Opinions on EMH?

LibrarianBecky

Mouseketeer
Joined
Dec 13, 2010
I am looking for opinions on Extra Magic Hours. We're going to be staying onsite, and it seems like a no brainer to take advantage of these. We normally rope drop, so while getting there for EMH rope drop in the morning will take a bit of effort, it is doable for my family. I have been reading lots of Disney stuff lately, though, and it seems like many bloggers recommend that you do NOT do the park that has EMH, or that you take advantage of EMH and then hop to another park. I understand the idea behind this---EMH brings more people into the park, so as the day goes on, the amount of people just grows and lines are longer. Do you agree that this is true? Do you still take advantage of EMH?

We generally do not tour with parkhoppers. For our upcoming trip, we plan to do rope drop, then come back to our room at the Poly when doing MK and Epcot for an afternoon break, and then going back to the same park late afternoon/evening. We are going in June, which will be the busiest time we have been at WDW, and we are concerned about crowds and heat, which is why we are planning to tour that way. It is just myself, my DH, and our 12 year old son....so we can do early morning/later evening without any troubles.

What's your opinion on EMH? Valuable only with parkhoppers? Valuable for everyone? Don't do it--it's a trap?

Thanks!
 
Awful. Don't do it - it's a trap.

Disney really advertises EMH heavily before the trip and during. There are a lot of people who stay on site who feel like it's a great idea to take advantage of this "perk" so the parks with EMH are usually very busy - maybe 100% busier than a non EMH day. It's possible you can make it work to your advantage if you get to the park plenty early, stay ahead of the HUGE crowds and then hop to another park for RD. More likely you will just be getting up early to jam into the park that is jam packed with 10,000 of your closest friends.

IMO the best strategy is to avoid the EMH park each day and visit the park that had EMH the day prior.

Have fun!
 
I completely agree - it's a trap. We have noticed large differences in crowd levels on EMH days vs non-EMH days. Many guests try and take advantage of it so the park is very crowded during the day AND during extra magic hours. Being that EMH is only one hour in the morning and two hours at night, it is not much of a benefit when the majority of people on property flood that park for the "benefit". But that is just my opinion - everyone travels differently. This is just the way my family does it.
 
I think it depends. Morning EMH is usually less crowded than late night EMH from what I have found. So I would be more likely to take advantage of that. As for evening EMH it depends on the time of year. I was able to get on Frozen rather quickly during evening EMH in March. So if you are planning on doing rope drop anyways I would rope drop EMH. Evening EMH its up to you.
 


We hop. A lot.

That said, I’ll do morning EMH if it works for us. And hop later. Otherwise I avoid.
 
We do EMH and usually are back to our hotel between 10-11. Then we have breakfast go to the pool and park hop with afternoon or evening fast passes. Understand our touring style is very chill. We are adults with grown children.
 
I've not done EMH in the last 3 years as we have been staying offsite. Prior to that, we stayed onsite, and made use of EMH. I will agree, the parks are busier on EMH days, though unless things have changed a bit since we used them, I would say 100% busier is an exaggeration. We were always able to get on rides with a significantly shorter wait during EMH than during regular park hours. We particularly enjoyed the evening EMH as it was an additional opportunity to enjoy the parks after dark.
 


I am going against the trend here just a bit. If you RD anyway, morning EMH just gives you more of a window to get in a lot of rides with little wait. No doubt it does get crowded later but you can easily hit the headliners if you rope drop EMH... There would certainly be a big advantage to then hop to another park before noon but like you, we don't hop. We simply get the headlines done during EMH and then we might FP some of the headliners around mid day then take it easy and ride the not so headliners after noon. It really just depends on your touring style but morning EMH can certainly work to your advantage...
 
Time of year is a factor too. EMH mornings were a blessing when we were.there at the end of August. We were in AK and HS before eight and before all the heat.
 
We are offsite people, so we never have the ability to do EMH. However, our kids really wanted to see what it was all about. So last trip, we booked a throwaway room at the Dolphin...we didn't actually stay there. We did evening EMH at Epcot...we'd never do morning, we prefer to sleep in...and frankly we were less then impressed.
 
I am a person who despises wasting time in long lines and dealing with the heat of the day. I am also a morning person. We generally stay on property 90% of the time. Between Morning EMH, Refresh, and 60 day FP, I can avoid the things I dont want to deal with. When people are wandering in the park at 11am in the midst of crowds and heat, we are leaving after having ridden all we want to without lines or the crowds/heat. Now its time to relax, enjoy the resort pool, springs, etc and then later head to a non emh park for a nice dinner and the nighttime show, ride things normally not ridden in the mornings use FPs for something I want to ride, etc. We go 5-6 times a year for short trips 4 times and longer ones twice. So, we never stay in any park more than 4 hours unless its a special event (F&W, MNSSHP, MVMCP, After Hours specials, or a tour). Mornings are for riding and having a great time knocking stuff out whilst everyone else sleeps. Afternoons are for relaxing or naps and evenings are for relaxed touring. We generally will sleep in one morning because the night before we will have a late night at Springs or seeing Bob. But, mornings typically are EMH and ride. The nighttime EMHs tend to be more crowded and I havent found them very useful.
 
First. Never do EMH without hoppers. You want the benefit of the extra hours without the crowds, you need the ability to hop.

Secondly, if you have a hopper, here's how to take advantage of EMH.
  • For morning EMH (any park), be there early, have a solid plan of what you want to accomplish, and get out by noon. Go somewhere else for the afternoon/evening. Use your FPs in the second park of the day.
  • For evening EMH, it all depends on the park and the timing. HS does not handle EMH well. Avoid at all costs.
  • For Epcot, use EMH to spend time in the countries, not in Future World. There are not enough rides at Epcot in Future World to disburse the crowds.
  • Evening EMH hours at MK deserves some thought. First, it was much better a few years ago when EMH was 3 hours instead of 2. You figure it takes about an hour for the non-resort guests to filter out and you only have an hour left of true EMH. Secondly, the later in the night, the better EMH are. If the EMH coincides with the start of fireworks, then there is little or no advantage. I would avoid. Everyone is still in the park.
  • However we often go in October and have been able to get EMH from midnight to 2 a.m. when the fireworks are at 9 or 10 that night. Trust me when I tell you that 1-2 is a fantastic time to tour when fireworks have been over for for 3-4 hours.
 
I agree for the most part with Delirium. With Hoppers, do EMH for one park and plan to leave and rest in the afternoon.

You still have to arrive 45-60 minutes before the EMH opening time to be at the front of the line. But you will be able to get more accomplished during that first hour than you will the rest of the day.

If you're going during a crowded period (e.g. xmas week) EMH is even more important. We once arrived in WDW the day after New Years and there were EMH at MK the next day. Opening time was 8am, so EMH was at 7! We practically had the park to ourselves. We had done 3 major rides, and saw that Dumbo (the old version with only one spinner) had nobody on it. Dumbo usually had at least a 40 minute wait. We rode it 3 times and got some great pictures. By 11am, MK was crowded, we were all toast, but we had done almost all the major attractions. Went back to the hotel and slept.
 
Evening EMH hours at MK deserves some thought.

Also keep in mind that if your trip dates fall during hard ticket party season and you don't want to pay the $100/person extra, EMH may be your only chance to enjoy MK at night, as parties will close the park early 4-5 nights out of the week.

Strolling through MK at night is still magical to me and one of the few must-do/non-negotiable wishes on every trip list, even after visiting at least 100x to date. Crowded? Always. But we deal, because it's important to us and makes the trip special.

Although unlike Delirium, I never see those wonderful 12-2 slots. :sad2:Whenever we're there, it's always 10-12, right after fireworks. But it's better than nothing.
 
I went back and looked at October, 2016, which was the last time we have been. We were there for 2 weeks. On 10/5, Wishes was at 9 and EMH were from 11:00-1:00. On 10/12 (Columbus Day week), Wishes was at 10:00 and EMH were from 12:00-2:00. I remember both of those as being great touring opportunities.

Of course, those dates are right in the middle of the party season, so I think Disney was being a little more generous on the closure times.

Those weeks were also notable for a couple of other things. Hurricane Matthew shut the park down early on the 6th and all day on the 7th. And, Sunday, the 9th, was the last day that the Main Street Electrical Parade performed At Disney World.
 
We are offsite people, so we never have the ability to do EMH. However, our kids really wanted to see what it was all about. So last trip, we booked a throwaway room at the Dolphin...we didn't actually stay there. We did evening EMH at Epcot...we'd never do morning, we prefer to sleep in...and frankly we were less then impressed.
Epcot isn’t really one of the best parks for emh unless you want to do frozen. It’s best for parks with new attractions and in my opinion morning is better than night!!
 
Awful. Don't do it - it's a trap.

Disney really advertises EMH heavily before the trip and during. There are a lot of people who stay on site who feel like it's a great idea to take advantage of this "perk" so the parks with EMH are usually very busy - maybe 100% busier than a non EMH day. It's possible you can make it work to your advantage if you get to the park plenty early, stay ahead of the HUGE crowds and then hop to another park for RD. More likely you will just be getting up early to jam into the park that is jam packed with 10,000 of your closest friends.

IMO the best strategy is to avoid the EMH park each day and visit the park that had EMH the day prior.

Have fun!

That is how we have done it the last few years. We avoid morning EMH and go t othe park the day after EMH. I don't know that it makes a gret deal of difference, but have read that the parks tend to be less crowded the day after EMH.
 
I think it really depends on a lot of factors..What kind of person are you and your family? Morning people? Late night? What time of year is it? How often do you go? Do you do sit down meals? Are breakfasts important? And tons of other questions. When I read different peoples plans and they ask advice, the issue is everyone does the parks somewhat differently and has different priorities. Someone who goes a great deal like we do, riding every ride to get the most out of a ticket isnt a priority because we have APs. We are morning people and prefer to knock things out in short bursts so other days, usually nights, are very relaxed and nothing is a "must do". We also take advantage of After Hours, Parties, and AP events. We like to have at least one evening to have "adult" non park fun at Springs or seeing Bob, or at Sams with drinks watching the electrical water pageant and HEA from the porch at Sams. The whole idea of "is EMH worth it" is variable and dependent on so many factors.
 
On our first 5 WDW vacations we went 'Commando', taking advantage of Early Entry as it was called back then and even paying extra for what was called E Ticket Nights when, for $15 or so a few thousand or so guests got to tour MK alone for 3 hrs at the end of the day. In 2005 we hit WDW the first 10 days in Jan., by day 3 Disney was a ghost town and we started avoiding the EMH park, instead hitting a non-EMH at RD. This works for us, giving us extra sleep time and the parks we hit are less crowded. FWIW we go during Food&Wine and so hop to WS every day around noon after getting our licks in at our RD park first.

Bill From PA
 
Morning EMH! You'll find it helpful in parks with tiered FP. We get more done in the first 3 hours then most people do all day. We have to go busiest times (Thanksgiving, spring break, July 4th week) EMH in am is huge perk for us.

Have a great time!
 

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