Are you an EMHer or not?

[mousetrapper]

Here's my dilemma: Do we take advantage of EMHs during Thanksgiving week or avoid them like the plague?

I'm getting close to the 180 mark and have to get serious about planning ADRs, etc.

I have the schedule of EMHs for each park while we're at WDW. We are staying at the Poly and have park hopper passes.

I've heard many people say that the parks are so much more crowded during EMHs.

I also think we may be more apt to use the morning EMH only for Animal Kingdom, and the evening EMHs for all the other parks.

To help me in my planning, I'd like to hear your opinion! What's your experience with EMHs? What are the pros and cons?

[BelleCiavo]

My experience is if you have hoppers go to the EMH park in the AM and leave around 11 or 12. The evenings we play by ear, sometimes it's dead and sometimes it's not. Right now my plan for next week, which I expect will be crowded, is the use them, but be flexible. Our weekend ADRs, for the most part, are outside the park.

[MNMS]

We're big fans of EMH's in the morning -- we go early and get through a lot of rides quickly (after all for some vacation means sleeping in) and then switch parks.

I can't speak to EMH in the evening too much as our kids are young and we usualyl leave the parks by 8 or 9 anyway. My sense is that the parks do get crowded later in the day becuase of EMH so I woudl avid the evening EMH's.

Have fun.

[MNMS]

We're big fans of EMH's in the morning -- we go early and get through a lot of rides quickly (after all for some vacation means sleeping in) and then switch parks.

I can't speak to EMH in the evening too much as our kids are young and we usually leave the parks by 8 or 9 anyway. My sense is that the parks do get crowded later in the day because of EMH so I would avoid the evening EMH's.

Have fun.

[gtpooh]

We really like the morning EMHs as well. We can get a whole lot done, which is great. We've gone in the evening once when we went during July, and found it to be a bit chaotic, but we only did it once, so I don't know what others have found.

[TennesseeTink]

I agree with all of the above about AM EMH. If you don't mind getting up early, it's great to get a head start on the crowds. The evenings can be crazy, but if the PM EMH are extended much past the regular closing time, it can be fun. DH and I were at MK on Dec.30. The park closed at midnight after special fireworks and EMH was extended until 3am!! When the park started emptying out, we headed to Frontierland and rode Splash Mtn over and over again; it was a BLAST! We didn't even have to get off; they just let us keep going. We headed to Tomorrowland next for Buzz and Space Mtn. It felt like we had the park to ourselves. We stayed until 2am and finally were just too tired.

[Donald A]

We're not big on EMHs. Of course we go in the off-season in early November usually. Years ago we went and rode Space Mountain at like 8 in the morning as part of EMHs. Never again! I was disoriented the rest of the day!

Seriously, in my experience it is just too crowded for EMHs for my liking.

[conorsmom2000]

Honestly, we usually avoid EMH's in the morning - we're usually too tired to get up and out that early! On our last 2 trips my son was 5 and 6 - I know that without enough sleep, we'd be facing a huge case of the crankies! :D So, it was easier on us to let him sleep to a normal time, have breakfast then hit a park at opening (but not the EMH park). Just what worked out best for my family! :mickey:

[HndrdPrcnt]

We're big fans of EMH's in the morning -- we go early and get through a lot of rides quickly (after all for some vacation means sleeping in) and then switch parks.

I can't speak to EMH in the evening too much as our kids are young and we usualyl leave the parks by 8 or 9 anyway. My sense is that the parks do get crowded later in the day becuase of EMH so I woudl avid the evening EMH's.

Have fun.

I would agree with all the above points. We hit the morning EMH and then take an afternoon break. Sleep in?? No way, I'm at Disney. I can sleep in all the weekends I'm not at Disney!!:thumbsup:

[cinderellangel]

I have never done EMH in the AM cause my best friend and I are just too tired to get up early. We always do the PM hours and it isn't terrible. We wait on no lines, it is cooler at night, not a lot of people, and the best part, the characters are out until 12:30 or so.

[iceicebritney]

i dont do extra magic hours ever, we're more of late afternoon / early evening park hoppers. the park is cooler (less sun beating down on you) and you can spend the morning in the water parks.. which are the best part anyway!

[sleepingbooty]

We avoid them. The kids are too young still for evening EMH and when we did do the morning EMH we found the park to be extremely crowded by 10 am. Since we didn't have hoppers we were stuck with a very crowded park that day. You've got park hoppers, so you might want to try it out since you have the flexibility to hop if it gets crowded. If you don't like getting up early - avoid emh park days.