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JanetMegan
05-28-2010, 03:12 PM
I feel so strange booking a trip for the first time in 5-6 years but these days (or in Dec. when I am traveling) is it better to try to work with the extra magic hours or against them? IE if Extra Magic AM is in Epcot, should I shoot for Epcot that day or avoid it. I'm nut sure what the more recent trends have been. This is for an early Dec trip...

renecat
05-28-2010, 03:15 PM
We always try to use the EMH at most of the parks. Weve done them in Dec. and found it a good way to ride soarin with out having a long wait and then get a fast pass also.

Tyson The Lab
05-28-2010, 04:42 PM
would each park open/close one hour earlier/later ??

ibelieveindisneymagic
05-28-2010, 04:43 PM
Isn't it exciting to be planning a trip?

For us, we find that the morning EMH are good, you can get lots done in the parks before the masses show up. Be prepared to park-hop, or take a mid-day break as we find the parks can get quite crowded around lunch-time.

For us, the evening EMH have been a bit of a bust, just too crowded to make them worth it. We tend to avoid those, and go to those parks on another day. Some people say that you should go to the park that had evening EMH the night before.

SBETigg
05-28-2010, 05:22 PM
I like hopping with the EMH. I think you get the most out of the experience. For instance, you can get a lot in early if you do the morning EMH, but you probably want to leave that park by 11, because the crowds build up. Similarly, the park with the evening EMH is usually the more crowded park in the hours up until the regular closing-- and then after that, people move on and it's great if you're staying late.

But, if you're not an early riser or don't plan to take full advantage of late EMH, avoid the parks with EMH on that day.

Fastpasssteve
05-28-2010, 05:41 PM
This depends greatly on when in December you're travelling. If you're going early or mid-December, you're safe. If you're going the week between Christmas and New Year's, the crowds swell to Gaussian proportions.

If it's early or mid-December, the crowds are light and the Extra Magic Hours will work to your advantage.

During peak crowd times, they may work against you...especially the early morning hours...lots of young families with children who get up early. Ugg! Late night hours are, in my experience, neutral.

5MemphisTiggers
05-28-2010, 06:47 PM
We always try to plan our park visits based on EMH. To get more done in the parks, mornings are probably better than evenings. There are fewer people there and the lines move much quicker.

Evening EMH are lots of fun, too. We stayed at MK until 1 a.m. once, and had a BLAST. :number1: My son and I rode BTMRR 7 or 8 times in a row with basically no wait. EPCOT at night is beautiful. (DW agrees.)

I would say, however, that EMH at DHS are not as good as at other parks. The park itself looks GREAT at night, but with only a few rides the crowds congregate there. I stayed for EMH at DHS once with my two older kids, and in 3 hours we rode TOT 2x and RR once. Defenitely NOT what we had hoped for.

DS11 is sitting next to me right now, and he says EMH at AK and MK are the best! :mickey:

eeyorepoohfan
05-28-2010, 07:53 PM
We went to WDW last Dec 10-15th. The EMH really worked in our favor! The early morning EMH at AK we awesome! We rode Expedition Everest at least 5 times, also picked up a Fast Pass for it. And rode Dinosaur 2 or 3 times. This was all in the 1 hour before regular park opening!

EPCOT evening EMH worked great for us too! We rode nearly every attraction (only missed Test Track and Ellen's Energy I think) in those 3 hours! We walked on to nearly everything. Once people were leaving for illuminations, we started at World Showcase hitting the rides and worked our way to the front. It seemed to work for us! We hit the lines just right!

MK evening hours were great too! Though we were tired that day and didn't get to take full advantage. Plus, Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain broke down. He hit several rides with no wait and rode repeatedly!

You mentioned you are going in early December, so I would guess that you might have the same success we did! My DH and I try to take advantage of all of the EMH each day if possible!

Tinker Fan
05-31-2010, 11:08 PM
We love the extra magic hours especially in the evenings. Not so much in the morning but we are not really early risers eather. I think the EMH are so worth it.