Confused about EMH

[familyof5]

I'm planning our first family trip to Disneyworld in December WITHOUT the parkhopper....I have scheduled everything AROUND the EMH because I kept hearing that it's always busy and should steer clear of these parks on their EMH days. For those who have the experience...do you think I planned it right or SHOULD we be taking advantage of the EMH hours?? Now I'm confused and hoping this will still be alright since I already made ADR's :confused:

[pokci]

If you are staying on property, take advantage of the night EMH. :thumbsup:

[Briansmom]

:ditto:

[wdwnutz]

We have used both morning and evening EMH during December, generally we go down the 2nd week of Dec. The only days we have run into crowds is Sat & Sun.

[Pirate Granny]

December the first two weeks are normally quiet times...Are you able to change an ADR's...if not...then just relax and go with your original plan...Whatever you miss will be there next visit...just enjoy yourself...
:pirate:

[cajundisneyfreak]

We absolutely love the EMH in the evening.On our last trip the park closed at midnight for people not staying on disney property.We got to stay till 3:00 am.It was awesome walking down Main St. at MK with nobody around.We felt like we had the park to ourself.We knocked out the popular attractions that had really long lines during the day.Didn't care for the morning EMH.It's only for 1 hour before the park opens and is still crowded.

[Tinker Fan]

We always take full advantage of the EMH, mostly in the evening. Our plans are reservations are made around this and it works well for us.:mickey:

[azcavalier]

You would think that the morning EMH wouldn't be that effective, but we've found that we always get more done in that hour than in the rest of the morning before lunch. So we usually take advantage of that. We don't usually use the evening EMH, simply because we still have younger kids, and they're worn out well before the EMH ends.

[Lisa and Alan]

AVOID...AVOID...AVOID...if you have younger family members. The morning EMH are great for the first couple of hours and then the park is PACKED ! When we have no choice in our schedule but to go to a park with a morning EMH, we have most often regretted the crowds by around noon. We end up leaving and going back to our resort for a couple of hours and then to a different park. With a young child, we do not take advantage of the evening EMH. I would imagine that the evening EMH park would be a better deal because most of us with younger children have left the parks by then. I think you are planning just fine the way you have it.

[Magic Smiles]

You don't mention when in December you are going, but I would recommend adding on the park hopper. Then you can keep all your reservations AND enjoy the EMH. I personnally think that the EMH are so worth it. In the mornings you can accomplish so much before the general public is admitted and it is just fun to stay in the evenings and enjoy all of the lights with fewer crowds. We always take advantage of the EMH. We don't necessarily start at the EMH park but we always park hop and end up at the EMH park.

[crltkcagle]

I would take full advantage of the EMH. The parks are so pleasant during that time and not that crowded. We never do park hoppers either and we always hit the parks with EMH.

[wdwnutz]

We take full advantage of EMH both mornings and evenings. We also do not use park hoppers and have a very relaxing trip during December even with time to spare for a trip back to the resort for a swim in the pool!

[SurferStitch]

I wouldn't worry about missing the EMH's.

We don't do the morning ones. DH and I just aren't in a rush to get to the parks that early, so we skip them. We have found the crowds that day are insane, too.

We have done some evening EMH's, and I can't agree at all about the low crowds. We saw no difference between regular crowds and evening EMH crowds. We have done evening EMH's in mid October and early December, and both times we saw large crowds and lots of young kids well past midnight. Early December is no longer a slow or quite time. Crowds have picked up significantly. The evening EMH's at MK, Epcot and DHS were pretty packed. They looked like typical weekend day crowds even though some of the evening EMH's were during the week.

This last trip (first week of May), we had an evening EMH at MK until 2:00 am. Crowds didn't thin out until at least 1:00 am, and even then there was still a 45 minute line for Peter Pan (we walked past again around 1:45 am, and the line was still 40 minutes). Main Street was lighter, but there was no way of getting a pic in front of the castle without a bunch of people in the background. We tried just before 2:00 am, and we still got photo bombed!

One thing to keep in mind...Many on-site resort guests get park hoppers. If a park has an evening EMH one night, you could have thousands (and thousands) of on-site guests showing up, even if they spent the day at another park. Just because EMH is for on-site guests, doesn't mean you still can't have large crowds.

I do agree with another poster than you should get the hopper added to your tickets, then you could take advantage of EMH if you like. We love the flexibility of hopping, EMH or not. If you don't want to, don't sweat it. You will still have plenty of time to do so much without EMH.

[HoosierDisneyFan]

Wow... half of us us love EMH and half avoid them...

I have always used the morning EMH then "hopped" to another park in the afternoon. Since you do not have park hopper it would depend on when in Dec you are going. I would suggest that if going the first 2 weeks in Dec it would not matter but the last 2 weeks you should avoid (since you cannot hop).

[familyof5]

Thanks everyone...even though all of your opinions are totally divided on this ;)

I'm going December 5-12th and have already made ADRs for days when parks are NOT offering EMH. I think I'll just keep it the way I have it in an effort to hold onto my sanity! Afterall, since this our first trip to DW, we probably won't know what we either are or are not missing anyway!

Again, thanks everone! :mickey: