To EMH or not to EMH?

[mcm574]

We are planning our first WDW trip in 16 years (!), as well as our first with our sons (they will be 9 and 4). We've done DLR with them, but that's a very different situation, as we all know.

We'll have four days in the parks, Tuesday 4/10-Friday 4/13 (when crowds are expected to a be a little down from the spring break/Easter peak), and we will have Parkhoppers. I know my boys well enough to know they need a good night's sleep if we don't want to ALL be miserable, so we are resigned to minimal if any night-time activities - our plan is to try to hit up each day's park at opening and do as much as possible in order to feel okay if/when we call it quits for the day after an early dinner.

Which brings me to my question - if it were you, would you try to take advantage of morning EMHs, and do as much as possible in that first hour? Or stick to non-EMH parks on the theory that they are always a little less busy anyway (and, in turn, avoid the added drama of trying to get everyone out the door for a 7:30 arrival time)?

If we do EMHs, assuming Touring Plans is right about what the morning EMHs are likely to be, our schedule would be:

Tuesday 4/10 - HS (EMH), afternoon in Epcot
Wednesday 4/11 - AK (no EMH)
Thursday 4/12 - Epcot (EMH); possible hop to MK
Friday 4/13 - MK (EMH)

Which brings up another factor - it kind of breaks my heart to leave MK until that late in our trip - but I'd also try to get a BOG dinner ADR, and I know that will be most likely if I save that for the last night of the trip.

I welcome any and all thoughts on the subject! Thanks!!!

 

[Retro Magic]

Personally, I try to avoid morning EMH. Not worth it and I find it even more crowded. However, sometimes those parks with the morning hours are less crowded in the evenings.

Not to say it won't work for some/you if you plan accordingly. Evening EMH I love though and works great for park hopping!

 

[shannonstar]

We use MK EMHs pretty often. There are so many rides that you can head to something and there won't be as many people as you think, as long as your aren't headed to Peter Pan or 7 Dwarves.
Epcot, sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. I don't find any of the others overly helpful. If we are heading to that park anyway, we will usually try to do it, but we don't go out of our way to hit them.

 

[mcm574]

Hm - so maybe I should try to scope out the evening EMH for the last night or two of our trip? - we fly home Saturday afternoon, so dealing with their overtired crabbiness on that day wouldn't be too big a deal....

 

[mcm574]

We use MK EMHs pretty often. There are so many rides that you can head to something and there won't be as many people as you think, as long as your aren't headed to Peter Pan or 7 Dwarves.
Epcot, sometimes we do, sometimes we don't. I don't find any of the others overly helpful. If we are heading to that park anyway, we will usually try to do it, but we don't go out of our way to hit them.

Great, thanks for the info! - so maybe we'll plan to stick with MK on Friday no matter what - but switch up the other three days. That would let me push AK back, too, which might increase the chances of a FPO FP, right? Hm, so many factors to consider....

 

[Shellyb84]

We love morning EMH and find we can get a lot done in that first hour, especially at MK. We've never had much luck with evening EMH.

 

[Espers]

We do the morning EMH, and don't make the first fastpass until 10 or som and that usually works out pretty well - get to do a lot of things during EMH and then minimal waits with FP after. A

 

[kymom99]

We use morning EMH but we also park hop.

MK EMH is totally worth it.

Also don't rule out a late evening or two. The parks are so different at night and I always found my kid to be more agreeable after the heat lets up a bit.

 

[sharonabe]

We'll have four days in the parks, Tuesday 4/10-Friday 4/13 (when crowds are expected to a be a little down from the spring break/Easter peak), and we will have Parkhoppers. I know my boys well enough to know they need a good night's sleep if we don't want to ALL be miserable, so we are resigned to minimal if any night-time activities - our plan is to try to hit up each day's park at opening and do as much as possible in order to feel okay if/when we call it quits for the day after an early dinner.

Since you've done DLR with the boys many times, I assume you're over on or near the west coast. Have you figured in the time difference to your plans and need for sleep? If you're on the west coast, 9:00 p.m. FL time will seem like 6:00 pm to their bodies, whereas a 7:30 a.m. out the door to make EMH will seem like 4:30 a.m.

 

[mcm574]

Since you've done DLR with the boys many times, I assume you're over on or near the west coast. Have you figured in the time difference to your plans and need for sleep? If you're on the west coast, 9:00 p.m. FL time will seem like 6:00 pm to their bodies, whereas a 7:30 a.m. out the door to make EMH will seem like 4:30 a.m.

Yes, we're in the Bay Area. Part of the impetus for this trip was my parents' request that we come visit them in Naples (a few hours south), so we'll have had five days to acclimate to the time change before we head to Orlando... they don't need to know that there's a specific reason I did it in that order, rather than the reverse, right?

 

[mcm574]

OK, seems like sticking with the Friday MK morning EMH is definitely advisable... but the Epcot Thursday EMH and the HS Tuesday EMH on Tuesday might not be worthwhile. Honestly, responding to sharonabe's comment made me realize that my kids often do tend to be early risers - especially on vacation, they sometimes get so excited they wake up before 6. I think maybe I'll stick with the plan I laid out above (and, per kymom99's suggestion, keep an open mind about late nights - especially towards the end of the trip).

 

[sharonabe]

Yes, we're in the Bay Area. Part of the impetus for this trip was my parents' request that we come visit them in Naples (a few hours south), so we'll have had five days to acclimate to the time change before we head to Orlando... they don't need to know that there's a specific reason I did it in that order, rather than the reverse, right?

Here's my advice then: wait and make the EMH decision AFTER you secure FP+ for FoP. Hopefully, the FoP craze will have slowed slightly by the time you make FP+, but as of right now 60 + 3 days is still difficult for getting them, so it may be you can only get them for that last day. Once you have those in hand, you can decide if any of the EMH morning or evening fit into your plans. If you can do AK on that 3rd day, you may be able to drop the park hopper from your tickets. Just do EP on 4/10, HS on 4/11, AK on 4/12 and MK on 4/13

 

[mcm574]

Here's my advice then: wait and make the EMH decision AFTER you secure FP+ for FoP. Hopefully, the FoP craze will have slowed slightly by the time you make FP+, but as of right now 60 + 3 days is still difficult for getting them, so it may be you can only get them for that last day. Once you have those in hand, you can decide if any of the EMH morning or evening fit into your plans. If you can do AK on that 3rd day, you may be able to drop the park hopper from your tickets. Just do EP on 4/10, HS on 4/11, AK on 4/12 and MK on 4/13

Of course, very wise - we've never done PH+ before, so I forgot to factor that in. (I was too caught up thinking about making ADRs in a few weeks!)

We're definitely going to stick with the Park Hoppers either way, though - my husband and I are using up some very old tickets (long story short, we went for a long weekend back in 2004 - so I guess it'll have been been 14 years, not 16 - and because we never imagined we'd move to the other side of the country, and the tickets never expired, we bought 7-day tickets for a 3-day trip). So the incremental expense only comes from the kids' tickets - and while an extra $150 is nothing to scoff at, since we have no idea when we'll be back after this trip, we think it's worth it to have the flexibility.

Thanks for the help - I'm sure I'll need more!!!