Would you plan your trip around EMH?

[mshanson3121]

In sort of a spin off of the other post... On a short trip, without hoppers, would you plan your park days so you can take advantage of EMH? Or avoid them? In May, will EMH really make that big of a difference in crowds levels?

 

[Alesia]

If we have park hoppers, yes. Otherwise we avoid the park with EMH

 

[GADisneyDad14]

The specific days/hours and which parks have EMHs (and AM or PM where applicable) available during your short trip would matter to me before coming up with a plan.

 

[mshanson3121]

The specific days/hours and which parks have EMHs (and AM or PM where applicable) available during your short trip would matter to me before coming up with a plan.

We have 5 day base passes.
So far all normal posted hours (9-9, all 4 parks). Crowd levels in order of MK EP HS AK :

May 15 - 4 4 3 4 (EMH 9-11 MK)
May 16 - 4 5 3 5 (EMH 8-9 EP)
May 17 - 5 4 4 6 (EMH 8-9 MK)
May 18 - 6 5 5 8 (EMH 8-9 AK)
May 19 - 3 6 5 5 (EMH 8-9 HS)
May 20 - 5 5 5 6 ( EMH 8-9 AK)

 

[Farro]

I just plan our park days in the order we want to visit them. Epcot is usually arrival day due to staying in that area, Animal Kingdom is next because I can't wait more than a day to go there, then MK, then DHS/Epcot, then we start all over until we run out of days. We have hoppers, so usually we are at a different park at night (if we feel like it). Like AK day - MK at night, MK day - AK at night, etc.

So we don't pay attention to EMH. If the stars align and we happen to be at a park for EMH day, we do take advantage. We never avoid a park due to EMH.

 

[Alesia]

We have 5 day base passes.
So far all normal posted hours (9-9, all 4 parks). Crowd levels in order of MK EP HS AK :

May 15 - 4 4 3 4 (EMH 9-11 MK)
May 16 - 4 5 3 5 (EMH 8-9 EP)
May 17 - 5 4 4 6 (EMH 8-9 MK)
May 18 - 6 5 5 8 (EMH 8-9 AK)
May 19 - 3 6 5 5 (EMH 8-9 HS)
May 20 - 5 5 5 6 ( EMH 8-9 AK)

In that case, I would go to:
Epcot on the 15th
MK on the 16th (assuming you want 2 days at MK)
Epcot on the 17th
MK on the 18th
AK on the 19th
DHS on the 20th

I would add a 6th day to the tickets

 

[jennab]

I’m having the same problem! Only 3 1/2 park days and I don’t want to get a hopper for my son and husband (I have an AP). We are going on Aug so will be hot. I was thinking morning EMH for HS and AK would be better because it wouldn’t be as hot out yet and less people will want to be there that early…. Our plan is to take a midday break and go back to same park at night (well except MK day during a party night).

Also because it’s a short trip we may have a hard time getting SDD and FOP FPs

 

[mshanson3121]

In that case, I would go to:
Epcot on the 15th
MK on the 16th (assuming you want 2 days at MK)
Epcot on the 17th
MK on the 18th
AK on the 19th
DHS on the 20th

I would add a 6th day to the tickets

I would love to but DD has ASD and really needs a day out of the parks. I mentioned to her about adding a 6th day and just doing a couple half days but she was rather adamant she needs a full day off.

 

[GADisneyDad14]

We have 5 day base passes.
So far all normal posted hours (9-9, all 4 parks). Crowd levels in order of MK EP HS AK :

May 15 - 4 4 3 4 (EMH 9-11 MK)
May 16 - 4 5 3 5 (EMH 8-9 EP)
May 17 - 5 4 4 6 (EMH 8-9 MK)
May 18 - 6 5 5 8 (EMH 8-9 AK)
May 19 - 3 6 5 5 (EMH 8-9 HS)
May 20 - 5 5 5 6 ( EMH 8-9 AK)

Lol, got it - you and I have different versions of what a “short trip” means.

Personally, I’d probably only want to do the MK PM, and that’s only if they extend regular park hours (which I’d say is a reasonable possibility). But I’m generally an ‘avoid the park with EMH’ person. All personal preference though.

 

[mshanson3121]

Lol, got it - you and I have different versions of what a “short trip” means.

Personally, I’d probably only want to do the MK PM, and that’s only if they extend regular park hours (which I’d say is a reasonable possibility). But I’m generally an ‘avoid the park with EMH’ person. All personal preference though.

Haha. Well originally our trip was only going to be 4 park days which felt pretty short. We added a 5th day so we could split MK up and not have to do such a long day.

I guess no that's not really all that short lol. But our last trip was 7 days, so it feels shorter to me lol. When trying to plan, I keep wanting more time!

 

[LSUfan4444]

Without hoppers, I would avoid any park that had AM EMH but plan to hit any park that had PM EMH. With hoppers, I wouldn't consider them in my planing but be aware of the PM EMH in case we still had the energy to hit them when our day is done.

 

[kwdw]

I like to use MORNING EMH's because I'm a morning person. I'd probably use the 8-9 am EMH at AK one day and HS one day. This also means I can get in FOP and SDD without FP's.....

I RARELY use EMH's at EPCOT. But that's because I ride TT as single rider - and can usually get a FP for anything else I want. So - I don't ever really care when EP has EMH's. Occasionally if I have an AP or park hoppers I might care when EP EMH's are - as I might plan a couple hours at the park to use the EMH's in my overall trip plan.

Sometimes I use MK EMH's - morning if I can't get a 7DMT or PP fastpass. When they have late night ones - because I'm not a night person - I only use them if I am starting the day late to begin with and plan to be there until the very last minute - AND I plan to sleep late in the next morning or have a rest day. So - for your days - I'd be tempted to use them the first night - and then not get up early the next day.

Note - I also completely ignore crowd calendars. I don't find them to be helpful at all. Crowds are predictable based on EMH, park hours in general, when parties are in the fall, and what festival it is at EP. If I'm USING morning EMH - yes - that park is going to be crowded that day. But if I take advantage of that hour well, plan my meals and FP's well for the rest of the day - the crowd level may never really impact my visit to the park that day - I won't care if its crowded because it doesn't impact my day (okay - except for maybe having to dodge more people on the pathways). And yes, parks with evening EMH's tend to be more crowded by late in the afternoon/evening - but again - I know that and plan around it. A crowded park means nothing if I'm eating a TS meal and have 3 FP's for the high crowd time.

 

[Queen of the WDW Scene]

If staying offsite I'd try to avoid EMH days since I can't take advantage of them.
However when onsite I actively seek them out. I especially try to hit AM EMH.
Unfortunately my next trip I am not going to the parks on the right days to get my AM EMH fix

 

[mshanson3121]

I


Note - I also completely ignore crowd calendars. I don't find them to be helpful at all. Crowds are predictable based on... what festival it is at EP. .

How big of an impact will Flower & Garden be? We really want to tour the World Showcase, but ideally at the least crowded time. Best strategy for this?

 

[Tiggerlover91]

I plan my park days first before I look at anything Disney. AK is always done on arrival day because that's a 1/2 day park for us. On arrival day, I don't want to just hang out in the resort, but don't want to spend a full day in the parks so AK works out well. MK is our next park day, then EPCOT, and finally we end with the MK. My family doesn't do HS. I then look to see what EMH looks like in each of those parks for the days I'm there. This year, only the evening EMH is working with my park visits, so son and I will take advantage of it. We don't park hop either, but we do typically leave the park when it starts to get really busy...around 1pm. This year I plan on leaving at that same time and not returning till around 6 or 7 and take advantage of the EMH in EPCOT and MK. We'll do a lot of our eating offsite at the kosher restaurants, so this will work well for us. Should my son get hungry while in the parks, each park has a location where we can pick up a kosher meal. We'll do that and share one. We'll have some food items back at the resort too.

 

[DisMommyTX]

How big of an impact will Flower & Garden be? We really want to tour the World Showcase, but ideally at the least crowded time. Best strategy for this?

We like the festival's at EPCOT, but Friday afternoon is the cutoff for us. It was lovely on weekdays, especially on evenings with a little rain to discourage locals. The lines and crowds made it unbearable Fri afternoon-Sun.

 

[davkata]

How big of an impact will Flower & Garden be? We really want to tour the World Showcase, but ideally at the least crowded time. Best strategy for this?

When we went two years ago, F & G didn't impact our plans at all. And I tend to plan and go like gangbusters. We easily walked around WS and lines for food and drink were normal. Not bad at all. We did have a plan for where we were stopping and which foods/drinks we were going to try. Enjoy!

 

[cmwade77]

Nope, because EMH dates don't come out in time to make ADRs, so we simply go with when we can get what we want for ADRs, then make adjustments based on FP availability and don't pay attention to which parks have EMH on which days. We did attempt to use a crowd calendar this trip to try to predict crowd levels before making ADRs, but aside from that, no.

But we always have park hopping tickets, in this case APs so we can always switch to another park after our ADR if the one we are in is proving too busy.

 

[kwdw]

How big of an impact will Flower & Garden be? We really want to tour the World Showcase, but ideally at the least crowded time. Best strategy for this?

Just avoid Friday night thru Sunday. The rest of the week should be fine.

 

[DisMommyTX]

We LOVE evening emh and will always plan to attend those. I keep hoping they'll bring them back to AK & HS. We are not morning people, so usually try to avoid the park with morning emh.