PM EMH vs Touring Plan Recommendations

[ask!]

Help! I am feeling so confused...is it really better to go to the parks without PM EMH? I noticed on the Touring plan site, that they avoid the parks with PM EMH....does this really make a difference because it doesn't seem to make sense to me. I will trust you guys and rearrange my ADR's based on your advice...unconfuse me please!

Andrea

 

[WDWFigment]

Depends on if you're getting parkhoppers or not. Actually, I would recommend going to the EMH park, regardless. But the difference is, if you have parkhoppers, you're better off starting elsewhere (perhaps where there's morning EMH) and switching parks later in the day, as there will be larger crowds in the Evening EMH park during the day. Things will start to thin out once EMH start, but the reason they are more busy at first is because you have normal guests who don't stay OP, plus those who do, and plan on staying for EMH. Once the former group leaves, it is less packed, but you'll still have a difficult time riding certain rides (Space Mountain). If you don't have park hoppers, I'd go to the park with evening EMH all day just because, well, it's open longer!

 

[HoW]

I would say avoid the EMHs, at last the Evening ones I like the morning ones. My fiancee and I were very excited by the EMHs on our trip last year, but were dismayed to find the multitude of people who attended. Crowds are very heavy until at least an hour and half into the EMH, and even then you still have crowd to deal with. IMO you'd be better off to head for a park not having the EMHs, crowds will be lighter, you may not get the extra time, but the smaller crowds make the difference to me.

 

[AEfx]

It makes perfect sense why those parks are the busiest. A very large percentage of guests stay on-site, and no matter where they go today they see that the MK, or whatever park, is open "for them" that night, which means that you have four parks worth of people who tend to gravitate towards whatever one is open latest for them.

I'm always of two minds about EMH nights. If you are not a resort guest, then avoid them like the plague. It can do nothing but harm you. However, if you are elligible, then it's more of a personal decision than anything. During morning EMH (when you actually arrive and are in the park at 8AM to take advantage of it) is usually relatively quiet and rides have short waits. Evening EMH tends to have very long waits on attractions and is not the best time to experience the big ones.

When I stay on site, I tend to attend the evening EMH's because I don't do PI, and I just like to be in whatever park is open latest. However, I don't do them expecting to walk-on rides, but more for the fun and atmosphere of being in the parks late at nights. That said, the last hour of the night you often can walk-on some rides, and even get repeat rides on some, because people tend to filter out by that time.

If you already have ADR's, and you aren't expecting to walk-on rides, I wouldn't worry about it. Make sure you are at the parks earlier on other days for "attraction time", and just enjoy being in the parks late.

Good luck!

AEfx

 

[WDWFigment]

^^ I think the four parks worth of people condense into one is a bit of an overstatement. Most people with children won't make use of the EMH, so the crowd during EMH is definitely lighter than the one right before EMH starts. However, some rides are notoriously busy. Space Mountain is virtually pointless to try during EMH, unless you want to waste your entire time in that queue. However, Splash usually has a very short wait once about second hour into EMH. Other attractions have typical wait times, but from my experience, those are the two with the longest/shortest wait times.

 

[Mr.Stitch]

I would agree that the morning EMH is better if your're looking at making the most of your time. It may only be open an hour early, but crowds tend to be lighter morning anyway. You'll find the parks will get busy around 11am - most people either go for evening EMH or can't be bothered to get up that early.

I have also found that it is lighter for the last 1-1.5 hours of evening EMH - but the crowds do tend to be a bit heavier in the EMH parks during the day. I'm not sure if it is too heavy to avoid - that is your choice. I'd recommend morning EMH and/or hopping to the park with evening EMH if you prefer to go at night.

 

[AEfx]

^^ I think the four parks worth of people condense into one is a bit of an overstatement. Most people with children won't make use of the EMH, so the crowd during EMH is definitely lighter than the one right before EMH starts.

Uh, how did you get "four parks worth of people condense" out of "which means that you have four parks worth of people who tend to gravitate towards whatever one is open latest for them." "Tend to gravitate" is the key term there, and it's fact.

I have to disagree completely with you when you say the crowd for EMH is lighter than before EMH begins. I almost never see that to be the case. While not EVERYONE does this, the prevaling wisdom seems to be that more people gravitate to the EMH PM park "because they paid for it", i.e. the EMH feature by staying on-site, which artificially inflates the amount of people who would go to that park. The night before, and the night after (and ESPECIALLY the morning after) an EMH is almost always much slower because so many people plan that as their "MK NIGHT" because they blindly follow what the resort tells them their "benefit" hours are.

It's the same phenomenon as how the BUSIEST any park is going to get on a given week is the mid-morning of an AM EMH day. Tons and tons of resort guests designate whatever day is that parks AM EMH, again, to get their "benefit", but like many on a Disney vacation they oversleep, don't make the actual hour you get the benefit, and end up going to the designated park anyway that day because it was in their plan. That's why smart people get up early, get to EMH and are riding rides at 8:01, and see half the park before lunch when most people are just seeing their first attractions.

It is not overstating it in the least to say that EMH inflates crowds because resort guests will always tend to gravitate toward whatever park is latest. Not *everyone* does it, but many do, enough to make an impact. And I'm not sure how many EMH's you have been to, but it has not been my experience that parents with kids avoid them...they may be dragging the kids along half-asleep, but they are still there, "getting what they paid for".

AEfx

 

[Dwarful]

Ok I am a mother of two daughters and we frequently go w/cousins/aunts/uncles/grandparents etc. We always get up early and are in the parks for the morning emhs. We also know which area we are going to. For example at MK we tend to get Fantasyland done right off the bat because the youngest kids love those rides and it gets to be stroller chaos in the afternoons, with long waits.

Our last trip in Dec. of '06 the evening emh's were a joke. We did go to them at Epcot, but we were able to ride Soarin' 3 times in a row in the morning w/little/no wait and at the evening EMH it had a wait time of over 2 hours.

We are going back in August, and I doubt we do much of the evening EMH's because the benefit just wasn't there. We were able to do much more in the mornings (then go back to the resort for a swim/rest) and head off somewhere else for the evenings.

 

[mousermerf]

Just wanted to mention.. as much as people want to speak to the contrary - the parks are more crowded overall on the days that the EMH occurs.

We can speculate as to why this occurs, but the truth remains that it occurs.

Morning EMH provides an opportunity because most resort guests try to do the EMH park, but they almost always arrive at the normal park opening, thus late. If you get in that small window, you can knock out several attractions - then importantly hop to another park. The park will have increased attendance all day due to the "lure" of EMH morning.

Evening EMH has a higher overall attendance during the day, as people seemingly pick the park that they can experience the longest (or when they can experience that park the longest - it's not often MK is open till 11pm but the next day on EMH closes at 8pm to make the hours even). Later in the evening, people flock to the EMH park, usually trying to hit the fireworks and be in the gate prior to the start of EMH. They hop.

Evening EMH means very crowded conditions particularly an hour or two before EMH starts and for about the first hour and a half of EMH. Then it starts to decline, and you can usually get some rides in during that very last hour - but sometimes it's literally the last 15mins. On days when evening EMH is early, it tends to be entirely neglible in terms of thinned crowds (say AK goes from 5pm to 8pm). On nights when it goes late to like 3am, you can often get a good 2 hours of slower time.

In general though, easiest advice is doing EMH morning then hop, and avoid EMH evenings. The few attractions you might get by evening EMH is far outweighed by the impact on other parks, which are noticeably slower because they're not having EMH.

 

[SqueakyMouse]

In response to families with young children not attending EMH...not true. We have 3 children and have always tried to attend both morning and evening EMH for at least part of our trip. You will see lots and lots of young children at both of these. My kids are night owls, so they are actually more "into" the evening EMH.

 

[Yellow Shoes]

My kids are night owls, so they are actually more "into" the evening EMH.

Yours may be; most of the children I see at 11 p.m. are not.

Parents carrying out sweaty inert children is not pretty.

I just cannot imagine that anyone is having "vacation fun."

 

[Dwarful]

My own kids could easily handle the evening extra magic hours, however, I know that many of the kids going on our August trip won't be able to handle the 3am closings in August. I will push for the early morning hours because you can get so much more done in those first few hours when everyone else is still waking up.

 

[PigletIsMyCat]

Remember that not all rides are open during ANY EMH, but most notably during morning EMH at Magic Kingdom, only Fantasyland and certain rides in other areas are open. I heard a 'woman' (sorry, she doesn't deserve to even be called a human after what I heard coming out of her mouth) complaining that she went to MK for morning EMH and was trying to get a penny pressed in Adventureland and was told she had to come back when it opened. She was complaining that she didn't have the time to wait to have a penny pressed, so she left the park. Seriously, getting the penny pressed in Adventureland was the ONLY reason she went to MK that morning...

 

[AEfx]

In general though, easiest advice is doing EMH morning then hop, and avoid EMH evenings. The few attractions you might get by evening EMH is far outweighed by the impact on other parks, which are noticeably slower because they're not having EMH.

Agree totally with this and your entire post.

I'd add that with morning EMH you don't have to hop immediately to avoid the crowds. I've found that when the crowds start to build at the front of the park, you will already be in the back of the park and ahead of the crowds for a siginifigant time.

I usually find we go from 8AM to 10:30AM or so, grab an early lunch (since we usually skip a real breakfast on EMH mornings) before the crowds stop to eat (they are just getting on their first rides) and then head out before noon. In that four hour span, even with stopping to eat, you can knock out the major attractions at most of the parks.

At the MK that means doing Fantasyland during EMH, being at the rope drop to Adventureland, doing PotC/Splash/BTM, and you can be over in Tomorrowland getting an early FP for Buzz before Cosmic Ray's even opens. Then you just deal with Tomorrowland and there you've done the quick tour of all the MK attractions in just a few hours.

Even without morning EMH, the above scenario can happen on most days if you are there for opening.

AEfx

 

[Dwarful]

AEfx, that sounds just like our touring plan! We did that over the Christmas season and still managed to see a good deal of MK before the crowds made the lines really long. I plan on doing that same plan in August with the girl scout troop, then letting the girls have a swim break at the resort before going back into a non-emh evening park.

 

[LoriMistress]

Avoid all EMH if possible. You think it's not "crowded" but it is.

 

[disneydudette]

We always avoid EMH morning parks... as I personally think that a park draws more attention then those parks with EMH evening hours. :shrug:

On our last trip, we tried something different and would show up to a park around 7ish for EMH evening hours. It worked out amazing! On the night of MGM we hopped between ToT and RRC (when it reopened from rehab) and had rode each nearly 3 times within the first hour.

I travel during the least crowded weeks of the year, and I'm not sure if that has an effect on it or not. Our "assumption" was that people would rather get a head start then consider an all day adventure. So, with that being said, we avoided the parks with morning EMH. I feel that by showing up at 9am on those park days (were not exactly morning people) we would be at a slight disadvantage.

I can understand the Soarin' situation... as its more difficult for a ride with already long waits through out the day to dramatically drop when EMH starts. I think in that situation... morning EMH or avoiding EMH as a whole would be a huge help.

It's personal choice really, and I don't see any harm in trying a day of am/pm EMH on your trip. Maybe you'll be surprised and I'm sure we'll find out either way if attending parks on EMH is a good or bad idea.

 

[Dwarful]

We have to go during the crowded seasons due to work/school obligations. The evening EMH always seem to be a mob session. Example: the EMH wait time for Soarin' was over 2 hours long..that is most of the EMH. We went to the morning EMH at Epcot and rode Soarin' 3 times w/no wait. Generally we do the morning EMH's at Epcot and MK and then hop the monorail to the other monorail park to avoid the crowds after 11am.