EMH or Not- But what's the logic either way?

[Mackflava99]

I am going in June this year- I know its hot and crowded, we went last year in June so it was hot but we still had a great time. the crowds were bad but manageable.
I have seen alot of tips that say-
Stay away from the park with EMH that day to avoid crowds.

Ok, here is my question-( or maybe more than one)
Does this mean to stay away from the park because most people plan to go to the parks with EMH ? or does it mean that they tend to go to another park and then over to the park with EMH afterwards.
I am just trying to understand the logic. Last year MK had EMH, so it was crowded during the day but i noticed it get even more crowded when EMH came.
as for the tip-
If everyone stays away, why is it crowded.

[Disney Doll]

Since not everyone park hops I always assumed that the park with EMH might be more crowded all day, but especially crowded at night. We never do EMH because we usually have little ones in tow and they need to get to bed. However, it seems like a good way to take advantage of time away from the summer heat. I haven't done a summer trip in years, but I remember how hot & sticky it can get.

[J.C.&ALI'SMOM]

We tend to avoid the morning EMH park. In my experience that one is the most crowded throughout the day. I like to plan to visit a park the day after it had morning EMH.

[KineGirl]

We tend to avoid morning EMH as those seem to be craziest because ppl with small children seem to favor them. However we always hit night time EMH because though the evening always starts out a little crowded, after that parks particular night time fireworks or show the parks start clearing out of all those same folks with little ones. And thats alot of ppl! Even in the middle of summer the lines really shorten come midnight and youd be surprised at how easily you can literally walk right onto alot of rides (like POTC) that would have 1 hr waits during the day. Except Soarin' - the only way to ride that ride is FP IMO... other wise .. waiiiiiiiittttt. We usually do a non EMH park during the day and then hit the EMH park for or after dinner. I think that alot of ppl go with big ambitions of staying late and then little ones or themselves start to realize that its been a long day in the parks and need to rest!

[Blast822]

I don't like the morning EMH either. We like to go in August, and it's really hot, so we go at night EMH, but avoid morning. It tends to be so crazy, and it's only an hour. So, when we plan, we go to a park that does not have morning EMH, stay until it gets too hot, go back to the room to swim and rest. Then, we go to dinner, and hit a park with evening EMH. It does start out a little crazy, but the crowds die fast. We walked on Expedition Everest 4 times last time we went. It was great!!!

[thejens]

I like doing the early morning hours and then going to another park around noon when the park gets crowded. The early hours have never been over crowded to me, it's when the additional crowd comes on top of the early crowd that it gets busy. If I am planning to stay a full day in a park I avoid the early extra hours parks. I have never noticed extra crowds on the late extra hours, but I can't use them because I am just too tired after a day in the parks with my kids!!!

[disneyfankev]

we went a couple times to the park that had the morning emh and had a great time went back to the hotel around 11 for swimming.

[FiggyFan]

Here is my logic on morning EMH:

If you are a morning person, the best time in the park is the first hour or two after opening, before the "late risers" start showing up. You can grab a fastpass to your second destination and then pretty much walk onto your first destination (unless it is Dumbo).

Morning EMH will draw a larger early crowd. If you can get there for the early opening, it is worth it. If you are going to get there at the normal opening time, it doesn't work out very well. The park will have had an hour to fill up and develop some lines, so you lose the advantage of getting there early.

I have trouble getting the rest of our crew going in time for early EMH opening, so we usually avoid the early EMH park.

If you are more of a night owl, and especially a night owl with no small children, evening EMH sound great for the reasons given by previous posts.

[Janmac]

Whether or not to do EMH seems to me to be park and person and season specific. Somebody has probably figured out what percentage of guests are likely to have park hopper passes. And of course only resort guests can use EMH. Maybe that's what the guidebooks are going by - only resort guests are going to EMH and those with park hoppers change things - they don't stay in one park all day. And there's also a guests' tolerance and definition of crowd, too. A person could go crazy trying to figure it all out. I don't think there's a bit of logic to it.

We really like morning EMH at MK (rush to Dumbo!). We have done morning EMH at the Studios but haven't yet at AK, either early or late. Or at Epcot, but we generally do Epcot for evening touring and supper, regardless of EMH. Epcot seems large enough that we haven't noticed a difference in crowd levels.

One year we were at Epcot at rope drop on an MK morning EMH and there was practically no one there. World Showcase was almost like a ghost town. It was great. There probably really is something to going to another park than the morning EMH one - if you're not into crowds.

Another year I really blew it and we arrived at the Studios at regular opening time on an early EMH - lines were crazy. Definitely will NOT do that again.

We did try some evening EMHs a couple of trips ago and even the teens in our group said they'd rather go back to morning EMHs. This trip was in early June, and even after midnight it seemed hot. Early morning didn't seem that warm. Also, the parks seem cleaner, the air fresher - can you tell we're morning people?

The thing is to experiment to find out what works best for you and your group and each park.

Jan

[RockinRollerMom]

We are HUGE fans of evening EMH's. In the 3 hours of EMH we can do just about what it would take us a whole day to do at the parks. In general I too try to avaid the parks that have EMH in the morning, but have been to them and haven't noticed a huge difference. So my advice would be take advantage of evening EMH if you can. Try to stay as long as you can during them becasue the crowds really thin after the first hours or so. (In the last hour of EMH at AK last year we rode EE over and over again with no wait at all, and I really mean no wait at all.) Avoid the parks with morning EMH if you can, but I wouldn't plan my whole trip around them.

[Mousemates]

As for the morning hours, we tend to hit it real hard early (translate run and ride) for the first hour or two and then settle back for the remainder of the day (often taking a respite from all the fun to have some pool or nap time--thou teenaged children make naps a difficult negotiation).

We then will head back to the park after an early dinner...usually to the evening hour park where we will stay late and get the max ride benefit as others begin to fade from exhaustion.

please note: we don't try to do this on mulitple days in row (early and late emh)....we do a theme park day and then put a pool day or waterpark day or DD/DQ day in between...not for everyone but it works for us.

By the way we're going in June this year too...figure it can't be any busier than it was last year between Xmas and NY eve...we like disney even when busy.

[BelleLovesTheBeast]

We are night owls so we don't do the morning EMH. We do a lot of the evening EMH. I've found that during the day the park is a little more crowded but not at night. We've always had very little wait. I think the longest we waited was 10 mins for a ride at MK. I recommend doing the evening EMH. If you have a park hopper pass I'd say to do a different park during the day and then head over in the evening.