YES or NO to Extra Magic Hours??

[lilly4]

I've heard some say YES, go on EMH days, since you can get in earlier and stay later.

I've also heard NO, don't go on those days, as it will be more crowded early in the a.m. when you want to avoid the crowds and get to the rides, and to go the opposite days.

Since the schedule for July 1 is not on the Disney site yet, I'm gonna have to just wing it.


Your two cents please

 

[AlternateEgo]

I personally am trying my best to avoid parks on EMH days. This is because everyone goes to those parks with EMH and yet it might not be as busy during the EMH's it is really busy during the day

So my entire game plan is to avoid EMH.

 

[lynette j in la]

Only go during EMH... Last year during 4th of July week we stayed at MK until 2 am on our last day...WE spent the day at AK and ate diiner at Boma and then went to MK just for EMH! We wathched the Spectromagic parade and walked on with out more than a min wait to many many rides!! It was so cool! WE did the same after Fantasmic at HS and saw a lot in a short time.
I use Tour guide mike to set my schedual, but I do pick a few EMH nights to go to a new park after our dinner meal... That is why I like park hoppers...
Thast saying, if you don't have park hoppers, I would not bother. We were amazed at the low crowds during our Jule 4th week Disney vacation...Tour guide Mike did a good job helping us schedual our plans.

 

[jenb1023]

We love morning EMH! It is amazing how much you can get done the first hour before everyone else gets there. Actually, if you can make it to rope drop, it is usually pretty empty the first hour the park is open on a regular morning too. We always buy hoppers though so we can leave the EMH park around lunch time when needed. I have not been to WDW in the summer so I am not sure if that would affect anything.

 

[dsnymomof4]

Especially at MK - you can go on so many more rides during morning EMH and the following hour than you would any other time - especially Fantasyland. It's the only time you can get on Dumbo with virtually no wait. And when MK has evening EMH sometimes until 2 or 3am - the park is EMPTY! It's so great. True, it might be a bit more crowded the rest of the day, so if you have parkhoppers, do as much as you can, then jump to another park or back to hotel for swimming, etc., until the crowds go down.

 

[ilovejack02]

WE love early EMH.. hell no on the late EMH. The few times we did do it, way to crowded and we just would give up lol.

 

[Disney MAINEiac]

No to morning EMH or the EMH park during the day and yes to the evening EMH after park closing

 

[JustSayin]

You can ride a lot of the big draw attractions with very little wait if you go to morning EMH. Getting up early on vacation is not much fun, but you can do a lot more if you hit the morning EMH.

Evening EMH are MUCH more crowded. Crowd levels have been very high every time we have gone to evening EMH. Lines were longer during evening EMH than at any other time during the day. Just for reference, we usually go during May or October.

That being said, I still like the evening EMH. We just don't stress out about getting on rides.

 

[Disney MAINEiac]

Evening EMH are MUCH more crowded. Crowd levels have been very high every time we have gone to evening EMH.

we usually go in February and have had just the opposite experience. we have found the nights to be empty at the park. we literally walked on to rides like splash mtn, BTMRR, space mtn, buzz light year....we rode splash mtn 4 times in a row and the cars were going down empty.

Last EMH at MK we did the park closed at 10pm and by 11:30 we were done and had hit everything that was open we wanted to do as many times as we wanted to do them,

 

[kwitcherkicken99]

I've heard some say YES, go on EMH days, since you can get in earlier and stay later.

I've also heard NO, don't go on those days, as it will be more crowded early in the a.m. when you want to avoid the crowds and get to the rides, and to go the opposite days.

Since the schedule for July 1 is not on the Disney site yet, I'm gonna have to just wing it.


Your two cents please

I say it is wholly based on the age of those going with you. I don't vote to put little ones in big crowds, but if the kiddos are older, or it is just adults, I say go for it. Also, look at the list of the attractions that are open during EMH... if they are ones you really enjoy, do it.

My one experience with EMH was 10 years ago when they charged $20 to stay. I'm sure it's much busier now that it doesn't cost, but I still think that was one of the best things we did on our last trip at MK and really enjoyed it. EMH gave us time during the day to do the rides not open for EMH so we were able to do more, PLUS it was cooler in the evening (we were there the beginning of August).

I don't think we're going to attempt any late EMH this trip as I've got 2 little ones, however, if we can get moving, I'll take the extra morning hour.

 

[akersten]

We took advantage of the morning EMH, it was amazing how much we were able to do in a few short hours. By 11am, the park would get crowded, so we would head back to our hotel for some relaxation!

 

[JustSayin]

My one experience with EMH was 10 years ago when they charged $20 to stay. I'm sure it's much busier now that it doesn't cost, but I still think that was one of the best things we did on our last trip at MK and really enjoyed it. EMH gave us time during the day to do the rides not open for EMH so we were able to do more, PLUS it was cooler in the evening (we were there the beginning of August). [/SIZE

I loved it back when they charged for it. I had more fun in those several hours than I did the rest of the day. You could basically walk on any of the rides that were running. Unfortunately, the experience is not the same now that it is free (at least in my experience.)

I am glad that others have had better experiences. It seems that perhaps EMH is less crowded during the slow times.

 

[Wendybird55]

Before my son when I went with adults only, I never paid attention to EMH - I preferred planning my days according to what I felt like doing and not having to wrry about getting up extra early.

HOWEVER - last year I went for the first time with my almost 2yro son. I didn't plan on EMH for the trip. It just so happned one of the days we were planning to got to MK was an EMH day and we had breakfast ressies in Crystal Palace so I figured - why not, let's get there for EMH.
And it was a GREAT move. With a 2yro Fantasyland is the place and it can get crowded fast - we did so much by getting there early. Before breakfast we went on Peter Pan twice in a row and then IASW. Then after breakfast we got on all the Fantasyland rides we wanted doing some of them twice.

We went in Sept. which I know is not as crowded, but I am now a fan of EMH - especially for MK and little kids. I am going agian this year and this time and planning for EMH.

 

[donac]

We love morning EMH! It is amazing how much you can get done the first hour before everyone else gets there. Actually, if you can make it to rope drop, it is usually pretty empty the first hour the park is open on a regular morning too. We always buy hoppers though so we can leave the EMH park around lunch time when needed. I have not been to WDW in the summer so I am not sure if that would affect anything.

Especially at MK - you can go on so many more rides during morning EMH and the following hour than you would any other time - especially Fantasyland. It's the only time you can get on Dumbo with virtually no wait. And when MK has evening EMH sometimes until 2 or 3am - the park is EMPTY! It's so great. True, it might be a bit more crowded the rest of the day, so if you have parkhoppers, do as much as you can, then jump to another park or back to hotel for swimming, etc., until the crowds go down.

WE love early EMH.. hell no on the late EMH. The few times we did do it, way to crowded and we just would give up lol.

You can ride a lot of the big draw attractions with very little wait if you go to morning EMH. Getting up early on vacation is not much fun, but you can do a lot more if you hit the morning EMH.

Evening EMH are MUCH more crowded. Crowd levels have been very high every time we have gone to evening EMH. Lines were longer during evening EMH than at any other time during the day. Just for reference, we usually go during May or October.

That being said, I still like the evening EMH. We just don't stress out about getting on rides.

We took advantage of the morning EMH, it was amazing how much we were able to do in a few short hours. By 11am, the park would get crowded, so we would head back to our hotel for some relaxation!

Before my son when I went with adults only, I never paid attention to EMH - I preferred planning my days according to what I felt like doing and not having to wrry about getting up extra early.

HOWEVER - last year I went for the first time with my almost 2yro son. I didn't plan on EMH for the trip. It just so happned one of the days we were planning to got to MK was an EMH day and we had breakfast ressies in Crystal Palace so I figured - why not, let's get there for EMH.
And it was a GREAT move. With a 2yro Fantasyland is the place and it can get crowded fast - we did so much by getting there early. Before breakfast we went on Peter Pan twice in a row and then IASW. Then after breakfast we got on all the Fantasyland rides we wanted doing some of them twice.

We went in Sept. which I know is not as crowded, but I am now a fan of EMH - especially for MK and little kids. I am going agian this year and this time and planning for EMH.

I am an early riser so morning EMH is what I usually do. I especially like it for MK although we did a DHS this past trip and it was great. I have pictures of the kids on the NY street scene with no one and I mean no one around.

MK morning EMH is the best time to get anything done in Fantasyland. We usually do almost all of Fantasyland before the official rope drop.


We did MK evening EMH and we has hit and miss crowds. Some places were jammed and others were walk on. You could not predict. Some of our grou were in lines all evening and some just walked on