Let's talk about EMH

Ok, so I, like many liners, made my plans on which park I would be in each day months in advance of when the park hours were announced. Some of those parks have the EMH for resort guests, but most do not. Pretty much all parks will have a 10 for the crowd calendar while I am there.

Does EMH have any bearing at all as to what parks you will visit each day or do you completely ignore it?

I think for me, if I was solo it would affect me, but with my family it will not. I am an early riser so that’s just me getting up at my normal time, but my wife and kids get up a good bit later than I do, so early EMH are pretty much out the window for us. We may be able to do it, but probably not. We definintely won’t be there at the beginning of EMH if it’s in the morning.

It’s the park I avoid that day. So many people feel they aren’t getting the full value of a park ticket if they don’t do EMH and then they stay there. This makes that park more crowded than the others. You’ll do more in a less crowded park with fewer hours available.

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If you can’t get to the park on time for EMH personally I would pick a different park.

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Even Thanksgiving week when they are all 10’s on the crowd calendar?

I can not speak to Thanksgiving week as I’m not brave enough to even try to go to WDW then. (Or the week between Christmas & New Year’s)

With that being your travel week, I’d just be resided to the fact that all of WDW is going to be shoulder-to-shoulder packed. It won’t really matter.

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The prime benefit of an EMH park is to get there early for the EMH to experience lower crowds in the morning before everyone else gets there. That extra earlier hour is good for touring even on high CL days. If you can’t get there early it defeats the purpose of going because you will arrive with or after everyone else.

It’s a fair point about all the parks being 10s so it may not matter as much. Still, common wisdom among many crowd calendars is that parks with morning EMH tend to be more crowded as many who arrive early don’t have hoppers and stay all day.

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Might not make much of a difference that particular week. General guidance I’ve heard is to go to the park that had EMH the previous day.

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I have always used the EMH morning hours, got in a good bit of rides, had lunch and then went back to the resort for a rest (I have a 7 year-old, so the rest has been key for him). My son and I are big time early risers, but my husband is not. He has been “persuaded” to get up early with us and use the EMH. However our last trip was the week between Christmas and New Years and I thought the EMH in the morning were a waste. It was felt like total pandemonium which isn’t something I’ve ever experienced in Disney. So now I’m questioning whether to use them as well.

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If you go to an EMH park without arriving for EMH rope drop you are behind an hour’s worth of queue in any attraction. I would pick non EMH parks!

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And I am guessing TP doesn’t change wait times during EMH whether you rope drop EMH or get there with 15 minutes left?

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The first week of September all the parks except Epcot have EEMH and Epcot has a pm EMH. So I bought a Park Hopper option and hoping for the best. I am staying onsite, that helps.

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Offsite, I normally avoid the park with EMH.

With this fall have EEMH on all but Epcot, I am glad I am onsite and will be utilizing those hours.

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I just did all my ADRs this past Saturday, but I had a nagging feeling that maybe I should swap our Thurs/Fri, as I had our last day (Fri) at MK with EMH. We don’t hop, and don’t usually do EMH (might just barely make RD if I can get the troops moving!) but MK is kind of MY favorite so I wanted to end our trip there.

So, this thread has convinced me to swap the 2 days, I think. I was just able to make duplicate ADRs for the swapped days (still have the originals also), including BOG lunch and PPO at GG!

So my original plan was:
Thurs: EP CL4, PPO at GG
Fri: MK CL4/EMH (would not do), stay for HEA

Now I’m thinking:
Thurs: MK CL5, stay for HEA
Fri: EP CL3, PPO at GG; early-ish evening to resort for pool/packing/laundry if needed

So, I’m trading CL 4+4 for CL 5+3, sort of a wash, but avoiding the EMH day at MK. I think I also like having an earlier night the night before we leave, as I don’t think we’ll stay at EP after dinner (we have 2 days at each park).

This would also put us in MK and watching the fireworks on DS18’s 19th birthday, not that that’s a huge factor since he won’t even wear his damn button! lol! :roll_eyes: :rofl:

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We stay offsite, so we avoid it. But it depends on what ride(s) you’re planning to RD. For example, Adventureland at MK isn’t open for EMH, so RD that on a EMH day is fine. But Fantasyland will already be crowded those days.

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I’m not sure… maybe try playing around with your arrival time?

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thanks, I did and times did not change. so I guess that’s the answer

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So we assume that they assume that you’re arriving at normal park opening? :thinking:

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no I assume they assume we are rope dropping EMH

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Makes sense, I mean if you’re taking advantage of EMH you might as well take full advantage!

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