening before at opening the next day. That works great, too!

 

[DisKim]

I agree with the last poster. We went last August and I planned our itinerary so that we would hit the parks that had EMH the night before early in the morning. We did not have the hopper option so we avoided EMH. It worked very well. As a matter of fact, I remember going to MK the morning after they had an evening EMH and it was totally empty. I've never been to an evening EMH so I have no advice there.

 

[disnut1149]

We always take advantage of the morning EMH. Last October, we went to an evening EMH at the MK and it was soooo crowded. We ended up leaving after riding just a few rides. You could try it, maybe we just had an unusual crowded night. Have fun!!!

 

[KathyRN137]

We do morning EMH but not evening EMH. People do not want to get up early on vacation and have to make an extra effort to be at the early EMH, while they don't for the evening EMH. In our experience, you can knock out a TON before the 11 am crowds hit by going to early EMH but the evening ones are typically pretty crowded.

Evening EMHs get

 

[patsal]

The AM EMH can workout fine, but last July we found that many people were not buying the hopping feature and going to the park that had PM EMH (we talk to lots of people while waiting in lines and by no means scientific but it did represent our experiences). PM EMH rides had wits like 120 minutes at RNR, and TOT, 90 minute wiats at stitch, 90 minute waits at Splash. What we found would work best was to use EMH in the AM for rides like TOT, RNR, and of course for Fantasy Land and the Mountains in MK, Soarin' and Test Track, etc. If we wanted to stay and walk around at MK we sometimes did that for an hour or so in the PM but avoided the rides. We also found that if you go to the park that had PM EMH the next morning it was pretty empty. I'm going to give that plan a try again this year. Maybe more guests will be adding the hopping feature to their tickets so it won't be so crazy crowded.

 

[Tink]

We use the EMH for the mornings at MK. We have two little ones who are Dumbo crazy. This gives us a chance to ride it with relatively short lines. Our kids are early risers, so this works for us. They crash early so the nights don't work for us.

We do park hop out of MK to another park just before lunch. That's when the crowds start to thicken.

 

[kirsangel]

I agree with Tink. My kids are small and early risers anyways, so we do morning EMHs. We don't get a wakeup call or anything and make a backup plan for a different park if they do sleep in, but it hasn't happened yet. We have yet to make it to an evening EMH.

 

[beattyfamily]

EMH in August are a blessing!!

 

[mammoth_fan]

Thanks for the info...I'll keep checking this thread to see if anyone else would like to weigh in.

Can't believe it's less than 3 months before we go! Right now, steamy-hot Florida sounds great. It's only 40 degrees here right now and I have goosebumps (I'm cheap...already turned the furnace off).

 

[queenvic]

What if you only have the evenings though? Is it still advantageous to go to the park that had EMH the day before? Or is that only a good strategy if you are going first thing in the morning?

Queenvic

 

[WDWguru]

In general, with the trend toward people not buying hoppers now, any park with either EMH will be more crowded than a park without on any given day. So I think visiting the park the day after EMH is still a good strategy. No matter what day you go or when EMH is, you'll get more done before 11 am than any other time of day, but if you have to do afternoons, avoiding the EMH park is probably a good idea.

 

[sameyeyam]

We decided to go to EMH (evening) parks in April this year. NEVER AGAIN!! They were really crowded. I noticed every day that lines for buses to the EMH parks were about 10 times more crowded than the other parks. We could hardly walk around AK! We would have switched & went to different parks, but we had ADR's at most of them.

I think the best advice I could give is Get to the Park Before they Open. You can enjoy a lot of rides with hardly any lines before the 11-12 o'clock crowd gets there. Go back to hotel around 2pm to rest, swim, put on fresh shoes, etc... Then head back to park around 7pm. Have a late dinner (8-9pm), then walk around and enjoy the sites, get on rides that don't have long lines, watch fireworks, etc...