Why not go to the parks that have EMH?

[mykidsluvLilo&Stitch]

I am curious(and obviously new to going to the parks) as to why I have seen it suggested not to go to the parks that have the EMH. Isn't that the point of EMH is to go when there won't be as many people? I am so confused. Please help me so that I make the best choices for my trip.

Thanks!!!

 

[DisFam95]

The best way to handle the EMH parks if you like to get up early is to be there when it opens (early), get in as much as you can in 1-3 hrs (depending on how crowds build) and then move to another park. The EMH draws in more people so crowds build quickly. You can do them it's just usually better to hop to another park in mid-morning.

 

[njchris]

I've gone to early openings and stay there the day. Plan my next fast passes and I have fun and am always going on a ride and get to everything I want to.

 

[Tinker74]

This is what I don't understand about EMH! I can totally see that evening extra magic hours make a park very crowded that whole day....as people will stagger there arrival throughout the day thus crowds building as the day goes on especially as those without hoppers will go to that park that day so that they can go to EMH.
BUT...How does morning eMH have the same effect??

Surely anyone who wants to use the morning EMH will be there at opening ortherwise you miss the extra hour. WHY do crowds build up throughout the morning so much that often advise is to leave this park at 11am

Surely there should be LESS people in the park that day as off site guests would avoid it as it is EMH and Even if the on site guests make it crowded surely this would apply the same at 8am as at 11am otherwise they have missed the EMH.

I hope Iam making sense!

 

[mhingher]

Some people feel that the EMH draws larger crowds. Our strategy has always been to skip the morning EMH parks... spend the day at a non-evening EMH park, and then head to the evening EMH park late afternoon or for dinner. That gives you some time to enjoy the park, and you can decide if you want to stay for EMH or not. We used this strategy in March and it worked like a charm. Sometimes we did everything we wanted to that we didn't need to stay for too much of the EMH. (But then again, it depends on what time of year you go... that was the 1st time I ever went in March, and I never experienced these low crowds before!)

Have fun!

 

[TomD]

We usually spend all day at the park with EMH. Get there as soon as it opens. We feel we get more rides in before it gets crowded. Then if it does get packed we head out and do something else

 

[Alaska Catdog]

I think someone touched on this above but here's our theory as to why one should avoid emh. We believed the hype and went to Epcot and MGM on emh mornings. The lines to get in were longer than ever before because everyone was there early. Once we got in the parks all of the rides were 45 to an hour waits and the fast passes that were available were for mid-afternoon.
We think that people are not buying the Hopper options any more. That means that if they do the morning emh they have to stay at that park that day if they want to be at a park. Well, most people I know only think of WDW as theme parks. They don't know about all the other stuff one can do there and they would stubbornly stay in the park all day because "they paid good money for this and they are going to get the most of it". I always suggest that people add the hopper option so that if a park is too crowded you can move on but nobody has listened to me and when they get back they complain and complain about the crowds on EMH.
Also, offsite guests are not going to necessarily know which parks have emh so if they don't do hoppers, they are stuck if they accidentally go on a emh day.
I guess the bottom line is that after several tries during several different times of year, we've found that emh (in the morning) is never worth showing up for. I imagine that evening would be better because a lot of those people who were planning on going could have may well tuckered themselves out by the time it rolls around but that's just theory. We're always too tired to go to evening. Hope that sheds some light.

 

[wdwdavem]

One thing we did in august for the emh worked great. Whichever park had the evening emh that night we would avoid and go the very next day. Most people after being up the night before would not return to the same park the next day. This worked out fantastic for us.

 

[Amy&Dan]

The reason that morning EMH makes the whole day more crowded is that you have the people who are in the know, who came for EMH because they knew it was happening, then you have the people who aren't in the know, come to the park with no idea it was open early and then you have them added to the total # of people there. Also, people who don't have the park hopping option on their tickets get there for EMH and can't go anywhere else. For that matter same with the people who came later and can't hop, they're stuck too! I always remember not everybody is like my Disney addicted, no other hobbies self: they don't know about all of this and don't spend their free time analyzing crowds and EMH vs. no EMH. So they think, how nice to get a whole extra hour in the morning, what a treat not stopping to think about how many others will do that same thing. I agree with another poster, go to EMH early, stay a few hours then get of there and go to another, sure to be less crowded, park. And we always do late night EMH at MK, especially if its really late hours because after about 11:00 p.m. it will clear out with each passing moment. So same therory in reverse order. Do another non EMH park early, take a break then head to EMH at MK and stay until it closes.

 

[kirbsam]

count me in for am emh and bolting for another park before noon...with fast passes and the extra hour, you can get a ton done in the first two or three hours.

 

[Amy&Dan]

I imagine that evening would be better because a lot of those people who were planning on going could have may well tuckered themselves out by the time it rolls around but that's just theory. We're always too tired to go to evening. Hope that sheds some light.

This is exactly right! On December 30th, my family hung out and dozed by the pool at POFQ all day, after sleeping in. Then we went to MK that night, got there around 7:00, had dinner, saw Wishes, saw Spectro, saw Imagine and then EMH started at 1:00 a.m. Now mind you, we had spent the whole day being lounge chair potatoes so we were raring to go! Most other people had been there all day, some since 7:00 a.m. because MK had morning EMH too! They left in droves, who can sustain that for so many hours after all? You could hear a lot of tired, sobbing children, begging to be released from their MK bondage. From midnight to 2:00 there were people there still but then suddenly it just cleared out. After 2:00 a.m. we literally had the whole park to ourselves. I remember a funny cm at the Snow White ride heckling us to get on and ride, he was lonesome! We laughed and just kept on power walking to Indy Speedway which of course had no line either. It was run ons not walk ons because we could practically run through the park since nobody else was there. This was certainly a strange and unique way to see MK at that hour. But as we rode Space Mountain at 3:58 a.m. it was pretty fun! One of the cm's told me that earlier that day it was awful. I think a lot of people think they can hold out for the whole thing but then can't. So they spent all that time in a crowded park only to lose energy and have to leave.

 

[lmok]

When we were at WDW in August 2004 we did the extended hours at MK. We had the BEST time. It was not crowded and we saved all of the rides that were going to be open late to do that evening. You could actually walk off and on the same ride as much as you wanted. Even my 6 year old at the time would have kept going. I would say do it.

 

[joshsmom]

I don't do morning EMH's but we plan for the evening ones. Last May we went to a few--one was MK. It was a Friday night. We ate at CP late and then hung around to watch Spectro and Wishes. Then the fun began. The park was open late anyway (maybe 10?) so with the extra 3 hours, we knew we could be there as late as 1am. We started going on rides with NO LINES right after Wishes and we were LOVING it. Then it started to rain and we were in heaven. Walked on everything we wanted to numerous times and had a BLAST!! We are definitely planning Late EMH's this trip--with or without rain!

 

[helenk]

I like to go to the early EMH especially in the summer, you get there at 8:00 and you can so much done before it gets brutally hot. I finish up have lunch in the park and the head back to my resort for a break. During my trip in July, I went to the MK one evening when it was going to be the EMH park later in the night and it was mobbed, I turned around and went to MGM instead. I'm going this May and I will try again, but the only night EMH we have during the 4 nights we will be there is MGM and AK so we will see how it goes.
During our trip in December we did not go the morning or the evening EMH, my husband did not want to get the parks real early, but the parks were not that crowded and we were able to do everything.

 

[DisFam95]

Tinker..I understand your question. It's not that more people are coming for EMH after the fact..that would just not make sense for them. ON any given day you have about the same crowd levels (weekends a bit higher due to locals etc) but you add in this special feature that attracts extra people in the morning then add the normal crowds it will be more crowded. We avoid the EMH mornings but we go in the off season so lines are not like they are in the summer months.

 

[LynnTarrant]

you state that surely people will get there for the first hour, othrwise they've missed it, you'd think that was so,.. but it isn't. People plan to get there for opening but the baby is sick, Dad lost his hotel key, mum just had to buy somthing at the store and the kids had a fight, but the plan was to go to the park with EMH so they still go even through they arrive 90 mins late. Add to that the people not eligible for EMH going through the same scenario and perhaps you have a better idea as to why people in the know favour the get in get out approach!!! It works for us and it'll work for you too as long as the baby isn't sick!!!

 

[dawgsgirl]

I was staying at POFQ in Sept 04. The early entry park that morning was AK. At POFQ Epcot and AK have the same bus stop. I arrived at the bus stop around 8:15 to go to Epcot. The bus stop was jammed! About 8:20, the AK bus pulled up and everyone but me got on that bus. There was no way they were in the park before the normal opening time of 9:00. That same evening I was at DTD and struck up a conversation with some folks who had spent the day at AK. All they did was complain about the crowds! This experience convinced me that the early in, early out theory should certainly be considered!

 

[BAST]

The reason that morning EMH makes the whole day more crowded is that you have the people who are in the know, who came for EMH because they knew it was happening, then you have the people who aren't in the know, come to the park with no idea it was open early and then you have them added to the total # of people there. Also, people who don't have the park hopping option on their tickets get there for EMH and can't go anywhere else. For that matter same with the people who came later and can't hop, they're stuck too! I always remember not everybody is like my Disney addicted, no other hobbies self: they don't know about all of this and don't spend their free time analyzing crowds and EMH vs. no EMH. So they think, how nice to get a whole extra hour in the morning, what a treat not stopping to think about how many others will do that same thing. I agree with another poster, go to EMH early, stay a few hours then get of there and go to another, sure to be less crowded, park. And we always do late night EMH at MK, especially if its really late hours because after about 11:00 p.m. it will clear out with each passing moment. So same therory in reverse order. Do another non EMH park early, take a break then head to EMH at MK and stay until it closes.

I agree completely. Last year (early August), we followed the day after strategy - we did the park that had an evening EMH the night before. We always arrive before park opening and generally were able to stay ahead of the crowds all day. The only day we deviated from this was our last day - we wanted to do MK and it was an MK evening EMH day. The crowds were not bad early in the morning, but by 1:00pm it was a madhouse. We left around that time and spent the rest of our last day in DTD.

This year (again, August), I think I will actually do one morning EMH - at the AK. But we will do this on our relaxation day, it will only be DD8 and me (DW and DD6 will sleep in), and we will only stay to ride EE a couple of times.

 

[disneyfan61]

Good-the less people that take advantage of EMH the less crowds for me!!!
We always do the early EMH-get there before they open then leave around
noon & hop on over to another park. I will never be without hoppers!!

 

[Kristallc]

Call me crazy, but I think they put the EMH on the days of the week that were already the most crowded. If you look back, there has been a pattern to crowds way before they had EMH, for each park