EMH Strategy

[Wickster1970]

Hello all!!

Got a question to you ubber-regulars. When we made our reservation months ago we planned on hitting the morning EMH, get an hour jump on the regular crowds and maximize time in the park. However, I read a recent trip report where they avoided EMH as that park would be so much busier. In fact, hit the park that had evening EMH the day before.
What is your take on this strategy? Are EMH mornings that much more crowded? Would it be better to get to a park an hour later if it meant drastically shorter lines?

:confused::confused::confused:

Thanks for your advice!

[SFTrny]

If you want to do one park only on the one day...and stay all day long, then the morning EMH is going to bring larger crowds by mid-afternoon. Also, the morning EMH's can be tiresome if you are not a morning group...you are on vacation after all!

We are an early morning group. We love the morning EMH's...but we are also out of the park by 3:00 in the afternoon. We run back to our cabin at FW and relax, recharge and have dinner. Then we decide where to go for the evening. So the morning EMH's work well for us.

[DDuck66]

We also love the morning EMH. When we went in Christmas 05, we used the morning EMH every day. We were able to see all the shows and visit all the attractions before the parks got packed. By the mid afternoon, we did a lot of people watching and got good seats for parades etc..

[KylesMom]

We use a mix of both scenarios. For MK and AK, we hit a.m. EMH - but usually vacate each day early to mid afternoon to go back to the resort & relax/swim before we go out in the evening. For DHS & Epcot, we hit these parks the day after p.m. EMH. We've tried a.m. EMH at DHS before, and the lines for ToT and RnRC were huge.

[Zawadi]

We would definitely recommend morning EMH in AK and head straight for Kilimanjaro Safaris :thumbsup:

[cer]

I think that the time of year/crowds levels would make a difference to my EMH strategy. We usually go when crowd levels are low and so I don't pay much attention to the EMH. Whatever we park we go to, we are there at rope drop, and that is our strategy.

The idea of going to the park that had the evening EMH the night before, does sound like an appealing idea!

[pink]

We use the park hopper tickets to use our strategy. What we do is we look what parks are offering EMH that day (we usually use the evening EMH) and we avoid that park during that day. At night when all of the regular guest are gone we go to the park offering the EMH's. It worked like a charm when we were there in September. :mickey:

[bkfree]

For us the best EMH has been am at Epcot and PM at MK.

At Epcot we have managed to ride Soarin twice, Test Track three times and Mission Space 3 times during the one hour of early morning EMH. So worth it.

At pm EMH at MK, we did lots of rides just walked on, especially the children's rides. Seems not too many of the under 9 age group were out late, so my two had those rides almost to themselves.
But we also practically walked on Buzz, SPace Mountain and Thunder Mountain RR.

[Gregandmel]

We were there from Oct 5 -11 and stayed on property and were one of the ones that avoided the emh in the a.m. We did that primarily on the "tips and tricks" I learned on this website. Our #1 goal (other than absorbing ourselves in the magic of Disney, of course) was avoiding the crowds as much as possible. Our "strategy" was multi-faceted and I'm sure we put WAYYYY too much thought into it.

BUT - we looked at the website that shows the normally busiest park of each day (avoided it - I think it's on the 'Best Times to Visit Disney' tab) and tried to strategize by seeing which park had the P.M. emh (figuring those guests that were there the night before would more than likely NOT return at rope drop the next day) AND if there was an emh in the A.M. that day somewhere else - figured THOSE guests would be at THAT park.

It worked well for us - for example, we hit Hollywood Studios on Monday (Sunday evening emh the night before) and a different park (I can't remember which one - maybe Epcot) had the a.m. emh that morning. Monday is listed as a good day to visit Hollywood Studios. It was great - everythign was walk-on practically and we got a REALLY good day in. However - MK was PACKED that day (according to conversations I overheard) and to keep in mind - MK had the PM emh that evening AND Monday's at MK is listed as being one of the busiest days to visit.

I won't make this too long - but those are the sorts of things we took into account. Many people really swear by the emh and I'm sure different strategies work for different families, but that was our take on it. WE had a really great week and were only in the parks from about 9am - 2:30pm each day and got a fULL day in each day!

Have a wonderful trip! But if you DO visit the park that has the emh in the a.m. - make sure you are there on time - I"m sure you can make a lot of headway in those first few hours. I would try NOT try to visit the park with the emh in the a.m. and not show up until later though. And don't let the "initial" crowds overwhelm you at rope drop. Once the rope drops and people are free to move around the park - they disburse in many different directions and the crowds thin out dramatically.

[FaithTrustPixieDust]

I have also been perplexed at how many Intercot posts say to avoid EMH. We are early morning people, and we love morning EMH. I find they are not crowded at all.

Evening EMH seem like they are much more crowded- and now frustrating b/c you have to show your Key to the World. However, evening EMH are also longer- typically 3 hrs I think. So you get more out of it.

[kemps@wdw]

We never do morning EMHs. We will go to another park to avoid the crowds. As we are early risers, we are usually at our preferred park well before rope drop. (1st in line most of the time). This allows us to get in, get our FPs, ride what we want, as often as we like, and get back to our resort around mid-day. Have a litle down-time, and head out to another park for the late aternoon/evening. If you're there early enough, you may get chosen as "Family of the Day" and get FPs to all the attractions! Now, we have been known to do evening EMHs if we're in the mood to stay extra late @ the designated park. But, here again, the crowds are sometimes heavier. So, we just kinda watch and see, and if so, we'll go elsewhere!:mickey: