Benefits to Avoiding Extra Magic Hours?

[WLnTR]

Hi All,

We're planning a Jan. 2017 trip and our 180 day mark for ADRs is quickly approaching. When deciding which park to visit on which day of our stay (which will obviously drive where we book ADRs), I generally target matching up with the park(s) offering EMH's on any particular day to maximize our available park time. I'm starting to think though, would there be a benefit to avoiding parks that are offering EMH's (assuming many other WDW guest are also targeting the EMH park(s) on that same day)? Is there any evidence (even anecdotally) that crowds might be noticeably lower at non-EMH parks?

Maybe I'm putting too much thought into this...

 

[DuckTalesWooHoo1987]

We love EMH and especially at MK. They generally have way lower crowd levels when the park stays open til like midnight. The crowds are always less but they are big time less the later the EMH last. One thing you could do though is to make your fastpasses for a different park that day and then at MK you would get to ride pretty much everything and wouldn't need a fp at all as the times get later. Just be aware that Peter Pan and Snow White pretty much keep a high wait time even during EMH.

 

[DisneyJoe]

Hi All,

We're planning a Jan. 2017 trip and our 180 day mark for ADRs is quickly approaching. When deciding which park to visit on which day of our stay (which will obviously drive where we book ADRs), I generally target matching up with the park(s) offering EMH's on any particular day to maximize our available park time. I'm starting to think though, would there be a benefit to avoiding parks that are offering EMH's (assuming many other WDW guest are also targeting the EMH park(s) on that same day)? Is there any evidence (even anecdotally) that crowds might be noticeably lower at non-EMH parks?

Some recommend going the day after a parks EMH - i.e. if MK has morning EMH on Monday, you should visit MK early on Tuesday.

Personally we still get much done if we can hit rope drop on a morning EMH at a park, and then if it gets too crowded mid-day, we park hop.

I can't speak to EMH at night as we are morning people.

 

[bethymouse]

We've had good luck with early morning extra magic hours, but not so much with the late evening ( Hollywood Studios especially... lines were still as long or even longer).

 

[Bacon]

everyone on here likes emh but the benefits to skipping them really are just sleeping more

 

[sxeensweet]

We never do morning EMH being I'm not an early riser but we love doing all Evening EMH's while there at all the parks that have them. Feels like you have the parks to yourself at night during those extra 2 hours or so. Lines much shorter etc. So I do recommend the parks on days with evening EMH's. Especially important when we always go in the fall Oct-Dec when hours are shorter at the parks.

 

[KikoKea]

I agree about not skipping EMHs. We always take advantage of the EMHs and find the crowds much less. Our morning EMHs are usually at AK (schedule seems to just work out that way) which allows us to do what we want and be out in about 3 hours. Evening EMHs, particularly at MK, are our favorite. Once the fireworks are done, the park empties quite a bit and the lines are often walk on or nearly so. (Peter Pan and 7DMT, excepted, of course) So, I'd say plan around the EMHs and don't skip them!

 

[Mickey5150]

Traditionally the park with morning EMH will be busier during the day so we usually start our day at the EMH and then hit another park by lunchtime. We get our FPs for the second park and end up getting on a lot of rides.

 

[GenerationX]

We were there in June and went with the strategy to go to parks that had EMH the day before. I was surprised at how well that worked. I never expected lines at the end of the day of the non-EMH parks to be so short.

 

[Wags14]

We love EMH's, if you find that the park is/will be packed throughout the day then just take advantage of the EMH and head to another park that has a lower capacity. It's amazing how much you can get done during EMH's.

 

[disneyKaiju]

Everytime I attended an evening EMH the rides have always almost been walk on. The busier rides are always the popluar ones but even those lines werent too bad.

 

[HauntedMansionFLA]

We've had good luck with early morning extra magic hours, but not so much with the late evening ( Hollywood Studios especially... lines were still as long or even longer).

What park had manageable morning EMH's?

 

[perelandra]

Hi All,

We're planning a Jan. 2017 trip and our 180 day mark for ADRs is quickly approaching. When deciding which park to visit on which day of our stay (which will obviously drive where we book ADRs), I generally target matching up with the park(s) offering EMH's on any particular day to maximize our available park time. I'm starting to think though, would there be a benefit to avoiding parks that are offering EMH's (assuming many other WDW guest are also targeting the EMH park(s) on that same day)? Is there any evidence (even anecdotally) that crowds might be noticeably lower at non-EMH parks?

Maybe I'm putting too much thought into this...

I'm trying the strategy that you are contemplating this year. In the past I've always made fp+ and ADR's at EMH parks to maximize my time at those parks. However, I suspect that the crowds were heavy at those parks that day, so this year I'm going to a different park all day and then hopping to the EMH park for the extra hours.

 

[disneyKaiju]

I'm trying the strategy that you are contemplating this year. In the past I've always made fp+ and ADR's at EMH parks to maximize my time at those parks. However, I suspect that the crowds were heavy at those parks that day, so this year I'm going to a different park all day and then hopping to the EMH park for the extra hours.

I had a similar strategy as well. We would do a park in the day and then take a dinner break then head to the park with the EMH and stay until it was closed.

 

[bethymouse]

What park had manageable morning EMH's?

Magic Kingdom used to work very well for us. We'd get there at 8am and be finished pretty much by 11am.

 

[180º]

Some recommend going the day after a parks EMH - i.e. if MK has morning EMH on Monday, you should visit MK early on Tuesday.

Shh! Not so fast. They must never know!

Anyway, I suggest you all continue to stick to visiting on EMH days. That's the way to go!

...and I'll be in the other parks enjoying the milder crowds

 

[BigRedDad]

If making breakfast ADRs, I would never do it at a morning EMH park. It just wastes valuable time.

 

[BrianV]

Avoid EMH. Its a trap! More people go there. Sure during the actual EMH it might be better but the rest of the day is crowded.

Go the day after an evening EMH. Those who stayed late the night before aren't getting up and going back to the same park the next day. Touring plans and others' crowd calendars back this up.

That said I also like sleep and I'm not a rope-drop person nor am I a late nights person. I want to tour from 9-9. So my goal is lower overall crowds during the day.

 

[SyracuseDisneyFan]

I think it depends on the park and time of year. I've used Extra Magic Hours twice at Disney Hollywood Studios and have had good luck.

 

[JIMINYCR]

I've benefitted by both morning and evening EMH's. Even though resort guests are waiting to jump off early, you can accomplish a great deal in the time you have before the parks really fill up. We always have PH passes so when we get to the point that the park starts getting crazy we move on. I've always had great luck with evening EMH's especially later in the evening as guests tire out and head home. You have to be a person that likes to stay out late and realize you may be tired the next day, but it is worth staying as late as you can manage. Even during the high crowd months, its worked out well for me.