Hello! I am new to the forum. I am planning our second trip to WDW for the end of August. My dining reservations need to be made this coming Tuesday, so I need to plan out which parks I will be attending. We will be there for 4 full days. We plan on doing one day at each park. My question is, do I take advantage of the EMH? Are morning EMH better than evening? Is the AK EMH even worth it??
I have 4 children ages 4-12. I am worried that evening EMH will be tough if we have to get up early the next day. I am willing to tough it out if it is truly worth it. Are EMH worth it at certain parks and not others? Thank you all!!
This depends on your family, not other peoples’ families.
If you are early risers, and you are paying for the emh perk, take advantage.
If the pm emh will keep your family up too late, and make them miserable if you plan to be up early the next day, I wouldn’t bother. This should be a FUN vacation, don’t be miserable.
Also, perhaps the older kids can “hang” longer with one adult (if there will be more than one adult) and the others can go back to the room if they are wiped out.
For MY family, early am emh and rope dropping is a definite. We are early risers, and being up at 6:30 am is nothing to us. On the flip side, our kids hit a wall at about 9pm. Our plan of attack is get to a park early, then bug out when the crowds come, enjoy a swimming break, then go back to a park for fireworks, and basically call it a day after that. That’s what works well for us, but again, waking up at 6:30 am is nothing for us.
Thanks! My kids do well with either early or late. I didn’t stay onsite for the EMH. Last time we never used them. I kept reading to avoid those parks due to higher crowds. Now I’m wondering if I shouldn’t give it a shot. Maybe not evening EMH at Mk since it is open until 10. But wondering about either morning or evening at Epcot. Or morning at MK. I just want to optimize the time we have since it is a short trip.
if you do NOT have hoppers, then I’m not sure you’d benefit from AM emh depending on crowd level vs other parks’ crowd levels. If you DO have hoppers, am emh are a no brainer, imo.
Short answer: AM EMH yes, PM EMH nice but not crucial.
Although it’s not my only decision factor, I try my hardest to take advantage of all AM EMHs - but you have to be committed to get to the gates at least 30 min prior to the EMH RD to get the best “bang for your buck”. (AK may be different if you are trying to do FOP without an FPP; I haven’t been since Pandora opened). PM EMH at EP in WS has always been one of my favorites - but I use it as a time to look in the shops, enjoy “adult beverages”, take pictures, etc. with lower crowds. With kids, maybe not worth it. I’ve been known to hop to MK when it is open until midnight (or later) after the other parks have closed and I’m not ready to call it a night yet. Back in the days when the only way to see AK after dark was to go on a rare PM EMH; you can do that on pretty much any night now. I don’t think I’ve ever done PM EMH at DHS.
I’m a big believer in AM EMH, especially in hot weather. We like to go early and have afternoon pool time. Then we go to eat and if we want to do something at night we do it.