EMH- Go or Avoid?

[steamboat willy]

Extra MAGIC Hours both morning and evening. Does this help you decide WHICH Park to go to or which Park to avoid and why? Do you feel your getting more for your stay to attend or do you know it's gonna be more crowded (especially morning EMH) and you go/do elsewhere? We have NEVER done a morning, but have enjoyed a few extra hour in say MK and EPCOT after most non-resort guest have had to exit.
See you all real soon!

[Katzateer]

I find the morning EMH to be worth it if you go early, especially MK. We try to leave the resort one hour before opening. Depending on buses that normally gets you there 30+ minutes before opening. You can get through security and then we eat our breakfast (granola bars or cherrios or fruit ) while waiting.

As soon as we get in, we go to Fantasyland and ride everything we are interested in and get fast passes.

After the first hour it can get very crowded so depending on the crowd, we sometimes switch parks around 11am.

Don't take advantage of the EMH in the evenings very often.

[MargaretMessler]

I have done both and definitely find them worth it. I think it all depends on which park & what you like for attractions (because only certain things are open). As a PP said, you can do a significant part of MK prior to the crowds rolling in if you get there even before the early entry rope drop. Also, I can say from experience, during the times of year that they offer late EMH at AK, the park is empty. We rode EE five times straight with literally no wait.

[ibelieveindisneymagic]

We've done both morning and evening EMH in the past, but now just do the morning ones, the evenings are just too busy, in general.

In the mornings you can get a fair bit done first thing, and then when it gets busy, we had back to the resort for lunch and a swim.

[DANAM]

We do both BUT we rarely spend all day in that park. We normally get there 30 minutes before EMH starts and stay until noon or as late as 2pm. Just depends on the crowds. We normally go back to the room or hop to another park. Then we go to the EMH evening park after dinner so around 6 or 7pm. I normally schedule my days around EMH and we have always done well with that plan. Just really depends on your family. But I suggest avoiding EMH parks if you don't plan on using the extra hours.

[frozman]

Yes, like others have said, if I don't plan on utilizing EMH, I will avoid that park that day. In the past I always tended to hit the evening EMH's, and almost never did mornings, though the studios was always so jam packed that I learned to just avoid that one. But MK and AK (when they did it) were always wonderful, and Epcot was worth doing too.
Now with the changes that have happened since I've last been I would be rethinking my strategy should I ever return as a resort guest. What am I talking about?
1) Splash Mountain being off of MK's evening EMH list
2) Evening EMH's being cut back to 2 hours

Not only was Splash Mountain my #1 most favorite attraction to do during EMH (the ride always had the longest waits during the day, but was a walk on during the last part of EMH), but the last hour of EMH was always the best.
As I stated in another topic, if the park closes at 11:00 to the general public, anyone from the general public who got in line at 10:59 will be allowed to ride. So if Space Mountain has a 60 minute wait at park close, it will not die down at all until at least the 2nd hour, so you'd waste half of your EMH doing one ride.

[Tekneek]

If you want to do morning EMH, you must be there well before they open up. If you're not there before the rope drop, you would be better served kicking back for breakfast or a little more sleep (and avoiding that park that morning completely).

[Mrs Bus Driver]

One other thing that can affect your EMH experience is the time of year. Since I always go off season I find EMH to never be to crowded. Its just a nice perk. Usually use evening because family likes to sleep late but will use one morning to do MK. I like to get a reservation for Crystal Palace before park opening. Main Street is almost empty, then after breakfast you line up near the area you want to go to first. As you are already in the park you can be nearly first for Space Mountain or Splash Mountain.

[WDWgoofy]

Take advantage of mornings

avoid evenings

[MargaretMessler]

One other thing that can affect your EMH experience is the time of year. Since I always go off season I find EMH to never be to crowded. Its just a nice perk. Usually use evening because family likes to sleep late but will use one morning to do MK. I like to get a reservation for Crystal Palace before park opening. Main Street is almost empty, then after breakfast you line up near the area you want to go to first. As you are already in the park you can be nearly first for Space Mountain or Splash Mountain.

Very good point. Although strangely enough that AK multiple rides on EE experience came during May, which was a fairly busy time.

[hauntedmansiongirl]

We love EMH evenings! They are usually crazy busy but we enjoy the park atmosphere at night! It is disappointing that EMH was cut back to 2 hours. That last hour was always the best!

[rjmdds]

We love Morning EMH at the MK but will usually be out of there by 11:30 or so. We get sooooo much accomplished during this time. We will then park hop somewhere else. As for evening EMH, we only utilize them if we come back from another park and decide to hit the EMH park for a couple of hours just for fun.

We also utilize the idea of going to the park that had EMH the previous day, as that park tends to be a little less crowded, at least in our experience.

[Mickey'sGirl]

We love Morning EMH at the MK but will usually be out of there by 11:30 or so. We get sooooo much accomplished during this time. We will then park hop somewhere else. As for evening EMH, we only utilize them if we come back from another park and decide to hit the EMH park for a couple of hours just for fun.

We also utilize the idea of going to the park that had EMH the previous day, as that park tends to be a little less crowded, at least in our experience.

This is EXACTLY how we do it too! The day after evening EMH is the best!

[KylesMom]

We used to do both morning and evening EMH, but as time has gone on, we've become very selective about which parks we attend. Evening EMH during the summertime no longer has much appeal to us, as it's just jammed everywhere late into the night. However, we still take advantage of early morning EMH at MK, AK and DHS. We will usually vacate these parks mid-morning, take a break and hit another park in the afternoon/evening - one that does not have late night magic hours. I concur with the idea of visiting the park which had late night EMH the evening before - many times these parks have been dead for us first thing in the morning.

[LauraF]

For us, it depends on which park has hours when:

Epcot or AK - we'll go regardless of the EMH, since crowds tends to be less there. (I expecially like Epcot evening EMH!)

MK - we're actually more likely to go the day AFTER evening EMH as most people we figure won't come back early the next day.

HS - we usually try to match up when Epcot is doing EMH so we can go to one park early, then walk to the other for the evening.

But honestly, we don't overplan, and just go with the flow. We are on vacation after all.

[azcavalier]

We love Morning EMH at the MK but will usually be out of there by 11:30 or so. We get sooooo much accomplished during this time. We will then park hop somewhere else. As for evening EMH, we only utilize them if we come back from another park and decide to hit the EMH park for a couple of hours just for fun.

We also utilize the idea of going to the park that had EMH the previous day, as that park tends to be a little less crowded, at least in our experience.

Yep, exactly. In that extra morning hour, we get so much done/ridden, and we're usually out of the park after eating lunch. We rarely use the evening EMH, partly because of crowds, but partly because we're usually too tired to enjoy it!

[DisneyDawgette]

Personally, for us being a group without kids, we prefer the late EMH as opposed to the morning. We have some people who are not too fond of rolling out of bed until 10, so early EMH is not practical for us. :/

However, late EMH have proven to be incredibly beneficial! We typically go in the off-season, so most things are a walk on in any park. Late EMH in HS is my favorite, although it is the busiest of the evening options! We do tend to avoid the park with early EMH during the day though- it has worked pretty well for us in the past.

[Aurora]

We use both; which days depend on our touring plans. When our kids were very little, hitting Fantasyland for those first few hours literally made the rest of the vacation more relaxing.

Be aware that during busy times, a late decision may be made to open MK at 8 a.m. Check the printed park times on the map inserts and posted times at the resort. This happened to us on a recent family trip when the parks were packed all week, even at opening. Because many people didn't know about this added early hour (not EMH, just early park opening for all guests), MK was nearly empty.

[Arielfan98]

My family is not made of morning people so we usually build our park schedule around which parks have the EMH at night. The only EMH I'd recommend going to early in the morning for would be AK considering that park doesn't do nightly EMH. I've heard other families who do morning and then midday when the big crowds come in they go back to their hotel and nap/lounge around at the pool and return to the parks later on. Or you could do early EMH one day and late EMH another day. It's all up to you and your family.

[MrPeetrie]

We don't have a hard-and-fast rule regarding EMH. We've found EMH days at Magic Kingdom to be nearly unnavigable as the day wears on. We have little kids, so we'll skip EMH at MK and try to visit it the next day.

We do take advantage of Evening EMH on the other parks, provided the kids are up to it.

When we were a couple of DINKs, we always took advantage of what was previously called E-nights at the Magic Kingdom. (I can't remember if we paid extra for it, but it was well worth it.)