Hi everyone,
we’ll be at WDW in November, and are staying off site. So we can’t use EMH.
B-U-T
Crowd levels on November 22nd are a 2 with EMH in the evening at the MK and a 4 on November 19th. Do you guys think we should go on the 22nd or the 19th?
I thought I had read somewhere (might have been a while ago though) to avoid a park with EMH… Any thoughts?
Thanks in advance
Steph
Avoid morning EMH if you are offsite. For evening, even if you can’t go on rides, you can still see parades & fireworks & shop.
We found that we enjoyed leaving the parks while most people were still staying in the parks. If you leave at closing time or right after a show like Fantasmic on a night without EMH then the buses and sidewalks are packed. As long as the crowd levels really are low, then the staggered departure might work in your favor.
We might be crazy but we will be at the MK on the 22nd. We have BBB, CRT, and the fireworks dessert party booked. These were all scheduled before the addition of the EMH and there’s simply no way for us to reschedule all 3 of these things. But we do plan on utilizing the EMH so that’s a bonus.
My family has a hard time with getting up early for rope drop every morning. We have done lots of “vampire” touring when the MK is open late. Sometimes till 3 am. My kids prefer this way. If it is hot, we miss some of the hottest part of the day when some of the lines are at their longest. Probably not for everyone, but works for my older kids.
How old are your kids @txtinkerbell? My DH really does not want to get up for RD on our next trip except for the one day that we’re getting to HS to get my two youngest signed up for Jedi Training Academy. He asked to do the evening EMH instead. This will be a new experience for us.
Generally if it is morning EMH you should avoid it. The major benefit you have with arriving at rope drop is canceled out because of the resort guests that are there.
Evening it is your call.
@txtinkerbell I will completely agree with you. WE tried so hard to do rope drop but noone was really enjoying the early time in the parks as they hated the getting up. The kids (and us) functioned better staying in the parks til the wee hours of the morning and then sleeping in the next day. My kids are 9 and 8 @kellymouse5 and it worked well. I have to say they were quite excited to say they had been on space mountain at 2am 
That’s awesome @atomic!! We missed out on a lot of the evening stuff last year because my family wanted to get to bed earlier because they weren’t looking forward to RD. I’m looking forward to trying this new way of touring.
AM EMH is the bigger issue; if you don’t have EMH access, by the time you are let in, there will already be a lot of people ahead of you. Personally, I have not noticed PM EMH having a huge effect on attendance. At MK, a lot of families with small children are leaving right about the time that people are hopping to the park to take advantage of the EMH, so it kind of balances out. I would definately do RD on the 2 day.
What say you all to an on-site guest at evening EMH @ EP during F&W?
We were at evening EMH last week. We did not see one person check if people were resort guests at all the rides we went on. So, yes it was crowded, but not insanely bad. So there’s a perk onsite people were paying for that really wasn’t a perk since it wasn’t enforced.
My youngest is 16 and we have been doing this since he was about 11. All my kids are night owls!
They usually only check for the first hour or so At least that had been my experience