Hollywood Studios After Hours with RNRC Closed

[Betsyp]

It was one of the biggest wastes I have ever done in 23 years of going to WDW! I would NEVER do this event again. Save your money. We enjoyed TOT and that was it! We enjoyed this because it was the LAST thing we did before leaving and the cast members were awesome. I cannot say that for the rest of the event and cast members. Cast members were packing people in at Runaway Railroad 4-5 to a seat, no matter your size (after a 20-minute wait). People were asking to for more room several times, and the cast member loading simply kept repeating "4-5 to a row, move all the way over, 4-5 to a row" Similarly, the castmembers managed the entrance and line at ROTR were downright rude. We had asked when entering how long the wait was and was told "it's right in front of you if you look up!" On the 45-minute wait, we were told at certain points to "keep moving, fill in the spaces, all the way down, all the way down" This was being shouted at people when someone finally said to one of the cast members "Can you please stop shouting!" They responded with "Just trying to get everyone on the ride and moving!" in a snarky tone. Overall, it was waiting for rides, pissed-off guests, snarky cast members, and a "here have some ice cream and shut up" kind of night. We went to guest services at the end of the event and called Disney Services the next AM to express our displeasure. They replied with a disingenuous "We are sorry you were disappointed." Please, please, please AVOID this event at all costs. We did the event in MK 2 nights previous to this and it was AWESOME!

I’m sorry you had a terrible time - was it that 2/22 date? That said, while the advice is appreciated, I think people need to take into account that it was one night. Every review from other nights has been great. My point is that anyone who wants to do AH at HS shouldn’t be overly discouraged by one bad night.

 

[kelleybean]

Was anyone at the Hollywood Studios After Hours event on Feb 22nd with RNRC closed? I had such high hopes for this After Hours event, but the two reports I've seen from the 22nd mentioned incredibly long lines (which was not the case prior to RNRC closing!). Just trying to have realistic expectations for the event on April 2nd. Thanks in advance!

I posted on the other thread. Our biggest disappointment that night was the wait for Rise (we got in line at 9:32p and got off at 11p). During the day I would have been thrilled with this wait but very frustrating to have half the three hour event taken up with one ride. We did seem to have better luck compared to others with the rest of our evening. We waited 10 minutes or so for Minnie ride, 17 minutes for SDD, and very short waits for Toy Story and Tower of Terror. We had no issues with snack lines and loved the uncrowded feel of the park towards the end of the night.

I would recommend that you do Smuggler's Run before the party starts. That really helped us. I wrote guest services about our experience and got a generic "sorry for your disappointment" email back. I will say that our priority was to get on the three rides we've never done so we did do that, but our experience seemed very different from those that attended earlier parties.

 

[Boomatt]

I don’t know that a sold out event on one night will garner the same experience as a sold out event on another night. Disney knows what crowd levels will be like for any given date and will staff the parks for higher levels at peak times, this includes parties. What I mean by that is, parties at busier times of the year lowly have more tickets available than at other times.

 

[MrsTski]

No you go in the regular line.

Shoot! That's frustrating. If the event starts at 9:30, I feel like event attendees should have priority over daytime guests!

 

[Pyxie]

Shoot! That's frustrating. If the event starts at 9:30, I feel like event attendees should have priority over daytime guests!

I get that thinking, but I also get that they are trying to clear the daytime guests out as quickly as possible. Letting people cut in front of them in the LL just keeps them there longer than necessary.

 

[MrsTski]

The thought would be that with a busier daytime crowd, there are significantly more daytime people in the queues at the start of the event. So there might be an hour's worth of people still in the queue right off the bat, whereas in a slower time it might only be 5min for the queue to clear out of daytime guests.

Then when you see a 60min wait, you go to another ride, which in turn has a larger wait than it would have otherwise, etc.

Of course, this should make no real difference in people out and about - I guess if all the lines are 20-30min, more people might balk at the lines and just mill about.

This is an excellent point! The park closed at 9pm for the events in January, so you had 30 minutes to move daytime guests through the lines before After Hours guests could enter the lines. So I think the loss of the 30 min buffer, plus the increase in crowds is going to negatively impact at least the first hour of the after hours event!

 

[lugnut33]

Maybe Disney needed a revenue boost and sold and extra 15,000 tickets to the event?

 

[Jacq7414]

What I mean by that is, parties at busier times of the year lowly have more tickets available than at other times.

So a “sold out” event at a busier time of year is sold out with more tickets than at a not busier time of year?

Isn’t that kind of BS (if that’s true). They priced the event higher for being at a busier time. If sold out one night is let’s say 1k tickets, sold out every night should be 1k. They shouldn’t sell more tickets and give people a crappier experience because it’s a busier time of year.

 

[MrsTski]

Did anyone attend the HS After Hours event last night? I was watching the wait times and they seemed more inline with earlier events (compared to the long wait times on Feb 22nd).

 

[scrappinginontario]

Did anyone attend the HS After Hours event last night? I was watching the wait times and they seemed more inline with earlier events (compared to the long wait times on Feb 22nd).

Many people sharing their experiences on the , 'After Hours Events - Ask Questions and Share Experiences Here' thread. Last night's party went much better than Feb 22.

 

[Pyxie]

Did anyone attend the HS After Hours event last night? I was watching the wait times and they seemed more inline with earlier events (compared to the long wait times on Feb 22nd).

I did not attend, but i went on the app a few times to check wait times. They mostly looked good. I did see ROTR reach 55 minutes at one point, but it was mostly around 15-30 min.

 

[MrsTski]

Many people sharing their experiences on the , 'After Hours Events - Ask Questions and Share Experiences Here' thread. Last night's party went much better than Feb 22.

Just found that thread! Thank you!

 

[2binak]

We were at the Feb 22nd After Hours event and were disappointed that the park closing time was changed to 9:30pm that night. We were in Toy Story Land at 9:15pm and it was packed with day guests who were getting in ride lines and heading to Galaxy's Edge and yes, wait times were long at 9:30pm. We grabbed some snacks and sat on a bench until the crowds thinned a bit, and we saw several other families doing the same. It was pretty annoying. Disney's website advertises the After Hours events as "limited capacity" and events "with lower wait times since the number of tickets for this event is limited". It didn't really feel like limited capacity until 10:30pm. We've been to other After Hours events where there was a break between park close & the party starting, and you could definitely feel that the day crowds were gone by event start time.