Avoid EMH for a better experience!!!!

[Rosemickey68]

Think it really depends. We did EMH one evening at MK in May and it was awesome. Between 10pm and 1am we were able to watch the fireworks, Main Street Electrical Parade and ride HM, BTR, SM, PoC, SM, and Buzz Lightyear, while stopping and getting a snack and walking through the new Fantasyland to check it out in the dark. Thought it was one of the best nights we had!

[spectrum2100]

Just because a park has Evening Extra Magic Hours, doesn't mean it will be extra crowded in the morning, right? When would someone actually see the crowds getting larger than normal because of the Evening EMHs?

[SBETigg]

Just because a park has Evening Extra Magic Hours, doesn't mean it will be extra crowded in the morning, right? When would someone actually see the crowds getting larger than normal because of the Evening EMHs?

Often, it makes the whole day more crowded from morning on. People who chose to do evening EMH and don't park hop will tend to show up early and stay all day, or take a midday break and come back. But morning hours do often reflect crowds, yes. Strangely enough, the later hours of an evening EMH park are often less crowded than the morning hours of that same park, once people who started early hoping to get their money's worth and go all day tire out.

[spectrum2100]

So I subscribe to TouringPlans.com and I'm planning on going Oct 7-10 to WDW. I planned on going to Epcot either on Tues, the 8th, or Wed the 9th. Tues has morning EMH but is a 2.5, and Wed. has evening EMH and is a 4.7. I've got small kids, and I think it would be too much of struggle to get them up and fed, and to Epcot by 8am. 9am is more doable. So which would be the better day to go. I'm thinking Wed. morning. We probably are only going to do Future World in the morning, and then we may return Thurs. morning to do World Showcase....maybe.. What do you think you would do if you were in this situation? This is my kids 5,4, & 2 first time to Disney World, so my wife wants to take them to the Magic Kingdom first. Even though Epcot would be great to go to on the Monday the 7th with only a 1.1 of crowds.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks for the look.

[azcavalier]

This is why we always get park hoppers. We can go early for morning EMH first thing when it's not crowded, then hop to another park. We can spend most the day at a non-EMH park, then hop just for the EMH late night hours once things have quieted down at the EMH park. If one park seems too packed for whatever reason, we can just try another one. Our strategy isn't to avoid EMH. It's to make sure we can always hop around. Besides, I just can't imagine spending all day in one park. We like to mix it up.

This, exactly. That first hour of the morning EMH is golden. We can get through so much it's amazing. Then we hit lunch around 11am, and wander out, shopping and maybe hitting an attraction or two along the way, depending on the wait times. Go back to the resort, swim, whatever, and hit a different park in the afternoon/evening. Always works great.

And, this last trip, it worked better than ever. They have been opening the parks even earlier lately. One day they opened DHS 20 minutes before 8. We had ridden TSM and were heading to RnRC by the time 8am rolled around. Then we did ToT and the new Star Tours (twice!), and then did the Great Movie Ride. All by 10am! It was awesome.

[Lizzie]

Love morning extra magic hours. Get there before opening and eat lunch at 11 and than leave to go to another park or my favorite back to the hotel for a swim and quick nap and than head back out late afternoon for an early dinner somewhere.

[SBETigg]

So I subscribe to TouringPlans.com and I'm planning on going Oct 7-10 to WDW. I planned on going to Epcot either on Tues, the 8th, or Wed the 9th. Tues has morning EMH but is a 2.5, and Wed. has evening EMH and is a 4.7. I've got small kids, and I think it would be too much of struggle to get them up and fed, and to Epcot by 8am. 9am is more doable. So which would be the better day to go. I'm thinking Wed. morning. We probably are only going to do Future World in the morning, and then we may return Thurs. morning to do World Showcase....maybe.. What do you think you would do if you were in this situation? This is my kids 5,4, & 2 first time to Disney World, so my wife wants to take them to the Magic Kingdom first. Even though Epcot would be great to go to on the Monday the 7th with only a 1.1 of crowds.

Sorry for the long post. Thanks for the look.

Just a warning not to take Touring Plans too seriously. Last time I went, they were way off on all of their estimates. The "least crowded parks" were super busy, and the parks that were supposed to have high crowds did not. We were especially happy to have park hoppers. When we met crowds, we just hopped on to a different park. I would go to whichever parks suit you and forget about the crowd estimates.

[AgentC]

I stopped using Touring Plans crowd levels awhile ago. I do look at Easy WDW's crowd levels but then I do what works best for me. Sometimes that means going against crowd level calendars.

The time of year you are going is not peak season and since your days are all week days you will miss the highest crowd days.

Unless your kids are extremely tall , you probably won't be taking them on the two rides in Epcot that have the longest wait times - Test Track and Soarin. The areas that are more young child friendly like Innoventions , Nemo etc don't tend to be the most crowded attractions.

If you are looking for the lowest crowd day out of your choices , it is probably the Thursday. After two days of EMH , it will not be the first choice for one site guests.

[mrte62]

We used EMH at MK one evening in October and we pretty much walked on every ride.

I don't think I have ever used a morning EMH.

Same for us. And we also visit the park that had EMH the night before.