Why avoid morning EMH?

[DisneyFanatik]

I am looking into purchasing one of the touring guide plans, and in my research I am coming to the conclusion that none of them recommend going to the parks for morning EMH and I don't understand why. We have always stayed onsite and we have always utilized morning EMH. It is great to be leaving for the hotel/pool at the same time that the crowds are arriving for a day at the park. Actually, one of the reasons that I pay more to stay onsite is to utilize the EMH. I can't imagine avoiding it! Can anyone shed light on why they recommend not using it?

 

[LurrrvtheDuck]

I was wondering the same thing myself. Also if all these tourguides are saying to avoid it, you know what that means? Less people at the morning EMH and more for me to enjoy!

 

[CPer'sMom]

I've always found morning EMHs to be great! If the *majority* of guests can't get up & get to the parks for the regular opening do you think they can get up extra early?!! Not in my experience

Now evening EMHs ~ that's something we usually avoid.

 

[May Queen]

I know, I don't get it either!
During the summer, my family and I went for AM EMH at MK. It was completely dead. The one thing I hate about EMH, though, is the fact that some portions of the park are not open. Like, if Fronteirland was open, I would be in heaven. Just riding Splash Mountain over and over again...
~May Queen

 

[Kick Save]

I think the recomendation is aimed at people who don't leave for the break and then park-hop somewhere else in the afternoon. If you don't have a park hopper pass, you're not going to want to deal with the crowds that build by mid-day, so you're better off missing the morning EMH.

Now, those of us that can utilize them and bail at 11 or so, they work fine.

Think of all the resort guests who think, "Hey, the non-resort people can't get in until 9, if we get there at 8:45 we've got a head start on them!"

Also of note on the guidebooks and tourguide sites: the VAST majority of Disney visitor hasn't read any of that stuff, we're still in the minority by a long shot. Don't worry about too many people picking up on the "secrets" we all know.

 

[Robo]

I 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...
Were happy with "doing" that park for the day and we can HOP elsewhere or do lunch and take a rest until later.

 

[katiebsmom]

I 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...
Were happy with "doing" that park for the day and we can HOP elsewhere or do lunch and take a rest until later.

Ditto!!!

 

[bytheblood]

I have always found morning EMH to be great in every park except AK. I have done it twice and both times, AK was a madhouse.

 

[DisneyFanatik]

Thanks for the responses!
I am glad to see that I am not the only one who enjoys morning EMH. I guess it is true that most people don't want to get up early. I hope that they keep sleeping in!

 

[JessLCH]

We did the EMH at MK (agaist the recs of the guidebooks) and thought it was great. By 9:30 we had done 5 or 6 rides and we didn't even get there at 8 sharp, closer to 8:30. I found that even on non EMH days the best bet is to get to the parks at opening. We really had very little waiting anywhere in the mornings. Of course, this was not during a peak/holiday period.

 

[deedeetoo]

I think that advice is aimed at people like my family. In all our trips we have made it to rope drop only once. We usually get there about a half hour after the park opens - and I mean regular opening time, not EMH. If you can't get up in time to make EMH, it makes no sense to go to that park. What I understand is that many people just don't that. They think they should go to the park with EMH even if they aren't getting up early enough to take advantage of it.

 

[loopner67]

I think that advice is aimed at people like my family. In all our trips we have made it to rope drop only once. We usually get there about a half hour after the park opens - and I mean regular opening time, not EMH. If you can't get up in time to make EMH, it makes no sense to go to that park. What I understand is that many people just don't that. They think they should go to the park with EMH even if they aren't getting up early enough to take advantage of it.

This is my thought, too. If you don't get to the park early enough, then it's just a park that is busier than usual, so why not go to a different park that day? We hit MGM on an EMH day at around 10am back in 2004 and the park was sooooooooooo busy. Around noon, we tried to get a fast pass for Rockin Rollercoaster and the return time was at 6pm! 6 hour later? Ack. We couldn't even use it because we had ADR's at LTT and had to park hop back to MK.

So the lesson is that if you can't get to the park early enough to get full use of the EMH, avoid that park.

 

[kabbie]

Does everyone avoid the evening EMH? I have read that the park does empty for the last 2 hours when most people have left to sleep. Also I've heard that you should never go to the same park the morning after it has an evening EMH...Why is that?

 

[Schmeck]

Does everyone avoid the evening EMH? I have read that the park does empty for the last 2 hours when most people have left to sleep. Also I've heard that you should never go to the same park the morning after it has an evening EMH...Why is that?

I think you read that wrong - we always to go the park that had EMH the day before - it's much less crowded, at least in the beginning of the day.

 

[mb168]

I think to be informed you should use any number of resources including TGM, UG, DIS boards, allears, mousesavers, etc, and become more knowledgeable about all aspects of the "how and when" of park touring. Then you take pieces of each of them and apply them to your situation becaus regardless of how many times Mike, deb, or whoever goes to the parks over the years and throught the year, they can't experience every situation nor can their predictions of what the crowds will be on your particualr trip be 100% accurate. Predicting the weather and crowds at Disney is like trying to predict what my 3year old will do next.

 

[Marilou]

I was very glad to see the positive posts from people who have done the AM EMH. This is our 1st stay on property and I specifically planned my itinerary to utilize the EMH. We are totally morning people in my fam so this is right up our alley. I'm only looking to do maybe one eve EMH at MGM after Fantasmic for just my DD & I to hit RnR & ToT.

I have what might be a very silly/dumb question, but when Epcot has PM EMH, I see attractions both in Future World and World showcase. Does Future world stay "open" just for the one extra hr? B/c I know FW closes around 7-ish correct? I've never been in FW after that time frame so I guess I was just wondering, it would mean getting your wristbands early? Am I making sense?
TIA

 

[DisneyFanatik]

Evening EMH extends Epcot's closing time to 12am - even Future World. Last year I remember going on Soarin' at 11:30pm.

 

[ms.ojo]

I was very glad to see the positive posts from people who have done the AM EMH. This is our 1st stay on property and I specifically planned my itinerary to utilize the EMH. We are totally morning people in my fam so this is right up our alley. I'm only looking to do maybe one eve EMH at MGM after Fantasmic for just my DD & I to hit RnR & ToT.

I have what might be a very silly/dumb question, but when Epcot has PM EMH, I see attractions both in Future World and World showcase. Does Future world stay "open" just for the one extra hr? B/c I know FW closes around 7-ish correct? I've never been in FW after that time frame so I guess I was just wondering, it would mean getting your wristbands early? Am I making sense?
TIA

I was curious about this too. FW generally closes at 7 but there are many rides (like Soarin') that stay open til 9pm routinely. It is those rides that will be open til midnight on evening EMH. Things like Honey I shrunk the Audience that usually closes at 7...I don't know, maybe they stay open until 10...but I doubt they're open 5 extra hours til midnight. Anyone else know for sure?

 

[seashoreCM]

If you miss most of morning EMH then avoid that park. It's already in full swing and the first round of fastpasses will already have been taken causing your first fastpass return time and also second and third fastpass fetch times to be pushed further into the future.

If you are up early enough to make morning EMH, then go for it. Try to be ready for the bus 45 minutes before park opening since the bus that leaves 20 minutes before park opeing could be full and then you will miss much of EMH.

Disney hints: http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[Stinky_Pete]

I love morning EMH - or at least I did when I used to go regularly (back then it was simply "Early Entry). We were able to get to the EE park before opening. When we went with friends (who have children) we found it much more difficult to get out of our hotel room early enough to get to the EE park before opening. I wonder how many of the families visiting WDW have the same problem. Yet another reason, I believe, that morning EMH works so well (or at least it did at the time).

As an example, I remember one time we went to MK. We experienced 5 Fantasyland attractions in that first hour - Pooh, iasw, Peter Pan, Snow White, and something else I can't remember. We literally walked onto everything - there were no lines at all. A couple of hours later all those attractions had wait times posted between 45 mins to an hour! So it was great for us.

We used the UG touring plans and when it said to experience something we had already done we just skipped onto the next thing. It worked great.

And yes, we hopped away from MK a few hours after opening. I think we took the monorail to Epcot.

But then again, that was 2000 - 2001.