bigger crowds all day-morn. or eve. EMH?

[clareita]

I'm planning our April 21-27 trip for our extended family of 8. I'm putting the schedule of which parks we go to on which days and it is not easy. Even though we are staying onsite, I want to avoid the EMH days on the theory that it makes that park more crowded. Also, I have young kids (9,7,4) so we can't really take advantage of the evening EMH anyway.

However, I've found that making a plan that meets the needs of 5 adults and 3 kids makes completely avoiding EMH next to impossible. If I have to choose between going to a park with morning or evening EMH, which is the better option? In other words, which brings the biggest all day crowds to a park- morning or evening EMH?

 

[Chape19714]

Go to the Morning EMH...In my opinion that seems to work best. Evening draws much bigger crowds, espically at MK and Epcot.

 

[lentesta]

Hey Clareita,

I think those are two separate questions:

1) If I have to choose between going to a park with morning or evening EMH, which is the better option?

If you can get up early enough to be at the morning EMH park 30 minutes before it opens, go to the morning EMH park. Lines will be shorter. Morning EMH is especially effective at the MK and Epcot.

2) Which brings the biggest all day crowds to a park- morning or evening EMH?

Morning EMH.

 

[mousermerf]

I'm planning our April 21-27 trip for our extended family of 8. I'm putting the schedule of which parks we go to on which days and it is not easy. Even though we are staying onsite, I want to avoid the EMH days on the theory that it makes that park more crowded. Also, I have young kids (9,7,4) so we can't really take advantage of the evening EMH anyway.

However, I've found that making a plan that meets the needs of 5 adults and 3 kids makes completely avoiding EMH next to impossible. If I have to choose between going to a park with morning or evening EMH, which is the better option? In other words, which brings the biggest all day crowds to a park- morning or evening EMH?

Building on what len said...

Are you able or willing to park hop? The best overall plan for time efficiency is to goto morning EMH (do not be late - if you're late, skip it) then hop to a non-EMH park. Then, in the evening, if there's evening EMH you need to hop out about 2-3 hours prior to park closing.

The general idea is that people "try" to goto morning EMH but often arrive late (making it great for those who can arrive early) and building the crowds AFTER the EMH is over but most everyone goes to evening EMH, making it very crowded just before the event and through it.

If MK has EMH-morning and Epcot has EMH-night, then the MK for EMH will be empty, but crowds will build dramaticly during midday as the sleep-in people arrive en masse, then 4-7pm will be a transition time, with many people going to Epcot for it's EMH. If MK closes early or has fireworks prior to 9pm, almost everyone one of them will head to Epcot. Over at Epcot? It will have a relatively slow/normal morning, regular midday build, and then 4-7pm the crowds will continue to rise. Around 7-9pm the crowds will start to get ugly and then stay pretty hefty as it leads into EMH.

Hope that helps explain the crowd dynamics so you can make some informed decisions about how to handle things.

 

[NewfieFan]

Building on what len said...

Are you able or willing to park hop? The best overall plan for time efficiency is to goto morning EMH (do not be late - if you're late, skip it) then hop to a non-EMH park. Then, in the evening, if there's evening EMH you need to hop out about 2-3 hours prior to park closing.

The general idea is that people "try" to goto morning EMH but often arrive late (making it great for those who can arrive early) and building the crowds AFTER the EMH is over but most everyone goes to evening EMH, making it very crowded just before the event and through it.

If MK has EMH-morning and Epcot has EMH-night, then the MK for EMH will be empty, but crowds will build dramaticly during midday as the sleep-in people arrive en masse, then 4-7pm will be a transition time, with many people going to Epcot for it's EMH. If MK closes early or has fireworks prior to 9pm, almost everyone one of them will head to Epcot. Over at Epcot? It will have a relatively slow/normal morning, regular midday build, and then 4-7pm the crowds will continue to rise. Around 7-9pm the crowds will start to get ugly and then stay pretty hefty as it leads into EMH.

Hope that helps explain the crowd dynamics so you can make some informed decisions about how to handle things.

Yeah, what he/she said.
If you can get up early enough to take advantage of morning EMH it's worth it. I walked onto three rides in Fantasy Land during a morning EMH and this was in June (very busy). Some people say morning EMH are not needed or necessary for MGM or AK. Although I did do one morning EMH at AK and found it very relaxing there first thing in the morning. So if you do take advantage of a morning EMH it would be best to park hop to a different park when it starts to get crowded. (This is what I did.) I don't think you mentioned whether or not you have the park hopper option. I can't comment on the evening EMH b/c we did not take advantage of these where we had young children. It was already too late for my kids by the time the park was closing. I know it's hard trying to figure everything out and planning the perfect itinerary - I've been down that road before and so have alot of other people here! Good luck and have fun!

 

[clareita]

I'm a total dork...

because when I saw that Len Testa responded to my message I actually clapped. My family likes to make fun of me for going through the UG with a a fine tooth comb and planning the trip 12-6 months ahead of time, but they are more than happy to have a relaxed and fun trip.

I have two options for visiting Epcot

Option 1

Tuesday April 22 normal EMH am - AK morning and Epcot evening
Friday April 25 normal EMH pm - Epcot morning and Epcot evening with Illuninations Grand Gathering dinner

Option 2

Tuesday April 22- Epcot morning and Epcot evening
Friday April 25- AK morning and Epcot evening with Grand Gathering dinner

My thinking is that since the crowd blog at touringplans.com states that Tuesday has the biggest crowds at Epcot, it makes sense to avoid it and go in the evening mainly to walk around the world showcase and not worry too much about any rides. However, the advantage to option 2 is that AK has the lowest crowds on Friday.

Any opinions?

 

[mousermerf]

April's hours haven't been release yet, no?

Hold off for a few weeks (end of this month) and see what the final schedule brings. UG/touringplans will revamp the crowd calendar based on those final hours.