EMH and Crowds

[Mtnman44]

I wanted to post this question here to get the response from DVC owners, who I am guessing have a bit more experience and park visits under their belt than the average WDW visitor.

I have a business trip coming up in JULY and I'll be staying at the Coronado Springs resort for over a week. We never visit disney during peak periods but in this case i did not have a choice. For most days, my collegue and I will not be getting to the parks until around 5:30 or so each night, so I figure fastpass is not an option for us . My only hope to get a reasonable park visit was to plan each evening based on a park that had EMH that night. I was assuming that during EMH hours, crowds might be less as all the non disney resort guests are gone, but I neglected to figure on the fact that a large chunk of resort guests would then be concentrated in that park.

So, I guess my question is, do we have a chance at all? Are we looking at shoulder to shoulder crowds and 1 hr. plus lines every evening?

thanks.

 

[jco_direwolf]

Well first off they don't really kick everyone out of the park (They use to do this for the hard ticket parties.) What they do is about 4pm they distribute wrist bands. If you don't have a wrist band, you can't use the attractions.

Since they don't kick out the non-disney resort guests, there are a number of people just walking around, looking and shopping (and trying to slip in on things.)

With all that said, the crowds are less, they thin out as the night goes on. Waits for most things become reasonable. I say most things because like Peter Pans Flight I've seen an hour wait for that at 11:30 at night. Also Space Mountain generally has an insane wait.

But you can get a reasonable amount done between 5:30pm and close of EMH.

johno

 

[corinnak]

I could be wrong about this, but I believe they also reset the fastpass machines for EMH - so that if there were none left by the end of the day, there are then fastpasses for the evening. Of course this was a while ago that I read about this, so I guess it is hearsay at best. Would be nice, though, right?

Hope you have a fun trip! I always think Coronado looks like an interesting place to stay.

 

[gopherit]

In the summer ,the park is open fairly late as it is - you may find you do just as well to go to the park which had EMH the NIGHT BEFORE. This weeds out the EMHers who were either there the night before or are at the other EMH park that night...

Just a thought!

From our experience in the summer - EMH was NOT worth it. My DH went into MGM for example... after 2 hrs they had done RnR twice, that's all. And that was even while folks were over at Fantasmic... Once the show let out - he and the boys said FORGET IT and came back to the room. Now the old E-RIde nights - THOSE were worth it! Ahh the good ol' days...

 

[bmalonef45]

When we were there in January. We did EMH at MK and they didn't reset the fastpasses from what we could tell. We went on BTMR and both lines were open to anyone, they had switched the ropes so they both took about the same amount of time. It was kind of interesting to find someone who got in line at the same time and see which line was faster. Of course our line took longer.

 

[tinkfan]

We were there last summer end of July/ August and found that the EMH was great at Epcot. Almost everything was open and could handle the crowds. MGM on the other hand was a nightmare. There are just not enough attractions there to accomidate the crowds. MK wasn't too bad and got better as the night went on. If I remember correctly the EMH was like 10-1 there so around Midnight a lot of people had left. We did not try AK , so I have no idea how it was there.

 

[chris1gill]

In the summer ,the park is open fairly late as it is - you may find you do just as well to go to the park which had EMH the NIGHT BEFORE. This weeds out the EMHers who were either there the night before or are at the other EMH park that night...

Just a thought!

From our experience in the summer - EMH was NOT worth it. My DH went into MGM for example... after 2 hrs they had done RnR twice, that's all. And that was even while folks were over at Fantasmic... Once the show let out - he and the boys said FORGET IT and came back to the room. Now the old E-RIde nights - THOSE were worth it! Ahh the good ol' days...

This was going to be my suggestion as well... go to the NON EMH park that night you are looking to go out....

 

[conciergekelly]

My kids are 12, 13, and 16. We love EMH because they love to stay up late and sleep in. We have had some of the best times at MK EMH. Sometimes it has been open till 3 or 4 in the morning. (4th of July week I think.) We usually don't make it quite that late (maybe until 2 or 3). But by then it is not crowded at all and it is so much cooler than going during the day. We started the day by sleeping in, pool all day, dinner late somewhere in the MK area, a drink at one of the bars or a walk on the Poly beach and by 12:00am off to the MK. It was great!

 

[Mtnman44]

This is not really doable in my situation as the extreme earliest we could hope to get to a park is maybe 5:30. Epcot closes at 7 and AK at 8 so that is not a good solution.

We won't really be going to MK as we will have no kids or family with us, maybe just on one of the nights.

MGM is a possibility as the regular hours there go till 10. I'll see if I can adjust my schedule to go to MK and MGM on a non EMH night.

thanks!

This was going to be my suggestion as well... go to the NON EMH park that night you are looking to go out....