After hours are here to stay.

[danissmart]

I recognize your username. I'm actually Dan Deesney at the other forum.

Same, I was xdan over there. Got booted for going against the orthodoxy over there.

 

[focusondisney]

And After Hours right now (as in the last few current parties, not the blogger invited ones) seem to not be After Hours, but are MNSSHP size from about 10-12 years ago, so look for the prices and attendance to keep rising as the years go by, til they rebrand it again and give it another huge price increase...

This is MTE & I’ve said it a few times already. This is just a reset of the parties. The crowd level is at least double the regular AH events we have attended. Yes, much less than MNSSHP or Christmas party for now. But I would bet money they will keep increasing capacity. Heck, they already did. After all, many parties were sold out & then reopened. And lots of posters are getting day of tickets. I’m not buying that those are all exchanged tickets.

 

[Viking7641]

I’ve been many times, and did a lot more than we did this time.

i know you can’t do everything, but we certainly didn’t do nearly as much as we used to.

I went in June and it will probably be my last time. I did significantly less then I ever did in previous trips.

with FP+ I could, for example

rope drop FOP

FP Safari
FP FOP
FP Everest

lunch

probably another FP for safari, if not wait in line and then do dinosaur and another FP for Everest, Lion king or UP.

without FP I rope dropped FOP, and stood in line for 60 minutes for a Safari and Navi and 45 for Everest

it just wasn’t worth it compared to what I could do before.

 

[meremac]

I know YMMV and all that, but I struggle to understand some of this. For example, we were there in late June. We rope dropped AK (got there a solid 30 minute prior to opening) and rode FOP before the park even opened. Then we rode Everest several times with no wait, then did Safaris (that opened a little later than the rest of the park, but it was still maybe a 30/45 minute wait at that point). Seriously, it was only like 10:00am/10:30am and we did all of those things. I felt like the other parks were very similar. We got to parks super early, hit attractions really hard for a few hours, took a break, and then hit attractions really hard again from like 4/4:30pm-close. We didn't feel like it was THAT much different than with FP+, and we definitely knew how to game that system.

 

[ChipnDale79]

I know YMMV and all that, but I struggle to understand some of this. For example, we were there in late June. We rope dropped AK (got there a solid 30 minute prior to opening) and rode FOP before the park even opened. Then we rode Everest several times with no wait, then did Safaris (that opened a little later than the rest of the park, but it was still maybe a 30/45 minute wait at that point). Seriously, it was only like 10:00am/10:30am and we did all of those things. I felt like the other parks were very similar. We got to parks super early, hit attractions really hard for a few hours, took a break, and then hit attractions really hard again from like 4/4:30pm-close. We didn't feel like it was THAT much different than with FP+, and we definitely knew how to game that system.

There were lines that moved quick for sure, but we without a doubt waited over an hour for a lot of things.
The lines moved, but it still took longer to do it we had a fast pass

 

[hdrolfe]

When will they bring it back for the other parks though, I mean I love MK and I'd do the after hours event there to get on all the rides with short waits, but I'd also like to be able to do that at HS or AK as well...

 

[OhBother1984]

I'm good with changing to after hours parties. MVMCP and MNSSHP were so overcrowded they were miserable to attend. I do hope they add some regular after hours events in the future.

I so agree with this, they were at the point they weren't even fun and you could barely move through parts of the park.

I'll get flamed for sure on this, but while I don't like everything Chapek has done I do think they are trying to balance it better than before. He hasn't been CEO that long and a lot of the things in the past like packed solid parties and stuff was the culprit of the past CEO's that just wanted to pack as many people in. But in order to reduce crowd they will charge more and in the end the goal is higher guest satisfaction of those who go.

@bigtimmy - already happened.

It's hard to say who you are pricing out and not. I know many that while its higher priced they can still make it work in their budget if they want to, its all balancing out where they want to spend money. While yes $180 for an after hour event sounds high to some, some of those same people don't mind spending $200/300 plus to see a broadway show or concert, fine dining, or a professional sporting event and so on for similar amount of time.

Disney will adjust if things don't work out like they expect or want, they are always doing that. Some things you might like some you might not.

 

[mkb3]

Honestly if they had after hours at all parks I'd rather do this than buy day tickets. I went to Boo Bash and rode everything I normally ride with almost every ride being a walk on. I could then sleep in and spend my days at the pool, resort hoping or Disney Springs.

 

[queenadnama]

Disney fans: We'll show him we want parties by not going to Boo Bash After Hours!
Also Disney fans a week later: We will frenzy-purchase tickets to Boo Bash / Christmas After Hours so that the CEO gets his implicit bias confirmed to never do parties ever again!

We knew this was going to happen and people still genuinely believed they'd bring back Not-So-Scary / Very Merry. You got played.

 

[Belle53]

I actually prefer the afterhours events. You get to escape the heat and most rides are walk on or a short wait. Boo Bash was expensive but worth it. I'd rather pay more for tickets if that means no long waits like during the day.

 

[Jake]

One thing about Disney is NOTHING is forever. Life long refillable mugs, lifelong tickets, unexpired lifelong tickets. Ect.Ect.
this could be a thread by itself

 

[Jrb1979]

I actually prefer the afterhours events. You get to escape the heat and most rides are walk on or a short wait. Boo Bash was expensive but worth it. I'd rather pay more for tickets if that means no long waits like during the day.

I hate them. If I'm paying that much for an after hours event I want more of a party atmosphere. I don't want some Halloween decorations with low crowds. I much prefer HHN anyways.

 

[cm8]

Way too late, that already happened.

Remember the mega threads we had on people
saying they would pay through the nose to be able to experience less people in the park? Well they got their wish… Only thing is they didn’t realize how much more they would have to pay… Now they realize they are in the same exact boat of now being priced out and they don’t like it one bit!

 

[Leight19]

I’m not against after hours events in theory but in practice I won’t ever attend one unless they start publishing the max attendance. My recollection was that the halloween and Christmas party used to be low attendance but as it got more popular they continued to increase attendance until it was no longer worth doing. Disney seems to rely heavily on building reputation of service and then milking the reputation for years as quality declines/price increase since it’s a long window for people to experience negative changes and adjust behavior.

Once the reputation is ruined they have a reset and start over and my fear is after hours events in 2 or 3 years will be as bad as the Halloween parties were. We already saw signal for this with Halloween when they sold out quickly and increased capacity to add more tickets to sold out days and chalked it up to covid.