Do you really avoid EMH or just go with them??

[AmandaChan]

I was just mentioning to my DH that I have heard/read that the worst time to go to the parks is during EMh (especially during peak times like June).. How about you guys? Do you avoid going during EMH and go to a different park altogether or do you take advantage of the AM hours?

What are your experiences going to the other parks on the morning that another park is having EMH?? does it really make a difference??

IThanks

[ILoveLegos]

I am an annual pass holder. I mostly go to WDW during the value seasons (so crowds are not a big deal) and I usually stay at my family's home (so I am usually not qualified for EMH).

That is why when I do stay on Disney property, I really enjoy morning (I am a morning person) & evening EMH (I usually tire before they are over but I give it a valiant try as a commando style park guest [:blush:]) - it seems like a privilege for me to attend a EMH. :mickey:

[AXOAlum]

Avoid them! We always get park hoppers so EMH isn't a big deal. If it is night time EMH, especially the late late ones at MK, we will go for those - but the morning ones don't seem worth it. Now, however, if I weren't park hopping, then I can see the advantages of going. 3.5 weeks to go!! :mickey:

[AnnaMom]

We tend to enjoy them especially in MK in the evenings. We will be in the park in the morning head back to our resort then around 5:00 head back into the park. After the parade & fireworks all of the small children & strollers are leaving so we can walk around and not wait very long for the rides! In the summer MK is always open very late.

[MarkC]

Morning EMH are among the smallest crowds you will ever find. Think about it-- no one is driving onto the property and into the parks. You can knock out an entire park in 1/2 a day by arriving at 8am. Night time is different because the parks are already full and everyone is up and out of bed. They can still be great but its the last hour when they are really empty. But go to the morning EMH if you don't mind getting up early on vacation. It stinks to get up early but its worth it.

[Disney-4-Me]

We are not morning people so we rarely take advantage of the morning EMH but I did go to the Magic Kingdom until 3 AM last October for a night EMH!

I do miss the E-Ride nights though. Some of the EMH nights are pretty crowded.

[magicman]

Morning EMHs are greatness! What I've found is that if the morning EMH begins at 8:00am, and if you get there at 8:00am, then you can knock out all of the big "must sees" by 10:00am. We then try to bounce out of the EMH park by 11:00am.

Evening EMHs are not worth it in my opinion because of the high crowd levels, thus we try to avoid the park that is hosting evening EMHs.

[AllDisney]

Not very often do we take advantage of the AM EMH's but you can ride the most popular rides before the crowds hit the park, especially MK We do enjoy the evening EMH.

[MississippiDisneyFreak]

We usually do the am EMH and get a lot done

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

We're morning EMH people, but generally find that the evening ones are just too busy to be worth it.

So, we do the morning EMH, then leave the park when it gets too busy.

[Snow's Mom]

Morning EMH is great if you have park hoppers and can go to another park later in the day. By 11:00, the crowds are pretty big.

No park hopper, no morning EMH. I'm not sure about the evening ones, never tried them, except at AK which no longer offers them.

[tigmickey]

Before I had kids EMH evenings all the time. I didn't mind the crowds. Kind of like it really, :). But now that I have kids, AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!

[Maleficent_vf]

We've taken advantage of evening EMH at EPCOT several times and rather enjoyed ourselves. It didn't seem overly crowded, the temps were comfortable, and it was nice getting to enjoy the sites and scenes of the park after dark. Twice it has happened to be our last night at WDW, so that may have something to do with it - we just didn't want the trip to end. Also, our trips are usually in early January, so crowd levels tend to be lower to begin with.

[LVT]

Another morning lover. We always recoup in the afternoon.
Evenings are very busy until the last 2 hours or so. It is cool to be on a roller coaster under the stars, (not so much in the rain).

[crltkcagle]

WE love the EMH!

[SBETigg]

I park hop. I will do morning EMH and change parks. I will enter evening EMH parks after spending time in other parks, once the hour gets later and the crowds start to dwindle (after regular closing time). I do love EMH, I just find that I have to plan and hop around a bit to make the most of them.

[Victor Kelly]

We did every morning and evening EMH on our honeymoon last year.

Whether it is worth it to you or not depends on the park.

For Mornings:
1. MK very worth it. Knocked out fantasyland and into tomorrow land before opening.
2. AK Hitting the Safari ride then Everest 2 times before 9am was the absolute best.
3. Epcot, we hit Soarin 2 times mission space 2 times and spaceship earth before 9am.
4. Studios, we did Tower of Terror 2 times and Rock n roller coaster 2 times as well before opening.

EVENINGS :mad:
MK stay away from it. Crowds are huge, lines are long. There were lines waiting to get into the bathrooms.
EPCOT, the park is huge so the crowds are dispersed a lot.
Studios was somewhat crowded. But it was livable.
Ak, we were only able to do the morning. We cancelled our evening trip to the park.

On average, a park is generally more crowded on the day it has EMH. Everything, everyday is what you make it out to be. My advice is to try it to see if you like it. At night the parks just seem more magical no matter what park you are in.

[AmandaChan]

yeah i think we'll probably do the morning emh especially for places like MK and especially since we have kids this time.. sounds good that we'll be able to beat the really bad heat and maybe just leave at lunch time for a nap then go back to epcot or something...

don't really plan on doing evening EMH due the fact that i have a 1 year old and i'll be trying to get him to bed at a decent hour.

do they still do the opening ceremony at MK on the AM emh?? i remember someone posting a question about that a long time ago and couldn't remember..

[forever a child]

don't really plan on doing evening EMH due the fact that i have a 1 year old and i'll be trying to get him to bed at a decent hour.

do they still do the opening ceremony at MK on the AM emh?? i remember someone posting a question about that a long time ago and couldn't remember..

With young children, I don't think late night EMH's would be worth it...but I do think you will enjoy the morning EMH's. Yes, I believe they do the morning ceremonies when they open for EMH's.

Since my DD is 16...we do the late night EMH's. We have had good success with them and love being in the parks at night with all of the lights. DD rode RnR three times in a row at closing in DHS within like 20 minutes during our last visit..so she loved that. We really enjoyed MK's EMH during our Dec trip...park was practically empty. It was fun riding POTC in a boat by ourselves and HM is pretty scary in the great room with the head when all of the chairs you see are empty! So for us evening EMH's work. Of course, we are not going to WDW during busy times...so I am not sure if we would feel the same way about them if that were the case.

[finaldynasty]

We normally do Morning hours, but having a kids under 10 we usually don't stick around for the evening hours. Though on our next trip because of all we have heard about X-Mas crowds we might try it to get an extra ride or two in.

[alaMode]

We usually don't do am or pm emh. Getting to a non-emh park by opening seems to work best for us. We take a break in the afternoon, then head out again by 5pm. We usually go to a different park to enjoy the evening. We're typically back at the resort by 11pm to get a great night's sleep and do it all over again the next day!

We do make an exception for special events like MVMCP or MNSSHP. We always stay until the end of the party!

The great thing is we're usually well-rested throughout our trip and never return home feeling we need a vacation from our vacation!

We typically travel in late spring or in the fall-not exactly value season, but not peak season either!

[TikiGoddess]

We used to do EMH mornings all the time, when our kids were smaller. But it meant getting the kids to bed before 9pm. Now that they are 6 and 8 (and able to stay up later at night) we aren't planning on doing EMH. That way we can sleep in a little in the morning. For me, if you can't get to the EMH park right as it opens, it's not worth it.

This year we have no rigid schedule to follow, so we'll play it by ear. :mickey: if we get up early enough ( or get to bed early enough the night before) we'll try to do an EMH morning. They really are worth it, especially in hot weather months.

Kathy

[WDWgoofy]

I do morning EMH and skip all night EMH

[darthmacho]

Sadly, I always take advantage of EMH if I can, so I probably attend the parks on their most crowded days, if the statistics are true. I'm going to try to avoid them next year, unless of course, I'm planning to use them...a glutton for punishment, I suppose. :mickey:

[timberho]

there are a few variables on this one as to what you are looking to get done, what type of tickets you have and what time of year you are going.

The theory out there is: When parks have an early EMH, the majority of your non informed guest(which is the majority) will go to that park. They generally won't get there until after the hour is completed but if you can get into the park at 8am when it opens, and plan to leave around lunch and hop to another park it will work out very well for you. Now if you are there during the summer it is a great scenario as you get in when it's at it's coolest and out when the heat is really at it's peak. If you're going during an off peak time when the parks close earlier and the heat isn't an issue I would avoid them.

For the evening EMH's we usually go to them at epcot and the MK. My kids can stay up late and wake up early with the best of em when we're in WDW and we go during the summer so it works out. We usually reserve the evenings for strolling and taking it easy.

[DNS]

We go to all of them! :D I even plan park days around them. We especially enjoy the evening EMH! The parks have a different feel late at night. We never seem to have a problem with excessive crowds. Although we do not go during peak seasons. Late May is as crowded as we usually experience.

[LudwigVonDrake]

I love the late night EMH at the MK. The crowds thin out fairly early so crowds aren't usually an issue and I normally go in July :mickey:

[AdventurerKim]

We typically avoid the AM EMH parks but have done the PM EMH. It seems like everyone goes to the AM EMH, but the PM EMH is hit or miss, in our experience. We're usually there during peak seasons so that may have something to do with it. Plus we're not into getting out an hour later than necessary.

[Plex]

I think it really depends on what you're trying to get out of your day. One of my favorite times at WDW is late night EMH at MK. By the end, the lines are virtually non-existent, the kids are gone, the temperature is much cooler, and there's definitely a different level of Magic. The view of the castle in the dark of night from the top of Splash is pretty amazing!

On the flip side, EMH doesn't always get you what you're looking for, and during the day the park is definitely a bit more crowded. If you're not going to be taking advantage of the EMH, don't go to the EMH park of the day.

Park hopping definitely helps though - avoid the EMH park during the day and hit the extra hours in the evening.

[Lizzie]

We have little ones who always wake up early. So we love the emh in the morning. We head back for lunch quick swim in the pool and than a nap. We plan our vacations around this.

And the only time we are out late is so our girls can see each night time show once per trip.


So different from the late hours before we had kids. I am sure it will change when they are teenagers. But nap time is awesome in the heat of the day. Husband loves it.

[joonyer]

We use them to our advantage. Very early in the am is a great time to get a lot done, attractions, autographs, etc. And we love the parks after dark, the longer the better, so we use the evening EMH opportunities a lot.

[Victor Kelly]

I have to agree that EMH days in any park can be very crowded compared to a regular day. But EMH can have its advantages if you plan ahead.

For morning EMH days we are there as early as we can be. We mostly hit everything we want to do, then stay a little later say till around 1 then head back to POP take a nap or hit the pool, then go to a different park.

Most nights of our trip we were in Epcot, except for EMH nights at other parks. The Studios were fairly crowded until EMH closing time, where Epcot and MK thinned out considerably.

We liked the night EMH days better than mornings though.