Extra Magic Hours days more busy?

[TheBigOnion]

Hi all,
is a park more crowded on days that they have extra magic hours?

 

[BigRedDad]

If you are not rope drop people, it will definitely seem busier if it is morning EMH. So much can be done by rope drop for morning EMH. If you are not rope drop people avoid the morning EMH park. The lines are well queued up before you even get there.

 

[TheBigOnion]

We always plan our days to match up to parks with EMHs. But I never thought of the idea that a park with EMHs might actually be busier than other parks that day.

 

[Worldlover71]

Part of the reason many people stay on property is because they want that extra, less busy hour. Many of them can't or don't want to park hop. You therefore have the park's regular crowd plus the people there because of EMH. Many people with park experience (and hopper tickets) will go to the EMH park for the first few hours and then hop to another park that is less crowded.

 

[sxeensweet]

We love evening EMH's being they are 2 hours not just 1 and they feel like you have the parks to yourselves. We do all evening ones when we are there. Plus I'm not a rope drop early riser. Lol

 

[dig311dug]

they need more night EMH... especially for us night owls

 

[Weather_Lady]

In my family's experience, the EMH parks are slightly more crowded (particularly those with morning EMH, which seems to attract more stay-all-day people than evening EMH -- folks seem to go elsewhere and then "hop" to evening EMH parks, at the same time hordes of people are leaving, so there doesn't seem to be a huge bump in the crowd during that time). Unless we are visiting during a high crowd time (e.g., Easter break, etc.), we prefer to avoid the parks with EMH and rope drop another park instead.

That being said, the difference is not huge, and a wise touring plan and an early arrival will always have far more influence on how much you can see in a given park than small fluctuations in crowd levels, so don't sweat it!

 

[sxeensweet]

they need more night EMH... especially for us night owls

They usually (minus some high crowd times and lately with HS they have been missing, but all our trips always had evening at HS too) have 1 evening each week and 1 morning each week at each park already. Plus evening are 2 hours so it's like getting 2 days of the morning ones that are only 1 hour etc. AK should also be getting evening ones back at some point in the future again like last year.

 

[CaptainAmerica]

We love evening EMH's being they are 2 hours not just 1 and they feel like you have the parks to yourselves. We do all evening ones when we are there. Plus I'm not a rope drop early riser. Lol

"Parks to yourselves" depends entirely on the time of year. In the winter, when "normal" close is something like 8pm and EMH is 10pm, the crowds can be very busy.

 

[sxeensweet]

"Parks to yourselves" depends entirely on the time of year. In the winter, when "normal" close is something like 8pm and EMH is 10pm, the crowds can be very busy.

We go in the late fall when they close much earlier too and it's not busy at all when we do EMH's. But no I haven't been in Jan since 1998 so can't speak for those but when we go HS often closes at 7 or 8 , Epcot at 9, MK at 9-10, AK 5pm etc the EMH's are early compared to the summer etc. We will be back again this year the week after Thanksgiving at our fave time 11/29-12/12 and plan to hit all evening EMH's as usual being parks close earlier and we are not early risers. Lol

 

[JillC LI]

The amount you can get done during early EMH has ALWAYS made it worth our while. I want to die when the alarm clock rings so early, but I know I will not regret dragging myself out of bed and to the parks before opening.

 

[correcaminos]

We tend to avoid EMH days at the park, particularly if it is evening hours. We are more morning people so getting out the door by 8am is pretty easy for us, but if the park opens at 8am that would be a push and it's vacation so we don't bother pushing too hard.. Our last trip we accidentally were in each park each day that had EMH. The morning EMH was fine and we got a bunch done in the 30 minutes we were there before opening. The evening EMH wasn't bad at the park until after lunch when the crowds really got big.