AVOID EXTRA MAGIC HOURS - EMH Creates more crowds?

[FUNDAD]

We are very excited about going to WDW in August....

Upon the suggestion of some of you, we purchased the Unofficial Guide, and have found it very helpful in our planning....Thanks!....But in selecting which days to go to which parks, it states we should in general avoid parks with Extra Magic Hours, as they tend to fill up faster, than non-EMH parks....(They did say however that if you arrive first thing in the morning at an EMH morning park, that it works good, but only if you leave by noon and hop to another non-EMH park)....

So I am a bit confused......several members on this site suggested I go to parks with EMH, which is opposite the advice in the book.....So what has been your experience?....And do you think I should avoid EMH or not?

Daryl.
A bit Confused, but still optimitic and excited about upcoming trip....

 

[kachow]

My wife and I bought the "Unoffical Guide," for our next trip, since we like to buy a different guide each time we go, and I've got to say, I think it's mostly garbage. The woman that wrote it is kind of a wet blanket in general. She complains about too much Disney at Disney World! But regarding this topic specifically, she seems too obsessed with staying away from the hustle and bustle at all times.

My wife and I don't have kids, so we're rarely up at the crack of dawn and have never done morning EMH, but based on the low levels we find when we get to parks at 10am, I have to believe you'll find a benefit from morning EMH. I DO believe that EMH does increase the overall crowd levels at a park for a day, however, since not everyone buys park-hopper tickets. So if I were you, I would go in the morning and then park-hop out of there around lunchtime.

I agree that in the evening you're not going to get much benefit. For my wife and I, our hope would be that we would get a benefit as parents take their kids home to bed, but they don't. I'm constantly amazed at the young kids up at midnight in the parks or even DTD.

 

[C&D]

If park hopping is an option then go to the early park, stick around until it starts getting busy (usually late morning), then move on to another park. We usually go back to our resort, have lunch, rest awhile to get re-charged then we're ready to go someplace else. Breaking for lunch turns an extra long day into a more pleasant experience for us.

 

[col]

i love going to EMH's they are so much fun and its nice to have less crowds and short wait times for rides and such.

i always go to EMH's coz i can go on rides such as soarin' which only has a 20 min wait during EMH's where as when the park is open normally there is a wait of sometimes 3 hours and 30 minutes which is quite shocking.

not to sound nasty or anything but a book can tell you so much but its a different thing when your there.

my fave parks are AK and MK during EMH's coz it just feels as if you have the park to yourself there a no long queues and such and there are extra shows at night such as wishes, fantasmic.

 

[YankeeMouse]

Fastpasses during EMH

Have been to evening EMH many times and always assumed fast passes were no longer issued then, just standby line, did I miss something?

 

[Magic Maker]

So you see FUNDAD, it seems we are fifty fifty. Half of the posters dislike mornings EMH, the rest dislike evening EMH. So I would say if you are an early riser do EMH in the morning, and then park hop if the parks gets packed. But wait until you feel it is that wait, don't just leave because we told you to, see how it is for yourself.
If you like the parks at night and are a night owl do the evening EMH.

 

[jonesenon4]

:wave: my family and i tend not to do the morning emh like someone said earlier vac.=sleepin.however this year we are planning to do ak morning emh just for the safari. but we do enjoy the evening emh .what we usually do is go to another park most of the day and then hop to the emh park for the rest of the evening.like someone said earlier the crowds are heavier earlier but thin out later. last year we rode peter pan,potc,pooh,splash,thunder,and haunted mansion in less than an hour it was really fun trying to see how many rides we could do potc twice. also the park is much prettier at night. next trip sept. 24 06 counting down the days to magic.:wave:

 

[hokielutz]

Though if they have the morning EMH at DAK I suggest going and riding the safari first thing. It's still cooler for the animals so they are out and more active, and sometimes you can hear the lion roar first thing in the morning (which is pretty cool). :sohappy:

We really enjoyed the EMH at DAK in the evening one day. The park wasn't as crowded and we rode the Safari twice in a row and got great views of all the cats that were now up and roaming during the cool evening hours. Of course this was before Everest was put in. I can't say how it is now.

 

[Nicole]

My wife and I bought the "Unoffical Guide," for our next trip, since we like to buy a different guide each time we go, and I've got to say, I think it's mostly garbage. The woman that wrote it is kind of a wet blanket in general. She complains about too much Disney at Disney World! But regarding this topic specifically, she seems too obsessed with staying away from the hustle and bustle at all times.

The woman that wrote it?? My version is by someone named Bob Sehlinger. That's a man's name where I live.

I like the Unofficial Guide. It has very good advice most of the time. I'm surprised to hear so much criticism of it here.

It really depends on WHEN you go and what you want to do if you should avoid EMH days. If you are going in January it doesn't matter. If you are going in July then there will be higher crowds on EMH days than on non-EMH days. Now that park-hopping is not an automatic feature of park tickets people do tend to go to whichever park gives them the longest hours for each specific day.

 

[kachow]

The woman that wrote it?? My version is by someone named Bob Sehlinger. That's a man's name where I live.

I like the Unofficial Guide. It has very good advice most of the time. I'm surprised to hear so much criticism of it here.

It really depends on WHEN you go and what you want to do if you should avoid EMH days. If you are going in January it doesn't matter. If you are going in July then there will be higher crowds on EMH days than on non-EMH days. Now that park-hopping is not an automatic feature of park tickets people do tend to go to whichever park gives them the longest hours for each specific day.

Eve Zibart on mine. That's a woman's name where I come from. I have the WDW for Grown-Ups version, but I'm sure they recycle alot of it for the different versions.

I'll give two quotes from my book:

"You may find the 'fairy dust' - the semi-official Disney term for both the theatrical glitter and the sense of wonder it's supposed to engender among visitors - becomes a little cloying from time to time."

"You're almost certain to find the Disney corporation's relentless self-promotion - every movie a parade, every character a stuffed toy and t-shirt - awfully heavy-handed."

Gee, I wouldn't have expected Disney to promote Disney films and characters at Disney World, would you?

 

[spoodles]

My wife and I bought the "Unoffical Guide," for our next trip, since we like to buy a different guide each time we go, and I've got to say, I think it's mostly garbage. The woman that wrote it is kind of a wet blanket in general. She complains about too much Disney at Disney World!

The point of the Unofficial Guide is that you get real opinions instead of a Disney commercial. Opinions from people who are very experienced in reviewing theme parks, resorts, restaurants, etc.

 

[Woody74]

Unofficial Guide

Actually, there is very little overlap between the two UNOFFICAL GUIDE books in question. The "Grown-Ups" version you speak of is very short and not very specific. The full UNOFFICAL GUIDE is much thicker, much longer, and much much more helpful. I suggest you throw away the version you have and instead refer to the version by Bob Sehlinger and Len Testa. That's the real deal! :king:

 

[kachow]

Oh, I'm definitely throwing away the guide I have, but really, we just buy the guide to get excited about our trip rather than for any specific information we need, so the full UG would be overkill for us. We actually got more of a laugh from the Grown-Up's guide, because the woman is such a cynical wench.

 

[newfanatic]

I couldn't count the number of little ones I saw being pulled around who either already had their eyes closed or were crying and you could tell they were so tired....take the poor kids back to the room and let them sleep.

Or, as in my case, the kids dragging their tired parents around. Me to my 10 year old "No, we do cannot do Space Mountain again. It has a 45 minute wait, it is already 10:30, and Mommy wants to go back and get some sleep."

We usually did a different park, and then hopped over to spend the EMH at the appropriate park. We were there in November, so on non-EMH nights most of the parks closed at 8 or 9 o'clock. It was nice to get a couple of more hours in at night after the fireworks shows. We did do MGM the whole day that they had evening EMH, and it did seem very crowded.

 

[Super Stitch]

We have never done the morning emh, however on the last two trips we have tried the evening emh at MK and MGM. I will have to say that although the parks are more magical during evening emh, the crowds are horrible. It is enjoyable as long as you don't excpect to fit in an over abundance of rides. My husband and I were much bigger fans of the previous e-ride nights at the magic kingdom. It seemed like even in the middle of summer, we were able to actually cover the majority of the park in those few extra hours.
On a side note, I am also a fan of the original Unoffical Guide and have found some of their tips quite useful.

 

[FUNDAD]

EMH - use both strategies....

So you see FUNDAD, it seems we are fifty fifty. Half of the posters dislike mornings EMH, the rest dislike evening EMH. So I would say if you are an early riser do EMH in the morning, and then park hop if the parks gets packed. But wait until you feel it is that wait, don't just leave because we told you to, see how it is for yourself.
If you like the parks at night and are a night owl do the evening EMH.

Good idea, Magic Maker!...There is such a good discussion going on here for both sides of the story....PRO and CON.....Thanks to all for contributing......

What I think we will do is schedule one EMH morning, and one EMH evening, both at the beginning of our trip, and see how it goes...(allowing our schedule to have more later if we like it or not)....I also like the "park hop" idea, starting with EMH morning and leaving once the crowds do grow too much....But we are going to be flexible and "take it as it comes"....

Besides, like some have said, EMH evenings at MK for example might be kinda cool just to walk around in the dark with all the lights, etc...(even if the rides are packed, which they might not be)....PURE DISNEY MAGIC!.....

Daryl & Connie
Can hardly wait....

 

[slappy magoo]

For us, the most important thing about the evening EMH is that it gets my better half out of the sun. She's from Northern Euro stock, so she doesn't tan. At all. She's borderline translucent. She wears, like, SPF Googol, the highest sunscreen before reaching infinity. So even though the crowds can be pretty bad in the EMH parks, it's nice to be out of the unforgiving Florida sun.

Next time, though, what I'm thinking is that on the night of the EMH, we'll go back to the room early evening, take a nap...or...something else to occupy our time...and then go back to the park an hour or so before closing. A lot of people tend to burn out from exhaustion an hour into the EMH, so if you're rested and happy, you can have a whole lot more fun.

Slightly off-topic, but if you had the sort of pull to make all four parks open up with EMH on the same days of the week, as opposed to one park each day of the week, would you prefer it? What I mean is, 2 days during the week, like Tuesday and Saturday, ALL four parks remain open later, as opposed to one park on Monday and Thursday, another on Tuesday & Friday etc. This way, on a weeklong vacation, you still get a lot of fun out of EMH, but you're not dealing with one park being packed to the gills every single night. Know what I mean? For all the threads started by people who want a fifth gate or more monorail service or a Harry Potter attraction or Horizons or AE back, that's all I want-EMH for all four parks on the same nights, to better distribute the crowds.

 

[hrcollectibles]

When I went I took advantage of Magic Kingdom EMH. I over heard one person say that there were only 3500 people there . MK stayed open until 4 am I loved it
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[kennygman]

Just remember, it doesn't matter what you do at Disney...HAVE A PLAN! You won't be able to wander around aimlessly looking for rides with low wait times. Go to the headliners first and those with slow load times. Catch shows and movies in the late morning, afternoon or evening to stay out of the heat. (Or take a break, it is vacation afterall) We catch the EMH morning and ride 2-5 rides of headliners then leave that park and ride others at the park open. We usually arrive 1-2 hrs before evening hours & get the band. Ask what time Fastpass opens to headliners and get them first thing. The parks are awesome at night and Animal Kingdom is not to be missed at night.

 

[amykissangel]

Slightly off-topic, but if you had the sort of pull to make all four parks open up with EMH on the same days of the week, as opposed to one park each day of the week, would you prefer it? What I mean is, 2 days during the week, like Tuesday and Saturday, ALL four parks remain open later, as opposed to one park on Monday and Thursday, another on Tuesday & Friday etc. This way, on a weeklong vacation, you still get a lot of fun out of EMH, but you're not dealing with one park being packed to the gills every single night. Know what I mean? For all the threads started by people who want a fifth gate or more monorail service or a Harry Potter attraction or Horizons or AE back, that's all I want-EMH for all four parks on the same nights, to better distribute the crowds.

I think that would be awesome...already Disney's cut half the World's population by only allowing in those who are staying on property. Divide that by 4, and it sounds fantastic! You could even hop back and forth...if they were open three hours later, you could go from MGM to Epcot by boat without a problem...that sounds wonderful!:animwink:

 

[tecowdw]

We have never done the morning emh, however on the last two trips we have tried the evening emh at MK and MGM. I will have to say that although the parks are more magical during evening emh, the crowds are horrible. It is enjoyable as long as you don't excpect to fit in an over abundance of rides. My husband and I were much bigger fans of the previous e-ride nights at the magic kingdom. It seemed like even in the middle of summer, we were able to actually cover the majority of the park in those few extra hours.
On a side note, I am also a fan of the original Unoffical Guide and have found some of their tips quite useful.

AGREED!!
The MK E-Ride nights were so much better. You always felt like there was hardly anyone else there.
That's the nature of charging extra admission though ~ many people just won't do it. Give 'em the same thing for nothing though and watch out for the crowds!!
:lol: