When do EMH crowds start leaving?

[Davey Jones II]

I confess, I`ve been starting a lot of threads lately. That`s cuz I`m suddenly neck deep in trip planning. I hope my threads help others, too.
So here`s the question. I`ve heard that it`s a good strategy to show up in the evening at a park that had EMH that morning. That`s because the EMH crowds start getting tired, and leave well before park close. In your experience, is that true? Thank you in advance for sharing your experience.

 

[Dinglehopper626]

I will speak from personal experience. Keeping in mind we have never traveled with kids. Just two adults. Generally, when we EMH in the morning, we either park hop or use that afternoon/evening for Disney Springs. I would say we leave the EMH park around 3:00-4:00 most of the time. We have stayed in the park from EMH start to park close before too, but usually we have done/seen everything by late afternoon and we are ready to switch up parks or head back to the hotel for a swim/nap before going out that night.

 

[CAS239]

I personally don't think it's true. A lot of people don't have park hoppers and will stay the entire day in that park. Or take a break, then come back for the evening.

I don't stay on site, so if a park has emh, I normally avoid that park for the day.

 

[kniquy]

Not sure this is true. I think those hitting EMH might just take an afternoon break and return for the evening - or those with park hoppers might hop over to that EMH park for the evening. So there really is nothing deterring people from being there in the evening. People want to be at the park for the evening fireworks so that is a draw too. You also get those staying off site who will show up at noon and stay until close. Disney certainly doesn't do things to lower crowds.

People also run on Disney adrenaline. We have done it with kids (9 yo twin boys). We intended on afternoon breaks after RD, but there was so much that we wanted to do so we essentially stayed to close most nights and RD the next morning. Thankfully we now try to take it a little slower, but RD will really mean an afternoon break with returning to the park around 6pm until close.

 

[Disfan454]

I know for us, we take full advantage of our time at the parks. If we make it to EMH in the morning, we will go home late afternoon and rest a bit and then come back and close the park down.

 

[danceintherain]

We've never done morning EMH, but usually leave the park for our break between 1 & 2pm. If the park hours accommodate it, then we'll return to the park around 5pm, or we'll go to a different park.
If we do try morning EMH this year, we may leave a little earlier, but that has more to do with our plans for the rest of the day, and the fact that it's a party night, which dove tails into the "if the park hours accommodate it."
When I was growing up, we were arrive when we got there and stay through the evening fireworks. I'd expect that the vast majority of Disney-goers likely still fit that mold. DISers are a rare breed....

 

[Davey Jones II]

Thanks for the replies. The reason I asked is that someone in another thread was saying that they built their whole park strategy around arriving in the evening for a park that had EMH. He said it worked great for his family.

 

[mi*vida*loca]

We always leave the park around 12-1 whether it's regular park opening or EMH. I feel the park gets pretty busy by then. We do midday break by the pool and then a different park in the evening especially if it had EMH that morning. I find the crowds stay pretty high the entire day.

 

[Shanti]

I confess, I`ve been starting a lot of threads lately. That`s cuz I`m suddenly neck deep in trip planning. I hope my threads help others, too.
So here`s the question. I`ve heard that it`s a good strategy to show up in the evening at a park that had EMH that morning. That`s because the EMH crowds start getting tired, and leave well before park close. In your experience, is that true? Thank you in advance for sharing your experience.

Don't assume they'll leave before closing. Also, don't assume EMH have a big impact on crowd patterns these days. Most people now plan trips around FP+ availability rather than EMH.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Here’s an example of a 4 hour visit to MK from 8 pm to midnight. We did all of this without any Fast Passes. It happened to be a EMH morning so there was bumper to bumper traffic leaving the park when we arrived.

Big Thunder 3x
Splash Mtn 2x
Space Mtn 2x
Mine Train
Pirates
Jungle Cruise
Haunted Mansion
Pooh
Peter Pan
Speedway
Barnstormer 2x

We also watched the fireworks and had a couple of Dole Whips.